Profitability at the Expense of Playability…the MZ Credo (3/19/15)

Let’s get back to this whole Suzi discussion MZ. I know you have had enough time to actually reflect on what I said to you on 3/18/15. So now I want to look a little deeper into the heart of yesterday’s conversation.

You see I know why you seem to have a problem actually following through with any of the feedback that we the players provide you with. It’s partly to do with the fact that you are more concerned with growing your net profits than customer satisfaction. In order to expand net profits we all know you have to lower your overhead, increase revenue or some combination of them both.

Your overall fixed costs are fairly stable other than when you have to make capital expenditures to keep the system from completely failing. Based on how slow everything is running you haven’t invested in that department in a long time. When it comes to variable costs you shouldn’t have to many. As for revenues there is one of two ways you generate cash.

You can use really overpriced ad campaigns to attract new players knowing that only a small proportion of those players are going to be spenders. That’s basic sales 101….it’s all a numbers game. Based on the number of new kingdoms you’ve created I believe this is your sales growth bread and butter.
You can create a boat load of new overpriced options that require your existing players to spend more money. This is equivalent to month on month sales or store on store sales, how an individual revenue stream produces over time.

You actually do both, and the people that get hurt are your long term players who have invested the most time and money.

The new features usually are flawed which isn’t unheard of for first generation options, but you seem to drag your feet in fixing them, that is if you ever do fix them. Usually you are too concerned with moving onto the next set of updates then working out the preexisting flaws.

Besides chasing that almighty dollar the level of success that GoW has achieved to date creates an even larger problem. You have been struck by the Midas Touch, and you feel that everything you do will turn to gold. MZ if you remember the story you will recall that the Midas Touch was curse. The level of hubris that it takes to blow off the feedback from your customers is the reason all great organizations, corporations and even countries fall apart.

However, from what I hear you are already contemplating your exit strategy. Is it possible that you already know that you are getting ready to bail out of the GoW fiasco? Has GoW already reached it’s pinnacle? Why don’t we talk about that on Tuesday. Until next time MZ…. #PowerToThePlayers