Concerns About Cash Shop Pricing

Paulytnz - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Dang right, and for those that HAVE supported and paid cash already we should get some kind of free credit in the store to balance out any differences that are made.

Be blown if I would be happy that other players get say 100 "boutique Gold" for their 20 dollars when I only got 20 for the same real life cash value.

nope dude, if you decided to spent because didnt want to wait, its your own fault, maybe its not sure if they will lower the prices , but 1 thing is 100% sure, if they lower prices, you wont get nothing for buying zhen with those high prices,
thats what you get for being unable to wait, like a kid that wants a toy and cant wait.

LOL "we should get some kind of free credit to balance out any differences that are made"...hahahah
yes the only difference is that you dont have a brain, and most of ppl do.

I can understand both sides of the arguement. Not compensating the early buyers of Zen if the price drops would most likely alienate those players. They may not spend any more money and might leave the game altogether. At the same time, those players are early adopters, and that carries the same risk as anyone who buys products, especially electronic goods, so early in the life cycle. Whenever something drops in price, be it a cell phone, computer part, or game console, the consumers who purchased the item at the higher price can't really expect compensation. The price they paid was, at the time, the fair market value.

Though I do hope the early buyers are reimbursed on Zen they already bought (as opposed to, say, a deal on a future Zen purchase), as in-game currency really holds no intrinsic value. Especially since you don't own the item you've purchased.

tinkus wrote: »

I can understand both sides of the arguement. Not compensating the early buyers of Zen if the price drops would most likely alienate those players. They may not spend any more money and might leave the game altogether. At the same time, those players are early adopters, and that carries the same risk as anyone who buys products, especially electronic goods, so early in the life cycle. Whenever something drops in price, be it a cell phone, computer part, or game console, the consumers who purchased the item at the higher price can't really expect compensation. The price they paid was, at the time, the fair market value.

Though I do hope the early buyers are reimbursed on Zen they already bought (as opposed to, say, a deal on a future Zen purchase), as in-game currency really holds no intrinsic value. Especially since you don't own the item you've purchased.

Also, these are the people who have decided to support your game, if you're going to lower the prices for those who said hey I would like to support you but its too much money, you could atleast give something back to those who said, yeah its expensive but heh you're a great game so I'll spend what I can to support you anyways.

masala wrote: »

I dont see what the fuzz is all about.

These prices look fine to me. Though im from europe and we probably earn more then US citizens.

5300 Zen is just 2.5 hour of work for me and I get a average salary as a 28 year old. The fun I get out of this amount of zen is a fair trade.

Just leave the prices as they are.

Regards,

Masala

5300 Zen is about 6 hours of work for me, if they don't take out taxes, if they do its about 8 hours... =] but I am making minimum wage, the same as most of the "kids who actually have jobs" are making in the U.S.

masala wrote: »

I dont see what the fuzz is all about.

These prices look fine to me. Though im from europe and we probably earn more then US citizens.

5300 Zen is just 2.5 hour of work for me and I get a average salary as a 28 year old. The fun I get out of this amount of zen is a fair trade.

Just leave the prices as they are.

Regards,

Masala

2.5 hours? This makes me really sad that I have to live in a crappy country....Takes almost 3 days of work to earn that much here. Seriously gotta move when I get the chance >.>

masala wrote: »

I dont see what the fuzz is all about.

These prices look fine to me. Though im from europe and we probably earn more then US citizens.

5300 Zen is just 2.5 hour of work for me and I get a average salary as a 28 year old. The fun I get out of this amount of zen is a fair trade.

Just leave the prices as they are.

Regards,

Masala

It's not a huge amount to me either. However, I refuse to pay 3x as much as the PW MY players just because these prices are based on the US GDP. This is PW international as many have pointed out, and not PW US. Some of the rides in game are 35 zen, which is $35...absolutely ridiculous imo.

On a side note, does anyone know why google checkout is no longer listed as one of the payment options?

masala wrote: »

I dont see what the fuzz is all about.

These prices look fine to me. Though im from europe and we probably earn more then US citizens.

5300 Zen is just 2.5 hour of work for me and I get a average salary as a 28 year old. The fun I get out of this amount of zen is a fair trade.

Just leave the prices as they are.

Regards,

Masala

Yes, but everyone playing the game is not of You're or my age and thus cannot earn $50 in 2.5 hrs. If you take average of all players age I'm sure it will come down. When PWI said it's free-to-play, they are bound to attract younger players and unforunately they can't afford the current prices. :eek:

Djtavo - Lost City wrote: »

like i said before, they may lower the price, but forget about getting "extra zhen".. forget it kids.. if you couldn't wait then dont ask for more.

think about this, maybe if i talk about videogames you kids can understand:
If i go to buy the new video game that came today from the market, and it cost $100.. i knew that it was expensive, but i wanted to play it now! NOW!, and after a month i see that the price of it decrease because there are another new games... should i go to ask the manager of the market to give me some money back because i "supported" him ? wtf? ....

Dont ask for "extra zhen" just because you were impatient.. sorry, but no.

*nods in agreement* I was about to post something very similar to this but you said it all perfectly.

They haven't even announced that they were going to lower the prices and yet everyone is whining about. Anyone saying that well I already spent money so I deserve to get some back doesn't deserve anything back because you paid what you felt was fair to you at the moment you let the transaction go through.

Here's another analogy: If I go to a restaurant and pay $10 for a meal and then I see that next week they're having a sale for the same dish for $5, sure I think to myself dammit I wish I had waited a week. But even if I go in and say hey I paid $10 last week for this same dish, they won't give me the $5 difference back. I paid exactly what I thought the meal was worth at the time I paid for it and it was unfortunate that it went on sale on a later date.

So whining about it won't get you anywhere. If you paid for zen already then you made that decision knowing full well what you were getting into.

This thread is about them lowering the cash shop price and/or Zen price. Let's get that done then worry about reimbursing people who bought zen before any pricing was changed. We don't even know IF they are going to lower the prices, or how they are going to do it. So its jumping the gun to start about this yet until we find out what they are or aren't going to do.

I have petiently been watching this forum for 2 weeks now to see what if any positive changes this company was going to make to allow this game to thrive and grow instead of release and fade out. I think it is a fact at this point the current pricing structure is not what lpayers expected and certainly is over priced compared to what most posters are willing to pay in the long run to continue to play a F2P game. Also note worthy is the poll they tried to say were their choices and how they were thinking of resolving the issue was insulting to say the least. Offer a 150 USD package just to get a bonus..insane considering that that amount would pay for a premium pay to play game for a year and everything you could ever need to play is included. So as we sit and watch more and more people slowly leave I just begin to wonder do they get it. Just look at the posts on the forums as an indicator of things. 2 weeks ago this one thread had posts so fast you could refresh to read more..now its literally hours between finding people who care anymore. Are these players just gone to the other version mentioned or did they give in an buy the Zen and gave up on change. I wonder which it is ..lol.

So please give us some crumb of information about the direction you plan to take this game so we can make our final decision to stay and play or move on and we will reward you with hard earned american dollars !

enricoe wrote: »

*nods in agreement* I was about to post something very similar to this but you said it all perfectly.

They haven't even announced that they were going to lower the prices and yet everyone is whining about. Anyone saying that well I already spent money so I deserve to get some back doesn't deserve anything back because you paid what you felt was fair to you at the moment you let the transaction go through.

Here's another analogy: If I go to a restaurant and pay $10 for a meal and then I see that next week they're having a sale for the same dish for $5, sure I think to myself dammit I wish I had waited a week. But even if I go in and say hey I paid $10 last week for this same dish, they won't give me the $5 difference back. I paid exactly what I thought the meal was worth at the time I paid for it and it was unfortunate that it went on sale on a later date.

So whining about it won't get you anywhere. If you paid for zen already then you made that decision knowing full well what you were getting into.

That's great if it's a sale, and a restaurant, but this wouldn't be a sale, and this also wouldn't be a restaurant its an online business and if you want to **** off a ton of people who supported you even if it was expensive, feel free not to give them some sort of repayment.

tinkus wrote: »

You could equate it to a price drop on anything. Just because the price drops the day after you buy a product does not mean you automatically get the difference.

Nobody said anything about automatic, they just asked to be rewarded for supporting the game while prices were high.

First of all, I see no reason why anyone should care if players do get compensated since someone pays for the F2P games for those who don't. Some of the comments are rather rude. It's fine to say you don't think they should be compensated, but to call them stupid and such (not the person I responded to.. others) is rather mean. Why would you care?

Yes, in life you buy stuff and then it's cheaper and you don't get compensated, but, if the game designers decide their prices were unfair, then what difference does it make? Sometimes you just do something because it's the right thing to do,e specially for the people who put their money up when others would not.

Well it seems like everyone is on full agreement about lowering the prices. However I have an idea on a change that would benefit both sides here. Now I didn't read all the pages cause quite frankly there's to many. So this is my idea.

If you want to leave the prices for items as they are that's fine, but do this in return since it doesn't cost the company anything more. Increase the amount of Zen received when purchased. Instead of getting only 2000 for 20.00 way not have a pricing list like this.

10.00 = 10000
20.00 = 20000
30.00 = 30000
40.00 = 40000
50.00 = 50000
60.00 = 60000
70.00 = 70000
80.00 = 80000
90.00 = 90000
100.00 = 100000

No bonus amount for buying the bigger amount, but at least this way everyone gets an amount they feel balances an offset in prices. You would have more people buying with this price list, because this is a price that everyone can afford at any time. Plus they would be happier with the current prices of items without having to change them. I myself would be happy with this because I have a chance to get the 10.00 one more then I can any other one. 20.00 is just to much for me a lot of the times, so it leaves me out of getting anything at all.

As far as the economy goes, no it is not doing fine, it's getting better but not fast enough. I was homeless for 5 months (Florida my home state) Luckily by the good graces of some friends, I got the money to move out of state and get a job, and start rebuilding my life again. But during the 5 months I was homeless over 150,000 families lost they're homes that they had been in for 5+ years, either to loss of jobs, and not being about to find any, or decrease in pay. I lived into a apartment that monthly with utilities cost me 1500.00, and I only made after taxes 1800.00 Then add food, and fuel, and I was over 1800.00. Mind you this was just the basics of life nothing extra. And most of the time my food consisted of ramen noodles/ Fuel was over $4.50 a gallon at the time.

The late George Carlon once said

The Upper Class keeps all of the money and pays none of the taxes.
The Middle Class does all of the work, and pays all of the taxes.
The Poor are just there to scare the Middle Class.

Xan Steel

WTH, the upper class (1% of the population) pays 39% of the USA treasury look at the IRS statistic.

Even here, the rich is supporting the game because clearly not many people are buying but there are big spenders that somehow sustaining these maddening prices.

Blancheneige - Heavens Tear wrote: »

It's like having 3 sellers of Toyota in the same city. If someone want to buy a Toyota, he will likely go where it sells the cheaper. Even if the cheaper store don't have all those flashy neon signs and vendors in black suits and ties.

Sure some people would still buy there, but not enough to keep the store open.

PWE need to enter something in their heads : they are not alone offering the same product on the market. I doubt the market can sustain 3 identical products. At least one will go down. I doubt it will be MY-EN. And as it goes, I doubt it will be PW-Europe either.

Unless PWE react. And fast.

well... except the 'toyota' in this case is not in the same city. do you buy nike shoes here in the USA? well they sell the same kind of nike shoes in China for like 1/10 of the price you pay. revolt?