3 replies to this topic

[KitanaWalker]

I typically like buying clothes in the item mall and not anything else. But you can't actually buy clothing, you can only gamble for it. I do like that you can trade in your old clothes for new clothes, but all the outfits are really ugly except for the extremely rare ones.
You wouldn't make people gamble for random clothing items in real life, why would I want to spend real money and not even know what I'm going to get?
Please just give us a regular Item Mall. I've been on the DragonSaga website and been through the IM list, and I see a lot of things I like, but I have no real way of obtaining these items. I don't gamble in the real world, why would I gamble in yours?
P.S. Shouldn't you make it incredibly easy for people to spend money on your game? Shouldn't we have a myriad of options for spending our money? This ease of spending money for players should be central to game development along with updates and reliability.

[Tundra]

The item wheel is the most retarded feature I have ever seen in the history of cash shop set ups. It would be a lot better if it featured only unisex clothing, or partial pieces of a set - where as the other parts of the set can be bought right away from the fashion tab. Just to lay out my background, I've taken a Marketing Class, which I kind of regret because it's basically common sense. I also assume whoever is in charge of the item mall lacks common sense because their item shop is atrocious. It's not even set up properly and it's officially open. That's just terrible! It should've been the first thing on their list if they wanted to make money the right way. Anyway, I'll lay out the ground work since the lack of a decent item shop means they're far too busy to be able to do it themselves or the guy in charge of it is simply incompetent and should be replaced to maximize proficiency. After all, the cash shop is the life support for this game. If it sucks, then so does the life support, and the game slowly-but-surely dies. It happened in THQ(along with a plethora of other lovely problems), remember? So Warp Portal should like, totally learn form their mistake instead of trying to repeat them.

Ehem! Despite anything being online, it still follows the marketing rules of things in real life. For example, people tend to put LIMITED STOCK or EXCLUSIVE SALE next to items when it's really not. Of course it sells, because that's just how it works. The very same thing goes for item mall items in games. ITEM MALL VIRTUAL-GOODS ARE PRODUCTS THAT ARE PURCHASED AND NEED TO FOLLOW THE SAME BASICS OF PROPER MARKETING IN REAL LIFE. YOU MUST APPEAL TO YOUR CUSTOMERS TO ACHIEVE HIGH GROSS REVENUE. YOU MUST DO ALL IN YOUR POWER TO MAKE ITEMS SEEM APPEALING, EVEN IF IT'S SLIGHTLY LYING. LASTLY, YOU MUST MAKE ITEMS PERMANENT SINCE TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS WITH MONEY LIKE TO OWN THINGS. PEOPLE DO NOT PAY 5-10 DOLLARS IN REAL LIFE TO RENT CLOTHING, NOR DO THEY GAMBLE AWAY 10~30+ DOLLARS TO HAVE A CHANCE OF OBTAINING CLOTHES THEY WANT. THEY DO NOT DO IT IN REAL LIFE SO MOST OF THEM WILL NOT DO IT IN A GAME EITHER. PERIOD. THIS IS COMMON SENSE. PLEASE USE IT OR HIRE SOMEONE WHO HAS IT. Now here's why, so I just don't seem like a silly player demanding goodies. Oh, and there's even some tips that they should totally capitalize on since they're not doing it now/they're doing it wrong.

Fact: The words sale, value, cheap, save, exclusive, limited, new, and free make people more inclined to buy something without really thinking about it. These words are distracting, and people automatically assume it's true. So they figure they can get it without worrying.

Another fact: The more appealing something SEEMS, the more likely it will sell. All stores make things seem like deals or they make giant eye catching displays. Displaying new items makes it seem more glorious than it really is, tack on another magic word such as SALE or EXCLUSIVE and BOOM, the store will probably run out of stock within the first 24 hours.

Ex of when it's exclusive: You know the whole Wii craze where the factory could only make so much? Well. They were lying too. They made MORE than enough, but scantly distributed them - thus making them seem low in number... Exclusive. Now I guess we know why they had such high gross revenue for two years straight, amirite? However, this really would not work in the game if you had a limited stock. But simply adding the word "Exclusive" or making a set that can only be purchased for a month would make the item sell like crazy. See: Making more money by using your brain/common sense.

EX of when it's not exclusive: An item that can be obtained right away without gambling and is permanent makes anyone with money (or access to it) more likely to buy it. Also, it makes parents more inclined to shell out money for their kids to buy items. After all, it can be bought right there on the spot, and the person can keep it forever. So it doesn't seem like a total waste. Tack on "Limited offer! Save 5%(or 10%) on this set!" and it will translate to "IF YOU DO NOT BUY THIS YOU WILL REGRET IT FOREEEEEVER" - and then they buy it because they don't want to regret it for the rest of their lives. Of course that's an exaggeration, but having such an enticing deal is impossible to pass up if the person has money readily available. Again, parents are also more likely to shove out money because again, it seems like the deal is extremely enticing and since it's limited - to make their child happy - they shove out the 10-20 dollars JUST THIS ONE TIME (and we all know it's not "just this one time") because they don't see the harm in it. Eventually time passes, and they forget about it, and then they shove out another 10-20 dollars when their kids ask.


Fun fact: The big chain clothes store called Kohls's LOVES to use the words "limited" and "sale." Their clothes are on sale, and they are always limited - yet the sales seem to go on and the supply of clothes never seems to stop despite being "limited." So are they lying to us?! Yes. They are. But people don't know that, nor do they care! It SAYS it's a limited sale for goodness sake, screw the numbers, I have to get it NOW!!! In other words, learn from the smart people. They're successful for a reason~ (Also, I am not talking about their clearance rack. Their clearance rack contains 1 year old clothes that they didn't sell, and this is the only "real" savings you will ever get from them)

Other fun fact: Walmart says you save when you buy anything, but you can usually find 80% of the items there at other stores such as Shoprite, Kmart, or Target for the same exact price. Sometimes cheaper! Again, learn from the smart people.

Fun tidbit: Games with permanent cash items makes a higher gross revenue due to it appealing to both players and parent's of players (IE: the people who are buying things for their 10-14 year olds). Renting is not appealing. At all. Especially if it costs 5-10 dollars. A great example would be the game LaTale, the population of all LaTale versions aren't as grand as... Let's say... Maple Story. However, it stays afloat because it the cash shop was designed to be the perfect bull sh*ting machine. "Oh look, a new set on sale?! I already got one, but I have access to money, so I will now buy this one too!" It works. Every time. They also have a gambling Ladeck feature which squeezes every penny from the richer/more compulsive players. It features a part of an EXCLUSIVE (there's that special word again) set that gives stats, whereas the other parts of the set (normally 2-4 pieces) can be purchased from the cash shop for roughly 5~15 dollars. So now even the non-gamblers can spend money all willy nilly just to get a fashion set that lasts forever AND gives stats. That all comes together to make a deliciously appealing set up that seems like a deal, and it's exclusiveness (the full set) makes it even more desirable. Now people are shelling out money left and right to get the full set. Of course, the joke is, it's not that exclusive and many people will have it. People do not notice this until they finally get it due to the words "exclusive" distracting them


TL;DR
The key of successfully running a store (or in this case, item mall in a game) is to remember who you're selling things to. So to remind you - you are selling items to teens and young adults, as well as parents since younger kids do not have debt cards/credit cards to use. As such, you want to play it smart. Don't give stupid offers. A kid will jump on anything they want simply because they don't know the value of a dollar, nor do they care if what they buy stays forever. A teen, young adult, or parent on the other hand KNOWS a bade deal when they see it. Gambling for pixels? Paying 5-10 bucks for something that goes away in a month? You'd be better off renaming the Item Mall to "Don't Waste Your Time, We Enjoy Not Making Money."

Edited by Tundra, 08 November 2010 - 09:00 AM.

[Rimmy]

Personally, I'd say they should remove the Big Wheel and make it so you can purchase any of those costume pieces w/ certainty, as we could in THQ*ICE's cash shop.

Leave the Mixboard as it is, since those sets give awesome stats and should, IMO, be harder to acquire.

[Yurai]

Simpler fix without having to worry about people buying the cheapest special item to mix board them is to just recycle all the sets and sell them in the regular fashion tab, except without the ability to mix them. We already have plenty of equips that cannot be mixed, so I'm certain that this can be done pretty easily. That way, people who still want their sets for looks can have them, and there is guaranteed to be nothing detracting from the sales of W-coins.