Update on the Trade Bar Store

helix

Wow. Ten bucks for a Coalward. You know it takes three to refine to a normal enchantment, right? So, that's $30. What's that for a perfect enchantment? $90????

Yeah. That sounds good. That will bring more money in. Oh yeah, cha-ching!

Hey. Hey! Wait a second. Where are you all going? Common, its free-to-play!

Good job, Cryptic.

arcticblitz

When they first made invoking c-wards bound I refused to spend anymore money on the game. They released the Trade-bar store rework which made VIP attractive and gave me a way to progress at a slow but steady rate so I brought some zen and got 6 months vip. based on this latest action I will resume my no more cash stance ( thankfully I brought VIP during the 50% off sale)

beckylunatic

defiantone99 said:

There is no PVE content in the game that can't be completed with rank 8s. So, you just need a good guild to run with.

Pretty much. Higher rank enchants are just something to work towards when you don't *need* anything else. Plus epeen.

patcherrkm

RIP NWO - gonna contest charges for VIP.

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raydroot

I will not be renewing my VIP.

x0anon

Way to cut us little guys off at the knees guys.

rodrant64

I've got 48 days left on my VIP, and there's no way I'll be extending it after this change. There's nothing worth getting from the lockboxes anymore and now there isn't going to be much worth getting from the trade bar store, either.

I hope enough other people feel the same way that they see a noticeable dip in VIP purchases in the coming months. Based on this thread, sounds like there might be.

bawzdeep

Please tell me what you are thinking.

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hustin1

@strumslinger

I tried giving you guys the benefit of the doubt with the AD change, and it was indeed good for the ZAX. However, at $10 a pop now our only option, honestly this looks rotten. It looks like a pure money grab, and I think someone there should be ashamed.

Lest we forget...

"We'll let you share your trade bars in the shared bank!"

And then you take away the only major compelling reason to spend them in the first place.

No joke, Strum. This looks rotten with a capital "R". For everyone who bought VIP for the ***free daily key***, this looks like pure bait-and-switch tactics.

lwedar

The epicness of how bad a decision this is cannot be over stated. I can't even get upset. Right when people could point to trade bar changes as one of the few positives in getting the game back on track you announce this. Did the xbox experience teach you nothing.

ageric

Firstly. I think this change is HAMSTER. I know exactly why you're taking those very valuable items from the trade bar store. it's simply because no one wants to buy them from the zen market. it's over priced. So you feel you would use the term 'in-game economy' when in fact it is your wallets are taking a dive. Knock. it. off!
The trade bar store is already over priced as is. seriously. we get maybe 6-10 bars out of your stupid boxes and mounts are 2,400? HAMSTER really? Now you take away the only thing actually worth buying from the bar store because you have it in two stores. Remove it from the Zen market! Stop trying to make this game a 'pay to win' because it's hard enough trying to refine all the damn HAMSTER we need to even be able to survive. Coal wards are 225k in the auction house right now. Take them from the trade bar store and the prices will rocket, Devastated the Astral diamond economy AGAIN. Don't you developers get it? You want to fix things, stop making HAMSTER harder to get.
I've paid way too much into this game and only received HAMSTER from your boxes. over 1000 keys.. Trade bar store will no longer be useful without those wards and it also means not as many keys will be bought. I've been playing almost a year and so far, all the changes I've witnessed have been HAMSTER. Only good one to come of it was the underdark campaign and even that is monotonous. Come on.. You hear us here on the forums, imagine how many are going to be ticked who can't access the forums.

alleykate

"we know this is no longer an alt friendly game" - yes so right...one coalescent ward is not going to help an account with 8 alts., so let's make if more alt unfriendly. How about the widening the gap even further between new and old players..yes great solution, remove coal wards from being purchased by trade bars, so glad I am not a new player. How about the idea that both platforms are meant to have differences, we just got aligned to xbox, great spin. How about bringing back leadership so we can earn more AD so we can buy zen to buy coalescent wards that are really expensive with zen, never happening...I do use zen purchased with real money and no AD, but did not ever in the past buy a coalescent ward with zen..$10 converted in to AU dollars, too expensive. This change is up there with the leadership change (oh yes we still remember..)

iszuule

strumslinger said:

On Friday, February 19, Coalescent Wards, Preservation Wards and Blood Rubies will be removed from the Tarmalune Trade Bar Store after maintenance. Please keep discussions respectful and on-topic; we all love this game and want it to thrive.

It's obvious to everyone, that the sole purpose in this change has absolutely NOTHING to do with balancing the in-game economy, and everything to do with boosting profits.

While i agree that F2P games need to create real like cash flow from in-game sales, i do NOT agree with this change.

There needs to be a fair value equivalent for those who are not capable, or comfortable with dual-wielding mastercards, just to keep up with the content. There are huge differences between free-to-play and pay-to-win, i think PWI and the developers need to explore other options for boosting their margins. With this new change, you are actively rejecting any potential new players, as the cost to "catch up" to the content is just too exorbitant. The other side of this, is many people may choose to spend their money at those shady websites that sell AD.

with the RNG being so fickle, $10 a coal ward is extremely expensive. Considering upgrading enchants, and artifacts pretty much require them to progress into the higher end, and weapon and chest enchants requiring them for all upgrades, you've pretty much asked the player base to shell out hundreds of $$, just to be viable. There is not enough time in a day to farm enough AD for an equivalent exchange. We all know it.

A few ideas for increasing your margins that players would probably agree with:

1) Create dual spec system, one for PVP, and one for PVE. Charge a small AD fee to swap between them.
This will also help you as developers, as you will no longer need to balance PVE and PVP at the same time, but can do so separately. Require PVP spec to be active to PVP, and PVE spec to be active for PVE.

2) Create better companion content. I.e. Mini-games, or diversions based on companion collecting, upgrading ETC. Something that would allow the players to feel excited about spending for companions, have in-game companion based games that give rewards. companion duels, races, etc.

3) Better cosmetics. Instead of the fluffy pretty garb, create more sinister looks, as well as more "sexually charged" looks (nothing lewd, but tasteful skin is appreciated by most)

4) PVP / PVE leader boards with weekly / monthly prizes!
Nothing incentivizes players to spend time and money like bragging rights, and good ole competition.

5) Diversions.
The grind in NWO is kind of mind numbing. It's a good idea to offset this with some sort of diversion. Something that allows the player to "do" something in game, without the slack-jawed, glazed eye grind. A mini-dungeon with prizes, a casino like system, where players pay to enter, and play mini-games, contests etc. Randomized rewards.

Now i hear the bean counters groaning already.. "But that will cost a fortune in development"
Perhaps, but in the long run, these types of changes will ultimately give you a platform for adjusting, and adding more content.

That is what players crave. CONTENT!

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l0th4ri0

If only there was some way to get millions of AD really cheap and then convert it into zen.

*cough*

Prices on the zen store wouldn't seem so steep, then.

*shifts uncomfortably*

The devs know what they are doing, right? This change to the coal wards isn't going to drive people into the waiting arms of [redacted for disallowed forum terminology], is it?

Right? Why make it easier for THOSE guys?

icyphish

yea, now they will make $30,000 more from ppl buying Coalwards from Zen store!

Then lose like $200,000 with people unsubscribing from VIP and less supporters buying mounts or other zen stuffs...

I am not sure if I would ever play a PWE game again once I leave this one.....

pjz99

I'm really glad you dudes are on top of this terrible problem and continuing to ignore 3rd party AD sellers flipping zen via bots, keep up the good work!

psistarprime

WOW!!! C Wards have been in the trade bar store since we had a trade bar store. They are the only thing I have ever spent trade bars on. I guess Cryptic and PWE won't miss the $20-$50/week I have spent buying Zen to buy keys on top of my 12 months of VIP. I haven't traded my AD for Zen, so this is real cash they are losing. This is totally messed up.

Arc order of 6050 ZEN from Arc 02/13/2016
Arc Order Confirmation. Thank you for your order. Name: 6050 ZEN Quantity: 6050 ZEN Unit Price: $ 50.00 __________________________ Subtotal: $ 50.00 Total: $ 50.00admin
Arc order of 2000 ZEN from Arc 02/08/2016
Arc Order Confirmation. Thank you for your order. Name: 2000 ZEN Quantity: 2000 ZEN Unit Price: $ 20.00 __________________________ Subtotal: $ 20.00 Total: $ 20.00 admin
Arc order of 5300 ZEN from Arc 02/01/2016
Arc Order Confirmation. Thank you for your order. Name: 5300 ZEN Quantity: 5300 ZEN Unit Price: $ 50.00 __________________________ Subtotal: $ 50.00 Total: $ 50.00 admin
Arc order of 2000 ZEN from Arc 02/01/2016
Arc Order Confirmation. Thank you for your order. Name: 2000 ZEN Quantity: 2000 ZEN Unit Price: $ 20.00 __________________________ Subtotal: $ 20.00 Total: $ 20.00 admin
Arc order of 5300 ZEN from Arc 01/31/2016
Arc Order Confirmation. Thank you for your order. Name: 5300 ZEN Quantity: 5300 ZEN Unit Price: $ 50.00 __________________________ Subtotal: $ 50.00 Total: $ 50.00 admin
Arc order of 5300 ZEN from Arc 01/31/2016
Arc Order Confirmation. Thank you for your order. Name: 5300 ZEN Quantity: 5300 ZEN Unit Price: $ 50.00 __________________________ Subtotal: $ 50.00 Total: $ 50.00admin
Arc order of 5300 ZEN from Arc 01/28/2016
Arc Order Confirmation. Thank you for your order. Name: 5300 ZEN Quantity: 5300 ZEN Unit Price: $ 50.00 __________________________ Subtotal: $ 50.00 Total: $ 50.00 admin
Arc order of 2000 ZEN from Arc 01/28/2016
Arc Order Confirmation. Thank you for your order. Name: 2000 ZEN Quantity: 2000 ZEN Unit Price: $ 20.00 __________________________ Subtotal: $ 20.00 Total: $ 20.00 admin
Arc order of 5300 ZEN from Arc 01/22/2016
Arc Order Confirmation. Thank you for your order. Name: 5300 ZEN Quantity: 5300 ZEN Unit Price: $ 50.00 __________________________ Subtotal: $

aratech

pjz99 said:

I'm really glad you dudes are on top of this terrible problem and continuing to ignore 3rd party AD sellers flipping zen via bots, keep up the good work!

Oh you silly thing. That would require actual work. And work costs money. So much easier to make a short sighted cash grab while hoping that the player base will still eat it up...

pjz99

Seriously as long as Cryptic ignores the major botter/spammers, they'll be chasing their tails forever trying to make the cash shop work well. You guys are literally throwing giant piles of money into the toilet as long as you pretend spammers are not your priority.

anubismage

So once again I need to find another game to start playing due to innept management. I have been through 4 different games with this company and have enjoyed playing each one. But once again this company bows down to a mealy-mouth, mentally deficient crybaby that is a waste of skin. I do not understand why this company or any other bothers with lawyers to write up a TOS when it is never applied to people that break the rules. Oh yes, they start out telling you our game will be different. We will not allow the hackers an botters to take over or ruin the game ><. Really!! Once again this company has failed to have a backbone, like many others out there today. What is your problem with telling these imbecil's to go stuff yourself. You would keep your loyal cutomer base and gain even more if you remained firm on your TOS, permantly ban the botters,hackers and gold spammers and anyone else the fails to play fair. But I guess like any other money grubbing, spineless company and or business out there today, you along with the people you bend over for have to ruin it for everone else.
It would be nice if you could pull your head out of your butt and run this game as it should be. But alas I guess this will never happen.
Maybe some of us should get together and start our own game and show you how its done. Ta<i class="Italic">

hustin1

People are watching all of the outstanding AD on the ZAX drying up in real-time, and the price is steadily rising. At this rate it will peg at 500 in a couple of hours.

Talk about the Law of Unintended Consequences.

I can tell you, with nothing useful on which to spend trade bars, I have no reason to renew my VIP once it expires.

kemnimtarkas

Glad I at least have time to get the Coal Wards tonight.

Hate to be the player who took a day off and comes in tomorrow afternoon to finally turn that Greater or Perfect Enchant into a Pure or Trans...

And the goldsellers are doing backflips, handstands and pirouettes in the streets tonight. Their profit margins will skyrocket after 10am tomorrow Pacific time.

l0th4ri0

hustin1 said:

People are watching all of the outstanding AD on the ZAX drying up in real-time, and the price is steadily rising. At this rate it will peg at 500 in a couple of hours.

Talk about the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Hey great idea, I think I'll post all my zen for 500 each and see if it sells.

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ladyfluviatilis

Seriously?
New player here, so I don't sit on heaps of wards or AD. Between me and my husband over total 4 chars, we got exactly 1 coal from invoking in 6 months, so you certainly can't count on invoking.
AD is also a problem, but bit by bit you can save some. I was saving for a lesser Vorpal for my CW. Yesterday it was around 139k, this morning (EU timezone) after this very special little piece of news pricing has doubled. Well, guess I will create it from shards with the free one, but it will be a lesser for eternity, since there is no way I will spend 10 euros for a coal in the store.

Next thing I wanted to get was a month of VIP. I won't: I'm not really that interested in lockboxes anymore.

lairdbanshee

This is further proof to me of the feeling I have long gotten that Perfect World actually *owns* a sufficient amount of the gold-sellers, knowing how overpriced Coals are in the Zen Store, that they need to push players into the gold-sellers to get ahead.
If they can't make money off the game, they'll at least make money of the peripheral subsidiaries...

mmm1001

OK Cryptic, you successfully convinced me to quit this time.