Post by eathotlead on Mar 8, 2017 14:03:55 GMT
Totally failing to meet your own player-base expectations cannot have good results on the marketing.
It's true, they are a business company and their primary goal is to make money, I'm fine with that, what baffles me is that this move and how (poorly) it was handled is a lot more likely to make them LOSE customers (and so money) then gain them.
Ironically, as a hobbyist who STILL has his main subforum intact over there, I nonetheless feel like PP disconnected me from the editorialized news (there WAS some good editorializing), faction-specific community, expertise and enthusiasm, and motivation for the game in general. It may be silly that I care as much as I do about what my beloved Rhulic and Khadoran models can do rules-wise, but I do. It may be silly that I feel a connection to the community and company as a whole but after a dozen years, I do. Hell, Matt Wilson used to personally reply to my emails.
This is why it feels a bit like a betrayal. I understand that growth leads to a change of procedure and that managing the foolishness became a burden. But brand loyalty among customers IS a goal of a smart businessman. As I stated on the PP (not-so) Big Board's, the 80/20 Rule, whereby 80% of profits can come from 20% of the repeat customer base, seems abandoned. (Having a customer in the store seems like a better shot at a sale than trying to get the uninitiated in the door to begin with.) In its place there seems to be a new mission of panning for the ever-present next batch of noobs, while providing much less support for those of us who spent 100s to 1000s of dollars as loyal repeat customers. I rarely make it to my LGS because of my work demands but I did check in on the PP boards weekly to daily to see what was happening. This will never happen for me via Facebook and Twitter.
I am no expert in business or social media theory but I agree that some stern banning and forum restructuring rather than abandoning huge sections of its core would've been smarter. The deletion of subforums that brought together new players with vets PLUS the creation of the CID forums (to keep buff/ nerf demands elsewhere) seems analogous to the "double nerf" heavy handedness that PP has been applying to the game itself. To me, these are poor decisions.