Next battle in 11 days.

[BigMoney]

AFED no offence but i think gree knows more about buisness and revenue than you do.

Oh ho ho, check out this guy, I like his jokes.

[ScratchFace]

dude im with you but do you seriously think they will give a crap if a couple of players leave?

I think at this point they'd be smart to listen to why those "couple" of players are leaving, especially when they're gold spenders. A company WILL fail when it takes its customers for granted.

[murf]

AFED no offence but i think gree knows more about buisness and revenue than you do.

AFed, I respect your posting here too....but look at one of their senior manager's background. My guess is these guys have a plan, they aren't just haphazardly doing things. Whether what they think is good for GREE is the same as what's good for the players is a different story. But, making players happy isn't their goal, it's profit.

Shanti brings a career-long passion for Web and game entrepreneurship to GREE. Prior to joining, Shanti oversaw monetization, distribution, licensing, and corporate development at social game developer Playfish. He also headed business development at Three Rings, a pioneer in the games-as-a-service sector, and led console, PC, mobile, online, and casual game development for The Sims and FIFA at Electronic Arts. Building upon nearly 20 years of experience gaming, Shanti is recognized as an expert on virtual goods and free-to-play monetization.

[BigMoney]

I can't even tell who is trolling any more. Did you seriously just laud the credentials of someone involved with EA and The Sims? Do you have any idea how that fiasco went?

[ScratchFace]

But, making players happy isn't their goal, it's profit.

Losing site of the symbiotic nature of the provider/customer relationship is a sure way for the host to starve itself.

[Hey]

He also headed business development at Three Rings, a pioneer in the games-as-a-service sector, and led console, PC, mobile, online, and casual game development for The Sims and FIFA at Electronic Arts. Building upon nearly 20 years of experience gaming, Shanti is recognized as an expert on virtual goods and free-to-play monetization.

So he used to work for EA, that's...nice.

[Sexc_Jess]

A war every 2 weeks is a disgrace and so is the stats inflation that makes the old gear worthless. So wrong.

[$Heisenberg$]

A war every 2 weeks is a disgrace and so is the stats inflation that makes the old gear worthless. So wrong.

why keep ppl saying war every 2 weeks??

its 3 wars in 33 days

[murf]

why keep ppl saying war every 2 weeks??

its 3 wars in 33 days

Because it is every 2 weeks. And when things happen every 2 weeks, it works out that they also happen 3 out of every 5 weeks, if you count both the beginning and ending weekends.

[Sandukan]

Gree doesn't want us to get bored so we are inundated with events.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?!?!

[Shthead mike]

Crime city....by greed. The new cocaine. Next hit in 10 days. Sell your house. Pimp your wife. We're coming after every cent.

[DaHoosier]

The 1st 24 hour only 20% gold sale was a very clear message what Gree thinks of the Crime City player base. Simple, try to fight us and we will teach you a lesson.

Meanwhile they gave the well behaved kids in Modern War got a 40% gold sale 1st 24 hours and 20% the remaining.

This to me was a very clear message of a company with disdain for its paying customers. You would have to be quite the Fanboi to not think this was not a very calculated dirty move.

I can no longer support a company with that kind of attitude towards its customers. It's unfortunate because I truly enjoy these games and have no problem spending a little money for something that gives me many hours of enjoyment. But at some point it is a matter of principle and for me they have crossed over that line.

[John Snow]

I have a feeling that Gree knows the writing is on the wall as far as the end of this game. That's why they've been completing ignoring the player base and pumping out event after event after event, usually more than one event at a time. I can't imagine that this type of business model can be sustained long term - unless the heavy spenders in this game are so addicted or have such a huge sunk cost factor that they continue feeding into Gree's game plan. It should be apparent to everyone that Gree's primary focus is sqeezing as much money as it can from players while it can. The 24 hour gold sale Gree had at the beginning of the past war was a big FU to those who threatened a boycott. There was no posts or comments from Gree as to the reasoning of the limited sale period. For that matter, Gree doesn't have to say anything with respect to the game because it knows people will keep spending money on gold. Notice how the only time you see a post from a Gree representative is to penalize someone? At least when CM Mark was around, he gave at least SOME feedback, albeit minimal, as to what was going on behind closed doors.

Remember when the M4A1 rifle was nerfed because of "balance" issues? lol This game has completely become gold-centric with absolutely no concern for balance. The stronger (i.e. those who buy gold) continue to get stronger, further widening the gap with casual players. As long as you choose (yes it's a choice) to keep spending gold on this game, regardless of whatever issues you might have with it, Gree has no incentive to change anything.

The real issue is that Gree's core business, its Japanese gaming platform, is flailing, to put it mildly. The social media model of gaming is coming to an end (see Zynga struggling to make it outside of Facebook). Gree is using Funzio to support its Japanese operations which is why, as you noted, "this game has completely become gold-centric with absolutely no concern for balance". They're struggling in the short-term, the long term be damned. Doubt this? Take a look at Gree's recent press release titled "GREE Announces Extraordinary Loss and Revised Forecast for Fiscal 2013". They may as well make the gold prices in yen, since the money you spend on gold is being sent to Japan anyway. Gree's earnings report on May 14, 2013 showed a marked decrease in revenue and profits compared to the prior quarter (the exact opposite of the prior year). Needless to say, the metric that matters the most to Gree management - stock price, keeps sinking. It's not greed driving the compression of the event schedules, it's desperation.

[cooch]

No business is healthy when too few spend too much to sustain it. This biweekly war schedule is designed to spread the spend out, reduce dependance on too few, to see where it goes. The reduction in gold use but not spend nonsense only proved probably what they saw coming. What would come next from top spenders in terms of reasonableness of demands?

The only FU was the one day sale saying you ain't dictating to us how we run our business chumps. Next time like I said, don't pre-announce and remember actions always speak louder than words. Spending and purchasing are two different things. You didn't spend but you did purchase didn't you to make next month's bonus program?

[dispohero]

Gree is perfectly fine financially.

Their fy 2013 revenue is still expected to top 150b yen. Yes, profits were sharply lower this quarter (i think something like 15b down to 5b iirc), but if you read the fine print of their statements, a huge chunk of that decline (5b or so) came from writing off losses on games that were in mid-development, that were cancelled instead of being finished. This came from their own internal r&d, but also from companies that they have acquired, whose games don't all fit their mold. Companies do this kind of stuff all the time. Some for reorg purposes, some for tax purposes, and some even for market manipulation purposes.

A 1 day word-not-to-be-mentioned-in-the-forums on gold purchases means absolutely nothing to them.