VIP Exchange
Disclaimer: I don’t want to hear that I’m being “whiny”, a “no-lifer”, that I “had this coming”, or any other disparaging comments based on the fact that I bought a VIP. I made the decision to spend my money on CrossFire for a variety of reasons, including that I wanted to support the continued existence of the game. If you don’t like that, I don’t need to justify myself to you.
The Problem:
VIP weapons are largely a dead-end purchase. Due to Z8 policy, once you have the weapon, you cannot refund it. I understand this policy and indeed support it. Otherwise, it’d be possible to “rent” some of the most powerful weapons in the game, while depriving Z8 of the revenue of the sale. This, ultimately, isn’t a good situation for anyone.
The flip side, however, is that VIP owners are locked into their investment. People may want different weapons at some point after their purchase, and not for lack of forethought. Maybe a new weapon comes out (this happened to me, see “my story” below). Maybe someone (finally) realizes that spraying their AK-47 Fury in ghost mode is impolite and would rather have an Iron Beast instead. There’s no feasible way to do this, currently. Players have two options: either suck it up, or pay full price for a new weapon.
If, for example, I have the M4A1 Jewelry, and I decide I’d rather have the Obsidian Beast, I have no choice but to spend another $100 dollars to buy a weapon that effectively replaces one I spent $80 on. I would probably never touch the Jewelry again. This almost seems like a win for Z8, as they would get paid an extra $100 (or 80, depending on how you look at it). Realistically, though, very few people are going to spend the money to buy an entirely new VIP weapon.
I’m guessing, based on CrossFire’s target demographic, that someone saved up for that VIP weapon. Maybe it’s the 16 year old who got a part-time job. Maybe it’s his parents, who control his cash flow and try to teach him good consumer habits. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. The high cost of the weapon will strongly discourage its purchase to someone, especially since it’s the second such weapon, and it will render an earlier (similar) purchase obsolete. It's hard to justify an expense like this. Therefore, they'll give up on owning their ideal VIP, and Z8 gets no additional money. Everybody loses.
A Solution:
Z8 could make a much nicer profit by simply charging the $20 difference and removing the original weapon. Five people are more likely to each spend $20 than one person is to spend $100. This is why crowdfunding works, and I bet CrossFire has a lot more of those "fivers" compared to the "oners".
However, Z8 needs to protect themselves against the aforementioned “weapon renting”. Freely swapping between VIP weapons creates a profit hole for Z8. Conceivably, one could swap an AK Beast for an AWM, own in a sniper match, and then swap it back for a search and destroy. They have effectively gotten the benefits from two VIPs while only paying for one. This is called “stealing”, my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies.
Therefore, I propose that Z8 offers a middle ground option for VIP owners. Z8 could offer an option that would let VIP owners swap their VIP weapon for any other VIP weapon, with appropriate money limitations. For example, players could have the option to participate in a VIP exchange program where they would select a single VIP weapon that they own, and be able to replace it with a different VIP weapon. The cost to the player would be the price difference or 20,000 ZP, whichever is higher. If weapon renting is still a concern, enforcing a “cooldown” period between exchanges (say, a month) would help keep people honest.
This way, players have the freedom to move between weapons as desired. The lower cost would remove the too-high-price problem that currently exists, resulting in increased sales. Z8 gets the benefits of these purchases. Indeed, for cases where the new weapon costs the same (or less), Z8 earns extra money they would otherwise never have seen. Players get their weapon of choice, Z8 gets cash, everybody wins.
Two examples:
What about the Black Market?
A natural question is, if players can exchange VIP weapons, can they also exchange between black market items? My answer to that is “no”.
When you play the black market, you are gambling. You are pouring money into something in the hopes of getting a reward. A reward is not guaranteed. Further, different rewards have different probabilities of occurring - this is what makes the black market exciting.
Contrast this with a VIP weapon, where you agree to pay a large, fixed sum in exchange for an item. You are guaranteed to get that item. Further, the same is true of any VIP weapon - there is no chance involved.
Therefore, black market items can’t be swapped for other black market items or VIP weapons, or vice-versa.
My Story:
In the spring of 2014, I bought the M4A1 Iron Beast. It’s an excellent weapon, and I feel it was money well-spent. However… when the Obsidian Beast was released, I fell in love. In my opinion, it is a much prettier gun. The additional bonus of a ZM perk also caught my eye, since I started playing ZM a lot more when Devastated City was released. Sadly, for reasons stated above, I couldn’t buy the Obsidian. (For the record, this was - and is - my money. The decision to buy or not buy is entirely mine.)
I decided to appeal to Z8. After all, the two guns are nearly identical, and they are the same price. In the spring of 2015, I filed two tickets. The tickets explained that I bought the Iron Beast, that the Obsidian was released later, and I now wanted the Obsidian instead of Iron. I proposed that, since the guns were nearly identical, and priced the same, Z8 could remove my Iron and replace it with an Obsidian. I charged my account with 45,000 ZP and offered that as compensation for the switch.
A GM replied within a few days, saying that they cannot “refund” any ZP purchases. The GM maintained this stance even after I clarified that I was looking for an “exchange”, not a “refund”, and that I would actually end up paying more than the price of the Obsidian. I’ll be quite honest - this upset me quite a bit. I had been a CrossFire player since 2009, and had bought various items over the years to support the game, including a VIP weapon. Yet, Z8 refused to even meet me halfway when I had an issue with the largest purchase I ever made.
In my view, Z8, as a business, should want to keep its customers happy, especially those who have spent hard-earned money so that Z8 can continue to operate. What happened broke my implicit trust in Z8 - my trust that they would work with me to resolve issues. I am not inspired to spend any more money, and certainly not buy any more VIP weapons, after my experience.
The Problem:
VIP weapons are largely a dead-end purchase. Due to Z8 policy, once you have the weapon, you cannot refund it. I understand this policy and indeed support it. Otherwise, it’d be possible to “rent” some of the most powerful weapons in the game, while depriving Z8 of the revenue of the sale. This, ultimately, isn’t a good situation for anyone.
The flip side, however, is that VIP owners are locked into their investment. People may want different weapons at some point after their purchase, and not for lack of forethought. Maybe a new weapon comes out (this happened to me, see “my story” below). Maybe someone (finally) realizes that spraying their AK-47 Fury in ghost mode is impolite and would rather have an Iron Beast instead. There’s no feasible way to do this, currently. Players have two options: either suck it up, or pay full price for a new weapon.
If, for example, I have the M4A1 Jewelry, and I decide I’d rather have the Obsidian Beast, I have no choice but to spend another $100 dollars to buy a weapon that effectively replaces one I spent $80 on. I would probably never touch the Jewelry again. This almost seems like a win for Z8, as they would get paid an extra $100 (or 80, depending on how you look at it). Realistically, though, very few people are going to spend the money to buy an entirely new VIP weapon.
I’m guessing, based on CrossFire’s target demographic, that someone saved up for that VIP weapon. Maybe it’s the 16 year old who got a part-time job. Maybe it’s his parents, who control his cash flow and try to teach him good consumer habits. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. The high cost of the weapon will strongly discourage its purchase to someone, especially since it’s the second such weapon, and it will render an earlier (similar) purchase obsolete. It's hard to justify an expense like this. Therefore, they'll give up on owning their ideal VIP, and Z8 gets no additional money. Everybody loses.
A Solution:
Z8 could make a much nicer profit by simply charging the $20 difference and removing the original weapon. Five people are more likely to each spend $20 than one person is to spend $100. This is why crowdfunding works, and I bet CrossFire has a lot more of those "fivers" compared to the "oners".
However, Z8 needs to protect themselves against the aforementioned “weapon renting”. Freely swapping between VIP weapons creates a profit hole for Z8. Conceivably, one could swap an AK Beast for an AWM, own in a sniper match, and then swap it back for a search and destroy. They have effectively gotten the benefits from two VIPs while only paying for one. This is called “stealing”, my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies.
Therefore, I propose that Z8 offers a middle ground option for VIP owners. Z8 could offer an option that would let VIP owners swap their VIP weapon for any other VIP weapon, with appropriate money limitations. For example, players could have the option to participate in a VIP exchange program where they would select a single VIP weapon that they own, and be able to replace it with a different VIP weapon. The cost to the player would be the price difference or 20,000 ZP, whichever is higher. If weapon renting is still a concern, enforcing a “cooldown” period between exchanges (say, a month) would help keep people honest.
This way, players have the freedom to move between weapons as desired. The lower cost would remove the too-high-price problem that currently exists, resulting in increased sales. Z8 gets the benefits of these purchases. Indeed, for cases where the new weapon costs the same (or less), Z8 earns extra money they would otherwise never have seen. Players get their weapon of choice, Z8 gets cash, everybody wins.
Two examples:
- Jim owns the M4A1 Jewelry. He wants the AK-47 Beast. He pays 45,000 ZP, which is the cost difference between the two guns, and Z8 removes his M4A1 and replaces it with an AK-Fury. Jim and Z8 go away happy.
- Sally owns an AWM Infernal Dragon. She wants the Thompson, because she’s decided she’s more of a spray ‘n pray player. Because the Thompson is cheaper than the AWM, she pays 20,000 ZP for Z8 to remove her AWM and give her the Thompson. Sally goes away happy that she didn’t need to pay the full price, and Z8 is happy they received a sale they otherwise wouldn’t have.
What about the Black Market?
A natural question is, if players can exchange VIP weapons, can they also exchange between black market items? My answer to that is “no”.
When you play the black market, you are gambling. You are pouring money into something in the hopes of getting a reward. A reward is not guaranteed. Further, different rewards have different probabilities of occurring - this is what makes the black market exciting.
Contrast this with a VIP weapon, where you agree to pay a large, fixed sum in exchange for an item. You are guaranteed to get that item. Further, the same is true of any VIP weapon - there is no chance involved.
Therefore, black market items can’t be swapped for other black market items or VIP weapons, or vice-versa.
My Story:
In the spring of 2014, I bought the M4A1 Iron Beast. It’s an excellent weapon, and I feel it was money well-spent. However… when the Obsidian Beast was released, I fell in love. In my opinion, it is a much prettier gun. The additional bonus of a ZM perk also caught my eye, since I started playing ZM a lot more when Devastated City was released. Sadly, for reasons stated above, I couldn’t buy the Obsidian. (For the record, this was - and is - my money. The decision to buy or not buy is entirely mine.)
I decided to appeal to Z8. After all, the two guns are nearly identical, and they are the same price. In the spring of 2015, I filed two tickets. The tickets explained that I bought the Iron Beast, that the Obsidian was released later, and I now wanted the Obsidian instead of Iron. I proposed that, since the guns were nearly identical, and priced the same, Z8 could remove my Iron and replace it with an Obsidian. I charged my account with 45,000 ZP and offered that as compensation for the switch.
A GM replied within a few days, saying that they cannot “refund” any ZP purchases. The GM maintained this stance even after I clarified that I was looking for an “exchange”, not a “refund”, and that I would actually end up paying more than the price of the Obsidian. I’ll be quite honest - this upset me quite a bit. I had been a CrossFire player since 2009, and had bought various items over the years to support the game, including a VIP weapon. Yet, Z8 refused to even meet me halfway when I had an issue with the largest purchase I ever made.
In my view, Z8, as a business, should want to keep its customers happy, especially those who have spent hard-earned money so that Z8 can continue to operate. What happened broke my implicit trust in Z8 - my trust that they would work with me to resolve issues. I am not inspired to spend any more money, and certainly not buy any more VIP weapons, after my experience.
Comments
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Xcelled194 wrote: »Disclaimer: I don’t want to hear that I’m being “whiny”, a “no-lifer”, that I “had this coming”, or any other disparaging comments based on the fact that I bought a VIP. I made the decision to spend my money on CrossFire for a variety of reasons, including that I wanted to support the continued existence of the game. If you don’t like that, I don’t need to justify myself to you.
The Problem:
VIP weapons are largely a dead-end purchase. Due to Z8 policy, once you have the weapon, you cannot refund it. I understand this policy and indeed support it. Otherwise, it’d be possible to “rent” some of the most powerful weapons in the game, while depriving Z8 of the revenue of the sale. This, ultimately, isn’t a good situation for anyone.
The flip side, however, is that VIP owners are locked into their investment. People may want different weapons at some point after their purchase, and not for lack of forethought. Maybe a new weapon comes out (this happened to me, see “my story” below). Maybe someone (finally) realizes that spraying their AK-47 Fury in ghost mode is impolite and would rather have an Iron Beast instead. There’s no feasible way to do this, currently. Players have two options: either suck it up, or pay full price for a new weapon.
If, for example, I have the M4A1 Jewelry, and I decide I’d rather have the Obsidian Beast, I have no choice but to spend another $100 dollars to buy a weapon that effectively replaces one I spent $80 on. I would probably never touch the Jewelry again. This almost seems like a win for Z8, as they would get paid an extra $100 (or 80, depending on how you look at it). Realistically, though, very few people are going to spend the money to buy an entirely new VIP weapon.
I’m guessing, based on CrossFire’s target demographic, that someone saved up for that VIP weapon. Maybe it’s the 16 year old who got a part-time job. Maybe it’s his parents, who control his cash flow and try to teach him good consumer habits. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. The high cost of the weapon will strongly discourage its purchase to someone, especially since it’s the second such weapon, and it will render an earlier (similar) purchase obsolete. It's hard to justify an expense like this. Therefore, they'll give up on owning their ideal VIP, and Z8 gets no additional money. Everybody loses.
A Solution:
Z8 could make a much nicer profit by simply charging the $20 difference and removing the original weapon. Five people are more likely to each spend $20 than one person is to spend $100. This is why crowdfunding works, and I bet CrossFire has a lot more of those "fivers" compared to the "oners".
However, Z8 needs to protect themselves against the aforementioned “weapon renting”. Freely swapping between VIP weapons creates a profit hole for Z8. Conceivably, one could swap an AK Beast for an AWM, own in a sniper match, and then swap it back for a search and destroy. They have effectively gotten the benefits from two VIPs while only paying for one. This is called “stealing”, my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies.
Therefore, I propose that Z8 offers a middle ground option for VIP owners. Z8 could offer an option that would let VIP owners swap their VIP weapon for any other VIP weapon, with appropriate money limitations. For example, players could have the option to participate in a VIP exchange program where they would select a single VIP weapon that they own, and be able to replace it with a different VIP weapon. The cost to the player would be the price difference or 20,000 ZP, whichever is higher. If weapon renting is still a concern, enforcing a “cooldown” period between exchanges (say, a month) would help keep people honest.
This way, players have the freedom to move between weapons as desired. The lower cost would remove the too-high-price problem that currently exists, resulting in increased sales. Z8 gets the benefits of these purchases. Indeed, for cases where the new weapon costs the same (or less), Z8 earns extra money they would otherwise never have seen. Players get their weapon of choice, Z8 gets cash, everybody wins.
Two examples:- Jim owns the M4A1 Jewelry. He wants the AK-47 Beast. He pays 45,000 ZP, which is the cost difference between the two guns, and Z8 removes his M4A1 and replaces it with an AK-Fury. Jim and Z8 go away happy.
- Sally owns an AWM Infernal Dragon. She wants the Thompson, because she’s decided she’s more of a spray ‘n pray player. Because the Thompson is cheaper than the AWM, she pays 20,000 ZP for Z8 to remove her AWM and give her the Thompson. Sally goes away happy that she didn’t need to pay the full price, and Z8 is happy they received a sale they otherwise wouldn’t have.
What about the Black Market?
A natural question is, if players can exchange VIP weapons, can they also exchange between black market items? My answer to that is “no”.
When you play the black market, you are gambling. You are pouring money into something in the hopes of getting a reward. A reward is not guaranteed. Further, different rewards have different probabilities of occurring - this is what makes the black market exciting.
Contrast this with a VIP weapon, where you agree to pay a large, fixed sum in exchange for an item. You are guaranteed to get that item. Further, the same is true of any VIP weapon - there is no chance involved.
Therefore, black market items can’t be swapped for other black market items or VIP weapons, or vice-versa.
My Story:
In the spring of 2014, I bought the M4A1 Iron Beast. It’s an excellent weapon, and I feel it was money well-spent. However… when the Obsidian Beast was released, I fell in love. In my opinion, it is a much prettier gun. The additional bonus of a ZM perk also caught my eye, since I started playing ZM a lot more when Devastated City was released. Sadly, for reasons stated above, I couldn’t buy the Obsidian. (For the record, this was - and is - my money. The decision to buy or not buy is entirely mine.)
I decided to appeal to Z8. After all, the two guns are nearly identical, and they are the same price. In the spring of 2015, I filed two tickets. The tickets explained that I bought the Iron Beast, that the Obsidian was released later, and I now wanted the Obsidian instead of Iron. I proposed that, since the guns were nearly identical, and priced the same, Z8 could remove my Iron and replace it with an Obsidian. I charged my account with 45,000 ZP and offered that as compensation for the switch.
A GM replied within a few days, saying that they cannot “refund” any ZP purchases. The GM maintained this stance even after I clarified that I was looking for an “exchange”, not a “refund”, and that I would actually end up paying more than the price of the Obsidian. I’ll be quite honest - this upset me quite a bit. I had been a CrossFire player since 2009, and had bought various items over the years to support the game, including a VIP weapon. Yet, Z8 refused to even meet me halfway when I had an issue with the largest purchase I ever made.
In my view, Z8, as a business, should want to keep its customers happy, especially those who have spent hard-earned money so that Z8 can continue to operate. What happened broke my implicit trust in Z8 - my trust that they would work with me to resolve issues. I am not inspired to spend any more money, and certainly not buy any more VIP weapons, after my experience.
+1 basically a trade system for vip weapons, its nice and simple, but I doubt they will take it into consideration. I also think this would cut down on them receiving tickets as little do they know people trade accounts with vips for other accounts with the vip they want. For example John has jewelry and Jimmy has iron beast, But since jewelry is cheaper but John has lets say m4 gold which is not available anymore or D.E gold but Jimmy doesn't its more likely they will want to trade, but then thats how people get there accounts stolen. I think it would be nice to see this implemented. -
+1 I like the idea, but that's mostly because I want to get rid of one of my three VIP M4s lel xD. OT though weapon renting as you mentioned it before would actually net Z8 more money. If we use your example from before where someone is going from a TDM where he was spraying his AK-Fury then goes to a sniper match and switches to his "newly traded" VIP awm then he will in that few minutes effectively paid for roughly 20% of a new VIP weapon in the span of one game, while still only actually owning one VIP. Honestly it wouldn't be advantageous at all to "rent" VIPs because in the long run you'd be spending just as much if not more money without having the added benefit of having multiple permanent weapons.
-
"Trade" might give the wrong impression. You wouldn't exchange weapons with another player, but you'd pay Z8 some money to change your VIP.
It would probably reduce tickets from a number of sources, not just account sharing. I'd be very surprised if I'm the only one who ever filed a ticket like I did.
Also, I believe that Z8 could implement this as a website feature fairly easily. That is, I don't think they'd need to go back to the CF developers to do this. Of course, having never seen their codebase, I can't be sure, but my gut tells me it should be easy for them to do via website.OT though weapon renting as you mentioned it before would actually net Z8 more money. If we use your example from before where someone is going from a TDM where he was spraying his AK-Fury then goes to a sniper match and switches to his "newly traded" VIP awm then he will in that few minutes effectively paid for roughly 20% of a new VIP weapon in the span of one game, while still only actually owning one VIP. Honestly it wouldn't be advantageous at all to "rent" VIPs because in the long run you'd be spending just as much if not more money without having the added benefit of having multiple permanent weapons.
Weapon renting is only a problem for Z8 when they don't get anything out of it. Real life example: you need a screwdriver, so you go to the store, buy one, screw whatever you need to, and then return the screwdriver. You've paid no net money, and the store gets screwed out of a sale, not to mention that the screwdriver has wear now.
Same thing goes for VIP renting. If somehow Z8 gets no money, it's a problem for them. If they do get money, then yes, it's a good thing for them. -
This will never be added, even if the [GM]'s saw this and they liked the idea they probably wouldn't do it because Z8Games has never made their own content. It would be nice if they made an M4A1-S-Z8, AK47-Knife-Z8 and an AWM-Z8.
That's the thing, though. I strongly suspect Z8 can do it without additional content. They could make it a website feature, like the mall was. A special account page, where you select the VIP to exchange, and what you want in return. The page would then modify the game's database to carry out the transaction.
As the mall, clan page, deposit, etc, proves, the website already has access to the game database. They can adjust ZP and take/grant items. In theory, they already have everything they need. They just need to pull it together on a webpage. That is something Z8 must do, the CF developers aren't responsible for Z8's site.
Source: I'm a software engineer. I worked on a large MMO server for about two years, and we had some website integration like this. Unless CrossFire is doing things in a really weird way, something close to what I said should work. -
Xcelled194 wrote: »That's the thing, though. I strongly suspect Z8 can do it without additional content. They could make it a website feature, like the mall was. A special account page, where you select the VIP to exchange, and what you want in return. The page would then modify the game's database to carry out the transaction.
As the mall, clan page, deposit, etc, proves, the website already has access to the game database. They can adjust ZP and take/grant items. In theory, they already have everything they need. They just need to pull it together on a webpage. That is something Z8 must do, the CF developers aren't responsible for Z8's site.
Source: I'm a software engineer. I worked on a large MMO server for about two years, and we had some website integration like this. Unless CrossFire is doing things in a really weird way, something close to what I said should work.
This is a great idea, and the website needs to be improved and needs to have more of a modern look. And I hope someday Z8Games learns to upgrade their events, website, forum, etc. -
Since the prerequisite for changing out your VIP would be to already own one then they would still net that profit from the start and any further renting would still be beneficial to them as a company. Even if someone were to only change out their VIP once they would still get however much ZP that would cost, and while you could argue that they would make more if the person just bought another VIP outright you could also argue that they wouldn't buy anything at all due to it being too expensive. This implementation to the game would make players happy and it would net Z8 more profit, it is a win-win.Xcelled194 wrote: »Weapon renting is only a problem for Z8 when they don't get anything out of it. Real life example: you need a screwdriver, so you go to the store, buy one, screw whatever you need to, and then return the screwdriver. You've paid no net money, and the store gets screwed out of a sale, not to mention that the screwdriver has wear now.
Same thing goes for VIP renting. If somehow Z8 gets no money, it's a problem for them. If they do get money, then yes, it's a good thing for them. -
I agree with this Topic it's really a win, win system. Unfortunately the disgusting part to this is that our Z8 Team have hardly any powers (only Event powers other than that pretty much nothing). It's all up to Smile-Gate (SG), the only thing Z8 can do is pass this wonderful idea to SG but I doubt they will & even if they did those "Koreans", are very biased/strict to our version they hardly do anything awesome for us these days, because they are only mostly concerned with their (ASIA) CF versions.
Edit: Good-luck Xcelled194 never-the-less bro/sis, as hope is all we have left, so stay strong. -
Z8 doesn't care about the NA server.
Were only meant as a cash cow to Z8, thousands of amazing suggestions and close to none were actually implemented in game.
With good management/marketing this game had a potential to become as big as league of legends, but its quite apparent their marketing strategy isn't meant for anything but milking money. -
VIPs Sucks bcoz of 200 or 300 exp to get called farmer easily lol it should be 100 or 150% of GP besides we dont need exp we need skills besides NA4 has to many farmers there ..to get exp for marshal rank..i think 150% GP will help and everyone will buy it .......btw this aint gonna happen in this CF
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