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How about we give Cryptic/PWE some actual constructive criticism on the Zen Pricing!
gvkprime
Member Posts: 46 Arc User
So I have been thinking on this alot recently so I wanted to take a minute to attempt to give some actual constructive criticism of the zen stone and not just say "its bad fix it!" That does not give them any kind of actual feedback on what they can do to make you (the player base) happy.
First of all lets look at the most expensive items.
Not going into the fusing issue because I am not there yet but from what I have read it does seem kind of crappy. If maybe the increased the minimum success chance to a higher level then it would be alot better but single digit percent chances is deffinitly forcing purchase or gathering of the paid resource.
First of all lets look at the most expensive items.
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$5 - $40 for a mount: Actually since this is account bound its not that horrible. I would say maybe dropping the top price by at most $10 would probably increase the overall sale of them but really you have to consider the pricing between multiple characters here and the time save based on leveling a mount per character up to level 3.
Up to $40 for a companion: Now since there are a per character purchase I would say that price is not nearly as reasonable. I think dropping the price by about half to cap out at maybe $20 give or take would one sell more companions and generate more revenue over time then the current costs.
$6 - $10 for bags: well I personally think its not horrible but I know from speaking with both my parents (who also play) and friends that they feel its too high. I do think that if the dropped the prices to say $3 & $5-6 they would make more overall revenue as more of the free only players will feel its a value to spend that cash.
$6 for a respec: Sorry for those of you upset about this one but I personally think its not to bad. You can technically spend a single point in all abilities while leveling to 60 and just spend the $6 then to respec once you know exactly what you intend to use.
Not going into the fusing issue because I am not there yet but from what I have read it does seem kind of crappy. If maybe the increased the minimum success chance to a higher level then it would be alot better but single digit percent chances is deffinitly forcing purchase or gathering of the paid resource.
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'Does this fit my style of play? Well it'd better, or I have to blow $6 on trying it again. And another $6 if THAT doesn't work well for me...'
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Why not create a training area? The dev's can make a place where people can go in and then mess around with their skill set and test on dummies (or maybe AI's). They can change the skills again and again until they are happy with their build. I know it's not the same as using a build and testing it against other players and stuff but it's still something. And once they are outside the training area, the skills are back to normal and then they can use a reset so that they can apply the new build that they tested
Waiting for a cool sig T.T
Casual players will never use a respec. They'll create a build based on whatever piques their interest as they level up, and whatever they end up with will be what they use.
Well as I said, since you get enough points to basically get every skill (just not to max level) you cam experiment on your way up to 60 and respec then. And at that point I don't think $6 is too much to ask in all honesty.
Green assets above not only being available from Profession Packs.
Blue Wards not to be hidden behind a payment wall.
These are the only two core fundamental game components I have an issue with. Both of the above listed items are only available by 'someone' spending Zen on it. You can of course purchase these in the AH for AD if that person decides to post it.
They are also required to make purple enchantments and purple gear.
The other stuff would be nice if they would lower their prices or have a discount/sale.
NW will have a test server later on.
It's twice as expensive as it should be
and we want a sub based option to not have to deal with the cash shop bs.
Those are the two most often things I see suggested.
A test server wasn't what I had on mind. I'm guessing only a handful of people will be able to enter the test server?
There was a game i played previously (dragon next - gameplay is a bit similar) which had a system like what i said. In that when you leveled to 50 and you have to choose your class advancement (from 2 paths), you are teleported into a room. There you can select the class you want, test the skills and if you don't like it, then select the other class and test it as well. Once you're outside, you can actually select the class advancement.
So it's something like that. Not exactly that way but something close to it will atleast help
Waiting for a cool sig T.T
I personally never liked it, because I always looked at it as, I have to pay HOW much to get a permanent version of this??
Some may not like the idea of paying for something temporary.
But some players don't plan on playing this game for years on end, and may not want to pay all or nothing for these things, it could be a possibility.
PS if this ends up happening please don't shoot me.
Cryptic's test server is generally open to the public (except for small windows when they're using it for internal or closed testing.)
Actually of you read my post you would note that I am mostly saying that the companion prices need to be cut dramatically. Otherwise I would say they are not horrible but PWE would probably make more overall revenue with dropping some of the convince things... Not all I must restate!
Or they will pony up the money for 1 respec at 60 for the cookie cutter build their class needs to be dungeon/raid worthy and then they will stay with that build.
It just promises that we will have pre-defined builds in the future.
Most everyone is talking about the mounts/bag/companions and a little about the respecs.
Keys and mats and such havent been brought up that much that I have seen.
2. Lower the prices for everything else by 50%.
I just saved their game. You're welcome.
That's so true!
As a casual player I will never spend $6 to respect and end up leaving the game with what I started with unlike other games where I respect often...you are simply amazing with your generalizations.
Current prices will keep me from spending a penny, period --> .
The other issue is value. There is no inherent, objective value. While some may feel it's a fair price, others don't. That's all fine and well, but for many, value is based on OTHER examples, ie., other games they've played. When you come from a subscription based game where everything is included (bags, respecs, etc.), paying $6 for a respec is expensive. It's a one-time respec that costs 1/2 a monthly sub. The other way to look at it is $15 gets you, what, 1500 zen? That's not a lot. blowing that on single use items means you'll be paying another $15 next month anyway, and you still don't get access to everything.
Finally, the issue with having to pay for respecs is it doesn't encourage experimenting, but it also makes changing your decisions feel like a punishment. Literally, if you want to try something else, either delete and roll up another character (after all, it's only 2 character slots), or pay the $6 penalty. At the very LEAST, they should offer free respecs if they patch/change class abilities. They should also give every new character a couple of free respecs, then you have to pay AFTER you use up those free ones.
Oh is that so. This is my first time experience with Cryptic so didn't know much about it. If it's like that, then its quite awesome. I for one will be looking forward to it
Waiting for a cool sig T.T
Hi, let's try and be constructive here. And that was not constructive. You get three free bags by playing any more are a convenience. By the default F2P mantra that should be in the cash shop. They have to pay for their servers somehow, please even with free to play they deserve some monetary support.
But hey, if the market wants it, let the market buy it. PWE seems to survivewell enough on it, so Cryptic delivers.
You can summarize it all by saying...
The price for more character slots is the only reasonably priced thing in the shop - and this is obviously done in hopes of people playing more and getting hooked into paying for the unreasonably priced insanity.
Keys are priced ok - they're pretty standard vs other games, which I still find to be a ripoff but it is kind of standard and keys with the lockboxes are entirely optional so who cares.
Everything else is priced insanely. Period. To the point that I'd rather not play than pay (see other thread where many agree).
You could chop all the prices in half and they'd still be expensive but they'd be less insane and something I think more people would be willing to suffer.
Fools that paid 60-200 for drastically overpriced founder paks aren't going to agree. Fanbois aren't going to agree. People with more money than brains aren't going to agree.
Obviously F2P is anything but free unless you just want to demo or play a crippled game. It's a lame marketing term. Obviously games cost money to develop and they have to make money somehow. But insane store prices and anything remotely pay to win isn't acceptable.
I also don't like the zen for AD thing anymore than I liked cash for gems in GW2. Either way it's built-in "gold buying" where the developer takes a cut. So it's basically built-in cheating with the developer facilitating and taking a cut. It looks good up front when you say - well, any player can earn some AD in game and get zen for it. Yeah, but the flip side is that someone has to put zen on the market, and they got that zen for cash, so they are essentially buying in game currency for cash. And that's cheating the same way that buying gold from a 3rd party gold seller is cheating in my book.
That was being constructive. I've never played annother F2P MMO that charged for bag space. They are trying to annoy you into giving them money when your inventory is constantly full. I honestly don't understand how anyone can think $10 for a bag or $40 for a mount in an MMO is a reasonable price and I've spent $1000's on video games over the last few years.
I stand by what I said. Stop charging for necessities like bags and reduce all prices by 50% and the game will be more successful in the long run in my opinion.
I'm not complaining about the price here, because I would simply not buy it, but if the devs really want this game to be popular and make MORE money from it they should consider decreasing the price of the whole zen market imo.
We appreciate the feedback....
That's it....nothing else, no...we're looking into it, we're considering it, we have something planned...nope. A completely non-committal ....we hear you whining, and we dont care.
So you chide him for not giving constructive feedback and give non yourself? Your blanket statement of "they need money somehow" was far less than his "lower prices by 50%". You did NOTHING to refute even that little bit.
Servers cost little, GW1 and 2 PROVED that.
There is over 15 YEARS worth of Asian F2P market data that PROVES that micro-transactions is THE way to go. Nexon, NCSoft, NDoors are all GIANTS in the MMO world because of them, so big that if you took Nexon's and NDoors revenues and put them together, they two would be almost as big as EAs...Go look at their annual reports, both are publicly traded companies so the information is easily found. They make hand over fist in ASIA via Microtransactions.
And BOTH of them SPENT more money buying out other companies than Cryptic and Funcom made COMBINED TOTAL, not just profit wise.
Now you tell me how is it that Cryptic and Funcom, who run 6 F2P games combined, cant make more money total than a company like NDoors that hasn't produced a single DECENT game?!? Simple, microtransactions.
This topic is only still going because of the MASSIVE and I mean MASSIVE amounts of uneducated people that don't know squat about F2P just plain want to grip onto this idiotic idea that a virtual item should be sold for a large amount of money and could not POSSIBLY make a company more money if it was sold for far less.
Heck, even OUT of context it only makes sense to have a lower price. Its basic economics.
Target consumer is who?
Target price should be for target consumer.
If price is too high, target is missed, income is low.
If price is in target consumers price range, income is high.
If price is lower than target consumers price range, income is only higher than above if product can reach an even larger consumer base.
The F2P market is massive, place the price for that market and watch the money flow like it does in Asian markets.