Oct 3 2012
Magic Tricks: How We Make Tiered Spenders
Greetings, denizens of MegaTen!
I’ve had players ask how we decide on the items for tiered spenders. So here’s a sneak peek at the magic trick! 
Bacon goes on a mission.
The first thing I do is check notes from previous tiered spenders. Every item a player’s ever asked for?—It’s cataloged somewhere! Although the ease of navigating those catalogs… that’s questionable.
Then there’s a compare-contrast phase, where I look for parallels between the catalog and:
- items people are buying on the forums marketplace;
- items people are buying in-game;
- items people have mentioned in random forum threads;
- items people have provided in questionnaires hosted on the blog and Facebook.
The marketplace is key, since that lets me look at the current Macca value of items. But the Macca value—the supply and demand—that ends the moment I pass the tiered spender to management.
Management reviews the mission.
Not all tiers are built equal. That is to say, you may see a pattern like:
- Tier One: It’s okay.
- Tier Two: It’s really good!
- Tier Three: Meh.
- Tier Four: Mehhh.
- Tier Five: It’s amazing!
Why do we do this?
We can’t give away every fantastic item all the time, or they’d no longer have that beautiful shine. Since there are players who can’t afford Tier Five, we try to wedge something decent at a lower tier; but for those that are climbing their way up to Tier Five, we create so-so options for Tier Three and Four. That way, you don’t feel like the jump between Good Item A and Good Item B is vacant.
tl;dr: Tiered spenders require filler.
This is only one of the things management looks for. They also ask questions like:
- When’s the last time this item was offered?
- Are we decreasing the demand before it’s time? (This is especially true for recent FC releases.)
- Is this item currently available elsewhere within the game / charge shop?
- Do these items compliment things currently available in the charge shop?
The best thing I get asked is, “Can we add more items? This isn’t good enough.” It’s like an epic filter.
But wait. It doesn’t end there!
Toaster watches for missions.
It may seem like this exchange involves two parties:
- Bacon (marketing);
- Management (managing >_>);
But your resident Game Master is also on the lookout for the goods! He keeps his eyes peeled for:
- Items mentioned by mentors;
- Items brought to his attention in-game or on the forums;
- Items he discovers with his mastery of MegaTen.
- What was your favorite tiered spender?
- If you could have one item in a tiered spender, what would it be?
- Let’s say we had a tiered spender raffle for an in-game item. What would be the coolest thing ever for one lucky spender to win?
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