Of Pricing and the "International" Label

Maybe they should change the game's name to "Perfect World: No Poor People Allowed"

Honestly, with SO MANY different companies in different industries offering massive discounts on goods/services, I can't even imagine what the PWE execs are thinking.

Here are some deals I've seen in recent weeks just by driving around my area:

Fast food: Complete meals for ~$5 versus $7-$8 (i.e Subway/Quizno's)
Groceries: More bulk pricing for goods, priced around $5-10, many $1 each sales on frozen foods
Gas: ~$3.50 for premium (yes, cheaper than the $4.75 I used to pay just a few months ago)
Cable: HD, DVR, Showtime (+premium Showtime) for $85/mo versus $120
Macy's (I know.. dept store!): 50% off clothing.. I bought a pair of jeans and two shirts for $120... regular price $240!
Hometown Buffet: 50% off one person with one full price purchase ($12)
Fro-yo: 2-for-1 sales.. my gf and I can each get a nicely sized yogurt for $5 total

I thought the charm prices were reasonable at $1.50 (I bought 5), but since it appears they have no intentions of lowering the price, I have no intentions of spending any more real world cash on the game. Once I hit a roadblock and can't level without charms, I'll leave, plain and simple. As a result of my charm purchases, I bought about three more bank stones and one inventory stone, which I'm sure is an indirectly positive effect of lowered prices.

I don't know if these people know we're in a massive economic downturn, but lol@them for not adapting.

You guys seem to believe there are mostly americans playing. This is not the case. So far from the ppl I've met 1/3 is from europe. For us europeans this game is fairly cheap. 50 dollar is about 2 hours work for me, even though I only receive a modest salary.

Face it guys, if Americans cant pay the bills others will (just like in RL)

You know, I enjoy PW, and while I don't think it's up to a $15 a month quality of game yet, I would gladly pay $10 a month. Unfortunately, $10 won't get you very far. One of the biggest downsides of the game is the small inventory. But $3 just seems too much for an extra slot. Now if an inventory stone were $1.00, I probably would have spent $20 on them already (and have only been playing a week), but at $3.00 a pop I haven't spent (and won't spend) and money in the cash shop.

That's awesome that there are people out there making $45,000+ a year, but unfortunately I live in the Midwest currently. Where I live, if you are making $25,000 a year you are considered well off, $30,000 is considered WEALTHY. Here where I live, the wealthy people make $15,000 less than what the government considers the average American salary. Average salary here in Southwest Missouri is around $19,000 annually.

Sure, I am quite well off for where I live, making about $400 a week (double what a lot of people make down here). But gas costs $60 a week, and bills add up to about $250 a week. That doesn't include food. Say I only spend $50 a week on food (for myself, wife, and two kids) that leaves $40 over every week to spend on things like entertainment and savings accounts.

I love games with fashion, and I definitely need a bigger inventory, but I'll be honest and say I won't be spending any money in the cash shop unless the prices go down. Now I know there are a lot of people that are arguing this point, both people who think the prices in the cash shop are too much and those that are just fine with the current prices. But if you read the posts, the ratio of People who think it's too expensive : People who think it's fine where it is happens to be around 40:1. Now I'm not an economic expert, but I know a lot about business and profits. I run my own business, I am a graphic designer. My fees are considerably less than any other company in the area, and I get a lot of business. I used to charge so much for my services, but when I lowered my prices my business (and income) rose by about 150%.

Now I'm not saying that I'm going to quit if cash shop items don't go down; it is a free to play game after all. I'm just saying that I simply won't be buying anything. However, if prices ever do go down, then yeah, I'll start spending money. I'm all about value though, and the cash shop items have no value at current prices.

Yeah seems prices still are very high here. It's why I went from, plans on building a strong guild here, getting territory-in game money that way. Too returning too PW-MY, which I found out alot of my friends did like wise. This game is too different the names sucks. Venomancer, that's just stupid -.- . WF, sounds better WF-WereFox. This game charges 20 dollars for zen. Which is ridiculous and surprising coming from me. Seeing as how I spent 1,000$ USD on PW-MY, because I enjoyed it that much. Yet, I refuse too spend a dime here due to the prices. 20 dollars for zen is quiet high. Where on PW-MY (Which ALOT of Americans play), prices are $5.67, for 20 zen, which we call cubi. PW-MY is very active, and profiting highly compared to this server which as no one ever buy's zen will probably shut down. Since this is a off shoot company of the main China based PW int, why not ask them for advice on your marketing solutions. As PW-CN, has 8-12 fully stocked servers. At cheap prices. Anyways I just came too see if prices dropped yet and they probably wont. So back to PW-MY I go again. Btw, your Customer Service was great compared too most games. Your prices are just too high -.- Im Kevy_Boy if anyone plays the other PW-MY-Oracle server. Oh and btw regarding the post above me. There already is a PW-EN so you can't call this server PW-EN, it's why they named it PW-Int. PW-EN is the Malaysian English speaking server. Where like 1/10 are actually malaysians and rest are around the world half of which being from America. Hence the PW-EN . Hope PW-Int knows since its based in california. Tons of california's lost their jobs, and are laid off, living off of govt, coupons-funding in some cases. Economy is getting worse everyday with people worried we're going to end up like the 1930's depression. America is flat broke. Where do you expect us to come up with a dollar yet alone 20 too spend on entertainment. I should know, I got laid off myself like most other people. So Entertainment is very high too pass the time, but at smaller cheaper prices. Your survey may show Americans making 45k a year. But, did it take into account the hundreds of thousands of people who have gotten laid off, and that number well shooting into the millions now. Which means Americans have very little too spend. PW-Int was a great idea, you just had bad timing on when too create it. In a year or ten when our economy is back to normal. Try PW-Int again, and Im sure your profits will sky rocket. Just not now when we're all broke. b:surrender Good luck with your server and too those people I played with on here. Im going back to Oracle server, sorry.

Zanko - Lost City wrote: »

You have two options.

1. Be rich in real life and spend your money on Zen.

or

2. Be rich in game and buy Zen with in game gold.

I prefer option 2, just play the economy and you can be rich in no time:rolleyes:

Zanko~

yeah.. play the economy and be a low **** level like zanko... way to waste grind time NERD

I have no problem at all with the $ - Zen - Gold rates. Even with the current exchange rates I get when buying US$ it's not too bad.

Lets look at a basic setup. You don't have to purchase the following to play, but in reality these are things most people would look at doing:

US$28 to expand inv and bank <- One off cost, (less if you do the quests first) not too bad in reality when you compare to purchase price of pay to play games.

US$10-25 for a set of clothes <- One off cost unless you like variety. Doesn't include multiple pigment purchase to get the colour you want. Again, not too bad even with the expansion price when you compare to a pay to play startup cost and a month of playing.

Then there are the rest of the cash shop items that aren't really needed to play the game (no matter how cool it looks getting around on a polar bear!). These are expensive, but in reality there will always be somebody who wants to buy the latest item, and if they want to spend US$50 on a mount then it's up to them.

Where it starts to get far too expensive for the average player is when it comes to the most important items for anybody serrious about playing....

US$2.50 for a charm that will end up lasting 1 day at most when you reach higher levels is too much. US$60+ a month is so far and above the going monthly fee for a MMORPG Pay 2 Play cost it's laughable.

As a lvl47 WB, I can drop 20% of my charm in a fb39 run if the Cleric is careless. I can easily drop just as much while doing quests as I have no "ranged" attack or "pet" to lure the mob I want from a pack, so can end up facing 2-4 mobs at the same time. I can only imagine that % increasing as time goes on and the mob damage gets higher.

The Sale price wasn't as painfull (would still like to see it drop a little to say $1.25). I can justify paying US$30 a month on charms for a game that I enjoy and even in open beta is alot more reliable to play than the game I recently purchased / quit!

In most industries, the majority of companies don't make a killing on the basic items. It's the add-ons and upsells that make the money. There will always be people willing to spend the $50-100 a month simply because they can. So by all means, offer fantastic looking mounts or flying items... offer a designer range of clothes... make $100 on a handbag if you want, but don't forget that it's the "bread and butter" customers that keep the money coming in. When the trendy people have flown off to the next great game, it's those $20-40 a month players that will keep the bills payed.

As it is at the moment, I have a stock of charms bought at the sale price. Once they run out I will need to take another look at either a)How many hours a week I can play or b)If it's worth continuing, and I know I am far from the only one who will do so.

so basically everyone is just angry that the charms are still so expensive and we can live with everything else >.>

azraelkurai wrote: »

I love games with fashion, and I definitely need a bigger inventory, but I'll be honest and say I won't be spending any money in the cash shop unless the prices go down. Now I know there are a lot of people that are arguing this point, both people who think the prices in the cash shop are too much and those that are just fine with the current prices. But if you read the posts, the ratio of People who think it's too expensive : People who think it's fine where it is happens to be around 40:1. Now I'm not an economic expert, but I know a lot about business and profits. I run my own business, I am a graphic designer. My fees are considerably less than any other company in the area, and I get a lot of business. I used to charge so much for my services, but when I lowered my prices my business (and income) rose by about 150%.

Here is the thing thou. I bet if you go out and asked around. You'll find 400 people who says gas price is too high to every one that says its just right. And yet I don't see the gas price comming down. And I am pretty sure if they lower gas price, more people will be buying gas. This is just the way it is. I personally bought some gold when I started the game (viewed it as I am buying the game) and now i am just trading in game coins for gold. Of course i would like to see lower prices. But since thats not going to happen, i gotta work with that i got.

Wotsmaleus :

With a mount perhaps, but what of clothing and marriage? Those are a bit more meaningful

I'm not sure that's the case. Clothing in-game is a primarily aesthetic choice; it only changes the appearance of your sprite, and even the benefit of not having armor visible (in PvP) can be gained by walking around in underpants. Clothing in the real world is not : it is both highly advantageous to have (lacking the proper clothing can be a social taboo, a health risk, or even get you arrested), and typically consumable. In the real world, a marriage license provides little more than a governmental permission slip and registration -- that can be used for tax breaks, but it's not really much on its own, and you'll often need to pay more for even a basic legal wedding. The Wedding Packs here, from what I understand, involve giving out at least 20 gold worth of Wines alone, in addition to other goods.

And the kicker is, people who make the stated GDP are playing PWI for what reason? As you pointed out there are relatively cheep games.

People don't make a GDP; it's just a number that tells you about what the size of an economy. People make income, and while the GDP/capita is related to average income, it is always significantly higher (the median income for the United States 25+ population is 32,140 USD, the median income for Malaysia is not well documented, but believed to deviate even further from GDP/capita). It's also a lot easier to get meaningful and accurate GDP/capita than average income, since the former can be modeled from large economic trends while the latter works from individuals.

Why play a free-to-play game if you make money? For starters, the average cost of living is rather impressively variable within the United States. You could easily make 32,140 USD or even 41,000 USD in New York City, but the simple cost of living means that, for basics and essentials, you'd have the same percentage of your income disposable as someone making 16,000 USD to 20,500 USD in Colorado. It's not unreasonable to find some situations where you make money but do not have it available for constant expenditures like subscription games require.

Some people are rather dramatically opposed to "subscription" style games.

Heck, some people might just find the game entertaining, and many of the "cheap" games boring.

However, it is my understanding that expansions of WoW are included.

WoW patches are included with the subscription. WoW expansion content is not : entering the Burning Crusade zones, or starting a character the two new races, requires a purchase of the Burning Crusade box or code. Most subscription games use a similar model, although the prices and number of expansions tend to vary.

I wasn't aware that the GDP is a number set in stone by an agency known for it's marvelous information gathering.

The American GDP has not, historically, varied much other than a slowed level of growth. Even during the Great Depression, it only lost a decade worth of GDP growth. GDP is merely a sum of a few values, and while it's difficult to get the numbers as an individual, it's one of the few cases where Western government have not been able to easily mislead people.

My concern is the clientele of the game. It is my thought that it's mostly children and the less gainfully employed. Though, this could be figured out easily with a simple options poll on log-in. The poll should consist of three questions; age, employment statue, and household income.

That sort of effort relies on you getting somewhere near perfect information, which is never a given in surveys of private information and even more problematic when you're focused on economic information. People do tend to lie about how much money they make, especially when it would alter what fees they encounter.

It'd also only be helpful if PWI was interested in only their current users. If the average income from this theoretical survey is significantly less than the Malaysian average income, that doesn't mean that PWI needs to drop prices -- it means that their current userbase almost certainly won't be profitable, and they need to find a different marketing scheme.

But here's the real kicker, WHO is PWI being marketed to?

That's not the real issue. The issue is who PWI is supposed to be profit from, and what density of players that the server model can support.

The trick to free-to-play games is that individual server, resources, and bandwidth costs, while high, can be supported without a lot of payers. Judging from my bandwidth and the number of players I've seen in-game, I've built servers that had higher requirements and run them (at profit) off just advertisements. Meanwhile, having players is essential toward having more players in the future; "hardcore" MMO players have a very high tendency to prefer games with a large playerbase, and they're also more likely to have more income and more expendable income. Free players who like the game tend to inform other players, and word-of-mouth is what MMOs thrive on. Keeping the interests and connections of these lower-value customers is essential toward getting better odds in the future.

Take a look at MapleStory's numbers. They've been wildly successful, and that's with costs not horribly far off. Most players don't buy, but they encourage others to play, and the rare ones that do purchase have relatively lucrative results.

Drynog

As a lvl47 WB, I can drop 20% of my charm in a fb39 run if the Cleric is careless. I can easily drop just as much while doing quests as I have no "ranged" attack or "pet" to lure the mob I want from a pack, so can end up facing 2-4 mobs at the same time. I can only imagine that % increasing as time goes on and the mob damage gets higher.

While it requires changing weapons, Barbarians can use Bows. You won't do much damage, but it'll give you the 20 foot range that's great for pulling off individual mobs.

Do make sure to hotkey a switch back, though, since you can't even True Form with a bow equipped.

Kazue - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Here is the thing thou. I bet if you go out and asked around. You'll find 400 people who says gas price is too high to every one that says its just right. And yet I don't see the gas price comming down.

This statement is actually quite amusing to me. Gas prices dropped from $3.79 to $2.81 over the last week and a half.

Just thought I would point that little bit of irony out, lol.

$50 for 53 gold doesn't seem like a very smart move to me. Maybe I'm cheap.

I personally think it should at least buy double that amount of gold.

All I have to say is that I dont find prices too high since I dont know how much youve been paying in others mmo. This is actually the first time I got involved in a mmo, never actually being attracted too much.

Advantages:
1- its the first game Ive seen that allows ppl to sell the CS item ingame for coin. I mean, I havent spent a single USD but I got already a Safe and Inv stone, and one time Ill buy also a mount, with game money. Thats a possibility that other games dont offer, so I find it very attractive.
2-Those who have money (like in real life) will have some advantages over those who does not spend money. Wanting to spend money its associated to better food, better clothes, etc, in this game I believe is the same; if you spend money you actually level faster, you look prettier, just like in real like. Lets face it, not everyone can buy a channel dress.
3- Altough I dont know if possible, but Ill suggest that prices should varies. Hows that?

Well, being an "International" games, prices are only based on US Economy, as far as we have read from the post of an admin.
My suggestion is this one: Each country should have a Cash Shop for each item according to Per Capita Income's Country or something related to how much people earn.
This way everyone would be able to buy and not only US and EU communities. Its a fact that most players are from us and european countries, in this case prices can be the same for them, but for others countries could be an extra income for non us-eu contries.

Just a suggestion