Would WRG make significantly more money from the Dabo Wheel if they cut the prices in half?
Sulu's Husband
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in The Bridge
I am sure they have the data from the Dabo sales to make an educated, economical decision. I can't see many people spending dilithium at the current Dabo Wheel prices with any regularity unless they are really desperate to get the 5* crew. I think more people would be willing to use dilithium more frequently to get to that top row at half the cost. Potentially 15,490 dilithium currently to get all the prizes vs 7745 at half the cost. I would think more than double the players would spend for the whole table than are partaking now which would make more money for WRG. Given they threw Mirror Tuvok in the Faction Store for 6000 dilithium, halving the Dabo cost seems reasonable. Your thoughts?
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Thanks for the correction on Tuvok. It makes the argument to have the prices halved even more logical.
But one other thing to remember, tuvok is one of the best crew in the game. I'll drop 5k dil for him. But I'm not spending 5k dil on most crew in the faction store. And I won't spend 5k to run the dabo table unless it's a similarly good crew.
I am curious how much dil they're making from faction refreshes vs the 5k purchase when he shows up.
I will take equipment for crew I don't have over equipment for crew I have already leveled any day.
Equipment for crew I have already leveled is also a problem, but at least those can be used in the replicator without loss. I hate trashing equipment that might come in useful someday.
"Half the price, more than twice the sales" works in some places, but not all. My guess, the folks willing to clear a full Dabo page at half rate aren't much different from the ones willing to do it at full.
Starport
It's probably 'rare' that they 'make money' from Dabo. I tend to think of Dabo as a loss leader, like the rotisserie chicken at Costco. It's there to entice you to spend more, but it doesn't generate revenue.
6-7 years ago, when Jon Radoff was in charge, he famously said that no dilithium would be given away for free, ever. Pay currency, the end. That made Dabo premium and you had to spend real money to acquire things.
Now, with DIL raining from the heavens throughout the game and offerwall, anyone can spin. The only cases where it would involve someone paying real money, in theory, is if they had only 2000 DIL and saw a brand new card on their Dabo and they wanted to get FTM on it - so they spend $80 on DIL offers to do so. That happens maybe once a week.
Beyond that, probably weekly, some player has a long-sought after card appear in their Dabo and buys an offer to get a copy.
So no, I don't think Dabo has made them any money for 5+ years and will continue not to.
There should be a secondary effect that I would hope they measure. The more people spend dil the more they're likely to buy a dil offer for real money. Or even to buy a monthly card. And even the offer wall presumably kick back some real money to WRG otherwise they wouldn't offer them.
Obviously the campaigns for real money and all offers for real money are the most immediate source of revenue. But everyone time someone buys dil, that brings in revenue and only happens because the player is then spending the dil on something.
I intentionally keep a couple dozen crew unleveled with open equipment, but more than half the time--far more, really--I get equipment for crew who have been long immortalized. So even if I were tempted to take the extra spin, I don't trust that I would get anything of use. The only time to do it is if you are trying to run the board, which is the equivalent of far more crew slots than any gold would be worth.
Dabo is a gamble unless you know you’re going to run the entire wheel. I did it once but that was preFBB and quantum.
Otherwise it’s too random. I’ve gotten maybe 3x4*s (one I had), 1x5* and 1 5* equipment. That last one was just a couple weeks ago.
I could be wrong. And @Frank? raises some great points. The fact that free dil is more available could mean more folks are doing extra spins, although with Dabo now functioning more as a "gold sink" than a revenue generator.
But, end of the day, WRG has to have the stats here. If a Dabo sale sees a big spike in dil spent, even with multiple sales in close-ish proximity, I'd at least expect these to become more frequent - if not permanent.
They haven't.
I used to have a character farm like this as well. I happily removed it when campaigns lost item drops (I don't use Dabo or Gauntlet, the other situations this was useful).
Starport