Newsletter #8 - Premium change - 2010-03-30

[DeletedUser656]

Oh Morthy come on, go read some support requests and let me spoil the joke.

It's not a joke.

 

[DeletedUser]

By completely changing the system maybe they think people won't realize how much more they are paying

TRUE

Paul, in essence yes, they have raised the price, but in a very clever way. Theyve made it so now you pay more than you would have, but it seems like your getting more for your money. To be honest what was wrong with the old system?

TRUE again

Innogames have constantly introduced new features over the past years, the newest coming to my mind being the Mobile Version - whilst i've been here, they've introduced churches, bonus villages, growing barbs, speed worlds etc. I cannot remember the prices being raised in all this time, which is out of proportion with other browser based, and indeed MMO games who have raised prices frequently.
And now, when you have a premium account you automatically will no longer have ads in the game - there is no need to buy something extra for it, another feature being introduced.

Actually if we want to be fair - Inno had the biggest increase of users - which means more money. So for your efforts to add new features you were already repaid.
But as someone said - these days is all about money. Just be fair with us from the start - is much easier to accept astatement - "we will increase the prices cause the costs and the income don't fit very well " than the bs in the announcement...

So what is it, a 30% increase? for all the years of features introduced, not to mention the graphics upgrades (am i the only one who remembers the old ones?).

don't tell it so easy - 30% increase (i didnt verify it - i believe you) is insane and is not justified . But - is all about profit...so teh decision is made..now we will see the outcome.

 

[DeletedUser]

So what is it, a 30% increase? for all the years of features introduced, not to mention the graphics upgrades (am i the only one who remembers the old ones?) and continual increase in the server speed.

We have payed for the new features monthly, starting some years ago... they did not added those for free. Or do you think that people payed the old game only?

 

[zakipoo]

do TW moderator and others get paid to manage this?

 

[DeletedUser]

Morthy, we bet you to the punch line so therefore the joke is on your team, Happy April Fools

 

[DeletedUser81991]

But you do play on worlds with growing barbs, (bonus villages?) the new overviews, the capabilites and interfacing to run legal recruitment scripts, a newly designed forum, claiming system, options to highlight players, the political map, etc. these are a few of the features that have been introduced whilst i've been here, that there has been no price raise at all for.

Retroactively charging for a service isn't a business move, it's basically saying "Nyaaah, we got you hooked on it, now give us more money for the same thing." You don't charge for something already implemented beyond what came in the Premium account to begin with, which we saw as a fair value and paid for at the time we did.

If the increase in cost of Premium points is to cover operating costs and upgrade costs (like the new servers that are getting implimented over the years makes more sense because players can understand increases like that even if they aren't happy about it, but this isn't the case.

I'm sorry, but from your post and explanation, Innogames is charging more for features that were already in place before Patch 6, and then forcing those upon other players which is not a justifiable business move and is basically giving their clients the finger.

If you're claiming that the increase in cost comes from JUST PATCH 6 then say it and call a spade a spade. Don't try to justify it by saying that all these other features you listed that weren't a part of the patch are part of the reason for the price increase.

 

[DeletedUser]

Innogames has 6 million clients. it has not gone up until now...i believe that outranks a game with 300k. i believe 4 million of those clients are with tribalwars.

Then just tell us operation cost have gone up and you must charge a bit more, but to try and confuse us all with a new system and telling us these new features are the reason for an increase in price. I think many of us would be much happier if you had just been more honest and left the system alone. Trying to mask it only makes it look worse than it is.

 

[DeletedUser]

So you disagree? you do not enjoy this game? in my opinion, Innogames has provided a brilliant product for the past 3 1/2 years, and i have enjoyed it throughly. If i am hard-pressed for money, i can enjoy the free version unlike other games i've played/play, and still be competitive maybe not as competitive, but that is to be expected.

So what is it, a 30% increase? for all the years of features introduced, not to mention the graphics upgrades (am i the only one who remembers the old ones?).

Yes I disagree and yes I enjoy the game. However, I am one of the fortunate (I fear) few who will be able to afford to buy the annual package and continue playing it. As I have previously posted, I think that these price increases will drive out a lot of talented players who cannot afford to pay for the top end packages and currently pay on a monthly or even weekly basis.

I understand that costs rise, etc but as someone has already pointed out, Innogames have doubled their profits in the last two years yet they are still asking for more money ? And people talk about the Banks ripping people off !

 

[gn0me]

Dear players,

Starting April 7th, we will change the prices for our premium accounts.

In practice, that means that you get 30 weeks of Premium Account for 19.99 €. The no-ads mode will be included in our new premium account!

atm I get 10 months for 19.99euro and block the ad frame with AdBlock Plus on firefox, getting the entire screen without paying an extra 1pp/month.
Even if paid to remove the ad I get 8.5months, so how is enforcing me to pay for something I already have for free (no-ads mode) and only giving me 7.5months premium saving me anything?!?

You might try confounding us with a new counting system, but in my experience most successfull players of TW are above average in mathematical ability - lying to us about the numbers just makes it even worse

If you compare the new prices with the old system, you will find out that we raised the prices in the lower levels.

Not JUST in the lower levels as I proved above...

On the other hand, buying 5000 Premium Points at once will give you the chance to continue with the same cost/month rate as before.

So we are supposed to take that on face value after your last pitiful attempt at mathematics?!? I won't believe you any longer until I can be bothered to work it out myself. Which probably won't be until after I receive a satisfactory response to my next point:

We know that it will never be popular to raise prices. But please also take into account that this is the first time we have raised the prices for Tribal Wars in general. We have also introduced many new Premium features (i.e. the mobile version in 6.0). Last but not least, we are confident to offer you a great value for your money.

Yes its nice you added some new features... features that players in Black Dawn on w30 have been using for months already such as Map Groups... are you going to reimburse the scripters in BD who developed this and other scripts such as the market balancer which continue to make this game playable once your account gets large? I have boycotted buying premium points since I first posted about this matter months ago, for some reason people send me pp to keep me playing... :/

The new prices will go live on the 7th of April. Until that day, you can buy Premium Points with the old price system.

But why would we want to if the prices are going to be "so much better"? :icon_eek:
Oh I remember, they aren't... you just FAILED at maths. :icon_neutral:
So is this a last ditch attempt to grab a few more minds who see the prices going up and inspire them to invest a little more immediately? :icon_twisted:
Or are you honestly posting this rubbish because you are as confused about the new points system as the rest of us? :lol:

 

[DeletedUser]

We have payed for the new features monthly, starting some years ago... they did not added those for free. Or do you think that people payed the old game only?

You have payed the same fixed price for the past three years, which was fixed for the original game. Premium options were limited, i hadn't heard of a super-recruit script. The graphics were...average, and the user base was smaller, leading for a smaller game with less people to interact with. there have been many, many new versions, and for no price increase. Remember, as they recieve more members their servers recieve greater load, they have to create more worlds, hire more staff, create new national servers - that is where most of the money from new players goes, and of course to keeping Innogames running. But in the current economic climate, it is not enough.

 

[DeletedUser]

This is a mistake

I used to pay 19.00 EUR for 50 pp and I got 10 renewals of 30 days each
So I got 300 days.
Now with 19.00 EUR I get 1426(theoretical) pp so I buy 14 renewals of 14 days and 2.6 days(theoretical).
So I get 198.6 days

This means 51% raise in prices!!!!


If I paid 1.99 I bought 3 pp so I had 14 days
Now with 1.99 I buy 60pp and that is 6 days

That is 230% raise in prices!!!!

With 49.99 EUR I used to get 125 pp (in 50pp scale) which gave me 25x30=750 days
Now with 49.99 EUR I get 5000 pp which gives me 50x14=700 days

This means 7.1% raise in prices!!!!

So even with 49.99 you get a pretty big raise in cost.

The raise ranges from 230% to 7.1%.
I really believe that this is a big mistake.
Please reconsider. This is not the time for such outrageous raises!
I ve been with TW almost from the beginning but I am sure that if the team sticks to these prices, I will quit TW asap.

 

[DeletedUser]

We have payed for the new features monthly, starting some years ago... they did not added those for free. Or do you think that people payed the old game only?

good point. where is our refund for not having these features earlier.
and we've had them for what 2 weeks now?

 

[DeletedUser53945]

Will we still be able to use our credits on any world and not have to buy for each world separately?

 

[MasterFire]

i think that this is not a good choice the admins did....it would be much appriciated if the premium purchase thing would be left the same as it is now.i pay for 4 months and now I don't know what do I have to purchase for at least one month

The equivalent for buying 4 months would currently be buying 3 months 600 premium points USD $14.99 / GBP 9.99

The mobile site is a pain.
Very annoying and not at all easier.
I can't see any logic in raising the prices..
more ppl can play here as the prices are low.
raising them only take more money from us who already pay ( I even buy prem to my friends)
This will only stop ppl from playing or buy prem..
I cant see this is good at all!!!

I suggest you perhaps take a look at a business model. Every possible variable is set into one including the one where people leave because something happens.

For EXAMPLE (I thought I'd make it clear to you that this is an example). Just about every business that sells something, which in essense is what a business does when it's a business, calculates it's prices in a way they can offer their service or goods for a maximum profit for a certain amount of users who will be buying a certain amount of goods services.

So for instance, a company can calculate it's more costwinning to sell 100 goods for a price of 100,- instead of 100 goods for 90,- seeing they've calculated on base of market-studies (they make entire companies to study markets actually, for if you didn't know) that even though perhaps less people would buy the product, the higher price would still account for a higher income.

Will we still be able to use our credits on any world and not have to buy for each world separately?

I don't see the announcement saying anything on this so I would assume that it's indeed in essence still possible to buy credits on any world instead of separate for every world.

good point. where is our refund for not having these features earlier.
and we've had them for what 2 weeks now?

The refund is that you haven't had the new prices before, along with not having the new features.

We have payed for the new features monthly, starting some years ago... they did not added those for free. Or do you think that people payed the old game only?

Actually, since the last price change quite a lot has been added without upping prices. Just try and find the previous announcement on price raises. I think you'll find yourself looking forever, seeing I was no different. It was well before 3 years ago easily. Which essentially was a recap of Innogames' business model for tribalwars.net based on a factual amount of players rather than a market study based on other companies/sites.

 

[zakipoo]

but still if you need to increase the price why use the new system??? why not use the same old system but with a little increase in price? more simpler than oh 5-10 pp for a day!

 

[TGM1]

Innogames have constantly introduced new features over the past years, the newest coming to my mind being the Mobile Version - whilst i've been here, they've introduced churches, bonus villages, growing barbs, speed worlds etc. I cannot remember the prices being raised in all this time, which is out of proportion with other browser based, and indeed MMO games who have raised prices frequently.
And now, when you have a premium account you automatically will no longer have ads in the game - there is no need to buy something extra for it, another feature being introduced.

Well then l am suprised that you have such a bad memory.

From September 2007 to September 2009 l was being charged £25.00 for 300 days this is proved by my bank statements. Also the prices then changes back to £19.00 for 300 days as quickly as they changed to £25.00 both were changed without warning.

 

[DeletedUser]

People please think of the date, either that or our wonderful innogame team are drunk, must be someones birthday

 

[DeletedUser]

No I don't work for InnoGames, I'm just an intelligent human being who understands how economies work. When you understand that you'll actually see that InnoGames are a great company, trust me, .

since we play here we agree on that. but to set up the prices like that on top of the 50ms rule..
Thats not very clever at all.
We dont just like TW for the game.. we like it also because we can pay it without counting every dime we got.
It doesnt matter that the prices didnt grow so much.. but the amount of points you have to buy now give a totally different view on our private economy.

For that I cant see that Innogames thought this over at all other than being greddy without thinking of the consequences for us who play the game.

 

[DeletedUser]

"Nyaaah, we got you hooked on it, now give us more money for the same thing."

don't you know that the first try is always free ... the pain comes after

 

[DeletedUser]

Retroactively charging for a service isn't a business move, it's basically saying "Nyaaah, we got you hooked on it, now give us more money for the same thing." You don't charge for something already implemented beyond what came in the Premium account to begin with, which we saw as a fair value and paid for at the time we did.

If the increase in cost of Premium points is to cover operating costs and upgrade costs (like the new servers that are getting implimented over the years makes more sense because players can understand increases like that even if they aren't happy about it, but this isn't the case.

I'm sorry, but from your post and explanation, Innogames is charging more for features that were already in place before Patch 6, and then forcing those upon other players which is not a justifiable business move and is basically giving their clients the finger.

If you're claiming that the increase in cost comes from JUST PATCH 6 then say it and call a spade a spade. Don't try to justify it by saying that all these other features you listed that weren't a part of the patch are part of the reason for the price increase.

The new servers that aren't getting implemented? .co.uk comes straight to mind.

That is not what i meant, my apologies. Previously, it has been enough to introduce these new features and watch their client base grow - but surely you must understand that in the current economic climate, their running costs are going up. Marketing, Pay for their workers who have to be able to afford amenities with increased prices, etc. As their running costs go up, they need to increase prices. this has happened once, only once, and never before. After all they have introduced, they are asking for a price increase of 30% in a recession. i hardly think this to be squeezing their customers for more money, as many here seem to be making out. Innogames survives because of you, they do not wish to make your life harder.