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Dear Cryptic (Cash Shop Perspective NOT A RANT)
argantis
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
First off let me start by saying that I am both a HotN and GoN founder. I put $260 into the game before you even decided to give us a closed beta weekend four. I also have recently purchased $200 in Zen and assigned the entire amount to Neverwinter. I do not play nor care about other PWE nor Cryptic games. This is my baby, this is the game I love, and I am willing to sink money into. As such I have some issues with the cash shop though. Even though I have tons of Zen sitting there, the only thing I have purchased with it so far is one bank upgrade. Here is the issues I have with certain items.
Bag space, I would love to get some bags, but when they cost $10, if I buy one, it will only be one, just for my main character and never for any other characters ever. Now if those bags were $2 a piece? I would buy one for every slot on my main character, and for several slots on my alts as well.
Companions. I would love to buy and play around with some of the store companions, but with the current per character basis you get them on purchase, I will likely never buy one. As bad as I want to try out the Acolyte of Kelemvore, I never, ever will at the current price. Now if that companion was account wide, like the mounts are, I would buy every one of them.
I realize that you don't want everyone and their brother running around with the same companions out, well that need not be controlled by a price point. It would be much better to provide a variety of good companions to choose from so that different players make different choices based on that. If there is 2-3 good companions in each role of defenders, leaders, controllers, and strikers, then you are not going to see the city of Neverwinter populated with one million and one pocket clerics. Meet the goals through the game design please, not a price point.
The crafting packs and such, again, I am tempted... but I just cannot do it at the price listed.
Here is the point Cryptic, I am $460 in already, I have thousands of Zen sitting on my account waiting to spend and I will add more in $200 chunks down the road. I am a consumer that typically plays one, and only one MMO. I spend anywhere from $500 to $2,000 in one year on said MMO game. I want to spend money on Neverwinter, I already have, so this is not a viewpoint of someone that is a free player and not willing to spend. THe coolest things in the game, are just too pricey. I once again urge you, everything in the cash shop that is not an account wide purchase, needs to either be so, or have the price reduced to 20% to 50% of what it currently is.
50% would be a good start, with further 50% off sales every week or month. I just am not ever, going to pay $35 for a companion on a single character in the game, no matter how cool it is. $15? Maybe, but if that sucker goes on sale for $7.50, yeah I am in. I will get at least one for my main character and may even get one for some alts if I want it to be their feature companion.
The same for everything else. I have mentioned bags and companions here, and briefly mentioned crafting packs. But it holds even for other items. As long as they cost Zen, no matter what, even the players that buy Zen with AD, are getting that Zen from someone else purchased it. No matter what, you Cryptic and PWE are getting your Zen sales, no matter what, Zen items are paid for in real dollars by someone.
The real key to the game economy is not cash gating the Zen store with high sticker prices. The real key is putting enough AD sinks into the game where players will be forced into hard choices on spending the AD in game or converting it into Zen. I realize that the current model may work over time if enough players buy and sell AD on the exchange, however, I do not see that happening on the scale it could be with a much more robust AD market in the game. In fact, you should make it a point, that any time a new Zen store item is introduced, an AD counterpart is introduced as well.
If a very rare Kobold is introduced in the Zen shop, then a uncommon AD one should be introduced as well. The Zen one at max rank should always be slightly better, have that extra power, or maybe more stats, or whatever. But with there being an AD version for people to try and test out, without the risk of a blind cash investment, it will keep your players happy. Even if you are not going to add a common version of the Kobold, at least add in something for the AD market. There are plenty of wilderness creatures to implement before we even get into the more fantastical beings.
Summary:
Account wide cash shop is OK.
Non account purchases need to be 50% lower at minimum with regular sales, 80% lower without sales.
Keep the AD market as vibrant as the Zen store, every addition to the Zen store should also have something added to the AD market in game. If not the exact item, a similar price tag item.
Cryptic you have $460 of my money, if you want more, come get it.
Bag space, I would love to get some bags, but when they cost $10, if I buy one, it will only be one, just for my main character and never for any other characters ever. Now if those bags were $2 a piece? I would buy one for every slot on my main character, and for several slots on my alts as well.
Companions. I would love to buy and play around with some of the store companions, but with the current per character basis you get them on purchase, I will likely never buy one. As bad as I want to try out the Acolyte of Kelemvore, I never, ever will at the current price. Now if that companion was account wide, like the mounts are, I would buy every one of them.
I realize that you don't want everyone and their brother running around with the same companions out, well that need not be controlled by a price point. It would be much better to provide a variety of good companions to choose from so that different players make different choices based on that. If there is 2-3 good companions in each role of defenders, leaders, controllers, and strikers, then you are not going to see the city of Neverwinter populated with one million and one pocket clerics. Meet the goals through the game design please, not a price point.
The crafting packs and such, again, I am tempted... but I just cannot do it at the price listed.
Here is the point Cryptic, I am $460 in already, I have thousands of Zen sitting on my account waiting to spend and I will add more in $200 chunks down the road. I am a consumer that typically plays one, and only one MMO. I spend anywhere from $500 to $2,000 in one year on said MMO game. I want to spend money on Neverwinter, I already have, so this is not a viewpoint of someone that is a free player and not willing to spend. THe coolest things in the game, are just too pricey. I once again urge you, everything in the cash shop that is not an account wide purchase, needs to either be so, or have the price reduced to 20% to 50% of what it currently is.
50% would be a good start, with further 50% off sales every week or month. I just am not ever, going to pay $35 for a companion on a single character in the game, no matter how cool it is. $15? Maybe, but if that sucker goes on sale for $7.50, yeah I am in. I will get at least one for my main character and may even get one for some alts if I want it to be their feature companion.
The same for everything else. I have mentioned bags and companions here, and briefly mentioned crafting packs. But it holds even for other items. As long as they cost Zen, no matter what, even the players that buy Zen with AD, are getting that Zen from someone else purchased it. No matter what, you Cryptic and PWE are getting your Zen sales, no matter what, Zen items are paid for in real dollars by someone.
The real key to the game economy is not cash gating the Zen store with high sticker prices. The real key is putting enough AD sinks into the game where players will be forced into hard choices on spending the AD in game or converting it into Zen. I realize that the current model may work over time if enough players buy and sell AD on the exchange, however, I do not see that happening on the scale it could be with a much more robust AD market in the game. In fact, you should make it a point, that any time a new Zen store item is introduced, an AD counterpart is introduced as well.
If a very rare Kobold is introduced in the Zen shop, then a uncommon AD one should be introduced as well. The Zen one at max rank should always be slightly better, have that extra power, or maybe more stats, or whatever. But with there being an AD version for people to try and test out, without the risk of a blind cash investment, it will keep your players happy. Even if you are not going to add a common version of the Kobold, at least add in something for the AD market. There are plenty of wilderness creatures to implement before we even get into the more fantastical beings.
Summary:
Account wide cash shop is OK.
Non account purchases need to be 50% lower at minimum with regular sales, 80% lower without sales.
Keep the AD market as vibrant as the Zen store, every addition to the Zen store should also have something added to the AD market in game. If not the exact item, a similar price tag item.
Cryptic you have $460 of my money, if you want more, come get it.
Post edited by argantis on
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Comments
I'm thinking I wouldn't now I kind of avoid town .
Just on my main character for rune / enchantments storage. I also have my Delzoun weapon sitting in there since I have upgraded it, but may want to use it for the graphic later on.
Please review my campaign and I'll return the favor.
Excitedly waiting to spend money, patiently waiting for prices to be adjusted.
Faleth77
Really... Thank you
some faith in playerbase restored.
Right now you can sell anything, and buy anything on the auction, even if it takes ages to farm and even if the farming mechanics are obscure and bizarre. That's the very reason why you see cryptics fans not seeing that it is a pay for power game - it means they accepted the pay for power mechanics because a minority of people can avoid the cash shop if they are good farmers.
Just explaining BTW, but i'd leave for sure if they made all the cash shop items not tradeable because it's cheap and easy to get. I don't want to pay for this game, i'm already a LTS member of STO and spending too much on this game. I don't like this one enough to do that again.
With that said, I think we would all love to see the cost reduced at least some, so let's hope that it does happen at some point in the future.
Smoke@stonedbill - Mindflayer - 60 Rogue
Eh, as much as I'd like the bags to be a bit less? Based on all the f2p games I've read about and/or played in the past, $2 comes across as a laughably low cost. (Honestly, it makes it hard for me to take your post seriously, because it's so wildly unrealistic.) I couldn't see them being below $5, and 6-8 seems more like a typical/standard cost, that I wouldn't have as much issue with.
...and would be a freakin' bargain at that price. At least for people who like to play alts. $20 for a bag would be expensive for 1-2 characters.... but I've already got six. And when they release new characters I'll have more (if I'm still playing). Account wide bags? I'd be all over those, for as low a price as you said there.
(I'm already kind of regretting that I didn't go for a more expensive mount.... those are account wide, so dropping some extra for the bonus upgrade is really the best bargain in the entire shop.)
As it is, I'm making do with one bag. Since I can mail it, it's going to be on whatever my current "main" character is. Everyone else is managing just fine, mailing extra runes & enchants off to my two mule characters ($5 and a little playtime to get the first bag, for four large bags & two banks worth of storage space. Plus the extra chances to Invoke and Craft)
Good point already. I can add also, they don't care. Players (OP especially) think that businesses respond to feelings and emotions. That is wrong, they respond to bottom lines and shareholders.
OP states, "this is my baby, I love this game." That line tells me and any business minded person he is will cave on prices in the long run, after all, why would he starve "his baby".
OP you are clearly invested in this game, congratulations. However, they do have your money, your emotions will not pay their server costs and utility bills. Profits are always number one, when a company backs a game studio. Cryptic might care sure, but PWE? Not a chance, they want dollars return on investment.
I humbly say, deal with it.
I think the message the OP was trying to convey was that they may be able to to actually make more money by modifying their pricing structure in the Zen store to be more palatable for users to pay. A prime example of this is respecs (which is a standard MMO option for in game gold) is $6 per respec. It might be that they would make more by selling a pack of 5 respecs for $5 instead of having users be frustrated and stop playing the game altogether...thus resulting in no revenue for the investment made. The issue here is that pricing themselves out of interest in their game will result in potentially lesser long term revenue.
Good points.
Because they have some of my cash, not all of my disposable budget for an MMO. It is the concept of improvement, never being content or satisfied and always striving to be better and have more. It is the point of my post not what they already have, but what more than can get, not just from me but from others as well.
Emotions are all there is for a luxury item market such as this. People do not spend money in an MMO because they NEED to, they do it because they WANT to. You don't go to see a movie because it makes good business sense to do so. You do it because you ENJOY it. Because it brings you a pleasant emotion to do so. Just like buying any luxury item that serves no real purpose, like jewelry or a fancy car. Playing on the emotions and impulse buy is good marketing.
Contrary to your opinion on the matter, they already practice this. You know, founder packs, sales, one time codes for 15% more Zen that expire in 7 days! People spend where their heart is, especially in the F2P MMO market. There are a lot of different ways to approach it, and sure they have their experience in MMO games. But I would hardly say that they are in industry Giant. PWE? perhaps, but certainly not a western MMO giant. The relatively small player base of their games pretty much speaks to them needing to learn not that they are an expert.