OP is very naive, it's ok they're probably young and do not yet understand how these big and ugly corps work yet.
Have no illusions, Activision Blizzard FOR SURE is getting the better end of the deal in the long run or they would not make this radical change in the first place. I bet this kind of business model is the most profitable on the market right now. Do not eat all this mumbo jumbo about you benefiting from a change a heavily profit-oriented company is making. Think for yourselves.
OP is very naive, it's ok they're probably young and do not yet understand how these big and ugly corps work yet.
Have no illusions, Activision Blizzard FOR SURE is getting the better end of the deal in the long run or they would not make this radical change in the first place. I bet this kind of business model is the most profitable on the market right now. Do not eat all this mumbo jumbo about you benefiting from a change a heavily profit-oriented company is making. Think for yourselves.
There is nothing wrong about being a big and ugly corporation these days if you think about it. You know, one great mistake on a really important business decision and your company is done, not because of your customers, but because other big corps would eat yours alive. The world is a mean place, not only for nice people. ;)
OP is very naive, it's ok they're probably young and do not yet understand how these big and ugly corps work yet.
Have no illusions, Activision Blizzard FOR SURE is getting the better end of the deal in the long run or they would not make this radical change in the first place. I bet this kind of business model is the most profitable on the market right now. Do not eat all this mumbo jumbo about you benefiting from a change a heavily profit-oriented company is making. Think for yourselves.
This is incredibly simplistic. Just because a company stands to benefit does not mean the customer base stands to lose. If you keep the majority player base happy and engaged, you make more money. You call OP naive, but this black and white approach is what is naive. If they make battle pass that increases player engagement and satisfaction along with some more bucks in their pockets, that’s a perfect scenario.
Believe what you like bro. I'm sure you'll earn a bit more just by playing, not much though, just enough so the kids who are easily amused and manipulated are more willing to ask for daddy's big shiny card to buy 'a pack or two'. Oldest trick in the book. Learn to read between the lines and maybe don't believe all this sugarcoated crap. A Blizzard representative praises the new system? Wow, who would have thought? Totally not biased. Can't blame them I guess, that's what a business does. Every change they implement though will ultimately be for their well-being, not yours.
OP is very naive, it's ok they're probably young and do not yet understand how these big and ugly corps work yet.
Have no illusions, Activision Blizzard FOR SURE is getting the better end of the deal in the long run or they would not make this radical change in the first place. I bet this kind of business model is the most profitable on the market right now. Do not eat all this mumbo jumbo about you benefiting from a change a heavily profit-oriented company is making. Think for yourselves.
this, I did not read through the whole thing, but my first thought was 'such naivity..."
@OP: there is a business side to any gaming company and they tend to make these decisions, as opposed to game designers, balance team, etc. These people have to propose the shareholders how they will grow profits this year. This is how they will do it.
They are not spending time and resources to "repackage your rewards", the sole purpose is money. Any system that will be put in place will be designed to extract more cash from players. The reason why there is a survey is to find out how far they can go with it without losing a large amount of players.
I like to think that the battlepass would be better, and I am not shouting in anger at the heavens, but I do have concerns.
Mainly what the prize will be. If Preorders will in turn, be made cheaper (as I doubt this replaces that), and what the random, unique legendary might be. Another Whizbang sort of thing? Great. Something fun and overall positive, without being something FTP players can't live without.
Another Kael'thas level card though? A much greater impact from that.
I agree that we shouldn't be scum, and generally try to hope for the best, yet the price point still worries me. I won't mind popping in 20 Euro if it were, and get fun stuff, whilst supporting the game. But say, 50? And with preorderd packs still at the obscene price level? That's not good at all.
Gonna wait and see how this turns out, when we eventually get more details.
OP is very naive, it's ok they're probably young and do not yet understand how these big and ugly corps work yet.
Have no illusions, Activision Blizzard FOR SURE is getting the better end of the deal in the long run or they would not make this radical change in the first place. I bet this kind of business model is the most profitable on the market right now. Do not eat all this mumbo jumbo about you benefiting from a change a heavily profit-oriented company is making. Think for yourselves.
this, I did not read through the whole thing, but my first thought was 'such naivity..."
@OP: there is a business side to any gaming company and they tend to make these decisions, as opposed to game designers, balance team, etc. These people have to propose the shareholders how they will grow profits this year. This is how they will do it.
They are not spending time and resources to "repackage your rewards", the sole purpose is money. Any system that will be put in place will be designed to extract more cash from players. The reason why there is a survey is to find out how far they can go with it without losing a large amount of players.
This is an archaic approach to business, and not at all how it works these days in real life. I’m key account manager for a software company (not games) and part of my job is to upsell to the customer and report strategies for doing so to upper management. If I told them I could reorganize our module packaging towards the customer to increase license cost, management would tell me to fuck right off. It is understood that profitable business relies on repeat customers and good customer relations. So if I want to sell an idea for upselling to upper management that they will back up, the literal first question I need to answer them is: “how does this benefit the customer”. If I can build a business case that benefits the customer and makes us more money, we’re in business.
We are obviously not a charity, so what we aim to do will make us more money in the end, but goal is always to get the customer in a better state than previously. That is how global software corporations are being run. Of course lead by profit margins, but these come off the back of a satisfied customer base.
You may argue wether or not blizzard understands that, but I think it would be naive to assume such an established company wouldn’t.
OP is very naive, it's ok they're probably young and do not yet understand how these big and ugly corps work yet.
Have no illusions, Activision Blizzard FOR SURE is getting the better end of the deal in the long run or they would not make this radical change in the first place. I bet this kind of business model is the most profitable on the market right now. Do not eat all this mumbo jumbo about you benefiting from a change a heavily profit-oriented company is making. Think for yourselves.
this, I did not read through the whole thing, but my first thought was 'such naivity..."
@OP: there is a business side to any gaming company and they tend to make these decisions, as opposed to game designers, balance team, etc. These people have to propose the shareholders how they will grow profits this year. This is how they will do it.
They are not spending time and resources to "repackage your rewards", the sole purpose is money. Any system that will be put in place will be designed to extract more cash from players. The reason why there is a survey is to find out how far they can go with it without losing a large amount of players.
This is an archaic approach to business, and not at all how it works these days in real life. I’m key account manager for a software company (not games) and part of my job is to upsell to the customer and report strategies for doing so to upper management. If I told them I could reorganize our module packaging towards the customer to increase license cost, management would tell me to fuck right off. It is understood that profitable business relies on repeat customers and good customer relations. So if I want to sell an idea for upselling to upper management that they will back up, the literal first question I need to answer them is: “how does this benefit the customer”. If I can build a business case that benefits the customer and makes us more money, we’re in business.
We are obviously not a charity, so what we aim to do will make us more money in the end, but goal is always to get the customer in a better state than previously. That is how global software corporations are being run. Of course lead by profit margins, but these come off the back of a satisfied customer base.
You may argue wether or not blizzard understands that, but I think it would be naive to assume such an established company wouldn’t.
But they seem to target the players, who don't actually spend money and make them do so. If what you say was 100% true, no predatory monetization would ever work. But they do. The key is identifying how far you can go draining every dime possible from the customer, while maintaining the relationship.
The number 1 goal of any company is MAXIMIZING the revenue. Maximizing means getting as much as you can WITHOUT actually loosing a customer.
"the literal first question I need to answer them is: >>how does this benefit the customer<<” - I call bullcrap on this. Of course it's an important factor to keep the client satisfied. But in the end you keep them satisfied just to get their money. So even if this is a part of the policy, the end goal is not to make their life better, but to make the profit.
Just to assure you I have some background - I have PHD in Management and I work as an Account Manager in the international data analysis company employing almost 50k people. I am pretty sure you heard about both my company and the clients I take care of.
Hearthpwn is a great place to see roughly how much of the playerbase are broke basement dwellers.
OP is very naive, it's ok they're probably young and do not yet understand how these big and ugly corps work yet.
Have no illusions, Activision Blizzard FOR SURE is getting the better end of the deal in the long run or they would not make this radical change in the first place. I bet this kind of business model is the most profitable on the market right now. Do not eat all this mumbo jumbo about you benefiting from a change a heavily profit-oriented company is making. Think for yourselves.
There is nothing wrong about being a big and ugly corporation these days if you think about it. You know, one great mistake on a really important business decision and your company is done, not because of your customers, but because other big corps would eat yours alive. The world is a mean place, not only for nice people. ;)
Would love to know how you came to that conclusion thanks to this thread...
This is incredibly simplistic. Just because a company stands to benefit does not mean the customer base stands to lose. If you keep the majority player base happy and engaged, you make more money. You call OP naive, but this black and white approach is what is naive. If they make battle pass that increases player engagement and satisfaction along with some more bucks in their pockets, that’s a perfect scenario.
Believe what you like bro. I'm sure you'll earn a bit more just by playing, not much though, just enough so the kids who are easily amused and manipulated are more willing to ask for daddy's big shiny card to buy 'a pack or two'. Oldest trick in the book. Learn to read between the lines and maybe don't believe all this sugarcoated crap. A Blizzard representative praises the new system? Wow, who would have thought? Totally not biased. Can't blame them I guess, that's what a business does. Every change they implement though will ultimately be for their well-being, not yours.
this, I did not read through the whole thing, but my first thought was 'such naivity..."
@OP: there is a business side to any gaming company and they tend to make these decisions, as opposed to game designers, balance team, etc. These people have to propose the shareholders how they will grow profits this year. This is how they will do it.
They are not spending time and resources to "repackage your rewards", the sole purpose is money. Any system that will be put in place will be designed to extract more cash from players. The reason why there is a survey is to find out how far they can go with it without losing a large amount of players.
I like to think that the battlepass would be better, and I am not shouting in anger at the heavens, but I do have concerns.
Mainly what the prize will be. If Preorders will in turn, be made cheaper (as I doubt this replaces that), and what the random, unique legendary might be. Another Whizbang sort of thing? Great. Something fun and overall positive, without being something FTP players can't live without.
Another Kael'thas level card though? A much greater impact from that.
I agree that we shouldn't be scum, and generally try to hope for the best, yet the price point still worries me. I won't mind popping in 20 Euro if it were, and get fun stuff, whilst supporting the game. But say, 50? And with preorderd packs still at the obscene price level? That's not good at all.
Gonna wait and see how this turns out, when we eventually get more details.
This is an archaic approach to business, and not at all how it works these days in real life. I’m key account manager for a software company (not games) and part of my job is to upsell to the customer and report strategies for doing so to upper management. If I told them I could reorganize our module packaging towards the customer to increase license cost, management would tell me to fuck right off. It is understood that profitable business relies on repeat customers and good customer relations. So if I want to sell an idea for upselling to upper management that they will back up, the literal first question I need to answer them is: “how does this benefit the customer”. If I can build a business case that benefits the customer and makes us more money, we’re in business.
We are obviously not a charity, so what we aim to do will make us more money in the end, but goal is always to get the customer in a better state than previously. That is how global software corporations are being run. Of course lead by profit margins, but these come off the back of a satisfied customer base.
You may argue wether or not blizzard understands that, but I think it would be naive to assume such an established company wouldn’t.
But they seem to target the players, who don't actually spend money and make them do so. If what you say was 100% true, no predatory monetization would ever work. But they do. The key is identifying how far you can go draining every dime possible from the customer, while maintaining the relationship.
The number 1 goal of any company is MAXIMIZING the revenue. Maximizing means getting as much as you can WITHOUT actually loosing a customer.
"the literal first question I need to answer them is: >>how does this benefit the customer<<” - I call bullcrap on this. Of course it's an important factor to keep the client satisfied. But in the end you keep them satisfied just to get their money. So even if this is a part of the policy, the end goal is not to make their life better, but to make the profit.
Just to assure you I have some background - I have PHD in Management and I work as an Account Manager in the international data analysis company employing almost 50k people. I am pretty sure you heard about both my company and the clients I take care of.