Greetings hi5 players!
We found out alongside the players last week that hi5 will no longer be supporting 3rd party developer games (us, along with all of the other current hi5 games). We dropped other priorities to put a plan together on how we can quickly and fairly address this issue for our loyal players and fans. After a lengthy amount of consideration, internal office debate and a significant amount of data analysis it was determined that an inter-network transfer from hi5 to another network where we keep stats intact is not possible.
Before you grab your pitch forks, please know that this is far from the final word. We hope you will agree with us after reading the following points that making direct character transfers don’t make sense. Please read on for the insights and realizations that pushed us in this direction.
- Although game mechanics are similar what makes the games drastically different on each social network is how players have built their characters. For example, throwing the level 8000 player that is at the top of the hi5 leader board into Facebook will be suicide for the hi5 player. This is because the characters have been built completely different, to fend off completely different set of rivals.
- Even if a full transfer was done, alliances cannot be transferred, throwing a player into a high level without any clan/mob/squad will be committing suicide for that player.
- Not only would it be unfair to throw hi5 players into the arena with new rivals using their current character build, it would also be unfair to those that have competed in a different environment for the past +3-yrs. Players on the other networks at say level 6000 position would be passed in the ranking by someone who has been playing against a completely different set of competitors.
- Transferring stats is also not possible, this is because the "15,000" hit list kills that you had on hi5 was never available to the players on Facebook or MySpace, so comparing those stats against each other is not useful nor fair to those that have been competing for the past 3 years.
Here is a real world scenario using the highest ranking player from Viking Clan on hi5 as an example. We are seeing these types of scenarios pop up frequently in our player statistics research between the multiple networks…
Player Level: ~8200
This player has built their character to be stronger than the "strongest" on hi5 against a different rival set which is completely different.
Comparing the 8200 hi5 account to a level ~8000 player that is about 200 levels lower…
Facebook player stats are:
- Health roughly equal
- Attack +47% greater
- Defense +65% greater
The hi5 player has built a "strong" hi5 player but a weak Facebook player. If the hi5 player and Facebook player were fighting over the same resources (bounty kills, battle wins, kills, etc) the hi5 player as built would have a different set of stats than they currently do.
In light of this information we are still committed to supporting our loyal hi5 players. Below are a couple of packaged options that we have put together for players. While the details are not final yet we hope you will find these to be quite generous and really the best option possible considering the aforementioned analysis. This will allow players to ramp up quickly on a new network, and build a new character against a new set of rivals, taking into account level and amount paid.
Based on our research of how competitors in our space have handled similar situations under different circumstances, when it was their decision to shut down a game. What we are planning to do is in line with what we’ve seen elsewhere. We feel these packages are the most fair and equitable solution available given hi5’s short notice of service termination and our ability to rapidly deploy a workable solution.
- A package that includes Favor Points based on play and/or amount paid for on hi5 to get you started / continue on either Facebook or MySpace.
- Offer a package that includes Favor Points based on play and/or amount purchased, alongside a character that is started at a higher level / income based on your player from hi5, it would not be a direct transfer of stats but would be one that has been adjusted to take into account the new network, to allow for players to fairly rebuild their character, rebuild their clan/mob/squad.
We hope you will find these packages to be agreeable, we will update with more detail as soon as we can. While we understand some players may be upset they can’t direct transfer from one network to another, please understand we have had to take many factors into consideration including what’s fair to players on the other two social networks available.
Thank you,
KANO/APPS
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