Join the new world

Guess I don't care enough about this game to be bothered by Lana. Of course, I'm not about to spend any real money no matter what happens, sorry admins. 🙂

Any browser game out there is going to have fees for additional services sooner or later. That's only natural, since everyone wants to make money. That goes especially for games hosted by an actual organization.

The trick, obviously, is to be subtle. Not make too many changes in too short a time span, so that users may forget about the latest changes before the newest one takes effect.
Like, say, what about that country alliance fee? Hasn't it always been there to begin with? Not.
So here we are, the newest "addition" to the game came too soon. Many are still frustrated over the last one, which makes them somewhat more likely to leave.

The second, even more difficult trick, is to not get greedy. For most people there is a fixed amount of money they would be willing to spend on a browser game. For me it's zero, but we're not talking about me. Even those willing to pay will not pay more than their fixed limit, no matter how many measures are taken by the admins to ensure that money is spent. Or, if some players do repeatedly overstep their limit without realizing right away, they will most likely leave the game in order to prevent themselves from doing it again. Now, every player will have a different limit set out for them, depending on how much money they have at their disposal and how much they care about their own success in this game, when it's payed for with real life money.
In order to pull off this second trick, one has to be able to evaluate the estimated amount most players in the game are willing to pay.

Why most players? Well, let's see. Say, thousands of players are willing to pay amount x. But only a dozen is willing to pay the amount y, which is far higher than the amount x. Now, let's assume we are the admins for a moment there. Do we say "oh well, let's aim for the amount y, if someone wants to pay less, they will get less"? Of course we do not. After all, at some point those only willing to pay x, or any other amount below y, will get frustrated because they have a disadvantage, even despite spending their money, so they will do what? Yes, they will most likely stop playing. And unlike players unwilling to pay (like me), the creators of this game actually are interested in keeping a big mass of paying players on board.
But the most frustrating part is yet to come! Once those willing to pay x leave the game, only a few dozens, maybe a few hundreds will stay behind. Paying as much as y, just to have an advantage over such a measly amount of people won't sound all that great to those formerly willing to pay that much. All of a sudden, they may only be willing to pay x. Maybe even z, which is far lower than x!
So yes, the right answer to that question would have been "let's only take measures until the amount of money recieved stops growing visibly". If the game isn't profitable enough by that time, it's probably a fluke.

Of course, making the strength growth dependant on the amount of gold and ultimately real life money you spend, right after advertising the new and exciting war module soon to come, may not have been destructive to the game. Maybe. Everything's possible. But, even if this game dies, I'm sure I'll find something else to spend my time on.

Welcome to erepublik, instructor Lana. Teach us well.