When my brother and sister-in-law admonish my 8-year-old twin nephews to pay attention, they often use the phrase I’ve titled this post with. As anyone who plays Fallen Earth knows, however, it’s not just young kids who need to hear it from time to time.
G1 went live with their new invisible armor in the premium shop today, and anyone who’s been paying attention to the forum discussions on this topic knows that the G1 folks either haven’t been paying attention to what’s being said there or they just don’t give a shit what the players want, only what the suits apparently believe will generate the most cash for G1. Thing is, it’s usually what the players want most that they’re going to be willing to shell out for. It boils down to that classic maxim of of marketing and salesmanship: Give the people what they want.
What the people want, as has been expressed repeatedly on the forums, is a way to turn off the appearance of ugly pieces of armor which don’t fit the visual concept a player has of their own toon, particularly (in my own case) masks, and (for others) arm and thigh armor. So what do we get from G1? Legs, torso, hats, boots…everything we didn’t ask for and nothing that we did. Is this really the kind of clueless marketing we can expect from G1 in the future? If so, I suspect they’re going to quickly discover that they’re generating a lot less sales in the premium shop than they probably could be if they just paid attention to what their players are actually asking for.
Another thing that’s been repeatedly asked for but not made available is the ability to buy premium game time with G1 credits, something I’ve discussed here before. It amazes me that G1 seems to refuse to make this available as it would surely generate more premium game time sales.
Personally, I just don’t get it. From both a gamer’s perspective and a marketing perspective it makes no sense to me why G1 apparently isn’t willing to sell the things that players are actually asking for, the things that would almost certainly generate plenty of sales, and instead seems to be going the route of trying to nickel and dime the player base for stuff many find only marginally attractive, if at all. If they truly want to maximize profits from Fallen Earth, why aren’t they offering the items and services that their own player base, you know, the people paying the bills, is actually asking for? It’s almost like they want to piss off players and sink Fallen Earth before it’s barely out of the gate as a free-to-play game.
I think I speak for a lot of Fallen Earth players here when I say: “You want my money, G1? Sell me what I tell you I want, not what your marketing people think I might want. Pay attention to me and what I want from this game to help make it the best possible experience, not what makes sense to some corporate marketing executive who probably doesn’t even play the game.”
You want this game to be successful as free-to-play, G1? The solution is really no more complicated than that.
Filed under: Notes From The Wasteland
