"Black Friday Big Spender Event"

I think there's quite a difference between clever business strategy and being a socially responsible company. Telling Nexon that it should offer more free things to players/make items more attainable is like telling a casino that it should improve the odds for gamblers because it's 'better business practice'. If demand for cubes, wards, marvel machine and whatnot is relatively inelastic from its major income sources, why should Nexon even considering making any changes to its business model?

Aren't slot machines legally required to have published....
huh I just looked it up and somehow that isn't the case, for indian casinos anyway.

Well, regardless, people who spend this much very rarely do so "casually", but as addicts. If a "casual" someone drops a couple Hamiltons to try to benefit from one of these things, it's usually a one-time thing and afterwards they will probably never buy into it again, providing they don't get hooked and now have an addiction.

Aren't slot machines legally required to have published....
huh I just looked it up and somehow that isn't the case, for indian casinos anyway.

And I think every Casino I know of/have been to is owned by natives.

On the gambling machines and odds thing-

Actual gambling is restricted to people who are 18 or over. Most people of adult age have the mental capacity to seek out machines that don't absolutely suck. Even on a recent episode of 'Bar Rescue' (and yes, I know at least some of shows like that are scripted and not fully genuine), one of the rescued establishments had video poker machines built in around the bar, and one of the issues with the bar failing is that the payout was hideously bad and nobody would touch them again. Instead, being in Las Vegas, they'd go to another bar with video poker and gamble there. By increasing the payout rate to being just as good as or slightly above the others nearby, the machines actually became decent sources of revenue.

And part of why Nexon doesn't offer better odds/service is due to a lack of competition. There are other MMO's around, but no other company has really put out a GOOD free-to-play 2D MMO that lasts a long time. I mean, in general the MMO market has a lot of failures due to games not being good, lacking in content, being run horribly, etc. And because people put so much effort into characters, accounts, items, and so forth, it's difficult to just switch over when something better comes along. Plus, you have a lot of kids playing the game, and they might just throw money at the game without realizing how little they're getting in value and service.

Gambling in general really isn't an issue, it's the fact you have too in order to reach their imaginary standard for the newer bosses.

Gambling in general really isn't an issue, it's the fact you have too in order to reach their imaginary standard for the newer bosses.

And the fact that unlike a real casino or lottery, Nexon does not need to pay anything back when someone bust the bank or win the mega jackpot.

And the fact that unlike a real casino or lottery, Nexon does not need to pay anything back when someone bust the bank or win the mega jackpot.

Well, there kind of is no "mega jackpot", thankfully.

That is, except for the 1 Million Maplepoints prize from Marvel Machine. Sorta. I still think a government agency needs to be brought in to investigate that little operation.

They absolutely do. The population alone has deteriated to a fraction of what a single event day was 4 years ago. You have a Korean company running an American business, who's lost 3 community managers in the last 3 months. In fact, they are so out of touch with us, they literally took, word by word, the southperry users opinion on that stupid maplestory survey thing we had/having.

Common sense would tell me that a business wants more revenue, not to lose money firing people. There are very minor changes that nexon can do to triple their profits, what business would deny that? A dumb one.

Edit:

And would you like to specify what costs would be associated with unbanning an account, thus keeping the user happy and spending? The correct answer is not unban f`ucking everyone. This imaginary cost that you're making up does not apply to Nexon since all of their products are completely intangible, and most of them just needs someone with a "admin" tag to do a certain change on an account.

Man, your ass is so far up nexon's ass that it's no wonder you're totally oblivious. A company like this cannot thrive on the top 5% who are addicts who tolerate this nonsense. It's nonsensical that you have to spend thousands of dollars to defeat a boss, in fact release bosses that are undefeatable, mathmatically, in fact, perma bannable if you get to close, just to bait people to spend more. Considering their profits have had a consistant drop, along with the population, means this practice has no longetivity potential. At all.

So why should they? So that there isn't a few thousand people playing a day to the point where they spend so much, the gaping obvious reality of lack of content sacrificed for f`ucking different methods to assure a controlled variable on some unbalanced stat which results them quitting to repeat the cycle.

Your entire perspective is unresearched and assumed to be working well since they are doing it, as you assume this company is competent. Surfuckingprise.

People get fired all the time in the real world. Most of it is invisible to the public. Having a turnover rate of 30 days could mean a number of things; the culture at Nexon is extremely aggressive and intolerant, or the community managers were incompetent in general. And no, talking to users on SouthPerry does not automatically make them competent.

The costs associated with that is customer service staff. If a company sees no value in having good customer service, then they will simply not invest much into it. While customer service could be a deal-breaker for some businesses (such as your pizza delivery example), for others, not so much. Most of the time players aren't going to have any major issues with the game -- unhappy people go on forums to complain, whilst the opposite is not true.

You're arguing for a lost cause here. I'm saying that there is nothing wrong with what Nexon is doing as a business milking its customers. You clearly have an issue with corporates making money. I certainly have my doubts as to the sustainability of the current business model, but for the short term, it is working well. RED attempts to address some of these issues, and I'm sure they're aware of that themselves. But change can't be implemented overnight, because they need to make everyone happy -- which is no easy task.

Also, care to tweak the tone to your posts a little? I respect the fact this is an emotional topic for you, but swearing and ad hominem attacks don't make you any smarter or more correct.

Good business practise is not an opposite to clever business strategy. Aiming at player addiction like Nexon are doing, and adding so many undesirable outcomes instead of making the players feel good about their investment is not only bad strategy in the long run, it is also highly unethical.
Even when you get that high end outcome, be it 21% main stat or the latest end game weapon, you will generally feel disguisted after the hype goes down; if you dare to really look at how much it cost you.
And the many, many players that spend alot without results? Yea, no wonder people shun Maple these days.

Oh, and don't confuse my post with some kind of rant because I want to be handed stuff on a silver plattern. I just felt that for a brief moment, when Girasol was in power, that Nexon might become something you could stand behind. They suddenly went transparent, and seemed to take the customers opinions into consideration. We all know how that ended up.

And now we have yet another event where their aim is clear, but obviously not as clear as I though since so many miss it. The way they have opperated the Cash Shop this last year should provide enough hints...

Right, so you have issues with Nexon throwing in bonuses and promotional offers? Not sure if I'm missing something here.

People get fired all the time in the real world. Most of it is invisible to the public. Having a turnover rate of 30 days could mean a number of things; the culture at Nexon is extremely aggressive and intolerant, or the community managers were incompetent in general. And no, talking to users on SouthPerry does not automatically make them competent.

Yes girasol and autrax were completely incompetent. Which is why they used all the data Autrax collected from us in that new survey. Though I'll give you sympathy here since you don't have donor status so you can't see what actually happens with the community managers. Though to be honest most of your crap you're spouting is un-researched and just generic understanding.

The costs associated with that is customer service staff. If a company sees no value in having good customer service, then they will simply not invest much into it.

...Have you been living under a rock? Like seriously, you must be Patrick Star. They have invested lots of money into new toys, such as a live chat system, they have tried to cover the tracks behind their incompetence by trying these "give us a chance" rallies. The entire cost of customer service is already there, it isn't an extra expense, it's honestly the priorities they are having problems with. Have you actually seen the job description for being manager of the customer service department? I have, because it's been listed more than once. It always says the same "SEVERELY LIMITED" crap. They are tying their own hands together and it's not saving them a dime.

While customer service could be a deal-breaker for some businesses (such as your pizza delivery example), for others, not so much. Most of the time players aren't going to have any major issues with the game -- unhappy people go on forums to complain, whilst the opposite is not true.

Yeah that makes sense, only the complainers are heard! Please. I have been playing this game for 8 years, it wasn't until these damn cubes came out until you saw a severe discredit of the company. People had faith though, then people got hacked by a data base leak, which they couldn't even admit to use. Okay, some people got lucky and recovered, then they got permabanned in error, nexon's solution being unban nearly everyone.

Then you have things that we can actually fact check such as population/profits which completely contradict your argument, not that you actually have one.

You're arguing for a lost cause here. I'm saying that there is nothing wrong with what Nexon is doing as a business milking its customers. You clearly have an issue with corporates making money. I certainly have my doubts as to the sustainability of the current business model, but for the short term, it is working well. RED attempts to address some of these issues, and I'm sure they're aware of that themselves. But change can't be implemented overnight, because they need to make everyone happy -- which is no easy task.

Are we reading the same stuff here? Do I need to quote myself to shed some light on this?

There are very minor changes that nexon can do to triple their profits, what business would deny that? A dumb one.

I'm in fact encouraging profit gains, I'm shunning them as they flush all this down the drain just to be inconvenient. Obviously something will have to change, or like DFO it's going to croak. Why do you think Eos has been suggesting different way's the website can go?

Also, care to tweak the tone to your posts a little? I respect the fact this is an emotional topic for you, but swearing and ad hominem attacks don't make you any smarter or more correct.

Sorry, it's just ya know, when you read these same arguments on basilmarket/mapleglobal, you kind of get irritated because it's like we have to sit you down and get the brainwash out with a high powered hose.

Fucking hell.
Lost my entire response when I tried clicked the wrong button.

[MENTION=4235]KhainiWest[/MENTION] ; I don't want to retype everything, but I'll just say that my goal was never argue for Nexon, but rather, suggest that not everything is as one-sided as some users here suggest. You clearly seem to have a stronger opinion about this issue, and everything that doesn't bash Nexon reads like bullcrap to you. I don't see an end to this since the whole basis of which we look at things is different.

Yea, giving freebies is all that is happening here. Let us all join hands and dance around the bonfire.

....since you don't have donor status so you can't see what actually happens with the community managers.

Care to share what you know for those who are neither doners nor fully accomplished in the subtle ways of the Google?

Care to share what you know for those who are neither doners nor fully accomplished in the subtle ways of the Google?

Wouldn't that take away the point of donating a few dollars?

@KhainiWest ; I don't want to retype everything, but I'll just say that my goal was never argue for Nexon, but rather, suggest that not everything is as one-sided as some users here suggest. You clearly seem to have a stronger opinion about this issue, and everything that doesn't bash Nexon reads like bullcrap to you. I don't see an end to this since the whole basis of which we look at things is different.

But while the con-nexon actually has examples and pretty much common sense applied to their points, your entire basis is "NUH UH, THIS IS HOW COMPANIES WORK", which is you defining the very basic's of something as groundless as "expenses". Even when you try to push this "ITS NOT WORTH INVESTING IT APPARENTLY", nexon is standing behind you going "uh...well we dumped a couple mil into this online chat service to save face so....".

You don't have to be arguing for nexon for me to argue against you, even at a "skeptical" nexon basis. Before you suggest that I mindlessly go around shutting nexon down at every goddamn oppurtunity, when I see them do something right, I show my support by purchasing NX. When girasol nuked the marvel machine, I dumped 50 bucks into it and gave away everything I got, including the tyrant gear. But like anyone else on this website, if I see bull sh`it, I don't care if you're my best friend of 18 years, I will point it out to you and why your line of thinking isn't justified.

Thought I pushed the edit button, disregard.

Care to share what you know for those who are neither donors nor fully accomplished in the subtle ways of the Google?

Wouldn't that take away the point of donating a few dollars?

Care to share how you know? I mean the general populace has until this point been pretty much unaware of any "secret club" nonsense going on here. How far does the rabbit hole go?

Care to share how you know? I mean the general populace has until this point been pretty much unaware of any "secret club" nonsense going on here. How far does the rabbit hole go?

There's a donor specific forum. Donate, you'll see it.

Donate, you'll see it.

only if I can use buttcoins.

I logged in earlier this morning, and accumulated enough points to grab 2 pets. I wanted to see if you can redeem multiples of the same offered item - turns out you can. I'm sorry if this is old news for this event, but I read through the thread and didn't immediately spot a comment that says, "You can redeem multiples of the same item in the Big Spender Event."

For anyone that wants to crucify me for choosing pets over the other stuff - my money, I want pets, do not care about other items.