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Why coal wards are overpriced!
brun2000
Member Posts: 244 Arc User
Hello! How are you doin?
As most of you know, this game is going through a bad time in the exchange and zen sells. But why is that? Well... First of all, coal wards were removed the possibility to be obtained from somewhere else but the zen shop. Second, Zen is expensive and last but not least, it costs 10€ for a **** ward.
Now what price should it be? 5€ Not more, not less! Hell! Even trade bars say its worth 500Zen! 5 normal wards cost as much as 1 coal ward in the trade bar fellow!
Cryptic, why are you so expensive? Isnt selling mounts for 20€ enough? Now you have to see a **** ward that is needed 100% for success of the game at 10€? What's next?
How about lowering your prices on most of the things and making actually useful items to buy in the shop other than "booster packs"?
As most of you know, this game is going through a bad time in the exchange and zen sells. But why is that? Well... First of all, coal wards were removed the possibility to be obtained from somewhere else but the zen shop. Second, Zen is expensive and last but not least, it costs 10€ for a **** ward.
Now what price should it be? 5€ Not more, not less! Hell! Even trade bars say its worth 500Zen! 5 normal wards cost as much as 1 coal ward in the trade bar fellow!
Cryptic, why are you so expensive? Isnt selling mounts for 20€ enough? Now you have to see a **** ward that is needed 100% for success of the game at 10€? What's next?
How about lowering your prices on most of the things and making actually useful items to buy in the shop other than "booster packs"?
Post edited by brun2000 on
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For the glory of Tempus!
I am the hands of Shar!
Flames of Kossuth, protect me!
Oghma, grant me knowledge!
Lolth commands, and I obey!
Edit: woot I can type £!
Point of order, you mean: "Tarkin" (as in Grand Moff Tarkin), not "tang".
#1) Lowering the chance of gaining a coal ward from the 7 day celestial coins to around 3% with the introduction of the refining system and artifacts.
#2) Making all coal wards bound on account except the ones from the trade bar merchant
#3) The backlog in the AD/Zen exchange
#4) Recently made Enchanted Keys bind on account, making them unable to sell, and also as an indirect result, making the unbound coal wards (the only source right now) now unable to be gained at all now.
And 3 out of 4 of those things above were directly done by cryptic themselves.
right now the only (real) way to get coal wards is directly spending money. Either from the Zen store directly or from buying enchanted keys directly from Zen store...
The other way is taking a (wasteful) risk of a 3% chance every week.
My personal stance, I've become less and less inclined to buy zen or spend zen as a result of changes like this. And I was already relunctant before because I found the prices in the zen store just too damned high for my taste, and with these changes, no manner of coupons they try to shove in my face is going to really change my mind. I understand the devs need to be paid and this is a business, but actions like these, just has the opposite effect on me, its a manner of principle.
I believe only the Zen store coalescent wards are *not* BtA, now.
"Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both?" -Tony Stark
Official NW_Legit_Community Forums
They'd get paid more if people actually bought them. Most people cant justify £10 a ward. Plus the high cost hurts both paying and free2players alike.
That being said, I was shocked at some of the prices of things. I understand that the company is in this for profit but they dont have to make it all on one person. I just think its better to make $5 of half a million players than $50 off 100.
I personally dont mind spending money on things I enjoy and make a decent living day trading but alot of people just dont have the cash to spend that much on a game. I mean really $40 for a mount? WOuldnt it be better to say charge $15 and make them BTC?
Understand Im not *****ing, Im just putting in my 2 cents worth. Considering that Im 60 now and need two of the wards, its really got me considering if this is a game I want to play long term and continue to invest money in when there are so many other games out there.
After saying all that, let me finish by saying that the game is truly beautiful, combat is amazing and the voice acting is good. Its a well made game with lots of potential.
You want keys? Save up the ADs you would have spent on them in the AH, put in your 500/zen offer, and wait a few days. Once you have your zen, buy the keys you need from the zen shop.
I do hope they do something,its a lot of money for computer code if you want to make enchantments for a couple characters.
Cryptic seems to have a real hard time realizing this point. Overpriced coals aren't selling like hot cakes. And seeing as how it takes so many to make a greater, people will do 'other' things to get them. If they lowered the price, people would buy a lot more of them. So right now, they aren't selling a lot of 10$ ones, but if they lowered it to 2 dollars, they'd probably sell 10 times as many over a longer course of time.
There have been weeks people have waited to get AD from exchange. Tons of people are waiting to buy zen, and some arent bothering with the 500/ AD going rate.
Bind on Accoutn coal wards directly affects that for the reasons i already stated and answered the question you already asked.
This can go for alot of things in the zen store. Such as mounts.
there shouldnt be a single mount above 15 dollars in the zen store. They have mounts up to 45 dollars. I mean what the hell? Companions are quite too much. Experience boosters, 10 dollars for fashion outfits. The recently made experience boosters thats up to 50 dollars?
I've played ALOOOOOT of free to play games, and the general prices in the zen store is just way out there. The only thing I've EVER used zen for was keys and character slots. As those are the only decently priced thing in there besides the single colored dyes.
I agree on paying 20€ for a mount IF it really has a good style to it that makes the difference, but never more than that!
Why would I spend that kind of money when I could spend it on buying a new game, or paying my mobile bill for the month. It needs to be put in relation to real world expenses, and a virtual mount is just not worth that kind of money, they would get such a larger yield if it was $10-15, more people would buy it and I guarantee they would make more money from the number of people buying it than the few that spend the $40 on the current ones.
If they had a decent financier on their team they would realise they would get a much better return on cheaper prices, higher yield, instead of making things so prohibitively expensive so only a select few buy them.
Plus you ensure the longevity of your game as new players would not feel so hindered by the prices and when you lose the big spenders because they have exhausted the content you will have an abundance of new players to fill than financial void.
Its a really bizarre financial model that is doomed to result in the game losing lots more players, its almost like a Mergers and Acquisitions company who wants to make a quick profit buying a company, destroying the company to make a quick profit and then selling it on when its not profitable anymore.
The first move should be a marketing questionnaire to identify the prices people would be happy/prepared to pay for different items in game and then shift their prices to that, whilst obviously ensuring it doesn't adversely affect their profit margins.
Zen store mount prices are not so absurd when you consider that they are per account, not per character. In fact, I would say that spending a little cash and getting a fast mount for all your characters is a very reasonable thing to do. As for coal wards - what on earth makes you think you need one "every week" ? You don't need a perfect weapon or armor enchant within a few weeks, if at all...
Besides, if you need a coal ward every week, you must be spending a tremendous amount on RPs anyhow to improve your weapon and armor enchants that fast.
And I said this before at release, its not only doomed just from that, but they continue to cut out ways for people to earn these things ingame. Literally the only way a person can get a coalward now is through zen, winning a coal ward from the 7 day is just unfeasible now. And we all know how the RNG's are in this game.
Also talking about regulating the market. back when people abused to get <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> loads of AD, twice. None of these things were affected in the same way as they are now. The AD exchange went up from 280- 360 (and back then that was drastic). It didnt cap out to straight 500 and stay there. The moment the AD exchange went crazy all the way to 500 is when people knew the Frozen Lockbox was coming out, and that sucker started to rise fast as all hell. And before that it started rising as a DIRECT result of them changing Coal wards from the 7day to abotu 3% went from 330 to 390 average, and direct result of them changing Coal wards to bind on account went from 400- 450 in the exchange and every time this happened, the AH prices for these rose like like mad as well.
I've found the zen store simply hostile everytime I looked into it. Only getting a key here and there and usually when it was on sale for 33% off or on occasion 15% off. Rest I bought from AH on occasion in between. I've never bought a coal ward from ZEN shop and I never will no matter how much I need it. And I'm surprised they kept these absurd prices like this for this long. The actual prices for items in the game that cost AD is even absurd. The transmutes and companions in the wonderous bazaar is crazy. Mount upgrads and companion upgrades is ridiculous as well.
As far as mounts. Even if it is account wide. That still doesnt justify to me for how much they cost.
It's also ridiculous to say since you have to have multiple toons in order to justify the cost. Not every may want to do that and shouldn't be required to do so in order to make it more justifiable.
Anyway if I started again from stratch I could see that my ad generation would be drastically cut down and costs higher. If I wasn't an old play I wouldn't be in the position I am now and would have just given up most likely since the new dungeons just aren't profitable.
Totally valid point about it being account bound, but decent pricing and marketing results in your customers considering your prices to be reasonable in relation to prices they may pay for other items in their lives.
For example if you walked into a convenience store and went to buy a loaf of bread and it was priced $30 for a loaf you would consider that absurd. The reason you consider it absurd is because all other stores are selling them for $2-3.
When looking at mounts on Neverwinter people inevitably will look at costs of other items in their lives in relation to a virtual mount which is really high in relation to most if not ALL other free to play games
But you don't *need* a $20 mount in the first place - you are just paying for the convenience of having a faster way to get around, instead of riding a cheap, slower mount.
Basically you can get 95% of the game experience for free - if you want the remaining 5% be prepared to pay some serious $$ - but it's your choice - you don't have to spend money unless you want to.
Yeah but the reality is that extra 5% is such critical part of the game, from companions to mounts, to bringing your character to the pinnacle of its effectiveness. When you compare this to other free to play games, or subscription based games its just not competitive, people will just not see the point in levelling in a game which will either financially cripple them to just enjoy getting their character to the most effective they can be.
I don't mind the grind, but those prices are just obscene in the current climate of austerity that is occurring in the world following the 2008 crash. It is just TERRIBLE business sense to price your items at this level.
This is not going to stop me from playing, but like any good democracy I just wanted to voice my opinion on a change which would not only benefit Perfect Entertainment financially but improve their PR as well.
However, I am sure this point has been flogged to death, so it will just sink beneath the waves like so many posts before it
If the prices are lower the more you sell and these things are virtual so you can make as much as you want and sell it
and you can sell more 2$ coal wards then 10$ coal ward
the overpricing in this game is simply ridiculous in shop and the AH
When I first looked at how to get one of those shiny enchantments, I thought I misread: 1% chance or 10$? Really?
I'm fortunate enough to earn a good living, so I can afford that, but from a mental perspective, it's just not possible.
I do like this game, even if repetitive. But my toons have still no enchantment at all, not even minor ones ...
Due to the expensive and rarity of coal wards it is very expensive to get BiS perfect Vorpals or whatever, but lesser Plaugefires are surprisingly good and as they come form Lock-boxes can be considerably cheaper than buying a coal ward. Also lesser Soulforged is the only armour enchant you need and aren't too expensive either.
You could probably get both for ~750K AD which is about a months worth of the refine cap.
Examples I'd like to see
The 5 day celestial coin box is now the campaign treasure box.
All keys are bound to account, now you have a chance for a free key in mod 3 dungeons and a new 6 day celestial coin box
All earned coal wards are bound to account, you have +3% increased chance at opening a coal ward from a 7 day celestial coin box.
There should be some action taken to balance the game, but cryptic has been doing nothing but terrible things to our player built economy and taking it away from us. Off topic but the last CTA was terrible too when it had the potential to be the best. Cryptic, make your game fun again and stop stranding the Have-Nots. I for one am looking across the chasm you've put between us and wishing that they had a much better chance to join the Haves.