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    Your Elvenar Team

The 100% more diamonds offer

SunsetDanar

Well-Known Member
I play in two worlds. I'm in chapter 14 in one and just short of finishing chapter 18 in the other. I seldom buy diamonds in ether one but continually get the 100% more diamonds promo only in my chapter 14 world.. I have bought diamonds on occasion in both worlds but most often to pick up the end of an expansion promo. I'd probably buy it if it was offered in my chapter 18 world so where is the marketing emphasis?
 

Silver Lady

Well-Known Member
What difference does it make when diamonds are common to an account not a world? I play in three worlds and the time I bought diamonds in one world they went in my diamond inventory which is the same for all 3 worlds.
 

getmomo

Well-Known Member
I've gotten it many times. But I have never bought any diamonds so that is probably why I always get offered really good deals.
 

Rp44

Active Member
I think you mean you have two accounts, two different player names? I play from several different accounts and some get offers and some do not (besides game wide offers). There is no marketing emphasis as far as I can tell. Whether you get offers or not seems quite random and set from the beginning of the account. Do you get better offers if you spend money on one? Some seem to, or at least continue to get random offers. But some accounts never get offers at all (besides the offers everyone gets at the same time) so there is no way for those accounts to get better offers by showing they will spend.

I have tried buying regular diamonds in the two accounts that get none a couple of times over the last two years, hoping to trigger other offers, but to no avail. On the other end, one account got a very nice offer right from the start that included a free expansion and that account gets offers all the time. Whenever it really irritates me, I have to think of it like the rest of the RNG in this game- those two accounts with no offers just got the bad luck part of that curve.
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
One thing I think you can be sure about is that whatever offers you receive they are not random. If you think about the massive amount of data Inno has received about how players spend -- each time they spend it's tracked and added to that giant pool of data -- it would be a truly foolish thing to not apply some statistical analysis to figure out who buys what, and when and why. In other words, they do know who buys what and when and under what circumstances. So, instead of some random number generator making random guesses, it's a pretty sophisticated algorithm. And that algorithm, no doubt, has some artificial intelligence and rewrites or modifies itself as the data pool grows larger and larger. No, as a former IT guy working at some pretty high levels of analysis, I can say it's very unlikely the RNG has anything to do with it.

So what is the algorithm? It's complicated. Very complicated. And, like I said, it might even be self adjusting/creating. So our own ability to influence it is pretty close to nil unless we start a massive movement to shift our buying habits.

AJ
 

Darielle

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, and Buddy Fan Club Member
What difference does it make when diamonds are common to an account not a world? I play in three worlds and the time I bought diamonds in one world they went in my diamond inventory which is the same for all 3 worlds.
My son bought for me once, on my account, when I was very new. He was being kind to me as a surprise, but that one act is probably why I've never gotten them. Oh well; I still appreciate him. :)
 

Rp44

Active Member
I am sure you are right AJ. I said I have to *think* of it like RNG when the disparity gets irritating - that's my coping mechanism. :) Most of the time it doesn't bother me at all.

Two of my accounts discussed above, one that gets zero additional offers and the one that gets offers all the time, were started on the same day from the same computer and both purchased the same small diamond bundle with a third builder on the day it was offered. When they both started a second city, one got offered the really great starter package and one got offered nothing, and thus it began. I know we won't ever know, but I am surely curious as to what analytics prompted that. It must have been the email addresses I used. ;-)
 

SunsetDanar

Well-Known Member
Yes, it is two separate accounts in two different worlds. I'm not sure of this but thinking that you must buy diamonds at least once to begin getting the offers. I'm in chapter 18 and low on real estate so, if it were offered, I'd buy the $199.00 package which would give me 60K diamonds.
 

Genefer

Well-Known Member
I buy diamonds often and have never received an offer not for a single city from all 8 worlds - same account. A friend of mine who has never bought diamonds gets a new and better offer every 2 weeks - he was offered a 200%. I think if you buy diamonds a few times you will not receive an offer. Inno seems more focused on customer acquisition at the expense of customer retention. Every time my friend tells me he received a new offer my commitment to the game decreases not because I don't like it, because I feel unappreciated as a paying player. Without those of us who pay to play there wouldn't even be a game for everyone else to play for "free" and Inno would be out of business. It is a really poor strategy, because everyone no matter how much they love this game has a threshold for how much disregard they will tolerate.
 

Enevhar Aldarion

Oh Wise One
I think if you buy diamonds a few times you will not receive an offer.

No, over the last three years I have gotten the 100% bonus diamond offer about every 4 months and I use it almost every time, even if all I spend is the minimum $5.

The Inno algorithms just seem to randomly pick some accounts to never get offers and some to always get offers and everyone else falls somewhere in between.
 

Genefer

Well-Known Member
There is definitely an algorithm and the outcome is probably what you present, however you have not considered the parameters.

From reading above and what I've heard from other players I suggest the parameters are similar to these:

Group - You Don't Matter - these players purchase diamonds consistently - no need to incentivize with offers
Group - you 've purchased diamonds it the past - these players have made an occasional 49.99 below purchases' - an occasional offer will incentivize additional purchases
Group - I really really want you to buy diamonds - these players have never purchased diamonds - rain offers on the player until a purchase is made
Sub group A - made a large diamond purchase - After the luxury of using this vast bucket of diamonds - this player will be hooked move them to Group - you don't matter - never another offer
Sub group B - made a small diamond purchase - The diamonds were nice but .... - move them to group "You've purchased diamonds in the past" - send the occasional offer

Likely there are a few other parameters, but there is no way they are randomly sending out offers - based on what multiples, alphabet.. what? A truly random algorithm would result in all players receiving special offers at random times - but for the player above to go years without ever receiving an offer suggest specific parameters not randomization.

This is my opinion anyway :)
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
@Genefer I agree that customer retention is not important to just about any big company. Think of all the phone offers you get, internet offers, insurance offers, banking offers and so on. All are "for new customers only." My local internet company offers 200MB for $49/month, unlimited data, and as a permanent price...no expiration. I pay $69/month for the same rate but I can't switch to the lower cost plan unless I'm "not a customer" for a few months...which means switching to their competitor who insists I sign a contract for the rest of my life -- a contract in which they say, "terms subject to change without notice!"

In the end Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" (1776) got it both right and wrong when he argued that the best the company that offered product at the best price would become the company that survived. He got it right if you consider all companies equal and the spread of negative information about a product to be equal to the spread of the positive. But advertising overwhelms the negative, the markets are so large that the spread of negative information is so slow as to seldom have a lot of impact. Smith never anticipated the size of the markets or advertising so he didn't see the ability of companies to replace "lost" customers faster than they lost them by overwhelming the losses with promotions to new customers.

Inno is a very modern company so it's not surprising it focuses on gaining new (paying) customers from the pool of new players (or somewhat newer players). That's just how it's done.

AJ
 

BrinDarby

Well-Known Member
Inno is a very modern company so it's not surprising it focuses on gaining new (paying) customers from the pool of new players (or somewhat newer players). That's just how it's done.
""Thats how its supposed to be done"" hahahahaha
(just not @ Inno ;))
 

Genefer

Well-Known Member
My local internet company offers 200MB for $49/month, unlimited data, and as a permanent price...no expiration. I pay $69/month for the same rate but I can't switch to the lower cost plan unless I'm "not a customer" for a few months...which means switching to their competitor who insists I sign a contract for the rest of my life -- a contract in which they say, "terms subject to change without notice!"

I have comcast and if they offer a better plan to acquire new customers they will decrease the cost of my plan or add greater benefits to my current plan permanently, rather than a 6 month trial period if I call and tell them I am no longer willing to pay my current rate, while they offer new customers a significantly better offer. It surprises me they accommodate me when there is not another viable service for my residence. Have you ever contacted your provider requesting a better rate? A business that suggests their customer choose another provider if they want a better price, and the only other services available lock the consumer into a contract better be certain their product is substantially superior ensuring consumers are willing to pay the contract penalty fee.

I feel the greatest influence in a consumers choice of goods and services is word of mouth not advertising. This is especially true with the advent of online consumer review & comparison sites such as Yelp. Any service or product with an average rating of 3 star competing with a 5 star rating viewed side by side is not going to realize an equal or greater quantity of sales than the 5 star.

The best demonstration of the free market in modern history is Google - prior to the disaster we now experience with the abolishment of net neutrality. Google provided services & products that out competed every other entrenched competitor at the time - yahoo, AOL, & MSN , and they didn't achieve their break trough with large ad campaigns. No matter how large and known a business if it doesn't meet consumer expectations a competitor will bring them down eventually. The free market is alive and well when driven by consumers without government influence.
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
@Genefer We've contacted them a number of times and the answer is always the same. Our rate is as low as they can make it based upon our history with them. If we leave for a while they'll try to get us back with some sweet deal -- for limited time. "Customer retention" is no more helpful. We have Charter, I think, who owns Spectrum, again, I think, which is what we really have.

My experience is that when a company buys out another they try to streamline the purchased company, maximize profits, and squeeze all they can out of the "deal." Then they dissolve the purchased company and standardize everything on what they use for their own, original, customer base. OR they just sell the assets of the purchased company to pay the huge debt they incurred to purchase it. In the long run, whatever their method, they are not in it for the customer, but for the profit whatever technique they use there is little concern for if it will retain customers or not since they can just advertise themselves out of any customer loss they might incur. It's cheaper to buy a new customer than to keep an old one by lowering their rates.

AJ
 

Deborah M

Oh Wise One
I NEVER get 100% offers. I can't remember last time I got any offers other than diamonds + something like event items, etc. I have bought diamonds for the entire time I've played with a few breaks in spending. When I have taken a break from the game I get an email that I'm missed and I'm thinking 100 diamonds. That is all the love I've ever gotten from Inno :( I've gotten to the point I only spend $20 occasionally for something specific since the original spend for the start of chapter 18. Other smaller cities in my FS who spend very occasionally get 100% offers every few months. If I ever got a 100% offer in my city I would spend big! Experience tells me not happening. So, they make less $ by not offering what other players are offered. When I weigh whether I want to not spend or take a break or play less this is one of the reasons on the don't like the game as much side of the ledger.
 

HonuMoana

Active Member
I've seen 200%

Seen it too, for a relatively new experimental city, which I am purposely playing for free. I had already ignored numerous offers. The 200% bonus did read like a one-time only thing, but I passed it by too. It even had some bonus events keys thrown in. I felt like Galadriel refusing the One Ring. I shall remain free and diminish...
 

mikeledo

Well-Known Member
I get 100% diamond offers which generally follow the 10% expansion discount. Since I bought keys this time, I suspect my 100% offer timeline will reset because it did so the last time I bought keys. My understanding is the 200% offer comes on the app only. I believe there is a surcharge for buying by phone, hence INNO is giving you a little something more to make up for it. I find it a shame that buying keys resets the offer as it loses money for INNO. They don't want my money, I will wait them out.
 
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