Prices are Outrageous Since PWE Purchased Cryptic

vauhn

I really enjoy playing this game and I think you guys are a great studio but honestly Ive reached my point as a off and on player who spends money here and there your game is just a ripoff to play period. 300k AD to upgrade a white pet? 30 bucks for a mount? 10 bucks for one 24 slot bag? I mean I can understand ripping off people who want to have extra perks but making companions upgrade for anything other than gold is just beyond shady and price gouging. Im sure this has been said 100 times over but it needs to be said again lower your **** prices on your store for the love of god. This game costs more in a month to play then an entire year with box price for any pay to play mmorpgs out there. Im far from a cheap guy but your prices just drive the average player away and I do not know if its perfect worlds fault or yours but if its your prices and you control this , you could get a lot more of a player base if you just lowered your prices by 25% across the board and probably made more profit in the long run. /Rant

deathsremnant

Funny thing is theyve actually reduced pricing once already after the games initial release lol...These prices are a good 10-15% less on a lot of items, Though I agree on the Companion upgrade pricing...300k AD is a ton, and thats just from going white to green, not sure if the higher ranks cost more. Can easily get a blue companion with 300k -.- and a epic isnt much more expensive, so why would I ever bother with the upgrade system?

kuyabay

I love this game, but hate the cash shop. Support the game only up to the level you feel appropriate, really no need to spend so much on a single game. I do agree that the cash shop in this game is beyond absurd, so much so that most of the time I just ignore what's there. I've done my support, the rest I consider fluff.

Sad thing is I think the cash shop would be a lot more successful if their prices are more reasonable. As is this price gouging can and only bring them so far. Maybe if more people speak up and hold their wallets in check Cryptic would do something about it.

ambisinisterr

Moderator Notice - Keep your feedback at respectful. Do not insult any country, ethnicity, political view...etc.

Please keep pricing feedback related to the pricing and the pricing alone.

vauhn

Okay who makes the decision on prices for the cash shop cryptic or perfect world ? Id really love to know this as I find it hard to believe that Cryptic would charge so much when this is a stablemark of all perfect world games.

lewel555

vauhn wrote: »

300k AD to upgrade a white pet?

Hey hey, calm dow, PWE-Cryptic has always stated that it was a 100% f2p and that using RL money does not give any significant advantage, only cosmetic things. Nicer outfits, flashier masks and so on. What is the difference between a white Cleric companion and a purple one? Not much, it heals pretty much the same.
And Module 2 does not change anything. A player with five white companions slotted will get a +125 bonus in stats, and by making them purple an Zen-addict will get a +1500 bonus. When is a +1375 higher bonus making any difference?

Cleric Disciple

Rank 1:+25 Regeneration
Rank 2: +100 Regeneration
Rank 3: +190 Regeneration
Rank 4: +300 Regeneration

ambisinisterr

Cryptic Studios is the Developing House and Perfect World Entertainment is the Publishing House.

Although there is no official information on how much say each company has in pricing the general rule of the industry would place PWE as the main authority on the matter. Give feedback on that all you want.

The rule is quite simple, don't insult the company in general but especially not when those same insults directed at the company can and do offend users with certain ethnic, cultural or political backgrounds or opinions. This Forum Community is made up of players from all over the world with varying opinions, beliefs and backgrounds. Keep that in mind when you post and avoid saying anything that would offend any person.

mrspuma

Over the past 7 or so months, I've spent a fair chunk of change (to me) on this game. Certainly works out to a fair bit more "per month" than I spent on the old subscription models of yore. I don't blame Cryptic/PWE for this...I blame my obsessive nature and collector's mentality. In my case, I have a fair bit of disposable income so it's affordable to splurge on intangible pixels that keeps me occupied during free time for months, so there's no serious regret from me.

That all said, like many others, I still think NW's cash shop prices are definitely too high. Yes, most things aren't truly "needed to play", but when one does want to spend, it's the sense of not getting enough value for what is spent that annoys. I don't expect things to be super-cheap, but something should/has to give a bit, imo. Either dropping things 20% or so across the board and/or doing things like making companions/other stuff account bound instead of single-chr bound - an often requested change - so a purchase feels like a better "deal" with more flexibility would likely feel a bit more fair to most people.

godlysoul1

I know if prices were cheaper I'd be willing to spend more on this game, but I am at the point where I've spent some and it has gotten me relatively little at this point in the game, so I am at the point where I'd rather just wait it out and work for the AD instead.

EDIT: I guess I should rephrase, the amount I have spent was able to get me started well, but because as you start getting up to higher tier enchants/gear, more "elite" things become too pricy to be bought unless you are willing to spend big money, which I guess I don't mind. It does help prevent most people from spending a fortune to get good at the game, but still leaves room for people to pay a little and get there a bit quicker. Overall though I think the market in general still gets too pricey when you get up to higher rank stuff. Thankfully things like the new enchantment system will help with some of the ridiculous enchantment prices so it looks like they are working to even out the market some.

thestaggy

Certain things are priced fine, others, not so much.

Saying that, I've spent the equivalent of $50, which in my part of the world is a lot of money, but I doubt I'll spend again. Maybe another $20 on another Stone.

lordoffiling

This is my thinking.

In the F2P market, there is a large slice of the population that won't ever pay a dime into a game, no matter how low the prices are. There's a thin slice that will or won't, depending on price, and there's another large slice that will pay whatever, because they are the kind of people who won't miss thirty bucks in their monthly budget but can't live without that mount that goes 20% faster than the one they can get for free and has blue fire coming out of it.

There's no point in marketing to the first slice, they won't spend no matter what. The middle slice is too thin to really care about, so they crank up prices a bit and build the game to milk the third slice.

There. I said it. This game is not built to take money from the responsible consumer. It's built to sponge money out of the pockets of people who really have too much of it anyway and whose joy comes from showing off the new thing they just bought with it.

So, if you think the prices are too high, take heart! You belong to that responsible middle slice of consumers who know the value of a dollar, whose credo is not "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"

godlysoul1

lordoffiling wrote: »

This is my thinking.

In the F2P market, there is a large slice of the population that won't ever pay a dime into a game, no matter how low the prices are. There's a thin slice that will or won't, depending on price, and there's another large slice that will pay whatever, because they are the kind of people who won't miss thirty bucks in their monthly budget but can't live without that mount that goes 20% faster than the one they can get for free and has blue fire coming out of it.

There's no point in marketing to the first slice, they won't spend no matter what. The middle slice is too thin to really care about, so they crank up prices a bit and build the game to milk the third slice.

There. I said it. This game is not built to take money from the responsible consumer. It's built to sponge money out of the pockets of people who really have too much of it anyway and whose joy comes from showing off the new thing they just bought with it.

So, if you think the prices are too high, take heart! You belong to that responsible middle slice of consumers who know the value of a dollar, whose credo is not "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"

There are also people who believe in paying with responsible amounts of money in order to support the products and services that they enjoy, because they wouldn't exist if they were not making profits. Sometimes it is fun to get a small boost in the game from paying a little bit of money if you spend a significant amount of time in the game anyway. Everyone should spend money to support the hobbies they enjoy and there is nothing wrong with that.

Then again, I do understand where you are coming from. I've only ever spent money to help my character get geared up in the earlier phases. I have never seen the value in spending money on things which would only be purely cosmetic.

angrysprite

I suspect pricing is massively influenced, if not outright controlled by PWE.

The pricing at Star Trek Online is vastly different (and more reasonable) - for example: your "mount" (Starship over there) are all account-bound and the highest cost for any I have ever seen is 3000z - most are 2500z (and "lower ranked versions as low as 1500z). There is no direct comparison with Companions to anything in STO, though... however, other than consumables practically everything available in the C-Store (now called Z-Store) is account-bound, save for a couple items.

When they released the first character-bound item for 700z the player base went hostile and livid.

Now, in STO's "defense" - they started out as pay-to-play then went free-to-play. To do right by those who had been paying $15 a month (and lifetime purchasers like myself) they created two tiers: Silver (freebie-play) and Gold (paid-to-play) - a lot of items are gratis to Gold members, where Silver must buy or grind for them.

In Neverwinter's defense: they don't have that pay-to-play support to lean-on and subsidize lower pricing efforts, etc. I get that. I think the pricing in the Neverwinter Z-Store is fine for just about everything, except for one: Z-Store companions should be account-bound for those prices. Full stop.

That is my one single gripe about anything and everything Neverwinter Z-Store: Companions are character-bound and cost as much or more than account-bound Mounts.

Because of this, I feel character-bound companions are grossly over-priced (as character-bound items). Either those prices need to be lowered by half or they need to be converted into account-bound.

As for in-game Astral Diamond costs of things like upgrading or whatnot: that's all fine and dandy the way I see it also. It's 100% free currency - payment for your time and effort in-game having fun. It *should* be a grind-fest to earn enough of them to circumvent purchases in the Z-Store. The wonderful thing is that you are allowed to circumvent purchases in the Z-Store - what other game allows that? (Sure, some might, but you get my point.)

banaanc

lordoffiling wrote: »

This is my thinking.

In the F2P market, there is a large slice of the population that won't ever pay a dime into a game, no matter how low the prices are. There's a thin slice that will or won't, depending on price, and there's another large slice that will pay whatever, because they are the kind of people who won't miss thirty bucks in their monthly budget but can't live without that mount that goes 20% faster than the one they can get for free and has blue fire coming out of it.

There's no point in marketing to the first slice, they won't spend no matter what. The middle slice is too thin to really care about, so they crank up prices a bit and build the game to milk the third slice.

There. I said it. This game is not built to take money from the responsible consumer. It's built to sponge money out of the pockets of people who really have too much of it anyway and whose joy comes from showing off the new thing they just bought with it.

So, if you think the prices are too high, take heart! You belong to that responsible middle slice of consumers who know the value of a dollar, whose credo is not "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"

but most of ppl who dont spend money of their own do buy zen for ad, no way in hell im buying zen for pets(except for stone) as they are for example, but if they were acc wide then i would get a full set of them, etc. ppl dont like to pay for overpriced stuff unless the stuff has a picture of a rotten apple on it

yokihiro

I have more this coffee mentality. If something is around the price of a coffee, you don't really think a lot about it, but if it costs more you start to think if it is worth it. For the prices of one mount I could play a subscription based game like 2 months where all the mounts ingame are accessable already. Also take the fusing system. If you would buy coal wards for ZEN you would have to spend hundreds of bucks only to fuse ONE enchant to the highest rank. For that money I could play subscription based games for years and would have all the updates AND EVERYTHING ELSE on top for free.

Although free2play often looks cheaper, in the end it costs much more (and if you don't pay money you pay it with your time - and this is even a waste because time to virtual currency is much higher than the time you need to grind in subscription based games).

I am sure they have done calculations where the best price would be.
Example:

Lets say from 10 players 2 buy a mount for 30 bucks. So they make 60 bucks.
Now lets say they drop prices and people buy more when the price is lower. Lets make it 20 bucks and say 3 people buy the mount. It would still be a profil of 60 bucks. Lets say they make the mounts 10 bucks and 6 people buy it. Still 60 bucks. Or lets say it is 5 bucks and 10 people buy it. Then it would be only 50 bucks. So while there surely are prices where more people would buy (and more people would have fun with the game) they would not make more profit in the end.

So my guess here is that they are in the phase to milk the people that are willing to paying high prices. Once those people all have bought the stuff they might reduce prices to pull those players into buying that only spend less on games. But in the end the prices will never be so cheap that everyone basically buys the stuff. Because then those items lose their rarity aspect and become boring for the most customers. And if something is too widespread anyway you can just put it for free into the game.

But for me I can say: I don't buy horses for real money that cost 20 bucks or more. I don't feel that this is worth it. I rather would leave a game then if the punishment of not having an item would be so huge instead. For example EQ2 free2play only allowed you to level spells up when you paid. Other players where basically gimped. If a game does not give me the chance to "play" for the paid currency (which is possible in NW by converting AD to ZEN) then I am out.

melodywhr

if you are going to outright purchase zen with real money to buy zen shop items, yes, it could get costly. or exchange zen for AD, same deal. and if you think that's the only possible way to acquire these items, then perhaps your perception is skewed, not the pricing.

because there is the zen exchange in-game, you can acquire everything in game for free. granted, it may take you some time to grind/acquire, but that's not the focus. you may also subsidize your zen store purchases by paying half in-game acquired currency and half real world dollars. or any percentage you so choose.

if your complaints involve the pricing based on wanting items now versus waiting to purchase items after you've earned the currency for it, then is it the pricing or is it impatience? yes, we all desire to have the things we want when we want them. but it's always at a cost. think about air fares and how expensive premium seating is or how much more you may spend on a ticket well in advance vs short notice.

also, the higher priced items i would consider to be premium items not necessarily needed to progress in-game. if they were all priced for 1000z or lower, because there is a zen/AD exchange in game, they would be incredibly easy to acquire at zero cost. there needs to be an incentive to buy zen. this, after all, is a free to play MMO. it needs to make money.

there are players that would usually be paying a sub for an MMO and they choose to limit their zen purchases to what a sub's monthly charges are. or they buy zen and save it month to month until they can afford what they want to get. either way, it's just another way that people choose to spend their money or how they justify their spending.

vascodergamer

melodywhr wrote: »

if you are going to outright purchase zen with real money to buy zen shop items, yes, it could get costly. or exchange zen for AD, same deal. and if you think that's the only possible way to acquire these items, then perhaps your perception is skewed, not the pricing.

The thing is: every single piece of ZEN has been purchased with real money. It does not come from thin air! Someone has paid 35$ for the mount, even if the one person getting it from the ZEN store has changed his AD into ZEN.

melodywhr wrote: »

also, the higher priced items i would consider to be premium items not necessarily needed to progress in-game.

Sorry, here I disagree: if you have no 110% speed horse in PVP, especially in Gauntlgrim, you have a huge disadvantage. (OK, only the normal 110% speed horse is required, the more expensive purple mounts are cosmetic).

And with module 2, you also have a huge disadvantage if you don't buy the ZEN shop companions that give you the active companions bonuses. I think they should make the companions account-wide like the mounts, than I would accept prices of 2000 ZEN for a purple companion. The prices for the character-bound green companions from the ZEN store are way off.

snotty

Im starting to realize that hardly anyone that plays NWO actually played PWI. I say this because I did play PWI for about 5 years. Yes, Some of their Zen store items can be priced pretty high but most of their items are pretty cheap. And PWI has a massive amount of items in their Zen store. So im not so sure that its PWE that dictating prices in NWO.

Believe me, PWE knows how to farm your wallets with screen candy. And I think Cryptic is missing out on some serious cash by having such a limited amount of items in their Zen store. To sum it up, more items + lower prices = more cash. Think im wrong? Just remember which company bought which.

twstdecho

The game is still fairly new, and I think some people are more inclined to be a little more free with their wallet when a game is new. While I agree that some things are over priced, especially cosmetic things (and not just Zen items either, but applying an item as a skin to a weapon or armor is ridiculously over priced unless it's one of the 1 time freebies), some items (like purple Zen mounts) aren't a bad deal, though mostly because they are account wide and not limited to one character.

I think the new companion changes are aimed at generating purchases either for Zen companions, or upgrading others in game, but I also think it's way too expensive for most people.

Once the "early adopters" run their course and sales die down, I think you will see the prices decrease again.

Also, if you are buying zen, and zen items, it's almost foolish if you aren't buying Zen when it's on sale, and waiting to buy the items you want when they are on sale as well.

melodywhr

vascodergamer wrote: »

The thing is: every single piece of ZEN has been purchased with real money. It does not come from thin air! Someone has paid 35$ for the mount, even if the one person getting it from the ZEN store has changed his AD into ZEN.

not true. the game has an exchange that allows you to sell AD for zen and sell zen for AD. that means all of my in-game acquired AD can be traded for zen without spending a single cent.

vascodergamer wrote: »

Sorry, here I disagree: if you have no 110% speed horse in PVP, especially in Gauntlgrim, you have a huge disadvantage. (OK, only the normal 110% speed horse is required, the more expensive purple mounts are cosmetic).

And with module 2, you also have a huge disadvantage if you don't buy the ZEN shop companions that give you the active companions bonuses. I think they should make the companions account-wide like the mounts, than I would accept prices of 2000 ZEN for a purple companion. The prices for the character-bound green companions from the ZEN store are way off.

since some people choose to level up by playing pvp, this would only pertain to when you can actually begin to pvp up to level 20 where you can begin to use a mount. and gauntlegrym you can't touch until you're level 60 anyway. so as far as game progression vs being competitive in pvp goes, it all depends on how you look at it.

as for the companions in module 2, companion bonuses only pertain to pve. and if you don't have a surplus of critters, you'll do just fine without them. on the active companion slots, you start with 3 and then you gain one more at level 30 and your fifth one at level 60. there are some companions you can buy with gold. they may be common (white) companions, but they still have bonuses. not to mention, you get one for free. plus, there are free companions to be had with many of the in-game events. however, none of them are required for game progression unless you count the quest to get your free one.

mehguy138

lewel555 wrote: »

Hey hey, calm dow, PWE-Cryptic has always stated that it was a 100% f2p and that using RL money does not give any significant advantage, only cosmetic things. Nicer outfits, flashier masks and so on. What is the difference between a white Cleric companion and a purple one? Not much, it heals pretty much the same.
And Module 2 does not change anything. A player with five white companions slotted will get a +125 bonus in stats, and by making them purple an Zen-addict will get a +1500 bonus. When is a +1375 higher bonus making any difference?

Cleric Disciple

Rank 1:+25 Regeneration
Rank 2: +100 Regeneration
Rank 3: +190 Regeneration
Rank 4: +300 Regeneration

I love your sarcasm.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

tarmalen

You either grind for a long time or break out the wallet.

Anyone that states that you don't get huge advantages with money is protecting the shield.

I'm burned out on the endless grind for marginal gains.

I can either plop down a huge chunk of cash and make my toon a massive powerhouse or I can flounder behind the high rollers and never catch up. It really is a shame since I enjoy my time here but enough is enough for me. F2P model lets people buy fluff yet here it is for essentials.

omgudied2

yes prices are crazy in the store

frishter

melodywhr wrote: »

not true. the game has an exchange that allows you to sell AD for zen and sell zen for AD. that means all of my in-game acquired AD can be traded for zen without spending a single cent.

Did you even read what he wrote? He already mentioned about the zen exchange. The zen that you get from AD has been bought with real money. The fact that you can do it is extremely helpful, but it doesn't change the fact the people have to buy zen in the first place for someone to buy from the zen store, whether directly or indirectly and that zen prices are frikking high.

vascodergamer

melodywhr wrote: »

not true. the game has an exchange that allows you to sell AD for zen and sell zen for AD. that means all of my in-game acquired AD can be traded for zen without spending a single cent.

You did not get my point here: someone has paid for the ZEN with real money. You may not be the one, but the one who traded his ZEN for your ADs paid with real money! So, if a mount for 3500 ZEN is bought, someone paid that ZEN with real money, point. Or is there a way to create ZEN for free and I am just too dump to get it? (No survey promos, etc.)

vascodergamer

frishter wrote: »

Did you even read what he wrote? He already mentioned about the zen exchange. The zen that you get from AD has been bought with real money. The fact that you can do it is extremely helpful, but it doesn't change the fact the people have to buy zen in the first place to buy form the zen store whether directly or indirectly and that zen prices are frikking high.

Thx for you making my point, I was just a little slow typing, not a native English speaker myself and struggling to find the right words ...

deathsremnant

lewel555 wrote: »

Hey hey, calm dow, PWE-Cryptic has always stated that it was a 100% f2p and that using RL money does not give any significant advantage, only cosmetic things. Nicer outfits, flashier masks and so on. What is the difference between a white Cleric companion and a purple one? Not much, it heals pretty much the same.
And Module 2 does not change anything. A player with five white companions slotted will get a +125 bonus in stats, and by making them purple an Zen-addict will get a +1500 bonus. When is a +1375 higher bonus making any difference?

Cleric Disciple

Rank 1:+25 Regeneration
Rank 2: +100 Regeneration
Rank 3: +190 Regeneration
Rank 4: +300 Regeneration

Hope this was a sarcastic post lol cause a additional 1375 stats is a nice chunk of usefulness -.- also I wouldnt consider the difference in mount speed "cosmetic, or fluff" Seeing how the companion bonus isnt usable (from what I hear) in pvp im not really concerned about it, my point was you can already purchase epic level companions around 300k, also that price does increase per rank...so why would you ever use the upgrade system at that price range? it costs roughly 1.5m AD to take a Cleric from white to epic, I can buy a Lillend (Which I consider better skill wise) for 900-950k...why am i spending an additional 600k AD for on a cleric?...Sure prices could skyrocket someday, but after playing CO and STO for a long while now, I realize the cryptic markets rarely just go pop, increases, decreases sure...But I dont expect itll get to a point ill use the upgrade system> purchasing from other players

melodywhr

frishter wrote: »

Did you even read what he wrote? He already mentioned about the zen exchange. The zen that you get from AD has been bought with real money. The fact that you can do it is extremely helpful, but it doesn't change the fact the people have to buy zen in the first place to buy form the zen store whether directly or indirectly and that zen prices are frikking high.

vascodergamer wrote: »

You did not get my point here: someone has paid for the ZEN with real money. You may not be the one, but the one who traded his ZEN for your ADs paid with real money! So, if a mount for 3500 ZEN is bought, someone paid that ZEN with real money, point. Or is there a way to create ZEN for free and I am just too dump to get it? (No survey promos, etc.)

i'm not saying that people don't buy zen to sell for AD. they obviously do. i'm saying that because there is an exchange, you yourself are not limited to just buying zen for real money. you can buy zen with AD. the zen that you buy in the exchange is from player offers so this zen could have been purchased with either real money or AD. i know there are a number of players that play this market... buy low, sell high.

silvergryph

vascodergamer wrote: »

You did not get my point here: someone has paid for the ZEN with real money. You may not be the one, but the one who traded his ZEN for your ADs paid with real money! So, if a mount for 3500 ZEN is bought, someone paid that ZEN with real money, point. Or is there a way to create ZEN for free and I am just too dump to get it? (No survey promos, etc.)

That's completely irrelevant because it may have been one player that paid $35 or 100 players that paid 35 cents. It all goes into the same pool. All that matters is how much an individual spends for any item which is completely up to them. Not just figuratively, as in, "just do without because you don't really need it", but in this case literally. Because every player has the choice to pay for a ZEN item out of pocket or by investing time playing the game grinding for AD. You can buy that $35 mount with anything from $0 actual cash to $35 actual cash.

In my opinion, the prices are balanced around the fact that you can earn part or all of the ZEN in game. This makes most of them completely reasonable to me, with the exception of companions which I agree are overpriced. However, I don't think they should all be account unlocks at the current price. I would rather see them provide a single companion but make it bind to account when equipped and mailable between characters.

silvergryph

deathsremnant wrote: »

Hope this was a sarcastic post lol cause a additional 1375 stats is a nice chunk of usefulness -.- also I wouldnt consider the difference in mount speed "cosmetic, or fluff" Seeing how the companion bonus isnt usable (from what I hear) in pvp im not really concerned about it, my point was you can already purchase epic level companions around 300k, also that price does increase per rank...so why would you ever use the upgrade system at that price range? it costs roughly 1.5m AD to take a Cleric from white to epic, I can buy a Lillend (Which I consider better skill wise) for 900-950k...why am i spending an additional 600k AD for on a cleric?...Sure prices could skyrocket someday, but after playing CO and STO for a long while now, I realize the cryptic markets rarely just go pop, increases, decreases sure...But I dont expect itll get to a point ill use the upgrade system> purchasing from other players

There's more to a companion then just rank. For example, I have three characters with upgraded Ioun Stones of Might instead of Ioun Stones of Allure. This is because I prefer 3 offensive runestones over 2 offensive/1 defensive as well as a second ring slot over an icon slot. I also like the red stone better for those characters.

So, in addition to rank the reasons to choose a particular companion also include runestone slots, equipment slots, appearance, and now active bonuses that fit your build. And at the current exchange rates it might not be that much cheaper to just buy an epic companion.