Return the gifts or a large percentage of players will stop. There is no way to continue in the game if there is more help from comrades, be they alliance, or not.
Items sent as gifts help a lot in evolution. Buying is part and also helps, but the gifts were something fundamental in the game.
When you pass this week, there will be many players here complaining about this and / or giving up the game.
Do you have any idea how much the gifts helped most of the players?
[...] A better way would be to use a new resource that acts exactly like units, but can only be earned in game and only allow that to be used for gifting. It solves all the problems.
I agree. We should have more ways to farm items in the game that you cannot simply "buy" with cash. I think farming and earning things in a reasonable fashion is what helps an MMORPG game feel like an MMORPG.
In my opinion, the game already does a very good job of making sure that players can farm and grind things in the game without having to pay cash. But as to the larger point, creating a new currency that cannot be purchased with cash and only allowing that currency to be used to buy gifts would not completely address this problem, because "this problem" is not a singular problem. Gifting allows for various kinds of fraud or abuse, not just one. If people are watching Youtube videos or reading Reddit articles and they think they know what "problem" this attempts to solve, you're just reading one guy's guess. In fact there's at least two different categorical ways for gifting to be used to abuse the system.
In the first way, it is used to launder money defrauded from other people via mechanisms like credit card fraud, cell phone SIM cloning, or other methods. You get this stolen money, use it to buy units, then use the units to gift people stuff and charge them *out of game* for that stuff. This in effect is money laundering. The money you steal might eventually be detected and someone might come to get it back. But the money you get from other players buying your "cheap units" isn't fraudulent, and you're more likely to be able to keep it. Inventing a "gifting currency" could reduce the amount of this kind of abuse if gifting currency can't be purchased, but you'd have to be very careful not to have any loopholes in the system.
In the second way, you create accounts that farm units with bots. You can then "sell" people those units earned through automation for cash. If the account is eventually detected by Kabam, you just make another one (remember, this account doesn't have to have any direct connection to you: it could be using different invented email addresses, different devices, it could even be using emulators on PCs because you don't need the account to evade detection forever; it could cost virtually nothing to make another one). Really, you probably have dozens or even hundreds just parked about, botting in the background earning currency slowly, until you need them. Inventing a special gifting currency wouldn't address this kind of abuse. People would just rewrite the bots to specifically farm the gifting currency.
When I used to play MMOs a lot more, I knew all these tricks, because I used to use all these tricks. I never sold anything for cash: I drew the line there, but I used to give away an incalculable amount of stuff, just to see if I could do it. In fact, there's lots of tactics well-known in the MMO world that I haven't seen attempted yet in MCOC. For the record, I haven't attempted any of these things in MCOC: I'm retired.
Oh, I agree 100%. Those minds will find any crack to exploit. My suggestion on Resources earned through game play was just an idea thrown out to minimize risk and create a more isolated, easily-monitored way of reinstating it. However, there is an inherent problem with that. Unless it's extremely limiting, it won't abolish all risk. Scamming minds will find a way. It's quite sad, really.
Oh, I agree 100%. Those minds will find any crack to exploit. My suggestion on Resources earned through game play was just an idea thrown out to minimize risk and create a more isolated, easily-monitored way of reinstating it. However, there is an inherent problem with that. Unless it's extremely limiting, it won't abolish all risk. Scamming minds will find a way. It's quite sad, really.
In the MMO world, this problem has been around for a very long time and the solutions to it have evolved as well; the lesson to learn is there is no trivial way of addressing this issue, and I think Kabam should look to MMOs to at least see how it is done, if they aren't already.
In games that have to deal with this, there's usually a combination of overlapping ways to address the problem. You put account prerequisites on trading and gifting, like the account has to be at least X days old, to prevent quick drive-by gifting abuses and to give you time to find those that are modding or botting. You limit the value of gifts until even higher prerequisites are achieved. You limit the target of trades and gifts so it is easy for long-time friends to do it but much harder for two anonymous random strangers to do it.
There's also mechanics like binding that are used to limit this kind of thing (where some items are and some are not tradeable not based on what they are, but rather how they are acquired). So if you earn the Sword of Overpowered Evisceration, you can use it but you can't give it to an alt account or your friend or even sell it to another player and then go get another one. This allows you to allow players to farm without being able to use farming to sell or transfer too much resources (in MMOs, this is often referred to as "twinking").
There's enough here to teach a month-long course in game design, and it is best to build on the effort of others rather than try to reinvent the wheel. If you try to do this all by yourself from scratch, you'll be decimated by the abusers who have a twenty year head start on you.
But the problem is also manageable, and I hope Kabam reaches that point and can return gifting capability to players. The ability to trade and gift is part of what makes massively multiplayer games interesting, and is a valuable component of social interaction. It just has to be protected from the abusers of the privilege.
Money laundering does not require you to have just the gift mechanism.
There are thousands of other ways to cheat and carry out money laundering.
This greatly harms players from third-world countries and favors extreme first-world players.
There will be a very large imbalance in the game if the gift mechanism does not return.
Many players will abandon the game upon seeing this imbalance. It will be restricted for some players with a purchasing power for a moment, but these will also gradually disappear, precisely because of lack of competitiveness;
Many players will abandon the game upon seeing this imbalance. It will be restricted for some players with a purchasing power for a moment, but these will also gradually disappear, precisely because of lack of competitiveness;
That will be a fact.
That's true. "Many" players, for some definition of "many" will leave the game because gifting was suspended. Many players left after 12.0. Many players left after Alliance War Seasons was introduced into the game, many players left after AQ Map 6 was introduced, after 6* champions were added, after uncollected difficulty was added, after Variant was added, after the Maze made an appearance, after MODOK was added to the game, after basically every change to the game. Many left yesterday, because it was Wednesday.
Money laundering does not require you to have just the gift mechanism.
There are thousands of other ways to cheat and carry out money laundering.
This greatly harms players from third-world countries and favors extreme first-world players.
There will be a very large imbalance in the game if the gift mechanism does not return.
Many players will abandon the game upon seeing this imbalance. It will be restricted for some players with a purchasing power for a moment, but these will also gradually disappear, precisely because of lack of competitiveness;
That will be a fact.
That logic is completely faulty. "Crime is going to happen anyway, might as well let it happen.". Some may leave the game because Gifting is disabled. No doubt. If not that, the next thing. Some of them may even leave the game because their way of making money illegally was ended. That would be a good thing. However, it is not going to destroy the game. That's apparently been done consistently for years, so we seem to be discussing a ghost. No idea what you quailfy as a Third-World Country, but the ones I understand aren't worried about MCOC. They're concerned with much larger problems.
That's true. "Many" players, for some definition of "many" will leave the game because gifting was suspended. Many players left after 12.0. Many players left after Alliance War Seasons was introduced into the game, many players left after AQ Map 6 was introduced, after 6* champions were added, after uncollected difficulty was added, after Variant was added, after the Maze made an appearance, after MODOK was added to the game, after basically every change to the game. Many left yesterday, because it was Wednesday.
I understand that players will come and go for all sorts of trivial reasons, but the removal of gifting is a giant concern for many players. End games players with tons of content on their plate have relied on gifted potions to be able to run content and without this, many are wondering if they should even continue playing.
6x5 map 7 7x5 variant war where a single mistake in one fight could cost 1000 units to fix
I have 200k arena fights and I spend all day grinding and it's not easy. "Just grind" isn't a solution. The game is and endless barrage AQ, AW, boosting, arena for units, t1a/t4b, and monthly and side quests.
I know super skilled guys in master who spend 8k units a month on advanced war boosts and potions for war and they're hanging it up for gold alliances. And that's just AW let alone everything else and what it takes to maintain their position. Something has to give now.
I understand and respect everyone's point of view.
I really hope that Kabam will review the gift mechanism. I work for more than 20 years with marketing and market intelligence and, after analysis, faithfully believe what I said in my post above.
@DNA3000 , are you moderator here in the forum? It's just that this job is for a Kabam. But maybe it was just the wrong impression of me, since I had the same impression on other opportunities to read the forum.
That's true. "Many" players, for some definition of "many" will leave the game because gifting was suspended. Many players left after 12.0. Many players left after Alliance War Seasons was introduced into the game, many players left after AQ Map 6 was introduced, after 6* champions were added, after uncollected difficulty was added, after Variant was added, after the Maze made an appearance, after MODOK was added to the game, after basically every change to the game. Many left yesterday, because it was Wednesday.
I understand that players will come and go for all sorts of trivial reasons, but the removal of gifting is a giant concern for many players. End games players with tons of content on their plate have relied on gifted potions to be able to run content and without this, many are wondering if they should even continue playing.
I've had this particular conversation with multiple players. All I can say is this: the vast, overwhelming majority of players play within their means of both time and money. They accept that they can only do what they can do given their own free time and the limits of their own cash that they are willing to spend. Absolutely EVERYONE wishes they could do more. If you were relying on gifting, whether that was legitimate gifting from generous friends or illegitimate gifting from botnets or fraud accounts, well now you can't, and you have to make the same decision everyone else has to make: adjust your expectations to be more realistic, or quit.
I know super skilled guys in master who spend 8k units a month on advanced war boosts and potions for war and they're hanging it up for gold alliances. And that's just AW let alone everything else and what it takes to maintain their position. Something has to give now.
Maybe nothing has to give, because there's nothing wrong with this. There's always going to be people at the top, no matter how much money is spent. It is ultimately we players that decide how expensive it is to be "competitive" at the end game. Because it isn't the prices of the potions that cost players money, it is their use of the potions that costs players money. And there's only two groups of people pushing potion use: the players who choose to use them, and indirectly their competition who also uses them.
The less people spend on the competitive aspects of the end game, the less expensive the end game will be. That's a choice that is directly in the players' hands. People are always complaining about how Kabam is constantly "forcing" players to spend on "cash grabs." If people just decide to stop spending, the competitive end game will become cheaper. That's true no matter what Kabam does to it.
People are still going to spend. The game makes millions of dollars a week. The game's future is not in jeopardy if a small percentage of players decide to stop spending because the gifting feature is disabled. It just isn't. But if the true cost of these things is something that some players used to be able to ignore, and now they can't, and that causes them to spend less on those things, that might be a healthy thing to happen. Because the game doesn't get cheaper when Kabam lowers prices. It becomes cheaper when players decide to spend less. The players who are deciding to spend less aren't just spending less: they are creating an opportunity for their competition to also spend less. And as long as the game can still generate enough revenue to be profitable and function, I have no problem with that. And I'm quite certain it can.
@DNA3000 , are you moderator here in the forum? It's just that this job is for a Kabam. But maybe it was just the wrong impression of me, since I had the same impression on other opportunities to read the forum.
It is against the forum rules to pretend to be a moderator. If you believe I took any action on the forums that should be reserved for a moderator, I'd like to know what that was specifically. However, if you feel that is inappropriate, you can also report me for that potential violation to the actual moderators, if you have any way to support that claim.
That's true. "Many" players, for some definition of "many" will leave the game because gifting was suspended. Many players left after 12.0. Many players left after Alliance War Seasons was introduced into the game, many players left after AQ Map 6 was introduced, after 6* champions were added, after uncollected difficulty was added, after Variant was added, after the Maze made an appearance, after MODOK was added to the game, after basically every change to the game. Many left yesterday, because it was Wednesday.
I understand that players will come and go for all sorts of trivial reasons, but the removal of gifting is a giant concern for many players. End games players with tons of content on their plate have relied on gifted potions to be able to run content and without this, many are wondering if they should even continue playing.
I've had this particular conversation with multiple players. All I can say is this: the vast, overwhelming majority of players play within their means of both time and money. They accept that they can only do what they can do given their own free time and the limits of their own cash that they are willing to spend. Absolutely EVERYONE wishes they could do more. If you were relying on gifting, whether that was legitimate gifting from generous friends or illegitimate gifting from botnets or fraud accounts, well now you can't, and you have to make the same decision everyone else has to make: adjust your expectations to be more realistic, or quit.
I know super skilled guys in master who spend 8k units a month on advanced war boosts and potions for war and they're hanging it up for gold alliances. And that's just AW let alone everything else and what it takes to maintain their position. Something has to give now.
Maybe nothing has to give, because there's nothing wrong with this. There's always going to be people at the top, no matter how much money is spent. It is ultimately we players that decide how expensive it is to be "competitive" at the end game. Because it isn't the prices of the potions that cost players money, it is their use of the potions that costs players money. And there's only two groups of people pushing potion use: the players who choose to use them, and indirectly their competition who also uses them.
The less people spend on the competitive aspects of the end game, the less expensive the end game will be. That's a choice that is directly in the players' hands. People are always complaining about how Kabam is constantly "forcing" players to spend on "cash grabs." If people just decide to stop spending, the competitive end game will become cheaper. That's true no matter what Kabam does to it.
People are still going to spend. The game makes millions of dollars a week. The game's future is not in jeopardy if a small percentage of players decide to stop spending because the gifting feature is disabled. It just isn't. But if the true cost of these things is something that some players used to be able to ignore, and now they can't, and that causes them to spend less on those things, that might be a healthy thing to happen. Because the game doesn't get cheaper when Kabam lowers prices. It becomes cheaper when players decide to spend less. The players who are deciding to spend less aren't just spending less: they are creating an opportunity for their competition to also spend less. And as long as the game can still generate enough revenue to be profitable and function, I have no problem with that. And I'm quite certain it can.
If anything, people would most likely spend more because they're not buying from the Black Market. Lol.
I actually will make it a point to spend less in spite of this.
Also I wonder if the players leaving and dropping tiers will cut off vs the people spending more. I think kabam is going to see a cut in revenues and then when gifting comes back it will be a little too late
I actually will make it a point to spend less in spite of this.
Also I wonder if the players leaving and dropping tiers will cut off vs the people spending more. I think kabam is going to see a cut in revenues and then when gifting comes back it will be a little too late
OH! You're right. By all means, they should open it back up so people can commit Fraud and charge half-price for their own product. People might quit and drop Tiers. -.-
Sorry if that was a bit sarcastic, but I can't even begin to explain how much that doesn't make sense. If they don't let people undercut them, they're going to lose business? No.
Let's ignore the morality and potential legalities, and look at it from a business standpoint. Selling Items at half-price does NOT equate to more people buying. They're losing half their potential income on said sales. Everytime it's done. Even so-called "honest" Resource Mercs who are doing it without Fraud. That's potential income being taken from them and given to people outside the game. Not to mention the harm it does because people have become accustomed to the discounted price and grown to depend on it. It's actually stifled them. The idea that they're losing business is a myth. They're losing more by allowing this. That wasn't the reason for the change, but I can't help but be honest about it.
To those asking for a refund of their $30 should kabam also take back the 850 units you received in addition to the gifting badge. The badge was an add on to the package. The units were not an add on to the badge.
I actually opened a ticket today that covered this exact point, which would be the ethically correct thing to do IMO. I requested they reverse the "compensation" amount of units given recently and also the units I recieved initially when I had purchased the deal for the permanent badge and offered that in the event I did not have sufficient amount of units to recover, that they can take anything in my inventory they believe is equal market value of the units as a "repayment". Because thats essentially the same position Kabam seems to be holding when interpreting the "compensation" units dispersed recently as it seems to directly relate to being market value equal to the money we had paid for it.
As far as being an add-on, in another post I mentioned how my first attempt at buying the stark w/badges or whichever happened to be the least expensive unit deal, was "on sale"(technically not though) for a few bucks less($29.99 or $19.99 I believe), but I didnt realize until after I bought it that the badges werent included. There wasnt anything implicitly stating the the badges were not included for that price. So I could safely assume that there was a monetary value given and not an add-on back then. I was refunded and then purchased the "regular priced" breifcase to get the badges.
I buy for the Units. The Bonuses are nice, but I bought for the Units either way.
I guess that is where the difference of opinion lies, I can definitely say I have bought unit packs for the bonuses and seen the units themselves as the bonus. Others are saying they have never done this. I can definitely see how people bought the unit pack for the gifting badge and the the units were a bonus, this was not all people’s thought process but it would have been some
Im in the same boat with you. I went as far as ask for a refund because the same "package" illustration highlighting the PERMANENT gifting badge I saw for nearly a year without change in the unit store had a highlighted drop in price with no mention of the exclusion of the badge. As I have said in previous posts, IMO it's pretty difficult to justify that it cost nothing when it was ommitted with the price dropped and to obtain it we had to pay the "regular" price.(which I did after the refund) I also understand the valid reasons for the removal of it and applaud the active stance of Kabam. But I believe the events must be viewed seperately to a degree and something good being done shouldnt justify accepting and overlooking something that is being done poorly. Maybe its just me, but I grew up in a generation where consumers held companies accountable for missteps big or small. Its that simple principle that encourages improvement and advancements and overall quality. The companies that are not under scrutiny and coddled beyond reproach end up taking steps backwards rather than forward. Take the current state of Apple as an example
I buy for the Units. The Bonuses are nice, but I bought for the Units either way.
I guess that is where the difference of opinion lies, I can definitely say I have bought unit packs for the bonuses and seen the units themselves as the bonus. Others are saying they have never done this. I can definitely see how people bought the unit pack for the gifting badge and the the units were a bonus, this was not all people’s thought process but it would have been some
Im in the same boat with you. I went as far as ask for a refund because the same "package" illustration highlighting the PERMANENT gifting badge I saw for nearly a year without change in the unit store had a highlighted drop in price with no mention of the exclusion of the badge. As I have said in previous posts, IMO it's pretty difficult to justify that it cost nothing when it was ommitted with the price dropped and to obtain it we had to pay the "regular" price.(which I did after the refund) I also understand the valid reasons for the removal of it and applaud the active stance of Kabam. But I believe the events must be viewed seperately to a degree and something good being done shouldnt justify accepting and overlooking something that is being done poorly. Maybe its just me, but I grew up in a generation where consumers held companies accountable for missteps big or small. Its that simple principle that encourages improvement and advancements and overall quality. The companies that are not under scrutiny and coddled beyond reproach end up taking steps backwards rather than forward. Take the current state of Apple as an example
These statements are what bothers me the most here. There are people in this world who had their info stolen and used and were defrauded. Kabam is also being defrauded. All you seem to really care about is the fact you cant gift a few items in a mobile game. Real people are getting hurt by this and their well being is no concern. Your concern is about a free add on from a unit package that sells for the same price. Get your prioities in check.
@Cranmer00 sorry bud .. mcoc revenue is increasing a lot after gifting badges being lifted ... their daily revenue from US iphone user alone reaching 157k perday
@Cranmer00 sorry bud .. mcoc revenue is increasing a lot after gifting badges being lifted ... their daily revenue from US iphone user alone reaching 157k perday
I'm not really sure why you would connect the two events? Gifting was never free. It still costs units no matter how you do it. Units are free in game as is. So whether you gift someone or buy resources, you are still using units. You don't have to spend money to buy resources.
I buy for the Units. The Bonuses are nice, but I bought for the Units either way.
These statements are what bothers me the most here. There are people in this world who had their info stolen and used and were defrauded. Kabam is also being defrauded. All you seem to really care about is the fact you cant gift a few items in a mobile game. Real people are getting hurt by this and their well being is no concern. Your concern is about a free add on from a unit package that sells for the same price. Get your prioities in check.
I can respect the fact that maybe what I had written bothers you greatly, but I never stated or implied for that matter the the trivial gifting badge removal is my only concern in this world and so self concerned that it would be a priority in my thoughts over having empathy for those that have been defrauded. And although I have no actual proof of what has happened to people around this world due to the fraud, I tend to dislike fraudulent actions which is why I stated "I understand the valid reasons of the removal of it and applaud the active stance of Kabam". And I was trying to convey a bigger message, which evidently seems I have failed to do. What I cant quite respect nor agree with is your accusation that I somehow lack concern for the well being of those that were affected and that I need to priortize what I deem to be important which I assume you assume that to be a free add on in a game.
And please take the following as "food for thought" and not some personal attack directed to you alone.
I do know for a fact that there are still children in this world without a book to read or enough food to eat 3 meals a day, I know there are groups of people in this world that are suffering from abuse and violence far more devastating than the alledged fraud at the center of this converstion, I know that there are people being beaten or killed for less than the amount of money anyone of us here have spent on this game without a second thought. Yet here we are sitting in a virtual forum debating about a gifting badge in an online game. I would have given your comment respect and agreed if you demanded WE ALL NEED TO GET OUR PRIORITISE IN CHECK.
What would you think of, and also what could you do to get the wheels in motion for the following idea for a "collaboration" of sorts.
I know there has been nothing even eluding to cash refunds on this, BUT.....How bout the playerbase and Kabam agree to do something together with a smile and come up with a plan to donate funds relevant to a gifting badge refund of sorts that Kabam would consider to be acceptable and fair? We could use the forum polls to get a bunch of player supported charitys or groups and divide evenly?
Comments
There is no way to continue in the game if there is more help from comrades, be they alliance, or not.
Items sent as gifts help a lot in evolution.
Buying is part and also helps, but the gifts were something fundamental in the game.
When you pass this week, there will be many players here complaining about this and / or giving up the game.
Do you have any idea how much the gifts helped most of the players?
Thanks for your attention.
In the first way, it is used to launder money defrauded from other people via mechanisms like credit card fraud, cell phone SIM cloning, or other methods. You get this stolen money, use it to buy units, then use the units to gift people stuff and charge them *out of game* for that stuff. This in effect is money laundering. The money you steal might eventually be detected and someone might come to get it back. But the money you get from other players buying your "cheap units" isn't fraudulent, and you're more likely to be able to keep it. Inventing a "gifting currency" could reduce the amount of this kind of abuse if gifting currency can't be purchased, but you'd have to be very careful not to have any loopholes in the system.
In the second way, you create accounts that farm units with bots. You can then "sell" people those units earned through automation for cash. If the account is eventually detected by Kabam, you just make another one (remember, this account doesn't have to have any direct connection to you: it could be using different invented email addresses, different devices, it could even be using emulators on PCs because you don't need the account to evade detection forever; it could cost virtually nothing to make another one). Really, you probably have dozens or even hundreds just parked about, botting in the background earning currency slowly, until you need them. Inventing a special gifting currency wouldn't address this kind of abuse. People would just rewrite the bots to specifically farm the gifting currency.
When I used to play MMOs a lot more, I knew all these tricks, because I used to use all these tricks. I never sold anything for cash: I drew the line there, but I used to give away an incalculable amount of stuff, just to see if I could do it. In fact, there's lots of tactics well-known in the MMO world that I haven't seen attempted yet in MCOC. For the record, I haven't attempted any of these things in MCOC: I'm retired.
In games that have to deal with this, there's usually a combination of overlapping ways to address the problem. You put account prerequisites on trading and gifting, like the account has to be at least X days old, to prevent quick drive-by gifting abuses and to give you time to find those that are modding or botting. You limit the value of gifts until even higher prerequisites are achieved. You limit the target of trades and gifts so it is easy for long-time friends to do it but much harder for two anonymous random strangers to do it.
There's also mechanics like binding that are used to limit this kind of thing (where some items are and some are not tradeable not based on what they are, but rather how they are acquired). So if you earn the Sword of Overpowered Evisceration, you can use it but you can't give it to an alt account or your friend or even sell it to another player and then go get another one. This allows you to allow players to farm without being able to use farming to sell or transfer too much resources (in MMOs, this is often referred to as "twinking").
There's enough here to teach a month-long course in game design, and it is best to build on the effort of others rather than try to reinvent the wheel. If you try to do this all by yourself from scratch, you'll be decimated by the abusers who have a twenty year head start on you.
But the problem is also manageable, and I hope Kabam reaches that point and can return gifting capability to players. The ability to trade and gift is part of what makes massively multiplayer games interesting, and is a valuable component of social interaction. It just has to be protected from the abusers of the privilege.
There are thousands of other ways to cheat and carry out money laundering.
This greatly harms players from third-world countries and favors extreme first-world players.
There will be a very large imbalance in the game if the gift mechanism does not return.
Many players will abandon the game upon seeing this imbalance. It will be restricted for some players with a purchasing power for a moment, but these will also gradually disappear, precisely because of lack of competitiveness;
That will be a fact.
Some may leave the game because Gifting is disabled. No doubt. If not that, the next thing. Some of them may even leave the game because their way of making money illegally was ended. That would be a good thing. However, it is not going to destroy the game. That's apparently been done consistently for years, so we seem to be discussing a ghost.
No idea what you quailfy as a Third-World Country, but the ones I understand aren't worried about MCOC. They're concerned with much larger problems.
6x5
map 7
7x5
variant
war where a single mistake in one fight could cost 1000 units to fix
I have 200k arena fights and I spend all day grinding and it's not easy. "Just grind" isn't a solution. The game is and endless barrage AQ, AW, boosting, arena for units, t1a/t4b, and monthly and side quests.
I know super skilled guys in master who spend 8k units a month on advanced war boosts and potions for war and they're hanging it up for gold alliances. And that's just AW let alone everything else and what it takes to maintain their position. Something has to give now.
I really hope that Kabam will review the gift mechanism.
I work for more than 20 years with marketing and market intelligence and, after analysis, faithfully believe what I said in my post above.
It's wait and see what happens.
@DNA3000 , are you moderator here in the forum? It's just that this job is for a Kabam. But maybe it was just the wrong impression of me, since I had the same impression on other opportunities to read the forum.
The less people spend on the competitive aspects of the end game, the less expensive the end game will be. That's a choice that is directly in the players' hands. People are always complaining about how Kabam is constantly "forcing" players to spend on "cash grabs." If people just decide to stop spending, the competitive end game will become cheaper. That's true no matter what Kabam does to it.
People are still going to spend. The game makes millions of dollars a week. The game's future is not in jeopardy if a small percentage of players decide to stop spending because the gifting feature is disabled. It just isn't. But if the true cost of these things is something that some players used to be able to ignore, and now they can't, and that causes them to spend less on those things, that might be a healthy thing to happen. Because the game doesn't get cheaper when Kabam lowers prices. It becomes cheaper when players decide to spend less. The players who are deciding to spend less aren't just spending less: they are creating an opportunity for their competition to also spend less. And as long as the game can still generate enough revenue to be profitable and function, I have no problem with that. And I'm quite certain it can.
Also I wonder if the players leaving and dropping tiers will cut off vs the people spending more. I think kabam is going to see a cut in revenues and then when gifting comes back it will be a little too late
But, it will gain strength.
Let's wait.
-.-
Because thats essentially the same position Kabam seems to be holding when interpreting the "compensation" units dispersed recently as it seems to directly relate to being market value equal to the money we had paid for it.
As far as being an add-on, in another post I mentioned how my first attempt at buying the stark w/badges or whichever happened to be the least expensive unit deal, was "on sale"(technically not though) for a few bucks less($29.99 or $19.99 I believe), but I didnt realize until after I bought it that the badges werent included. There wasnt anything implicitly stating the the badges were not included for that price. So I could safely assume that there was a monetary value given and not an add-on back then. I was refunded and then purchased the "regular priced" breifcase to get the badges.
As I have said in previous posts, IMO it's pretty difficult to justify that it cost nothing when it was ommitted with the price dropped and to obtain it we had to pay the "regular" price.(which I did after the refund)
I also understand the valid reasons for the removal of it and applaud the active stance of Kabam.
But I believe the events must be viewed seperately to a degree and something good being done shouldnt justify accepting and overlooking something that is being done poorly.
Maybe its just me, but I grew up in a generation where consumers held companies accountable for missteps big or small. Its that simple principle that encourages improvement and advancements and overall quality.
The companies that are not under scrutiny and coddled beyond reproach end up taking steps backwards rather than forward. Take the current state of Apple as an example
Since the current debate is about the badge and its value and monetary cost, refunds, compensation, blah blah blah.
I have actually made a request to Kabam support as I stated earlier, as I'm thinking others have also to some degree or another.........
@Kabam Miike @Kabam Zibiit @Kabam Vydious @Kabam Lyra @Kabam Porthos
What would you think of, and also what could you do to get the wheels in motion for the following idea for a "collaboration" of sorts.
I know there has been nothing even eluding to cash refunds on this, BUT.....How bout the playerbase and Kabam agree to do something together with a smile and come up with a plan to donate funds relevant to a gifting badge refund of sorts that Kabam would consider to be acceptable and fair? We could use the forum polls to get a bunch of player supported charitys or groups and divide evenly?