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I know it's rough planning all the product releases, but I realized that as I canceled my subscription to the card game today, that it might be worth sharing how I fell victim (while totally conscious of it) to subscription psychology today.
For whatever reason, August was a perfect storm month with the release of the ACG and 3 (!!) AP chapters getting compressed to ship in that month. Alone, the monthly subscription will hit about $100 that month.
My canceling of the card game subscription fell victim to a general desire to not exceed $100 in subscription charges in a single month for fear of drawing the wrath of The Wife.
If I were in the middle of a card game series (say I was on #3 of #6 for Skull and Shackles), I likely wouldn't have been able to pull the trigger and cancel. But, unfortunately for my subscription, this was the month that the stars aligned to start a brand new set.
In general, in order to maximize subscription retention, I'd suggest it would be very beneficial to never end one series and begin another series during a month where there are other spikes in charges from other lines. This would in essence keep the dollar amount below certain thresholds and sensitivity levels where it wouldn't cause action. It's a fairly common practice from other big businesses that milk the subscription farm to delay releases so they stagger in the most optimized manner to minimize churn/maximize retention.
Sadly, I fear my canceling could be seen as another data point against the next set of the card game's appeal/demand, and not due to the way the release dates aligned.
One thing you might want to consider: re-subscribing but choosing only the character add-on deck as your start point in August. Then you can pick up the Base Set later when the cash flow won't be as much of a problem. See this post for a bit more information if you want to know more:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r351?Skip-a-step-in-your-subscription#4
CEO
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In general, in order to maximize subscription retention, I'd suggest it would be very beneficial to never end one series and begin another series during a month where there are other spikes in charges from other lines.
Just to let you know, it is NEVER our intention to start one series and end another in the same month. We hate it even more than you do, because we know that it lends itself to folks canceling subscriptions because of the combined costs. Our goal is to always have one adventure path released per month. We have been very bad at reaching this goal and it seems that August with the GenCon releases is always one of the worst offenders. But it is our goal to not do the exact thing that is causing you cancel your sub. We will strive to fix this situation in future years. Thanks for your feedback!
-Lisa
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Hey! Thanks for dropping in.
Hopefully the feedback gives you more fuel for the priority fire to help the scheduling in future crunches!
Also, in this case it was two multi-installment product lines both ending and starting in the same month. It wouldn't have been an issue if the card game line was staggered a few months from the AP line, as at any given point, a customer would be in the middle of a series and not let their finger float over the cancel button as readily.
Just wanted to plant the seed if you guys see a decline in the card game subscriptions between now and August, it may be challenging to analyze that data because it's been affected by the AP schedule along with the ACG release in that same month.
Two products enter. One can leave. Go!
(Err, three products enter, two can leave... good news is AP and game rules line won which probably have better margins anyway!)
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wakedown,
I have similar issues, as I subscribe to a number of products. When a month aligns where there is a novel, a module, a couple of comics, a card game release, all in addition to my ap and companion lines, I get nervous that my wife will even see the box sitting on the porch.
Financially what I do is find my threshold, for you maybe that is $100.00/month, or $75.00/month, and in the lighter months, buy yourself a gift card for the difference and apply it to your account. Try to not check the box to automatically apply the gift certificate to your next shipment until the big hit occurs and build that reserve. I know now that annually August is going to be a killer month, so I start planning for it in June. For example, my July shipment is currently at about 8 bucks, and my August is at about 160 bucks... great chance to get ahead now.
Having one or two months where you added 20 or 30 dollars to your gaming account will drop those bigger months back down to a reasonable level, and keep any significant other you might have from inquiring about shoe shopping with your obviously new found wealth when the card statement arrives.
Hope that helps for your future subscriptions!
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For whatever reason, August was a perfect storm month with the release of the ACG and 3 (!!) AP chapters getting compressed to ship in that month. Alone, the monthly subscription will hit about $100 that month.
It may be worth noting that the "Example Subscription Shipments" listing on My Subscriptions is very unreliable when Paizo is in the process of shipping subscriptions (which is really half of the time now that subscription runs take two-three weeks to complete), as it tends to consolidate future months.
In fact, it is so wrong that it generates multiple customer service messageboard posts every month from people horrified at seeing its results. It even generates cancellations, as we can see here (if I understood correctly the root of the problem). This thing must be fixed now (it has been wrong for a very long time) or removed altogether.
The Paizo Product Schedule is much more reliable (but doesn't compute shipping charges). At the moment, there are 2 Adventure Path issues planned for July, and one for August.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I was going to say the same thing as Fayries - don't trust the giant list on your subscriptions page that makes it look like there are no July shipments at all. That list is usually screwy until the month begins. Expect it to get split up into two months.
I'm probably a minority but I don't mind a big August because I can justify it as part of my Gen Con budget.