General

An Observation made over the recent years

The summer months every year would see an influx of returning players, as students of various ages finish schooling for the year. In the recent years, I have come to pay attention to this seasonal pattern through the arrival of efficacious third party programs that produce various statistics on the game. One of the services provided is the number of online users present on each server, and during the summer months of July and August, undoubtedly more players come online. In the months of May and June, the anniversary events every year seek out to provide incentives for players to return. This year, returning players would receive a multitude of items, and a hefty 20,000 maple points. Conveniently, anniversary boxes containing much demanded transparent cash cosmetics become readily available to such players. Lucky players may produce near a billion mesos or keep their items, and may seek to sate their avarice with the purchase of nx. From this scenario, I would like to share an observation.

We players, in essence are customers. Regardless of whether we purchase nx, on average, nx is purchased. It is said in the economic world, the cost of customer acquisition is around 5 fold of customer retention. Thus, nexon makes more money keeping players than advertising. I would like to focus on the aspect of customer retention.

I myself have been playing this game for close to 9 years, checking major updates during the year to determine whether certain events are worth my current time. Friends would almost always return during the summer months, and from their experiences as players I have come to observe a pattern in nexon's customer retention.

Most of my friends upon returning, may spend anywhere from 10-30 Canadian dollars during the course of two months, and various chance-related events over many years allowed me to realize the probability that nexon implements a deliberate customer retention strategy. In the past three years, friends would purchase miracle cubes and obtain on many occasions 1-cube rank upgrades. To clarify, the first cube they purchase would raise the potential-rank. Regurgitating approximate numbers, in 2013 I recorded (3) 1-cube unique upgrades out of 6 accounts. In 2014, I recorded (2) 1-cube unique, (1) 1-cube legendaries over 7 accounts. This year in the month of May, so far (2) 1-cube unique have been witnessed, one of which produced 21% luck over three lines on a superior gollux pendant. The 20,000 maple points redeemed and used to purchase the 3,400 nx anniversary boxes over 8 accounts netted a total of approximately 9 billion mesos.

Some returning players know that some form of favoritism will be bestowed upon them when they return, and nexon seeks to produce such incentives. I believe that not only does nexon aim for customer retention through tangible means of distributing items, but also by increasing the probability of favorable outcomes in chance-related purchases. Now I come to say this through my observation, and I am well aware that a sample size of 7-8 is not enough to produce strong evidence, and this may not apply to all players, but it is noted that these players 1.) Do purchase nx 2.) Play for a short time out of the year. 3.) Items are collected during hot-times. However, over the years my observations of consistently strong "luck" on the various accounts, I come to say that players are treated differently based off of how long/often they play, and whether they make purchases to nexon.

From this amassed wall of text, what I want readers to take away is this: Acknowledge differential treatment, and if you chose to, take advantage of it. The best way to do this is to gain access to friend's accounts. To this day, when my friends are not in-season, I will access their accounts during hot times to collect items. Over time, players quit and "ownership" changes and acquisition of items can be counted as yours. Directly, the terms of service are not violated. If this option is not available to you, creating multiple accounts and leveling a character eligible for the various gifts will also produce the same results. In this case, character levels should be 100+, as I have noticed several accounts under level 70 received less items, and for hot-times, some low level characters are not eligible. Leaving these accounts in stasis and waiting for various gifts is what must happen next.

tldr: read the paragraph above

Thanks for reading