Iron Elite Membership Updates!

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Comments

  • Jumpy said:
    I see that some people have pointed this out, but the main reason we instituted this change was for people who did not want to wait to get the XP bonus. We typically had an email a week asking to move memberships to another game or something like that, which we could not do. This was really to help them out. The membership is already such a good deal that there is no way we can reduce the cost. 
    don't have to reduce the cost, just more bang-for-buck. Fair if this was the reason for this change specifically, the change isn't bad, I just think you could improve the returns per month, and almost guaranteed you'd get more subscribers, and you want something like the elite on a majority of players (ideally higher than 50%) since subscriptions are more inclined to promote player retention and respending.
  • As I said, we cannot give more bang for the buck. The buck is maxed. We could really only give more bang if we increased the buck.
  • Well, they have value in the game.

    For example. Adding more credits means more credits will not be bought in other ways. 25 bucks for 150 credits a month is a fantastic deal just by itself not including all of the other items. That is the equivalent of credits at 16.6 cents each. 

    Changing them from bound credits to normal credits means other people will not need to buy credits as much.

    You can also now get all of those credits upfront. So for 300 bucks, you get 1525 to 1800 credits (19.6 to 16.6 cents per credit). Even without all of the other benefits, that is the best price for credits you can get. The No-Brainer credits are 16.6 as well.

    Have characters and login every day? That is about another credit per day, something like 25 a month. That is another 300 credits per year for just one character. If you have 3 or 4, that is 1000+ more credits of value before we even get to chests. If you add that to the membership credit value, credits are getting down to 10 cents each.

    There is just no way we can give away more stuff. The membership is the best deal in the game, more than the no-brainer packages.
  • If you have 3-4 characters that you're playing every day, big credit purchases are worth less to the player.

    Bound credits also have diminishing value over time due to the constant addition of new stuff, some of which can be bought with bound credits but most of which cannot be.
  • Lenn said:
    If you have 3-4 characters that you're playing every day, big credit purchases are worth less to the player.

    Bound credits also have diminishing value over time due to the constant addition of new stuff, some of which can be bought with bound credits but most of which cannot be.
    Right. I agree that memberships will be of less value to players who have all the skills they want and own all the artifacts they need on all of their characters. 
  • So then subscription numbers are up overall quarter to quarter because of the value?

  • edited February 2020
    Jumpy said:
    As I said, we cannot give more bang for the buck. The buck is maxed. We could really only give more bang if we increased the buck.
    Except it still offers no bang whatsoever to people at end game. I have no need for an xp bonus, nor bound credits. Seems to be a lot of tone deafness on this subject going on. It IS a good deal, if you slot into the ever decreasing subset of the game this helps.




    Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
  • Heh. Yes, membership numbers are fine.
  • Some people DO NOT WANT BCR.

    Potential alternatives to BCR would be great. Ones that let users choose theirrewards. RoomCR, Bound MC, Talisman tokens to be turned in for caches for a particular set. Etc.

    I don't have multiple characters to eat up those juicy daily lessons. I have the one (as retiring incentivizes a brand new character to use those retireCR).
  • If you have everything you need in terms of credits and lessons, the current memberships are not for you. We cannot add more to those memberships, because they would be too much. We are not going to change what they offer, because most players enjoy and use them, especially new players and players who like to have multiple characters, which is who they were designed for.

    It would be interesting to offer an "end game" membership or something like that. We would have to remove credits/lessons and offer other things. Maybe we will spend some cycles thinking about that a little.
  • edited February 2020
    Jumpy said:

    It would be interesting to offer an "end game" membership or something like that. We would have to remove credits/lessons and offer other things. Maybe we will spend some cycles thinking about that a little.
    I’m sure the team has vastly more quantifiable evidence than I do on the subject, all I can gauge off of is the fact that new player generation has been declining for years. So I’m confused how Elite can “be great for new players”, when there are so few.

    Regardless, constructive ideas would be the make Elite reward monthly promotional items. If the promotion that month is globes, the Elite member at that end game tier would get say 5 globes for free. Alternatively, any purchases could reward 20% more. So if I buy 10 globes I get 12 etc.




    Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
  • edited February 2020
    It's a gamble to reduce the cost because there's no guarantee that it will bring more players in. With this many people continuing to pay for IRE and continuing to buy credits at the high cost that they've always been then why should they change their business model if the game maintains profitability?

    I've spoken out about the paywall in Achaea for over a decade and while there have been minor changes to assist in start-up costs, more & more items of power being added keeps the paywall pretty firmly in place so in the end the goalposts are being moved around but the distance between the goalposts has never changed and probably never will.
  • When I first started pointing out how batshit it was that people were paying more than 6,000 dollars for the original Chenubian wings, half the playerbase was with me on the barricade, and the other half were taking aim with their muskets. It seems a lot more uh...

    One sided this time.
  • edited February 2020
    Genuinely not surprised by the response at all. Dissapointed, but not surprised.

    Surely logical option would be make it 25%/150cr from the start no?

    I'm actually really struggling to see why its not that to begin with at a minimum*

    *edit*
  • Jumpy said:
    As I said, we cannot give more bang for the buck. The buck is maxed. We could really only give more bang if we increased the buck.



    Bang for Buck, Colorized, 2020
    The Divine voice of Twilight echoes in your head, "See that it is. I espy a tithe of potential in your mortal soul, Astarod Blackstone. Let us hope that it flourishes and does not falter as so many do."

    Aegis, God of War says, "You are dismissed from My demense, Astarod. Go forth and fight well. Bleed fiercely, and climb the purpose you have sought to chase for."
  • Those responses are pretty disheartening.
  • In response to Keorin's post above. I'm a semi-whale. I'm not full level 3'd, but I have nearly every artie I want. This thread, specifically the response from @Jumpy , has completely ruined any hopes I had of the credit whoring and whale whoring turning around. 
    The absolute gall and "Who gives a fuck?" attitude that pours out of a comment from a higher-up that starts with "Heh" to a legitimate question from someone who has been playing and enjoying this game for so long is appalling.

    Jumpy said:
    The membership is already such a good deal that there is no way we can reduce the cost. 

  • I keep elite for the XP bonus.

    Every once in awhile I look up and say, "I have bunches of bound credits, what might I buy?" and find something to buy. Eventually I'll maybe add a second class, but I'm not going to do so until I can insta tritrans, and even that isn't a given as I do most all in Dragon (although if I could be Druid in Cyrene, I'd add it immediately!).

    The unbound credits I buy from market, house, and city sales I use as gifts and prizes to / for folks who are rarely or not likely spending credits as of yet.

    I'm marketing the joy of credits for IRE!

    I wonder if the Elite credits could somehow be in part unbound and partly bound.

    I am willing to bet that wouldn't change the amount of credits others buy all that much - and would go a long way to reducing the quiet disgruntlement one sees across the board.

    I just moved up about 5 ranks. 

    Not because I Hunted a bunch, but because a bunch of folks went dormant.

    I'm assuming that for the most part they have alts they are currently enjoying playing more at the moment, and when the tide turns (or returns! I'm so funny!) they swing back into their upper rank slots, but if I'm wrong, if IRE is losing folks who are that high in the rankings, the odds are that they're losing some revenue due to those folks going dormant as well.



    - To love another person is to see the face of G/d
    - Let me get my hat and my knife
    - It's your apple, take a bite
    - Don't dream it ... be it


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