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Cosmetic expense? Outrageous!
docsc00ter
Member Posts: 291 Arc User
I finally picked up my new main and offhand weapons today, and the first thing I thought was, "Wow. I like the new stats. But I really preferred the look of my old weapon. I know! I'll just change the appearance of the new weapon."
Then I discovered the cost. 51,000 Astral Diamonds. Seriously?! For a cosmetic change to make a player enjoy his character more? With absolutely no affect on gameplay?
Of course I understand the need for economic sinks in an MMO. I get it. But... really? Such a huge cost for aesthetics? I could understand putting a money sink in order to obtain something that my character didn't already have -- such as buying new clothing or something. But charging that absolutely outrageous amount to make use of something that I've already earned in-game?
This. Must. Change.
There is absolutely no reason to leave me with only two options here:
Then I discovered the cost. 51,000 Astral Diamonds. Seriously?! For a cosmetic change to make a player enjoy his character more? With absolutely no affect on gameplay?
Of course I understand the need for economic sinks in an MMO. I get it. But... really? Such a huge cost for aesthetics? I could understand putting a money sink in order to obtain something that my character didn't already have -- such as buying new clothing or something. But charging that absolutely outrageous amount to make use of something that I've already earned in-game?
This. Must. Change.
There is absolutely no reason to leave me with only two options here:
- Keep the current appearance of the item and be displeased with the visual appearance of my character... and be resentful of Cryptic for the situation.
- Pay the outrageous cost and change the appearance of my weapon... and be resentful of Cryptic for the situation.
Post edited by docsc00ter on
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We are definitely dominating, and we are always about to win.
I wish the cost to change was about 1/10 of what it is now, like 5000 AD. Or better yet, non-existent like they made the "intended for transmuting-ables"
With invoke + leadership + pvp daily I make between 20-24k, that's about 40 minutes play time at most. I work full time, am married, and am a casual player. It's so easy to level however that I have 1 of each class (been playing since very early open beta)
So I make around 80k a day just in refined diamonds with very minimal play time, and usually get at least 1 coa per week so there's another 100k a week.
I agree it's costly to change cosmetic on every piece of armor and weapon (250k, 300k for neck too) but you should only do this if you have your final build, and the change is forever.
I've spent over 600k on transmutes between 2 characters and I don't regret it at all.
We are definitely dominating, and we are always about to win.
You don't already have it. You have the items you want. You have the look you want. But, you don't have the items you want with the look you want. If you want that, you'll have to pay for it, just like anyone else did when they customized their look.
The cost of transmuting items has already been lowered and when at level 60, the time at which transmutation should be considered as prior to that gear changes frequently, it is not a huge or burdensome cost.
NW doesn't seem seems to fully get the concept of impulse buying that CO and sto thrive on. offering recurring options cheaply to get people addicted. in CO I have dropped Countless G on my costume because every time I change it its only a few pennies(L) or a silver(R) the thing is I justify paying 2-3 silver 40 or 50 times sometimes right in a row. when in NW I changed my appearance for 200z one time. because it was causing massive collisions with the new item I wanted to wear.
if they let you change appearance for ad 500-1000ad each change I guarantee they will probably get 80kad out of ppl that have never bought a token. they should still offer tokens for people doing major appearance over-halls. but think about it how often would you change your character's hair for 1k-2k ad
,,,oh yeah the you gotta change the eyes to go with the hair another 1-2k or so... maybe change the tattoo a bit to match you current outfit another 1k....oh now you need to change some face sliders around to make the new hair not collide there is another 1-5k... hmm now the head is a bit out of propotion with the body lets change some sliders 5K... oh crud I forgot to change muscle tone 2k .. hmm skins to pale 1k... hair needs to be darker now 1k... crud I just dropped 20kad oh wel its not as much as a token... now for my other 6 characters.... see where im going with this?
One single costume over at CO, costs 200 zen. Or was it 300? 51k AD, equals roughly 154 zen.
Cheers.
No, the argument is the price isn't outrageous when you're at level 60, the time when you should be thinking about transmuting your items. If you can't afford that price with ease at that point, you have more serious game issues to get a handle on than cosmetic transmutation, as in developing your earning potential.
Anyone here remember the Eve fiasco over their $80 monocle?
I'm ok with it because the cost does not seem outrageous for me. I earn more than enough AD for that in a day. And even if I didn't, a dollar fifty isn't to much for a permanent change in my opinion. If you want outrageous - look at the cost of upgrading mount to use because you like its appearance. You have to buy the mount, then spend $60+ worth of AD upgrading it for every character that rides it.
Yeah I know I started with my commet on that. My point was it is the PWE marketing plan to make a majority of their money on cosmetics this includes transmuting. But I do agree it would be nice if things were cheaper to incur more impulse buying. I was using the appearance change as an example of how impulse buying can end up making the company more money than a large flat fee.
possibly not the best example since you can often a get a set of 4-12 costume bits for 550 zen on CO and they all apply to every character on the server and you can freely color all costumes, and use 1 costume part on several character.....
but you also get charged if you want to use certain archetypes like claws or chain, or freeform. if you have gold and stop paying you lose access to most of your characters... ad AD(equivalent) is harder to earn.
so its really a different animal though I do wish they went with costume slots rather than this fashion outfit thing. I miss having a different hairstyle for each outfit.
CO costume changes can be paid for with resources (CO's gold) with a minimum of grinding and so effectively are FREE. Extra slots beyond the ones the game gives you just for playing and leveling do cost zen. But this can be for just one toon or a one time account wide charge... ALL your toons get another slot. In short, you BUY the toy, but playing with it is free. Anyone who has looked at the costumery available for the foundry knows that there is a huge library of prepared customization options out there that are not available to the player character. The foundry is a free toy, and playing with it is free. So what is the difference between PCs and NPCs here?
At this time I'd like to point out the difference between a 'cash sink' and a 'cash shop' sink. Bright primary colors and pure black are only available through the zen store. That the available in game color schemes are both inflexible and rather bland is no accident. In order for a character to stand out, zen must be spent. Just one color for one piece on the AH costs thousands of AD. Players must spend several dollars US or, for some, a week's AD grind for zen or paying AH prices, if they really want to snazzy up their appearance. Such blatant monetization cannot simply be excused as a mere 'cash sink'. To my mind, good ole' honest greed is less distasteful than trying to sugar coat it with such a lame euphemism.
Back in beta I was amused by the number of players running around in their underwear. There is no more eloquent way to express distaste with the available in game customization. That most of them have left points out dramatically the effect that such ruthless overpricing has had on this game. That sort of 'eloquence' has proved to be very expensive for Cryptic/PWE.
AD is an earned in-game currency as well. Yet you don't seem to be claiming that dyes are free because of this.
Its a time sink, not a cash shop sink. Nothing wrong with it taking a bit of time to upgrade your character's looks. And if they are truly gone, then good riddance to the people running around naked. Pretty sure most of them were doing it for other reasons than the ugly armor. They aren't gone though, still see it all the time.
While I don't really like the current dye system the game uses, its obviously not going to change. But price isn't the issue. Before 60 you change armor way to often for any dyes to be valuable at any cost. Even if they were half price all the time. After 60 its not much of an issue because a player with a couple of 60s should be able to afford dyes. If they can't they are either using their AD on other stuff or doing something wrong, and should look up how to earn AD. It doesn't take as long as you'd think to log in each day to invoke and set leadership tasks.
That's a lot of hyperbole and assumption for one paragraph.
You are assuming they ran about that way to express distaste with customization options. There is no evidence this was so. You also have no evidence that any of them left, much less most. Your characterization of the prices as 'ruthlessly overpriced' is an overly flamboyant depiction that simply serves to discredit your opinion.
Back in COX there was a group I played with late nights called the 'Undies' with under/swimwear costume themes. they were all great players and teaming with them was a hoot. Total fun. So don't run down other people's style (or lack thereof) it's not cool.
I spoke with several who I saw like this regularly, just to see why. Each and every one said they didn't like how they looked in game otherwise, so why not? Have you, yourself, personally asked any of these folks what the deal is?
I make plenty in NWO. I've got 7 60's and a small, but nicely mature leadership farm. When I have to I can grind with the best of them. But if they want my money, they are going to have to drop the price. For me this is not a dealbreaker. I'm no clothes hound in real life. My wife will gladly attest to that fact.
When you look at true microtransaction games like Farmville, and the fact that they are amazingly profitable simply by coaxing fifty cents here, a dollar or two there out of a huge playerbase, the potential for higher game income through lots and lots of small MTs becomes obvious. NWO's intransigence with this, continuing to offer a very limited number of options at such extreme prices, is looking more and more like a poor marketing strategy. Many of us here would like to see this change. Pricing policy should attract new players, instead of being one of the most common reasons that they quit.
Yeah, but in CO $1.75 gets you a whole new look. What you are talking about is like advertising 'All you can eat for one dollar', then giving the customer a register bill that looks like this:
Tea 1.00
Dinner roll 1.00
Spaghetti 1.00
Meatballs 1.00
Salad 1.00
Total 5.00
Technically true, but you won't get many repeat customers doing this.
On what data are you contending that it looks more and more like a poor marketing strategy? Unless you are somehow privy to their sales data you have no idea how good their marketing strategy is, or how they could improve it.
AD is not the equivalent of a subscription. Questionite is. Questionite has a daily cap of 8k. AD has daily cap of 24k. With a pretty similar exchange rate, this renders AD an easier obtainable ressource.
If you stop subscribing, one does not lose access to any characters, in champions. They merely are getting converted to silver archetypes of your choice. You also cannot freely color any costume piece, it costs gold.
Neverwinter and Champions, aswell as star trek are pretty much the same game.
No offence, just correcting some mistakes.
Since when do 550 zen go for $1.75? Just curious.
I beg to differ. You do loose access, if you don't wish to completely rebuild your entire character. In a game where its strongest point is allowing you to create the character and concept you wish. Being forced to change it, is a significant deal.
And this is before you even take into account that there isn't near enough archetypes to even cover all the base powersets. Some free forms simply do not have an equivalent archetype to even try to switch to. And that is without even trying to get all that exotic.
Lastly, lets not ignore the fact that if you want to subscribe again. It will cost you to switch all those archetypes back to free form. So you are basically forced to keep them as free forms and therefore hostage to the subscription. Or to bite the bullet and convert them all to archetypes, and if it destroys the build or the concept, so be it. Either way, it is not an easy or simplistic choice, and nothing like you describe it.
I am glad, cryptic gave me this option. Well for some of those serious roleplay people it may be a problem, but not for the average gamer.
Do I have their sales information? Ha. Do you have the Coca Cola recipe?
When walking around in game... PE in particular, I see a very low percentage of customization on the PCs. Character customization is a such an easy revenue source, I don't understand why this game has made it so hard. Saleswise, whether sales come as 10 $2.00 transactions or 100 $.20 transactions makes no difference to the bean counters. Where it matters is with the players themselves, the games customers. Happy customers grow games. Unhappy customers don't. After games like COX and CO where character customization flourishes The apathetic response of players for what options there are speaks volumes.
Game companies are notoriously silent about their metrics. Serious financial research here is inconclusive. The parent corp PWI is traded on nasdaq under PWRD. Profit wise it's a lukewarm year, which they are charging to development writ offs. Both PE and growth projections by the two investor services I have access to are lukewarm. This is actually a nice review for a game company, They aren't exactly popular on Wall St.
550 is the whole account option, per toon its 175. So when is NWO going to loosen up and allow whole account customization purchases?
Just curious.......