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Neverwinter Price Policy
karakla1
Member Posts: 1,355 Arc User
To say it first: I only want to tell my own opinion on this whole topic and make some suggestions, maybe it's a bit rude, sorry for that, i will try to keep it clean from swearing. I note prices in Euro, because I am from Germany (most of the reason for my bad English, sorry). If you want to calculate the prices in US Dollar multiply it by 1,3)
To speak it out loud: The most prices in Neverwinter (Zen-Store OR Packages) are too expensive and not worth the money that we spend on them. I understand that you must make money and fully approve this (as player, customer and human being) it’s like things working even in a gaming company.
But the way you want to make money is wrong in so many ways that you starting to destroy your own game and scare away your customers and potential customers.
With your actions you destroyed the ZAX. High amounts of Astraldiamonds (free money) are stuck in the game (~50.000 Euro). I will recall it later…
The Zen prices in the store are pretty high!
Some of the things are okey, like 2 character slots for 500 Zen, because the game indirectly benefits players one account and multiple characters, ~4 Euros are a good price.
And then you have some pretty pricy things like (epic) mounts for 2.500 to 3.500 which are ~22 Euro to ~32 Euro but (in my opinion) this is okey too, because you get one cool designed epic mount for ALL your characters of the account.
What I dislike are pricy one-timer like bags or bank slots. 600 Zen for one 12 slot bag is expensive and 1.000 Zen for a 24 slot bag too, that’s almost 10 Euros. The same for Bankslots. It’s storage for "useless" item or stuff that I don’t need (simply store it for later game) and I don't have access if I am playing (running dungeons and stuff). Would you sell 24 Bankslots for the price of the small bag: I would totally love it. On the other hand I understand the expensive price of the accountbank slots. It's for an easy trade between the characters and should not be an storage and that's the reason why it is so expensive because you can easily calculate how much characters you need till it outbid the normal bankslots (pssst,… it's 3 characters), so it's a thing for players with multiple characters, which is okey.
What I also dislike in Neverwinter is the Retrain Token. It's some of the very basic things that you can do in every MMORPG. Yes you give us free Retrain Token if there are major changes and it only cost 300 Zen and I partially can respec only via AD but one of the main problems is: For some minor changes in my build I must buy the Token and respec EVERYTHING! I would pay for some sort of Build-Slots so I can have different builds. One to twoe for PvP Matches, PvE Dungeons, PvE Solo, etc…
Different toolbars for my powers would be cool too [as free feature, I hate it to change my powers in the toolbar if I change from PvE to PvP, it takes really much time.]
Fashion!
I think how you create fashion items is one of the biggest mistakes in game design I saw lately. With the current armor and weapons you have 8 Skin places to personalize the look/appearance of the character. But you reduce this to three slots with very expensive and mostly ugly Sets (no offense to the designers I acknowledge it is hard work to design armors and stuff but after the Feywild Insignia for male characters I lost faith). And additionally it costs 800 to 2.000 Zen is… WOW... I can’t explain how much I don't want to buy this expensive stuff and can't understand the players that actually pay these prices.
Why not making armor and weapon skins for the 8 appearance slots? Weapon Skins are now pretty common and free (because of events and everyone like it) but if you would include cheap and extraordinary weapon and armor skins in the shop (10-100 Zen per piece) the player would buy it (And the D&D Universe is full of cool looking weapons and armors). And keep in your mind that the player will buy them again and again because if they apply different skins they overwrite the old one. This means it is a partial consumable item (Insert evil twisted marketing laugh: Muhahaha).
I like the idea of the packages that you release every Modul even we only can buy them with real money. But it is wrong to advertise it as DLC (means Downloadable Content) because you say of yourself the content is 100% free2play and in the package is literally no game content. It's only a bunch of items you can use in the game that is not necessary at all!
And the pricing is bad too. I would understand packages with a cool looking mount, companion, new race, skin and/or other items stuff for 25 to 30 Euros maybe up to 45 if it’s a big package.
For example I designed a package:
To explain: Mulhorand Set is important to level the new class pretty fast. We player need this stuff but also the freedom to sell it via auctionhouse if we don’t like the class. The exclusive mount and companion should be some extraordinary because player really want it besides it’s not epic and will upgrade it. Best example is the Jelly Cube, it’s simply a cool mount and a mass of player decided to make it to an epic mount for their main character. Same for the companion if you sell a pet similar to an ioun stone (enhancer companion) in green quality with a good active bonus the player will buy it and upgrade it, a good AD sink too. Besides that the collectors for mounts and companion will buy them anyway. The green account bound artifact is good opportunity for collectors and players that trying a bit theory crafting and need different stats for different builds.
Sell this package for 45 Euro (Basic Price) and offer it as Pre-Order for 30 Euro (33% Off). To compare the stuff in this packages is wirt 3.450 Zen if i take the cheapest prices of the Zen-Store in account and it doesn't include the unlocked race, one free artifact and the mulhorand set.
Generally I want to say that you lost the view for the reality. There are tons of MMORPG out that you can buy for 50 Euro or less, has one free month to play with and then pay only 12-15 Euro monthly without any shop (and I know a game that has a similar funny action combat game, but will not name it). Of course in a free2play title not every player is spending money. You have a mass of freeplayers that will pay nothing at all, small fish that pay between 20-50 Euros in total, then some big fish that spend monthly money for this game (a bit more or less like a monthly fee) and then you have whales. Players that spending hundreds of Euros per month only to participate in this game and being better than any other player (we all know these kind of players in Neverwinter).
The aim is to get the big white whale without disturbing the small and big fishes while trying to pull more and more freeplayers behind our big MMORPG Ship while this ship is running on fishoil and train oil of the whale. It’s a balancing act.
The problem is you destroyed this balance by making the coalscent wards from the tarmalune trade bar bound by account. Now the ZAX is stuck because you simply calculated that you can earn nearly 300 Euro from every player if he wants to create two perfect enchantments for his character but ignoring the fact how the economy of this game works and this is one major thing that keeps this ship together.
I mean you could simply make a big pile of money by selling cheap refining points from the Zen-Store instead you force the freeplayer to buy wards from the Zen-Store . Overall of this the economy is on the verge of collapse. Look at the prices in the auction house!
And if you have no real freeplayers that work as bait in this free2play-model this whole game will not work well.
I don't want say that everything is bad. Because it isn't. You gave us the first buyer pack which is literally free (you only must transfer Zen, indirectly spend 5-10 Euro but you can also spend the Zen). You give us weekly offers and charge promos.
But since some weeks i have the feeling you are randomly aiming for more and fast money instead of think about a good idea to earn it. Yes it's not easy, we want something in return, but starting with some of the suggestions may help.
To speak it out loud: The most prices in Neverwinter (Zen-Store OR Packages) are too expensive and not worth the money that we spend on them. I understand that you must make money and fully approve this (as player, customer and human being) it’s like things working even in a gaming company.
But the way you want to make money is wrong in so many ways that you starting to destroy your own game and scare away your customers and potential customers.
With your actions you destroyed the ZAX. High amounts of Astraldiamonds (free money) are stuck in the game (~50.000 Euro). I will recall it later…
The Zen prices in the store are pretty high!
Some of the things are okey, like 2 character slots for 500 Zen, because the game indirectly benefits players one account and multiple characters, ~4 Euros are a good price.
And then you have some pretty pricy things like (epic) mounts for 2.500 to 3.500 which are ~22 Euro to ~32 Euro but (in my opinion) this is okey too, because you get one cool designed epic mount for ALL your characters of the account.
What I dislike are pricy one-timer like bags or bank slots. 600 Zen for one 12 slot bag is expensive and 1.000 Zen for a 24 slot bag too, that’s almost 10 Euros. The same for Bankslots. It’s storage for "useless" item or stuff that I don’t need (simply store it for later game) and I don't have access if I am playing (running dungeons and stuff). Would you sell 24 Bankslots for the price of the small bag: I would totally love it. On the other hand I understand the expensive price of the accountbank slots. It's for an easy trade between the characters and should not be an storage and that's the reason why it is so expensive because you can easily calculate how much characters you need till it outbid the normal bankslots (pssst,… it's 3 characters), so it's a thing for players with multiple characters, which is okey.
What I also dislike in Neverwinter is the Retrain Token. It's some of the very basic things that you can do in every MMORPG. Yes you give us free Retrain Token if there are major changes and it only cost 300 Zen and I partially can respec only via AD but one of the main problems is: For some minor changes in my build I must buy the Token and respec EVERYTHING! I would pay for some sort of Build-Slots so I can have different builds. One to twoe for PvP Matches, PvE Dungeons, PvE Solo, etc…
Different toolbars for my powers would be cool too [as free feature, I hate it to change my powers in the toolbar if I change from PvE to PvP, it takes really much time.]
Fashion!
I think how you create fashion items is one of the biggest mistakes in game design I saw lately. With the current armor and weapons you have 8 Skin places to personalize the look/appearance of the character. But you reduce this to three slots with very expensive and mostly ugly Sets (no offense to the designers I acknowledge it is hard work to design armors and stuff but after the Feywild Insignia for male characters I lost faith). And additionally it costs 800 to 2.000 Zen is… WOW... I can’t explain how much I don't want to buy this expensive stuff and can't understand the players that actually pay these prices.
Why not making armor and weapon skins for the 8 appearance slots? Weapon Skins are now pretty common and free (because of events and everyone like it) but if you would include cheap and extraordinary weapon and armor skins in the shop (10-100 Zen per piece) the player would buy it (And the D&D Universe is full of cool looking weapons and armors). And keep in your mind that the player will buy them again and again because if they apply different skins they overwrite the old one. This means it is a partial consumable item (Insert evil twisted marketing laugh: Muhahaha).
I like the idea of the packages that you release every Modul even we only can buy them with real money. But it is wrong to advertise it as DLC (means Downloadable Content) because you say of yourself the content is 100% free2play and in the package is literally no game content. It's only a bunch of items you can use in the game that is not necessary at all!
And the pricing is bad too. I would understand packages with a cool looking mount, companion, new race, skin and/or other items stuff for 25 to 30 Euros maybe up to 45 if it’s a big package.
For example I designed a package:
- New Race Unlocked(The Dragonborn is the first race that the community really want, because you asked them, I would really appreciate it if you keep this behavior and continue with every modul to release one new cool race (I like shardminds
)) - 1x Mulhorand Set (For the New Class (if one is released), unbound, armor and weapon, only 1 time bound on equip)
- 1x Retrain Token
- 1x character slot
- 1x Bag (12 or 24)
- 1x exclusive account wide companion (green or blue quality)
- 1x exclusive account wide mount (green or blue quality)
- 1x exclusive account wide artifact (green quality)
To explain: Mulhorand Set is important to level the new class pretty fast. We player need this stuff but also the freedom to sell it via auctionhouse if we don’t like the class. The exclusive mount and companion should be some extraordinary because player really want it besides it’s not epic and will upgrade it. Best example is the Jelly Cube, it’s simply a cool mount and a mass of player decided to make it to an epic mount for their main character. Same for the companion if you sell a pet similar to an ioun stone (enhancer companion) in green quality with a good active bonus the player will buy it and upgrade it, a good AD sink too. Besides that the collectors for mounts and companion will buy them anyway. The green account bound artifact is good opportunity for collectors and players that trying a bit theory crafting and need different stats for different builds.
Sell this package for 45 Euro (Basic Price) and offer it as Pre-Order for 30 Euro (33% Off). To compare the stuff in this packages is wirt 3.450 Zen if i take the cheapest prices of the Zen-Store in account and it doesn't include the unlocked race, one free artifact and the mulhorand set.
Generally I want to say that you lost the view for the reality. There are tons of MMORPG out that you can buy for 50 Euro or less, has one free month to play with and then pay only 12-15 Euro monthly without any shop (and I know a game that has a similar funny action combat game, but will not name it). Of course in a free2play title not every player is spending money. You have a mass of freeplayers that will pay nothing at all, small fish that pay between 20-50 Euros in total, then some big fish that spend monthly money for this game (a bit more or less like a monthly fee) and then you have whales. Players that spending hundreds of Euros per month only to participate in this game and being better than any other player (we all know these kind of players in Neverwinter).
The aim is to get the big white whale without disturbing the small and big fishes while trying to pull more and more freeplayers behind our big MMORPG Ship while this ship is running on fishoil and train oil of the whale. It’s a balancing act.
The problem is you destroyed this balance by making the coalscent wards from the tarmalune trade bar bound by account. Now the ZAX is stuck because you simply calculated that you can earn nearly 300 Euro from every player if he wants to create two perfect enchantments for his character but ignoring the fact how the economy of this game works and this is one major thing that keeps this ship together.
I mean you could simply make a big pile of money by selling cheap refining points from the Zen-Store instead you force the freeplayer to buy wards from the Zen-Store . Overall of this the economy is on the verge of collapse. Look at the prices in the auction house!
And if you have no real freeplayers that work as bait in this free2play-model this whole game will not work well.
I don't want say that everything is bad. Because it isn't. You gave us the first buyer pack which is literally free (you only must transfer Zen, indirectly spend 5-10 Euro but you can also spend the Zen). You give us weekly offers and charge promos.
But since some weeks i have the feeling you are randomly aiming for more and fast money instead of think about a good idea to earn it. Yes it's not easy, we want something in return, but starting with some of the suggestions may help.
Platypus wielding a giant hammer, your argument is invalild!
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
I think you just outpointed the least of problems of charging policy.
For example, refining materials are very very expensive on the Zen market, which is nonsense. On the other hand offers are not well scheduled. You may buy 100 keys someday and on the next day boom!! keys on sale!
Of course they are expensiv. Not AD to Zen but real money to Zen.
You spend 20 Euro for 2.350 Zen and buy the best refining point to money pack for 2.000 Zen and get mere 150.000 refining points in exchange. That is not the half from rank 9 to 10. YES! Rank 10 is max rank but my character has 12! enchantment slots + 3 Artifacts + Weapon and Armor enchantment. In addition i must pay for the coalscent ward and other stuff too.
That's why the refining points in the Zen-Store are expensive as hell!
And sorry, i have no hearth for people that cry "unfair" if they see that they paid a bit more for their keys because they didn't think about it.
Or half the cost of a whole new game that has more content than just a single pony or the entire cost of a slightly older game. I think I know where I can get my value for money from.
I think this game would make money hand over fist if it would stop with the extortionist pricing schedule it has on many of its items.
I do agree that mounts are probably the best valued item (I still think the price is too high) at least they are account wide and you can pick one up for every toon that reaches level 20 but in my opinion mounts should be 10 - 20 tops based on aestchetics and overall desireability or maybe even D&D rarity. For example a purple horse is 10 bucks all characters, however if you want a unicorn 20 bucks, but a tiger might be say 15 although those appear to be popular so they get in the 20 bracket until people stop buying them so much.
I also think coal wards should be 2.50 max price (us dollars btw). Preservation wards I think are appropriate at 1 dollar for 10. Dyes I think should be about half of what they are but as far as pricing goes one of the more reasonable ones.
Bank space I support their price on, I prefer to buy on sale but overall if you want to store more stuff spend money on the game or priortize what you actually want to use on a character. I spent a lot on bank space cause I know I will play multiple characters and my main will most likely hold most stuff until I have another toon that can use it.
I think fixing their pricing on their end would solve some problems but overall I think the game needs to find a subscription model, maybe free up to 60 and then once you hit the end game you should start paying a subscription to keep playing. Once you stop paying you no longer have access to those areas. That model would work well with IWD since it has stuff that only comes from there and you would need to keep farming ice if you wanted to keep using the gear.
I for one would subscribe to this game if it got rid of the zen/AD bs and over pricing.
This is probably a flaming but its not meant to be.
Refining points from zen store (blood rubys) are meant I think for people who choose to spend money to get things faster and probably there to milk those who don't think about money (they are out there). The rest of use might buy on sale but otherwise you should just play the game, leveling that stuff is like gaining levels post 60 as each rank you get an item to makes you that much better and makes PVE and PVP that much easier to play. People should work for their gear some ... so refining being over priced i'm OK with mainly because I have been able to refine everything I have on my own with in game drops with the exception of some lock boxes I have opened.
I agree that most pricing in the zen store is too high, I echo everyone in saying that they "should" change it ... but its their company and odds are that is the pricing schedule their investors demand to see or they are too fixated on what will generate revenue that they won't change anything no matter how many people complain, why? Because people are still buying and ergo if you want change start working with people to STOP buying and then post that the company needs to fix their pricing.
That won't happen because apparently there are a large number of people with more money than common sense and so it is unlikely you will get people to stop paying for stuff when it makes them stronger than you faster and then they can sit back on their ego and laugh at their pwnage
Charging for things that you more than likely will need to advance your GS is just bad business. It creates a paywall to new players.
Charge for vanity, not necessity. Of course like everyone this is just one customers opinion but there it is anyway.
And yet a lot more work went into making those games than to make a mount. Of course people are expected to pay to make up for it being free to play, but not to this extent. More people would be willing to buy stuff if it was all better priced. The longevity of the game usually just depends on how much you enjoy the multiplayer aspect of it. I'm sure a lot of players have also stopped playing neverwinter after a week. If you're buying dinner and drinks you're paying for the ingredients and the staff. If you're paying for an item in a game, everyone who buys it is paying for the staff hours and upkeep of the game and so costs can and should be lower. I'd rather compare them with other games and how much value I can get from there and how much work has been put in to do it and whether it's a fair price.
I find you get more value from this game if you don't play than when you do. Which is kind of backwards. I think they should've focused more on dyes and fashion, but maybe they made so much on lockboxes that that was their primary focus on money making.
Agreed, thinking they would do well to make a bunch of small transactions on cosmetics and maybe some bigger ones on full sets up appearance changes. People can and do spend a lot on this sort of thing, things needed in game probably shouldn't cost as much as they do in this game but I certainly agree they should move the pricing focus on what the majority of people are willing to pay reguarly for appearance changes ... people love looking cool and love looking different than everyone else the most.
Another well stated thought. I would be willing to bet they initially made so much from gambling junkies they lost site of the fact that real "normal" people don't spend like that and now they are catering to a player base minority hooked on their spending. Money addiction is just as bad as smoke, once you make money at a certain price its hard to stomach making it for less even if you make more in the long run selling to more people at a lower price than selling to fewer at a higher price.
Epic armor / weapons are certainly not *needed* for levelling, and players certainly should not be able to buy packs to resell the contained gear on the AH. That's just a recipe for AD-Farmer heaven.
Your package has no 'throw-ins' - it's all A-level stuff. Which sounds great, but then why should I buy anything else from the Zen store? I've already got a mount, companion, bonus artifact, bonus race... what's left? You're putting it all in one pack, with nothing to haul out later.
I agree that fashion could yield a lot of income for the game. I do feel that the current inventory system is working against people buying more fashion sets, though. There should be a way to preview fashion pieces/sets before buying them, and there should be a separate tab to keep said pieces. I'd give players 6 slots for fashion, free, the ability to buy more from the Zen store, and an additional 3 slots for each fashion set they buy, (whether they actually equip/bind them or not). I'd do something similar for mounts - maybe add a small instanced area that looks like a horse race track, and allow players to test ride any mount while in this area.
"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
Ah, but you'd get more slots for buying fashion sets, and you could always buy more fashion slots separately...
"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
You would only need to "pay money" if you wanted slots to store fashion sets that you either got free from events or bought off the AH, (i.e. not bought with Zen).
"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
Suppose I'd be more convinced if paid fashion sets from the zen store came with fashion slots. I guess either way it would be an improvement for the better anyway and would convince people to actually invest more in fashion rather than worry about their limited space. For some reason I'm not really that bothered about fashion in this game, I guess most of the designs don't appeal to me. I appreciate some people can make themselves look really good though and the design of the game itself is something that appeals to me. Someone wanted me to move over to teso at the start, but even though it looks better, it's design and combat was unappealing. Plus the subscription cost... Theres another mmo that's got my eye that I have high hopes for though.
Everyone gets 6 free fashion slots.
Buying a fashion set from the Zen store, (whether you actually equip it or not) gets you 3 additional slots.
You could also buy more fashion slots from the Zen store as its own thing.
"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
Definitely seems good to me then
Okey, Mulhorand is not "needed" but it would be cool if you had one set for free to level fast your new class to 60 (i really like such service packages). And why would it be heaven for AD-Farmer? If they buy a package like insane Cryptic Profit and then they selling it via AH and get what? 10 to 50K AD? The Mulhorand at the current state is only expensive because only a few players open the old lockbox, in the time this was the acutal lockbox, the weapons was nothing worth. (You cannot salvage Mulhorand).
Augment Companion: Extra Slots and Stuff = Must Have In The Endgame To Participate Properly
Cool Mount: Must Have (Other Players Collecting If They Already Own Other Mounts: Look at the armored bear)
Race: Personal Preference (a lot of people would like to play as Dragonborn, but 71 Euro is too much)
Bag: You Could Make 30 Slot Bags Package exclusive (space in the inventory is needed every time)
Bonus Artifact: Are you kidding me? An Extra Artifact Is Worthless?
In Addition: What would you like to see? Free refining points? Free AD to buy refining points by yourself? Some Rank 8 Enchantments to decide to use it or refine? I mean the actual package HAS enchantments, but most will rot away and it has left one Rank 8...
Does that make sense? I think I confused myself.
GW2 does it a bit different in where as you find a piece it unlocks that style. You can buy or grind for transmutation charges to apply a style to a specific piece.