Games are supposed to be fun, not rob you of all your money. Doing long quest lines (for example) for great rewards like mounts were FUN. Know that word?
Anyway, good to see all the complaints about the prices. Cryptic, the game is in beta, we're testing it for free, and you're already trying to rob us of our money.
Oh I'm well aware how open beta's work nowadays. You just had to release early because you probably had money problems (or you simply got greedy). But as long as you lie to us by calling it beta, you should treat it as a beta. Don't extort money from us.
This is probably the worst item shop I have ever seen. You're losing the respect of a lot of customers.
Be very ashamed of yourselves, Cryptic.
EDIT: This game would have been awesome with a subscription. I'm actually starting to miss subscription-based mmo's.
I spent 600 dollars on this game between founders packs and zen. I spent 2500 to 3000 on Planetside 2, before the betas started for this game. These are the only two games I really play. I was hoping this game would replace my Planetside 2 addiction but...I actually find myself going back to that game and spending my money there..
...Dude, what kind of job do you have that you're able to spend 3000 dollars on a game? O_o
Not criticizing, really just curious. You could go to freakin' Hawa
I stopped playing because anything I want to do with character customization costs money. No thanks, I don't have this issue with STO characters as I can use the in game currency there. Spending weeks or even a month earning enough AD to convert into Zen, just to pay for character customization options is a major turn off.
It honestly looks like this game has very little to offer in their pricy item shop. These are not micro transactions and are priced as full expansion packs I would buy from LOTRO as an example.
In GW2, I am not charged crazy amounts of currency to change an item's appearance either. Here, I was trying to change out a lvl 30 item's appearance and the cost was well over 30k AD. Again, no thank you, I just wanted something that looked nice, but will have better gear in a few days (as what I would consider myself a more casual player right now, this makes a bit of a difference), I will just hold off and wait.
Features that I really enjoy in GW2 and how well their micro transaction system works makes me realize how well thought out and caring that company has for their players. Neverwinter on the other hand just wants to charge big money for everything we do. Just my view and opinion after playing for a week. Everyone looks the same, very little customization in terms of different looking gear that I can get, or modify in any way either.
I don't mind spending a little bit of money in a cash shop, but only if things are priced correctly and make sense. So far, PW has shown they aren't interested in their players, just those that will fork over the larger amounts of money for the few things they offer.
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furushuMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
How about you cut those prices by 75% so that people can actually afford a single thing ?
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dreedMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
Why they add so big price for items and almost for all kind of game parts... because ppl buying it.. when ppl stoped maybe they will think twice before add another mount for 40$... maybe they think before force ppl to pay when they need to change builds... what happen when they add more paragorns.. did they think i pat for reset... hmmm never. Ill stop playing faster than i pay for that kind of items .. same with mounts 30-40$ for mounts.. PWE.. for this money i can get 2-3 months in sub in other games where all have for free.. can pait armors.. in NORMAL price of gold can change they looks..
Simple changing feets cost on 60 lvl 154k AD.. on 60 lvl u have only 2 dailys.. pvp and foundry.. =4k. Ok u can go get item sell it on AH but who will pay for it 100k AD? So to get AD ppl start selling ZEN..
Game is great but price in-game are insane.. aroun 2mln AD for mount rank 3.... Try travel fast on PvP with mount rank 1 ;/ its insane... reset skills.. now i know why so many clers are dps and tanks.. because they dont have AD for reset and will not pay for it...
Same idiot situation is with normal gold ;/ so mobs drop 1-3 copper.. Item unidentifited cost around 1silver 1 copper one potion for 60 lvl cost 7 silvers 50 copper, recovery kit 20 silver.. after hard dungeon i spend 7 gold for pots and kits and earn 10 silvers ;/
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damnationalMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 9Arc User
edited May 2013
Reading all of this makes me proud to be apart of a competitors closed beta, they always respond to the community either way, no matter what. This radio silence **** is just hilarious. I'm not surprised Dungeons and Dragons allowed you guys to continue to butcher this once great IP- even Bioware is split apart now so nothing can save my once beloved franchise NWN it seems.
At $5 per mount I can see buying one per character but at $20 (or god ... $40???) it should be an account unlock. An account unlock would also encourage people with few character slots to buy more slots, since they'll have that sweet mount on all of them ...
Mounts bought with Zen ARE unlocked for the whole account. :]
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xaeosMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 8Arc User
edited May 2013
Like many others here, I feel that overall Neverwinter seems to be a decent game in terms of mechanics/content thus far, but I am very disappointed in the monetization scheme.
Overall, it seems that items are just way, way too expensive, be they in Astral Diamonds or in ZEN. There are also many items (companions, mounts etc) that are ONLY accessible via ZEN, which are often better versions of in-game content, thus leading to a "Pay To Win" scenario. Mounts that cost around $40 just aren't reasonable in my mind and some of the gold sinks, such the Nightmare Key / Chest dichotomy and worse, the Rune system are just absolutely obscenely expensive - consider that getting a Greater Rune/Enchantment may require either months of work or literally $160 to actually successfully fuze, and said enchant is game-changing when it comes to PVP, that isn't realistic.
Ultimately, I have three requests with regards to the monetization system to help make Neverwinter (and for that matter, Star Trek Online and Champions Online) better games.
1. First thing is to simply reduce the cost of items across the board and ensure that the game is not designed to make the player feel like they're grinding/having a bad experience etc.. to goad them into buying content. Instead, lower prices and fun, accessible design will make players WANT to purchase to enhance their experience because they're having fun in Neverwinter! Placing high costs on items does not mean better revenue; I can guarantee that $40+ mounts will be less successful than $5-10. You'll have a much higher volume of players willing to pay $5 for a mount and thus eclipse the revenue generated by the considerably more rare player willing to spend $40. Likewise, the player who feels that it will take months and months of grinding to achieve X as opposed to buying it in the store for $Y, is far more likely to ditch playing the game at all because they're not having a good time; Whereas a player who sees a choice between playing a week to achieve X and spending a small, reasonable $Y to have X immediately instead, will often pay to enhance their fun. Sell convenience for people who are already having fun, at low prices at a reasonable rate (ie do not nickle and dime players for everything! Paying $5 for something should feel like a boost to their playtime and enjoyment, not that as soon as they do they're going to run into something else that's going to ask for another $5 etc... Obviously, this is even worse at current pricing where $5 is more like $50!), and players will support over the long haul. VALUE and player enjoyment is the name of the game.
2. Put an end to "Pay 2 Win" and locking content - ANY CONTENT, even cosmetic - exclusively behind real money transaction paywalls. Having epic mounts and the best companions available solely through ZEN purchase isn't acceptable, likewise, for costumes, gear etc... make these items available through play somehow (and I don't mean trading in-game currencies for ZEN etc... as that is a charade; someone has to be purchasing that ZEN first and that really screws up the economy). Even such mundane things as Bag and Bank space are behind considerable RMT purchases! Please put a stop to this and instead make these items available through play otherwise - trips to the RMT store should be fun occasional diversions to enhance play, not make players feel like the best is being withheld from them unless they drop lots of money, frequently. If players are having fun and you offfer them convenience/enhancements, they WILL support the game.
3. Ensure that currencies and content are transferable and account-bound, labeled easily as such. Players need to be able to feel that when they do pay for convenience, it is flexible and not locked to one character or another, can be claimed multiple times on different characters etc. Another big bonus will be to allow players who have RMT currency - ZEN/CrypticPoints etc... accumulated in other PWI/Cryptic games, like Star Trek Online and Champions Online, to spend it anywhere they choose. If someone is generating a stipend from Lifetime, Gold subscriptions etc... or has banked RMT currency, they should be able to access it in Neverwinter as well.
Neverwinter seems like it could be off to a good start (though, I'd like to see much more Roleplay content), but PWI's monetization scheme is by far the worst thing about it, and in my opinion, all of Cryptic's titles - great games, hobbled by overly expensive and complex monetization strategies. Put player content and value first, ensure that costs are MUCH lower, and the volume of support that Neverwinter will enjoy will lead to a thriving game over a long duration. Don't let PWI's insane monetization strategy sink what could be a fantastic, enjoyable experience.
I can go play your sister game STO and buy a brand new Tier 5 end game star ship for $20 - $25 that's unlocked for all my characters of the same faction. STO requires a ship to play and they do give you perfectly good ones for free. And almost every ship can be customized. In Neverwinter mounts get you from point A to point B faster, are static in appearance, and are purely optional.
For $20 I can buy 4 bridge officers (their versions of companions) per character, each as customizable as my player character and it doesn't cost me Zen to change thier appearance (nor my player character). Plus each has 8 powers (4 ground, 4 space) that I can choose compared to your store companions set 3. Again, admittedly STO bridge officers are required to play the game and the game literally throws more free ones at you than you can use, where as Neverwinter companions are optional.
So Neverwinter, I ask you this: Why should I spend $60 on you when my money will go farther in Star Trek Online (and even farther in your other sister game Champions Online)?
This is actually why I haven't been playing the game personally. Not due to STO's offerings, but because of how character-specific things are.
There's rumor of new classes and races on the near horizon that are MUCH more interesting than the variuos re-colored and re-sized humans we have, and DDO 4th has so many awesome classes and neat ideas that I'm sad we're stuck with some of the most boring and basic. So that said.. I'm pretty hesitant to play a bunch and start dropping $20+ on all these little nice things for a character I'll be completely rerolling.
tl;dr - game is pretty neat, but playable stuff is a snooze-fest for 4th ed, but do call me when the dragonborn/warlocks/etc. are in.
To the people *****ing about PWE making new items rather than bug fixing - there is nothing new about these items!
They were all available in BW testing. They are just reactivating them to give the guise of adding new content to the store. So the amount of effort they put into this was ticking a box to publish th eitems to the Zen store - that's it.
To the people *****ing about PWE making new items rather than bug fixing - there is nothing new about these items!
They were all available in BW testing. They are just reactivating them to give the guise of adding new content to the store. So the amount of effort they put into this was ticking a box to publish th eitems to the Zen store - that's it.
You realize that makes them look even worse.
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t3hwh173f0xMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Why they add so big price for items and almost for all kind of game parts... because ppl buying it.. when ppl stoped maybe they will think twice before add another mount for 40$... maybe they think before force ppl to pay when they need to change builds... what happen when they add more paragorns.. did they think i pat for reset... hmmm never. Ill stop playing faster than i pay for that kind of items .. same with mounts 30-40$ for mounts.. PWE.. for this money i can get 2-3 months in sub in other games where all have for free.. can pait armors.. in NORMAL price of gold can change they looks..
Simple changing feets cost on 60 lvl 154k AD.. on 60 lvl u have only 2 dailys.. pvp and foundry.. =4k. Ok u can go get item sell it on AH but who will pay for it 100k AD? So to get AD ppl start selling ZEN..
Game is great but price in-game are insane.. aroun 2mln AD for mount rank 3.... Try travel fast on PvP with mount rank 1 ;/ its insane... reset skills.. now i know why so many clers are dps and tanks.. because they dont have AD for reset and will not pay for it...
Same idiot situation is with normal gold ;/ so mobs drop 1-3 copper.. Item unidentifited cost around 1silver 1 copper one potion for 60 lvl cost 7 silvers 50 copper, recovery kit 20 silver.. after hard dungeon i spend 7 gold for pots and kits and earn 10 silvers ;/
Well, you're right about one thing, they charge those prices because people will pay it. However I couldn't make a whole lot of sense of the rest because it was so horribly written but I believe I got the general idea of what you're saying... You're saying that stuff isn't just overpriced in the Zen store, but overpriced in game stores and AH too. Well let's just analyze that, shall we?
It costs a lot of AD to respec your feats because that is what is known as an economic sink... they need these to keep the value of diamonds stable because unlike in the real world where each country has a set amount of currency in circulation, in a video game people keep generating currency from doing missions or other activities (legitimate activities hopefully) so the currency is technically being constantly debased. So they make you spend large amounts of that currency on things you may or may not have to do an infinite amount of times in order to counterbalance the creation of new diamonds.
You ask who will buy something on the Auction House for 100k diamonds? Depending if I needed it or thought it was worth more, I might buy it. Many people will buy it, 100k diamonds isn't actually all that much when you consider how many Hero of the North founders there are and each one started with 2 million O.o (fun fact: 100k is only 5% of 2 million). Oh ya and the Guardian pack starts with 600k and was only $60 so lots of people bought that one too. Those are diamonds that players simply started with, nevermind collected through their adventures. So lots of people have enough diamonds to buy stuff and you could too if you bothered to sell stuff for diamonds.
Now paying to respec your skills is a little different. By the end of the game you have all but a few of your skills unlocked unless... actually I can't think of a situation where you wouldn't lol. So the only time you would have to pay $6 to respec your skills is if you actually screwed up on your build REALLY badly or if you wanted the luxury of changing from build to build without having to level a new toon. That is a convenience purchase, not a necessary game component.
By the way, 100,000 of something is not necessarily alot. Numbers are relative and only mean something in relation to what they are being used to represent. Let me tell you, in relation to astral diamonds the number 100,000 is not a lot.
You also mention paying $40 for a game subscription and getting all that stuff for free. Well you paid $40 so it's not free... And at the end of that 2 months, you have to pay again. With this game you are playing for free (really free, not $40 in subscription fees free) and you keep your mount after 2 months. So really it's not that bad a deal when you think about it objectively.
Lastly, if you only find 1 - 3 copper per enemy and you're level 60, it might be time to leave Blackdagger Ruins... I mean, when I kill drow mobs in the Whispering Caverns and I'm solo they drop about 56 copper per enemy. And items sell for 10x more when you identify them so if you're having a gold problem that might help. Try not drinking so many potions and start using the dodge skill and maybe you won't spend as much gold either.
Please think of things more objectively before you start complaining about them. Anyways, thats my two cents... turned out to be more like five bucks though xD
EDIT: One more thing... Cryptic and PWE are companies, they need to make money so before you get your panties in a knot over them charging $40 for a wicked cool mount that has new animations and whatnot, why don't you go over to the bank and check out how much they have siphoned from you in fees over the last couple years while providing virtually nothing for that money. Or maybe look into when the last time you filed an insurance claim on your car, how much they (insurance company) gave you and how much you've paid them (insurance company) in total over the years. They need to make money and at least they're giving you something for it unlike a lot of companies nowadays.
I like how the Devs are not responding to all these comments 1 reason why is because they know people are right about the prices and 2 is that they cant deny they are overpriced so they have no valid argument for why they are so high.
Using the key board to moving around just isn't working out for me [and new players as well], can you guys fix it. So that way we can use the mouse to move around. I thought since using the key board letters W A S and D to move, that it would be the same with the directional buttons to move, but that is not the case
there is sooo many ways they can make the existing stuff cheaper and still make good money. they are shooting themselves in the foot in a lot of ways due to how they are handling them limits the amount people are willing to buy.
1 if costume parts(once used) were bind to account not character...
(id probably redye stuff for each char.)
a if we had a huge Fashion bag specifically for fashion outfits like we do for tradeskills.
(id buy a bag like this)
b. if We had costume slot system for fashion outfits, Edits could be done for ad or zen token
(ad changes would be varied depending on changes & level the token would be a flat fee)
c. if a or b were true fashion costumes should be broken into:
head neck hands waist boots pants like armor is
and maybe have the ability to hide the channel showing the armor instead.
2 if services had both a per char and a per acct pricing structure
(if I get more bank slots id pay double for entire acct)
People may be less likely to just have multiple accounts
if there were more acct based services
3 Dyes need come in all colors and have dye packs made so you can swap the channels
Or they could have dye mixing profession that:
a just have general dyes on market that gives you any basic red-purple
color at standard 200z for 4. usable like normal dyes are now.
b at level 7 you can make a darkener for black/brown/dark colours.
c at level 12 make a bleach for pink/white/yellow/pastels
d and at level 16 make a "gloss" can be added for metallic dyes.
e at level 18 make a matte that dulls metallic to normal tines
f rare options people can make a Box that will combine 3 dyes much like packs do.
current dye packs may still be useful as they are gotten with different currancys.
possible crafting pack via lock box or celestial token filled with dye mixing components.
I've poked around the store some and about the only thing that I think is priced decently are the extra character slots.
Everything else is way too expensive for what you're getting. So, after I purchase my extra character slots, I'm pretty much done with the Zen store until prices come down to reasonable levels.
Maybe they just figured we would get 50% of the zen from AD and buy the rest, then in "their" mind, a mount would cost $20 and around 450ad pr. zen left?
I personally would like to see the spider mount purchasable in the zen market since i can't afford the $200 founders pack
The Spider Mount that is available through the HotN pack won't ever be available through the C-Store, but it might be in something similar to the HotN pack. However, spider mounts that are slightly different like no armor could be available in the C-Store or through other means.
The pricing still needs to be tweaked. I don't see anything that is worth money yet. I was considering buying four bags for forty dollars. And then I realized how long it takes to earn forty dollars. My trade off for other things to buy means there has to be some tweaking on the zen store items and astral diamond items before I invest any of my earned money.
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Anyway, good to see all the complaints about the prices. Cryptic, the game is in beta, we're testing it for free, and you're already trying to rob us of our money.
Oh I'm well aware how open beta's work nowadays. You just had to release early because you probably had money problems (or you simply got greedy). But as long as you lie to us by calling it beta, you should treat it as a beta. Don't extort money from us.
This is probably the worst item shop I have ever seen. You're losing the respect of a lot of customers.
Be very ashamed of yourselves, Cryptic.
EDIT: This game would have been awesome with a subscription. I'm actually starting to miss subscription-based mmo's.
...Dude, what kind of job do you have that you're able to spend 3000 dollars on a game? O_o
Not criticizing, really just curious. You could go to freakin' Hawa
the only issue i have is that we in EU pay about 25% more for the pack's,which make me not want to buy it!!!!!
200 us is 153 euro
60 us is 46 euro
if i want to buy the pack it's 200 euro and 60 euro
so why we get screwed in EU????
It honestly looks like this game has very little to offer in their pricy item shop. These are not micro transactions and are priced as full expansion packs I would buy from LOTRO as an example.
In GW2, I am not charged crazy amounts of currency to change an item's appearance either. Here, I was trying to change out a lvl 30 item's appearance and the cost was well over 30k AD. Again, no thank you, I just wanted something that looked nice, but will have better gear in a few days (as what I would consider myself a more casual player right now, this makes a bit of a difference), I will just hold off and wait.
Features that I really enjoy in GW2 and how well their micro transaction system works makes me realize how well thought out and caring that company has for their players. Neverwinter on the other hand just wants to charge big money for everything we do. Just my view and opinion after playing for a week. Everyone looks the same, very little customization in terms of different looking gear that I can get, or modify in any way either.
I don't mind spending a little bit of money in a cash shop, but only if things are priced correctly and make sense. So far, PW has shown they aren't interested in their players, just those that will fork over the larger amounts of money for the few things they offer.
Simple changing feets cost on 60 lvl 154k AD.. on 60 lvl u have only 2 dailys.. pvp and foundry.. =4k. Ok u can go get item sell it on AH but who will pay for it 100k AD? So to get AD ppl start selling ZEN..
Game is great but price in-game are insane.. aroun 2mln AD for mount rank 3.... Try travel fast on PvP with mount rank 1 ;/ its insane... reset skills.. now i know why so many clers are dps and tanks.. because they dont have AD for reset and will not pay for it...
Same idiot situation is with normal gold ;/ so mobs drop 1-3 copper.. Item unidentifited cost around 1silver 1 copper one potion for 60 lvl cost 7 silvers 50 copper, recovery kit 20 silver.. after hard dungeon i spend 7 gold for pots and kits and earn 10 silvers ;/
Mounts bought with Zen ARE unlocked for the whole account. :]
Overall, it seems that items are just way, way too expensive, be they in Astral Diamonds or in ZEN. There are also many items (companions, mounts etc) that are ONLY accessible via ZEN, which are often better versions of in-game content, thus leading to a "Pay To Win" scenario. Mounts that cost around $40 just aren't reasonable in my mind and some of the gold sinks, such the Nightmare Key / Chest dichotomy and worse, the Rune system are just absolutely obscenely expensive - consider that getting a Greater Rune/Enchantment may require either months of work or literally $160 to actually successfully fuze, and said enchant is game-changing when it comes to PVP, that isn't realistic.
A more in-depth discussion of the monetization system is here - http://www.reddit.com/r/Neverwinter/comments/1dry0g/neverwinters_f2p_model_what_you_need_to_know/ , and touches on many of the issues I've noted upon
Ultimately, I have three requests with regards to the monetization system to help make Neverwinter (and for that matter, Star Trek Online and Champions Online) better games.
1. First thing is to simply reduce the cost of items across the board and ensure that the game is not designed to make the player feel like they're grinding/having a bad experience etc.. to goad them into buying content. Instead, lower prices and fun, accessible design will make players WANT to purchase to enhance their experience because they're having fun in Neverwinter! Placing high costs on items does not mean better revenue; I can guarantee that $40+ mounts will be less successful than $5-10. You'll have a much higher volume of players willing to pay $5 for a mount and thus eclipse the revenue generated by the considerably more rare player willing to spend $40. Likewise, the player who feels that it will take months and months of grinding to achieve X as opposed to buying it in the store for $Y, is far more likely to ditch playing the game at all because they're not having a good time; Whereas a player who sees a choice between playing a week to achieve X and spending a small, reasonable $Y to have X immediately instead, will often pay to enhance their fun. Sell convenience for people who are already having fun, at low prices at a reasonable rate (ie do not nickle and dime players for everything! Paying $5 for something should feel like a boost to their playtime and enjoyment, not that as soon as they do they're going to run into something else that's going to ask for another $5 etc... Obviously, this is even worse at current pricing where $5 is more like $50!), and players will support over the long haul. VALUE and player enjoyment is the name of the game.
2. Put an end to "Pay 2 Win" and locking content - ANY CONTENT, even cosmetic - exclusively behind real money transaction paywalls. Having epic mounts and the best companions available solely through ZEN purchase isn't acceptable, likewise, for costumes, gear etc... make these items available through play somehow (and I don't mean trading in-game currencies for ZEN etc... as that is a charade; someone has to be purchasing that ZEN first and that really screws up the economy). Even such mundane things as Bag and Bank space are behind considerable RMT purchases! Please put a stop to this and instead make these items available through play otherwise - trips to the RMT store should be fun occasional diversions to enhance play, not make players feel like the best is being withheld from them unless they drop lots of money, frequently. If players are having fun and you offfer them convenience/enhancements, they WILL support the game.
3. Ensure that currencies and content are transferable and account-bound, labeled easily as such. Players need to be able to feel that when they do pay for convenience, it is flexible and not locked to one character or another, can be claimed multiple times on different characters etc. Another big bonus will be to allow players who have RMT currency - ZEN/CrypticPoints etc... accumulated in other PWI/Cryptic games, like Star Trek Online and Champions Online, to spend it anywhere they choose. If someone is generating a stipend from Lifetime, Gold subscriptions etc... or has banked RMT currency, they should be able to access it in Neverwinter as well.
Neverwinter seems like it could be off to a good start (though, I'd like to see much more Roleplay content), but PWI's monetization scheme is by far the worst thing about it, and in my opinion, all of Cryptic's titles - great games, hobbled by overly expensive and complex monetization strategies. Put player content and value first, ensure that costs are MUCH lower, and the volume of support that Neverwinter will enjoy will lead to a thriving game over a long duration. Don't let PWI's insane monetization strategy sink what could be a fantastic, enjoyable experience.
This is actually why I haven't been playing the game personally. Not due to STO's offerings, but because of how character-specific things are.
There's rumor of new classes and races on the near horizon that are MUCH more interesting than the variuos re-colored and re-sized humans we have, and DDO 4th has so many awesome classes and neat ideas that I'm sad we're stuck with some of the most boring and basic. So that said.. I'm pretty hesitant to play a bunch and start dropping $20+ on all these little nice things for a character I'll be completely rerolling.
tl;dr - game is pretty neat, but playable stuff is a snooze-fest for 4th ed, but do call me when the dragonborn/warlocks/etc. are in.
They were all available in BW testing. They are just reactivating them to give the guise of adding new content to the store. So the amount of effort they put into this was ticking a box to publish th eitems to the Zen store - that's it.
You realize that makes them look even worse.
Well, you're right about one thing, they charge those prices because people will pay it. However I couldn't make a whole lot of sense of the rest because it was so horribly written but I believe I got the general idea of what you're saying... You're saying that stuff isn't just overpriced in the Zen store, but overpriced in game stores and AH too. Well let's just analyze that, shall we?
It costs a lot of AD to respec your feats because that is what is known as an economic sink... they need these to keep the value of diamonds stable because unlike in the real world where each country has a set amount of currency in circulation, in a video game people keep generating currency from doing missions or other activities (legitimate activities hopefully) so the currency is technically being constantly debased. So they make you spend large amounts of that currency on things you may or may not have to do an infinite amount of times in order to counterbalance the creation of new diamonds.
You ask who will buy something on the Auction House for 100k diamonds? Depending if I needed it or thought it was worth more, I might buy it. Many people will buy it, 100k diamonds isn't actually all that much when you consider how many Hero of the North founders there are and each one started with 2 million O.o (fun fact: 100k is only 5% of 2 million). Oh ya and the Guardian pack starts with 600k and was only $60 so lots of people bought that one too. Those are diamonds that players simply started with, nevermind collected through their adventures. So lots of people have enough diamonds to buy stuff and you could too if you bothered to sell stuff for diamonds.
Now paying to respec your skills is a little different. By the end of the game you have all but a few of your skills unlocked unless... actually I can't think of a situation where you wouldn't lol. So the only time you would have to pay $6 to respec your skills is if you actually screwed up on your build REALLY badly or if you wanted the luxury of changing from build to build without having to level a new toon. That is a convenience purchase, not a necessary game component.
By the way, 100,000 of something is not necessarily alot. Numbers are relative and only mean something in relation to what they are being used to represent. Let me tell you, in relation to astral diamonds the number 100,000 is not a lot.
You also mention paying $40 for a game subscription and getting all that stuff for free. Well you paid $40 so it's not free... And at the end of that 2 months, you have to pay again. With this game you are playing for free (really free, not $40 in subscription fees free) and you keep your mount after 2 months. So really it's not that bad a deal when you think about it objectively.
Lastly, if you only find 1 - 3 copper per enemy and you're level 60, it might be time to leave Blackdagger Ruins... I mean, when I kill drow mobs in the Whispering Caverns and I'm solo they drop about 56 copper per enemy. And items sell for 10x more when you identify them so if you're having a gold problem that might help. Try not drinking so many potions and start using the dodge skill and maybe you won't spend as much gold either.
Please think of things more objectively before you start complaining about them. Anyways, thats my two cents... turned out to be more like five bucks though xD
EDIT: One more thing... Cryptic and PWE are companies, they need to make money so before you get your panties in a knot over them charging $40 for a wicked cool mount that has new animations and whatnot, why don't you go over to the bank and check out how much they have siphoned from you in fees over the last couple years while providing virtually nothing for that money. Or maybe look into when the last time you filed an insurance claim on your car, how much they (insurance company) gave you and how much you've paid them (insurance company) in total over the years. They need to make money and at least they're giving you something for it unlike a lot of companies nowadays.
1 if costume parts(once used) were bind to account not character...
(id probably redye stuff for each char.)
a if we had a huge Fashion bag specifically for fashion outfits like we do for tradeskills.
(id buy a bag like this)
b. if We had costume slot system for fashion outfits, Edits could be done for ad or zen token
(ad changes would be varied depending on changes & level the token would be a flat fee)
c. if a or b were true fashion costumes should be broken into:
head neck hands waist boots pants like armor is
and maybe have the ability to hide the channel showing the armor instead.
2 if services had both a per char and a per acct pricing structure
(if I get more bank slots id pay double for entire acct)
People may be less likely to just have multiple accounts
if there were more acct based services
3 Dyes need come in all colors and have dye packs made so you can swap the channels
Or they could have dye mixing profession that:
a just have general dyes on market that gives you any basic red-purple
color at standard 200z for 4. usable like normal dyes are now.
b at level 7 you can make a darkener for black/brown/dark colours.
c at level 12 make a bleach for pink/white/yellow/pastels
d and at level 16 make a "gloss" can be added for metallic dyes.
e at level 18 make a matte that dulls metallic to normal tines
f rare options people can make a Box that will combine 3 dyes much like packs do.
current dye packs may still be useful as they are gotten with different currancys.
possible crafting pack via lock box or celestial token filled with dye mixing components.
Everything else is way too expensive for what you're getting. So, after I purchase my extra character slots, I'm pretty much done with the Zen store until prices come down to reasonable levels.
The Spider Mount that is available through the HotN pack won't ever be available through the C-Store, but it might be in something similar to the HotN pack. However, spider mounts that are slightly different like no armor could be available in the C-Store or through other means.