Concerns About Cash Shop Pricing

enricoe wrote: »

I am new to this game and here is what I have experienced while playing this game for a week now. My wife and I play this game together because she played the closed beta and pointed out the great customization and marriage capability in the game. I decided to wait until the open beta because I didn't like the idea of having my character wiped after closed beta ended. So here we are playing the game and enjoying every bit of it. Our decision was to try the game out, as I think many people do for these free games. If we liked the game, which we do, then we would invest what little money we could spare, after paying the bills of course, on item mall items.

That being said, we recently hit level 20 with our characters and were excited when we finally reached that level so that we could marry each other in the game. Upon reading the requirements for the in-game marriage we noticed that it would cost us a total of 60 Gold which equates to $60 US. I thought to myself that this can't possibly be correct and that is what led me to this forum thread.

I am going to point out something that no one else here has mentioned before. I can't quote how much it costs in other parts of the world but in the state of California, where I live, it costs $45 dollars to get married. That is assuming you have a good 'ol fashioned civil union and sign papers at the courthouse.

So let's just look at this rationally. It's going to cost players $15 more to get married in-game than it would to get married in real life. I'm not going to flame anyone who meets online and has relationships in-game, that is your right. We met online ourselves. Something just doesn't seem right in the pricing when I browse through the item mall.

I see the prices and I realize that the company has to make money. Heck, I want them to make money so that they can keep the game going. But, the pricing of the items and of the Gold itself always makes me think twice about purchasing anything from it. This goes for any purchases that most people are thinking to buy. I like to consider how much it costs and weigh whether or not the money I spend is worth the product being purchased. But if I have to think two, three, even four times before purchasing something, then eventually I think to myself that the item in question is overpriced and I don't end up buying it.

I can honestly say that it wouldn't be all too ridiculous for me to spend $30-$60 a month in the item mall. But, only if I feel like I am getting something worth it. $20 for a mount, ya I'll just renew my subscription to another game. $2.50 for guardian charms that burn many people use daily, uhh 2 cheeseburgers is better spent. $10 for a new outfit (oh ya and you have to get pigments to dye them the color you want) no thanks I think I'll just buy a good book. $60 to get married, like I said before costs more than real life.

I would have liked to have been able to have all my characters get married in-game eventually if the pricing was around $10 per character. Who knows? We may break down and still have at least one of our characters get married. But the point is if the price were say around $20-$25 total to get married I would eventually have 4-5 characters pay to get married and on top of that I would feel like I had extra money to buy some frivolous item mall items. As it stands I will only have one character likely to get married in-game and not buy anything else from the item mall.

It is easy to make a lot of money up front with a good product such as this game. The hard part is keeping the customers coming back. And as someone else already pointed out, one of the most successful business models out there is Wal-Mart. They keep individual mark-ups at a low percentage but eventually the customer buys more in quantity equalling more profit and a repeat customer base.

totally agree with everything you said when real life products are cheaper than in game products, it takes the addictveness and "funness" of games away. We might all jus get up and go play a game called REAL LIFE.

-jedde - i sent u a msg if you need help just contact me.

matthew wrote: »

People, this company is totally incompetent. I know many don't want to face the facts, but that's what it is. Look at the ridiculous one-sided poll they have, completely ignoring the problem with the cash shop, which is everything is way overpriced. I didn't even see experience scrolls in it. What a total failure.

They aren't going to change anything. Stop responding, stop playing, and for God's sakes don't give them money. There is already perfect world malaysia that you can play with twice as much cash shop items and at one third the price. There is perfect world europe coming within a month with better ping, pvp/pve servers, and prices comparable to pw-my.

Just let this company die like YNK and the others who attempt to rob the playerbase and lie to them. Put the nail in the coffin and bury this fiasco of a company. The sooner the better for all of us. In three months this game will be dead if drastic measures aren't taken very soon to redo the cash shop pricing. Do you actually think they are going to do that? Answer: no they aren't.

"Well you don't have to buy cash shop items" = you don't know what you are talking about.

"Well it's a U.S. server prices are higher to host" = you don't know what you are talking about.

"It's OPEN BETA, give them time" = you don't know what you are talking about.

To anyone else disagreeing with the 95%+ of the playerbase telling you these prices are outrageous = you don't know what you are talking about. The fat lady is singing, show's over people.

I'm not so sure it's over. I'm having fun playing with proper translations. I'm having fun not having to watch all the perverted world chat. I will play here til they shut the doors.

I have money in my purse for the taking, as soon as they decide they want it.

teajunkie wrote: »

Why would you bring politics into a post about an online game? It's absolutely ridiculous. Plus I believe it's against forum rules.

Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.

So I didn't read all the posts, but from what I can gather...1$ = 1 gold.

Is that correct?

If so I don't think anyone should be complaining! As far as I am concerned that is an AMAZING price in comparison to some of the other games I played.

1$ for 1 gold?? So 3 bucks for a silver hierogram? Um...that sounds pretty cheap to me!

I didn't play in MY so I don't know what kind of prices they had over there but seriously...as far as i'm concerned that's cheap.


The reason I came to this game was because you didn't HAVE to spend real money to actually get quests...open a shop...ect.

Plus, all the item can be traded with others and you can even buy Zen with in game gold!

How awesome is that??

I consider all of us lucky to have it so cheap.

i agree with everyone, in that prices are too high
catica's post is the most interesting.

does the PWI company have a date of when they are gonna take action? or is this thread only here for people to yell at?

all i got to say is if its that bad just play wow 14 bucks a month ... and you can go up to about anybody and say can i have some gold and most people will give it to you or you can ask somebody for a rush thoush DM or SM or somewhere elise or even if you want to go for it spend $23.00 USD on 1000+ Gold in WOW

The Kin as well will post his two cents. For one, The Kin enjoys this game very much so. There are a few Roleplayers out there whom the Kin has met, the graphics are nice, the skills and customization awesome..

That being said, the Kin agrees with all that has been said about the cash shop items. The Kin just dropped 20$ today because he could spare a bit. However, after doing so, The Kin feels like he shouldn't have with the current prices. It leaves...A very very sour taste in The Kin's mouth right now. Seriously, clothing for 10$? The Kin can get a pair of pants IRL for 10$...pixels of pants should only be 2$ at the most...The marriage system? 10$ at the most. Mounts? 10$ at the most. The highest price in the entire cash shop SHOULd be 10$. Maybe 15$. Think about it and let's do a bit of simple math.

Say your player base is...For arguments sake, 10,000. Now, let's say that your prices are what they are now, 60$ marriage, 20-40$ mounts..etc. That means roughly 10% if that is going to be dropping that kind of cash. So 10% of 10,000 = 1000 people. So that would be 1000 people getting married at 60$ a pop. So, 1000 x 60 = 60,000$. Seems like a lot..

Now let's say you make the price at 15$ marriages. Of your 10,000 people, more can afford it, so you have let's say fo arguments sake, 50%. That means 5,000 people are putting cash. 5000 x 15 = 75,000$. That's 15,000$ more. Small numbers bring about more business, which in turn produce more revenue. Seriously, listen to you customers. We know what we're talking about here as it is "our" money that you guys want. We know what we'd be willing to pay. After all, without paying customers, you guys are out of a jobs. Whatever happened to the old slogan, "The customer is always right." anyways?

-Kinohki

I see that GM's are getting overwhelmed by angry-not-for-high-prices replies....
I saw one thing that people said in different words that ment the same:

cheaper prices = more customers = more money than at the nomal prices, price high = less customers.

Ive been thinking the same... What i think you could do... Make a test. reduce something in price and see what happens... more or less will buy it... then if more comes you can do it to some more items... see what happens then...


Anyway I love this game, ill be playing/paying/enjoying :P

my point was that - you can always try(what i would do is ... reduce "most expensive" stuff in zen shop to like... lower prices to see what happens... if fail, set it back to normal. :P thats just my idea (im no good at this stuff lols )

Alright, I've read the majority of the listed 35 pages of posts on this subject. While many people have already stated the opinions and suggestions I already had in mind, I would like to say them again anyways, even if it's just to offer support.

There have been many smartly written, educated posts concerning the prices for the Cash Shop in PWI already. However, I am not a business-woman or economics major, heck, I barely got the grades to pass my math classes. The only thing I can do is bring this from the perspective of an average young adult who has played several other MMORPGs, and paid for all of them. I know many of these have already been listed, but here's my opinions on the cash shop prices, and my suggestions on possible solutions/suggestions (I'll try to make this as short as possible):



Price Opinion:

As aforementioned, while I may be new to PW, I have played my fair share of MMORPGs. I've also been a dedicated patron to one Pay-to-Play MMORPG in particualr for over five years. As an avid MMORPG customer, there are two factors that I Iook at: Price in relitivity to quality. PWI has wonderful graphics, gameplay, and potential, so... onto prices. Concerning prices, it really comes down to comparisons to all other MMORPGs available. That's really all that matters. Ok, so your average MMORPG, when paying a subscription, is about $50.00 flat for the game itself(all the essentials), and roughly $15.00 every month afterwards. So from my perspective, if you can't offer me a game I can play comfortabley, with all the possibilities to create a distinct individual character like every other MMORPG for $50 + (around)$15.00 p/month, then it's just a waste of money and time. Afterall, there are dozens of other games I can invest money into that satisfy my current desires for an MMORPG. So unless you offer something magnificantly, truelly unique, I'm only willing to pay the average price. If the current average price to spend on an MMORPG is $15.00 p/month (+$50.00), then that's what PWI needs to stay close to.

The reason I compare PWI to subscription games is because, while this game is "Free-to-Play," it's often neccessary to spend money after a certain point to progress your character, and/or actually enjoy the game. And that's the entire reason we are playing, to enjoy the game. If we don't enjoy it, we won't play it. So in order to fully enjoy most non-subscription fee games, some purchases are inevitabley required. The other reason I can compare PWI to Pay-to-Play games is because they're all in the same market: MMORPGs. It really doesn't matter which one you play, they are all businesses trying to make money.

Ahem... back on track:.



Suggestions/Solutions(in no specific order):

1. Honestly, the best advice I can give, and the advice most have already given, is to lower prices. They don't have to be insanely cheap, just affordable. It's baffling to be capable of comparing the cost of clothing in the real world to clothing in a video game, and notice they're not much different in price.

2. As so many people have mentioned, simply lowering the price on the neccessary items will have a great effect. While I hate to say it, because I'm very fashion-oriented, I can understand the clothing items/mounts/individual pieces costing a moderate amount of actual money vs., for example, heiros. Fashion/mounts/etc. are not neccessary, and while they are in high demand, they do not actually hamper the gameplay itself. However, the items that actually enhance gameplay, or especially ones that enable comfortable, enjoyable gameplay, should be drastically reduced in price. (While I still think the fashion/mounts/etc. are over-priced, I think I would rather see the neccessary items become affordable beforehand.)

3.One of the main sellpoints for me has always been individuality. I think the majority of my satisfactory purchases would be made buying things to distinguish me from other players. Increased amount of cashshop items at lower cost offers players multiple things to spend money on. And with more options they are more likely to purchase more than a few things. (I know I do.) I will make an assumption that the reason you haven't released all of the cash shop items from prior PW versions is due to the fact that you'd like to introduce them into updates as newly available items. (I don't know if that's true, but it's the only logical reason I could come up with.) While that's nice for new players, and for players in general, they can always switch to another PW version and get them now, for a lot cheaper. What I'm trying to say is that you need to add more items while dropping the current prices from what they are now. Large variety@low cost > Slim Pickings@inflated prices.

4. Something I've always thought made a great game was a rewards system. Gifts given to members who have been playing the game a long time let's people know they are appreciated, and I've always been more likely to stay with something if I'm appreciated or recognized there. You could even give gifts for buying x amount of cash shop items. {If person spends x amount of money, they get a new pet mouse! It doesn't really do anything, but it's cute!} If you cannot give personal rewards for buying cash shop items, perhaps you can give good discounts for regular consumers, perhaps discounts that increase over time. {If person spends x amount of money they get a discount on their next purchase, or even something free.} Perhaps they might recieve a greater discount with the more they buy over time, and eventually their prices are lowered drastically. It's another way to let people know you appreciate them spending money, it helps them a little with the prices, and it also encourages more spending.

5. I've also thought cheap limited time items work fairly well. Not only do people buy them because they may not go on sale again, but it offers a great individual piece.

6. If you honestly cannot lower the prices on things, you will need to make them extremely spectacular. I would also suggest making them version-specific. In other words, create entirely new wardrobes, mounts, items, quests, and/or mini-games SPECIFICALLY FOR PWI ALONE, in order to justify the inflated prices. I'm not sure you're capable of that, infact I'm fairly positive the main company does that, but it's one of the only reasons I can think of to pay $40 for a mount. And even then, I'd hesitate.

As already stated, you really have to compete with the prices of the other MMORPGs, even the other PW games available to your customers. If your prices are inflated, not only in comparison to the other PW versions available here, but to all MMORPGs, you will lose a major amount of funding b/c everyone will play where it's cheaper. We, your players, your customers, would like to see the prices lowered so we can spend less and buy more, and support the game we all have come to love.

All being said, I love the game and I look forward to the possible positive changes, and wish PWI the best of luck.

Thanks for listening,

Salacia ( ' w ' )

I see nothing is being done.
I sense another Rohan debako.

This time at least, when the GM's start leading us on that they are actually going to do something, and they actually give a fig, most people won't listen and will just leave instead.

Also, whoever said like $3 for a heiro is cheap, has never been in an AOE party. Where you use one mana heiro an hour to run your array, and then HP heiros, and then EXP scrolls. Somene would have to put a second mortage on their home just to participate in an AOE party for any length at time with these rates.

Either do something about it, or admit that you aren't and let us move the fack on.
Quit BSing your customers.

pali wrote: »

just one thing i want to add. dont know if anybody else said it because i did not read all pages
but i tought this was perfect world INTERNATIONAL no american. it is made by american company but if they just made it for the american budget they should change the name.
and form what ive seen around the world america has the lowest prices for everything so i thin GMs u should recalculate ure numbers with the rest of the countries

You are correct. The servers are hosted in the US, but supposedly the game is for North America and any markets not already covered by another version of Perfect World -- Excluding PW-MY.

However the one argument made in favor of the high prices, seemed to indicate that the company was only taking into account the US economy (with some very erroneous data) for their pricing purposes.

i just wanted to say a little off topic.
you guys... all of you. i like ya its been a while when ive seen so much and so many inteligent posts. it really shows how outstanding and valuable comunity is here. and i am incredible sad that after PWI will go down the chances that i will see you somewhere else are small =( honestly. with all this great thinkers, literat and wise people around here its painfull to leave this place...
thats why after quiting and unistaling the game i am still here - reading this topic. i would love to see you guys where-ever i will end. such comunity is a treasure.

xauss wrote: »

making a mockery of PWEs pricing PWMS (multilanguage service - official European Hosts) have said

Kru (Admin)
"We will adjust our prices based on the MY-Version. The reason is simple. A lot of you played the MY-Version before. So said it is not a new product for you.

From a view of a customer: Why paying more for a product when you can have it cheaper somewhere else?

Especially when you are playing an Internet game country boundaries mean nothing. So said for players it is out of interesting what the average income is in Asian or in western countries. It is also out of interesting for them if a company use this as an argument to raise their prices. Players simple looking for a good place to play with reasonable prices to pay. It doesn't matter for them in which country the game is hosted (besides of some bad pings).

Maybe our prices are not exactly the same like on MY version. Possible that something is cheaper others things are a little bit higher. Also we will run special weekly offers like we are doing..." (on other games)

Yeah I went there and perused their forums then signed up. The mods there seem to actually have a clue about what their customers expect and will pay. Plus the forum moderator, Kru, is much more forthcoming with info than the mods here seem to be. All in all PW-EU seems to be willing to go that extra mile for their potential customers, where PWI will not.

c'est la vie

xauss wrote: »

making a mockery of PWEs pricing PWMS (multilanguage service - official European Hosts) have said

Kru (Admin)
"We will adjust our prices based on the MY-Version. The reason is simple. A lot of you played the MY-Version before. So said it is not a new product for you.

From a view of a customer: Why paying more for a product when you can have it cheaper somewhere else?

Especially when you are playing an Internet game country boundaries mean nothing. So said for players it is out of interesting what the average income is in Asian or in western countries. It is also out of interesting for them if a company use this as an argument to raise their prices. Players simple looking for a good place to play with reasonable prices to pay. It doesn't matter for them in which country the game is hosted (besides of some bad pings).

Maybe our prices are not exactly the same like on MY version. Possible that something is cheaper others things are a little bit higher. Also we will run special weekly offers like we are doing..." (on other games)

Looks like I know where I'll be sending my money to since PWEnt doesn't want it. If prices aren't fixed by then I won't give this company here a second thought as I move on to a better ran one.