I’m afraid to ask what a massive F ups looks like. I mean…
4 Likes
The group of people who spent $25 can’t be that huge. Just give them a free pass for the next campaign.
The people who spent $10 and got extra stuff would be way too labor-intensive to track down. Sure some got some extra stuff, it happens, move on.
This is from someone who thinks the passes are a joke and giving this company money when all we see is dumb crap like this is stupid, so I have no horse in this race.
At least show a little respect to your top cash cows here.
8 Likes
I mean, I do too, but “most” and “real players” are doing a whole lot of work in this statement.
By far the majority of GoW players are casual; don’t read the forums – there’s what, about 50-odd semi-regular posters here?; don’t read the reddit or watch the YouTubes; are in casual guilds that don’t propagate out-of-game info.
These players have received no communication about what’s going on with the campaign tasks.
(FWIW, I run a casual guild; most of my guild members fall firmly in the casual category; I find the git-gud “versus me in PvP” and “real players” rhetoric kind of annoyingly fighty here. My players are real too; they’re just playing the game differently to you.)
8 Likes
I think maybe another way to look at the Elite+ situation is that the rules for what you can buy and what you get were set out pretty clearly before and during the Campaign, both from in-game banners/messaging and the linked online Help Centre articles. This creates expectations, and shapes player behaviour.
Then the rules changed. As people have mentioned, sometimes this happens – stores put on sales, some people get upgraded to business class or complimentary meals. When it does, though, it changes player expectations and behaviour. If you know every Thursday you can buy your ______ for half price, you might start factoring that into your routine and avoid buying on other days.
There haven’t been Campaign Pass sales (or as they’d have to define it, a ‘promotion’) before, afaik, and this wasn’t an intentional one. It’s up to the GoW team how they want to shape expectations and behaviour for the future, especially for their larger spenders.
Essentially, if they’d known they only needed to buy the $10 pass, how many would have donated an extra $15 for the sake of it? How do you restore their confidence that paying the full $25 is worth it each and every time?
2 Likes
From the GoW team perspective, they’ll be looking to keep their monthly/quarterly balance sheet unaffected, as much as possible – even at the expense of much less trackable future revenue from players feeling put out.
-
They have obligations to their parent company (“Don’t worry, it won’t change anything!”), and then also incentives in their year 1 contract (are we still in that?).
-
If there was a reduction, it would be muddied by other gains and would appear attributable to any number of things – so, you know, not something they’re accountable for to their parent company.
Options:
-
Give out $15 refunds? Well that won’t work/look pretty on the balance sheet
-
Give Elite+ Pass players a free pass for next time? That also won’t look pretty for next round’s sheet
-
Give out Gems, which we can inflate and control the future value of, ensuring we come out on top? Which can just be sunk endlessly into Leaderboards for no real value as far as we’re concerned? Well gosh darn it, I like it! Peasants won’t know what hit them! Or if they do, they’ll forget by next year/we’ll have new peasants.
In short – it’s nice if there’s happy alternative that all parties think works well, but most likely it’s paying customers who will cop most of the immediate fallout from the company’s mistake 
. It usually has to go somewhere. (Unless as mentioned you can find that cool 3rd way, which is rare).
10 Likes