Plea to make companions account bound

skarlspeed · November 2013

I just wish to make a final plea to the devs that companions should at least be bound to account (at least the ones that are not already account bound so every character has that companion, like the panther or the dire wolf). For better or worse I have paid for companions that I thought were cool, but now they are scattered across different characters that may not have a use for their passive abilities.

I simply will not pay for another companion until I can utilize and mix and match the ones I have paid for.

I feel penalized for investing in this company. Had I have simply waited and not paid anything I could now spend the money and give the companions that I feel are best suited to the passive abilities.

Please make this happen so that I can use what I paid for in an effective manner.

angrysprite · November 2013

DITTO.

My argument to Cryptic:

Same pricing for account-bound companions.

-*OR*-

Lower pricing for character-bound companions
Say: 2000 Zen for PURPLE,
1500: Blue,
1000: Green;
because that's all they're worth when you get down to it, based on how useful they actually are.

sasheria · November 2013

I agree. there are couple of ways to do this.

1. Upon equip, the companion is account bound. You can trade your companion between YOUR characters via account bank box.
2. upon purchase, the companion can be redeem by any current and future characters (like packs) BUT they are not tradable (system already in place)
3. un-enhanced companion is tradable (this can promote more use of refine) you have to ungem your companion and then it is tradable.

werealchemist · November 2013

sasheria wrote: »

I agree. there are couple of ways to do this.

1. Upon equip, the companion is account bound. You can trade your companion between YOUR characters via account bank box.
2. upon purchase, the companion can be redeem by any current and future characters (like packs) BUT they are not tradable (system already in place)

+1 to either of these

sasheria wrote: »

3. un-enhanced companion is tradable (this can promote more use of refine) you have to ungem your companion and then it is tradable.

I don't think this one really works because you could just unslot enchants mail the companion and enchants separately and then just reslot them on the new character.

banaanc · November 2013

zen store companion purchase should add that companion for all existing and future characters, only exception could be stone, though they could add acc wide stone at 2x price, since stone is only pet worth that price

tang56 · November 2013

Any non augment companion should be account wide imo.

givearandomname · November 2013

I support this only prob were would you classify companions like lilend or how ever ya spell it the healer one that's not available in the store.

damsel1988 · November 2013

I agree totally but it will never happen. Note this: this game was not made for our pleasure, this game is a business and business are there to make money. If you buy a Porsche it was not built for you to enjoy it. It was build for the money they can make with it.

Currently the business with companion is good money for the producers. Just like the black forest lockboxes. Why do people buy keys? they want the PURPLE things that are in it, namely companions or mounts. If they go across all characters, soooooo much less money for the devs.

beckylunatic · November 2013

givearandomname wrote: »

I support this only prob were would you classify companions like lilend or how ever ya spell it the healer one that's not available in the store.

Handle it exactly like mounts. Bought with game currency or a drop from an event or container? Single character, and tradeable if not bound.

Zen store? Account-wide and always BoP.

beckylunatic · November 2013

damsel1988 wrote: »

I agree totally but it will never happen. Note this: this game was not made for our pleasure, this game is a business and business are there to make money. If you buy a Porsche it was not built for you to enjoy it. It was build for the money they can make with it.

Currently the business with companion is good money for the producers. Just like the black forest lockboxes. Why do people buy keys? they want the PURPLE things that are in it, namely companions or mounts. If they go across all characters, soooooo much less money for the devs.

With a polling of forum users, the vast majority said they would not be buying Zen-store companions at all, ever, at the current pricing. If they were account-unlocks, the value would be sufficient to consider it, or a major slash to pricing if left as single-character.

I know some people buy some of these things because I see them around, but the lost sales due to value perception are not insignificant.

Edit:
Additionally, many Zen-store companions were bought when the game still indicated that unbinding them would be an option for future use. With the backpeddle on unbinding, people became even less willing to spend actual money on companions.

angrysprite · November 2013

beckylunatic wrote: »

Edit:
Additionally, many Zen-store companions were bought when the game still indicated that unbinding them would be an option for future use. With the backpeddle on unbinding, people became even less willing to spend actual money on companions.

THIS,

It became a bait-and-switch after the fact.
I bought ONE companion for this reason. Since the change in policy I have not and will never purchase another at current binding/pricing. Sure, it's about business and making a profit, except with all thing digital all profit is 100% once the R&D and build-effort are paid-for.

It costs *nothing* to Cryptic/PWE to even just give these things away. So how does it hurt them if they made Z-Store companions account-bound -OR- lowered their pricing? It doesn't. However, the potential for exponentially-increased sales is a far lesser risk than some might think.

Oh, well. I'll hold onto my money (Mounts and consumables, that's it. And I already have more mounts than I need, so the only thing left are consumables. I'd buy companions if they made the requested changes.)

indolo238 · November 2013

beckylunatic wrote: »

Additionally, many Zen-store companions were bought when the game still indicated that unbinding them would be an option for future use. With the backpeddle on unbinding, people became even less willing to spend actual money on companions.

That's me, stuck with an Ioun Stone on a character I don't play that hasn't been deleted only because it has that ioun stone on it. Didn't like what I did with my first CW and planned to transfer the stone when I made a new one with a new race. After getting burned on that coming soon becoming a non-feature, I stopped spending in the zen store aside from what I can get through crystal conversion.

Doesn't help that the Zen store doesn't contain micro-transactions. Prices are so high for such small things, and while I can afford it (bought hero of the north and a feywild pack), I'm practical and have a problem with getting low value for my dollar. If things were cheaper, I'd have spent more real money (not AD) there.

xxmantaraxx · November 2013

That's exactly it. I could buy anything I wanted in the store for cash and not even notice the difference in my bank account. The reason I don't is perceived value. Companions need to be half the cost as is or account bound if I'm going to spend money on them. I'm not in the habit of throwing money away or buying things that I believe are over priced. I have spent money on the game as I am always supportive of games I enjoy but I will no longer use cash for the zen store. I will with all my future characters grind for a few weeks and use AD conversion to get Stone, character slots, companion active slots and health stones.

wizardman09 · November 2013

They need to be account wide not account bound.

vascodergamer · November 2013

If the companions from the zen store would work the same as the mounts, I would buy a lot of them just for the fun to have them on every char. But at the current price (10 or 15$ for a green character bound companion) they are a no-go except the Ioun Stone which is a must-have. They should make the companions all purple and sell the for 1000 zen character bound or 2000 zen account wide.

alexgabriel23 · November 2013

you have my vote +1

alexgabriel23 · November 2013

if they lower the price on many others and make some stuff account bound they could make more money alsway getting greedy result in nothing

Plea to make companions account bound

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