Skill lines cost way too much for just 1 character.

quantumartist · October 2021

3000 crowns is currently priced at $25. The price for the base game, up to the blackwood expansion is currently $30 on sale. Consider that for a moment when I then tell you it costs 3000 crowns to just one of the skill lines for a SINGLE CHARACTER. Sure, you don't have to level up the line, but that was the point of the service. The point of my post is that it's severely overpriced and should be an account unlock for 3000, or at least a bundle of tokens for a handful of characters. Just my 60 crowns worth.

VaranisArano · October 2021

Or you could unlock the skill line for free by playing the game, only spending your time.

I consider it more of a tax on players who want to avoid playing certain aspects of the game. If ZOS can't get your time, they'll take your money.

And as long as enough players buy the skill lines at the current price - and there are plenty of players who'd rather avoid doing the Alliance War, or Undaunted, or the Grand Annual Psijic Order Scavenger Hunt for the nth time - ZOS isn't going to give you account wide lines/tokens for the same price.

Nestor · October 2021

Time = Money

You have to spend one or the other. But not both.

quantumartist · October 2021

Neither of you get the point, so I'll make it a different way. There are presently 12 skill lines you can purchase to unlock and most are about 3000 crowns. Roughly to unlock just 1 character of all the store skills would cost an outrageous $300-400. To do it for 20 characters would be $6000-8000.

If they don't fix it themselves, I'll just go make a comment about that to the regulatory bodies that be. I'm all for taxing convenience but that's highway robbery.

VaranisArano · October 2021

quantumartist wrote: »

Neither of you get the point, so I'll make it a different way. There are presently 12 skill lines you can purchase to unlock and most are about 3000 crowns. Roughly to unlock just 1 character of all the store skills would cost an outrageous $300-400. To do it for 20 characters would be $6000-8000.

If they don't fix it themselves, I'll just go make a comment about that to the regulatory bodies that be. I'm all for taxing convenience but that's highway robbery.

Er, I do get it. The high price is the point. All those $300-400 worth of skills can be obtained simply by playing the game to do it again. Presumably, ZOS would rather that you, well, played their video game. But for players who would rather play $30 to avoid a certain aspect, ZOS gave the option to pay instead. I don't suspect that most people drop $300+ to fully max an alt, but rather players sometimes drop $30 to avoid gameplay they don't enjoy.

You can complain that the price is too high. But in that case, you have a perfectly reasonable alternative: get the skill lines on your alt by playing the game, as intended. It'll only cost you your time

What are you going to tell the regulatory bodies, anyway?

"ZOS is charging me $30 to avoid having to run around to a bunch of different zones and close time portals. I just can't listen to that annoying skull for one moment more! Make them sell it to me cheaper!"

"Look, I really hate PVP, but I'm not willing to spend $30 for the Assault and Support lines! Can't it be cheaper? Well, yes ZOS does give away Alliance Points for free sometimes, and yes, there are two events where I could earn double AP, and yes, there's even a food that makes my lines level faster, but that's not the point! It's just too expensive for me to justify buying the skill lines instead of playing the game and getting the items for free that way!"

If you can't justify the bulk purchasing of skill lines for your many alts because of expense, then don't buy them. Either do without on your alts (easier, now that the Armory system is coming) or play the game for the skills.

Is it really highway robbery when the completely viable alternative is to actually play the game as intended and get the skill lines by spending nothing but time?

Syrpynt · October 2021

No one is making you create more than one character, when you buy a video game, you usually have 1 character save. So when you create another character, you're essentially creating another "game" for yourself.

I don't agree with how high the prices are, but--people spend a LOT of money on this game already. Blame them for setting the market so high.