Hanabi is now premium!

[Stroom]

Hanabi is pretty much divided by skill ranks. The actual player base around individual skill levels is a lot smaller than it appears. I would not want to play with anyone who isn't master. New players would probably not come to play Hanabi if it is premium. Old players stop playing, new players not coming to play. And they would have to grind a lot to reach 700 elo. There will not be as many new (master level) players so the community will start dying because of this.

[Tisaac]

New players would probably not come to play Hanabi if it is premium.

And why is that ?

[Stroom]

New players would probably not come to play Hanabi if it is premium.

And why is that ?

Probably because:

• New players don't have premium yet so they have to rely on someone to create a game.

• Older players do not want to play with beginners/apprentices. Filter is almost always used based on that.

• Therefore the amount of new players getting to play is very low. Hard to get a game going. Losing interest after waiting for too long etc.

[RicardoRix]

I think there are more premium players that play Hanabi occasionally than you think.

You yourself are premium, so you can create tables as you see fit.

You can also break the mould and play with less experienced players, there is nothing to say you cannot do this. Be the change you want to see.

[Didou13]

PS : For those who talk about Editors, licence, etc... Just think First about the Real recipients of the BGA Hanabi experience and the community !
How many of us are premium ?
How many will go for a premium to continue to play Hanabi ?
Just do Math and convince these partners with figures !

Do that yourself !
I personnally completely understand this decision from the publisher point of vue.
These last months, I would bet that the physical sales were droping a lot. On the other hand, many new players are searching ways to play online, so making the game premium here could somehow compense a little bit the enormous loss in physical sales due to Covid.
The game is popular here so even if haters gonna hate and complain, I think there will still be a very large fraction of player that will keep playing (and thus paying) Hanabi here.

If there's less players to play with, even premium players would eventually leave as well.

With Hanabi being in the top 10 games, I think we are still quite safe about the players pool here.

Clearly not !
Check the Number of game now by day. You can see Numbers of tables are divided by 25 on these last days ! 25 times less !
Hanabi will nevermore being in top 10 here or elsewhere !

I did Maths.
If you right and the physical sales are dropping a lot, It's not this kind of decision to make Hanabi premium (so less accessible) that could make sold up! It's a non sense.
This kind of short game (cocktail games) don't stir up enough the hype to improve sales when making them less accessible !
The exact opposite. We will see a massive desinterest of Hanabi cause their decisions on BGA.

[Tisaac]

PS : For those who talk about Editors, licence, etc... Just think First about the Real recipients of the BGA Hanabi experience and the community !
How many of us are premium ?
How many will go for a premium to continue to play Hanabi ?
Just do Math and convince these partners with figures !

Do that yourself !
I personnally completely understand this decision from the publisher point of vue.
These last months, I would bet that the physical sales were droping a lot. On the other hand, many new players are searching ways to play online, so making the game premium here could somehow compense a little bit the enormous loss in physical sales due to Covid.
The game is popular here so even if haters gonna hate and complain, I think there will still be a very large fraction of player that will keep playing (and thus paying) Hanabi here.

If there's less players to play with, even premium players would eventually leave as well.

With Hanabi being in the top 10 games, I think we are still quite safe about the players pool here.

Clearly not !
Check the Number of game now by day. You can see Numbers of tables are divided by 25 on these last days ! 25 times less !
Hanabi will nevermore being in top 10 here or elsewhere !

I did Maths.
If you right and the physical sales are dropping a lot, It's not this kind of decision to make Hanabi premium (so less accessible) that could make sold up! It's a non sense.
This kind of short game (cocktail games) don't stir up enough the hype to improve sales when making them less accessible !
The exact opposite. We will see a massive desinterest of Hanabi cause their decisions on BGA.

As I said, I have the figures : "Hanabi 2.39 % of audience share", which is the 10th best audience share of any game on BGA.
Last months, it was more around 3.5% of audience share, which was around top 5, so indeed there was a drop but that's still a game that is played a lot, even if it's now premium.
The rest is a matter of opinion but the first figures are making me believe the risk Cocktail game took is worthed it so far for them.

[Stroom]

Hanabi is a coop game. When I play, I want to play with the best players. Therefore anyone under 750 is quaranteed to be a frustrating game. Hell, even some 900s are.

[Travis Hall]

Hanabi is a coop game. When I play, I want to play with the best players. Therefore anyone under 750 is quaranteed to be a frustrating game. Hell, even some 900s are.

It might be worth creating some training games, and helping some people become good players.

(Training mode partly so that we don’t get annoyed with stupid plays constantly dropping our ratings, and partly because then we can explain the techniques as we go and nobody considers it cheating for rating increases.)

[Didou13]

We will see Travis, we will see.

Come on with your figures in 2 months.
I well know games market, i bet physical game will continue to drop, and the fact that Hanabi is premium now will have a negative impact on the game AND on sales.

Best moment to make premium Hanabi would be 2 years ago just after Chrismas, clearly not now.

[Tisaac]

Come on with your figures in 2 months.

I will.
The rest, again, is a matter of opinion and forecasting so please stop saying "it is clear that...".