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finality999
Member Posts: 18 Arc User
Hello All,
I recently requested some help through customer support on being informed via email well in advance when specials, in particular Zen Market bonus events, are going to happen. The representative suggested I put a message in the forums as they explained that Zen Market purchases are dictated by Perfect World Entertainment, not Cryptic, that is understandable, and that Neverwinter Special Sales Events, for example, the Neverwinter Elite Pack, back during the Jubilee, and recently, the Storyteller Zen purchase, both of these purchasable through Zen, were not advertised. This is probably not a huge issue for many players, but I believe I represent many who are on fixed income that either is paid out bi-weekly or like myself, once a month.
As a VIP member, and I am going to assume that many VIP members would appreciate a heads up warning that a special event is going to happen at least a week, two would be better, in advance, so they can save their Zen or delay buying something in the auction house for ridiculous prices that a modest Zen value could buy instead. As an example, back just prior to the Jubilee event for 2021 happening, I wanted to buy the Xuna companion, but she was a minimum bid on the auction house of 6.7 million AD. I believe I purchased 34 sets of the Shattered Diamond Enchanted Key packs during the Jubilee, as I had 3400 shattered diamonds in my inventory at one point, most of the enchanted keys I used to open the Glorious Resurgence Lockboxes so I could hope for the 'Bloodied Companion Equipment Pack' where I found that the 'Greater Companion Experience Treatise' would drop giving 50,000 astral diamonds for everyone I turned in at the antiquities vendor. This sounds like a crazy way to make astral diamonds, but being a newbie, I had no idea and it worked. I placed my bid, had I think 3 more days to wait for the auction to be over and hope I win it. The next day my brother tells me I could buy the 'Neverwinter Elite Pack' from the Zen Market, for what was it, 400 Zen? I purchased 11 of these and won 2 of the Elite packs where I could choose Xuna if I wanted, this cost me a purchase of 5,000 Zen, if you think on that, 5,000 Zen gets you 2 of the Enchanted Key 20 Sets, even with the discount happening during that event, I could have saved a lot of currency in several denominations!
Another example, the recent Storyteller Event in the Zen Market where you could buy the Storyteller artifact boxes choosing one of the 4 artifact books, or buy the scarf or sash of embellishments with Zen, this event happened a couple of weeks 'after' the release of the Mythical Insignia Packs being put on the Zen Market, once again you could have used Zen to buy these things. My brother let me know he purchased 28-30 of these Mythical insignia packs, and sold all of the Mythical Insignia he won in the boxes on the auction house. He ended up placing bids totaling 32 million AD on the scarf and sash of embellishments and one of the Storyteller books. Once again, Zen could have been used to make the purchase and he would have saved a bundle in not spending all those astral diamonds. He was so peeved at Neverwinter he didn't log in for a few days.
Most players do not have unlimited resources, likely 99.9999% are normal real world people, from kids to seniors, who loved AD&D or are just getting into playing it via a game interface that has duplicated the world of Faerûn from AD&D's Forgotten realms. While the Zen store is sometimes a shortcut to acquiring in-game items or items that are no longer available because the event they initially were released in is long past, it costs the player real world money. I won't tell you how much I have spent of my own dollars, but, I believe that many players are in the same boat as me and my brother and they would certainly appreciate a generous invitation to either save up Zen or real world funds to buy Zen, when a special event is going to happen.
There appears to be a lot of die-hard players who have ridiculous amounts of astral diamonds in their accounts, people who have played since day one of Neverwinter becoming active online, I do not begrudge these people who have gone through all the hurdles and avoided the potholes on the road to their current place in the game, but one thing has become quite clear, that many items that are no longer available or are very rare drops from dungeons no one really wants to do any more, an example, the Dark Armor of Lolth, for clerics, from Temple of the Spider (Epic), have really high AD prices in the auction house. It makes them only available for the elites on the server. Those who have the coins/diamonds to spend freely or who have hoarded for years.
One of the reasons my brother left Neverwinter some seven years ago was this crazy currency economy and the extremely limited wins on opening items with the enchanted keys, or the extremely limited reward drops from dungeon chests after defeating the end bosses. I have decided to just skip end-content myself as I simply don't want to experience that frustration of 'no drop' after 'no drop', I enjoy the regular content and play pretty much solo, maybe Neverwinter should award a new title "Renegade" for those who accomplish achievements playing on their own.
The beauty of this game lies in the detailed graphics, which are beyond 'really good'. I have read some 500 plus AD&D and other similar to AD&D novels including all of Bob Salvatore's Drizzt Series, and everything Ed Greenwood wrote, the Elminster series being the standard I compare allthe other authors works to. The designers have done an incredible job of recreating environments and the expected NPC reactions in game, that are what I imagined in my 40 years of playing table-top AD&D (mostly as the dungeon master) and immersing myself in reading the AD&D world. Some instances I swear some game designer plucked out of my memories, it is just that good. Keep up this excellent work on your development of the game, but please, seriously, try to let players, especially your VIP members, know in advance about special Zen Store sales/Events that you plan to offer with a nice email to us, it is something that would be greatly appreciated as loyal customers and players in Neverwinter.
Thank you for reading my lengthy message
Finality
I recently requested some help through customer support on being informed via email well in advance when specials, in particular Zen Market bonus events, are going to happen. The representative suggested I put a message in the forums as they explained that Zen Market purchases are dictated by Perfect World Entertainment, not Cryptic, that is understandable, and that Neverwinter Special Sales Events, for example, the Neverwinter Elite Pack, back during the Jubilee, and recently, the Storyteller Zen purchase, both of these purchasable through Zen, were not advertised. This is probably not a huge issue for many players, but I believe I represent many who are on fixed income that either is paid out bi-weekly or like myself, once a month.
As a VIP member, and I am going to assume that many VIP members would appreciate a heads up warning that a special event is going to happen at least a week, two would be better, in advance, so they can save their Zen or delay buying something in the auction house for ridiculous prices that a modest Zen value could buy instead. As an example, back just prior to the Jubilee event for 2021 happening, I wanted to buy the Xuna companion, but she was a minimum bid on the auction house of 6.7 million AD. I believe I purchased 34 sets of the Shattered Diamond Enchanted Key packs during the Jubilee, as I had 3400 shattered diamonds in my inventory at one point, most of the enchanted keys I used to open the Glorious Resurgence Lockboxes so I could hope for the 'Bloodied Companion Equipment Pack' where I found that the 'Greater Companion Experience Treatise' would drop giving 50,000 astral diamonds for everyone I turned in at the antiquities vendor. This sounds like a crazy way to make astral diamonds, but being a newbie, I had no idea and it worked. I placed my bid, had I think 3 more days to wait for the auction to be over and hope I win it. The next day my brother tells me I could buy the 'Neverwinter Elite Pack' from the Zen Market, for what was it, 400 Zen? I purchased 11 of these and won 2 of the Elite packs where I could choose Xuna if I wanted, this cost me a purchase of 5,000 Zen, if you think on that, 5,000 Zen gets you 2 of the Enchanted Key 20 Sets, even with the discount happening during that event, I could have saved a lot of currency in several denominations!
Another example, the recent Storyteller Event in the Zen Market where you could buy the Storyteller artifact boxes choosing one of the 4 artifact books, or buy the scarf or sash of embellishments with Zen, this event happened a couple of weeks 'after' the release of the Mythical Insignia Packs being put on the Zen Market, once again you could have used Zen to buy these things. My brother let me know he purchased 28-30 of these Mythical insignia packs, and sold all of the Mythical Insignia he won in the boxes on the auction house. He ended up placing bids totaling 32 million AD on the scarf and sash of embellishments and one of the Storyteller books. Once again, Zen could have been used to make the purchase and he would have saved a bundle in not spending all those astral diamonds. He was so peeved at Neverwinter he didn't log in for a few days.
Most players do not have unlimited resources, likely 99.9999% are normal real world people, from kids to seniors, who loved AD&D or are just getting into playing it via a game interface that has duplicated the world of Faerûn from AD&D's Forgotten realms. While the Zen store is sometimes a shortcut to acquiring in-game items or items that are no longer available because the event they initially were released in is long past, it costs the player real world money. I won't tell you how much I have spent of my own dollars, but, I believe that many players are in the same boat as me and my brother and they would certainly appreciate a generous invitation to either save up Zen or real world funds to buy Zen, when a special event is going to happen.
There appears to be a lot of die-hard players who have ridiculous amounts of astral diamonds in their accounts, people who have played since day one of Neverwinter becoming active online, I do not begrudge these people who have gone through all the hurdles and avoided the potholes on the road to their current place in the game, but one thing has become quite clear, that many items that are no longer available or are very rare drops from dungeons no one really wants to do any more, an example, the Dark Armor of Lolth, for clerics, from Temple of the Spider (Epic), have really high AD prices in the auction house. It makes them only available for the elites on the server. Those who have the coins/diamonds to spend freely or who have hoarded for years.
One of the reasons my brother left Neverwinter some seven years ago was this crazy currency economy and the extremely limited wins on opening items with the enchanted keys, or the extremely limited reward drops from dungeon chests after defeating the end bosses. I have decided to just skip end-content myself as I simply don't want to experience that frustration of 'no drop' after 'no drop', I enjoy the regular content and play pretty much solo, maybe Neverwinter should award a new title "Renegade" for those who accomplish achievements playing on their own.
The beauty of this game lies in the detailed graphics, which are beyond 'really good'. I have read some 500 plus AD&D and other similar to AD&D novels including all of Bob Salvatore's Drizzt Series, and everything Ed Greenwood wrote, the Elminster series being the standard I compare allthe other authors works to. The designers have done an incredible job of recreating environments and the expected NPC reactions in game, that are what I imagined in my 40 years of playing table-top AD&D (mostly as the dungeon master) and immersing myself in reading the AD&D world. Some instances I swear some game designer plucked out of my memories, it is just that good. Keep up this excellent work on your development of the game, but please, seriously, try to let players, especially your VIP members, know in advance about special Zen Store sales/Events that you plan to offer with a nice email to us, it is something that would be greatly appreciated as loyal customers and players in Neverwinter.
Thank you for reading my lengthy message
Finality
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Comments
Thank you for the message. I will pass along your feedback to our publisher but, as CS indicated, sales and promotions are business decisions and are therefore more time-sensitive in terms of messaging. I can propose alternatives that would hopefully reduce some of the frustration but I don't foresee specific dates being given in the near future.