Joseph Ridgeson
WarRavens
League of Infamy
694
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Posted - 2014.03.10 20:27:00 -
[1] - Quote
Anytime CCP does something like give additional SP, it is taken as proof/evidence of there not being a refund/respec. I don't think we can say one way or another of it being some evidence. CCP does events, those events tend to give SP, and I think we can disregard any connection between refunds. Of course if there is no refund the Triple SP, Mauler, and Million Clone Challenge will be seen as proof of no refunds and all statements will be believed vindicated.
I don't think CCP has the ability to measure how long each person took to kill. I think that is a level of data that I think is beyond this game's engine. Counting a million actual deaths is one thing. Counting over a million kills, a dozen happening every second, while keeping track of the time it took for each opponent to die is another. Do they start counting when one person hits another? Jeez, TTK could be well over a minute than between "I shoot you, you run, I run after you, I kill you."
I think the events are done for the same reason why every other MMO does; to keep players interested, provide some different ways of playing the game, and to get back some players that have not played since. World of Warcraft's Brewfest or Halloween event sparks more interest in the game by providing things for the players to do (new dailies, new bosses to kill, new equipment to gain). Every time one of those events happens, I get a little e-mail about "come back and see Brewfest/Nobelgarden!" DUST can also do events but the game clearly couldn't support something that massive like WoW or GW2 can because they are completely different.
So an event in DUST gives out SP or equipment. They will be things like the Templar event where you have to kill or hunt the renegade Templar, Mauler where you kill heavies or kill as a heavy, or Triple SP where it is just "here ya go." The Heavy and Scout event also have the advantages of pushing players into trying new things; how many people had not tried Heavy before the event and ended up posting on the forums about how much fun it was? It keeps people playing your game when you do something like that, gets them back into the game, or can get people into your game. People will tell their friends "Remember how I was telling you about DUST? Well, if you want to try it they are going to give out up to a million SP which would normally take 3 weeks to get. Will help you out a whole bunch by getting you out of Militia gear." "Hmm, this game is alright. Hey, what is this 'booster SP' at the end of match? I can get more SP. Ehhh, what the hell; I'll spend 10 bucks to try it."
Once someone puts any money into a game, the odds increase tenfold that they will do it again. So the event has that effect as well. You get 50% more SP of that 250k, 500k, 750k, 1 million if you have a booster active so I am sure people are going to buy boosters because "that's just leaving SP on the table." If there are people that haven't played in a while and they see that if they play 10 games during the event they will get 1 million SP, they will probably do at least 10 games. That has a chance of getting them back into the game as well. Plus, from a player's perspective, free SP/stuff is always cool.
Finally, we have the "because it sounds fun" statement. Blizzard, ArenaNet, and CCP are companies and they want to make money. However, they are also making a product that is meant to be used for recreation. If they can make some fun event, they further their own business by making the game more appealing while making players/customers more enthused. Everyone wins. |