test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Congratulations Cryptic - the model works
angrysprite
Member Posts: 4,982 Arc User
Congratulations to Cryptic (and Perfect World) as their free-to-play model works and the (sometimes shrill) discussion about the Astral Diamond/Zen Exchange reaching cap and dissuasions of new Astral Diamond Sinks prove it.
First of all, though there are some excellent suggestions for new Astral Diamonds "sinks" in this thread - these are not "sinks". These are products for sale.
Upgrading Companions and Mounts are not sinks, for example. A "sink" is money spent with no return on it, such as the new Gold Sink for unslotting of enchantments from your gear, or the posting fee when listing an item at the Auction House. This is a "sink".
The model of 100% free to play that Cryptic has come up with works. Unlike with Champions Online and Star Trek Online having a hybrid model (to placate people like me who purchased 'Lifetime' accounts and whatnot) - they still maintain a subscript-based model in conjunction. This is why items in their respect Zen markets tend to cost less and more of those items are account-bound: they are subsidized by the "Gold" level subscribers and Lifetime Account buyers.
Neverwinter was always a real risk: to allow 100% free-to-play without restricting *anything* from the freebie players; allowing the entire game to be experienced by anyone who chooses not to spend a senile dime, ever. This put 100% of the pressure on Cryptic to:
Create a fun, exciting game people want to play without charging anything for it
Create compelling pixel-candy that people will be willing to spend real money on
Create an economy that people will be willing to initially spend real money on
This means Cryptic must create synthetically intangible items and situations that are good enough that people will want them badly enough to spend real life hard-earned legal tender cash on. In Champions Online that would be Costumes and Travel Powers, Star Trek Online it's the Star Ships Bridge Packs, and in Neverwinter it's the Mounts and Companions. Then there are the add-ons like Booster Packs and whatnot.
They create a revenue stream through gear (in all their games) by allowing for an exchange where players can exchange Zen Points for whichever in-game currency applies, allowing people to obtain other items that are in-game only, except for the exchange to initially work someone has to purchase Zen Point with real dollars.
Congratulations Cryptic Studios: you pulled it off (and all of us playing your games before all this were wary and doubting Thomas's that it would not work.)
As for all of you com paining that there was a run on the AD/Zen exchange and now Zen is petered-out because of the 500/1 Cap: thanks Cryptic for 1) having that cap to protect you and 1) creating such content that people want it badly enough that there is a run on the exchange and Zen is sold out.
Now stop complaining about it. If you want Zen that then badly, buy it.
Thank Cryptic that they are NOT using this scenario to create new Astral Diamond sinks in the game because as soon as they do there will be vitriolic shrill shouts of complaint (remember when it cost Astral Diamonds to unbind gear enchantments and how expensive THAT was?). Should Cryptic decide to "rebalance" the economy through sinks I hope they do it covertly and very quietly. Though I don;t think they will so soon as they tend to implement new ideas more carefully and thoughtfully in that regard.
Either way: player complaints are a good thing because it means Cryptic is creating something people want in a real bad way. They want it so badly they complain in loud voices, shouting hard and in some case in utter frustration when they can;t have it when they want it.
Damned you, Cryptic Studios, for creating stuff we all want so badly we can't get enough of it.
First of all, though there are some excellent suggestions for new Astral Diamonds "sinks" in this thread - these are not "sinks". These are products for sale.
Upgrading Companions and Mounts are not sinks, for example. A "sink" is money spent with no return on it, such as the new Gold Sink for unslotting of enchantments from your gear, or the posting fee when listing an item at the Auction House. This is a "sink".
The model of 100% free to play that Cryptic has come up with works. Unlike with Champions Online and Star Trek Online having a hybrid model (to placate people like me who purchased 'Lifetime' accounts and whatnot) - they still maintain a subscript-based model in conjunction. This is why items in their respect Zen markets tend to cost less and more of those items are account-bound: they are subsidized by the "Gold" level subscribers and Lifetime Account buyers.
Neverwinter was always a real risk: to allow 100% free-to-play without restricting *anything* from the freebie players; allowing the entire game to be experienced by anyone who chooses not to spend a senile dime, ever. This put 100% of the pressure on Cryptic to:
Create a fun, exciting game people want to play without charging anything for it
Create compelling pixel-candy that people will be willing to spend real money on
Create an economy that people will be willing to initially spend real money on
This means Cryptic must create synthetically intangible items and situations that are good enough that people will want them badly enough to spend real life hard-earned legal tender cash on. In Champions Online that would be Costumes and Travel Powers, Star Trek Online it's the Star Ships Bridge Packs, and in Neverwinter it's the Mounts and Companions. Then there are the add-ons like Booster Packs and whatnot.
They create a revenue stream through gear (in all their games) by allowing for an exchange where players can exchange Zen Points for whichever in-game currency applies, allowing people to obtain other items that are in-game only, except for the exchange to initially work someone has to purchase Zen Point with real dollars.
Congratulations Cryptic Studios: you pulled it off (and all of us playing your games before all this were wary and doubting Thomas's that it would not work.)
As for all of you com paining that there was a run on the AD/Zen exchange and now Zen is petered-out because of the 500/1 Cap: thanks Cryptic for 1) having that cap to protect you and 1) creating such content that people want it badly enough that there is a run on the exchange and Zen is sold out.
Now stop complaining about it. If you want Zen that then badly, buy it.
Thank Cryptic that they are NOT using this scenario to create new Astral Diamond sinks in the game because as soon as they do there will be vitriolic shrill shouts of complaint (remember when it cost Astral Diamonds to unbind gear enchantments and how expensive THAT was?). Should Cryptic decide to "rebalance" the economy through sinks I hope they do it covertly and very quietly. Though I don;t think they will so soon as they tend to implement new ideas more carefully and thoughtfully in that regard.
Either way: player complaints are a good thing because it means Cryptic is creating something people want in a real bad way. They want it so badly they complain in loud voices, shouting hard and in some case in utter frustration when they can;t have it when they want it.
Damned you, Cryptic Studios, for creating stuff we all want so badly we can't get enough of it.
iBooks - http://j.mp/WPFFj1 and PDF - http://j.mp/1o2L7qy
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Also OP yes mount and companion upgrades are exactly what a AD sink is , they remove AD from the game period , the very definition of a AD sink.
If the 500 cap was lifted, at some point zen would start flowing in as people bought zen to convert to AD for AD purchasable things. Instead there are people just waiting for some zen to become available, there's currently AD ofcers for near 600, 000 zen at 500/1.
Correct...as long as whatever you bought can't be re-sold on the AH for AD.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
there is no such ad/zen cap.
people buying zen are smart, they buy zen, they convert them in preservations and resell them to their own price in AH.
ad zen ration is more like 650/1 now
As a fact though you DO NOT have to buy zen for the top listed selling prices. I was "the nut" selling it yesterday at random values of between 200 - 300 AD per zen. All the listings sold.
I think there's a small problem viewing Zen for sale when there's a massive gap between it such as 500 AD per zen, and then the next lowest offer is 450 AD per zen. We should be able to view more than the top 5 listed offers - maybe 10? Perhaps one could enter a range as a search feature to see if there are any listings there, or get an alert in game when there's an offer up in that range rather than a specific value?
I know - I'm asking for possible massive dev work, but it could be beneficial.
Bottom line is though if you don't like something currently going on in the game see what you can do about it like listing Zen at far lower prices, or coal wards at half the price, or give away green rank shirts n pants to random people. You can affect the economy yourself.
Besides summer's near - prices will drop anyhow. It's cyclic.
"Why is it dragons only use ketchup? I'd like a little wasabi please. Us silvers like a variety of condiments."
"Don't call them foolish mortals. One, they don't learn from it. Two, It just ticks them off." - An Ancient Red Dragon
PWE and Cryptic took the decision that found better as a company and a company needs profit.
If you did not like the changes need not stop playing just is not contributing to them, is what I'm doing.
Compared to games like SWTOR where you cannot open a single dialogue box without it reminding you that you should subscribe.
You need to play more F2P games then.
Also the comparison to SWTOR isn't fair tbh. SWTOR was made as a subscription game to offer a complete experience. Now it's butchered and has nothing in common with the original, playing free and sub in SWTOR are 2 completely different games, this isn't even a F2P model.
Neverwinter built their monetization in the game design, they made everything in game based on the idea of always having a better alternative while spending real money.
This game is a product. It is one of the very few actual free games out there. There's no locked content, no pay doors, no class restrictions. People however, will complain about anything.
Edit: And to add on to that. Not only can you access the entire game for free. But you have the ability to earn AD to buy the top tier mounts/companions/enchantments etc that you want. You can literally have the paying benefits, without paying, just by playing. How the hell can people complain about this?
That goes by the assumption that the ones complaining have never contributed to the game. There are lots of issues with the game. Getting a free coal ward isn't something you should expect. If you get more than 2 a year, then you're on the lucky side. If you wanna be competitive you either need to put in a lot of time which isn't achievable for most people or pay hundreds. It wasn't too bad when I was gearing up, you'd still need to farm up over a long period but the latest change is a kick in the balls. The free side of thing is fairly reasonable otherwise with being able to get pretty much anything for free.
As someone who has paid, I feel like I have a right to complain where I see issues like overprice companion/mount upgrades, overpriced zen shop stuff, continued buggy releases and issues that go unfixed for a long time, game imbalances, the continued trend of bop which is one step that may kill the game imo for at least the serious players and the general attitude that we don't matter, only our wallets.
For a freebie you're getting a hell of a lot of content for nothing, otherwise you're paying for something that has a lot of issues that may affect the game's health.
There are a lot of entitled people out there. But $10 per ward is just <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> the people who support them. Wards don't have a lot of work put into them, yet they are vital and you need many of them. The price tag is unjustifiable which was ignored due to the fact there was an alternative route to get them which has now been pretty much taken from us. Things cost money, but you can get a lot more value for money on the majority of games out there. It's hard to feel sorry for a company that shows a lack of care in their product but feels like they can charge for a premium for it anyway.
Yes, I was and am still serious with the OP. However, the change in availability of Coalescent Ward was not a specific part of my intended discussion. Though it does make sense that many will bring this up as it is a highly-charged issue that is currently at the top of everyone's minds. Cryptic is not perfect and they have and always will make very unpopular decisions (case-in-point: the apparent ability to unbind bound companions for transferring them, then the sudden "we never intended that" mantra - but that's an old, moot point by now).
Please take the OP as intended: as a general commentary on the system overall, nor specific to Coalescent wards or anything else.
It is true people are not buying zen and then selling it for Astral Diamonds; this is obvious. As for spending the Zen directly in the market then selling the items received: legal exploitation. Economic-players ("playing the market") types will do this. They are all about profit for profit sakes. As for raising the AD/Zen cap: no. it's a fail-safe protection. Even real life Stock Exchanges have such caps and even emergency "shut-off" switches that will flat-out halt all trading when things get out-of-hand.
This is a better way of describing an economic sink than the way I had described it in the other thread, thank you Eldarth.
Definition: Legal exploitation. These people are in it for the profit for profit sake. If it's legal or not, they'll take advantage. "Hey, nothing personal, it's just business." (Though I don't personally subscribe to doing such things.)
My point precisely.
A cheap-shot cop-out. Really, is this your argument? You've already lost. Seriously. Other games are a moot point and have nothing to do with this game just as this one has nothing to do with them. besides, my OP was about Cryptic Studios in general, not specifically Neverwinter. So you've already missed the point. If you want to use this argument you have proffered with a straight face, then proclaim it as Game Studio Development Company against other Game Studio Development Companies.
UbiSoft, Activision, All the rest: you can have them and keep them. I personally choose not to do business with them no matter how freakishly awesome their games and revenue paradigms might be.
I concur with this statement. As I've said previously (and going back almost five years) Cryptic Studios has not been perfect, they've made some incredibly unpopular moves, some of them defying all possible realms of "common sense" - but overall they're a good company and their particular free-to-play system is working well and I wish them great success heading into the future (which is a selfish statement: I want the game to succeed so *I* can keep having my fun).
To recap: the onus is on the Development Company to create compelling content that *we want to buy* - it must have strong enough value that we are willing to spend real money. Otherwise the company will go defunct. Since there are so many shouts of "WTF?!?" in the foams, Cryptic is doing it's job. You would never complain that upgrading companions and mounts are too expensive or that Coalescent Wards are too rare unless you wanted them badly enough to shout about it.
Good or bad, whether it makes you happy or not, you simply cannot deny that Cryptic Studios' free-to-play recipe is working like gangbusters.
The price tag was unjustifiable only because cryptic made a crucial error in making those drop in invocation 7/7 rewards back in the day. Many people made thousands of praybots to significantly devalue its price.
1) Discussing forum moderation publicly is not allowed. Please take up such questions via PM.
2) Pay to Win discussions or allusions are not allowed. This is because many have a differing definition of "pay to win" (because many differ on what constitutes an "advantage") and everyone has shown they will fight to the death to defend said definition. Because of the massive flame wars such threads have engendered, and that no matter how heavily we moderate those threads people break the rules anyway, we have chosen to disallow the topic entirely. This is stated in rule 3.08 of Rules of Conduct.
Great Weapon Fighter: Because when is today not a good day to die?
PC and PS4 player. Proud Guildmaster for PS4 Team Fencebane. Rank 5 Officer for PC Team Fencebane. Visit us at http://fencebane.shivtr.com
But the whole game is free and playable and completable.
Obviously paying would have to affect your play "somehow" otherwise nobody would ever pay.
LOTRO is another example of a bad f2p system where content is gated.
If FREE is what you're looking for, MMOs don't come any more free than Neverwinter, other than TERA as I mentioned.
Personally, I'd much rather pay for convenience than have content off-limits to me unless I pay. It feels like less of an extortion.
The deployment schedule has been:
Mod 1, gated pve progression (Sharandar maps), 4 new 1 player instances, 1 new 5 man instance and boons
Mod 2, singular PvE Map, 3 new 1 player instances, 1 new 5 man instance and boons, the HR. dovetailed with paragon paths
Mod 3, 2 new PvE maps, Heroic Encounters, 2 new 1 player instances, 1 new 5 man skirmish, PvP Openworld Domination matches, PvP Campaign for all 3 PvP types, Openworld PvP 'sections' of each of the 2 new PvE maps, and optional lateral progression in the new Armor / Weapon sets, alongside an increase in the number Power Points characters can invest in their skillset.
I'm very pleased with Mod 3 generally, and it has the most of the 3 modules in terms of content, not meta (which it has shaken as well)
It does make sense that the focus of the next module is Dungeons, So I share your hopes.
I certainly hope so. The game desperately needs some new repeatable content with none of the bop nonsense. We need a new CN :c
You may want to read the patch notes about the Coal.
It still works.