Why I don't buy gems

One thing I've noticed, among many things, is that the purchase of gems seems to be hyper avoided, well beyond some standards of logic. Here is an example, a personal one: I have bought 0 (zero) gems. Apathy and not wanting to even spend $5 on a game, almost regardless of how good it is (have bought a few... like 3-4) keeps me from buying gems. I don't know why, but there is this anti-gem/app-buying impulse that I, and I'm sure many others, have. But slap on something like a (Red) donation cause on it, and I would have bought 1-3 $5 'red' gems... if it were available for Android games.

So what is it that keeps people from buying 1 gem for 1¢ or less for the sake of improving gameplay, but will buy gems for totaly unrelated things? For one, the amount of gems needed for things, which makes it not seem worth it when it takes 400-600 gems for a moderate instant complete purchase. I have to admit, Supercell has to keep gem costs high, because it is easier to lower prices than it is to raise them. So they are painted in a corner in that respect. If they hit the point of it being too cheap, with buy resources and completing things, the game balance is dead, period.

OK, so if that's the case, what can be done? Even they (Supercell) can only ride things out with the game as-is for only so long, since with the current flaws, with people leaving after hitting some snags or annoyances, and only so many people in the world interested in the game, they will hit 'market saturation' eventually, even with adding new content. On top of that, a fraction of the players pay for gems. Damn it must be maddening to be a Supercell staffer, knowing your awesome (is it?) paycheck can evaporate if the next update flops.

I can see them wanting to avoid other methods of income, like watching ads, or other 'hoops' for players to jump through to generate income for SC, and give players gems, since those features can be exploited badly with some scripts.

So what else is there? Adding more reasons to spend gems could be added, like possibly adding in the gem Boosted Builder idea, which I can see really being popular, but that is Supercell's call. If they add it, they effectively can never go back.

Co-op with an ad app that gives points for jumping through the 3rd party's hoops could work. Currently there are some out there (not naming the one I think would be good, since that would be advertising, and is a no-no here) that some here have heard of, and can legitly get 'free gems' from (gems from ads paying for it, from earning a gift card on the store you use, and use it to buy gems)

Putting a different spin on gem buying could be useful. Giving a feeling you get more out of the purchase, like with the (Red) cause could be one. But that is one example. May other ideas to sweeten the deal can be done.

Well, have to end it here. :facepalm: have to come back later to this.

Comments in red.

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Originally Posted by awesomness2016

I don't agree with your logic. Here's why:

TWO HOUR BOOST
- if you have two hours to play: you can boost 2 hour (10 gems)
- if you have one hour to play: some players will not boost, but some percentage WILL STILL BOOST because they recognize that even if they can only raid for an hour, spending 40-70 gems for a 1 hour raiding session is still pretty much the best and most profitable way to spend their gems, even if they don't particularly like wasting some of their boost time.

How waist 50% of gems (leaving the boost after the first hour) can be considered profitable?
Did you do that?

I never boosted for two hours unless I'm sure that I will be able to play for that time. Maybe because I spent real money in the game so I know what the "real" gem price is.

ONE HOUR BOOST
- if you have two hours to play: some of the people who might have boosted for 2 hours will only do so for 1
- if you have one hour to play: more people might boost for 1 hour, but extra gems aren't being spent by those who would have boosted for 2 hours anyway.

Also, as you point out, if 1 hour is half the cost of 2 hours, there would be no need for the 2 hour boost at all, so it would seem the most sensible thing to do

Yes. 1 hour for half of the price. Fair price.
If you want two hours, boost again. SC collects the same amount as it is now.

Which means if something like this is to be added, it would make more sense for it to be more than half the price: so either 6 or 7 gems per 1 hour boost (I'm inclined to say 7 is the appropriate number)

GOT it.
See post below.

Why???
Why should I pay 7 gems for 1 hour? 14 for two?

I'm suggesting a win-win deal.
Offering 1 hour boost for 5 gems will make more people (without two hours to play) boost their barracks and buying gems to do it.

If you increase the price, people will not boost or buy them. It's not a win-win deal anymore.

Anyway, I don't see there being any real incentive for Supercell here, but while we're at it, why not make a slider where you can customize the number of gems you spend and the time you boost, which would work something like this:

How can you not see the incentive here?
How offering an option to MORE people spend gems is not a incentive to SC?
Where the SC profit come from? Selling gems.

First hour of boost: 10 mins per gem
After that: 15 mins per gem

Player will need to remember to keep clicking to boost button again, and again, and again.
Would you like to do that? I wouldn't.

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Got it.
I'm okay if both options are still available.

1 hour : 6 gems
2 hours : 10 gems.

BUT BOTH OPTIONS NEEDS TO BE AVAILABLE.
I was considering one option only.

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Originally Posted by awesomness2016

That's not really the right way to think about it.

Think about it like a phone plan. You don't pay twice as much for 1000 minutes compared to 500, or for 10gb of data instead of 5, you pay a marginally higher price. Or anything you buy in bulk, including gems. You don't pay the same amount per gem if you buy $5 worth as if you buy $10 or $100...the more you buy, the better deal you get.

So its not a penalty so much as it is paying a premium for being able to buy a smaller amount, and getting a discount when you purchase more. That's the way economics in general works. You want an hour boost, there should be a premium on it, and 7 gems probably is the correct price...maybe 6, but probably 7, otherwise the economics of it probably won't make sense for Supercell.

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How waist 50% of gems (leaving the boost after the first hour) can be considered profitable?
Did you do that?

Yes, I have done it. Sure, it is not as profitable as raiding for the full 2 hours, but I can still get 1.5-2m in 1 hour for 70 gems, compared to roughly 600k by boosting mines and collectors for the same amount of gems, or 100k for buying loot directly.

I never boosted for two hours unless I'm sure that I will be able to play for that time. Maybe because I spent real money in the game so I know what the "real" gem price is.

I suspect it has more to do with not wanting to feel like you're wasting gems/boost time than it does the actual price. The reality is we're talking about $.10-.25 in "wasted" gems...which is also less than the game gives you every week.


I'm suggesting a win-win deal.

You're suggesting a win-win for players. I explained already why it's not necessarily a win for Supercell.


How can you not see the incentive here?
How offering an option to MORE people spend gems is not a incentive to SC?

Again as I explained before, it's also an option that will have some people spending less gems.


First hour of boost: 10 mins per gem
After that: 15 mins per gem

Player will need to remember to keep clicking to boost button again, and again, and again.
Would you like to do that? I wouldn't.

That's not how it would work...when you hit boost there would be a slider that allowed you to chose how long you want to boost for, and show you how much it costs. So you could choose 10 minutes for 1 gem, 30 minutes for 3 gems, 60 minutes for 6 gems, 2 hours for 10 gems, 2.5 hours for 12 gems, etc.

Is this thread a 1-hour barrack boosts, or a thread about why one doesn't buy gems, and ideas to tempt others/themselves to?

Could have sworn it the latter... but it seems like people are stuck on one of the already overly talked about ideas. :rolleyes:

Well, why I don't buy gems isn't an idea or feature request, so IDK.

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Originally Posted by awesomness2016

Well, why I don't buy gems isn't an idea or feature request, so IDK.

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At best, it is half an Idea & Feature Request thread. It is the stated problem to be fixed in an idea thread, which in my post I stated, and then attempted to solve, or give suggestions on what direction to go to solve it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by awesomness2016

That's not really the right way to think about it.

Think about it like a phone plan. You don't pay twice as much for 1000 minutes compared to 500, or for 10gb of data instead of 5, you pay a marginally higher price. Or anything you buy in bulk, including gems. You don't pay the same amount per gem if you buy $5 worth as if you buy $10 or $100...the more you buy, the better deal you get.

So its not a penalty so much as it is paying a premium for being able to buy a smaller amount, and getting a discount when you purchase more. That's the way economics in general works. You want an hour boost, there should be a premium on it, and 7 gems probably is the correct price...maybe 6, but probably 7, otherwise the economics of it probably won't make sense for Supercell.

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The point of this forum is to suggest what we would like SC to do. I don't think anyone wants SC to give us 1 hour boosts for 7 gems. We want it for 5 gems.

Also, your analogy isn't always accurate. I can go to the store and buy a pound of tomatoes for $2. But what if I decide I only need half a pound? The store isn't going to charge me a premium for buying less than a pound. I can get that 1/2 pound for exactly half of what I would have paid for a pound. SC should apply this pricing strategy to the 1 hr gem boost.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by awesomness2016

Well, why I don't buy gems isn't an idea or feature request, so IDK.

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No, but the suggestions that followed it, such as increase boosted collector production by 3x and allow 1 hour barracks boosts are, which you would know if you had read the post and not just the title.

I think you are looking at it wrong. If you play clash of clans and you love it, I would say I have spent as many hours as a $60 game, therefore buying say $20-60 on gems is worth it, if you use them on builders huts they are worth every cent you pay. Then boosting barracks is quite profitable if you can dedicate 2 hours to the game which many can easily do. I guess if you use gems to speed up building times it's a waste unless you have a lot of money to spend