The Players Corner Archive

Something New Every Week!

What's so hot about GemStone III's Hot Summer Nights? How about amazing festivals, fabulous new roleplaying opportunities, profession and system releases, and area expansions? GemStone III is turning up the HEAT all summer long!

New Features!

Every week from Thursday through Saturday, GemStone III will bring you amazing game enhancements.

New Roleplaying Opportunities:

Fabulous new tools for roleplaying your character: new roleplaying verbs, character feature updates, character history systems, racial histories and so much more!

New System or Profession Releases:

New profession or game-play features: spells, foraging updates, guild updates and much, much more!

New Area Expansions:

Dozens of updates to existing cities and hunting areas to upgrade town systems, or extend hunting opportunities! New shops, more convenience, more hunting!

Festivals!

Every week from Thursday through Saturday evening, the staff of GemStone III will bring you a new themed festival somewhere within the world of Elanthia!

reg

Maybe all this was planned in advance, but the appearance is someone trying to stop the crack in the dam, before the whole thing crumbles and is washed away. I don't begrudge Simutronics making a profit, I just think they could improve customer service and confidence in their company... be honest, not manipulative.

Summer reg

>>That nearly every time something unpleasent happens, The next day something wonderful is anounced to make customers "forget." Well I just expect this to be the BESTEST hotsummer nights ever, especially now that we are all putting extra money into it. I am not complaining, others can do that well enough. Just it seems overly obvious to me.<<

I'm not ashamed of it. <shrug> If I'm going to tell people I'm charging them more, I want to let them know that they're going to get their value's worth. <shrug>

Melissa

This just seems like poor business practices to me. Why not tell people about the price increase AND the improvements/future plans at the same time? If you raise prices one day, then make announcements regarding improvements/added features at a later time, it gives the appearance of panic and reacting, not smart planning.

Recently, my cable company increased their prices. In the letter they sent out regarding the new service charge, they included information on why the increase was necessary, and the additional channels that would be added. I had all the information regarding prices and added services in one letter, and could make an informed decision if I wanted to change cable companies, downgrade my cable package, etc.

Maybe I'm just expecting too much from a small, privately owned company.

Summer

reg

And oddly enough the price of cable internet up north decreased and along with the decrease in price came improvements!

Technology is meant to go forward and get cheaper, not the other way around, but this isn't the first thing Simu has backwards.

Next thing you know they'll increase the price and say that in return they'll implement spells that should have been implemented years ago!

- Lord Kranar, human Archwizard reg

quote:

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This just seems like poor business practices to me. Why not tell people about the price increase AND the improvements/future plans at the same time? If you raise prices one day, then make announcements regarding improvements/added features at a later time, it gives the appearance of panic and reacting, not smart planning.

Summer

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Yer making it out like it's some weird conspiracy. When someone tells me they got bad news and good news and what do I want to hear first, I always say I want ta hear the bad news first. I figure maybe the good news will cheer me up after the bad stuff.

I don't see this being any diffrent. Paying more money is bad news. So they break that and then tell us the good stuff. Hope it's gonna be good anyways.

It's not like they see people complaining and then overnight make up something good. Any idjit should be able ta see that they already had it all planned out, they can't come up with that stuff overnight. So it don't look like just panicing to me.

Snook
reg

quote:

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Originally posted by Snooky:

Yer making it out like it's some weird conspiracy. When someone tells me they got bad news and good news and what do I want to hear first, I always say I want ta hear the bad news first. I figure maybe the good news will cheer me up after the bad stuff.

I don't see this being any diffrent. Paying more money is bad news. So they break that and then tell us the good stuff. Hope it's gonna be good anyways.

It's not like they see people complaining and then overnight make up something good. Any idjit should be able ta see that they already had it all planned out, they can't come up with that stuff overnight. So it don't look like just panicing to me.

Snook

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I agree it was planned. But why do they have to raise the price for something they should have been doing the whole time? reg

I've always been interested in the methods that some companies use to attract, retain, "play" with consumers' minds... advertisements, commercials, catchy slogans, songs, etc. The corporations that own casinos employ some of the experts. The methods that they use to keep the players in their seats and gambling are amazing.

Summer

[This message has been edited by Summerlyn (edited 03-05-2002).] reg

In fact, many of these things have long lead times before they become offical projects. And when to announce it, or begin marketing it, is dictated by many other factors. Generally speaking, the road-map for things done in the game (like say GS3:HSN) are hashed out over the course of weeks or months.

The original draft of the price change announcement had March 1st as the date. But getting all the issues worked out (mostly technical in nature) pushed it to April 1st.

The HSN and the price change were not contemplated in relation to each other. Though the product manager for GS3 may have pushed up the announcement some but only as a way of letting people know what was coming down the pike they'd like.

You'll notice there wasn't similar announcements suddenly appearing during the mysterious "1 day after" in DR or MO or HX or CS2. Though a new big thing was just announced yesterday (I think) in DR... something, again, months in the planning.

Given the volume of stuff we do and announce for our products, like GS3, the odds of the price change occuring in close proximity to some other announcement are so high it'd be unusual if that didn't happen.

I'll refer people to my speech of Simucon 2001 for how bad human instinct is when it comes to figuring the odds of something happening.

-- David
reg

Well, I'd say my instinct was fairly on target. Since the price increase was announced, little bits and pieces of upcoming attractions have been released. I was just puzzled why everything wasn't covered in one announcement... something like, "Due to blah, blah, blah, we will be increasing the price of the basic subscription to $12.95 effective April 1. We remain dedicated to bringing you the most for your gaming dollars, and are working on some exciting new improvements and features to enrich your gaming pleasure. Some upcoming events are Gemstone's Hot Summer Nights (details), Gemstone The Fallen, etc., etc."

Anyway, that's just my opinion, and we all know what they say about opinions! The Main Man is right; it's his company, his decisions, and his revenue. Now, about that paycheck...how many figures are we talking about, just roundabout?

Summer

[This message has been edited by Summerlyn (edited 03-08-2002).] reg

Now now, how much do YOU make?

-- David
reg

quote:

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Originally posted by Bardon:

Now now, how much do YOU make?

-- David

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$209 per week. $11/hour for 19 hours, before taxes. How bout yourself?

R
reg

But that's the American way. Get a good idea, work your butt off to put it in motion. Try and not get squashed by the bigger competitors, or the IRS, or run the ship aground. Give up any semblance of a real life...

Till one day...

Lets just say I pay a lot of taxes. I use to resent that... but now I figure: pays for more smart bombs to drop on the Taliban and Al-Qaida.

-- David

ps. Proud volunteer in AmericCorps. Gotta get those 2yrs of service in.

[This message has been edited by Bardon (edited 03-08-2002).] reg

Aerienne, who has done her time working in the ghetto. reg

Gnomad, with his kickin' $120/month job. reg

quote:

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Originally posted by Bardon:

Now now, how much do YOU make?

-- David

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Less than minimum wage if I only work 40 hours a week. Haven't had a 40 hour week in 3 years. On the plus side I do get to wear cammies, and eat chow hall food ( heavy sarcasm there).

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Anticor Rifling, Giantman Wizard reg