Profile of SturmtigerCobra

DoW3 Fast and Furious:

Forever in our heart and memories. Rest in peace.

Imagine if Relic starts selling "elites" for real money like COH2. The P2W outrage will kill the game without any chance of recovery. The primary reason COH2 somewhat recovered (game not dead yet) from the P2W sentiments + bait and switch (War Spoils Skydive Event) was because the game has no real competition.

If Relic intends to make money from elites, that should have been clearly communicated to the player base BEFORE launch day. Now it's TO LATE.
Many players might hate premium commanders/elites but there is something they will hate even more; bait and switch marketing. Even the new EA CEO are trying to stay away from these past mistakes. EAs new mantra is; "think players first".

Why are paid games adding micro payments (article by the owner of steamspy)?
https://galyonk.in/why-paid-games-are-adding-micro-payments-526f358426c6

How Electronic Arts stopped being the worst company in America
https://www.cnet.com/news/how-electronic-arts-stopped-being-the-worst-company-in-america/

Turning the Titanic

That group of executives who met with Probst in April 2013 ultimately became what he called a rehabilitation group. Their job was to fix customers' complaints.

"Very early on, we developed a list of policies," Probst said. "We systematically went down the list -- what can we do differently?"

Among them, EA created a "Great Game Guarantee," offering customers a full refund, for any reason, of a game purchased through its online store within 24 hours of first playing, or in the first seven days of purchase.

The company also did away with a draconian feature it built to fight piracy and reselling of used games, which required customers to type in a code on their computer or game console.

See also: Five ways Electronic Arts got back into the game

Next, EA worked on fixing its relationship with customers. Gamers are not like most normal people; they're committed, passionate, enthusiastic consumers who go all in when a new game they want is released. Some sit in front of their screen, mashing on buttons for hours -- or days -- until they finish the latest title. The company needed someone at the helm who understood them.

In September 2013, Andrew Wilson was named EA's new CEO after Riccitiello left abruptly. Then 39 years old, Wilson had rapidly risen from being a developer in the company's Australian offices to head of its sports games, including Madden football and FIFA soccer. He'd also overseen the company's "Ultimate Team" services, a form of fantasy sports that became a bedrock of the company's games and profits.

Free Elites? Enjoy it while it last to next expansion?

Great job extracting the audio files. Another good reason to love Relic games; audio immersion.
Now to expand on this;
Sorry long post, but it's important to understanding there's a bigger picture.

GeneralsGentlemen RTS Podcast: Command and Conquer and Crappy RTS Games

At 1:50:20 GG talks about audio microtransactions/announcer packs. I am glad he brought up the subject.
I tried to wake up Relic in the War spoils closed beta to how important this could be to COH/DoW. Skins alone won't be enough, especially not without CSGO gambling/trading.

This SEGA Europe interview below is relevant to future COH community engagement;
Interview - John Clark - (SVP Commercial Publishing) SEGA
John explains how SEGA are putting the player at the heart of their commercial content strategy, measuring engagement and ultimately developing a shared revenue model with the player community

This idea of shared revenue model is supported by Relic brand director, Alex Price
https://www.pcgamesn.com/company-of-heroes-2/company-of-heroes-2-pumping-50-of-skin-competition-purchases-back-into-community

“This is a unique opportunity to test a self-sustaining model where players can access top quality content, reward the content creators, and fund community-led events,” said Alex Price, brand director at Relic. “We’re excited to see how this might pave the way for more collaboration with players and designers across our portfolio of games.”

So you want Relic to move forward with more community content and mod tools? Well "get noisy" and more importantly vote with your wallet to support popular community "content creators" (tournament casters, streamers, modders, artists, war paint skins etc.). Money does speak louder than words and without it, none of this "community content" would happen.

RTS Customization & Microtransactions
ideally microtransactions should only be cosmetics/user customization with no effect on competitive gameplay in 1vs1/2vs2. Casual game modes such as 4vs4, Theatre of War/co-ops/Comp Stomps are a bit more forgiving on premium commanders and/or new factions

Financially speaking (AAA RTS games), Relic games is on the Chopping board.
This is crucial to the financial success of COH2, DOW3 and/or COH3. Hopefully, Relic has secured new funding with SEGA for much-needed mod tools so COH2 can expand on this.

With all the customization available for skins and commanders, it's lacking when it comes to audio and animations. Not to mention bulletins and cosmetic ranks (prestige ranks) are currently useless as "collectible rewards". Relic devs confirmed in the War spoils beta that bulletins were original intended to be "collectible rewards/items".

Why Relic don't you want to make more money from customization?
The same attacks, abilities, and audio get old by having the same at all times. There are several good ways Relic could make money from COH customizations. But they have "tunnel vision" on skins and/or commanders (doubt new commanders will be profitable with the current system). Perhaps a new map objective game mode for 4vs4, could make loadout/out-of-match faction customization more fun to fans (specialized team roles similar to MOBA games).

1) Alternate animations - microtransactions
Alternate animations for commander abilities, faction victory, attacking/moving/idle infantry and patrolling AI planes etc.. This could be implemented with new spectator modes that focus more on planes and infantry. Especially at the start of the game, there is not much going on from a birds eye perspective. So would be pretty cool with alternate spectator mode that focuses on infantry animations and/or skins. In "Band of Brothers" art style, starting allied infantry could be dropped from an airplane as a "warm up period" before the game start.
Band of Brothers HD (All Parachute Scenes From The Series)



(ANIM) COH2: The British Forces - Officer Firing
https://sketchfab.com/models/dc3de4c2af3e4bf8840f8f964561cf96
(ANIM) COH2: The British Forces - AEC Patrolling
https://sketchfab.com/models/b55959298e314156a73b4da61c99352d
(ANIM) COH2: The British Forces - 'Tommy' Idle
https://sketchfab.com/models/7ce663136f96482983d16a08c9dd818a

2) Audio microtransactions (such as MOBA Announcer Packs)
Company of Heroes 2: British Forces Dev Diary: Audio and Voice Recording

Generals Gentlemen talk about COH microtransactions on recent "RTS Podcast". To further elaborate on GGs comments on MOBA audio microtransactions (smite, Starcraft HOTS, LoL, DOTA) being used in RTS games. I agree 100%.

For those interested in Announcer Packs (some are pretty funny too);
Heroes of the Storm Announcers

SMITE - Making of Announcer Packs


FYI; DOTA sells these "voice packs" for 2x the price of COH2 commanders
http://www.dota2.com/store/#cat=1073146881
League of Legends; Samuel L. Jackson Announcer Pack

DOTA 2 - Voice Actors, Events, and Announcers

Rick and Morty Dota 2 Announcer Trailer

First Blood Quotes - Dota 2


Now imagine if COH2 had a “HelpingHans or Stormless/AE/GG Announcer Pack”, would you buy that to support tournaments? I would for sure, even more so than Warpaint skins. I'm pretty sure popular twitch COH streamers/players would work for free as well. IIRC, the voice acting studio Relic used for UKF are located in the UK so travel is easy for COH fans like Hans and tournament casters. The alternative, maybe the modding community could help with the voice recording. This ofc requires some new mod tools.

Both Relic devs and Creative Assembly seems to read this RTS blog below. So I want to highlight this which are relevant to RTS customization;

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE OF RTS GAMES
Skins, Customizations and Loadouts
https://waywardstrategist.com/2015/07/22/looking-forward-to-the-future-of-rts-games/

Company of Heroes 2, StarCraft 2, Grey Goo, and Planetary Annihilation all have various systems that, if they have indeed been present in RTS games before, are at least becoming more mature and starting to show clear signs of being worthwhile. While some players may balk at some these systems, I believe firmly that their adoption is part and parcel of the evolution of the real-time strategy genre, and are necessary for it to remain competitive with games of other genres.

One of the more contentious of my beliefs is that it is a good thing for real-time strategy games to include systems similar to what you see in Company of Heroes 2, in particular, including skins, or cosmetic customizations, and here’s the contentious bit: load outs, or out-of-match faction customization. Perhaps the way Company of Heroes 2 implements these particular things isn’t up to snuff yet, but I think that once games find more mature ways of implementing these features, it will be a good thing for the genre as a whole, for all that RTS old guard will continue to kvetch about them.

Face it, RTS gamers. People like to customize their belongings, to make choices about how their property looks and feels and behaves. You see it in their browsers, and more importantly, in their shooters, their MMOGs and their arena-based combat games. Like achievements, customizations (both cosmetic and otherwise) are coming. We’ve already seen StarCraft 2 implement a limited skins system, and Planetary Annihilation sell alternate commander models. We see Company of Heroes 2 sell skins, as well, and up the ante slightly with a Commander system that vaguely resembles hero purchase models from MOBA titles like League of Legends. People also like to earn things, too, as it turns out.

Cosmetic alterations like skins, badges, or Planetary Annihilation’s Commander models are an easy sell. There are, of course, challenges with customizations that can experientially alter a player’s multiplayer experience. Balancing factions against one another, factoring in whatever unique features the game chooses to introduce through a loadout system. In Company of Heroes 2, the game provides variations within its existing combat model – different infantry options, heavier or faster (seldom both) tanks, or heavier tank destroyers, unique upgrades to base units, access to heavy “off-map” strikes etc. These are built into predetermined groups of 5 each, called “commanders” – some are obviously better than others, and some were purchasable only until the Western Fronts expansion, with the implementation of a system that has a chance to randomly drop items from a predetermine selection, including commanders, skins and more. This is in some ways similar to how Dota 2 occasionally gifts players with Workshop items, though Company of Heroes 2’s model is still immature.
Randomly dropping, or giving players an option to earn custom content via a currency system, are 2 possible options for the loadout system. They’re not the only options – how you implement such a system is important, but secondary to the importance of giving players options, and being able to add to or grow a game over time. And that’s precisely what this class of options is about – growing a game over time. For so many, too many RTSes, players lose interest. Balance can kill a community, but so can stagnation, and the traditional expansion model is in my opinion insufficient to add enough content to keep players, well, playing. Player (or developer) driven cosmetic modifications and modding are 2 ways to achieve this influx of new… stuff to a game, but so, undisputedly, is a system which experientially expands the “core” multiplayer game. We’re still a ways off from finding the golden ratio of modification to systems balance, but Company of Heroes 2 and failed projects like the new Command and Conquer game and End of Nations are bringing us closer to figuring it out.

I encourage all COH fans to give fair and balanced feedback that Relic can consider in COH2/DoW3/COH3. With the decline in RTS popularity, there is little chance that big AAA RTS games can be supported for 5 years without microtransactions. My motto; there is no failures, only feedback. Learning from COH2 mistakes = key to DoW3/COH3 success. Another important factor to help preserve COHs longevity is the brand trust which equal brand value. Blizzard has some of the most loyal gamers because they are a trusted brand. With COH2/DoW3 microtransactions, the general gamer is essentially going in blind without knowing what to expect.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/branding.html

Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attractsandretains loyal customers.

Brands can spin feedback – even negative – into positive results

http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/responding-to-online-reviews-can-have-significant-benefits-for-brands-37099/
But players hate microtransactions? (steamspy owner)

https://galyonk.in/why-paid-games-are-adding-micro-payments-526f358426c6

No, they don’t.
Players hate bait and switch. Players hate when they’re lied to, when they’re deceived, when the product they’ve paid for is gone and is replaced with something else.

That’s why free-to-play originally got a lot of hate — because the term itself is deceiving. Free-to-play games aren’t 100% free as in a beer, they’re only free to some extent. We just got used to it by now.

Biggest COH2 "bait and switch" tactic to date;

War Spoils should keep progression through Western Front Armies interesting, but in the long term Relic will use it to add new content to COH2, hopefully for years to come. This is all part of the five-year plan, director Quinn Duffy told Eurogamer.
*SNIP*
"We want to make sure we're communicating, that we're letting people know the game is there, that we're going to support it long term," he says. "We want them to know that if they want to be playing this game in years, we're going to be there."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-29-relics-five-year-plan-for-company-of-heroes-2

Fortunately for Relic, there is no real competition to COH2. That's why the game is still alive. Don't confuse Relic "haters" with frustrated fans that are looking for a lifeboat onboard Titanic.

What it’s like to manage a gaming community on fire

“What sounds like constant moaning is actually a hundred different complaints when you zoom in closer, and almost all of the issues can be handled by giving more information, by including people in the bigger picture. So I don't get numb to it, because I'm right there in the trees with my players. I can then take that feeling and use my privileged access to get the whole story and share it.”

http://www.pcgamer.com/what-its-like-to-manage-a-gaming-community-on-fire/
Sanya Weathers Community manager, Dark Age of Camelot[/

2017 COH Buisness Plan and Roadmap? More secrets from Relic?
DLC failing Commander Lifecycle:


COH Buisness Plan? MIA!

It’s not enough to make a good multiplayer/spectator game.
COH2 (or free-to-play COH Online 2) also has to succeed financially post-launch with DLC/microtransactions. But without sacrificing gaming quality and balance too much.
Valve games such as CS GO/DOTA is a good example how to do this. A lot can also be learned from Blizzard Hearthstone microtransactions (which many Relic devs have played).
Creative Assembly with Halo Wars2 blitz mode is experimenting with microtransactions and Total War Arena (using the Wargaming business model from WoT). More experimenting like this is also coming for COH2 or future COH games. 100% guarantee.


But western players hate microtransactions & free-to-play!?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive now has decorative gloves
http://www.pcgamer.com/counter-strike-global-offensive-now-has-decorative-glove-microtransactions/
This article below (the owner of http://steamspy.com) explain why many Western publishers failed to make money from microtransactions and destroyed some of the market for free-to-play (which has a better reputation in Asia).
https://galyonk.in/why-paid-games-are-adding-micro-payments-526f358426c6#.g4jp5uaoc

Players hate bait and switch. Players hate when they’re lied to, when they’re deceived, when the product they’ve paid for is gone and is replaced with something else.

That’s why free-to-play originally got a lot of hate — because the term itself is deceiving. Free-to-play games aren’t 100% free as in a beer, they’re only free to some extent. We just got used to it by now.
BTW, in Russia free-to-play games are not usually called “free”, they’re called “contingently free”/”free with a catch” (“условно бесплатные”).
It’s even worse with “pay-to-pay” conversions, though. Unless it is clearly communicated to the user before he paid for a game, switching the business model on the fly might be viewed as bait and switch tactics.
And just because Valve managed to get away with adding microtransactions to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive after the release, doesn’t mean you will be able too.
What’s next?
I think we’re going to see “pay-to-pay” more, especially in multiplayer games for the Western audiences. It makes the game sustainable, it makes it easy to adapt for the East, it provides the developer with consistent revenue stream.
I also hope that we’ll see less examples of companies switching to a different business model midway.

Relic needs to become more proactive and transparent about this. Misleading and/or and failing to communicate with the COH community serve no one. In a creative business if you're a cynic you get burned. Don't blame community managers, they are just following the chain of command and probably ain't paid much.

Relic Old DLC "masterplan"?

https://www.coh2.org/news/4977/quinn-duffy-post-launch-interview
COH2.ORG: How do you feel about the (largely negative) way players have reacted to the day 1 DLC?
Quinn Duffy: At first I was a little bummed out, but then I realize in this internet day and age that what people say (‘I hate DLC and I hate Relic’) and what they do (buy DLC) is really at odds.

Now take a quick look into the business dictionary and look up "branding"
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/branding.html

Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.

Fact; Consumer perceptions is everything in marketing
Brands can spin feedback – even negative – into positive results

http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/responding-to-online-reviews-can-have-significant-benefits-for-brands-37099/
What it’s like to manage a gaming community on fire

“What sounds like constant moaning is actually a hundred different complaints when you zoom in closer, and almost all of the issues can be handled by giving more information, by including people in the bigger picture. So I don't get numb to it, because I'm right there in the trees with my players. I can then take that feeling and use my privileged access to get the whole story and share it.”

http://www.pcgamer.com/what-its-like-to-manage-a-gaming-community-on-fire/
Sanya Weathers Community manager, Dark Age of Camelot

Advice to Relic;
There's an old saying: "Make no promises, tell no lies"
If you don't want to have a toxic environment of players complaining then don't promise things that you can't deliver and then pretend that you have. No consumer trust, failing business plan. Lacking consistency in words and action = no trust. To many in Relic have lived in the dark ages of community interactions, just like Minas Tirith (Relic Echo chamber).

Broken promises, constant marketing failures, ignoring good community feedback (including other gamers on steam), lacking transparency, P2W sentiments and unbalanced content played a huge role in giving COH2 (and Relic) a bad reputation. Not surprisingly, only the most loyal COH fans are left because COH2 has no real competition (unique game). COH is a great franchise and the potential for a much greater gaming community is still there.

Fortunately, there is some light at the end of the tunnel, thx to SEGA Europe and Atlus (same owner as SEGA). Don't underestimate how difficult it has been for SEGA Europe along with Atlus to convince top SEGA leadership to invest more into "Quality gaming/branding".

We Betrayed Fans And Want to Be a Brand Again, Says Sega CEO
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/we-betrayed-fans-and-want-to-be-a-brand-again-says/1100-6428680/

Former EA top executives (Owen Mahoney) speak out against EAs old business plan
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-10-06-nexon-we-need-to-focus-on-heart-first-and-money-second

"And so what they had was these rocketing up user numbers and then these user numbers crashed to the ground, in individual games and then of course overall in the company. The reason why they crashed to the ground is because the customers aren't stupid after all. You can trick them once but you can't trick them a second time. And fundamentally in a creative business if you're a cynic you get burned."

How Electronic Arts stopped being the worst company in America
https://www.cnet.com/news/how-electronic-arts-stopped-being-the-worst-company-in-america/

In fact, more than 250,000 people cast their votes on the advocacy website Consumerist and crowned EA the worst company in America the year before, beating out Bank of America.

Just wow.
I want to emphasize this from Nexon CEO (FYI; Alex Garden founder of Relic is also co-founder of Nexon NA);
"fundamentally in a creative business if you're a cynic you get burned"

On the positive side, this marketing guy from SEGA Europe "get it"
SEGA Europe moving forward with community content/mods etc.

Company of Heroes 2 to give 50% of Proceeds from Polycount ‘War Paint’ Skin Competition back to the Community
http://www.mcvuk.com/press-releases/read/company-of-heroes-2-to-give-50-of-proceeds-from-polycount-lsquo-war-paint-rsquo-skin-competition-back-to-the-community/0165923

“This is a unique opportunity to test a self-sustaining model where players can access top quality content, reward the content creators, and fund community-led events,” said Alex Price, Brand Director at Relic. “We’re excited to see how this might pave the way for more collaboration with players and designers across our portfolio of games.”

New Commanders - Not profitable?
FYI; The average total playtime for COH2 players;
71 hours
http://steamspy.com/app/231430
CS GO Playtime total: 286 hours
http://steamspy.com/app/730
In comparison, CS GO has a much more active player base than COH2 and CS GO players are also far more profitable than DOTA players (free-to-play). CS GO is now making Valve just as much money as DOTA with a much smaller player base. CS GO trading/gambling has a lot to do with this "financial success".

COH Brand Manager, Alex Delamaire talking about CS GO
https://twitter.com/alexdlmr/status/724443047421845507
http://alex.delamaire.net/

The less visible - but very profitable - part of Valve's revenue: betting & gambling through virtual items in CS: ;:GO

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-virtual-guns-counterstrike-gambling/

It's not because Relic doesn't want to make new commanders, it's just that the ROI (return on investments) is going down + P2W sentiments are still going strong. Also with the new war spoils/supply system in place they need to make more money from new players because veteran players will just buy with supply.
For new commanders to become profitable without sacrificing gaming quality and balance. A lot has to change.

A New DLC Plan? COH Commander Rotation vs Hearthstone two play modes
At current life cycle (decline or go freemium/CS GO), it would be more financially realistic to start talking about removing ALL the old premium commanders from the auto match while keeping them in custom mode (see below link as one idea to implement this). Keep basic commanders as free to play.
Start working on a new commander system that could potential be used in COH3.
Relic is not Santa Claus, to justify post-launch commander development cost they do need to make money from new premium commanders.
An open debate about this WITH Relic is far more "relevant" than posting some more irrelevant commander balance posts that Relic will never take seriously as they can't monetize it. Sometimes more is less. We need fewer competitive commanders, not more. Bulletins is another financial mess and deadweight that will never get fixed unless Relic with sufficient community interactions finds a way to monetize it.
Ideally, Relic could do something similar to Hearthstone two play modes, standard and wild mode.
A New Way to Play
http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/19995505/a-new-way-to-play-2-2-2016

The New Standard
Standard is a new format in Play mode that allows players to go head-to-head using only the most recently released Hearthstone cards. You’ll play Standard using a deck built solely from a pool of cards that were released in the current and previous calendar year, along with a core foundation of the Basic and Classic card sets (which will always be valid for Standard). You’ll be matched against other players who are also using Standard decks.
Standard will help make for a more dynamic and balanced metagame.
A select set of cards makes each new card have more impact!
The developers will have more freedom to design exciting new cards.
It lets newer players jump in faster without having to collect as many cards.

After 1-2 years in COH "standard mode" premium commanders rotate out into "wild mode" (all commanders). Just allow players to recycle old commanders for supply.

2016 Roadmap history - COH Community Waiting For Relic Community Interactions;

http://www.companyofheroes.com/blog/2016/12/09/coh2-the-road-ahead
1 year delayed 2016 roadmap;

Together, through transparent, coordinated, and collaborative efforts, we can continue to offer anyone who loves and plays COH2 fun and engaging experiences well into next year and beyond.

More transparency? I hope Relic stay true to that, we will see.

Thx for sharing your story Devm and good luck.

currently that seems very hard to get with their current manpower situation when it comes to coh 2.

IMO Relic is working on a new free-to-play COH game. Pay attention to what going on with FTP Football Manager and Total War:Arena/Total War kingdom. SEGA Europe has 4 core IPs, Football Manager, TW, COH and DoW. They want to expand all those IPs to become "global brands" and/or cross-platform games. Vancouver along with Relic has many Devs with mobile/indie game experience.

Wargaming & SEGA Europe partnership
http://wargamingalliance.com/
http://www.sega.co.uk/news/wargaming-alliance-to-publish-total-war-arena?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=seganews

Wargaming, SEGA and Creative Assembly are moving forward today in a new partnership that sees Total War: ARENA published worldwide as the first ever title released by Wargaming's new publishing label, Wargaming Alliance.

https://ritastatusreport.live/2016/11/14/wargaming-alliance/

Today WarGaming, SEGA, and Creative Assembly have announced a new platform, WarGaming Alliance. This will act as a publishing branch that also gives developers the tools and resources needed to step into the free-to-play market.

The first title under this new banner will be Creative Assembly’s Total War: ARENA.

Sega & Wargaming collaboration

http://gamingtrend.com/video-post/world-of-tanks-blitz-announces-valkyria-chronicles-tank-collaboration/

In collaboration with Sega, Wargaming announced a new Valkyria Chronicles themed tank for World of Tanks Blitz. This announcement teases an increased involvement between the Sega developed series and mobile MMO.
Screenshot_20160906-172901
This collaboration marks the first time Wargaming has worked with another gaming company, and the company has released a video covering the announcement and collaboration.

Ozan Kocoglu, General Manager Asia-Pacific at Wargaming.net (the GM you see in the interview above)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozankocoglu?authType=name&authToken=PCj6&trk=prof-sb-browse_map-name
Ozan Kocoglu is also the former publishing producer of World of Tanks Generals (WW2 card game).