AUTOMOTIVE DEALER GAME (Changes Sep 2017)

We have been making many changes to the game, most of which are not worth reporting in this way, but this one change is likely going to affect a number of players so we want to explain it in more detail.

CHANGES MADE TO AUTOMOTIVE DEALER GAME (Changes Sep 2017)

  • These changes will be implemented soon.

  • The game will be completely self-contained and has no effect on your real game play, except that PROFIT and BXP can still be earned and added to your real game play.

  • Values used in the game are NOT based on your real game play. In other words, the cost of goods, selling costs, and selling price are set by the game.

  • All the values above are the same for all players.

  • The product inventory is not based on your real product inventory and sales made in the game do not affect your real inventory.

REASON FOR THE CHANGES

  • We discovered that many players have been using the AUTOMOTIVE DEALER GAME as a core part of their gameplay. Specifically, to sell product inventory at a good profit.

  • The AUTOMOTIVE DEALER GAME was not intended to be used in this way. Our objective for the game is to provide players with a fun and immediate activity that can be played while waiting for other elements of the game to complete, like waiting for inventory to be manufactured, delivered, etc. And, it can also provide a way to clear out inventory and generate some quick revenue.

  • But, we had some of our economy numbers set improperly and it provided a way for players to generate much higher profit than intended. As a result, some players ended up focusing much of their gameplay on the AUTOMOTIVE DEALER GAME instead of the other activities of GoVenture World.

  • It is very difficult to rework the game in its current format to avoid it being exploited or used in a way that was not intended, so the fastest solution was to make it self-contained with the changes described above.

Thank to all of our players who have been playing our game and helps us discover what works well and what doesn’t. We will be posting a survey soon to get more feedback from everyone on the game. We are looking at offering in-game rewards for completing the survey. More on this in the near future.

Understand the changes, but it’s a pity because the function of reducing excess stock was handy early on and yes the margins were more realistic than the early stages of the general market. Now that the general market is more developed there is a price penalty to playing the retail game making it far less attractive. I would have thought there is a large time penalty to playing the retail game as well so the benefits were balanced.

The follow up question then is what about the manufacturing mini game which allows you to run the assembly line to manually produce an extra 9 cars a day - a key part of getting orders filled. I fear by bringing it up. I’m about to hurt my business model badly but it’s only fair…

Hey Firey,

Actually, no price penalty with the Automotive Dealer Game because the game no longer uses your REAL inventory. So, there is nothing to lose by playing the game … you just earn extra cash and bxp.

Currently, we have no plans to change the Manufacturing Game.

So no real inventory gets sold, means less trade agreements or sales from open market,
Kinda ruining sales for manufactures, So actually making a manufacturer at this point is useless, seeing sales are going down, with these numbers on retailers and manufactures at the moment in game.

Hi Callaars, I think you are overestimating the effect the Automotive Dealer Game has on the world. The core gameplay and all the economics are designed to support manufacturers selling to retailers. There is plenty of profit available and the vast majority of the world market is untapped.

I think he’s reacting to the sales drop with the new bug rather than the effect of the changes to the retail game. urgent problem - my and many other players sales are ZERO!

Also has something to do with it ofc, but instead of own inventory getting sold , its "their"inventory so less purchases for manufacturers as well… noticed it 1 day after introduction automotive dealer game changes, quite simple market is on hold cause of this and will be slowly continueing while, production cost stays the same, factory costs monthly

Hi guys … sorry to hear about the sales drop … very likely a bug. Unlikely to be related to the Automotive Dealer Game changes. We will get on this, but I think it may take us a day to hunt down and fix.

Problem with the economy fixed! We had made some performance adjustments to the system and a certain condition in live play triggered a bug. The economy/sales should be back to normal (Monday morning eastern time). This is unrelated to the Automotive Dealer Game.

Delayed reaction! I just played the retail sales game and won’t bother ever again. you’ve killed it!! Not only is 65k not worth the time it takes to play but the bxp, which would have been the upside is bugged.

The game summary says 88 bxp but the actual awarded is 4 bxp per round or 20 bxp for 5 rounds.

This game gets 30-40 minutes of my RL day and one retail sales game takes over 10 minutes. you guys can do the math and see why what you’ve done kills the game!

Thanks for the note. The bxp is a bug and we will get that fixed.

The time consuming…leaves me only doing the manufacture game as well, unless i have ages of time…