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Zen, the AD Exchange backlog and Cash Revenue

While we all love a Free-To-Play game, there's also an aspect of income that needs to occur to help fund new content, bug fixes and as you're a company; profit.

Zen is clearly your revenue stream but trying to monetize some content that will keep players spending their hard earned cash is what you need to look into.
Of all the things that are on the Zen Market, a lot of the items are ... well ... a but rubbish to be honest.

Let's take a look at a few items on the store:
Keys, Coalwards, Pres Wards, VIP, Packs for New Releases, Bags, some services and maybe some refinement packs are what sell for you but the rest just ins't appealing enough.
Have a look at your sales - how many people are buying the Ioun Stone of Allure or a Neverember Guard ? The players don't need these items because they're not giving any great benefit and not worth the money.

Do I buy Zen - yes, mainly to convert to AD because I'm too impatient and lazy to farm
Do I occasionally buy from the Zen Market - rarely, usually only around the time for a new release.

The reason I don't buy from the Zen Market - there's nothing I'm interested in.

Perhaps you can look to your consumer base to see what items they would actually want to buy from the Zen Market. Here's a few things that I'd want :

1: A Bound-To-Character one-use token that gives a 25% increased chance at a Legendary drop from a Lockbox.
2: Coalwards if the price was lower. Volume sales at a lower rate generally make more money than slow sales at a higher price.
3: A Bound-to-Account Legendary Mount for Zen - if REASONABLY priced.
4: A monthly subscription that gave coalwards, a daily UES (or the mos recent refinement stone needed to rank up past 14), 5k Daily Refinement Points
5: Unique Bind-To-Character gear that scales with character gear-score and has good equip bonuses (ALWAYS equal to the current BiS), it's not a Pay-To-Win game and shouldn't feel like it.
6: Change some of the companions to Epic level, the cost of the green comps are simply not worth it.

Any thoughts from the community ?
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Comments

  • jeremytheman232jeremytheman232 Member Posts: 231 Arc User
    There is no backlog on xbox one. U posted to the xbox one page which does not make sence.
  • silverwolf#7884 silverwolf Member Posts: 187 Arc User
    D'oh, wrong platform
    However the question is still valid; What would you like to see on the Zen market that you'd actually want to buy ?
  • mebengalsfan#9264 mebengalsfan Member Posts: 3,169 Arc User
    There has been plenty of talk around this; the simple solution is just leave it up to Cryptic. I'm sure they have a good idea on what to release next to take our money.
  • silverwolf#7884 silverwolf Member Posts: 187 Arc User
    Not exactly the simple solution; if Cryptic had a way to charge us for something and get some money from us then they'd have put that into play already. As there's not, a creative influence from the community could help spark a new idea.
  • jeremytheman232jeremytheman232 Member Posts: 231 Arc User
    Only thing id like to see is one time ise btc to bta tokens. Got a swarm on my psop would be nice on the hr lol. And some companions that could be swapped
  • silvershard#4275 silvershard Member Posts: 95 Arc User
    There needs to be a balance between Farmers and Buyers to keep the zen-ad exchange active.

    I don't buy much Zen with cash because a) I am tight fisted, and b) there's nothing I want to buy.
    I farm as many ADs as I can, but since the cap change I don't have as many.
    Hopefully the new Professions will see me get closer to where I was before.

    I think the Wondrous Bazaar needs to be overhauled as well as the Zen Market.

    Cryptic have the stats on what sells, and know what should not be changed in order to mess up the effectiveness of the Zen/AD exchange system. I would like to see some new ideas rather than "Booster Pack" + "wards" + "Keys" + "VIP" + "Companion" + "Not quite great Gear" in various combinations, oh... yeah... with some complimentary Rubies.

    I keep a stock of Zen that I buy with ADs when Zen is cheap, and either use to buy wards when I get a voucher, or trade back to AD if the exchange rate shoots up again, and buy it back when it drops again.

    I've seen the new Lockbox on PC, and won't be buying any keys, as the daily one I get from VIP is plenty as far as the new "have some RP and Cubes" boxes go. Since RP drops like Siberian snow in Mod 15 with the death of salvage these boxes are, at best, meh...

    There's nothing in either market that I WANT. That I look at and think "Ooh... that would be cool... I'll save up/spend cash to get THAT!" Like when I first started playing, and saw that first Legendary mount that I could save up and buy for ALL my future characters...

    Don't let the finance team run the markets all the time. I fully understand that they need to be involved, but let the creatives have a go at coming up with NEW ideas rather than mix and match the "same old, same old" offers.

    Hopefully Mod 16 will allow for new ideas to float to the surface.

    Hopefully...
  • johnnyreklaw#1518 johnnyreklaw Member Posts: 114 Arc User



    Perhaps you can look to your consumer base to see what items they would actually want to buy from the Zen Market. Here's a few things that I'd want :

    1: A Bound-To-Character one-use token that gives a 25% increased chance at a Legendary drop from a Lockbox.
    2: Coalwards if the price was lower. Volume sales at a lower rate generally make more money than slow sales at a higher price.
    3: A Bound-to-Account Legendary Mount for Zen - if REASONABLY priced.
    4: A monthly subscription that gave coalwards, a daily UES (or the mos recent refinement stone needed to rank up past 14), 5k Daily Refinement Points
    5: Unique Bind-To-Character gear that scales with character gear-score and has good equip bonuses (ALWAYS equal to the current BiS), it's not a Pay-To-Win game and shouldn't feel like it.
    6: Change some of the companions to Epic level, the cost of the green comps are simply not worth it.

    Any thoughts from the community ?

    Overhaul needed? Yes. This list? Won't happen.

    1. Statistically, this would be nothing. Current chance is about 1/700? I had the calculated stat value based on mass key openings at one time, but too lazy to look it up. Lets assume it is 1/500, just for funzies. Your change is .002, or rather .2%. Your proposed 25% increase would make it .0025 or .25%. Not really a worth-it increase ever.

    If you mean to make it a 1/4 legendary drop chance (25%), that is market breaking and would destroy the value of legendary drops.

    2. This one maybe, but you'r first argument of "if the price was lower" is the everyone argument for everything. "We want the same stuff, but cheaper!" There are numerous sales throughout the year that allow this. 25% of refinement items (Coal wards) happens regularly. I'd know, I stock up on wards during this stuff. There's even a 50% off 1 coal ward soon!

    3. Market breaking. Mounts are often purchased as account-wide unlocks. You can't make an exception to one thing, and a leg mount on all characters? Why would I buy keys for others. I have the mount speed (which is what most of us want until end-game characters), so why bother with others? Leg mounts wouldn't sell, and less keys would be bought.

    4. Have you tried Wanderer's Fortune Insignia bonus? Dragon Hoarde enchantments? Quartermaster Enchants? You won't be hurting for refinement. As for Free wards/Ues? why would I ever run content again. The UES cost has plummeted with the reroll tokens already. You are removing the endgame grind, or what is left of it. There is no reason I would have to run CODG/T9/CR if I was given daily UES. I already "finish" what my main character needs in one day of playing. The other 3 I'm building up are done almost as fast. With AD capped, there isn't much I can do to progress past my 100k daily AD (of which I still have a 3 mill backlog). While free stuff is nice, it would make more people collect key, and log off if you take away more of the end-game grind that the game is currently missing.

    5. I'm confused on this one. You want to buy (for Real life money) gear for a character that is equal to BiS gear, but not make the game feel Pay-to-win? This is entirely contradictory. If they can buy the BiS gear and have it forever, you are once again killing the end-game for people as they always have the best gear for real money, thus Pay-to-Win.

    6. I would argue most of the companions from the zen market aren't worth it. This is perhaps something to be looked at, as the Tiger (and maybe Yojimbo) is the only thing really worth it. The rest are 2nd rate. Smart players look for epic versions on the AH, and know that its 500k to go from blue to purple, and account for that in buying costs. They also look at companion packs which are often cheaper than the epic companion itself.

    I agree that, except wards, I don't buy much from the zen market. I don't buy zen, rather I use AD earned in game and convert it. I do fear the day when there's a backlog and I wait days to get my zen, but as XBox doesn't have that yet, I don't worry. The above are somewhat game-breaking. They sound nice to someone on the grind, but without the grind, we don't play anymore. This balance has to be met. I like that occasionally I get wards cheaper, and those sales do often tempt me into spending my AD hoarde to stock-up on wards (though I'm currently saving for Jubilee, no matter what!).
This discussion has been closed.