ArcheAge 4.0: Maelstrom

ArcheAge: Maelstrom was my first major expansion as the game's Live Producer. Together with Trion's Creative Services, Translation, Marketing, WebDev, and our development friends at XLGAMES, we launched our first Naval Battle PvP Arena, brand new upgrades to our ship building system, new gear to collect, new areas to explore, new housing areas for players to build in, and many quality of life improvements that were unique to the North American and European versions of the game.

As Live Producer, I was successful in negotiating many well-received changes to the game, but my favorite addition were the changes we developed for the game's Item Regrade System. In the original version of the game, weapons and armor would break into low value components if a player's upgrade was unsuccessful.

Using our game's internal data, I was able to identify a new business opportunity in adjusting the upgrade system in favor of our community. We had found that many players had quit the game after losing their first item to an item break, which caused an unnecessary amount of financial churn in the business. Had the item been preserved, the player was likely to continue playing and spending on the game.

Together with XLGAMES we introduced the concept of "Crystallization" into the North American and European versions of the game. Instead of breaking the item, we let the player continue to use it but they were not allowed to upgrade a crystallized item. To get around this block, we offered a limited amount of Decrystallization Scrolls during in-game events and sales in our real-money marketplace.

This single change increased the game's retention rate by 15% beyond players level 30 and above while also increasing customer spend on the game by 5% without causing any change to the in-game economics.