Hello,
I often find in this game that trading is very difficult, as one must purchase megaphones to do player transactions and they are quite limited. I defer myself from buying megaphones often because the lowest domination of $7 CAD barely yields any soulcash and due to second-degree price discrimination which causes one to consider the opportunity cost of splurging on the highest package for biggest return on buck, or foregoing the smallest soulcash denomination purchase due to the low marginal utility of 30-40 megaphones for an exorbitant premium.
I would like to provide the argument for expediting trade to be beneficial to both the company and the playerbase.
(i) Players often wish to buy and sell items of varying values, and varying quantities; having such a high cost for a 1-time use item with relative low-time exposure to the server means there is a minimum utility floor for wanting to buy megaphones in the first place, since selling things of 500k dzenai in 1 unit makes it not worth it as $1 is equivalent to 10-20M dzenai in game value terms when selling in-game items.
(ii) Reducing this floor or barrier to trade, permits more game sales than the subsequent loss of revenue from the current situation
The methods in which to reduce this barrier, can be described as follows :
(b) Make megaphones tradable, and more readily accessible than 2 or 3 per month
(c) Bundle them as a bonus on other items, or have a tiered-spending bonus of $x, $y, $z monthly to promote sales and do price segmentation of the playerbase depending on relative player elasticities. If I spend $8.50 of soulcash and $10.00 gives me a,b,c freebies - it can encourage higher spending
(d) Have a bundle of 50 of them for like 125 soulcash
Paying players have various purchasing incentives :
(a) Those who are of higher level, often look for Dzenai as a way to get quick gear, as they do not have a relative abundance of time - and thus transact with free to pay players for dzenai in exchange for cash shop items
(b) Those who are of lower level, use Dzenai as a means to purchase utility items such as XP gear and HP items in the market due to their relative low purchasing power, however more often than not use SC to accessorize their avatar
Free to play players often need to conduct business;
The marketplace, is time-insensitive and categorically based.
This means lower levels who don't know how to navigate the tabs will often be unaware of items that can be sold and bought.
This means higher levels who do not log in daily will be unaware of the changes of items being tradable.
This also means there is a market for immediate sales of items for players at discount to the marketplace, who need dzenai right at X moment; and the converse is true, those who wish to take immediate opportunity in purchasing items at discount to the marketplace, due to the levied tax and more complex nature task of sorting items by tabs and knowing where the items are and what are available.
If megaphones are tradable, and more of them are readily accessible, then we can infer that player transactions will increase (real-time) to marketplace. Their utility will be slightly diminished due to the increased volume of chat in-game, however, you will make up in volume for the loss of relative premiums in megaphone costs, because your exposure to the audience of necessitated items extend to free to play players as well.
If there are more transactions, then we can also infer that there will be more soul cash top-ups relative to a game where all items are account-bound, and only solo (paying) players can benefit. If items are valued at 1 Soulcash to 140-180,000 dzenai in the marketplace, and there are various sellers (typically lower level) and those without VIP to discount the tax, of 1 Soulcash to 100-130,000 dzenai, who want dzenai right away - then this market will remain untapped. I often see various sellers of Soulcash items on the marketplace pricing at various price points which are at below-per unit yield for in-game currencies such as VIPs, hairstyles and costumes.
With a game that has near-zero marginal costs for additional items being sold in the cash shop, I cannot fanthom why increasing trade volume transactions is bad for business. A sales of an inventory slot expansion, skill tree reset, anti-destruction all yield considerably more $ than some megaphones. So why not lower the cost of megaphones and make them tradable as a way to boost sales of things of higher marginal-return?
It is well known that retailers do loss leaders (and businesses using smarter pricing techniques) to get people on the floor to buy things of higher premium. Selling steak for low, to make condiments and spices expensive. Selling printers for below-cost, to make ink a re-occuring premium. Making phones obsolete with updates, to get consumers on the upgrade cycle. I can not find a single good reason against megaphones not being tradable and more accessible besides possibly spammers.
It is to my understanding that in the other versions you have the recruit message function in party search, which is not here because it would thwart the sales of megaphones, but at the very least consider my argument.
