Practice ny

[Spears]

Seems like the kind of thing that a lot of the alteil playerbase would be interested in. Fairly salty pricetag though, anyone going?

[GonFreeces31]

What's this?

[Spears]

http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/practice/index.html

from promo gumpf
"PRACTICE is not a conference about business, technology, or how to break into the industry. If balancing the variables in a virtual economy or theorizing about the effect of rule changes on a player's emotional experience sounds like fun to you, this is the conference you've been waiting for."

[LoneKnight]

I'd totally go... if I had the money/lived in the general area.

[fargone]

I would like for Logress to go.

Can you forward the details to Logress spears?

[Logress]

I'd be interested in any new models out there, I've spent a lot of time talking with FtP gurus in the last 3 years, and they've come a long way. Conversations always end the same way though, I tell them the numbers on our playerbase and that we (well, when MB ran things, I don't see the expenses anymore) can pay our server fees and employees with that and they say something like "good for you, I wouldn't mess with that. When you're ready to design your next game, call me." I've always been told that FtP, virtual economies, etc are all something that need to be dictating design from day one, you can't add it on. Games need to be mainstream, mainstream, mainstream (gamer-mainstream, not generic mainstream -- and please note, being mainstream doesn't mean not innovative) to offer optimal value to their players. It does make me a little sad that it looks like the way people pay will dictate game design more and more over the way people play, and I fear that this trend toward bigger is not only better, but also offers more value will make smaller scale independent internet games less viable, but I'm sure they'll make their way out into the world through other avenues and platforms.

There's always the argument that it if Altel was cheaper to play, it'd have 1000X times the users, but that discussion (and decision) is a bit above my pay grade at this point..

[Savin877]

If you don't mind I'm going to play "Cranky Old Marketing Man" for a second here.

There's always the argument that it if Altel was cheaper to play, it'd have 1000X times the users, but that discussion (and decision) is a bit above my pay grade at this point..

No offense but it really shouldn't be considering the fact that you are the "means" of overseeing whether or not Alteil continues to be a success (both by growth and profit) for its NA/EU/INT players. If you have to get a little assertive with the suits across the way then so be it. Please understand I'm not saying this to be rude; I am saying this because I (as well as the rest of us on here) care about this game and what both your team and the community have put into it over these past three years. What I'm saying is the DECISION may be out of your hands, but the DISCUSSION is ALWAYS open for debating if it could bring in more revenue and change your customers buying habits.

I understand how licensing and marketing issues work across the way because I lived and worked there for 8 years. And while I definitely don't know EVERYTHING that goes into the day-to-day running of Alteil, I've come up with some pretty good conclusions over the past three years.

Back on topic, I don't know if this event would truly help NA Alteil (especially if you were the only one to go) as it seems you already have a grasp on how they run and whats to be expected. Believe me I've heard the same thing as you have from the same kinds of people.

Please note that this reply has nothing to do with making Alteil cheaper as you stated above but making Alteil "a better experience" as a whole. If making certain aspects of the game cheaper WOULD bring about more growth for our region than I think it would be wise for you to gather the research that has been shown by our user base on her and submit it to the find gentlemen across the Pacific. You can only ignore the "paying" customers for so long.

[Gota]

Making customer pay happily and making customer pay reluctantly is 2 different things.

Sure it might pay the bills, but you also make everyone hostile as well as again, I'm beating a dead horse here, scaring away a ton of potential customers. Being able to pay the bills and not touching it ever again also means you are not optimizing your business, you could be making so much more money than you are right now.

There is a time when you need to say ok, there is a problem with this, lets do something about it.
It seems like whoever is in power to change alteil is either ignorant as to the problems of it, in which case they are pretty blind

or just totally ignoring it 'because alteil is able to pay its bills', in which case they are pretty dumb because they could be making so much more money with this game, such a waste. Alteil is such a great game that many are not able to enjoy.

As people often say 'talent wasted' on a fellow with potential.
Alteil is a 'product wasted' on a game that had so much potential....


It seems like the one to blame at the root of it all was whoever decided on this type of marketing model for the US version. That person need to be fired, because they were the one who was setting the 'precedent' with the model and then denying all other suggestions and changes to said model from there on forward.

It also seems like its about time to give up hope on them changing, so peace out, I'm done spending for Alteil.

[Logress]

I didn't mean I'm not fighting to improve the game, I meant the opposite. We have more, better and cheaper ways to buy every year, mostly because of the GM's who talk with the community every day. Things like the pre-built Files, more ways to target your sphere, more ways to get fixed cards, a promotional shop event every week, new users getting a bunch of Gran and free cards in various ways (like the interactive tutorial), automated ways to get point cards, etc... More changes are always planned, but unfortunately there are some fundamental issues that need to be addressed that are actually even more foundational than the economy, at the very least, the new % of users who successfully learn the basics of playing the game before quitting, but really everything is kind of connected... Anyway, so far making changes has had only very small effects on the actual data, but I'm not giving up... actually I'm getting ready to kick into gear my most ambitious plan yet to change the way new users how to play.

But, because Alteil originated in a TCG model and not an FtP some players assume we're totally ignorant of the fundamental concepts of modern FtP economies and if we'd just read a few articles the next day Alteil would have a million users online and cost 10 cents to play. And yeah, I can only have that conversation so many times before it begins to fry my brain, which is probably why I sound so aggravated whenever I end up posting about it... Sorry about that.

[GonFreeces31]

I've been contemplating making a new thorough detailed comprehensive deck building guide with everything I've learned from the past ~22 months of experimenting...