redspecter23 wrote: »

I think ZOS may learn the hard way that while making money is good for them, the loss of respect that they gain from some players will not be worth it in the end. I bought this new motif because I think it looks great on weapons. I was assuming (wrongfully) that it would be packaged the same as the Grim Harlequin with the 50ish stones for 2200 crowns. Can ZOS price this however they want? Sure, but I'm not as happy about this purchase as I would have been if it were 2200 crowns.

I'm not stupid. I know this is a marketing trick to get me to buy mimic stones and get a bigger sale out of me, but I didn't do that. I'll use the 5 stones I have + any Stahlrim stones I can buy from guild stores. They got 200 LESS from me than they would have gotten and it left me feeling like ZOS had tried to scam me. Negative sale + negative respect is a double whammy against ZOS from my point of view. Respect is everything when I'm giving them almost $20 a month. When they lose enough respect, they lose my sub as well. That's not a threat, just a fact. I don't feel good about paying people who try every chance they get to scam more money out of me.

This rings true to me. In the short term, I may continue to support ESO, since I've built community here. In the long term, I will be very wary to invest in any future ZOS games, since I now know how they function as a business.

We can click Insightful/Agree/Awesome all we want here but the real voting happens with our money. We'll probably see the results with the next crown shop motif.

I actually don't mind the motif not being sold with 50 mimic stones.

But not even including enough to create a full set once purchased?

That's just chintzy.

Moves like this erode my desire to continue playing. ZM does some good stuff, but this seems to be a growing trend in their merchandising.

I hope they reverse course.

A good move would be "gifting" every player with 5 mimic stones so they can at least use the motif they paid for.

Ankael07 wrote: »

We can click Insightful/Agree/Awesome all we want here but the real voting happens with our money. We'll probably see the results with the next crown shop motif.

The sad thing is I am certain that plenty of people bought this new motif thinking it was just like the Grim motif (buyers did no research) and because of this ZOS will justify selling us more motifs via crowns for an even larger price... just to see how much they can squeeze out of us before we stop buying altogether!! Long term it is bad for business but they are more than likely thinking about short term (gouge us for as much money as they can now) and worry about long term later!

This and the cLown crates have sealed the deal for me. This is another "whale" offering, another attempt to milk people out of their money because, surprise, games cost money to maintain/develop. Boohoo. If they raised the sub/ESO+ fee to $20/mo, I'd gladly pay it as I'd then have an entire month to EARN the motif or mount or whatever it is.

At the end of the day this is a game, not a shop, not a store, not a business. It's a game they, as a business, offer to players who then pay, as consumers, to play as said players. This is an equalizing reality that then gives anyone who pays the entry fee to be able to earn their way through actual gameplay. I feel an epic and unmistakable loss of immersion clicking on purchases in a cLown store to advance my character's viability as compared to other's. How much satisfaction does one feel in purchasing a motif or anything else compared to earning it over months of actual play? It's not even the same sport. It's a night and day difference and it's cheapened my experience to the point I'm no longer logging in anymore. I'm done. Sure, have my "stuff". At least all of my "stuff" I actually earned. Too bad I won't be logging in to hand over my earned goodies...

Euphemism and rationalize it all you want. They clearly aren't making enough money from the ESO+ paying customer base to continue production/maintaining of this game and have gone the way of least resistance, appealing to the lowest form of human decision making: ego and the desire to accumulate wealth and power. Even if all of it is virtual, human beings want other human beings to regard them highly, if not outright envy them.

I long for the days of City of Heroes/Villains and its far better, far richer experiences and superior game design, not to mention their amazing customer support and relations. ESO has been fun for a time and has many wonderful things but with the introduction of cLown crates (gambling) and the cLown store only motifs (ZOS' begging for revenue), as well as the maddening decision for them to require us to travel to one spot in one zone every two hours to participate in the XP buff/Holiday festival (where my game consistently then crashes like clockwork) just to avoid the rare circumstance of someone having more than one XP buff applied (oh noes!! what will the neighbors think?!?! The game will surely break in twain!!)... all of it has cut the mustard for me.

Have fun whaling, ZOS. As the saying goes, "there are many fish in the sea" and I'm sure the game will limp on for years surviving on the weak-willed and greedy more-money-than-sense-or-pride players that feed other games like this. (Yes, I know whales aren't fish lol)

Mercutio wrote: »

I actually don't mind the motif not being sold with 50 mimic stones.

But not even including enough to create a full set once purchased?

That's just chintzy.

Moves like this erode my desire to continue playing. ZM does some good stuff, but this seems to be a growing trend in their merchandising.

I hope they reverse course.

A good move would be "gifting" every player with 5 mimic stones so they can at least use the motif they paid for.

Mimic stones come from Crown Crates, and everyone should be opening Crown Crates. No one should ever need to have Mimic stones bundled with a Motif. Not any more. We should be swimming in those stones because we are all buying a week's wages in Crown Crates every week. Right? Right?

No possible way that Crown Crates are a negative influence, though. It's all cosmetic.