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New levels, new thoughts.

• CharlemagneRH 1,054 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 4:59 PM

  The only thing WGT cares about when it comes to credits is if they are going to the same users over and over again, since that is the only way they will have to send anybody a gift card or a set of golf clubs.

  So does WGT care about the credits that are passed around in MPC matches?  Yes, if all of those credits are going to a small number of people, which means that WGT will eventually be forced to pay them out.  The desired outcome is that credits be passed back and forth, minus the cut that WGT takes, so that nobody gets over 150k credits.

  Of course, it's a little bit of speculation that WGT is attempting to ensure that nobody get too many credits, (although the handicaps now in place certainly work towards this,) but when there's money to be made, some ****sucking economist or business man always pokes his head in and says, "Hey, have you ever heard of the term 'profit-maximization'?"

• Kaslo 428 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 5:06 PM

  I don't know Richard, as I said I do know there are always unintended  consciences to changes as large as this. Also 20% of nothing is not as much as 20% of something. When it comes to virtual credits I made the suggestion along time ago to allow us to use them in the WGT store. I for one would have bought a few golf shirts for example. Seems to me it would have been an excellent income generator.

• CharlemagneRH 1,054 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 5:09 PM

  Kaslo:

  I don't know Richard, as I said I do know there are always unintended  consciences to changes as large as this. Also 20% of nothing is not as much as 20% of something. When it comes to virtual credits I made the suggestion along time ago to allow us to use them in the WGT store. I for one would have bought a few golf shirts for example. Seems to me it would have been an excellent income generator.

  How many credits do you have?  25k?

  Why give you three t-shirts when they will likely never have to give you anything if they keep the lowest prize 165k credits?

  There's no income in it for them to make small prizes like that... only more expenses, which means loss of profit.

  Again, it's rather cynical to take an economist's perspective and say stuff like this, but the conclusions that follow are not far off from observable data.  An economist that is off his leash can and will ruin pretty much anything in this world.

• GL57 83 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 5:10 PM

  Valid point, borntobesting.

  In conclusion, the new level system is bordering on useless and seriously frustrating. Oh, well, WGT, take heart, even the best among us occasionally f*ck up!

• GL57 83 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 5:23 PM

  Yes, Kaslo and Charlemagne, YES! As it stands, earning credits in Ready-Go tournaments is hardly exciting once you've got the equipment you want, except for replacing balls. Also, do the math; you need a $1000 worth of credits to buy a $250 worth shopping card, and to make that $1000, you need to spend at least half of that unless you are crazy good. 

  Solution? Kaslo said it: Extend the Pro shop considerably to include smaller and cheaper, but appealing and usable items, while giving players the illusion that they've won them, when in reality they have probably paid for them much more than their market value..

• CharlemagneRH 1,054 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 5:32 PM

  $1,650 worth of credits in order to get the $250 gift card, and you don't really have to pay for half of it... you're either good enough to get it, or you aren't.  Other people pay for it.  In order to earn that $1,650 worth of credits, though, a good player will have to play about 1,000 RGs, which will require them to pay $1,350 worth of credits just to cover the entrance fees and upgraded balls, so you are really talking about $3,000 in order to get a $250 gift card.  Further analysis would prove more of the same... I could make this look a lot worse.  There is a lot of money going in, but very little coming out.

  There is, however, one notable exception: those once-a-month-or-so crazy vacations where someone gets to go to Las Vegas to play golf with Tiger Woods and end the day with a pillow fight on top of a mountain of cocaine in the clubhouse.  WGT does put money into those.  Unfortunately, those trips are paid with money earned out of the RG's.

  Of course, I'm not going to sit here and say that WGT should make no profit or that they should never send anybody to an exclusive resort, but I think it is somewhat hard to justify all of this.

  Economics is a disease.

• Richard4168 4,309 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 5:32 PM

  Thanks Kaslo. The take from the WGT fan store is small change though IMO, being WGT doesn't own the fan store, just their name on the merch. The fan store is owned by Zazzle.

  Charle, I don't know what you're talking about.

• CharlemagneRH 1,054 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 5:36 PM

  Richard4168:

  Charle, I don't know what you're talking about.

  It's not complicated... very simple.

  If there are 10,000 people out there that have 20,000 credits each, what does WGT have to pay out?   Nothing.

  If there are 1,000 people out there that have 200,000 credits each, what does WGT have to pay out?  $250,000 in gift cards.

  Obviously when it comes to WGT's profit margin, the former is preferable to the latter.

   

  But... let's say we introduce a t-shirt for 10,000 credits.

  What happens?

  If there are 10,000 people out there that have 20,000 credits each, what does WGT have to pay out?   WGT has to come up with 20,000 t-shirts.

   

  So it's really quite simple... if WGT makes sure that no small group of players can accumulate a lot of credits (e.g. making a handicap system, where pros and masters can sometimes take money from legends; tier-based RG's, where legends continuously take money from one another, back and forth, while WGT takes their cut each time; etc.), and if WGT keeps the cheapest prize almost unattainable, then WGT never has to pay anything except for those rare golf trips.

• danohi50 1,020 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 5:50 PM

  Economics are scary..Especially with accountants armed with computers.

• GL57 83 Posts

  Sat, Sep 18 2010 6:07 PM

  Ha ha ha! Charlemagne, you are scary right, and WGT may start to grow a tooth against us.

  But back to the level system. Consider this: I bought a while back the full master lineup of the latest dizzyingly fast meter clubs, from the driver to the putter, with GI-SD balls to help me cope with the extreme legend playing conditions. But it has finally dawned on me that, however good in their own right these clubs are, I am not fit to handle them with any consistency, unlike AvatarLee, by reason of my physical disability and aging reflexes. So now what? After having had the foolishness of selling my previous regular master R9 and G10 clubs, with pro Ping wedges and Daytona putter, I am royally stuck. Why? Because, as you guessed, either laughing or screaming or both, all my old and better suited clubs are locked until doom's day. F*ckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!