Has Dominations peaked and the company is now milking all they can get?

[Horsepower]

This is from a recent article. Seems clear that the game has peaked and on a downhill slope as far as revenues. That may imply that the game’s life of generating strong revenues is near the end. This could very well be the reason Nexon is pushing out profit generating gimmicks in the form of troop card at an excellerating pace. They are forcing the issue of the buying impulse by making the defense extremely difficult. This in turn demands that players buy troop cards just to compete.
Its like trying to milk the game for all you can get knowing that the huge profit generation is slowing down and the best days are gone. I suppose we are the addicted pawns. We don’t want Dominations to end, we just want to have fun and for the game to get better. To the company it’s no longer about fun. It’s about making as much money before it ends.


This is from the recent article......

Limited success

Deconstructing DomiNations’ success in this way throws additional context on the $100 million of lifetime revenue.

For example, from these graphs, it’s clear the majority of that $100 million would have been generated in 2015, when the game was riding high in the top 100 grossing charts in the West and South Korea.

Equally, given the game’s current position, it seems unlikely it will reach the $200 million mark.

http://www.pocketgamer.biz/data-and-research/65587/deconstructing-dominations-ltv/

 

[VictorDominations]

I feel the same. I also feel it’s slowly dying. My guess 1-2 years from now the game will stop being updated because it will be already too late to save it.
If Nexon really wants to save this game, they really should find a different way of making money that’s for sure. Not by forcing people to buy troop cards. This is absolutely the wrong way to do it.

 

[SiuYin]

I think Dominations going downward since Global Age.
More Worker required for Upgrade
Castle 4 ->8
Tower 3 -> 4
University added, which is purely zero-sum game: everyone need to spend more than half worker in it
And then Estate.

Start from GA, every release is pushing player to spend more crown or quit

And then SH, push everybody to buy troop card.
----------------------
at the IA era, we able to catch up progress, but start from GA, every release is profit oriented

 

[LordAnubis]

Yes they are milking it. I played Kixeye games of Battle Pirates and Vega Conflict. When those games neared their end life Kixeye started introducing stupid shite like cards. Within months their daily active player base dropped well below 100k.

Dominations is following the same track. Unless releases Cold War Age, return the reward chests to normal and deal with the persistent bugs, this game will be dead by next summer.

 

[SiuYin]

It is common pattern for mobile game
Stage 1:
New release, both paid and free player able to catch up progress.
Player grow quickly
Stage 2:
About 6 months later. Old player find little difficult to catch up progress, new joiner still able to enjoy the game with some smart playing style.
Player grow slowly but total player reach historical high
Stage 3
1 year later, Old Player found it unable to catch up if they quit game for 1 or 2 month, new joiner found it impossible to catch up
Not much new joiner, and existing players begin to quit
Stage 4
1.5 year. free player whining and quit,
Game is died

 

[LordJestix]

yes this game is on its way out.

 

[Houkai]

If I get a crown every time I see someone whining and complaining, I would be able to max-out in an hour Sure there are problems, but not that deadly. As long as the updates keep rolling, all is fine.

 

[Gargantuar]

It would be too early to say that the game is dying . The way I see it, they got out the silo to stop British archer/artillery spam . The expectations were that people would adapt to other troop combos and don't spam with archers. Guirellas , paratrooper on silo , battle tank on silo via TH etc. but looks like people ain't happy. Too comfortable in their attack style that they don't want to experiment.

Earlier there were complaints about how easy it is to 5 star . Now there are complaints that 5 star has become a necessity for NTGs.

 

[Quovatis]

Game peaked just before they introduced stronghold, and before the ridiculous pay to win game they have created.

 

[LordJestix]

It would be too early to say that the game is dying . The way I see it, they got out the silo to stop British archer/artillery spam . The expectations were that people would adapt to other troop combos and don't spam with archers. Guirellas , paratrooper on silo , battle tank on silo via TH etc. but looks like people ain't happy. Too comfortable in their attack style that they don't want to experiment.

Earlier there were complaints about how easy it is to 5 star . Now there are complaints that 5 star has become a necessity for NTGs.

maybe if it didnt take 10 hours to train a full army and we could make a proper full attack on a base then it wouldnt be so bad. This game is dying. Lots of people have quit already, many have been here from the start and had high level AA bases. The move to P2W is what killed this game.

 

[KniferX]

It would be too early to say that the game is dying . The way I see it, they got out the silo to stop British archer/artillery spam . The expectations were that people would adapt to other troop combos and don't spam with archers. Guirellas , paratrooper on silo , battle tank on silo via TH etc. but looks like people ain't happy. Too comfortable in their attack style that they don't want to experiment.

Earlier there were complaints about how easy it is to 5 star . Now there are complaints that 5 star has become a necessity for NTGs.

The only thing silo did was that it made it compulsory to carry tank destroyer mercs/generals/tactics (or if a weak silo base, a lot of tanks). That's it.

People going on about this preventing British spam or suggesting guerillas don't know what they're talking about, British don't give a damn, they'll just deploy tank destroyers a bit away and do the same old howie/shooter spam with decoys no problem! They never rallied in the first place!

Guerillas, is this a joke? A unit that can be stopped by a spike trap on the gates, that you also need to protect from enemy troops and that spends precious QV time until it destroys the silo? The unit is worthless both in war, and in mildly competenent town bases or better.

TH and battle tank? Maybe, maybe pre-nerf, now definitely not.

Paratrooper usage is the only thing here that makes sense, but you'll definitely waste a fighter soaking all the SAMs first, and then you won't have fighters to deal with the Stronghold troop cards.

Either way, a bunch of mostly worthless suggestions. You're missing the point here, and the point is that people cannot spare to use tank destroyers, generals and tactics for every attack because the game requires you to 5 star a lot for the diamonds and NTGs that you NEED for wars.
It is completely fine for war, as it can be EASILY distracted by the high hp mercs and generals, the problem is in the MULTIPLAYER.

You also think that "defense is too weak" and "we can't make enough 5 stars for NTGs and diamonds" are 2 opposite situations. Now we have both, friend, the silo doesn't do that much in wars when you know the gimmick, but it kills your NTG and diamond aquisition in multiplayer.

 

[Houkai]

To people who complain about the silos - Simply do not attack a base with protected silo. There are a lot of rushers to chose from.

 

[LordJestix]

To people who complain about the silos - Simply do not attack a base with protected silo. There are a lot of rushers to chose from.

until everyone has a silo....yeah what then?

 

[KniferX]

Yes, now there are rushers. When those rushers build up their base, give it around 6-7 months, and when new player influx into Global age slows down to a crawl, all the atomics will scramble in the lowest medal counts to pick on the few bases without the silo.

The silo in MP is a gimmick that just makes NTG and diamond grinding more annoying than it already is.

 

[melheor]

I keep seeing the same doomsday argument from people: "what about X months from now when everyone has a silo?" and it has become a cliche.

Realistically, players who didn't already get a silo will not get one soon. It takes a lot of grinding to get to 160k oil, especially now that TH has been nerfed and it will probably be the last thing Nexon will discount. Also, realistically, we will not see more than 50% of GA bases with silos, ever. Atomic bases - sure, we'll probably see almost all of them build silos.

Also, nothing is constant in this game, in 7 months the silo will not be what it is now. A number of things could happen. Silo could (and probably will) get nerfed, more people will build bombers (which are stronger now btw - so don't say Nexon has only been beefing up defense), we may get a new unit to counter the silo, etc. So why are we panicking about what the players will do in 7 months? In 7 months it will be a different game.

Personally my main gripe is that it takes me forever to retrain after being wiped out. I like that 5-starring became harder, I just wish the penalty for not 5-starring wasn't 10k oil and 2 hours of plane retraining time.

 

[Gargantuar]

KniferX I definitely know what am talking about . And the evidence is despite what you say , the Brit rifle spam hasn't hit me in the last 3 days , which was never the case earlier. Which means silo does do what it was intended to do .
Now coming to the mercs part , so even I never said using mercs for all battles is a viable strategy . In some other thread a guy mentioned about using 5 tanks and 5 howwies and some strategy to counter silo with regular army .
From my side , I haven't given up on guirellas/elite commandos that easily . Being Roman I can carry two elite commandos extra than regular armies . I would be carrying 4-5 elite commandos and it would be truly bad luck if all died before destroying the silos . On their approach to silo , decoys would provide distraction. Fighters to destroy defenders . It's workable. Maybe we have to think more with the strategy , but it does look doable .

 

[LordJestix]

I keep seeing the same doomsday argument from people: "what about X months from now when everyone has a silo?" and it has become a cliche.

Realistically, players who didn't already get a silo will not get one soon. It takes a lot of grinding to get to 160k oil, especially now that TH has been nerfed and it will probably be the last thing Nexon will discount. Also, realistically, we will not see more than 50% of GA bases with silos, ever. Atomic bases - sure, we'll probably see almost all of them build silos.

Also, nothing is constant in this game, in 7 months the silo will not be what it is now. A number of things could happen. Silo could (and probably will) get nerfed, more people will build bombers (which are stronger now btw - so don't say Nexon has only been beefing up defense), we may get a new unit to counter the silo, etc. So why are we panicking about what the players will do in 7 months? In 7 months it will be a different game.

Personally my main gripe is that it takes me forever to retrain after being wiped out. I like that 5-starring became harder, I just wish the penalty for not 5-starring wasn't 10k oil and 2 hours of plane retraining time.

The only thing that has stopped me from getting it is i still need to upgrade my refinery. IF by chance it goes on "sale" soon i as well as many others will get it then.

 

[Master Contrail Program]

I think the game has peaked. Atomic Age has been out for nearly a year and still the next age is ''coming soon''. My guess is they realize they've backed themselves into a corner regarding upgrade times/costs and by this point, space, to put new things in. Anything less than the huge leap forward that most atomic upgrades have been will be a huge disappointment when the CW upgrades will likely cost 15,000,000+ gold/food, 300,000+ oil and take either 20+ days with the same workers or 14-16 days with 8 or more workers for every single upgrade.

Of course a huge leap forward for CW Age means the seemingly intractable problem of sandbagging and world war matchmaking just continues to worsen. A level 350 CW+ a level 10 iron will still average out to 180 in this system but that's another issue.

Now would be the time to institute any of the myriad proposals regarding allocation of and/or temporary workers. Instead they'll probably just let people buy another estate for $50. Without a fundamental change to the perpetual grinding simulator the game has become the idea of 2 more ages much less the ''many'' that were claimed in that Tim Train interview seems dubious at best. Time will tell.

 

[KniferX]

KniferX I definitely know what am talking about . And the evidence is despite what you say , the Brit rifle spam hasn't hit me in the last 3 days , which was never the case earlier. Which means silo does do what it was intended to do .
Now coming to the mercs part , so even I never said using mercs for all battles is a viable strategy . In some other thread a guy mentioned about using 5 tanks and 5 howwies and some strategy to counter silo with regular army .
From my side , I haven't given up on guirellas/elite commandos that easily . Being Roman I can carry two elite commandos extra than regular armies . I would be carrying 4-5 elite commandos and it would be truly bad luck if all died before destroying the silos . On their approach to silo , decoys would provide distraction. Fighters to destroy defenders . It's workable. Maybe we have to think more with the strategy , but it does look doable .

Who has attacked you then? All smart players who are looting and aren't keen on throwing tactics will just skip the hassle of having to deal with your silo and just go looking for someone without it. Every nation, not Brits in particular, it's annoying for everybody.

Interesting strategy and it will probably destroy the silo, but you just spent, what. 50 troop space, at least 1 decoy, 10-15 seconds of not deploying main troops and basically all base defenders agravated and spawned.

The regular strategy is just more superior and it's virtually the same as it always was. Spawn tank destroyers and tank generals first. Then about 6 squares away spawn the rest of your regular shooter/howitzer army. Decoy the mortar fire away. Don't rally until silo is destroyed. That's it. That's Brits strategy 101, funny how you don't notice it.

The tanks strategy/no tactics won't work in MP unless the enemy has really crappy air defense so you'll have total air domination to stop mortars; AT guns. If tank hp goes too low, bye bye main army.

 

[KniferX]

Agreed, these resource and time requirements are more fitting for the end game. And we have 2 more ages to go.
I wouldn't be suprised if new uni leader just reduces most buildings' time to build by 30% like with the forests. Looks like it would be Nexon's route of "fairly balancing" build times.