Mon Oct 21, 2024 8:35 am
since people are weighing in, either completely anti or just acknowledging the increase and whether or not it will affect their own participation, I offer the following 2 cents (might be 4 or 6 cents total now, haha)
on one hand, I look at it as a cost comparative....although i live in Asia, I was in USA during covid time 2000-2020, 2 1/2 years....i know inflation has gotten worse, so prices are even higher than I remember....so, lets say one is lucky to get a fast food meal for $5-$10, and eating at a sit down restaurant, one is probably lucky to get out with meal cost, and additional beverage alcoholic or not, tax and tip being less than $20, certainly $15 would be difficult in many states
and at a higher level restaurant (than a chilis, chain, more reasonably priced) it would be upwards of $20-$30 easy
so if we average all of those, let's be generous (to SOM in this comparison) and say the $25 proposed new team fee, would arguably cost 2 meals worth of expense to a customer, probably closer to 1.5 times rather than 2.....
so, in that respect, for the cost of 1.5 meals, the pricing doesn't sound all that crazy....everything is crazy expensive nowadays, and anything that isn't, appreciate the snot out of and hold onto it like a dying man grasping an oxygen tank
a ticket to a concert, sporting event, etc is even much higher
and they're paying fast food burger flippers (nothing wrong with the people, only paying an imbalanced higher salary for non-skilled labor) $20 per hour in California
and lastly, for something that lasts a couple months, even at only 3 games per day, it could be argued the pricing has relative value (palmtanna, don't show this to SOM big wigs)....
on the other hand, there is the question of cost of product.....and profit margin....the initial and ongoing costs of doing business is the cumulative variable "x"......and, the total amount of customer fees (not counting additional revenue from cross marketing real life board version and PC computer version) earned over the lifetime of 365 would be "y"
the "y" will always go up as long as SOM is in business, as if all customers stop buying something, surely SOM would close the site......and the "x" also will always go up, as someone needs to monitor the business, email, technical, etc....however it would be argued, that not counting proposed new changes and features, the initial set up cost a long time ago is a fixed fee/amount, and the maintenance (or not) might be not that high or even non-existent.....has the site ever been down or had a 'bug' due to technical issues ?...there might not be any Wizard of Oz behind the curtain then....it's just a self-propelled ball that keeps rolling, and as long as customers keep paying, no reason to stop the ball.....so, the real factor that would increase the "x" in above equation would be staff overhead, namely salaries and any brick and mortar real life headquarters (if it's not just a PO box).....
so it begs the question, what is the relative % and amount of increase of those two respective variables ?
with initial set up cost over a long time ago, each and every new customer game fee further reduces that initial cost (factor)
With maintenance of the game itself perhaps miniscule or non-existent, each and every customer game fee reduces that as well
so, when viewing the salary and overhead issue, the 2nd question begs, "how much of a raise does the staff want ?" and "how much more profit does ownership want to grab ?"
and, certainly, the "y" factor of equation would rise much faster and cumulative than the "x" factor above.....
I realize its a business...and no business would remain in business if constantly losing money for almost 30 years ? (except the WNBA).....and a successful, even modestly successful business deserves to turn a profit....
the proof will be in the pudding regarding if proposed changes actually do occur....and hopefully they won't take ages to implement.....
I myself plan to take a "wait and see" approach, checking the site, forum, and updates....and perhaps playing in one league every once in a while just to monitor those also....but, I believe if they don't listen to some of the feedback (Palmtana, sure it's been thought of before, but if not, wouldn't it be a good idea to take a survey about the most requested problems to be fixed and changes to be made, and then formatting that survey into some kind of polite petition ?...and of course forwarded to appropriate parties ?), and make changes that I feel increase the overall value of the game, and in turn increased game fees, I might just not continue at all, or like a lot of people, and a reduced or greatly reduced rate
im also on the fence about the last week of october....one on hand (running out of hands here), it would seem natural to want to buy credits at current pricing before they go up, even if not planning on buying them after the increase, just to "say goodbye" to the game......but on the other hand, another part of me is saying if I am not going to continue anyway, why should i use that money for one last "fling" ?
dang, i needed an industrial strength soapbox for that, sorry
