Breaking Down the Gen Ani and GET Incident (And a Fix)

CookieCrispp

Tldr:
- this event was probably a financial success, but there was definitely money and customer satisfaction left on the table
- The fix is to create a GET2 to GET1 conversion (or store purchase). This also prevents CG from being hit by too many refunds (Gen Ani exclusivity tied to 5* is not directly influenced)

Preface:
- I obviously do not have knowledge of, nor access to CG metrics. I assume they saw a massive spending and activity uptick this last week (maybe even higher than previous legendary events). I assume this had a lot to do with the length of the current meta and the popularity of the character in question.
- I did unlock Gen Ani, and I am one of the bitter players who did not have a massive GET stockpile. If you feel that this diminishes my message or that it is self serving, you’re entitled to your own opinion.
- He may or may not be relevant at G13/R7, we’ve seen videos showcasing his prowess and videos proclaiming him being a false prophet.

Some of this is anecdotal, and some of this is speculation. I’ve been playing this game for a while, so I think most of what I say should be within the ballpark of how things actually are.

First, from CGs standpoint, Gen Ani will appear to be a win. You went from 40th on the iOS spending to 17th this month. You’re not wrong that this was a fiscal success. The issue was more the raw amount of money left on the table.

When Gen Ani dropped, most players fell broadly into four categories; those who wouldn’t get him, those who could spend to get him, those who would unlock but had no GET, and those who would unlock and had piles of GET.

The first group doesn’t apply here. It’s not to mean they don’t matter as players, but in terms of value, they present none relative to this event. Technically they represent the players who get beat up in arena, and they therefore give the whales pleasure, so you do want to tease them enough that they either spend or keep playing (as whale bait).

The second group, players who may have gotten Gen Ani with spending, may have been deterred due to the 5* unlock. If not, you can easily cross reference your players with X number of seps/GR who did/did not spend on packs for this event. I suspect the number is much lower than previous iterations of this sort of event (CLS, JTR, etc). For those who did unlock, what rationale do they have to immediately throw gear at Gen Ani? If he was available at 7*, those players who just bought packs would feel the pressure of grand arena/TW to Gear 13 and R7 him (which is a lot of kryotechs). As it is, especially if those players have monthly spending limits, there is no reason for them to hurry and violate that spending rule.

The third group, which is a decent number of your whales and dolphins, is your player base who could unlock but not 7* r7 Gen Ani. Much like the previous group, why would they spend extra on packs (these players would have almost all if not all of the packs still in the store. Some probably bought the packs as extra supplies, some dolphins definitely scoffed and moved on). If Gen Ani unlocked at 7* and was competitive, these players either would be forced to burn into their gear and relic reserves or to buy the packs to stay in the GAC meta. Either way, the allure of a possible GAC and TW team would pressure them to spend in some form (reserves or money).

The fourth group already had the characters in place. Some are whales or super kraken, some are just ftp who saw the writing on the wall. For some of these, the need to R7 immediately should have demonstrated how much money can be gained from a 7* unlock, and I am confident there are a few 7* Gen Anis out there slowly gearing or starring up.

Here’s the other effects of not releasing a “new meta” and setting a dangerous 5* unlock precedent. First, whenever a new meta hits, anecdotally I see a massive uptick in arena activity, as people streamline and practice teams. Second, to keep DR as a relevant GA/TW team, new mods would need to be farmed, unless a player is sitting on multiple unused sets of arena level speed mods. Third, this activity and hype tends to either foster counter play (and more gearing and relics) as well as relic and gear arms races (which involves farming cantina, a farm that gets exponentially expensive). The new team uses characters which shift old teams, forcing holes to be plugged (meaning more gear/relics to keep teams as intimidating).

Finally, and this deserves its own paragraph, the unlocking at 5* simply does not work when that hard locks a character at g11. That is a full three gear levels behind characters at the moment. This worked for Malak because he was only one. If you wanted to lock Gen Ani out, you could have gated his relic behind a unique item or currency buyable by GET1. This would have allowed you to sell a bunch of G12/12+/Finisher pieces for players who want a G13 Ani will denying him the extra boost a relic has (for four months).

My solution:
Sadly, cg can’t or won’t just unlock all Gen Anis at 7*, refunding the GET, and making an official statement on GET. This would probably result in refunds and issues. They can, however, make GET2 convertible into GET1.

This would halve the speed of the Gen Ani farm while still starving players of GET gear purchases (as was cgs goal with Gen Ani and GET1). This even hurts negotiator fleet farms, doubling down the potential damage of the Gen Ani farm. It also means in about two months (so, in time for the new movie meta), players will have potentially three teams to finish (Gen Ani, any Ep 9 FO, and any Ep 9 Resistance). Plus it allows for cg to create a Gen Ani LS Geo TB mission (which is thematic and forces future hoarding/gearing of him).

The second half of the solution is to immediately re-run the event for, say, two days after announcing the GET2 to GET1 conversions. This allows anyone who is willing to spend (under the new situation) to spend, potentially increasing profits.

Tldr (again):
- while the event was fiscally successful for cg, it left a lot of money on the table and is currently hurting the membership of some guilds
- GET2 to GET1 would be a change that would probably not open CG up to refunds but still speed up the farm while also locking players out of currencies (the goal of Gen Ani)
- 5* unlocks do not work if we keep gating G12 at 7*, have a specific piece or item if you want to lock it, and lock it at Relics (one tier behind the current best)