The fatal flaw with the current business model.

But is that really enough, after thinking over what people buy in the original MS, i have to give the current model the advantage in reaping more money. Whether it's flawed for us or is exhaustible is merely opinion. Currently nexon is making enough to keep them afloat given that the game is old and pretty monotonous, their strategy has keep them alive for 7 years now? I honestly can't see them surviving financially using suggestions i'm seeing put forward in this thread and here is why.

Population drops, even seasonal players, such as yourself are becoming more common. Other nexon branches have in fact shut down, nexon america is surviving off a small percentage player base, they know it too. That's why they are going outside of their forum, that's why they're trying to come up with better ways of communication, that's why they try things like the leaf brigade. They want to make the user's longevity longer, their current model discourages that.

Their current model makes it so hard it takes ages and money to get stuff done, whether anyone wants to believe it or not, this keeps players in the game long because they take a while reach all the content and even get strong enough to take it on.

You're arguing a perspective with no basis. I'm arguing a fact that the population has dipped and players only come around and stay a few months after every patch. The metagame gets stronger for those who invest time and money, not or. You are rewarded for sticking around, but those rewards are small %'s compared to the NX you would have to spend to enjoy the metagame.

These players that you have made up do not spend long periods of times just working to get basic privileges, they either spend nx, quit, or come on to socialize until that itself gets boring. The last two do not make nexon money. The first one is something you chose.

This works because let's face it games are exhaustible, after fighting a boss once in a game like this, especially the "strongest" there is no reason to continue improving. Even if the bosses had great drops, as i said it would only make getting to the hardest boss faster and then the boredom after you complete it will set it in pretty fast.

Maplestory is a game mostly about upgrading. By killing a boss, the strongest mind you, the goal is to do it faster, to get money faster, to upgrade better, for all of your characters. Although, killing the same bosses over and over again, if you're making money doing it, it'll never get boring because that players is thinking of the long term. They are trying to get strong enough so when the next boss comes out, they are apart of the first kill. It'll only gets boring when you're making a small profit out of it, which eventually happens because the metagame catches up with the "elite". So what nexon should do is allow players to reach the metagame in a reasonable proportional method, long term it's a better method as it encourages players to actually play the game, rather than to buy to win. This is like really basic marketing. The 3ds is a $200 product, they released the 2ds and the 1ds to make affordable alternatives to those who want the upcoming release of pokemon. Granted nintendo is still making money, but you also forget that every cash shop item in existence has no operating cost. It's simply a collection of data out of thin air. Operating costs are already budgeted.

There is a certain satisfaction you gain by having to dedicate and strive through what seems like a mountain of tedium to finally arrive where you wanted, it's about the journey. I'm usually more satisfied by the process of getting to my desired level then actually just being there, it's something to look forward to, when you get there it's like meh now what, and you find another "useful" mountain to climb. That's how maple ropes people in, that is it's gimmick.

...Until you hit a wall where you're essentially forced to buy NX to continue. You can still create a journey to get there, and all the way there. In fact that's what I'm suggesting...there should be no "rope" that is nearly impossible because of the ocean of time or money you'd have to invest, especially for the better part of the game, where you actually have the potential to make profit.

They have alot of options for customization that you pay for, whether it be looks or more practical stuff like equipment upgrades and pets etc, people are willing to pay for what they want once they can, is it crappy that the clothes last 90 days? That's 3 months, that's 9 times longer than i spend on any other game besides dota and maple, and person can finish other games in a week or a couple days and toss it.

When people start, they want to work for the items, and would probably do so for the first two/three makeovers, pets, cubes, whatever. After that, they would start purchasing because they just want the reward. I don't know your personal experience with video games, but every game I have purchased has insane replay value, battlefield 3 is a different game everytime you play it.

So even if it's a triple A game that costs $50 dollars, nexon makes way more than $50 on average per person for certain items, that alone is enough reason to keep the current business model, because games get boring super fast when you can get what you want, and believe me those who you can get it without paying won't pay for it if they have the time, so that feature is useless to you as a business, It doesn't help you make money whatsoever. Those who want to buy and save time will buy and given how people usually buy in bundles you will automatically pass the $50 per game standard without noticing.

Uh what item's outside of cubing, or marvel machine events? Then you're disregarding that most games are in fact $60-80 dollars, which goes to show how familiar you are with the current market, not including the DLC (Borderlands 2 alone had almost $100 in additional DLC). The point of my suggestion is not to give everything to a player on a silver platter, I don't know why this concept is so hard for you to understand. I'll draw you a picture instead.

 Spoiler

Yes they may rely on the 10% as you said for the big bucks but that is not to say the 90% doesn't spend any money at all, and i'm pretty sure the 90% will spend more than $20 on average compared to what you were saying for the PS, so inaddition to the big bucks they are getting from the 10% they are still getting a fair amount from the other 90%.

...Considering I just sent you the IPO for the last 3 frekin quarters of a steady drop, for nexon america specifically, your entire statement is fallacious at best. Considering that "90%" we just spoke about actually go to private servers to save money as the cost steep is no where near the same, I would reckon to say they are losing a considerable amount of potential profit, based on their current model.

Also like to point out with the red update they are taking baby steps to attempt to fix this, which would mean they are aware of the problem, which would mean your statements are not only unresearched speculation but you faith in this companies "business finesse" is grossly over estimated.

It's easy to say they should do this and should do that, in terms of us as players yes it may be a bit unfair or w/e you want to call it, but from a business perspective, it hasn't failed yet, and other options that i'm seeing being put forward don't seem to come close to bringing in the same revenue they are seeing with their current model.
If they was a better way to make more money i'm pretty sure they would have done it.

How can you speak on the business perspective when I just showed you their business is actually doing worse every passing quarter. I'm sorry to tell you this, but I work with business' every frekin day of the week, you're trying to sound like you have any remote idea about, but you're clearly oblivious. Considering other branches of the nexon company have in fact failed, based on indulging this model, your opinion is not only wrong, it's downright hilarious.

Not sure where i'm supposed to check for the numbers but seeing less than 1k online for the biggest ones, i'll check back later in the day to see how high the numbers will go up when people wake up. Is there is way to check the numbers for GMS as easily?

Votes are a very good indication. Extalia has 1300-2000 per day. That's ONE server, and it's very difficult to do a duplicate vote.