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Make Companions BOA
seventhpillar
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 216 Arc User
Devs, I don't think this is an unreasonable request. Fine, destroy the Renegade tree and the CW but please, unbound my companions from my character to my account. Yes I spent hard earned cash to get some of my pets because my CW was my main and I built it the way I wanted it. It was perfect. But now, with the impending destruction to what I worked hard for, and as consolation to paying users, please make the companions BOA so I can move them around so I can rebuild to something instead of me spending another f*** ton of cash on pets for another main. If my main is not longer viable, I will not spend another dime and even consider leaving the game because it just tells me you don't care at all.
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Guess what? they don't care xD Being a business only thing they care about in the end is profits - making companions BtA will not help them in this regard.
In addition - how is it fair to people who have paid for multiples of the same pet if you suddenly make all pets BtA?
Mara Angelbane - 22k Thaum CW, Vaya Con Dios 15.2k Dragon CW.
Mara Shadowskiss - 21.5k Destroyer GWF, Mara - 17.2k Sentinel GWF
Mara Duskwalker - 15.4k Healing DC
Mara Hawkeye -14.6k HR
Mara Spiritforge - 16.9k Tanky GF
Bad Religion - 14.7k Pew Pew DC
Mara Shadowstouch,Maara - TR's
BoA is not the same as an account wide unlock. Unless you were thinking of swapping companions around each time you play.
In short - stop crying. Cryptic have done nothing wrong and nothing that hasn't happened in every MMO ever launched. Man up.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Yes, you are right, if the changes were minute, then I will agree with you. How many times have the CW changed from the get go? Can you count for me prior to this coming mod? Because I lost count.
Yes, that is true, if you are thaum and would like to go thaum. Will you become a renegade after mod 4? I thought so. Adapting is one thing but to completely jump to another bandwagon is another. Just because thaum and renegade are both CWs, the mechanics of play style are not the same. You can argue otherwise but ask other renegades why.
I lold on this one. True I'm a bit bitter and I included how the renegade tree is getting destroyed on this post. Do I have other ulterior motives of doing so? Hell yeah I do. I want my tree fixed before it's too late. But to be quite honest, the companion active bonus was added late in the game and I have pets that I cannot use on this toon that I would have no bound if I new things were coming. To me it's only fair that they gave us the chance to unbound them back then but no, it didn't happen. So why not now? Again it's not simply about crying and manning up. I will give my opinion and suggestion. If you don't like it, turn a blind eye and move on. I don't like taking it just because someone said so, even if the company is the one saying so. As a consumer, I still have feedback and suggestions. Again you don't like it, **** off. Just because other MMOs have done the other way, it has to be for every single one. I bet I am not alone in wanting this to happen.
You're qqing because one tree out of three - that happens to be your favourite - has been nerfed. You claim CW as a whole is not viable. This is untrue. You suggest a change that would have massive effects on everyone playing the game just so that you can feel a little less hard done to, when in fact you haven't been hard done to at all. It was your decision to spend time and money on your toon when there has never been - and will never be - any guarantee that serious changes will not happen. Hell - there are prior examples of just such huge changes in this game alone, let alone others. This is what I meant by 'man up' - accept the consequences of decisions that you made.
And the final point - there is approximately zero chance of this request being implemented as it would be a major nerf to Cryptic's ability to earn cash. Think about it for a moment and I'm sure you'll see why.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Overpowered 60 CW ~ Thaumaturge 14.5k
==========================================
~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!
If companions are BoA then nobody needs to buy any more than one set of companions and move them to whichever toon they are playing at that time. This is a significant hit to revenue which will either have to be made up with increased prices or affect the long term viability of the game. It would also mightily hack off all those players who have invested in multiple companions over the last year of play - a significant number of customers and also players who have contributed large amounts of time and/or money to the game.
This would be a big change and one with a number of ramifications for the player base and Cryptic themselves. Sure, it would be great in the short term for those of us who can't afford to buy companions but the downsides are significant.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
That way the choice is mine, and Cryptic wouldn't lose much as only some people would buy the Account Wide, mostly those who have played the game and know which companions would be good on which class.
I for example would pay to have the Owl on all of my Clerics if it was Account Wide, I'd pay the extra
Another idea would be a Voucher for a companion move.
Need to charge more? It already costs upto £25 for something of limited benefit. I'm sure they could live with companions being unbound. They are hardly struggling to get by. I could get so much content elsewhere for that amount but you're saying that they can't afford to give us flexibility on something we have already bought for a pretty hefty price? As for hacking off players who already invested in multiple companions, maybe they should stop feeling so entitled that they'd rather have a system worse for players out of their selfish need to not feel ripped off when in reality their position wouldn't be changed and it's only other players that would get any benefit. Either way I still would've got 6 stones anyway. At the very least they could provide a cheap zen token to transfer companions/artifacts.
You know what else I can get for £25 (again overpriced)? A 110% account wide mount. And yet apparently not even asking for them to be account wide, but only account transferable is crossing the line?
You have no idea of the financial position of this game and neither do I. But most MMOs are hardly ultra profitable. Companions are a big seller on the Zen market and if people started buying fewer (and it would be MANY fewer) then this would leave a sizeable hole in their income. They'd have to patch it somewhere and we'd all end up paying more - either for Companions or other stuff, it doesn't matter. It's a business, and they will be under pressure to maximise income. A zen token might work but it would NOT be cheap - see companion upgrade costs for reference.
I don't know if your comment about the entitled was aimed at me, but if so you couldn't be wider of the mark. I have no Purple companions at all and have bought a grand total of 3 blue companions across all 6 of my toons. And they were on sale. I don't have the money to buy companions and in fact BoA companions would be great from my personal viewpoint. But I'm aware of human psychology and basic business concepts. People who had spent a lot on duplicate companions for multiple toons WOULD be mightily pissed off and that WOULD be bad for business.
Finally - a purple mount is in no way, shape, or form comparable to a companion. The mount helps you get around faster, the companion makes a material difference to the performance of your character.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
The arguments about price point (small number of large transactions vs large numbers of small transactions) have been well discussed not just for MMOs but for pretty much any commercial enterprise that deals with consumers. There is no right or wrong answer as it entirely depends on what you're selling and to who. I'm pretty sure that PWE/Cryptic has a handle on the demographics of their customer base and projections on numbers of players etc. At the moment they've clearly decided that higher prices and fewer transactions are the way to go. I may not agree with that strategy but then I don't have the data they do.
As far as the suggestion about compensating players for changes made - this never happens in MMOs. And the reason is because change is far too frequent and there's always someone who feels hard done to. Once you start compensating you'll never finish - it's a classic 'thin end of the wedge' scenario. Is it fair? Probably not. But it's an imperfect world and if there was ever an activity where 'Caveat Emptor' should be taken to heart its online gaming and MMOs in particular.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
No, it was aimed at your argument that people would be "mightily hacked off". Such feelings should not get in the way of progress.
Pretty sure adding flexibility that's good for players would be good for business. Unfortunately lately they seem to be focusing on restricting players and making things worse for us.
You only have to have a look at how the price their own items to realise they have no idea how to price things efficiently. They got lucky by getting people to gamble and use the neverwinter brand for popularity. Mount training tomes are insanely priced, other things they were forced to reduce or remove the costs, coal wards are $10 (something I'm pretty sure more people would actually be willing to buy if it wasn't so insane, blood rubies, the ones they expect you to buy for real money even as part of the pack thats meant to give you a deal is still more expensive than the already ridiculously expensive flawless sapphires in the bazaar. So forgive me if I think that Cryptic does not know what's best for the players or themselves.
Unfortunately, until you see news headlines somewhere that say Cryptic/PWE is performing worse than expected for Q2, Q3 etc, then we simply have to assume that they are making a considerable profit from their current pricing models.
In other words, higher-priced items being purchased by a smaller percentage of the player base seems to be working just fine for them.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
How is their sense of entitlement any different to yours when you claim you're owed compensation from Cryptic for changes they made to their game.
Based on what?
The previous poster answered this one perfectly. We can make whatever assumptions we like about PWE/Cryptics business strategy but at the moment there is absolutely no sign that it's hurting them financially. That may well change in the future but PWE did spend a serious amount of time and effort planning how to run a fully FTP business model. Maybe they know what they're doing?
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
I didn't say anything about compensation, just that transferring companions would be a nice feature to have. How does that make my 'entitlement' different? Well it's not really entitlement but my reasoning wouldn't be out of spite and jealousy. Pretty ugly traits.
Pleasing customers isn't good for business? Guess that must be why they like restricting us so much recently then.
If they knew what they were doing (at least fully) they wouldn't have made so many mistakes in this game.
And if you really think people wont swap pets everytime they change characters, instead of spending more money to buy more pets I want some of whatever you are smoking.
Mara Angelbane - 22k Thaum CW, Vaya Con Dios 15.2k Dragon CW.
Mara Shadowskiss - 21.5k Destroyer GWF, Mara - 17.2k Sentinel GWF
Mara Duskwalker - 15.4k Healing DC
Mara Hawkeye -14.6k HR
Mara Spiritforge - 16.9k Tanky GF
Bad Religion - 14.7k Pew Pew DC
Mara Shadowstouch,Maara - TR's
And 'spite and jealousy'? Really? So it's OK for you to feel aggrieved but not anybody else? Oh boy.
Your naiveté is refreshing, but there is actually a break even point in customer relations. If Cryptic were to implement every single suggestion put forward to 'please customers' they'd go out of business in a matter of weeks.
How many commercial mistakes have they made?
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
You really think it's ok for people to feel that way out of selfishness even if it would be better for the players? Some people are already too self absorbed for their own good without them needing to be catered for. It's like complaining about a sale that you missed out on. Well too bad, but I'd tell them to get over themselves and grow some freaking maturity.
Of course. There's a lot of people who don't really know what they're talking about and generally a lot of people are very biased. That doesn't mean the player base doesn't have any good suggestions on what would improve the game.
The fact that whenever I spent money I didn't feel like I got my moneys worth but I do if I don't actually pay for my stuff is probably a big one. They've made a lot of mistakes to their game that hurts their reputation, unfortunately cashing on the neverwinter brand gives them popularity and people support some right nonsense. I'm sure your aware of many brands that you wonder why people support an inferior product or overpriced nonsense. So with that fact we can't really prove anything, we don't have any figures, but they could easily make more money and have a much better reputation if they actually tried. Having a bad rep is also risky if you intend to be in the market long term. I for one have invested a lot of time so have kept playing, but I know the mistakes they've made and the lack of quality they've shown while also HAMSTER players over so this will probably be my last PW game. I'd rather spend more money on a better company. Unfortunately people are also pretty exploitable.
During Alpha, Closed Beta, Open Beta, and three months into Live Launch there was an option to 'unbind companion' - there was a very large cost in Astral Diamonds to do this. it was supposed to unbind the companion and make it transferrable - so it can be moved between your account or even sold at Auction House. But the feature never functioned - it was always "broken" and the unbinding never actually happened.
Many Zen Market Companions were purchased with the understanding and belief this feature was going to be fixed. Eventually the Devs removed this function entirely and the sh.ite-storm ensued - this very argument. I know because I was the loudest voice on this subject and even *phone-called* Cryptic to complain about it (Yeah, I really do have their number). I can assure you I was very vocal about the whole ordeal and the impression of "bait-and-switch" tactics (as there was never any official announcement that this feature may not be fix and removed - even though all players made it clear this feature was the only reason they made their purchases.)
After all that, Cryptic had proffered an Olive Branch - and as the loudest, shrillest, squeakiest wheel of the entire argument I had publicly stated that I feel what Cryptic had done was FAIR. Additionally since then there have been countless new companions given away for free in Zen Transfer bonuses and in-game events - and many of these are actually account-bound. The game is now flooded with companions - you can barely create a new character without tripping over one.
Companions used to cost $45 (4500z) in the beginning - Cryptic has since lowered the pricing of these, TWICE. What originally cost $25 in the beginning now sells for $8. This is acceptable. It is acceptable because Cryptic Studios is a for-profit company, not a charity. By maintaining that all companions are bind-to-character permanently ensure new sales of these companions for alt characters, etc.
In fact, one may even consider it a nice gesture that all Zen Market Mounts are account-wide and can be reclaimed at-will. So asking that Companions be account-bound sounds reasonable, sure. it would benefit players enumerably. However, it would not be such a great business decision and Cryptic Studios and Perfect World, Inc. are businesses.
I could see a "fair" justification for making all companions account-bound and reclaimable if PW raised the prices to be equivalent to the mounts.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
I'm pretty sure every other game development company isn't a charity either yet every single one of those that I played gave me way better value for my money. One of the popular free2play had things for a lot cheaper than this game which encouraged you to keep spending your money towards the game. In this game people are more tempted to buy from bots and AD sellers to get their moneys worth.
Precisely, and the Studio had a choice. They've made their choice and the result is what we have now. I am not arguing against the OP's suggestion. No, sir-ee, not me. I'd *love* for all Companions, especially Zen Market Companions to be bind-to account.
I'm only refreshing memories and introducing to those unaware that we've been down this road before, that changes were requested (either make Companions Account Bound or Lower Pricing) - we got what we got and it is what it is now. I don't foresee any changes in this regard coming any time soon.
"Value" is a highly subjective word. However, comparing Orange Game with Apple Game with Plum Game doesn't proffer any kind of reasonable comparison. It doesn't matter if you feel World of Warcraft (or any other separately-published game) sells packages that are a better value to you where Neverwinter does not. People other than you may feel exactly and precisely the opposite. These are Apples to Oranges type comparisons and not related in any way, shape, or form in terms of business practices and decisions.
As for buying from Bots... your description is incorrect because the *only way* to "buy from bots and AD sellers" is to spend AD. There are only two ways of earning AD: Grind for it or buy it with Zen and use the ZAX. The heavy-grinders are the bots, who likely aren't selling to themselves, so the buyers you describe must be paying with Zen and converting with Zax, but the huge backlog of AD-to-Zen proffers proves this is not the case.
And remember: Astral Diamonds is not money. It is a simple trading token that gives Cryptic Studios and Perfect World, Inc no benefit whatsoever. Players purchasing Zen Points is the end-goal of the company. Hence I reiterate my argument: the current status of Companions and how they are bound and not being transferable "encourage [players] to keep spending [their] money towards the game" (your very own words) as you buy new companions for your alts. If not you personally, then a lot of other people who do it.
However, everyone here (including myself) will believe what we believe, some will use logic and hypothesis and others will use emotion and none of it matters because it's all wrong and always will be unless we have the specific data that only Cryptic has: full set of all game-logs and the numbers they express.
//justsayin'
I'm confused: are you speaking to someone's else's idea of bots, or is that you are not aware how gold/AD seller's make money from players with credit cards?
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
Now we are bringing Bananas into the Apples and Oranges and Plums comparison.
No one can make any money from players' other than Perfect World, Inc., except by illegal means. Those players' who credit cards are scammed by malware third-party web sites and other means are the ones at fault, either by simple ignorance (read: stupidity) or by intentional and willful inefarious attempts at improperly circumventing the system, which they already know know is a no-no.
Therefore: third-party scam sights should not be part of the conversation. The bots I'm referring to are the gold/AD sellers, etc. Third party malware sites may be the same people, but not part of the equation as the argument does.
Now if you want to argue that Cryptic, in a generous gesture to protect idiot players who got scammed by third-party malware sites by turning lockbox keys into Bind on Account items, thus inflating the Auction House prices - then okay. But this is a once-off event, not an ongoing cause and once it corrects itself (and it will eventually) it will have no continuing effect.
Selling Zen Points is still the company's end-game and primary goal.
Kind of what I meant when I mentioned AD sellers.
Note for others reading: I'm not recommending or advocating it, doing so only puts your account and payment details at risk. But players have genuinely benefited from it. Others have likely lost from it.
Anyway I don't see why I can't compare them. If I want to compare, I will. They're all games, they're all trying to make money. Some are better at catering for the ones who do support them though. If you like what this game provides, that's up to the individually, likewise I feel like this game is far from providing value for actual money spent. Likewise I dislike people defending them because it's free to play which was done for their benefit rather than ours. They jumped on the bandwagon and turned microtransactions to macrotransactions.
I spent some money on the game, realised I didn't get my moneys worth and then relied on getting everything for free instead (which also has its limitations). Whether they did this change doesn't matter too much, I've seen too much of what I see as greed but it may be one thing to save some face. On the plus side mod 4 seems to come with a lot of promising features after a long streak of changes and implementations against the players.