Why Veteran Players Matter
In view of several active threads of late, I think it wise to reflect for at least a few minutes on just why it is that veteran players like Archebold--like many of us--matter to this game, and why they should matter to the developers and owners of Horizons.
We're the folks who are your "word of mouth"--your best and cheapest advertising. We're the guys and gals who brave the wilds of other general game boards and trumpet the great improvements made since Horizons' less-than-stellar launch, who tell our friends and gaming colleagues that they really ought to give the "new and improved" Horizons a try.
We're the folks who tutor and mentor the newly arrived players, and encourage them to convert from trial status to paid subscriptions. We set up and populate the New Player channel, and fill in the countless blanks in the game's woefully inadequate "manual." We're the guys and gals who keep the New Trismus consignor stocked with affordable--shoot, downright cheap--gear that every new player will want and need. And we're the folks who will drop whatever we're doing to dash to New Trismus, or Sslanis, or Kion, to help some new player out. I daresay we're one of the primary reasons Horizons' conversion rate is as high as it is.
We're the folks who have multiple accounts. We have multiple plots and lairs and, thus, have multiple accounts in order to possess them. We have earned the coin to buy multiple plots and lairs. New players take months to earn enough to buy just a single plot or lair, and they're not about to buy another account unless and until they can afford to own two.
We're the folks who have been there, done that, and gotten the T-shirt. We're the guys and gals who, because of our long experience in the game, are the first to spot and report the inevitable bugs that crop up with every patch. We've been around the block so many times we're the first to recognize that something isn't working right--be it a bug or exploit--and promptly report it.
We're the heart and soul of the game's community. We're the ones that spend our game time building world projects that benefit every player in the game, not just ourselves. We're the guys and gals who go into "Borg" mode with every single event to rapidly build whatever structure needs construction, to hunt down and slay whatever critters need whacking, to move the event along. For the benefit of everyone. We're the folks who will come up with coins out of inventory (and cash out of pocket) to buy another subscription to buy another plot or lair on the auction block, just to prevent plot looters from stripping all the structures on a plot that is invaluable to the community.
And yes, as Aamer and others have aptly observed, we are indeed the guys and gals who saved this game with our faith and, more importantly, our subscriptions during Horizons' darkest days. We hung on when AE went into bankruptcy. Shoot, some of us--more than a few of us--actually bought another subscription or two just to help your cash flow. We swallowed hard when the merger wiped out our plots, and patiently suffered through homelessness for two months waiting for the plot auctions.
And yet . . . .
We asked for Fluff--fun stuff we could blow our hard-earned coin on. You tripled Nadia's component prices.
We asked for the implementation of missing and long-overdue Tier VI resources. You gave us two radiant wisps.
We asked why there were only a couple of radiant wisps in the game. You told us simply that that's the way it's going to be and we just need to deal with it. And then you stripped out the long-existing Tier VI resources to next to nothing.
We asked you to proactively communicate with us. You told us that "ignorance is bliss."
We asked you to please explain why you decided to make all these changes, these subtractions from the game. You told us that there weren't any changes at all, that this was the game's design all along. Pardon me, but to use an appropos aphorism common in my neck of the woods: "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining."
Before you settle in on some cynical business judgment that veterans will eventually leave any online game anyway, that new players alone are this game's future, and thus your veteran player base can be disregarded and tossed aside, consider this for just a moment: We're not just your Yesterday, we're still your Today, and with just a bit of communication, with just a few bones thrown our way here and there, we'll be the core of your Tomorrow.
Originally Posted by Lycaunoss
Frith-Rae BridgeSol