Speaking of which, this is the first time a prize figure has been made available in the store. What do people think of that? Should all of them be available? Just the ones from pizza leagues? None of them?
My opinion is that it's OK to sell prize figures after a suitable interval. It's normal (although not universal) practice to do so in the game field, at least that's my anecdotal impression. Surely the prize figure winners have already amply gotten in their "ooh, look at me, I'm special" thrills and those have probably already started to wane anyway. I don't own that many myself so I wouldn't be super affected by this but I wouldn't personally begrudge other players having access to e.g. the Karen figure. I feel the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few once the initial moratorium has passed. It's good for Blue Manchu and the game to use the limited amount of existing figures more efficiently and to get what revenue is possible out of them. Leaving them forever locked behind the prize wall would be a waste. It'd be different if the volume of new figure output was greater, then having a few of them be super exclusive would be fine. As it is, the existing content should be utilized as much as possible.
Personally I think the league prizes shouldn't be available in the store, but could come back for pizza leagues. Some players likely invested a decent amount of pizza to get that dwarf figurine back when it was a league prize, so it might be a bummer to them seeing they could've just waited and bought it.
I think league prizes should be available to everyone. Not everyone is capable of winning leagues and it isn't fair to exclude players who play singleplayer exclusively. Plus, a lot of members weren't playing when those leagues were available. Having a delayed release as Jarmo suggests is probably the best way to go about it. I could see how this would drive down demand for pizza leagues but as I understand it they weren't popular enough to begin with.
This is true to a certain extent. However, I like to think of such things like this: The greatest prestige to be had from owning an exclusive figure comes at the time the figure is available. That's when everyone knows what it is and can freshly envy/appreciate/covet/respect it. As time goes by, these feelings lessen more and more. In the end and as the player population changes (churns), few even recognize them for what they are. So, the greatest value a new shiny has is at the beginning. If you are the deserving owner of the shiny, you have it when it's hot and valuable. If the lesser endowed get their hands on it after a year or so, you've already moved on. It's like a new TV series or a game. The most hip/keen/rich get it at release for the greatest cost. The unenlightened/lackadaisical/lethargic get to see it on regular TV or in the shop discount bin in a few years. The sooner you want something new the more you pay / the more is demanded of you in skill or otherwise. The price difference between a new release and an old discounted item is not a sucker tax, it's rent. For the months and years you had the shiny and the unwashed masses didn't you had full use of the item. You got to drive around in your latest model car on the beach boulevard for months on end and collected all those looks. Now the manufacturer put it on clearance sale as an old model and others are buying it up, who cares any more? You already got your money's worth. Paying the high price got you exclusive access. You were not dumb to pay it, you got value for the cost. In this way, I hope exclusive figure owners would not be too disappointed if others gained access (much) later. They should already have extracted considerable value from them. If you got this far, thank you for your time. It is appreciated.
As far as what seems fair I completely agree with Jarmo's assessment. Personally (and still agreeing with Jarmo), I enjoy having certain figures because the figure is enjoyable to me, not because it's the mark of an elite group. When I use a special figure it's an added bonus not because other people don't have it, but because I enjoy the creative look and the fun variety. If other people can have that enjoyment too, and it can simultaneously provide BM with some income to keep a game I enjoy going, than all the better. I know not everyone would see it that way, but those are my thoughts.
Yeah, me too, I exclusively use the figures I like to look at and which are fun for me in my teams. I don't care a whit whether others have them or not. The more variety the merrier and having every figure be available adds to the encountered variety in multiplayer and the single player party cosmetic possibilites.
Probably a stupid question, but I checked Cuthbert's back when this was announced and couldn't find any new figures(nor can I now). Is this a teaser for the next build, or am I looking in the wrong place? Something else entirely?
I'd say it is okay to sell it if you're going to charge a decent premium. Not sure 160 pizza is equal to the cost of entering pizza leagues and getting first place to win it. Maybe 200? 250? Although that might make people confused why it is more expensive than other foil figures... not a general easy solution either way. EDIT: What about refunding people who own it 160 pizza or something? That might make it "fair" in a sense?
CANT WAIT!!! - i am happy because i wasnt around at the time when you could win league prizes - hope they bring them back (the pizza leagues) Edit: league prizes (figure prizes) Edit #2: i am lying - i saw the dwarf cat figure a month or 2 ago - when i was bad at CH
Might as well ask in here instead of creating a new topic, since it fits. I've read on another thread that there are "often" discounts on figures, but so far I haven't seen anything along the lines. Now, "often" is a relative term, so does one of the veteran players know how often figures have actually gone on sale in the past and in roughly what intervals? Thx =)
Have they ever been on sale? I swear I remember they were once... but I could be making that up in my own mind. Either way it definitely isn't "often" at all. As someone with a marketing background I've been trying to get Jon to do more sales and other marketing things. Maybe once the whole Humble Bundle thing is over they might do a sale to get more people into spending money (statistically once someone spends any amount of money they are much more likely to spend more which is why sales are a doubly good thing).
