The Problem with Sketches as Fund-raisers

[Ferinex]

The cheapest item on the store is a sketch, at $2.50. The price is right, and even cheaper than the $3.00 one can expect for a lowest-tier microtransaction.

Given that it is the cheapest way of supporting the game, it will appeal to the greatest number of people, and will be the first store item considered by a new player. Unfortunately, not everyone has use for a sketch. It's not so simple as "Spend $2.50, get something in return" because anything we might want to apply a sketch to is going to require some amount of work in-game. Most of the customizable items require cloth or leather or rope. Cloth especially can be difficult to come by, especially in the early game. Why would anyone buy 5 or 10 sketches when they have only 1 or 2 items to apply imagery to? Why buy sketches at all if you are a newish player with no customizable items? I'm 3 weeks into this world with 5 toons, playing likely more than the average bear would, and still have virtually no use for sketches. Suggestion: offer something which is of value to all players, including new players, at the lowest dollar value, and place that offer near the top of the store.

This is something that should be considered. Provide a $3.00 microtransaction which does not require work on our part, and allow us to scale that tip to higher values if we desire. In exchange, provide us something of cosmetic or social value. Streamers have a lot of success accepting tips in exchange for access to their audience (messages and recognition, displaying the tipped amount and the tipper's name) and custom emotes. Compare your situation to theirs. Consider you have kept any sort of global chat firmly under your own control, which could prove a valuable asset.

[Burinn]

I'm 3 weeks into this world with 5 toons, playing likely more than the average bear would, and still have virtually no use for sketches.

Have you heard of the shield item? Or the village banner?

[Granger]

Suggestion: offer something which is of value to all players, including new players, at the lowest dollar value, and place that offer near the top of the store.

Already exists, it's called verified account.

A $15 one-time payment gives the life long (yours or the game, whatever is shorter) benefits of:

One extra column of inventory space
+20% character development rate
+50% convenience

Basically every player wants that, inventory expansion is one of the most beneficial things you can have for a character.

[Ferinex]

Suggestion: offer something which is of value to all players, including new players, at the lowest dollar value, and place that offer near the top of the store.

Already exists, it's called verified account.

A $15 one-time payment gives the life long (yours or the game, whatever is shorter) benefits of:

One extra column of inventory space
+20% character development rate
+50% convenience

Basically every player wants that, inventory expansion is one of the most beneficial things you can have for a character.

You must have missed "at the lowest dollar value". $15 takes more to pull the trigger than 3, by about 5x. I wouldn't call $15 a microtransaction at all for that matter, and still it is a one-time purchase per account, which is problematic. Personally, I have 5 accounts, none of which are verified and one of which is subscribed. I may even consider subscribing the others if the subscription were closer to $3 or $4 rather than $7. There is a psychology behind pricing which the store misses the mark on. It also misses the mark on repurchasability which is the main focus of this thread.

I'm 3 weeks into this world with 5 toons, playing likely more than the average bear would, and still have virtually no use for sketches.

Have you heard of the shield item? Or the village banner?

anything we might want to apply a sketch to is going to require some amount of work in-game. Most of the customizable items require cloth or leather or rope.

Additionally, I have no use for a shield or a village banner. The shield would sit unused in a cupboard 90% of the time and my village claim is plenty large enough as it is. It also took quite a bit of work even getting to the point where a shield or village banner would be useful or feasible respectively.

[MooCow]

We could always use more cheep shit to spend money on.

still have virtually no use for sketches

This is not true, every single construction with variable materials can be sketched to change the look. It is a poorly advertised feature

[Ferinex]

We could always use more cheep shit to spend money on.

still have virtually no use for sketches

This is not true, every single construction with variable materials can be sketched to change the look. It is a poorly advertised feature

Are you sure about this? So a sketch can be applied to things like carts and wheelbarrows? Exteriors of buildings? Village idol? Trellises? Can you show me a screenshot?

[Ysh]

We could always use more cheep shit to spend money on.

still have virtually no use for sketches

This is not true, every single construction with variable materials can be sketched to change the look. It is a poorly advertised feature

Are you sure about this? So a sketch can be applied to things like carts and wheelbarrows? Exteriors of buildings? Village idol? Trellises? Can you show me a screenshot?

You can use it to change material to different existing texture. For example I can build stone tower with anything then use sketch to change this to look as if it is build with rock crystal.

[jorb]

You can indeed use it to change variable materials, but in principle I do like your reasoning.

[Vassteel]

yeah i use sketches all the time to change the look of my buildings all the time its really easy to burn through a stack of 50

[shubla]

Add custom donation which allows you to broadcast global messages to hearthlands.
The more you pay, the longer they persist in the game as notification windows!