A Big Rip Off

mall405a · June 2012

Why is it when i tried to login i couldnt unless i linked my cryp account to pw. now when i purchessd 2000 cpoints i had to buy zen the exchange it to cp and pay a 5.00 transfer fee so instead of receiving 2000 cp i only received 1600. i then had to buy more zen and pay again the exchange rate in order to get the 2000 total cp to buy my new ship. in the us i believe there are laws againts this type of purchases. i think members who want to voluntary join pw is fine but no one should be forced the make the change.
Admiral Franklin.

eiledon · June 2012

please learn math/search function before posting invalid information. this has been discussed many many times, even within the past 24 hours.

100 cpoints formerly cost $1.25 directly from cryptic mechanism ($25 = 2000 cpoints)

100 zen costs $1 ($20 = 2000 zen)
100 zen = 80 cpoints
80 cpoints = $1
100 cpoints = $1.25 ($25 = 2000 cpoints - oh look exactly the same price)

Also you signed the TOS when joining the game, that TOS is now owned by PWE. if you don't like it you don't have to stay.

mall405a · June 2012

eiledon wrote: »

please learn math/search function before posting invalid information. this has been discussed many many times, even within the past 24 hours.

100 cpoints formerly cost $1.25 directly from cryptic mechanism ($25 = 2000 cpoints)

100 zen costs $1 ($20 = 2000 zen)
100 zen = 80 cpoints
80 cpoints = $1
100 cpoints = $1.25 ($25 = 2000 cpoints - oh look exactly the same price)

Also you signed the TOS when joining the game, that TOS is now owned by PWE. if you don't like it you don't have to stay.

u forgot the exchange rate u have to pay. i wanted to buy a ship that cost 2000 cp. first had to buy 2000 zen to purchase that 2000 cpoint which is fine but i then had to transfer my 2000 zen to cp and pay 5.00 exchange rate. they took that out of my 2000 zen so i only received 1600 cp. now how is that fare or right. if crypt is own buy pw then there should be no exchange rate.

captainotaku · June 2012

mall405a wrote: »

u forgot the exchange rate u have to pay. i wanted to buy a ship that cost 2000 cp. first had to buy 2000 zen to purchase that 2000 cpoint which is fine but i then had to transfer my 2000 zen to cp and pay 5.00 exchange rate. they took that out of my 2000 zen so i only received 1600 cp. now how is that fare or right. if crypt is own buy pw then there should be no exchange rate.

There is no fee. It comes out exactly the same. 2000 zen = 1600 CP. They don't take anything out. It is just a silly extra step when trying to give them your well-earned cash.

Here's a link to the exchange information, although eiledon's explanation was spot-on. Before if you wanted to buy the Odyssey pack it would cost 4,000 CP = $50. 4,000 CP = 5,000 Zen = $50.

https://billing.perfectworld.com/exchange

eiledon · June 2012

I guess my explanation was just a tad too complicated. oh well. i tried. next.

captainotaku · June 2012

eiledon wrote: »

I guess my explanation was just a tad too complicated. oh well. i tried. next.

I just get the feeling they didn't read your explanation too closely. You were incredibly thorough! But the currency system that has been set up is kind of dumb and it can be confusing at first glance. I have a feeling everything will be converted to Zen soon. This has the same feel as the transition over to the Euro. :biggrin:

thoroon · June 2012

captainotaku wrote: »

I have a feeling everything will be converted to Zen soon.

Ya, looking forward to the big rants about Ships costing 2.500 Zen then ... what a big ripoff! :biggrin:

eiledon · June 2012

a single item for sale over on PWI in game store was 75 dollars when it was released. When the legendary pets were introduced it pretty much worked out way over 200 dollars to collect the items to hatch the pet. There will always be someone willing and able to pay a price. Eventually the prices do reduce (at least most of them have on PWI via their constant sales - unfortunately this has had the effect that ingame currency is worth a pittance now) If pwe can be a bit more consistent with their sales here on STO i imagine people would complain less about the pricing - e.g if one ship a month was at 75% of its original price I wonder how many more ships they would sell.

The one thing I will say about PWE games, they do let you buy cash shop items by converting in game currency. so wether you want to work in game or in life you can get the items you want. the choice is alway yours. but if you must have the shiny you have to pay one way or another

captainotaku · June 2012

Yeah, their ship sales have been fewer and fewer as of late, which is unfortunate. But hopefully the prices will go down eventually as you suggest, eiledon.

gettorix · June 2012

I'd imagine that ship sales drop off because as account unlocks, one purchase is all you need. Then since the main influx of players tapers off, fewer need to buy them.

It'd be best to just convert to Zen and avoid all this confusion anyway. Not that the word Zen seems appropriate for Trek, but neither does Cryptic Points.

("Spock to Kirk: Captain, we've come across a wormhole that seems to be emitting a strange poorly understood quark-like particle known as Cryptic Points."

Kirk: "Spock, who names these particles? i think they must have been doing LDS at the time...")

beezle23 · June 2012

gettorix wrote: »

I'd imagine that ship sales drop off because as account unlocks, one purchase is all you need. Then since the main influx of players tapers off, fewer need to buy them.

It'd be best to just convert to Zen and avoid all this confusion anyway. Not that the word Zen seems appropriate for Trek, but neither does Cryptic Points.

I'm not sure they would switch CP to Zen -- PWE seems to like having each game have its own particular in-world currency and Zen be the account-wide currency. (Easier to tweak rates for a single game with respect to what it's worth in RealMoney, I suspect).

STO has one of the messier economies I've seen in a game. EC, Dil, CP, GPL, Lobi . . .

gettorix · June 2012

beezle23 wrote: »

I'm not sure they would switch CP to Zen -- PWE seems to like having each game have its own particular in-world currency and Zen be the account-wide currency. (Easier to tweak rates for a single game with respect to what it's worth in RealMoney, I suspect).

STO has one of the messier economies I've seen in a game. EC, Dil, CP, GPL, Lobi . . .

Or at least changing the cpoint value to 1CP = 1zen. Just to make this easier on those who freak out when the numbers don't match. Just a suggestion. I'm fine either way

captsol · June 2012

Honestly, the Zen system is the dumbest in-game monetary system I've ever seen.

Instead of click a button and get C-Store points while still in the STO UI you now have to exit the game, go through a series of pages.

After that, you wait for them to review it (only if you have a character above level 10 and have played for one week). Then they put it in your wallet. You can't use it yet, though, oh no, you have to go into ANOTHER website, access your account, sift through all PWE games, transfer the Zen. Wait for the transfer and /THEN/ the exchange rate is 100 Zen to 80 Cryptic Points.

So instead of making it simple, easy, non-immersion breaking, and encouraging people to use it like it used to it's the most insane, convoluted system I've ever seen.

askray · June 2012

captsol wrote: »

Honestly, the Zen system is the dumbest in-game monetary system I've ever seen.

Instead of click a button and get C-Store points while still in the STO UI you now have to exit the game, go through a series of pages.

After that, you wait for them to review it (only if you have a character above level 10 and have played for one week). Then they put it in your wallet. You can't use it yet, though, oh no, you have to go into ANOTHER website, access your account, sift through all PWE games, transfer the Zen. Wait for the transfer and /THEN/ the exchange rate is 100 Zen to 80 Cryptic Points.

So instead of making it simple, easy, non-immersion breaking, and encouraging people to use it like it used to it's the most insane, convoluted system I've ever seen.

As it was just posted, c-points are going away anyways so there won't be a need to exchange

captsol · June 2012

askray wrote: »

As it was just posted, c-points are going away anyways so there won't be a need to exchange

I'll believe that when I see it. Unless they 'Lock' Zen that you'll get as a stipend to STO if you're a subscriber/lifer I can't see them doing away with C-Store points because you could use Zen with ANY PWE game and C-Store Lifer points are STO only.

captainotaku · June 2012

captsol wrote: »

I'll believe that when I see it. Unless they 'Lock' Zen that you'll get as a stipend to STO if you're a subscriber/lifer I can't see them doing away with C-Store points because you could use Zen with ANY PWE game and C-Store Lifer points are STO only.

Yup, that's what they are doing. They're locking the stipend so that it is only usable in STO (it will be 500 Zen, which equals 400 CP). They already do something similar with the Cryptic Point stipend in Champions Online. I WISH I could use that stipend over here. I have enough at this point to buy the Odyssey Pack if I could combine the two.

https://support.perfectworld.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4136

zigadeic · June 2012

no biggie games change constantly as long as we get the Star Bases I am happy

calicowall · June 2012

I sort of feel your pain mall405a... and I do mean sort of. I remeber momentarily thinking the exact same thing the first time I puchased the electronic credits. I stopped myself quickly, thinking: I am turning real money into imaginary electronic money. It no longer has value outside of a fictional, digital world. I am a captive market. Either I grind like a butcher's sharpening wheel, or cough up a pittance for something neat that I'll never, ever, ever get to tough with my own two hands. Just remember, eRepubik is worse. It's not such a conversion loss in the end though, is it? It's not as though the C-Store or Perfect World is run by usurers; I regularily get ripped off by friends when trading resources for board games... I guess we're going to have to live with it. this is a seriously well-developed game after all.

grrga · June 2012

If you check out tribble, it's already their. :frown:

badwolf6100 · June 2012

Maybe the math is ok for USD ($) but with EUR the prices have risen.

Before:
1EUR = 100CP

NOW:
500ZP / 4.5EUR x 0.8 = 88,8CP

===> 1EUR = 88,8 CP <===

so this is 11,2CP/EUR less! :eek:

Cryptic/Perfect World: Please explain.

A Big Rip Off

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