Right now, most people get e- coins by logging on and staying on the chat for a few minutes, not actually playing, which is what I think you are trying to do. As a result, these are the ways I think e coins should be procured instead:
• Make the daily log in bonus a minimal amount that either does not increase much for each consecutive day or stays at 5 or 10.
• Getting e coins should become now more based on winning so people will actually play more instead of logging in then staying on the global chat for a few minutes then logging of; for example it should be based on rating so if you win when you are favored you get 3 coins, win as even is 5 coins, and beating a favored player gives you 7 coins. This will encourage users to get better, be more competitive and then play more and increase users online. The first win of the day could be 10 + the amount you would have won if it was not, so now first win is usually 15 or so.
• Maybe decrease price of coin packs, as buying 720 coins costs MORE than membership for a month, yet buying then canceling membership gives you 1300 coins + Elemental and Chaos gameplay + Extra replay slots + more chatting privileges. Most people who want coins nowadays can just buy a month of membership for a far better deal for cheaper.
• Achievements: This would make players try out new things and try to play more (e.g. Kill 1000 swordwrath = 150 e coins, Win 200 games as Order = 210 extra e coins + 2 chaos trials, Beat someone who is 300 or more rating higher than you = 100 e coins + 2 elemental trials, win using only miners and archidons against someone even or favored=200 e coins, reach the Top 100 = 230 e coins, etc.)
Currently the only thing you can do with e coins is armory items, and as a result, very few players buy coin packs. If e coins had more uses, then more players would buy them. These are what I thought some possible uses could be:
• Customizable statues (at least for Order and Chaos). The Spearton, Swordwrath, Archidon, Magikill, Dead, Chaos Giant, Eclipsor and Medusa statues are already made so I don't think they would be too hard to put into the armory. There would be Order and Chaos statues (and possibly elemental statues from SW3 if there are any) that would be very expensive, some would be higher prices than others.
• Chaos and Elemental uses. They would be expensive, like 100 coins per use, but would allow players that played a lot or made one time purchases to try to get more variety without investing money for every month.
• Replay slots. This wouldn't really apply for gold members, but users can buy an extra slot (3-5 extras max) that could cost about 300 each if they didn't want to lose their replays.
Other marketing strategies:
• Add customization packs, for example the Order Expansion pack for $5 that gives you a new statue for Order and a themed armory set for every unit in Order and 200-500 e coins
• A lot of players don’t want unlimited uses of all empires, just more variety, so you could have some sort of deal such as $1.99 for 10 uses of each empire.
• Also, since e coins are now more prominent and far more useful maybe decrease amount of coins with membership to about 700 for signing up and 200 every month. Also, this is not necessary but I think that decreasing monthly cost of membership to about 2.99 or 3.49 would make people more willing to buy it. If 30% or so have membership monthly now, then with a decreased cost it would temporarily decrease revenue but then a lot more users would get it.
• More advertising on websites that have a high traffic of your target audience, such as Steam.
This is a part of an email my friend and I sent to to CJ and Brock a few months ago, suggesting some marketing strategies. I have never seen an ad in my life for SE, so it obviously would be a good idea to put advertisements up on wikis and steam and such. I'd like to know if you guys agree with this so perhaps CJ can know what to implement, and increase revenue/growth of the game.
Archy, honestly it is your decision whether or not to buy a gold membership. You can cancel your membership but others can keep theirs. I couldn't care less if you have one. But the rest of us can choose to support this game. You can play it for free.
And I am tired of no updates, but I can be patient and wait for SWL and SW3 to come out. CJ replied to us several months ago, and told us that after the team finished those projects up, they would implement clans and custom clan statues, and that they may add purchasable uses of Chaos and Elemental.
The thing is, if you want updates, people support the game by buying a membership, including you. Then the devs can hopefully use that money to buy ads and thus increase growth of the game so they get more money and thus can further fund updates. If you don't want to give the devs money, then you should not expect updates.
Also, I've heard no such thing of this 'free membership' bug that you are talking about. Never have heard anyone say anything about it.
Are you saying that you use this bug? Then you should be banned for openly admitting it, if you do, on the forums.
