So it never makes sense to me why digital stores offer things for a limited time. Isn't that just a loss of potential money? I've seen so many past dice sets that are no longer available that I would love to buy up. My suggestion would be to bring back all old dice sets and allow them to be a permanent purchase option.
FOMO. People buy things they might not actually want, because they MAY decide later down the road that they actually want it and not be able to get it. If things are always available, people don't have to make a decision to purchase until they actually decide they want it.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I honestly did consider that, but I think long-term it's counterintuitive. For instance, I just got my bf into DnD and he wants cool dice. He probably would have spent a good chunk of change on a few cool sets, but he currently thinks the limited options they have available don't suit his preferences. I myself just love getting all the dice to have options for the different vibes of the characters I make and play but I only started playing a year ago, and some of the older sets seem so awesome.
Forcing people to jump on a purchase because they might miss out seems silly to me, because regardless if the person wants it they will eventually save up and/or find the right time to get it. Big loss of potential revenue that I see a lot of places do.
Dice used to be a regular subscriber perk, so it was an added reason to have a subscription to get the limited dice. These character sheet options they have been giving out are similar, but I would rather have the dice personally. for the record I rarely use either.
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CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
It's a little more complicated than that, and has to do with how saturated you think your market is.
If you're fairly sure you've basically got all the business you'll ever get? Then long term it's better to "Force them to buy now while it's limited time available!" Then you "discontinue" the item until enough time has passed that you've basically replaced your old users with new ones and can re-release the "classic" item to a new crowd in the same manner. This is what you do in a slow market where you don't get new people without older ones leaving in about equal measure. (Aging out, dying, etc. depending on the product and the market it attracts.)
On the other hand, if you expect to get a bunch of new customers over time, then keeping them available long term is possibly better because the new customers will pay. Assuming you think the new customers will care about the old item, of course. (Or you go the gacha route and re-release old "banners" every few months when you've got a bunch of new players.) Then there's the middle ground if you aren't sure, which is to offer it for a "discount price" as a limited time offer, then either let the item go away for a while then come back maybe six months to a year later and raise the price higher then, or just raise the price immediately after the "discount" period ends and keep it available the whole time. Either way, it's not really a discount, you pay full price day one, and those who miss the "sale" period pay extra for the privilege. Because you never actually offer a discount. You just say you do to get people buying and feeling like they're getting a deal instead of feeling like they're being screwed all the rest of the year. Yeah, those Steam summer sales you get every year? That's the real price you should be paying for your country's market. It's not a "deal". You're just getting screwed the rest of the time.
Basically, by not offering the items long term, DNDBeyond is admitting that they don't expect new customers in large enough quantities in a short enough time-frame to make that type of strategy viable. They're fairly sure they've got all they're going to get out of the current market. Either because the niche is tapped out, or because competitors got the others (which equates to the same thing in the end monetarily, it would just mean they could try different strategies for marketing depending on which is the case because hey, maybe the market is tapped but you can steal customers from the other guy...) but either way? They're saying "We're not getting more people in large enough numbers to offer the items long term. Better make them limited time availability to get suckers to buy it who wouldn't really do so otherwise!"
The exception to this, is of course, partnered content, which depending on the contract, might be limited availability due to contractual reasons rather than anything else. Such contracts can expire, and while they have clauses to allow the company to "keep using the data for those who bought it while the contract was active" companies can and do lose the right to continue selling the partnered content once the contract is up in some cases.
Lol, "or something". Mostly I've been on both end of business, marketing, and dabbled in economics a bit, even though it wasn't my major. My major was actually computer tech, which is why I know some of the "suggestions" we've put into various threads for the devs here are easily accomplished, while others are far harder... But they don't seem to care even about simple fixes which pisses me off even further. You can't expect to steal customers in a tight niche when you don't do customer service well!
Which is why WotC and Hasbro want to use dirty tactics like they tried with the OGL... but that's a whole longer thing. Tl;Dr - It was, just like this, all about trying to maximize the dollar like the allmighty gacha games do. Just greed, plain and simple, because they don't seem to realize that the vast majority of their players don't have the money to pay, and people who do have the money - the whales of gacha games - generally aren't the same types to play D&D. There are exceptions, obviously... but the market overlap is not at all the same, and they seem to not grasp this fact so they make stupid decisions because of it.
Everyone wants that gacha money, but without providing the gacha service. Constant updates, new content, etc, etc etc. I could do a full writeup on it if you, or anyone else, says they're interested, but I'm not going to go into a lot more detail without that being requested first. I love sharing knowledge and information, but I also hate wasting my time.
FOMO. People buy things they might not actually want, because they MAY decide later down the road that they actually want it and not be able to get it. If things are always available, people don't have to make a decision to purchase until they actually decide they want it.
FOMO is why I ALWAYS ask myself, "Do I want this because it's limited or because I REALLY want it" 95% of the time, it's because of limited availabilty and when I determine that is my true reason, I take a pass.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The age of OGL is over. The Time of the ORC has come!
The moment that WotC declares OGL 1.0a "de-authorized", "revoked" or any such nonsense is the moment I release as much content as possible under OGL 1.0a and say, "Sue me WotC". OGL1.0a cannot be revoked. If thousands of us do it, the countersuit will be a class action suit.
Digital dice cost practically nothing to make once the engine is in place, they’re just skins and a sound effect. Each one they sell is almost 100% pure profit. They will constantly be making more of them, and that means there will always be a next “exclusive, limited release” dice set. So they can’t possibly be losing money because they know if they don’t getcha with this one, then they’ll getcha with the next one.
By making them only available for a limited time, it gives the illusion of exclusivity and specialness. The buyer gets to feel special, like they’re in a special club of folks who got the exclusive fake math rocks. Similar to FOMO, but coming from the reward center of the brain instead of the risk center.
Exclusivity means a lot to some people for some reason. They feel other people having what they have, somehow devalues theirs. I tend to disagree, but folks who want to keep their precious away from other people exist, and they are militantly opposed to losing exclusivity.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
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So it never makes sense to me why digital stores offer things for a limited time. Isn't that just a loss of potential money? I've seen so many past dice sets that are no longer available that I would love to buy up. My suggestion would be to bring back all old dice sets and allow them to be a permanent purchase option.
FOMO. People buy things they might not actually want, because they MAY decide later down the road that they actually want it and not be able to get it. If things are always available, people don't have to make a decision to purchase until they actually decide they want it.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I honestly did consider that, but I think long-term it's counterintuitive. For instance, I just got my bf into DnD and he wants cool dice. He probably would have spent a good chunk of change on a few cool sets, but he currently thinks the limited options they have available don't suit his preferences. I myself just love getting all the dice to have options for the different vibes of the characters I make and play but I only started playing a year ago, and some of the older sets seem so awesome.
Forcing people to jump on a purchase because they might miss out seems silly to me, because regardless if the person wants it they will eventually save up and/or find the right time to get it. Big loss of potential revenue that I see a lot of places do.
The same argument could be made for legacy books.
Dice used to be a regular subscriber perk, so it was an added reason to have a subscription to get the limited dice. These character sheet options they have been giving out are similar, but I would rather have the dice personally. for the record I rarely use either.
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
It's a little more complicated than that, and has to do with how saturated you think your market is.
If you're fairly sure you've basically got all the business you'll ever get? Then long term it's better to "Force them to buy now while it's limited time available!" Then you "discontinue" the item until enough time has passed that you've basically replaced your old users with new ones and can re-release the "classic" item to a new crowd in the same manner. This is what you do in a slow market where you don't get new people without older ones leaving in about equal measure. (Aging out, dying, etc. depending on the product and the market it attracts.)
On the other hand, if you expect to get a bunch of new customers over time, then keeping them available long term is possibly better because the new customers will pay. Assuming you think the new customers will care about the old item, of course. (Or you go the gacha route and re-release old "banners" every few months when you've got a bunch of new players.) Then there's the middle ground if you aren't sure, which is to offer it for a "discount price" as a limited time offer, then either let the item go away for a while then come back maybe six months to a year later and raise the price higher then, or just raise the price immediately after the "discount" period ends and keep it available the whole time. Either way, it's not really a discount, you pay full price day one, and those who miss the "sale" period pay extra for the privilege. Because you never actually offer a discount. You just say you do to get people buying and feeling like they're getting a deal instead of feeling like they're being screwed all the rest of the year. Yeah, those Steam summer sales you get every year? That's the real price you should be paying for your country's market. It's not a "deal". You're just getting screwed the rest of the time.
Basically, by not offering the items long term, DNDBeyond is admitting that they don't expect new customers in large enough quantities in a short enough time-frame to make that type of strategy viable. They're fairly sure they've got all they're going to get out of the current market. Either because the niche is tapped out, or because competitors got the others (which equates to the same thing in the end monetarily, it would just mean they could try different strategies for marketing depending on which is the case because hey, maybe the market is tapped but you can steal customers from the other guy...) but either way? They're saying "We're not getting more people in large enough numbers to offer the items long term. Better make them limited time availability to get suckers to buy it who wouldn't really do so otherwise!"
The exception to this, is of course, partnered content, which depending on the contract, might be limited availability due to contractual reasons rather than anything else. Such contracts can expire, and while they have clauses to allow the company to "keep using the data for those who bought it while the contract was active" companies can and do lose the right to continue selling the partnered content once the contract is up in some cases.
Damn. That was a very comprehensive response that I thoroughly enjoyed reading! Were you an economics major or something? lol
Lol, "or something". Mostly I've been on both end of business, marketing, and dabbled in economics a bit, even though it wasn't my major. My major was actually computer tech, which is why I know some of the "suggestions" we've put into various threads for the devs here are easily accomplished, while others are far harder... But they don't seem to care even about simple fixes which pisses me off even further. You can't expect to steal customers in a tight niche when you don't do customer service well!
Which is why WotC and Hasbro want to use dirty tactics like they tried with the OGL... but that's a whole longer thing. Tl;Dr - It was, just like this, all about trying to maximize the dollar like the allmighty gacha games do. Just greed, plain and simple, because they don't seem to realize that the vast majority of their players don't have the money to pay, and people who do have the money - the whales of gacha games - generally aren't the same types to play D&D. There are exceptions, obviously... but the market overlap is not at all the same, and they seem to not grasp this fact so they make stupid decisions because of it.
Everyone wants that gacha money, but without providing the gacha service. Constant updates, new content, etc, etc etc. I could do a full writeup on it if you, or anyone else, says they're interested, but I'm not going to go into a lot more detail without that being requested first. I love sharing knowledge and information, but I also hate wasting my time.
FOMO is why I ALWAYS ask myself, "Do I want this because it's limited or because I REALLY want it" 95% of the time, it's because of limited availabilty and when I determine that is my true reason, I take a pass.
The age of OGL is over. The Time of the ORC has come!
The moment that WotC declares OGL 1.0a "de-authorized", "revoked" or any such nonsense is the moment I release as much content as possible under OGL 1.0a and say, "Sue me WotC". OGL1.0a cannot be revoked. If thousands of us do it, the countersuit will be a class action suit.
The other things you have to realize are:
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Exclusivity means a lot to some people for some reason. They feel other people having what they have, somehow devalues theirs. I tend to disagree, but folks who want to keep their precious away from other people exist, and they are militantly opposed to losing exclusivity.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha