BHVR, Capping vials for the event is a PR MISTAKE!
There is no reason to cap the number of vials that players can earn during the Hallowed Blight event. Why? Because the Event is already capped by TIME. You can't get any more vials after Nov. 2.
So, this is a significant PR mistake that BHVR is making here. By capping the number of vials that players can earn, they are capping the incentives to continue participating in the event. This, in turn, is already generating some ill-will among the player base.
Your players want to play their little bloody hearts out and be rewarded for it.
You should let them!
Generating bad sentiment is the exact opposite of what you want a free event to do.
For example, compare how this Hallowed Blight event is being received by the players to how the "free" XCom 2 content patch that was released a couple weeks ago from FIRAXIS was received. The catch there was that the patch is only free for a limited time, but the player base absolutely LOVES them for it because there was NO CAP on their playtime.
See the difference BHVR? Show some love for your players and they will show you some love back.
(And, yes, I am a professional game developer with over two-decades experience, so I do know a thing or two about Developer-Gamer relations).
Comments
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Whatever dude, I bet you're not even a professional game developer with over two-decades exp- OHH ######### nevermind man u rite u rite
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The cosmetic shouldn't be available forever. This makes them completely worthless because everyone can get them0
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@Troylus said:
There is no reason to cap the number of vials that players can earn during the Hallowed Blight event. Why? Because the Event is already capped by TIME. You can't get any more after Nov. 2.So, this is a significant PR mistake that BHVR is making here. By capping the number of vials that players can earn, they are capping the incentives to continue participating in the event. This, in turn, is already generating some ill-will among the player base. They want to play their little bloody hearts out and be rewarded for it.
Let me guess you play the game already when there is no event. Since this event caps vials you/other players are willing to not play the event anymore after you/other players are done with getting vials even though you will gain more bp during this event compared to not having the event at all? Yet after the event you/other players will continue playing the game? Am I hearing this correct @ScottJund
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Broccoli_Jaeger said:The cosmetic shouldn't be available forever. This makes them completely worthless because everyone can get them2
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@Broccoli_Jaeger said:
The cosmetic shouldn't be available forever. This makes them completely worthless because everyone can get themIsn't that the point of a skin so people who want it can wear the skin...
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It is a PR mistake but not necessarily for the reasons you bring up (although it is part of it).
-They hyped the event up more than any other. Made cool ass cinematics for before/during and claim it to be their biggest and best event ever
-Rewards are a choice of 1 out of 7 outfits (or 3 individual pieces in case you just want faces or weapons). These are linked to the lore and all that fun stuff but are they really event cosmetics? They're available forever in the shop for cash. They shouldn't be touted as rewards/event cosmetics as it builds up the expectation that they should all be earnable. They should just be released as a regular old line of cosmetics and not truly associated with the event (no special rarity and all that). Especially since they aren't even only available for a limited time.
-Event itself is just a slightly modified reskin of old events. Just separating main and side objectives while making the side objective a fight against your own team. Well for 1 side. Killer side it's literally the same as always except less frustrating with sabo being gone. While the lobby and in game objectives look awesome, it doesn't really live up to the "biggest, best event ever" hype (if anything that falls on the year 1 anniversary. It was the best event as challenges were varied, based on everyone working together with loads of rewards AND a bloodpoint multiplier).
-Community manager reaction on forums just either quoting snarky posts of people defending the devs, or pretty much saying that hey be happy with the scraps you get, it's more than only getting 2 items like other events! Sorry as much as I support these guys, it just looks bad. They should at least pretend to take their fans criticisms to heart, or be polite in saying something like "We understand the frustration but with how much we invested in this event we felt this was the fairest way to reward our playerbase while also being able to fund/invest in some fantastic future events/cosmetics/whatever". Customer service 101, even if you don't care, pretend like you do. People are more understanding if they're given a reason to be (even if it's just some nice words).
-Imbalance on these "rewards". We all know a large portion of players main one side (usually the loudest ones on forums/reddit/fb), so having 5 super awesome cosmetics for killers while having 2 pretty meh ones for survivors is going to cause survivor mains to be a bit upset. It also causes upset on both sides for being forced to play part of they game they don't like (I get it, I personally think everyone should play both sides for a better understanding of the game and a lot of fun). Unfortunately most people don't want to feel forced to play a role they dislike just to earn their 1 outfit.
I really didn't expect to type this horrible wall of text that no ones going to read anyways or just troll me over but I figured I'd throw it out there. I already spend enough time to be a full time job trying to make the community a less toxic/more helpful/more informed/fun place (through facebook groups), so I figured I'd get it out now before having to put on that happy/devs are always right face to the 11k people losing their ######### tomorrow lmao.
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I read you, RuneStarr. I think you made a lot of good points in your response.
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You will finish one side in three days0
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I would allready be fine with the event if you could Unlock 2 skins with playtime but this is kind of a bummer
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@Troylus said:
There is no reason to cap the number of vials that players can earn during the Hallowed Blight event. Why? Because the Event is already capped by TIME. You can't get any more vials after Nov. 2.The reward after you have earned the cosmetics is a buttload of bloodpoints. That is the reward to continue playing.
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@Dreamnomad said:
@Troylus said:
There is no reason to cap the number of vials that players can earn during the Hallowed Blight event. Why? Because the Event is already capped by TIME. You can't get any more vials after Nov. 2.The reward after you have earned the cosmetics is a buttload of bloodpoints. That is the reward to continue playing.
Only if someone makes the offering though, right? We're not getting double bloodpoints.
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@Gilly said:
@Dreamnomad said:
@Troylus said:
There is no reason to cap the number of vials that players can earn during the Hallowed Blight event. Why? Because the Event is already capped by TIME. You can't get any more vials after Nov. 2.The reward after you have earned the cosmetics is a buttload of bloodpoints. That is the reward to continue playing.
Only if someone makes the offering though, right? We're not getting double bloodpoints.
If it is like basically all their events then yes. But basically, it is double bloodpoints. Sometimes more. If you have 7 special hooks and gain 5k for each of them that is 35,000 bonus bloodpoints which is more than double what you could have earned. If you don't burn an offering then you are shooting yourself in the foot. During the event you should be able to stockpile a large number of Escape Cakes or Survivor Puddings if you do it right. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
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@Dreamnomad said:
The reward after you have earned the cosmetics is a buttload of bloodpoints. That is the reward to continue playing.
Totally true - but its more like a consolation reward for no longer being able to participate in the event properly. Many players are expressing disappointment rather than excitement - and that's the opposite of the reaction you want.
To clarify, I'm not a naysayer on the event at all. As a fan of the game, I think it's great that they're doing this!
I just think BHVR could've been smarter in the conditions of the event and got a more universally positive reaction rather than the mixed one they're getting now.
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As a further thought, after uncapping the limits on the vials, BHVR could've said that the option to get the new skins (by play or by purchase) would end with the event.
They could've said the skins MIGHT be available in the future, but that they would NEVER be available again via an event OR AT THE REDUCED PRICES that they are being offered during the event.
This sort of explanation creates perceived value in the players via market scarcity. Players who couldn't complete enough vials to unlock everything would feel compelled to purchase the rest.
Bam! BHVR makes more money on sales AND the player base is happier because they feel like they're getting stuff for free or they're making the choice to buy what they don't have the time to play to get at a discount.
See how this PR stuff is supposed to work?
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@Troylus said:
As a further thought, after uncapping the limits on the vials, BHVR could've said that the option to get the new skins (by play or by purchase) would end with the event.They could've said the skins MIGHT be available in the future, but that they would NEVER be available again via an event OR AT THE REDUCED PRICES that they are being offered during the event.
This sort of explanation creates perceived value in the players via market scarcity. Players who couldn't complete enough vials to unlock everything would feel compelled to purchase the rest.
Bam! BHVR makes more money on sales AND the player base is happier because they feel like they're getting stuff for free or they're making the choice to buy what they don't have the time to play to get at a discount.
See how this PR stuff is supposed to work?
If, if they offered them at a steep discount during the event-- 75% off-- I would probably think really hard about buying some of them. 50% would make me feel hesitant, but I'd probably buy 1 just because discount. 25%? Yeah, right. Mhm. Real generous.
But you're right, offering a discount goes a long way towards getting that dollar. In general, scarcity improves the value-- but artificial scarcity is a lot harder to work with. We KNOW BHVR is setting the prices for all of these things internally, without showing us any figures like-- how many people normally buy a cosmetic? How much does it cost to make a 4K cosmetic set? I assume it costs a week's wages to make a 4K cosmetic, 1000$, but if ten thousand people buy each and every cosmetic then it ought to have a price that reflects the cost properly, something like 1$ each or 2$ each.
Lootbox games like Overwatch get away with scarcity by also artificially imbalancing the scales-- however, they actually make their cosmetics more rare than other cosmetics and not just labeled 'rare'. I hate lootboxes, but they're a really good example of how to actually create scarcity and not just arbitrarily determine how scarce something is.
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@Gilly said: Lootbox games like Overwatch get away with scarcity by also artificially imbalancing the scales-- however, they actually make their cosmetics more rare than other cosmetics and not just labeled 'rare'. I hate lootboxes, but they're a really good example of how to actually create scarcity and not just arbitrarily determine how scarce something is.
There's another huge difference with Overwatch as well. They not only give you a free lootbox every account level, which is an average of 8-10 matches, but things like their events are also in the arcade mode. Which means that in addition to the lootbox per account level, you also get a lootbox for each time you win three event matches (which in this case, is the easy Halloween PvE mode), or up to 3 extra lootboxes per week. And their event also runs for roughly 3 weeks time.
Not to mention, if you were a steady player before the event, you likely have coins already saved up.
The wife and I bought, with the in-game coin currency, all the new Halloween skins we wanted, and so far have all but one of the others just from the free arcade-wins and account-level lootboxes. We haven't spent any real money on the event, and haven't even played more than we usually do.
For newer players, yeah, they're probably buying lootboxes if they want everything. But so did we as new players back in 2016.
What's interesting is that I will gladly spend some money on Overwatch or Heroes of the Storm, despite my loathing of lootboxes, because Blizzard leaves it as a choice. After this event in DBD, Behavior Interactive isn't even getting DLC money out of me in December or moving forward into 2019. This game is very much an occasional side thing now. I'm a new player, this was my first DBD event. It will also be my last DBD event. Good job BHVR.
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They want more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6fp95uGfM
That's why2 -
The incentive to play was already capped in other events, because once you got the cosmetic there was no reason to continue playing. That being said people still played the events, because doing event gens and event hooks would award Bloodpoints.
That's why I have a pretty serious problem with the Survivor side of the event not being generators. When the event was means to an end people were more than willing to throw their proverbial hat into the ring and do their part for dem munz while the people who didn't complete the event got some progress towards completion. This new gameplay plan for Survivor is honestly terrible, since it promotes being selfish in a team game. Want to get your vials faster? Farm all your teammates and then immerse yourself with Urban Evasion to go harvest plants!That being said I do absolutely agree that the time cap is already enough of a cap. The crazy people who are willing to grind out this ######### should be rewarded for their dedication. And a more active playerbase is good for marketing; nothing like several players playing 24 hour sessions to boost a marketing pitch.
This event is just a slew of bad ideas. Good concepts at their core, but really poorly executed. My other Dead by Daylight friends are all talking about playing Overwatch and Rainbow Six because those games let you (gasp!) get your Halloween items by playing the game!5 -
BottledWater said:
I would allready be fine with the event if you could Unlock 2 skins with playtime but this is kind of a bummer
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Troylus said:
There is no reason to cap the number of vials that players can earn during the Hallowed Blight event. Why? Because the Event is already capped by TIME. You can't get any more vials after Nov. 2.
So, this is a significant PR mistake that BHVR is making here. By capping the number of vials that players can earn, they are capping the incentives to continue participating in the event. This, in turn, is already generating some ill-will among the player base.
Your players want to play their little bloody hearts out and be rewarded for it.
You should let them!
Generating bad sentiment is the exact opposite of what you want a free event to do.
For example, compare how this Hallowed Blight event is being received by the players to how the "free" XCom 2 content patch that was released a couple weeks ago from FIRAXIS was received. The catch there was that the patch is only free for a limited time, but the player base absolutely LOVES them for it because there was NO CAP on their playtime.
See the difference BHVR? Show some love for your players and they will show you some love back.
(And, yes, I am a professional game developer with over two-decades experience, so I do know a thing or two about Developer-Gamer relations).
25 Vials Per Cosmetic Peice: For the first 3 cosmetics peices bought from the store.
50 Vials Per Cosmetic Peice: For the next 3 cosmetics peices bought from the store.
100 Vials Per Cosmetic Peice: For the next 3 cosmetics peices bought from the store.
200 Vials Per Cosmetic Peice: For the rest of the cosmetic prices.
To grind every single cosmetic peice, it would cost 2,925 Vials. This would take a while to grind but players are rewarded for putting the time into earning the full 7 cosmetics sets 21/21.0 -
Zanfer said:
@Broccoli_Jaeger said:
The cosmetic shouldn't be available forever. This makes them completely worthless because everyone can get themIsn't that the point of a skin so people who want it can wear the skin...
Thats the point of event cosmetics...0