I'm truly astonished.

I can't even remember when there wasn't a pack sale happening anymore...

I remember when packs never existed...*cries a little inside*

Packs have been here ever since, erm, was it their 2010 anniversary when they stuck in anniversary packs in? of course they saw the insane money they made out of this little deal thing, which was great because it was just a "one time thing", so before then, the game was free of this plague.

People had to actually level up, farm for there stuff more often then not, instead of now with it simply being a cash bag for PWE to exploit its moronic addicted players to gambling on the packs, it's a shame you didn't get to enjoy the game before that time as it was truely great, even normal players could do TW and actually have fun instead of the "you didn't CS your gear? then die in 1-3 shots."

Renza - Raging Tide wrote: »

Packs have been here ever since, erm, was it their 2010 anniversary when they stuck in anniversary packs in? of course they saw the insane money they made out of this little deal thing, which was great because it was just a "one time thing", so before then, the game was free of this plague.

People had to actually level up, farm for there stuff more often then not, instead of now with it simply being a cash bag for PWE to exploit its moronic addicted players to gambling on the packs, it's a shame you didn't get to enjoy the game before that time as it was truely great, even normal players could do TW and actually have fun instead of the "you didn't CS your gear? then die in 1-3 shots."

2009 b:cry

@ Nat It takes at least 2 weeks without packs for gold to drop, that is assuming orbs arent on sale in the middle.

QQ, Aubree can u force the devs to stop with the pack sales so gold prices can go doown please?b:chuckle

I wish Nat, but all we can do is wait for some god damn empathy. I think GM are apathetic, maybe a bit narcissistic and sadistic too. You know I think packs sell a lot better when they haven't been in for a while. Well Thats when I like to buy some anyway.

hines86ward wrote: »

Backing off the Pack sales would at least give everyone the opportunity to make investments and add an element of balance to the economy.

Clickeh

hines86ward wrote: »

It's one thing for us players to complain about matters that aren't being taken care of. It's something completely different, though, for us to ask the staff to "stop" something. It's glaringly obvious that the consensus among players seems to strongly favor the idea of backing off the Pack sales for a while. The staff claims to notice these issues that are constantly brought up: APS being overpowered, rank badges, certain level caps, updating old classes, ect. I understand that they might be completely unable to address our concerns regarding those matters, but I refuse to believe that it isn't in their power to answer our collective call to take a break on Pack sales. I understand that a good amount of complaining would take place if Packs disappeared for a while, but it can't be more than our current unhappiness with their consistent sale. Furthermore, it diversifies the economy and is a step towards giving equal opportunities to players. I don't see how they can just keep this up.

You might be surprised to hear this, but the forum community here is made up of a pretty small percentage of the players. Anything seen on here cannot be considered "general consensus" due to the lack of input from those not actively participating in the forum community, but who actively play the game.

See my above comment. Also, how many people remember the last time the packs were gone for a while? The forums were flooded with threads requesting packs be added back because of the rising cost of tokens and things bought through use of the tokens.

Overall, I don't think people really understand the impact that packs have had on the economy, and will still have, long after they are gone (if they ever are gone). After taking packs out, gold in the trade system may go down in price, but token-obtained items that people rely on like herb yuanxiao and crab meat will exponentially increase in price. This, coupled with the lost income from gold sales dropping, will prevent anyone but the elite of the elite from getting those two powerful items. Sorry to say it, but I'm not really seeing the benefit of packs going away...

hines86ward wrote: »

I don't consider myself to be one who takes this game as seriously as many of us do, and I have a few considerably lucrative money-making 'shortcuts' in my possession, so I'm not particularly bothered by this. Just overwhelmingly disappointed.

Sunshine Packs are on sale for a whole month. Immediately after, the Easy Rider Packs are introduced and appear on sale for yet another month. Half way through the Rider Pack sale, they bring back Tiger/Sunshine/Coral Packs for another two weeks?? Typically I just dismiss issues like this as part of the obvious (and dirty) agenda this game has for taking advantage of those who are addicted to it (it does). What's leaving me befuddled is the way this new sale is being promoted: "Return of the Packs!", as if we were to have not seen Packs for ages, as if ONE SINGLE PLAYER was actually thinking "you know what we could use? A pack sale."

I have yet to utter a single word of disapproval in regards to the staff's commitment (or lack thereof) to fix the many issues that plague Perfect World. Frankly, I don't even concern myself with them enough to have a solid grasp of what they are, but with as much complaining as I see (especially on the forums), a good portion of you are bound to have pinpointed issues that legitimately need fixing, at least to a small degree.

The fact that, in my experience so far with the game, the backbone of weekly (monthly) sales is made up of items that specifically exploit not one but TWO weaknesses (for lack of a better word) that many of us tend to succumb to (spending too much cash on this game, and the all-too-common addiction to gambling), in my humblest of opinions, amounts to nothing more than a collective middle-finger from the entire staff.

I'll conclude with a legitimate question: Having been here for just under half a year, I'm unaware of how often this kind of thing happens. Have Packs always been on sale 85% of the time? The fact that most mounts in the Cash Shop are considerably more expensive than so-called "Rare" mounts would lead me to believe otherwise. I'd like to know if there's a saving grace here, if at the VERY least, opening Packs can be used as an investment: If those who actually hold on to their Pack items/tokens can actually hope to see their prices rise in the future. Can we eventually expect a period of time without Packs long enough for their contents to actually build up some kind of value? Does anyone NOT share my opinion on these issues? I would love to see some discussion here. Not complaining (although it seems inevitable), but just some help in shedding some light on all of this.

You have taken the words out of my fingers...

When I read the title for the blog I was very let down. You always assume PWI doesn't care about anyone, and then they make a blog post about "return of the packs, round and round and round", which to me reads like, "Yep, we're bringing packs back, try to do something about it b!tches!! LOLLLL!!! b:kiss"

I find its presentation insulting. And any inclination I had to charge some zen and get some packs is GONE. Never buying packs again. And I was someone who liked opening them.

I hate to be the (zillionth) bearer of bad news, but pack sales and the resulting high gold prices are excellent for short-term revenue. They can shut this thing down tomorrow and laugh all the way to the bank if they want, but they'll keep doing it as long as it works. I'm just thinking about what they'll think of to raise gold even more, and no worries, they'll think of something.

hines86ward wrote: »

...The fact that, in my experience so far with the game, the backbone of weekly (monthly) sales is made up of items that specifically exploit not one but TWO weaknesses (for lack of a better word) that many of us tend to succumb to (spending too much cash on this game, and the all-too-common addiction to gambling), in my humblest of opinions, amounts to nothing more than a collective middle-finger from the entire staff....

PWE marketing has been flipping us a collective bird since they saw the earnings statement for Sept. '09. I flipped them one of my own, once, and all it got me for my trouble was a forum perma-ban on my main character.

I don't even bother anymore, the constant sales and complete disregard for anything but a player's wallet has destroyed this game beyond hope of saving. Even if the PW-CN devs turned it all around in the next patch, completely rebalancing classes, tweaking this and that, pouring in tons of new content for middle & endgame... it still wouldn't heal the damage PWE's marketing guys have done, and would continue to do.

The game is effectively dead - pack sales are just PWE's idea of a defibrillator to prevent actual cardiac arrest.

Xyrika - Archosaur wrote: »

honestly whats wrong with you??
remember the time before the last sale? No? The forum was full of "please bring back packs, we need the token".. Year, they listened and now the forum is full of "please no more packs"
So decide what you want!!!

If you don't like the packs, so what you don't have to buy them, but consider prices for nearly everything will raise when sale is over, because you need tokens for most aspects of that game or do you farm your wine for BH, don't you like 75-pots and so on...
Stop complaining about everything..

thats just it. the sale is never over. it may go away for a week or two but it always comes back in full force. i dont want packs to go away. i do need the tokens and other goodies inside of them. but for christ sake we already have a pack sale going on why do we need another one?

someone said earlier that the time frame between pack sales was decreasing. now its just not there. we are in a time now were there will always be packs at 60% off.

The price of gold is really more a question of supply and demand. Pack sales might increase demand, as players perceive the value of the pack to be greater than the cost even at the inflated gold price. Eliminating the sale, however, only has a limited reverse effect. Gold is not going to go back to 400k or even 100k (where it was when I started playing) so long as ANY items exist that have a perceived value greater than that.

I suspect I am stating the obvious, but trading coins for gold and gold for coins does not actually eliminate either (other than the 2% transaction fee). The coins and gold still exist, just in someone else's hands, and I doubt they would like to see the value of their investment drop by the price of either going down.

In the past many items were worth far more coins than they are today. Likely most of you remember the 20% reduction of the price for DQ items, and some will remember how Pet Eggs could be cashed in for a lot more than 1 coin (I seem to recall it was 5 or 10k per egg). There were even item rewards from WQ that could be cashed for 5 million coins, but now they are only worth 5k (and they might be gone altogether, as I have not seen one in ages).

Even so, more and more coins are generated every day inside the game, and either there are more players willing to pay higher prices for Boutique items, or there are fewer players willing to charge Zen on their Credit Cards, thus the price of gold increase. With fewer gold to go around, more coins must be offered to buy it. Simple economics.

As for all the actual sales, they do make me shake my head at times. When an item is 10% off, it is a sale. At 30% it is a markdown, usually implying that it was overpriced to begin with. At 50% off, it is a "going out of business sale". So what on earth does an 80% or more reduction in the price signify? (Case in point, 25 gold mounts available for only 5 gold.)

There are so many sales and so many packs that ANYONE who pays full price for ANYTHING is either very rich or very foolish (or perhaps both). I cannot count how many posts I have read about people complaining that they saved up for ages to buy their $50, $75 or even $100+ items only to have that same item go on sale a few weeks or months later for under $20 (for example, Herc and Nix tickets currently available in shops for a fraction of the "SRP").

Am I complaining? Not really. It is annoying when this kind of thing happens to you, and I still maintain a modicum of empathy for those who feel they have been cheated by these events. But at the same time, the volatility in the market makes the game somewhat more interesting. I have examined a number of the pack sales and I have yet to find one that I thought was beneficial to the pack purchaser. Ultimately anything that is in the pack comes onto the market cheaper than the expected cost of buying enough packs to get the item through sheer randomness. Of course, some people get a rare item with very few purchases, and others pay ten times what the item is worth and still do not get it. Without a fixed price market, however, it means the person who "wins" tends to under value the item, and the perceived price drops.

Personally I do not see more or fewer pack sales doing much to change the price of gold. Perhaps if absolutely nothing new was in the Boutique, and there was NOTHING on sale, then interest in what can be bought with gold would wane a bit and the price might drop to 600-900k. But any lower than that is unlikely, and unless PWI is attracting more new people every week than are leaving, the price of gold is only going to keep trending upwards as coins become more available and gold becomes less.

Just have to try to make the best of it.

Good Luck!