Regarding free FE

from Elemental Forums

A question for the devs here, while a free copy of FE was offered to those customers who purchased WOM before a specified date, how does stardock intend to treat customers who bought the game after this date? I was one of the customers in this second group and personally willl not be buying FE because of the very poor WOM. If it were a physical product such as a car or fridge then going by what hasn't worked, not been implementented and so on this would be a case for false advertising.

If Stardock intend to offer the same free FE deal to all of it's WOM customers it may go some way to repairing a damaged reputation, but currently I as a customer feel only that a company has taken my money for a product that definitely does not do what it says on the tin, then simply offered patch after patch which only seems to take features away one at a time yet still leave a broken product. All the while the company then decides to move onto other things which then seem to think I will once again part with money for. If it wasn't simply a video game it would be a prime story for any tv show reporting on cowboy tradesman.

So to the devs what do you intend to offer loyal customers of WOM as any kind of incentive to continue to be a customer of Stardock? 

elemental
7,016 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I believe they said there would be a discount option of some kind for anybody who owns WoM.

That said... if you didn't qualify for free FE that means you bought it several months after release. Why didn't you know the state it was in by then?

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

People who bought Elemental after the cutoff date will be able to purchase FE at a discount.

 

DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

A question for the devs here,

....what do you intend to offer loyal customers of WOM as any kind of incentive to continue to be a customer of Stardock? 

End of quote

I don't believe a "loyal customer" of WOM (product) or SD (entity issuing product) would make such an unseemly demand.

-.-

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

So to the devs what do you intend to offer loyal customers of WOM as any kind of incentive to continue to be a customer of Stardock? 
End of quote

 

All posing about customer loyalty aside, they plan to offer the only thing that ever gets anyone to continue being a customer of any (non-service-based) company: a product that people want.  In this case, a good game.  Frankly, most of the people who bought WoM and were disappointed would have bought Fallen Enchantress when it came out if they heard it was good, even if Stardock just blew us all a giant raspberry.  We buy games because we want to play them.  Period.  Only a very few avoid games they want to play because of indignation or hurt feelings.

 

To clarify, I have no intention of ever buying a Stardock game unless I expect to enjoy it - and I never did. Does that make me disloyal?  Hardly.  Loyalty is nearly meaningless as a concept when applied to a brand.  We buy the brand because we like the brand's product.  And lo and behold, I own a fair number of Stardock games.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting tanafres, reply 4

So to the devs what do you intend to offer loyal customers of WOM as any kind of incentive to continue to be a customer of Stardock? 

 

All posing about customer loyalty aside, they plan to offer the only thing that ever gets anyone to continue being a customer of any (non-service-based) company: a product that people want.  In this case, a good game.  Frankly, most of the people who bought WoM and were disappointed would have bought Fallen Enchantress when it came out if they heard it was good, even if Stardock just blew us all a giant raspberry.  We buy games because we want to play them.  Period.  Only a very few avoid games they want to play because of indignation or hurt feelings.

 

To clarify, I have no intention of ever buying a Stardock game unless I expect to enjoy it - and I never did. Does that make me disloyal?  Hardly.  Loyalty is nearly meaningless as a concept when applied to a brand.  We buy the brand because we like the brand's product.  And lo and behold, I own a fair number of Stardock games.
End of tanafres's quote

 

Well said. :thumbsup:

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Stardock was on a good roll until WOM.  FE, to me, will determine whether the problems with WOM are growing pains or a bad trend.

 

That said, Stardock has earned the benefit of their doubt with their past history and actions from me.  That's the loyalty they have built up from their past decisions. 

 

Here's the question though: how can you judge the success of a game like FE, when so many folks are going to be playing it for free? 

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Alstein, reply 6
Here's the question though: how can you judge the success of a game like FE, when so many folks are going to be playing it for free? 
End of Alstein's quote

Going by sales, they mentioned that WoM picked back up some in the winter and was at least modestly successful by volume. I wouldn't infer from sales that WoM was a success though.

It should be fairly straightforward to judge FE. Are people replaying it? Do the hours per player go up? Are people having fun? Are reviews better?

Ultimately if people enjoy playing FE, then it is a success.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Tridus, reply 7
Ultimately if people enjoy playing FE, then it is a success.

End of Tridus's quote

:thumbsup: