So Zen prices are ridiculous.

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Comments

  • karmelia
    karmelia Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    coldash wrote: »
    Alternate

    Add neccesity items like Hieros, teleport stones, flight, mounts to the NPC charging a fair right like 5,000 coin per zen it would normally cost. In other words a silver hiero = 15,000 coins at the pharmacist NPC for one example.

    That will never happen. They need to make money to keep the game running, like it or not. Necessity items as you put it are the main sellers in the cash shop. Making them available from NPC would cut into their profits too much.

    This is not a non-profit organisation, you know....
    Frankieraye said : "we can promise that we will work to improve all facets of community, engineering, and customer service to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again."


    (We are still waiting to see any improvements or changes beign implemented. More empty promises from PWI?)
  • xarfox
    xarfox Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    We realize that a lot of you guys are not happy with the cash shop prices.

    We are always reading the forums and listening to players chat amongst themselves in-game. We value everyone's opinion, and will be collecting user feedback as we approach open beta.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • shizo
    shizo Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    xarfox wrote: »
    We realize that a lot of you guys are not happy with the cash shop prices.

    We are always reading the forums and listening to players chat amongst themselves in-game. We value everyone's opinion, and will be collecting user feedback as we approach open beta.

    Good to know xarfox, i hope you guys can make a fair price, so most of us can use the Cashshop without worrying about prices :D
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Shizo - Blademaster 9x - Conqueror

    Quitted trolling the forums. PM me ingame, if want something

    Sig by Sev.
  • coldash
    coldash Posts: 29 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    karmelia wrote: »
    That will never happen. They need to make money to keep the game running, like it or not. Necessity items as you put it are the main sellers in the cash shop. Making them available from NPC would cut into their profits too much.

    This is not a non-profit organisation, you know....

    If they charge too much they wont have a profit at all. I'm sure you guys are hard at work oming up with a balance and that's all I care about, I'm not quitting cause I cant power level every day on the cheap I play ause i like the game cash shop has never been a need for me to enjoy. I was merely stating what I though would be fair to everyone while still providing you guys with plenty of cash. Oh and the NPC thing i knew was a dream I was just saying,

    But if you want my input I'd say 15-20 cents per Zen is the perfect price.
    IGN: Drizztina
    Main Class : Venomancer
    Faction: RageQuit
  • matthew
    matthew Posts: 135 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    xarfox wrote: »
    We realize that a lot of you guys are not happy with the cash shop prices.

    We are always reading the forums and listening to players chat amongst themselves in-game. We value everyone's opinion, and will be collecting user feedback as we approach open beta.

    We don't even know what the cash shop prices are. Is that in reference to pw-my pricing, or is that implying that pw-int pricing will be equal to or greater than pw-my?

    If a gold hierogram is 5 zen, experience scrolls and dolls are 1 zen, then personally I think zen should be 5-10 cents. The game is just set up to require these items to advance. You cannot pk without hierogram and dolls, and if you want to level decently you will need experience scrolls and hierogram. This will allow all players easy access to required items and not make it so much pay to win. I would much rather have these three items affordable for all players, and have luxury items more expensive to compensate.

    You wanted our opinions, you got mine, but more then likely the marketing team is falling out of their chair laughing at the notion of 5-10 cents a zen for hierograms, experience scrolls, and dolls.
  • yahooelite
    yahooelite Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    thom wrote: »
    Well, for starters, maybe you should read the forums bit more on the games which are on Closed Beta...
    Because server wipe is a common procedure in them.

    yes its true that maybe i should have read the forums more, whereas i checked the main page for info also. however, the thread i read was posted 08-19-2008 unless im mistaken that isnt forever and ever ago, so dunno what ur talkin about and i read it yesterday which is the day after it was posted, so thanks :)

    as for my gear, no it isnt quest rewards, their all drops, so nice try on assuming.

    Also, im not the only 1 that feels the way i do. but all in all had more ppl known that closed beta was only going to last for a week im sure they would have waited for open. a week in all the games ive played is unheard of.

    ANYWAY. theres no way im paying 40 bucks JUST for a mount. thats just stupid. apparently they need to check Sotnw or the 2moons cash shop to see how prices are really supposed to be.

    Oh, and not ALL closed betas data wipe, dunno where you got that info from.

    oh, if you played the malay version, but are from the US and bought CS currency, dont forget that there may have been an international service charge.

    Aku cinta kamu :)
  • tenkei
    tenkei Posts: 63
    edited August 2008
    Really, some of the ideas I'm seeing people state I just have to think you got to be kidding me. Ultimately for the game to make profit it has to have items in the cash shop they players will say they need. For example I just saw some of the reasons as "need" being to make it easier to succeed in PK'ing.

    SERIOUSLY!? PK'ing a neccessity function? Sounds more like a group wanting to have the ability to do genocide not some friendly competition. Now to get down to it, the end all I say is that the cash shop would need the following:

    1.) Consumable items players would want badly
    2.) On Average pull in about $12-$20 a month per player (Average price the game industry of P2P games charge to keep running)

    Luxury items like fashion type items and such are not consumables they'd get a 1 time bang from it and that's it. So generally the Luxury items alone should end up costing in real money about 1-2 months of Average Price (So roughly $15-$30). The lack of the two above is the flaw that Hellgate:London had which was one of the reasons it failed so badly.

    If the money average per player goes lower then $9.99 I can not see how the company would be able to make any kind of profit from it. That's my toss in on this, instead of just pulling numbers out of thin air and not explaining them. Ultimately whatever the prices are it has to be good enough that the APC is a good $10-$15 (General average that P2P games like WoW, FFXI, EQ, EQ2, Lineage II, etc... charge), if it doesn't succeed at this then the game is likely to meet an end similar to Hellgate.

    EDIT:
    For addition explination. I say the APC has to be about $10-$15+ out of this example. Player A spends $30 in 1 month, Player B spends $0 in 1 month. The APC is $15 (($30+0)/2)=$15)
  • leo
    leo Posts: 15 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    There are some of you here are really trying to push your luck. I mean c'mon with suggestion of 5-10cents per zen?!? Thats just ridiculous. You guys need to face the fact that Item Mall stuff are not a necessity. Anyone can get by with out Hieros, Dolls,cashshop mounts ect ect. They are there for people who wants the easy route. Where is the challenge in that??

    IMO keep the prices the same... please..
  • celes
    celes Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    xarfox wrote: »
    We realize that a lot of you guys are not happy with the cash shop prices.

    We are always reading the forums and listening to players chat amongst themselves in-game. We value everyone's opinion, and will be collecting user feedback as we approach open beta.

    Yes. I posted this because the rumors bothered me. I wanted to post this BEFORE the cash shop prices came out because it's harder to change the Zen per Dollar amount when it's already released as opposed to before it's released. I'm hoping you'll take all the feedback and adjust your prices according to how we, the player base of Perfect World International, feel.

    Rohan International, while a great game, was killed be overpriced and FORCED cash shop usage. While PW has a reliance on cash shop, we hope not to see tremendous prices that could end up killing the game.

    Good luck on finding the right price.
  • matthew
    matthew Posts: 135 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    leo wrote: »
    There are some of you here are really trying to push your luck. I mean c'mon with suggestion of 5-10cents per zen?!? Thats just ridiculous. You guys need to face the fact that Item Mall stuff are not a necessity. Anyone can get by with out Hieros, Dolls,cashshop mounts ect ect. They are there for people who wants the easy route. Where is the challenge in that??

    IMO keep the prices the same... please..

    Have you played this game before? If you want to pk, hierograms and dolls are a necessity, there is no arguing this. If you want to level, hierograms and experience scroll are a necessity, unless you want to sit for 5 minutes every 10 mob kills at normal rates, which to me is not even worth playing.
  • mu7e
    mu7e Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    If the prices are what the prices are in PW-MY then I'll be extremely happy with that. Even though people thought PW-MY was expensive there were still a ton of players that used CS.
  • esux
    esux Posts: 87 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    Why do all these game companies think higher prices = more money?

    The cash shop should be available to all, not just the rich. PW-MY was totally fine, if we could have prices that are the same or lower that would be great.

    If you really must insist on these unreasonable prices at least lower silver heiros to $1.5
  • nounours
    nounours Posts: 453
    edited August 2008
    Ok here is the sad true;
    No matter how much i find this game better than other pws, all with trun around money,
    But befor say anything i want to say this:
    i really think this pwi is perfect, and that pwe team have done a great job, but,
    A better ping is useful, a better language isnt indispensable, same for a better service.

    So now here is what i think, and how the zen price will influence me:
    -a highter price than pw-my = i go back to pw-my,
    why? because even if we dont have a goood ping and a better service, we can have a lot of things from item mail and look cool, and lv easier

    -same price(or reasonable price): Of corse i let all from pw-my and run to pwi.

    ;) go back to play in pw-my doesnt mean i wont play pwi ;)
  • ossify
    ossify Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    moonelve wrote: »

    now if they ever actually did reasearch into the other games they would see that -
    1 - higher cash shop prices = un balanced game
    2 - higher cash shop prices/items (if tradable) = more gold farmers
    3 - more gold farmers = more bots
    4 - more botters = higher ingame ecomomy
    4 - high economy = more people using RTM
    5 - the game starts a long and slow fall down the road to failure.

    this sums it up. so admin, plz choose wisely on the $.
  • mei
    mei Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    lol, one reason I was excited upon hearing about PW-I was that I would finally be able to use the CS directly.. but with these prices I'd rather stay wtih PW-MY or quit. Same prices would be nice, slightly lower prices would be even nicer but I won't push it.

    But just a note to the admins - I doubt that high prices would mean a more successful CS, tbh. If you raise the prices this much, no one besides the richest (IRL)/most desperate/laziest gamers would buy anything .. if you lower the price per zen such that normal people, esp. college/high school students (which probably makes up a large portion of gamers too? =x) could reasonably afford the items, that means you expand your consumer base .. if the prices are reasonable you'd probably have just about everyone buying things from the CS, rather than a minority of the player population.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • vigor
    vigor Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    If they put lower than 30 cents per zen they would go bankrupt. Servers aren't free + they need some kinda profit
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    Lost City
  • troll
    troll Posts: 14 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    vigor wrote: »
    If they put lower than 30 cents per zen they would go bankrupt. Servers aren't free + they need some kinda profit

    that isn't taking into account all the people who will buy more freely, or all the extra customers they would attract at those prices - so your assumption is ill-conceived and discountable.

    ie go back to school.

    moving on...
  • zoefox
    zoefox Posts: 225
    edited August 2008
    vigor wrote: »
    If they put lower than 30 cents per zen they would go bankrupt. Servers aren't free + they need some kinda profit

    They do have an infinite amount of items to sell however. No supply limit helps. With a lower price, tons more people are more likely to purchase items from the item mall. The more that sells, the more money that PWE can make. I know that if I find the prices to be good enough, when I have a job there is a very high chance I will regularly spend money on this game.
  • batjack
    batjack Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    I left PW-MY becuase inflation caused all the prices to be so high, and I wont support off-game gold sellers.

    what it seems to be, PWI is starting off by making items more expensive to start with, making people want to buy gold offline just to buy stuff. Those that buy stuff from the mall, wil immediately start putting it up for sale to those who have ingame gold to buy it. so you buy offline game gold, stuff becomes more expensive, etc etc.. vicious circle. Start of right by makeing stuff in the Mall affordable and people wont have to go offline to buy gold to get items.

    if this trend continues, I wont be in PWI or any version of PW for that matter. I am already looking towards another game. Atlantica online is looking better and better all the time.
  • part
    part Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    Prices are too high. I'm sure they've done a market study at the company and it will be profitable, a shame they only go to ripe money and not to make customers happy. Congratulations to all the nerds and hardcore players that will stay. But do not expect casual players to remain in the game. My acceptable range would be between 10$ to 35$ a month if I'm extremely active. Not hundreds spent in basic scrolls to make the game playable. Higher prices than in the over-priced MY? Forget it.

    A shame because the game is fairly good for a F2P and very expected here in the west. But those basic scrolls and items should be available to all at nearly no cost.
  • enigma32
    enigma32 Posts: 128 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    Have you played this game before? If you want to pk, hierograms and dolls are a necessity, there is no arguing this. If you want to level, hierograms and experience scroll are a necessity, unless you want to sit for 5 minutes every 10 mob kills at normal rates, which to me is not even worth playing.

    I PKed for weeks (as soon as I found out about PWI) on MY-EN, and never bought a single doll, or heiro. Instead, I just bought NPC equips my lvl. If someone's guildie I just PKed is 20+ lvls above me on the way to shank me, I'm gonna die with a heiro or not. (BTW I never used a single heiro all the way up to lvl 63)

    BUT point being, the reason I used the noob equip method instead of using heiros/dolls was because of the high price. :/ If prices were lower, perhaps that would've been different.
  • karmelia
    karmelia Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    celes wrote: »
    Rohan International, while a great game, was killed be overpriced and FORCED cash shop usage. While PW has a reliance on cash shop, we hope not to see tremendous prices that could end up killing the game.

    Reliance on cash shop in PW is close to zero. You can level without spending one cent. It will not be as easy as someone who use the cash shop, but is not what cash shop is there for to begin with?

    You want it easy = pay for cash shop items.

    You want it harder = don't use the cash shop.
    If you want to level, hierograms and experience scroll are a necessity, unless you want to sit for 5 minutes every 10 mob kills at normal rates

    Buy potions. I levelled an archer to 56 and a WF to 91 without using XP scroll....
    Frankieraye said : "we can promise that we will work to improve all facets of community, engineering, and customer service to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again."


    (We are still waiting to see any improvements or changes beign implemented. More empty promises from PWI?)
  • ranthe
    ranthe Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    there's no REALLY point to using XP scrolls. After all you can level just on Eunice up as high as you want. Killing mobs for me is just how I make cash, harvesting crafting items, drops, and the raw money they drop. The spirit points and exp are just extra.

    Edit: I spelled "really" wrong. :P
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • matthew
    matthew Posts: 135 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    karmelia wrote: »
    Reliance on cash shop in PW is close to zero. You can level without spending one cent. It will not be as easy as someone who use the cash shop, but is not what cash shop is there for to begin with?

    You want it easy = pay for cash shop items.

    You want it harder = don't use the cash shop.



    Buy potions. I levelled an archer to 56 and a WF to 91 without using XP scroll....

    Karmelia, I value your posts, but this is incorrect. I want to see you go pk/pvp a wizard as a melee without a hierogram or doll. You are going to get completely smoked and drop your gear.

    And you say harder, but I just explained without mana regen it takes 5 minutes to regen 10k mana, which will only kill 10 mobs. This isn't harder as you say it's masochistic.

    Yeah, buy potions. Guess what? Hierograms are more cost efficient then potions. It is cheaper to use hierograms then potions. So what does that prove? That you need hierograms. If you want to level without experience scroll so be it, personally I find all f2p games level system to be totally excruciating without using cash shop experience modifiers. They do this for a reason.
  • ranthe
    ranthe Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    you may call all these things needed and necessary, however im just going to call you impatient and lazy. I have no problem sitting down and downing a few potions to regen mana or health without a hiero. The only time they're really NEEDED is for AoEing, and you can get by without that as well.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • matthew
    matthew Posts: 135 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    ranthe wrote: »
    you may call all these things needed and necessary, however im just going to call you impatient and lazy. I have no problem sitting down and downing a few potions to regen mana or health without a hiero. The only time they're really NEEDED is for AoEing, and you can get by without that as well.

    I have just explained. Hierograms are more cost efficient then potions. Why spend more for potions when you can buy a hierogram for cheaper? You cannot get by with potions for aoe parties as an archer. They are absolutely needed for pvp to compete. If you do not pvp with a hiero on expect a free trip back to town, or for your guild to get rolled in TW.

    If I am impatient and lazy then the majority of the player base is as well, because if you don't use hiero's they are going to call you a nub. If you go out pking without dolls you are a nub as well. You will need these items to compete.
  • mu7e
    mu7e Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    You can play PW without needing to put any real money into this game. I played PW-MY with the English patch before PW-MY-EN came out and got a WF to 84 without using real cash. Then the first day that PW-MY-EN launched I put in $30USD to buy the inventory and bank stones and a few heirograms and got my EP up to 94 without putting a cent more into the game and then sold it for $650USD. :p
  • celes
    celes Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    Potions won't let an Archer use his AoE continuously. And I doubt a Mage could either as well.
  • troll
    troll Posts: 14 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    ranthe wrote: »
    you may call all these things needed and necessary, however im just going to call you impatient and lazy. I have no problem sitting down and downing a few potions to regen mana or health without a hiero. The only time they're really NEEDED is for AoEing, and you can get by without that as well.

    if you're not planning on using cash shop anyway, why would PW admins be listening to you in first place - you are not their customer, you're just a freeloading leech.

    people who will buy cash shop items will happily pay to play but only if we think we are getting value for money.

    at PW-MY prices of 33 cents per zen (cubi) the items were affordable enough that people could play and level on them.

    at higher prices most people (if anyone remains at all that is, apart from the terminal f2p parasites like ranthe as quoted above) would stop to consider every purchase instead of flicking their coin around freely...this is not what a business wants.

    all PW-Int would be left with are the slow leveling freeloaders.
  • seawolf
    seawolf Posts: 49 Arc User
    edited August 2008
    matthew wrote: »
    Hierograms are more cost efficient then potions.

    Not always. It depends on the price of the cash shop items in relation to in-game gold and also your current level.

    For example on the MY servers, gold hieros are approximately 1.6M or around there for 900k MP. Level 60 MP pots restore 1250 MP for 1200 cost. That's 864k gold for 900k MP if you use pots, which is significantly cheaper. Of course when gold hieros were 600k each, hieros were better. The higher level pots are more expensive per MP but level 70+ pots can keep the 100MP/sec arrays going. High level archer arrays do get iffy and more expensive with the higher level pots but MP hieros are usually not mandatory to array.

    Besides, if you're been around the PH servers, where hieros are really expensive (much more so than MY), AoE parties there are without hieros since it's not even close to cost effective. Their XP rate is similar to the expensive array parties with only the cost of an occasional pot and repairs costs. The "easiest" and most common way to AoE level is not always the cheapest way, although I'm sure PWE is really happy that people love to array level.

    The only place where hieros are mandatory is for PvP/TW, but not AoE leveling.

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