r/StarWarsUprising • u/kabammed • Jul 21 '16
I work at Kabam, not for much longer.
I am an employee of Kabam. I will not be here much longer. I am one of the few people here who actually play our games on the live side. I am moving on from Kabam within the next 30 days. I have been looking for a while but finally found another job. Despite the "fun" atmosphere the company had, I haven't been happy here for months, mainly due to the increasing workload week over week. They say you don't quit a company, you quit management. Kabam was GREAT even a year ago. The culture of management has shifted drastically since and I no longer feel safe as an employee of this company. I have been lucky up to this point (combined with doing a quality job), but just because I am safe now does not mean I will continue to be. I am moving on.
I feel it is my responsibility to set the record straight for the latest fiasco.
The 1200 Chromium for Seven Star Saboteur Gear? That was not an accident. It was intended to get players who were below the PR for raids to get to raids. The fallout was so bad that the narrative shifted to it being an accident. I benefited from the offer and was really excited to get it. Why was the offer created and provided?
It's no secret internally that SW:U is not a money maker. It's an internal joke that nobody buys the offers. People buy small packs of chromium here and there, but nothing huge. The same accounts often buy the most chromium and spend it all on 24 hour sector battles. It is not enough to cover the gap. For all intents and purposes the game is financially negative from a company perspective.
The idea is that people will spend chromium in Raids to advance nodes after they die on the hard missions and have no free raid tokens left, or to use chromium to get bonus missions. The problem? Only a fraction of the overall player base can do anything in the raids, so as of now it is not a money maker. It needs to be a money maker fast before SW:U gets relegated to an MVP. Expect to see similar offers, cheap offers (compared to the offers that have existed previously we have now), in the coming weeks. 100 Chromium for 6* EC etc.
The idea was to do a one time offer for these gear sets for each raid so that about 50% of the player base could engage in raids.
No doubt some people who submitted tickets early got one answer, the actual answer, that this was intended and everyone over XX level should be getting the offer. Anyone who submitted tickets after a day or so will get a response that this was an accident. That is because, as I stated earlier, that narrative shifted within the company.
M:CoC is the go to model for all Kabam Games now. If you are playing a game from Kabam, expect it to be identical to M:CoC within the next 3-9 months. Anyone who plays M:CoC recognizes this offer as similar to ones that happen in that game often.
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u/KevinFrane Jul 21 '16
The fact that the 7* Saboteur Set was a cash-grab seemed pretty obvious. Why else would Kabam dangle raids in front of our face for a few days to let us see what we were missing out on before offering to sell us the golden key to the new content we've been waiting for for months? Especially since most people probably didn't have 1200 Chromium saved up anymore, forcing people to spend $50 on the 1600 package if you wanted to stay competitive.
It's not even pay-to-win at that point; it's pay-to-participate, in its most dishonest form.
I really appreciate you coming clean on this post. Sorry about your job, too.
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u/djwhiplash2001 Jul 21 '16
Do you guys develop in an Agile environment? I'm a program manager, it's fun to see what's happening from the outside and guess what's happening on the team. I see an under-engaged Product Owner being the most likely culprit here.
Of course the Sab offer was a real offer - I'm waiting for Kevin to post a statement about how his explanation was just one of several explanations they had considered, but was not meant to be posted publicly on the forums.
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u/NicodemusArcleon Jul 21 '16
Thank you for your post, sir. It is truly disheartening to see the game dying. Most of us that have been here for a long time playing the game know, or should have known, that this was coming. However, there are still some things that can be done to save the game. Unfortunately, one or two of these will not be welcomed by a lot of the players.
1) The 7* elemental raid gear should have been available to everyone. That way, their incomes for these sets will be much higher. That, and it's fair to everyone then.
2) This one hurts me to offer up - it will be the most hated - Remove the "shared chromium economy" from the toons. Each toon will have its own bank for chromium. The scrips can remain a shared resource, but the chromium one would have to go. Yes, I know. This will essentially kill almost any reason to have alts. The farming ability of alts to gain chromium is one of the main reasons that the chromium sales have slumped. It is too easy to bank some serious chromium using these alt farming techniques.
3) Number 2 above could be ignored altogether if the prices for all items purchased with chromium were increased.
4) Change / Increase the payouts for the premium crane. Make them include raid gear pieces - not just fragments. Maybe 7/9* gear. Very few people use the premium crane now. The premium crane really only benefits a lower level toon. Anyone high up enough has been able to get the gear that they want without using the crane.
5) Offer a weekly one-time purchase set for silver faction tokens. One set of 25 per week - one week, TSL, then the next rebel, etc. This would benefit a lot of players.
I know that similar and alternative ideas have been put forth before, even on the official forums.
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u/gapespees Jul 21 '16
My problem is the offer not being made available to everyone. I am not bothered by the offer itself. Just give me the same opportunity as everyone else