[M*S] Is Pixonic Killing War Robots? (series introduction)

I didn’t read it, and it’s only part 1 of 5, but I feel you inadequately addressed a different topic about the game.

Huh, that made me think. I try to stay optimistic about this game, and one of my excuses is “if I wasn’t on forums, I would still like this game.” However, now I can see that if I at this time downloaded the game like I did a year ago, I would see the exorbitant price tags and immediately uninstall it just like pretty much any other freemium mobile game i see.

Great intro Dread77! The 2nd article cant come soon enough. Thank you for capturing and summarizing the questions a lot of us have not been able to adequately elloquate. Perhaps even by more moderate mindsets within Pixonic itself.

I might be in a relative minority but I do believe that somehow, somewhere, Pixonic has adopted the original TRON script. Letting an MCP maximize revenue substantially through quantitative tools rather than human judgement.

Trust has been speared by profit maximization, and cooperation and consultation by predation.

As a result a lot of their promises have been implemented in ways that only results in player frustration.

It was a great game. It can be greater still.

* I guess that would make you Flynn by default ...beard and all.

Then again the knots could be the reason why beginner play has had a rebirth

Let us begin with a parable.  It is a parable told by Ramin Shokrizade in his haunting and prescient article "Next Generation Monetization: Supremacy Goods."

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Imagine that I have a ski resort that operates 18 ski lifts with associated runs, and that I charge $50 for a daily use general lift ticket that allows unlimited use of any run (with one catch). I sell 2000 of these tickets every day. My new marketing consultant comes up with a great idea to boost revenues: the "Golden Ticket." The Golden Ticket allows the holder to have exclusive use of any run they desire. Any general use ticket holders on the run will be escorted off and directed to another run. By selling these at $10,000 each, I am told that we can boost revenues from $100,000 per day to perhaps $180,000 or more per day.

On the first day, it works like a charm. We sell five Golden Tickets and our usual 2,000 general lift tickets and make $150,000, for a 50 percent increase in revenue! On the second day a strange thing happens: We only sell four Golden Tickets, and 1600 general tickets. We take in $120,000, which is not as good as the previous day, but still an improvement over the old monetization model.

By the end of the first week we are bottoming out at three Golden Ticket sales and only 200 general ticket sales -- we only made $40,000!? How did this happen? This seemed like a sure winner.

For the general ticket holders, being bumped was very inconvenient, and reduced the value of the lift ticket purchase in their eyes. What was even worse was the anxiety created over not knowing when they would get bumped.

For those purchasers that valued their time more highly, this inconvenience was enough such that they would not have come to our ski resort even if the general tickets were given away free of charge. For some of our wealthiest skiers, they could have paid the $10,000, but for them skiing with others and meeting new people was part of the fun so they had no desire to take advantage of our Golden Tickets.

For those that did buy the Golden Tickets, the novelty soon faded, such that repeat buyers were rare. Some of these big spenders actually enjoyed watching the looks on people's faces when they got ejected, and as the number and enthusiasm of remaining general ticket holders decreased, this thrill also waned. While this situation might offer them the chance to meet others just like themselves (fellow Golden Ticket holders), these people had a propensity to want to ski by themselves (that's what they paid for, after all), so their social interaction with their limited number of peers was close to nil.

---   (Entire article available here: www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/177190/next_generation_monetization_.php)



Pixonic has been selling power at least since the release of the Dash bots (possibly earlier; but unambiguously since the Dash bots).  Selling power, like the "Golden Ticket," works in the short run, but comes at the cost of reducing the value of the entire game.  This dynamic is poisonous to a game like War Robots.  This game *requires* other players in order to be played at all.  There is no single-player mode; no campaign map; no puzzle mode.  But how many people are willing to become part of game that so explicitly tells them that their skill will be trumped by a lesser player with money?  And of those, how many will tolerate paying $300 per Dash bot, plus another $500 for weapons?  And of those remaining, how many are willing to spend such sums ever couple of months?

Pixonic's current team are on record lauding the selling of power in games.  Not to players, naturally.  When writing for players, Pixonic offers pious statements about how they are focused on balance.  

But when Pixonic writes to peers (other game developers), the instead asks “How do you plan to monetize your game?”  (https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/VladimirKrasilnikov/20170926/306421/I_want_it_just_like_LoL_How_do_you_monetize_ingame_skins.php).  Pixonic paints game designers who will avoid selling "power" as naive, noting that "[r]eleasing 'overpowered' characters, so that a large number of players want to buy them straight after the updates, is fairly common practice in session-based PvP games – their qualities gradually even out (i.e. nerf) to a normal balance, matched by a drop in price." (Id.)  Pixonic concludes that selling visuals "doesn’t appear to have any particular advantages over 'selling power'." (Id.)

At this point, I have very little faith that Pixonic even understands that it is in the business of providing fun.  Or rather, Pixonic now equates "fun" with "X number of players will buy an absurdly priced golden ticket."  And thus, when people complain about Beacon Rush and Domination being combined into a single que (thus, robbing them of playing their preferred game mode), Pixonic's solution is to sell power again in the form of additional hangers.  Those willing to drop the money can now customize their hangers to each game mode, while everyone else are told to play a less efficient lineup.  Pixonic literally reduced the functionality of their game in order to sell the functionality back to us.   Every player used to be able to customize their hanger for a specific game mode; now one can do that only by paying.

That is exactly what is happening. I don't know why it is taking some parts of the community so long to realize this.

People are being fleeced.

When I do encounter the jackasses most of the time I know my big account would own them so I just laugh

Hot topic, I'm looking forward to next part.

Pixonic’s mistreatment of their customers has really put me off on all mobile games. I’d be hard pressed to get into another one after this debacle and I will certainly never play any future Pixonic titles.

They had a good thing going prior to all the lock boxes, components, $300 bots, etc but now since they’re openly selling power rather than maintain a healthy game balance, it almost feels as though the game isn’t worth playing any longer.

Go for Indie mobile games, there are plenty of small companies that really rely on their customers, and work professionally to give games way better than War Robots, both for content depth and for different and non-predatory marketing models.
Your contributions to them would really make a difference to help some indipendent developer, and not be a drop in the lake like with big companies.


Dredd77 i've read the first, and will read the following articles, but i seriously do hope that it's not just a click bait for angry players, to make a damage control for Pixonic.

Since you valued their recent discounts as "good*", i started to doubt your real objectivity on the matter, and seems more like you are giving a service to Pix with your articles, more than a objective service to the community.

From your writing style, on your first article you say you would just uninstall, but i got the sensation it's just a narrative expedient to create a connection to the reader, but in the end "maybe" you will say how everything is "flawed but awesome" and their prices are good because they can put the price they want and it's fair.

I seriously hope to be surprised.

That might be the dumbest thing I've heard on this forum. You don't want to make customers upset and shed them in any business.The lengths people go to defend these business practices... 

And as I type this, we are in the end stages of Worlds 2017, the League of Legends championship, with it's 5 million dollar prizepool: www.lolesports.com/en_US/worlds/world_championship_2017/schedule/elim/Finals

Riot makes a billion dollars a year with League of Legends, and it is completely free to play. You can buy skins and speed up leveling, but anything that offers a competitive advantage (IE runes) can't be bought.

The biggest E-sport in the world doesn't need to do this, there is no reason Pixonic does. People have been enamored with these Sci-Rev and its best practices article... but the best practices are clearly the ones Riot is employing, because it's the most successful.

That may be so, but I am (as most probably are) just trying to make sense of Pixos motives/direction. We dont have data or an inside track. And what Pixo is doing short term cant be good for f2p players. Doesnt seem be good for p2w in medium term and doesnt seem to be good for investors in the long run. I dont get it. Hence the spitballing..

There is also basis for the theory in casino management systems where they track individual player cycles intimately to predict returns on their investment.

> Considering they are now advertising, which means increased expenditure,

Before pix was acquired they were spending 60% of their revenue on advertising. 

The shop closing theory is interesting but the game market is not so crowded with multiplayer app mech games to make this seem plausible in my opinion. I can think of many games where there's a distinct "best" game in the genre and several lesser competitors which still maintain a solid and growing fanbase. For Pix to burn the house down so to speak would be a profoundly stupid business move.

There has to be something in their books we aren't seeing behind the scenes. I am more willing to chalk this up to developing world business greed and cultural mindset but I will concede that there might be real factors behind the scenes which necessitates this immediate cash grab.