The bottom line for GLB to worry about is what value do they place on maintaining Free players to keep the community large and on going versus what value they place on the % of Paid players actually adding to the cash flow of the game...
If the community has ENOUGH paying players that GLB feels they can do away with free players, fine. Implement a "one time Freebie" bonus for people who start up in the game, get them started, and hopefully they become interested enough to purchase flex to keep going...
If the community NEEDS Free players to add extra teams and extra leagues, then a system as non "new user friendly" as this one seems to be will likely result in FEWER people transitioning to paying customers. We ALL must be aware that probably 90% of the NEW people trying GLB invest in SA pts with their start up SP, and the result of that is a build that is forever "useless" for playoff level teams. Making the new RP spent on start up players by brand new users totally non-refundable just strikes me as the IDEAL way to drive brand new players OUT of GLB as soon as they learn they've "messed up" their player, and the only way to re-coup is to start PAYING!
BANKS had the idea right when they started issuing ATM cards...
In the early 80's when ATMs started, they were all 100% FREE to use. this got people to stop going to the bank to write checks to "cash", and banks could lower their personnel costs, and the customer got a highly convienent new way to bank; Win/Win!
Then in the late 90's banks realized they could save personnel costs AND charge of ATM usage. People were so "hooked" on the convienence of ATM cards that they wouldn't STOP use just because of the minor cost. BIG WIN for the banks, but still a pretty ok win for the customer.
GLB isn't following that pattern, but they might WANT to think about doing so...
Instead what GLB is doing with this new system is:
They induce someone to try the game with "free" points and no cost involved.
They DO try to put out some player build manuals, but there won;t be enough info in those to really get a brand new player learn all the in's and out's of this game.
when the new player does find out aobut all his build "mistakes", he no longer has a way to re-coup ANY of the "free" points he got on acocunt start up, and GLB's response is (essentially): "sorry, you should have known better than to do THAT. You know you can always PAY for more points, and try again!"
Now what if banks had installed ATM's, and then never gave a customer anyway to learn how to set a PIN number?
And after 30 days of not being able to USE the ATM because of their lack of knowledge, the bank informs the customer that "Sorry...your 30 day free trial is over. We can send you the info about HOW to use the new ATM, but it is 50 pages long, will take you 12 hours to learn, and w are going to charge you $3 for every transaction anyway!"
Do you HONESTLY think that people would have continued to use ATM's, or do you think they'd have jsut continued going to the bank to write checks for cash?
As soon as new users learn that the only way to over-come their early build mistakes is to PAY money to keep playing GLB, I can pretty much guarentee that a large portion of them will NOT consider the cash out lat to be worth it for a game they must still learn.
...and eventually GLB will go the way of the Do Do bird, when ALL they have are the people who DO pay for FP season after season leave for other activities, and no one new replaces them.
If the community has ENOUGH paying players that GLB feels they can do away with free players, fine. Implement a "one time Freebie" bonus for people who start up in the game, get them started, and hopefully they become interested enough to purchase flex to keep going...
If the community NEEDS Free players to add extra teams and extra leagues, then a system as non "new user friendly" as this one seems to be will likely result in FEWER people transitioning to paying customers. We ALL must be aware that probably 90% of the NEW people trying GLB invest in SA pts with their start up SP, and the result of that is a build that is forever "useless" for playoff level teams. Making the new RP spent on start up players by brand new users totally non-refundable just strikes me as the IDEAL way to drive brand new players OUT of GLB as soon as they learn they've "messed up" their player, and the only way to re-coup is to start PAYING!
BANKS had the idea right when they started issuing ATM cards...
In the early 80's when ATMs started, they were all 100% FREE to use. this got people to stop going to the bank to write checks to "cash", and banks could lower their personnel costs, and the customer got a highly convienent new way to bank; Win/Win!
Then in the late 90's banks realized they could save personnel costs AND charge of ATM usage. People were so "hooked" on the convienence of ATM cards that they wouldn't STOP use just because of the minor cost. BIG WIN for the banks, but still a pretty ok win for the customer.
GLB isn't following that pattern, but they might WANT to think about doing so...
Instead what GLB is doing with this new system is:
They induce someone to try the game with "free" points and no cost involved.
They DO try to put out some player build manuals, but there won;t be enough info in those to really get a brand new player learn all the in's and out's of this game.
when the new player does find out aobut all his build "mistakes", he no longer has a way to re-coup ANY of the "free" points he got on acocunt start up, and GLB's response is (essentially): "sorry, you should have known better than to do THAT. You know you can always PAY for more points, and try again!"
Now what if banks had installed ATM's, and then never gave a customer anyway to learn how to set a PIN number?
And after 30 days of not being able to USE the ATM because of their lack of knowledge, the bank informs the customer that "Sorry...your 30 day free trial is over. We can send you the info about HOW to use the new ATM, but it is 50 pages long, will take you 12 hours to learn, and w are going to charge you $3 for every transaction anyway!"
Do you HONESTLY think that people would have continued to use ATM's, or do you think they'd have jsut continued going to the bank to write checks for cash?
As soon as new users learn that the only way to over-come their early build mistakes is to PAY money to keep playing GLB, I can pretty much guarentee that a large portion of them will NOT consider the cash out lat to be worth it for a game they must still learn.
...and eventually GLB will go the way of the Do Do bird, when ALL they have are the people who DO pay for FP season after season leave for other activities, and no one new replaces them.
Edited by GrogMan on Mar 17, 2010 22:13:35
fanboy
