Monthly Promotions

Kresslack

So with these last few month's of promotions, there have been items rolled out to simulate some high end artefacts, such as wings which can be used once, and now shrouds which decay within two hours when worn. I'm not sure how most people feel about them, but for me it's not really much of an incentive. Personally, I would like to see a chance to actually get artefacts due to purchasing as part of a monthly promotion, instead of something that can only be used once and doesn't have that much practical value.

 Do you guys still buy into the promotions, simply don't care, or have anything in regards to promotions? Do you like the current promotions? If so, why? If not, what do you think would make them better?

Ephram

I think that with all the promotions, there are some I like and some I don't care about at all. I don't care about these veils, for instance, but I like the globes, even if all I get is crap sometimes. Some people won't bother at all with globes though, so I get it.

Honestly though, I think where you're still getting the credits you'd normally buy on a lot of these, the promotions are a nice bonus. I'm sure IRE analyses what works best and what doesn't, and then reruns the more profitable promotions, since they are in the business of making money and such. So it doesn't bother me so much when there's stuff I don't find enticing at all, but I do miss the freebies they were giving out monthly.

Cooper

I don't like how they are giving out the most annoying artefact in the game (even temporarily) as part of the promotion. You want to increase player interaction, not help prevent it.

Jarrod

Let's all be perfectly honest here.

Everyone who would buy credits would do it regardless of the promotion.

Quit complaining about free stuff.

Talking about player retention is silly when you have 0 clue how it actually affects player retention.

Sasiya

Best promotion ever is the giftbags.

Eld

Jarrod said:

Let's all be perfectly honest here.

Everyone who would buy credits would do it regardless of the promotion.

Quit complaining about free stuff.

Talking about player retention is silly when you have 0 clue how it actually affects player retention.

Who said anything about player retention?

Sasiya

@Jarrod did!

Tahquil

No, best promo ever is the spinning wheel thing in Thera. Loved that thing.

Zeon

edit: accidental post

Sena

I like the promotions that encourage people to log in every day. Daily wheel spinning, finding Stian, 1 lesson per 10 minutes logged in (this one actually encourages you to stay logged in, not just log in and leave immediately), things like that.

The only problem I have with this promotion is that it's basically giving out free(-ish) samples of veils, and is likely to encourage more people to buy actual veils, which is only bad because veils are terrible. The temporary veil effect itself doesn't seem problematic to me, since it lasts such a short time.

Jonathin

I don't really like the high end artie promotions, tbh. I'm never going to buy a veil because I can't justify spending almost 600 bucks on a game. On top of that, expiring after 2 hours is super short. I'm all for free stuff, but the single-use wings and the tempoveils just are not appealing to me on any level. If not for my iron elite credit bonus, I'd wait to see what the next promotion is instead of buying for the incentive.

Shirszae

Tahquil said:

No, best promo ever is the spinning wheel thing in Thera. Loved that thing.

And then they nerfed it. 

Cooper

Shirszae said:

Tahquil said:

No, best promo ever is the spinning wheel thing in Thera. Loved that thing.

And then they nerfed it. 

Buffed it in Aetolia

Dunn

iirc, Akia ended up making like 800+ cr off the Aetolian wheel.

OP.

Jakiro

my favorite promotions were the Wheel, the giftbags and the login-X-number-of-days ones (specially loved the Ranger's Compass).

btw, I loved Midkemia's wheel too. I got two skills trans because of that

edit:

I pretty much don't care for the current one or any promotions similar to it (decaying versions of hihg end ones).

++ I love bonus credit/artie discount promos too.

Sultani

I need a definitive and permanent result so I normally just wait until the credit, artie or crown sales if possible.

Katzchen

Usually promotions have no real visible negative effect for those that can't buy credits... this one is definitely an exception, and I don't like that.

Wish I could be excited about the great hunt, because I'd love to give a serious go at it, but I'm sure it'll just be two days of being unable to find anything to hunt, and being ganked.

Hataru

Going with @Katzchen and @Sultani on this, I pretty much never participate in anything that doesn't have a lasting effect and just wouldn't even bother to spend or buy credits on a month like this because it really just feels like a month where they didn't want to give too much of an advantage after auctions/big credit bonus so they just gave us a 'filler month' where nothing we got really mattered except for a very small window.

But what's most crap about it to me is pretty much what Katz said, this promo caters towards people who can already pop out 2k credits on a veil, why? Because they've now got 2 hours of being Profit - and that obviously made everyone super super super happy before. Because the people who can afford veils are more likely to be able to afford to buy credits on a month like this.

I get the need for a 'filler month' so that there isn't a huge bonus or really awesome promo every month so there's not just constant handing out of the free stuff that really drives Achaea's 'economy' but handing out something like veils that stack with already made veils** is too biased towards the niche group of the game who already has disposable income that they can spend in large amounts on Achaea towards getting a ridiculous advantage, more than usual or reasonable.

In Summary: I'm of the opinion that the goals of promos shouldn't be around just to give a further advantage to one class of Achaeans but should be geared towards bringing in new people, keeping novices interested in sticking around, and benefiting the most of the populace as possible. The wheel, xp days, lesson days, even IC artie sales all manage that because they can be done ICly, all this month does is promote the game for people who can buy their way to power.

And that's a dick move.

** I do agree its the only fair way to do it though, because otherwise you're punishing people for already having an item, which is why I didn't like the wings promo.

Peak

Best promo was the IG artefact discount. Mayan crown sales are awesome too, because they mean SoW update. Lesson sales seem pretty well accepted too. I don't like the current sale because it seems like they're testing different levels of veils, which would be awful. 

Echald

The level 4 Veil of the Unobtainium will allows the user, for a mere 5000 credits, to locate anyone, anywhere. They can be offplane, in a bed, in a boat, in a journal or QQed, you will always be able to see the room they are in, who they are with, AND what is done/said in the location, especially in the case of the bed.

Jhui

^ true ashtani

Peak

People would spend 10k on that.

Peak

and another 10k to be the only one with one*

Echald

Nah, 20k is just enough for the level 5 veil, which you will need to spy on people with a level 4 veil, or using the Rank 4 Pillow of Obscurity on their bed or the Class 4 Coating of Inequity on their ship.

Jhui

disagreed because you posted twice when you could have just editted

Sasiya

I'd honestly preferred if monthly promotions were less about spending money to buy credits and more about making a change in the actual world. There are just so many things that could be tried out as 'promotions' that would make people excited about logging in and check things out. Just to give an example of what I'm talking about:

ANNOUNCE NEWS #81
Date: 06/01/2013 at 12:45
From: Sasiya, the Pixie Godmother
To  : Everyone
Subj:  June promotions in the Iron Realms

Juny is upon us, bringing a set of new monthly changes from the Iron Realms!

- A strange disease is spreading through the Mhojave Desert. A group of mystics have set up a camp and are attempting to find a cure for the disease that is infecting the El'jazira villagers. Seek them out for more information.

- The stars and moons are aligned in a manner that inhibits the properties of shield tattoos and other manners of similar protection. Each additional time that a person uses a magical shield will increase the equilibrium cost by one second if they used a shield ability within the last fifteen seconds.

- A splinter of dissidents from faraway isles have arrived in the Tasur'ke port, seeking refugee from persecution in their homeland. An envoy has been sent to each of the major cities with a request for hospitality: in return, these travelers offer their goods and services, some of which are exotic and powerful relics.

Remember, all of these changes are temporary and will be revoked at the end of the month.

Penned by My hand on the 24th of Mayan, in the year 626 AF.


Things like this have several benefits:

• The world seems more alive and less static. Things on a small scale happen that those who want can get involved in. They can be specifically tailored to cater to different types of players too: Targossian templars could launch a holy crusade which would spark a raid-type PK situation in a zone outside the city where the mobs would launch attacks against 'evil' settlements a few times per day or something like that, or you could just release tidbits of lore for people to investigate and speculate about, or arrange more diplomatic encounters which could either lead to progress or just backfire if you deal with it the wrong way. Ideally, it would be small things that would give a sense of excitement without taking away too much time from whatever the staff is normally doing.
• It is a great way to tip the scales in PK situations. Maybe there will be mobs that give support to specific cities in certain areas, or maybe some skills will be altered slightly. You can test things out that wouldn't work as a permanent change via liaisons but that still seem interesting enough to give a try and you can create a chain of small events that culminate in a world-wide bloodsport for a day towards the end of the month or just tons of other things that just would be fun to try out.
• There would be opportunity to spark some debate and discussions within organizations. Uncover knowledge that could disturb established truths, find evidence that suggests that your city perhaps didn't get all the answers right, start heretical movements in pretty much any of the religions/orders, and so on and so forth. No major overhauls, just small things that give people something to talk about and that would be reversible at the end of the month (the Lorekeeper might continue his travels as the promotion ends, but perhaps some of his dangerous ideas remains with a part of the populace, etc).
• It could also serve as a way to let people 'test out' skillsets or benefits of certain artifacts. Like, if you find the magical lock of hair for the red-bearded giants, they will reward you with a brooch that gives +10% health sip. This bonus would not stack with artifacts but would go away at the end of the month, so people who already have the artifact wouldn't really suffer too much from the promotion.
  

All of these things would be temporary changes that last the span of a single month that will cause more people to be interested in the game. And who knows? Maybe credit sales will go up when more people are interested in the game?

What do you think? Would this be interesting? Or just a lot of effort for no real gain?

Jarrod

While I also relish the idea of IRE tying a team of coders down to crack out multiple events each month, I don't think it's happening.

Sylvance

I personally think that it comes down to what the 'point' is in promotions, from IRE's POV. There are some promotions that will increase artefact sales (such as the current, or any other which is about getting people to try out artefacts). There are some promotions that will increase interest and buy-in to Achaea's mythos/lore/RP (such as the Stian one). There are some that will increase credit sales (such as discounts and freebies).

I don't have a problem with any of these per se. My favourite are probably the 'daily log-in' promotions, but that's from an entirely selfish point of view. As has been said, those who want to buy credits should buy credits. Those who don't shouldn't. Everyone should remember that this is a game and a business.

Aepas

I buy credits when I need them. whatever I get as a bonus is good for me and all, but I really really don't care.

Nemutaur

I usually set some money aside to buy creds, other than the Iron Elite ones which already happen anyway, and will wait until a decent promotion arrives before buying any.

So usually IRE gets my money either way, or sometimes i get distracted and buy Warhammer 40k stuff or some new hardware/toys.

Tarkanian

definitely not liking the past couple of monthly promotions. too much emphasis on buying.

bring back Wheel of Fate, 1 lesson per 10 minutes (max of 10 lessons), 1cr/day.

heck, i'm fine with just bringing back 1cr/comment in ironrealms.com.