Other New Player Incentive Ideas

[Dusty00]

The purpose of this suggestion thread is to help SGM come up with ideas to increase player base and new player retention rate.

I have no access to data and statistics in general but the recent Rift Battle Season Cutoff stats gave us insight on roughly the number of active players there are in the game. We know that Gold 1 rank does not exist and Top 200 = roughly 5% of active players. That means we likely have a total of 4,000 players participating in Rift (hitting the 5 matches per week quota).

With a decreasing player base, it also means that SGM is not getting as much income through IAPs. This affects existing players as there will be less and less budget for them to expand and even maintain the game. We know how awesome of a Dev team we have, and it'd be a shame to lose any one of them!

I am not a PR/Marketing guy, so can't really offer much on that end. What I can think of is if the game can at least get featured on the App store more frequently, perhaps through "our favorite recently updated games" then there would be more people trying the game out. The recent attempt to get Justin Wong to play was a good attempt but only lasted a few days before we lost him to Teppen, and eventually back to his main non-mobile games. If you are a PR/Marketing person playing this game, perhaps you could offer some ideas for SGM to consider.

In terms of new player retention, I think some of the main player retention issues are:

1. The amount of time and efforts required to get established in the game.
2. The pure RNG nature of obtaining characters and moves.
3. The lack of opportunities to enjoy all game modes early on, such as Gold Prize Fights and Rift.

It's been years since I started playing SGM, but it takes weeks of grinding with weak, random bronze characters that you might not even like to get anywhere in the game.

When a new player eventually saves enough currencies to pull for characters and moves, RNG can really screw them over. At this point, it is likely that a new player just says "screw this". It's even worse if they drop some cash to pull and not get any characters they like.

Here are some new player incentive suggestions to help with new player retention, but may also benefit veteran players:

1. New players receive a guaranteed gold character within the first 2 hours of playing the game. These can be tied to promotions with new character launch updates. I see many games with "Join now and get a free SSR character" to lure people in.
2. Redesign story mode and origin stories to help the player fully unlock skill nodes (not just a quick "hey remember to learn skills" message..) and learn some character-specific combos. Basically, create a learning path for new players to better break into the game and set them up for success in other game modes. Some ideas can be found in my other thread on origin stories.
3. Add some sort of a "new player" perks/bonuses, such as boosted EXP gain, select "One" silver character of choice, and some sort of "character rental" option to try out end-game content. For example, you can choose a character of choice (lv50 Diamond tier, all skill nodes unlocked) that will expire after 30 days. Some additional similar ideas for rift using the concept can be found in my past post.
4. Allow each account to purchase (with real $$$) a specific character of choice "once". We all know that being able to play with the character of choice keeps someone playing.

There are probably more ideas but I wanted to share a few for now and see what our community can come up with. Really hope that the game can continue to get more players, which will make end-game more diverse.

 

[BallotBoxer]

Concerning the incentive suggestions:
1. Guaranteed Gold ✓
I joined a little bit before the big Database Disaster of '18 (as historians would later call it), and the gifted Bloodbath Eliza and Resonant Evil Big Band were my first gold and silver characters. Definitely gave me a skyrocket boost to growing my collection.

2. Redesign story mode for noobs X
I think the tutorial does a sufficient job already teaching the basics.

3. Basically cheat codes for noobs X
EXP boost and rent-a-godlike-character might give a newbie the wrong impression of the game. One must start small and appreciate the gradual gains.

4. Buy one character ✓
Narrator: "And within moments of the proclamation, the entire SGM community had become proud Xenomorph Double owners."
Seriously though, it is a tempting offer that would appeal to all players. Good luck structuring pricing for it though (e.g. diamonds = very expensive)

As for a marketing boost, change the screaming Ms. Fortune head icon into:

• Filia, the best character in the series
• Robo-Fortune, in honor of the newest character
• Skull Heart, the cause and solution to, all our problems

 

[Liam]

We know how awesome of a Dev team we have, and it'd be a shame to lose any one of them!

I appreciate your concern for our well being! ♥
Our team is continuing to grow with new hires, and we're still hard at work on new SGM content.

With a decreasing player base, it also means that SGM is not getting as much income through IAPs.

The number of players in the game is pretty much always on the rise. The amount of Rift Battle players who also complete 5 matches in a week is only a tiny fraction of our total weekly active players. I'd take those extrapolations from the scoring thread with a grain of salt!

I think there are some good ideas here, but a lot of them have broader repercussions that could have some huge impacts on the economy. I'll pass these along to the rest of the team.