Countdown to Shutdown Forum Game

Discussion in 'Users’ Corner' started by HMS-Indefatigable, Feb 6, 2018.

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  1. HMS-Indefatigable

    HMS-Indefatigable Someday Author

    It is painfully obvious that seafight's days are numbered gasping at it's final dying breaths trying to get every bit of revenue it can before Bigpoint pulls the plug. How about a forum guessing game as to the last day of Seafight? It would be called "Countdown to Shutdown" and would be a great opportunity for Bigpoint to convert those players to one of their other games they have not completely run into the ground yet like DarkOrbot or something where they are given game credits. Players that guess the correct shutdown date win credits to another Bigpoint family game.
     
    HMS-Harp likes this.
  2. USSChallenger1

    USSChallenger1 Old Hand

    Well, certainly this is an idea but if the number of playing this particular game is actually 48 million there is a good chance this game isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. Players who have invested in their ships, yes, will lose everything they put into it unless BP decides to refund some or all monies to the players, credits towards another game seems unlikely for some players don't play anything else but this game 24/7/365.
     
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  3. HMS-Indefatigable

    HMS-Indefatigable Someday Author

    USS Challenger look at how many actual new players are starting this game. Hardly any for quite some time. It is mostly existing players adding more to their fleet. Bots have consumed the game with no penalty and although some may spend money the vast amount affect the bottom line which I'd imagine has or soon will cross the threshold where the game is simply not sustainable anymore to run. Bottom line it is a business and regardless of how much money you have spent if they are losing money you signed up legally to lose everything should it cease operations. You paid for your time to play which could given the opportunity for a generous credit to retain you as a customer in another game. It all depends on how Bigpoint handles it. Credits based on money spent in the past for continuous play? You could win even more credits if you guess the correct shutdown date as suggested for a forum game.
     
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  4. Sea-Sea

    Sea-Sea Forum Inhabitant

    I do not think that BP will pull the plug within the next 2-3 years, and in case they do, I strongly assume that SF players will not be left with nothing? - I guess, that they maybe will get a gift certificate of maybe 10-20% of what money they have used in SF, to be used on some of the other games, BP have to offer? - If they just shut down the game without any compensation, it is a disgrace. I have personally used approx. the equivalent of 20.000 usd the past 10 years on SF. If I could get a gift certificate off 3.000 USD to be used on another BP game, I would be satisfied.

    With 10-20% compensation, most players would be able to build up high level "vessels" in other games that BP have to offer, and after approx. 1-2 years, the compensation would be spent, and most players would start using real money on the new game they choose. Without any compensation, 95% of the former SF players would never ever use a single dime on any BP game in the future.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2018
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  5. timarpaul1

    timarpaul1 Forum Pro

    the compensation shood be a free game the way SF start
     
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  6. HMS-Harp

    HMS-Harp Forum Apprentice

    Or they could learn from the mistakes made in the 1st Seafight and come out with a new Seafight II. The bots can stay in the old one. :)
     
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  7. timarpaul1

    timarpaul1 Forum Pro

    nice idea
     
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  8. Destruction

    Destruction Old Hand

    As much as I would love for this game to push on, that's 48 million registered accounts. IDs are sequential (starting at a set number, I think 39/2000000 is the lowest on UK for example). If you look from 2007 through to 2012 or so, the IDs range from the low millions up to around 40 million. Since 2012 this has increased to 41.8m. It just shows that in the first 5 years of the game almost 40 million accounts were created. (That averages nearly 22,000 accounts per day). In the following 5 years there have averaged 1.8 million accounts, a mere 935 accounts per day. I would imagine that if you looked at 2017 alone I doubt over 10k accounts were created in the year. This is a 96% drop in new customers and that is looking at an average of the past 5 years, not to mention the significantly lower rate it would be today.

    This has given me quite an interest in the rate of player drop-off over the last 10 years. I'll grab a load of IDs over the next week or 2 and take down their start dates and make a graph. I'm sad like that...
     
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  9. HMS-Courageous

    HMS-Courageous Forum Apprentice

    I look at Bokers and the old me would spend $100 USD on it this month but with the maps completely filled with bots with zero penalty and the new accounts starting up botting right away with those players being previous players or existing just adding additional boats to their fleet for whatever reasons there is no way I'd spend a dime on this game. As a business I see it getting worse at a faster rate and before they pull the plug there is an opportunity to convert customers to other family games. It can be tweaked however based on money spent on Seafight, guessing shutdown date or whatever. With all the credits a players could be set up fairly well on Dark Orbot for example after Seafight ceases to exist.
     
  10. A-R-K-Y

    A-R-K-Y Forum Overlooker

    One key bit of information you are forgetting is now that User IDs are now Server related. Meaning that you can have 20 or more different players with the exact same ID on their own individual server. So seeing the increase in ID number on England 1 for instance only shows the increase on that server. To get a valid increase amount you would need to note the start ID and end ID on all servers and add them together.

    By that same reasoning, it also means that the ID number also increases slower, as you would need 1million players to join on 1 server for the IDs on your server to go from 42m -> 43m


    In regards to this thread, whether you believe it or not, it is quite obvious that Bigpoint does not plan on closing this game anytime soon. With the large updates they keep bringing out, new levels, new map redesign, all new quests/test 1-20, new npcs, moving skills to the seachart, even the introduction of new long term payment items (extensions), a new rumoured trophy system. It is quite clear to me that with all this work being put in, BP dont expect this game to end anytime soon.

    -Arky
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2018
  11. Grand-mariner™

    Grand-mariner™ Forum Veteran

    Rmember Carillion and British Home Stores. They put lots of work in and didn't expect their businesses to end either and thought they were infallible. The moral of the story being, the bigger they are the harder they can fall.

    All companies need to learn to listen to, act upon, take onboard the feedback and treat their customers with respect, or face a similar fate!

    Marks & Spencer next?

    Without enough support and backing of their customers, a business with realistic expectations of a viable future will not exist forever.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2018
  12. HMS-Harp

    HMS-Harp Forum Apprentice

    Arky,

    Bigpoint can have their developers bring out new things all they want but if they do not address the fundamental problems that are key to the survival of this game what difference does it make? We lost two players that had pretty decent boats. They just walked away from the game here in Global 6. What fun is it to go from map to map and there are bots and no live players? Then later those live players just switch over to bot mode. How can one compete and then BP tries to make up for the shortfall in revenue by constantly and desperately pushing new pay to play items which further affect the affordability out of reach when the quality of play, devaluing of items and no enforcement of T & C?

    As mentioned before there are probably a very few who run bots themselves that Bigpoint management looks the other way and these few support the game financially as their quasi-private online game from server to server but with players leaving, more bots saturation and then reduce the maps do you realize the mass exodus that will occur? With the rate of those leaving the game accelerating combined with quality of play and online competition out there by companies that are customer focused even those few financial supporters of the game will walk away also.

    Countdown to Shutdown forum game is coming and could be used as an opportunity to convert and retain players/customers to another Bigpoint family of games.


    Seafight 1.0 soon to have a status of died on this date?
     
  13. HMS-Harp

    HMS-Harp Forum Apprentice

    My background is sales/ customer service and was very surprised by an email response from support after I once again after 9 months reported a series 4 bots with identical skins and pets with nearly the similar type of name running on 4 maps every day owned by the same person. I asked if it was an employee and was very tactful and reminded them how obvious it was and that I reported them before and requested I do not get the same form letter response. The response I got was that they really did not have a bot problem and their bot scans are run daily. I posted this support response on the forum removing the name and it was quickly deleted.

    Bigpoint is obviously not investing in critical areas for the long term survival of this game. I cannot believe this would be a standard within the industry of how to treat customers especially if they looked at my past history going back years to see how much money I spent on this game. Any other company especially brick and mortar would have been shuttered pronto if they treated their customers this way paying or non paying.

    I saved that email from support and will send it to my old university business school to be used as an example of what not to do.
     
  14. frankthetank1974

    frankthetank1974 Board Analyst

    cough cough :eek: ,,,,, hey its our money we choose not to spend, and there jobs :oops: whos the winner until a time when they do a full revamp from the top to the bottom .:Dthat alone rings alarm bells and must pose questions in those board room meetings ...:oops:
     
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  15. Destruction

    Destruction Old Hand

    Arky,

    I hadn't forgotten this, I just didnt find it relevant enough to add to what was already a fairly long post. The mega servers started in September 2015, 2 and a half years ago, but it was long before this that the IDs slowed down majorly. My ID is 32 million, so roughly 75% of the way from the start until now. My account is 7 years old, so in the first 3 years of the server before my account was created there were 32 million accounts made. There were then 5 years between my account being created and the Mega Servers beginning, where the first 3 digits of almost all accounts being made around this time beginning 418 (41.8m). So, although the Mega Servers have had the effect you say, the change is still miniscule as in the first 3 years over 75% of the boats were created, with the following 7 years bringing only 30% or so extra players.


    There was more than meets the eye with Carollion.... Very interesting what you learn when you work for their bankers! But yes, sudden changes in the market or a simple error in a clause in an agreement can cause a swift end to any company, especially one with as many floors as BigPoint.

    ~Des
     
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  16. HMS-Harp

    HMS-Harp Forum Apprentice

    A month? 3 months left?
     
    Lil`Wolf likes this.
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