Forsaken World: Psychology + Framing + Virtual Economy = PROFIT!!!!!111!!1

So I've written a couple of posts about Forsaken World's economy. Here's where I explain how currency is gated, and how much things are worth in USD, and here's where where I talk about how PWE has elegantly solved the 'gold faucet' problem that's plagued the genre since MU* days. This post has more details on how the core Pay-2-Win stats are tied to the game's economy and currency.

Since I wrote those posts, PWE has made some brilliant adjustments to the entire game economy that I'm willing to bet a month's salary ;) has boosted their profit appreciably, and possibly massively.

It's also led to this being the first time I've seen a virtual economy model the RL problem where the rich get richer, and the poor, poorer.

Best of all, these adjustments are so Machiavellianly (lol word?) brilliant that, instead of causing players to blame PWE for these changes that benefit the few at the cost of the many, PWE has cleverly framed it so that players blame EACH OTHER. Not PWE. Not the instigators and architects of the changes who stand to gain the most.

People were blaming each other, calling each other greedy, having occasional (it's died down a lot now, 6 months later) rages on World Chat about how avaricious other players were. And not a single time, not in a forum post, not in world chat, not in local chat - NOWHERE have I seen anyone point out why and how PWE is at the heart of this change - not mercenary, greedy players who 'overspend' in the CS and then 'lord it over everyone else'. ;)

Such brilliant framing and manipulation of psychology cannot go unsung!

Sing it here, in all its glorious goldenness, I shall!

 

The Back Story
Before PWE 'tweaked' the economy (about 8 months or so ago), people could only convert a maximum of 5 Mercury Statuettes to gold, per day, per character, via a quest - and (iirc) how many times you could do this was also linked to your level.

For purposes of clarity, I will do a direct conversion from gold to USD. This is NOT how PWE does it, PWE gates you through 4 different currencies, and if you're not from the US, you can count that as 5, because you have to think about it in your own currency as well.

This means that people could only gain a maximum of 25g (US$2.50) a day on average per character via direct gold conversion.

This in turn meant that 'whales' would buy Mercury Statuettes in the hundreds from the cash shop, and then vendor them to other players for anywhere from 3g50s to 4g. The reason for this (if you didn't read / don't remember my previous posts) price range is: If you buy a Mercury Statuette from the Cash Shop (US$0.50) and sell it to a specialised in-game NPC, the NPC will give you 3g (US$0.30). If you do daily quests x 5, you'll get anywhere from 4g80s (US$0.48) to 6g (US$0.60) per Statuette+quest.

Whales were thus buying wholesale, then selling to minnows and plankton, because it was the fastest and most profitable way for them to get a lot of gold within a single day.

Of course, this meant that the only people seriously spending in the Cash Shop were the whales.

The minnows (small spenders, say... US$15 a month...) were only spending the bare minimum, and might not even be spending that much a month, because they had no incentive to do so. Because *in general*, unless they were looking for a large chunk of change NOW for a big purchase - say a mount, or a skill scroll - they could slowly build up their cash via Statuettes bought from the whales. Not much reason to purchase anything from PWE, other than impulse.

The plankton (truly free players) were obviously spending nothing! Because if they were willing to sloooowly increase their cash via Mercury Statuettes bought in-game from whales, and playing longer / smarter / etc... they had absolutely no reason to buy from PWE at all. Patience and buying stuff from whales was always cheaper than buying from PWE. And of course, buying from whales costs no RL cash.

 

The Change
PWE studied the situation, doubtless came up with a much more nuanced analysis than I gave above. They then quietly, strategically, and subtly changed one thing - with a ripple effect that I'm pretty freaking sure boosted their profits immensely.

They made it so people can now convert 25 Mercury Statuettes a day, rather than just 5.

 

The Results
Statue prices shot up from 3g50s to 4g75s minimum. 4g60s you can get... if you find a special whale to do a special deal with.

This was met with an initial massive outcry from the plankton and some minnows... not against PWE, but against the whales. GREEDY WHALES! OMG U PPL! SO GREDY. NO1 WILL BUY UR STATS! OMG! etc etc blah blah. This particular noisy state of affairs lasted for at least 2 months, but now, 10 months later, it's a non-issue.

4g75s. Suck it up, or buy your own from the cash shop.

And not once, not anywhere, in-game or out of it, did I see players blaming PWE, instead of each other, for the price increases. Simply brilliant.

 

But Wai Nuggeet, Wai Brilliant?
Because in one fell swoop, PWE:

Made whales happier by giving them a way to get more personal profit when buying from PWE, thereby giving them even more incentives to buy directly from PWE.

Converted some plankton to minnows.
You see, with this change, and the corresponding hike in prices, it's no longer viable to try to get your cash via Statuette quests if you're a plankton. Minnows with a nice little nest egg (which I was), and whales (should they choose to buy from other whales) weren't all that hard hit by the change.

In truth, both whales and minnows benefited - the changes made it possible for them to trade in bulk. So if you had enough gold on hand (minimum 1Diamond - US$10), you could invest, buy at least 25 statues a day, and either not be affected by the price hikes, or else, get even more back - since more statues can be converted.

If not - then as plankton, you'd be best served by *buying* US$10 worth of statues from PWE as your starting capital. And, you know, it's almost never 'just a this time' after you make that first purchase.

Made sure being a plankton was a lot less attractive, and a minnow a lot more so.
No capital to make the initial purchase, and can only buy one or two Statuettes at a time? Tough luck, suck it up, peasant. ;) Watch 'everyone' getting richer while you get poorer.

Acquired a lot more paying customers, and changed their economy to encourage paying customers from the ground up - without alienating their existing customers, whether plankton, minnows, or whales. There was no community perception of PWE as the greedy one, and certainly no hostility. Some, in fact, widely viewed this move as doing 'everyone' a favour.

 

Ahhh PWE... if you can't grow up to be good, you may as well grow up to be good at being evil. ;)

 

F2P Pricing Models & Preying on Decision Fatigue - NYT via NorthTemple

“Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. (Sure, tweet that photo! What could go wrong?) The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain.”
via northtemple.com

Yes, yes, not all F2P models are evil.

But of those that are (even the amazingly beautiful luscious evil that is PWE's Forsaken World), I suspect a lot of them depend on decision fatigue pushing people to buy impulsively without calculating the costs, whether in-game or in actual cash.

It would also explain why I simply can't understand some of the Auction House prices in Forsaken World - where I've seen people selling stuff for half of what it's worth in actual currency, if you were to convert actual to FW's currency.

...people are tired, impulsive, don't want to do the math (gated through 4 currencies), and they want money NAO. So they buy a high-priced item and undersell it, because they honestly don't know it's worth / are too tired to think through its conversion.

I have personally worked out these numbers for some in-game acquaintances when telling them to buy/sell higher/lower, and they simply don't want to listen. That's too much work! Games should be fun! Let me spend my moneh how I want! Fairynuff.

I don't mean to imply I'm immune to this too. In FW, converting currencies (through all 4 gates) has become second nature for me. But in the other PWE games I've played, decision fatigue from constantly WATCHING myself (can't do this can't do that) contributed hugely to my dropping the titles.

...PWE are like the evil marketing gods the evilmarketingbits of nugget want to grow up to be.

It took me a few LONG (ahem) moments to realise he's holding a bow.

via craftygod.blogspot.sg

*Nugget looks at image from left to right.*

Nugget: WTF is that thing coming out of his...

Nugget: ...

Nugget: ...oh it's a bow.

XD CraftyGod has written a fairly detailed and nice first impressions review of TERA, but for me, the entire thing was overshadowed by this guy's... bow.

*hangs head*

"People who have played GW1 will know why 'balance' is bad."

People who have played GW1 will know why "balance" is bad.

True, a PvP system based on skill only and nothing else is fair. However, such a system has three fatal flaws.

Firstly, it is uninteresting, because the skill gap between players in an online mmo is never going to be large enough. People switching from gear-based MMOs like Forsaken World to skill based and super balanced games like GW2 tend to see themselves as the under-appreciated "pros" that could easily beat the "noob" CSers, if only there was no gear difference.

Lol.

These same people will probably get their asses whopped roundly and soundly by real "pros" in GW2, and feel more worthless and have less fun than they did in Forsaken World.

Anyone who made it past rank3 hero and r1 gladiator in GW1 will know that only a select handful of r11/g7 players in GW knew how to play the game at a level truly above the masses. To attain their level of skill, one must practice interrupting/KD locking/synchronized damage spiking with their teams constantly. Getting to this level of skill in GW is much more difficult than getting level 3 wings in Forsaken World. GW PvP is much more selective than Forsaken World PvP.

The second problem with these "skill based" games where gear does not matter is the lack of connection between the player and his character. If all your achievements and efforts in PvE will never contribute to your combat effectiveness in PvP, then what is the point of accumulating wealth/power, which is what an mmo is all about? Characters are created and deleted every month to catch up with the new meta-game. A player can be any class and any spec. Nothing is permanent. Long-term investments mean absolutely nothing. You might as well play a FPS or RTS game.

The last problem is best demonstrated by a quick example:
An extremely skilled and experienced warrior who has played GW since its release for 4 years faces a necromancer who just recently bought the game and knows nothing about it. The necromancer click on two hex skill, and the warrior is now removed from the game. Thats right, removed from the game. He is effectively deleted from the server for the duration of the hexes. Oh and one more thing: these hexes can be chained. No amount of "skill" could save the warrior from his natural counter class. That is how bad it is. In Forsaken World, an assassin could still kill a warrior through BoR if he has the situational advantage with superior gear/red hand. A priest with barely any damage can still solo a vampire with lvl 2 wings if the vampire has 0 mana. In GW, there is not even the remotest theoretical possibility for a player to defy the iron rules of "balance" imposed by the developers. You WILL get countered by your natural counters, and thats that.

via fw-forum.perfectworld.com

Whoa. It's always interesting to read something that is right on the opposite end of the pole when it comes to what you believe.

This guy isn't trolling. And where he's coming from... I can understand due to the kind of point of view that he is espousing.

Which I can sum up in one sentence:
Balance is bad because making skill the cornerstone is too elitist.

His original post detailed why FW is superior to GW and will be superior to GW2 in every way.

(What I'm getting), FW is better because:
Cash-bought power is easier to acquire than skill, and therefore not elitist.

And no, nugget is not any kind of GW PvP god. Poster says he has R4 Gladiator, which is certainly a mark of GW PvP skill.

To be honest, I'm not even sure quite why I posted this other than, 'Wow, that's a lifeform so totally different from me that I'm surprised we share superficially similar skins.'

XD

P.S. The last scenario he's describing isn't balance, it's IMbalance. It's precisely what ANet mucks around with PvP and PvP skills SO often to try to put right.

Moar thoughts:
Maybe his view stems from a frame of mind which says, 'If I'm not proving that I'm better than someone else, then I'm not interested. GW takes too much time and effort to be better than someone else. FW just takes money. Therefore, I like FW better.'

Could be why his viewpoint seem to be the antithesis of a nugget's. Nugget is all about proving to nugget that she got better than nugget. =P That nugget beat nugget! *beat self* Beating others is just icing. From this, we can see that nugget has a much larger ego than quoted-fellow, for to nugget, nugget is the only important milestone. XD