About the quite plain Black Friday Sales, a question to Players and Devs Alike

[thebeast1985]

I'm making this post to have a glimpse of a chance to get an answer from Devs, and i would like an answer not from Cordovan (I know it's his job, but we can't ask always him, someone is in charge of the sales, not him)

First of all, the one that will surely answer:
Are you happy with this deals?
Are they underwhelming?
What you would see with a bigger discount this year?


To DEVS:

Why you made the decision not to discount also the Trove (heavily, like Sharn, if not more)?

Why there is such a low discount on Saltmarsh?

Clearly I'm not happy, but an official answer could explain to me (or us) why you decided to do such low Black friday sales.


That said, i wish you all good thanksgiving!

Cheers!

[drathdragon]

Well, since you're asking... quick and dirty:

i was planning to buy something

now that i saw the offerts, i will not buy anything..
i am sorry.

[Drunkendex]

I just got back after 2 years and I gotta say, some offers for BF are so good I'll buy them (ultimate sharn, for example), some are meh and I won't buy them.

No more to add

[Steeme]

Sharn is a stellar deal

Feywild is a good deal if you don't already own the content, otherwise it's a bit pricey to upgrade

Saltmarsh 25% is a bit chimsey


Having double bonus points sale at the same time as limited release items available (Otto, Tenser, +20 Heart) is very nice

[FuzzyDuck81]

Generally in line with what I'd expect with the different discounts based on time since the packs were released.

50% off aasimar scourge is decent & rangers, particularly tempest ones, have had a solid buff recently so it should be pretty fun.

Agree with the poster above regarding it being nice that double bonus points & temporary releases as well as shard discounts are available together, much nicer to be able to say "ok, treat myself" straight away than "i'll stock up on these points then use them at some point when things i want to get with them are available"

Free bell of opening is also always a nice thing to have too.

[ned_ellis]

Are you happy with this deals?

I'm happy there are deals, in general...

Are they underwhelming?

Very underwhelming.

What you would see with a bigger discount this year?

I will preface that I tend to only buy account based stuff like content, classes and races and build options (universal trees, the odd tome).
I do not buy consumables, time-saving items, cosmetics, pets, etc.

As a result, or rather in general, I've been unable to spend money on many a sale for the last few years despite wnating to. I think just one +7 supreme tome in Summer Sails.

This BF I was certain I'd buy at least Feywild but nope, they skimped.
The only really valid one is Sharn...for those who don't have it. Maybe the iconic.

All the rest is just 'you may now burn your money on lessening grind'. In this respect, the often maligned marketing SSG people we've never heard of aren't far off the mark a lot of the time, but only on maximising profit from existing players. I would love to remind them that you gain a client on what you offer but you loyalize a client on how you offer it.

The Market items need to maintain a certain linearity imo; how are we having lower sales than earlier in the year?! Why are we discounting expansions that have been purchasable since March 2019? Why not adjust the price fullstop? Why is Feywild, over two years old, not at max discount and at a lower value than a previous discount?!
I don't have the sales stats so not much point in philosophising but it's an old game with a loyal and probably old player base that would love to involve other players and yet, here we are, even on one of the iconic sale days, unable to find one element that would get anyone into the game, let alone spend my own cash on...despite wanting to.

This approach is fine from a development pov - we did this, nerfed that, there is a positive side of this coin, etcetc but not a commercial one; makes me feel like they're trying to take the p*ss.
It's not like DDO isn't expensive as hell anyway...

[tralfaz81]

Very disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I think the discounts on the newer packs was decent, but the same three packs were on sale this summer and I'm pretty sure I picked up all three cheaper then than I would have got them on this sale. I think most people expect a bigger discount on black Friday.

Biggest disappointment was that was pretty much all that was offered. There was only what? A single race offered at only half off?

I wasn't even looking forward to packs or races/classes, I was hoping to see a wide array of deeper discounts on various things like tomes, hearts, bags and folders and various other quality of life items that would have been nice to pick up for my alts.

Overall it feels like they spent all of ten minutes worth of effort programming the discounts and couldn't be bothered to put any more time towards it.

[marinersfan]

I wasn't even looking forward to packs or races/classes, I was hoping to see a wide array of deeper discounts on various things like tomes, hearts, bags and folders and various other quality of life items that would have been nice to pick up for my alts.


It's likely we'll see discounts for these sorts of items in December. They tend to do steep discounts on a weekly schedule all month. I think last year I snagged a +8 supreme tome for 75% off.

Personally I'm hoping for some nice discounts on storage because, ddo.

[Just_a_Dude]

I'm making this post to have a glimpse of a chance to get an answer from Devs, and i would like an answer not from Cordovan (I know it's his job, but we can't ask always him, someone is in charge of the sales, not him)

First of all, the one that will surely answer:
Are you happy with this deals?
Are they underwhelming?
What you would see with a bigger discount this year?


To DEVS:

Why you made the decision not to discount also the Trove (heavily, like Sharn, if not more)?

Why there is such a low discount on Saltmarsh?

Clearly I'm not happy, but an official answer could explain to me (or us) why you decided to do such low Black friday sales.


That said, i wish you all good thanksgiving!

Cheers!

1. Unless SSG does things in a really weird way, DEVs don't make business decisions, like what goes on sale. They work on the game, so you're really asking the wrong people. The Community Manager probably doesn't make those decisions either, but he might have input and is definitely the person to ask.

2. So you don't like what's on sale. I do. As a pretty new player, I hadn't really bothered to buy many expansions because I was still getting a feel for the game. I am definitely going to buy the expansions, so this is probably a perfect sale for new/returning players ... the kind of people SSG wants more of, which probably is the explanation for what's on sale.

[KoobTheProud]

The Masterminds of Sharn deal is insanely good. Anybody who bought Sharn basic or for points in the store should just grab it for all the extras. Anybody who does not currently have Sharn should just grab it. Sharn is one of the lynchpin x-pacs in the game.

[Caarb]

2. So you don't like what's on sale. I do. As a pretty new player, I hadn't really bothered to buy many expansions because I was still getting a feel for the game. I am definitely going to buy the expansions, so this is probably a perfect sale for new/returning players ... the kind of people SSG wants more of, which probably is the explanation for what's on sale.

We have the benefit of prior discount knowledge. Saltmarsh for example has already been offered at 50% off. The BF sale is not a good deal even for new players they just dont know better.

[Just_a_Dude]

We have the benefit of prior discount knowledge. Saltmarsh for example has already been offered at 50% off. The BF sale is not a good deal even for new players they just dont know better.

So 85% off of Sharn isn't a good deal? I should hold out for 90-99% off?

[KoobTheProud]

So 85% off of Sharn isn't a good deal? I should hold out for 90-99% off?

Definitely get it at 85% off. Great deal.

Even if they do a 99DP deal later on for Sharn it won't include any of the extras and there are a lot of great extras in the UFB.

[Caarb]

So 85% off of Sharn isn't a good deal? I should hold out for 90-99% off?

Grab sharn especially if you are going for more than the base pack. 85% matches the historic lowest price. Keep in mind that they will likely offer it for 99 DDO points during the next DDOFREEQUESTS event but that is not guaranteed. The next DDOFREEQUEST is likely to be timed with the next mini-expansion and/or D&D movie but again pure speculation so take it with a mountain of salt.

[Drekisen]

Any time they put double bonus points and Otto Boxes up at the same time, I am happy! There will be bonus sales all throughout the holiday season as well if I am not mistaken.

[slarden]

It's not so much that the sale is bad.

Last year sharn was 85% off and feywild was 60% off and at some point around that time saltmarsh was on sale as well. True hearts were on sale 75% off instead of racial memories.

It's more like they copied and pasted last years sales and made a few minor edits.

There is no way they will have a sale on IOD until around the time they release it for points. They might extract cash from some people if they offer a sale on IOD right before it goes in the store for DDO points which should be some time in December. If not most people still waiting will just buy it for points.


There will be bonus sales all throughout the holiday season as well if I am not mistaken. This is what the post says. I have seen them bring back point sales toward the end of the year in the past.

Double Bonus Points is Back!
Get twice the Bonus Points in the DDO Store through November 28th!

[Memnir]

I'm neither pleased nor displeased with the sales. I'm not in a buyin mood with DDO, so the deals would have to be unrealistically fantastic to even get me to blink twice at them. They're not unrealistically fantastic - merely decent, so I went on about my day unaffected, without giving them another thought until this thread.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

I'm okay with these sales.

[Caarb]

It's not so much that the sale is bad.

No Sale on Trove and Saltmarsh 25% off are objectively bad
Feywild is mostly meh it matches the best sale from last year but really should have been deeper this time around
Sharn is the best but its old content it wouldn't hurt to have a permanent discount at this point - or even deeper discounts.

Wishes of memory are bad - its very much a luxury item I know they are popular, but they have a niche appeal - (Rich casual players)

[Sqrlmonger]

Just to give some hard data from last year I went into my purchase history and found what I paid for each of the Sharn, Feywild, and Saltmarsh Ultimate bundles which I purchased about a year ago now.

Sharn - I paid $19.50 of the $129.99 price which represents an 85% discount. SAME DISCOUNT as this year's 85% discount.
Feywild - I paid $32.50 of the $129.99 price which represents a 75% discount. BETTER DISCOUNT than this year's 60% discount.
Saltmarsh - I paid $50.00 of the $99.99 price which represents an 50% discount. BETTER DISCOUNT than this year's 25% discount.

Make of this what you will, this is simply objective data.

Edit: Discovered detailed info for each invoice and removed the tax/discount amounts for a more plain presentation.

[Aelonwy]

The sales have been getting worse over time for years now. A long time ago we use to get a single item that was 50% off EACH WEEK, that could be a class, a race, an adventure pack, anything. Then sales down graded so the best you could get was 35% off something, then it became 30%, then 25%, now much of the time the discount is 20% like last week's: https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/535646-DDO-Store-Sales-November-17th-23rd.

As the player base dwindles it becomes more and more obvious how they try to wring as much profit as they can.

Sadly, they seem to be going the wrong way about it. They need to make large PERMANENT discounts to older content to encourage new players to invest in the game. The oldest premium content, stuff that's been around since the game went FtP should be rolled into the FtP game which would allow them so much more leeway to grow the game. If GH, Menechtarun, Vale, Shavarath were FtP wilderness zones they could add NEW premium adventure packs attached to those zones.

[Memnir]

Sadly, they seem to be going the wrong way about it. They need to make large PERMANENT discounts to older content to encourage new players to invest in the game. The oldest premium content, stuff that's been around since the game went FtP should be rolled into the FtP game which would allow them so much more leeway to grow the game. If GH, Menechtarun, Vale, Shavarath were FtP wilderness zones they could add NEW premium adventure packs attached to those zones.I agree. Wholeheartedly.

Sadly...

[thedip]

SSG are doing their level best to make it that I don't spend any money. For me, there was nothing that I wanted in the Summer Sails, nothing that I wanted in the Black Friday Sales.I was going to go VIP for the last season of hardcore but the hound mechanic made it so that I couldn't get involved.

Maybe Christmas will usher in new reasons to spend.

[Yvonne_Blacksword]

????
I already had most... Because Christmas,anniversary etc. The deals were pretty good till i checked and then already had them. I added saltmarsh to one account.