Pay for Detailed Statistics

[zoraster]

(02-01-2013 11:08 AM)2dhh Wrote:  Sorry to be a negative nancy here, but I don't think this would work out. From a casual player point of view, statistics is a basic part of a game and should come free. I've never seen a game that requires a microtransaction for statistics. To a new player, it may seem as if OML is a greedy company and wants to charge for everything. (like zynga but less extreme)

But I'm not a casual outwitters player, and die hards like us on the forums will buy every little thing OML makes. The small population of people of forummers will be greatly pleased, but this will upset the casuals.

We'd still have "wins" for free. Everything you see now would be free. But the more detailed statistics would not. Outwitters is such a complete game for free that I really doubt people will be pissed. There are no advertisements. There are no reminders that you should BUY BUY BUY. To me, it's always felt like OML has erred in the other direction. Ask yourself this question: will the annoyance of casual members (1) make fewer people spend money or (2) decrease the enjoyment of those already in the game? I'd answer no to each. Sure, maybe a casual member is annoyed (though I think this is doubtful, honestly), but so what? Is that really more likely to stick to free? I don't think so.

Quote:From http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/10/ou...-disaster/

“You can’t get more visible than that at launch,” says Adam Stewart, the artist and lead designer on Outwitters. Stewart says the two-man crew spent a year and a half and over $300,000 to make Outwitters. Apple’s promotions caused 560,000 players to download it. It’s also a critical smash.

There’s just one problem. Even after all that attention, Outwitters has been a total financial disaster. It’s only made about $40,000.

[...]

Where Outwitters screwed up is it didn’t give players enough opportunities to part with their cash. When it launched, Stewart said, the most money that any one user could spend was just four dollars.

The back-of-the-envelope math jibes with the results: 2 percent (paid users of an average game) of 560,000 (total users) is 11,200 people. If they spend $4 each, you get $44,800, or approximately what Outwitters has made so far.

Please don't begrudge companies trying to make money or you'll end up with fewer games in the future.

Quote:Did the game save all of our info in the first place?

Maybe not, but offering statistics from the start of Season 3, for example, would still be worthwhile.