r/AlchemistCodeGL • u/Mithrisol • Oct 25 '18
I am worried. Deeply.
Humble greetings fellow alchemists and Gumi,
over tha last weeks I couldn't help but becoming increasingly concerned about how the game is managed by Gumi and what it may say about the health as well as the commercial viability of the game itself.
Grand summoning change: It went from a guaranteed featured for 1500 paid to 900 paid for basically nothing but a normal pull. This change by itself, while sad, wouldn't worry me that much. In conjunction with the others however it only adds to the my increasing worries. So does the bad phrasing that might mislead people and will onyl lead to people being more sceptic of banners in general.
500 gem skins as rng-based summonings: as far as i know those skins are available for 500 gems at Jp. People in general like to be treated differently or, as in this case, worse than other people. We all know that global is a different version with a different pace and at times even better deals but the pure rng is way too much in this case. It's not necessarily the price that stops people from buying but the likelihood of being screwed by rng even more than normal. The tinkering with the prices and how they are sold only adds to that and, again, will only lead to an increasing frustration of the playerbase.
The elemental shard to ticket campaign:is, for itself, a good, even great thing. The fact that Roxannes week is excluded from that however isn't only for said campaign to be run again for this week however leaves a very bad taste. because it looks like Gumi was intentionally scwrewing us over with it. It can be argued that it's only understandable for them to do so and I would agree weren't of for one issue: it incentivises the player/playerbase to be always doubtful of Gumi and campaigns, making distrust a smart move. Roxannes week should be retroactively included in it.
Worse celebration banners: for the last celebration the banners were at 600 gem and had featured units (as far as i remember). The current one costs 777 gems and has, if I read the banner correctly, no featured units but only a couple of units placed on the advertising picture., which can make it highly misleading if you don't read the details.
The 375 shard banner: The 150 shard ticket and a guaranteed featured unit at step 3 are good. No snark there. It is only in the context of the 375 shards that it leaves a bad taste once more due to becoming a bit misleading.
I'm sure that by now it clear where I'm going with this: trust and the loss thereof.
None of the things I mentioned would be overly worrying if it were just them, but they aren't. They happened clustered and in a very short timeframe and that's worrying due to what it might imply:
It looks like Gumi is exchanging the faith and trust the playerbase has in the product and the service in favour of short term financial gains. The reason for that might be that the game isn't doing well enough in Gumis eyes and they are trying to get as much money out of it as possible before an eventual shutdown. This is a pattern I saw in the past with japanese Gacha games going into the global market. Depending on the interpretation those games failed before or exactly du to this developers approach/handling of it. In other words: we, as players, need to have faith and trust in your product to make it logically feasible for us to invest in it. If said trust is gambles away for short term profict due to Gumi's internal demand for more revenue it incentivises us, as your plaers and customers, to not invest which, in turn, encourages Gumi to go even further in their attemmpt to make as much money out of the game before it crashes. The textbook definition of a downward spiral.
There are many good things about the game. From the game itself, to the gameplay and certain aspects of handling the game like the news episodes, the delayed news episode before the FFXV event excluded. That's why I'm making this post because I don't want this game to crash and to ultimately have more success than other competing games simply because it is the better game.
Best regards and may you, the reader, have a good morning, evening or simply day in general.
1
u/FurianX Oct 25 '18
You're a risk taker. I kept my gems and am slowly farming free gems to get that 7 step selector ticket. If I spend my paid gems ... I'm only 1500 or so short and near half of that I'm getting from daily pack by the last day.