0.10.0 patch notes, balance explanations and how microtransactions work

I will think this over for a few days - as a retail professional previously here are my intial long winded thoughts-

I think both options have merit -

Have the one time use items (with no pay to remove that someone has to purchase from the shop) It's just priced strictly as a 1 time use or loaded with say 5 uses, so the characters people currently play on can try it out. Cannot be retrieved after use, use it and it's on that item unless you take it off to trade. Have them priced to sell but not so extremely low that no one would pay the permanent option but low enough that people buy it without to much angst over the price.

Permanent armor, effects etc should be higher priced if they are going to last the entire length of the game and require more and more stash space to store them. Or have them not forever permanent but say 90 days or 6 months for the armor, effects to be used on all characters across the entire account for that length of time but not quite so expensive as something that would be permanent forever.

you could even do 3 tiers at check out - 1 time use, 90 days, or forever. In 3 different price zones so everyone could get something they wanted in their price range.

Pets should only be sold as a forever to the entire account type thing, like the kiwi - in tiers of awesomeness 10.00, 25.00 and for heavily detailed ones maybe 40.00 or 50.00. Extremely rare and limited edition - make 200/500 of them and first come first served, with the pet you receive be numbered in the tab - 125.00 or 250.00 a piece equiv. in points.



The main thing to remember here is the majority of the people playing the game have very little disposable income and if the items in the shop are priced in tiers of low, mid, high but the majority at the low to mid area - you will sell way more total than selling just a few of the higher priced items. If you price things to sell at a reasonable price - every single time someone gets extra money they are going to throw it at you, just to look special in the game and because it makes them happy.

Offer the /dance individually or as a full bundle together at a slightly discounted price (if i read that right and there are different dances to be had) Make obscene amounts of things like this not just dance but /kneel, /wave, /joke, /greet, / EVERYTHING and offer them in permanent bundles but always come out with new ones so they are fresh.

Offer bundles of say an entire armor set, weapon effect for permanent use as specials occasionally - exclusive to that special and only purchased for that month, maybe to be put into the shop perm if it was popular at a later date. Short purchase duration limited edition sets.

If something isn't selling very well offer a certain item for a sale price to see if it is the price or if it just sucks to the players.

Your points packages will probably determine how well microtransactions do. Never underestimate the ability of a person to wait for a sale price - even if it means they never get something. I would say if you are going to limit the points packages to a certain time of the year, they need to be frequent enough to make sure people have points when they want them and they do not space out to far so that you lose money. A balance needs to be found as to what points are going to be sold for and stick to that. If someone knows if they wait until December to buy a points package and recieve 14% more points then they are going to wait. Offer packages that follow the aspect of the Closed beta packages you already started, and were successful with but make different things to go with them each time - let the perks in packages be the difference in packages not the price of the actual points.

All in all make sure you keep people feeling special in what they are buying and thinking they are getting an awesome deal not feeling like they are being cheated. And for the love of god, let the purchases speak for that and not the few whiney comments you get from that person that will complain if you sold it for .01 and wouldn't have really purchased anything to begin with.

Your customer service has started out so insanely awesome, Roll with that. Make money off of it. BE THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE PEOPLE OUT THERE. And you will be millionaires because there is not another gaming company out there right now that gives a flying freak about customer service and people will pay you for that.

TLDR sorry. Keep up the great customer service and people will pay you.