So, right now most Job LTQs require a vault or so to complete. Everything else is roughly the same.
That's something like $500-600 for an individual to complete every event in a month. Add in what it costs to be competitive in Wars & complete SLTQs.. Now we're nearing the $1,000+ range. It's simply not affordable, or, justifiable for the overwhelming majority of players.
GREE can continue targeting that small group of addicted & rich players. In turn, their new players will be discouraged by the heinous costs of "playing" the game and more people in general will cease spending, potentially outright quitting.
Or
GREE could target a larger group of players by reducing the prices of gold and/or the gold required to complete events. This would help hook new players, encourage spending from many free players & former gold spenders, and would indubitably increase the population of active players (because now almost everyone can actually play the game in its entirety- instead of being let down numerous times a month).
I know, what a crazy thought, but look at it like this. There's maybe a few thousand players hitting that first tier of the gold bonus program. 6,000*500 = $3mil (of course there are the heavy spenders to add into that & obviously I don't know the exact number of players hitting each tier of the bonus program. Important to note, they're definitely bringing in more than $3mil/mo).
So we have that rough estimate. Now, what if the game were more affordable. What if you had, 100,000*20? Okay, that's only $2mil, but that's ONE event. Multiply that by 5 or 6 & we're talking $10+mil. Now factor in SLTQ events and GREE's probably looking at $20+mil.
I know, crazy!! So why are things the way they are? Is it to help keep players stratified? That could easily be corrected by including more leaderboard events, as well as drastically improving war prizes for the Top 250 teams.
The only downside for players, would be having to readjust IP & player stat requirements. Oh, and the game would be vastly more fun. Wait, that's not a downside.
Anyways, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of TL;DRs & the "shut up or pay ups". I can see why you would want to protect your investments, but, if done properly, the players would still be stratified as they are now, for the most part. Increased emphasis on leaderboard events & War would help to keep all of that in tact.
Food for thought, GREE