OK...
Can somebody please explain to me why the option to buy $30.00 of ZEN was removed from the ARC CHARGE page???
(you can now only buy in $10/$20/$50 & $100 dollar increments)
Cryptic/PWE, you sell THRITY DOLLAR ships, why in the H+E+L+L would you remove that option for your purchasing customers?????
Un-Frackin'-Believable!
<grumble..., grumble..., grumble>
STO Member since February 2009.I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-
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That sums it up
Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
^^ Precisely because of that!
I think you guys are reading waaay to much into this. I'm in no way a PWE fan, but the increment payments provided is pretty much an industry standard. Also, they have multiple titles to deal with. You honestly thing they would just change it for the sake of one game for one particular purchase?
Why they changed it is anyone guess. Mine is to follow industry standard and that the $30 option wasn't a popular option, or you could be right but it's a stretch to say the least.
It'd be nice, but not practical for them to do.
The 'multiple titles' argument, I must admit, is a solid one. And the bonus Zen you get with the $50 bucks option is nice too.
"Industry standard" would be an excuse - especially if the earlier mentioned "let's sucker the people into buying a $50 package then "only" need a $10 package to "top up" enough for a second ship ploy is in effect. Many people still believe this kind of stunt is the norm especially after stunts like Microsoft's and Cryptic's "original" ploy of "masking" the true price of things by making 80 "online" points = $1 US, or other stunts like charging $5.50 for a costume and, again, not providing a $5.50 option to shop with...
Practical? That I'm aware of, "every" utility that has a "pay online" option has a "pay an amount of your choosing" option. Adapting that to post X zen (the user inputted amount) to the PWE account in question instead of X dollars against a bill balance shouldn't be "extremely" hard.
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
The "sucker effect" is very real as in your example.
F2P games especially follow the model of, buy $50 worth of coins but can only spend $48.50 of it or be short by $2.50 to get the big item you want. It's designed to be almost impossible or at least very difficult to have at the end of it $0 worth of coins exactly.
Hence the lack of practicality of them doing a choose your pay amount option. It would do away with that effect. I would expect to see less of these in the future I'm afraid as companies learn from others success.
Also I forgot to mention that each transaction costs money for them. Therefore if someone was to buy $30 then add another $20 later is more expensive for them instead of just spending $50 straight out. The bonus you receive on larger transaction is an incentive to help to have less transactions as well as of course, spend more money on the game.
I'll take the $20 + $10 dollar option, thank you very much.
Or... I just won't bother.
Used to buy every ship They put out... till Their 'Thirty Dollar Mindset'
kicked in.
Now, I'm very picky about which ones I get.
Ah well, Their loss.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion