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Microtransactions 101
chronomancer
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 1,223
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It's so silly to spend 40 dollars on say a mount.
Seriously 10 dollars for one bag for one character?
Hammerfist Clan. Jump into the Night: NW-DMXWRYTAD
- JailBreak (in development)
1. Eventually cut prices on many zenstore items by a significant amount
2. Allows players to earn free paid currency
3. Allows all players to enjoy all content
4. Allows players to convert an expendable currency for paid currency to obtain those items
5. Doesn't actually sell "power"
So I really hope you didn't think this was a big slap in Cryptic's face?
edit part "Microtransactions are transactions that are less than a certain amount, usually $5, enabling customers to purchase content or services on a piecemeal basis." - See more at: http://www.vindicia.com/microtransaction-model#sthash.WuSlVIBD.dpuf
1. kind of but not far enough yet.
2. right
3. nope. players forced to be in guild for current new content.
4. right
5. nope - they do sell power - buff companions only available in store, faster mounts, better enchant success (1% chance to F2P players is an absurd claim of "it can be had in game")
Not a big slap in cryptics face - more like a video of one MMO players opinions which resonate with alot of other MMO players as far as the general feeling of good monetization tactics -vs- poor monetization tactics in the microtranz environment most MMOs are marketing in nowdays.
3. 'Forced'... Uh, guilds don't cost money, your argument is really ignorant and invalid if you think that's blocking players from guilds.
5. There's ONE augment pet in the zen store, 2 in other currencies. I'm sorry, how is that selling power? You can't use those companions in PVP, so what do you win again? Once again, ability to speed through content does NOT equal 'power'.
A great vid . It was true when first released and still true now.
Why are you defending 1? Nearly every item in their cash shop is overpriced. They'd make as much or more if they'd lower prices to a reasonably level. Why would I pay 10 bucks for a bag or 20 for a companion when I have to buy them for each character I play. If a bag were say $2.50 I'd probably buy 2 extra for each character but for $10 I'm not even going to get 1 for any character. I'm willing to support the game but not at the expense of being gouged and treated like some kind of mark.
Please don't confuse developers with publishers, they are not the same thing, at all.
per character and I'd agree... however when you get it for every character you ever will have its actually not too bad a price. I just wish the companions were for every character as well
MAYBE they are worth 20 bucks then.
Greater Bags of Holding should be 5 bucks, at most.
and the 40-dollar mounts are absurd. account-wide or not.
I got the 60-dollar Guardian of Neverwinter Pack, and not only did I get an Account-wide 110% speed mount, I also got 600k AD, an Account-wide Companion, an extra character slot and a bunch of other stuff as well. I also bought 2 character slots for 5 bucks. which is reasonable.
but, I'll never, ever, spend 40 bucks for *just* a mount. if you are considering a 40-dollar mount, you may as well spend the extra 20 bucks and get the Guardian Pack, to be honest.
At this point in time, the only thing that I am willing to buy from the Zen store, are Enchanted Keys. maybe a respec token.
everything else, besides the character slots, are incredibly overpriced.
Im not. Its not a matter of need on the part of the player. They want people to pay for it, they NEED to price it competitively.
Guilds costing anything or not is irrelevant. You MUST be in one in order to participate. Also reading fail. If youre going to make accusations of being ignorant and invalid, please read and understand what was said first. I never stated it was blocking people from guilds. I was stating that you must be in a guild to participate in GG - which makes your argument false. Strike 2.
That's absolutely selling power if items that grant more character power are only available in the store. The fact that it is not needed is again, irrelevant. Ability to speed through content faster than someone who didn't pay is LITERALLY character power oriented.
Same with pretty much everything else on the store. Some things like account-wide mounts I can understand at around $10-20, which they may be at (?) haven't looked. But one-off items for a single character? I'm not going to even consider them at their current price.
this is correct.
They've already done one round of adjustments, so that pretty much identified what PWE felt wasn't selling enough. Which is not to say that they're happy with the sales of the rest of the items, just that they're not concerned enough to lower them yet.
Well they will get their come uppance when they speed past one time only Skirmishes and dungeons and miss out on achievements/items that are hard enough to get even if you deliberately slow your leveling. You didn't get the bag for 100% completion of a zone cos you over-leveled a skirmish quest? Ooops!
They don't care about how much you'd buy.
They care about maximizing their profit over their entire sales.
They have access to a wealth of data that shows how much revenue is coming in vs. the expense to generate it, on each particular thing they sell. With access to that actual data, they aren't going to find anecdotal forum posts convincing or likely even interesting, when it comes to analyzing any potential changes to the price of things.
Yes, they have, and they will make more adjustments as needed in the future, based on their analysis of how their expected profits from cash shop sales are meeting up with their actual profits.
I expect that any changes made to prices will be based on the wealth of sales data that they have access to, rather than the posts of players, who have no access to that data and thus can't provide informed suggestions as to price changes.
This requires both competence and the ability to take a long-term view. Given their record on (in)effectively dealing with both exploits and other issues that will hurt their game immensely over the longer-term, this line of argument seems rather naive.....