Originally posted by Spatula:
If it makes "no business sense" then why do airlines ... You dont have to look very far to see thousands of schemes like this.
...
It *does* make sense.
Spatula,
If there are thousands of schemes like that employed by businessess, then why does each of them has a markering department where highly educated smart people with MBAs and PhDs are paid higher salaries then those that actually produce the product?
The truth is that every single scheme is different, requiring extensive research and testing.
You only see the results and they all look the same to you because you are ignorant
in that area. There is nothing wrong with that kind of ignorance as long as you do not start shooting your mouth about things you know little about.
Can you tell high-quality steel from low quality steel by sight? Can you tell whether normal or lognormal distribution better describes stock market volume? Can you tell a super-productive genetically engineered milk cow from a meat cow? Probably not.
Can you tell a diference between selling a commodity available from many sources (airlines) and unique custom product available from at most two vendors and substantially dissimilar at that? Obviously not!
Why do you think you know enough about marketing schemes to argue?
When I post statements on gunnery or milirary I make sure to mention that I served in the military and rode T72 and when I talk about Russia I state that I lived there for a quarter of a century. I could even say something about US healthcare based on my sister being a nurse.
I would be sure to listen to your opinion on drumming, surfing, New Zeland polytics or whatever you are programming in. I am sure you are a smart and quite knowlegeable specialist in your areas of expertise.
Please, do be offended. I tend to put my foot in my mouth quite often. Your first post is quite all right - a question, suggestion and request for comments that could extend anybody's knowlege. Your following posts are much more forcefull and argumentative, while unsubstantiated other then by unrelated examples. If you had some specific knowlege or contacts in the marketing area you should have supplied some data to support your claims. It is pretty obvious from your post that you do not.
As for the loyalty rewards, HTC may implement such a scheme for the same or very different reasons that you mentioned if and when sircumstances demand that.
No matter what they do, they will keep the reasons secret because that kind of information is highly proprietary and costs company lots of money (and bad will - as in the latest HTC price study) to obtain.
Why am I replying to you here instead of sending a personal e-mail?
I resent that people like you are exciting others and making them believe that they are entitled to something in a way of a price cut. It is not healthy for the company and the game.
First six months all you could hear on this board was how much better AH was at $30 per months then WB at hundreds $$ per month many of us spent. Now $30 for much better product seems too much to you. You may not believe it but I've seen statements on this and other boards that all internet and other entertainment should be free! Such pople are used to crappy free games offered by various sites and paid for by ads and think that is OK. They propagated the Freehost as a "protest" against corporate profit-making forgetting that someone must make those nice things. As a software engineer you should know better how much it costs. Decent programmer routinely gets paid over $100,000/year here in New York. That is 278 $30/year accounts!
You have $10 sims with no ongoing development (hence very low expenses) for years. You have $10 sims that operate for years at a loss, run by huge corporations with bottomless pockets in order to ensure "presence" and "market share". Unfortunately those sims are crap.
HTC is a great game developing at breackneck speed. It costs money. We need to encourage more people to join and pay $30, not discourage existing customers from paying current rate.
As for people who cannot currently afford AH and squeak about it? I have much less sympathy for them now then I had to people who could not afford WB. After all, AH gives us free unlimited 8-person play, not crappy H2H with simplified FM of WB! How many people are content with that and never subscribe?
I would doubt how smart that was on HTC's part if I did not believe they kneww what they were doing based on their hard-earned reputation.
Regards,
miko
