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Will we receieve notice when this game goes beta?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Kita, Jan 3, 2012.

  1. Kita

    Kita Shipwright

    Messages:
    1
    Ok, I really like KAG. I don't think I want to buy it just yet without more testing, but I also don't want to be shafted by an immediate "LOL WE BETA NOW" and lose the 60% discount. Will we receive warning prior to the change in sale cost?
     
  2. AnRK

    AnRK Shark Slayer

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    641
    No game, or even mod, I've played has had the level of updates I've seen from the KAG devs. Recently there might have been a week or so inbetween some of the announcements (which is still pretty decent) but alot of the time there's news at least every other day, if not every day. In short, yes they most likely will tell us pretty much the instant it happen, and we'll have a good idea when it's gonna be released before it.
     
  3. Foxodi

    Foxodi KAG Guard Tester

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    433
    If I was them I wouldn't announce when they are going to hike the price, but then I'm a greedy capitalist bastard, and MM is European.
     
  4. potatomcwhiskey

    potatomcwhiskey Undercover Griefer Donator Tester

    Messages:
    385
    Greed doesn't build trust with your customers.

    The future of commerce lies in the hands of companies that makes their customers feel valued. Perhaps you've heard the old saying "If you have a bad experience you tell ten people, if you have a good one you tell two people.". I'd expand it to "If you have a bad experience a thousand people hear it, if its good millions will clamour." with the advent of the internet. People are sick and tired of being treated like shit. Nowadays people are very vocal about stuff on the internet and ONE bad press moment can spiral into fincancial ruin. Especially for Indie Devs and startups. If you throw people a good deal and show them respect you're going to do well. There are people out there who would buy KAG on the idea that it was being cool to its customers. They just want to support good business practice.

    Honestly if they jacked the price up without an announcement it'd be a serious dick move and I would lose respect for the company. A far better PR and commerce move would be to announce a last week of sale price before beta, by putting a time pressure on it people are more likely to buy it AND tell people how "its cheap and wont be cheap soon so quick buy it man!" This helps push people off the fence. And people are more likely to be vocal in their social group if a good deal has a time limit.

    Maximising profit from each individual is intuitively counterproductive to generating revenue in the modern world. I'm not saying give the game away. I'm just saying don't jack the price up for people who are still on the fence. Sure you will make more money per person but you're going to lose revenue from people who no longer consider the game worth its stated price.

    Not to mention the social media aspect of it. Whats more likely to trend on twitter or get upvoted on Reddit?

    "Indie game King Arthurs gold just hit Beta and now costs twice as much before"
    or
    "Indie game King Arthurs gold is hitting beta next week, its only $10 now but $20 once it hits beta"

    Its kinda heavy handed wording but you should understand the idea.

    Trying to shaft people by jacking up the price doesn't make you a capitalist, it makes you short sighted and greedy.

    /rant
     
    Alkaine and Obzen like this.
  5. AnRK

    AnRK Shark Slayer

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    641
    Word, could never see the devs doing it, minecraft did very well out of highlighting when the cheapest time to buy it was, and urging them to buy it when it was at a discount. Doing that gets you alto more people playing, and probably alot more money then trying to con people into paying more.
     
    potatomcwhiskey likes this.
  6. Foxodi

    Foxodi KAG Guard Tester

    Messages:
    433
    The low price is because it is alpha, it is to reward people for their trust in the devs and the games future. Ethically speaking people should not be given forewarning of when the price hike is, because they have waited for the game to be near completion rather then having the early blind commitment deserving of the discount. They are freeloaders; gaining the benefit of the discount without the uncertainty of the development of the game that the early buyers endured.

    That being said, by the time we reach beta premium-only content will be the main focus, and so a major goal will be to increase the premium population (by forgoing revenue) in order to support several premium-only servers. And I can see the marketing value of a '1week left of discount!' promo.
     
  7. potatomcwhiskey

    potatomcwhiskey Undercover Griefer Donator Tester

    Messages:
    385
    This isn't a question of ethics. This is a question of how the customer feels about what a company is doing. You can make the argument that its not against ethics until the cows come home but that will never stop the fact the people will be bummed out and that will almost definitely cost sales and revenue.

    It doesn't matter if they're freeloaders or not they will feel shafted if you made that decision. I am amazed you call yourself a capitalist. You shouldn't care about them deserving it. You should care about getting their money.

    I'm talking directly about money. Customer service, PR, marketing and how the customer feels about your company all directly and indirectly influence your revenue stream.

    My statement still stands. As a capitalist myself, I say you're decision to up the price without a "1week left of discount" is still short sighted and greedy its not a matter of who deserves. Its about maximum revenue. A good reputation and trust with the customer is worth a lot more down the line than a few extra dollars now. Maybe I got little uppity about something that should have probably just been taken as a passing comment. But stuff like that hits a nerve from time to time.
     
    Boxpipe likes this.
  8. Foxodi

    Foxodi KAG Guard Tester

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    433
    I made my freeloader arguement which supported my first stance, but I also conceded to the value of the marketing and the acknowledgment of the strategic objective to increase premium players at any cost... As for the brand image I think you are overstating its impact in this specific case, especially when you consider that the current playerbase is only a fraction of what it will be post-beta.

    "I played this game called KAG for months, they were selling it at $10 because it was in alpha but I was going to wait for beta first. Then all of a sudden beta came and they jacked the price up without telling anybody! So I quits and hates them'.
    Ignoring how poorly worded this is, I don't think this customer experience will illicit significant sympathy from other people (potential customers)
     
  9. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    The price will increase slowly, as features are added. If we're about to do a large jump, we'll tell you, though with each large release (especially things like zombies) the discount will decrease. There's no way we're just going to drop the discount in one go without telling people beforehand.
     
  10. Adinxs

    Adinxs Bison Rider

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    340
    I thought you would do it in the cover of night, silently.
    Like anti-santa.
     
  11. Fellere825

    Fellere825 KAG Guard Tester

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    890
    Will there be an option to barter and trade livestock? I have recently come into possession of chickens...
     
    Noburu likes this.
  12. Chrispin

    Chrispin KAG Guard Tester

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    380
    IRL? How much did they cost? The more I think about buying chickens, the more I think it's a great deal. Think of all the money you could save on breakfast!
     
  13. Fellere825

    Fellere825 KAG Guard Tester

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    Ha ha they are my grandparents' but hopefully they will lay eggs and multiply.
     
  14. Eric

    Eric Shark Slayer

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    hey, I will totally trade a premium account code for two baby chicks.
     
  15. Adinxs

    Adinxs Bison Rider

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    I will gladly pay you tomorrow, for a premium account today.
    (Please get the reference)
     
  16. Popeye <3

    Also premium is awesome. Can't wait for the zombies.
     
    PUNK123 likes this.
  17. DarkDain

    DarkDain Shopkeep Stealer

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    Can we look forward to seeing this on any of the humble indie bundle packages in the future ? I'd be happy to see it get THAT much attention ! Nobody would look at it and say 'eh', they'd look at a bunch of games and if ANY peak their interest they might buy the bundle and end up playing KAG anyways.
     
    BlueLuigi likes this.
  18. BlueLuigi

    BlueLuigi :^) Forum Moderator Donator Tester

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    3,620
    Oh Wimpy, I love you.

    The thing is most humble indie bundle or other bundle packages work with steam integration, something that is probably far down the line for KAG due to the fact that it's alpha. Also (not to sound like a dick) but they'd lose quite a bit of cash if they put it in the indie bundle from possible purchases, if you subscribe to that theory.
     
    PUNK123 likes this.
  19. AnRK

    AnRK Shark Slayer

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    641
    Alright you bloody Scrooge McDuck motherfucker, it is for charity afterall :p Anyway, given these are people that might not know about the game, and there's the whole issue of not really losing money due to the fact it's all digital and anyone can download the game either way for free anyway. We wouldn't lose potential purchase because those people probably wouldn't have bought the game in the first place, and with the increase in fan base there should be a trickle down effect of many more copies been sold full price afterward. Overall alot of people who will have mostly not heard about KAG anyway will have the game for cheap, and then that will attract many more people. Could probably do with a bit more exclusive content, but there have been alot of games that are very much still in early development that have been in those collections, the thing we'd need most if there was gonna be such a huge amount of new players is some comprehensive tutorials however. Oh and it's for charity ;)

    As for steam, there are a fair few of the games in the bundles I've bought that aren't steam compatible.
     
  20. BlueLuigi

    BlueLuigi :^) Forum Moderator Donator Tester

    Messages:
    3,620
    You wouldn't be getting it with the bundle just giving copies of a free version so I assumed you meant premium