[Data Mining] New Crown Store Items from 2.0.8

BrassRazoo

My Horse is faster than yours .. I win!

Give it a rest.

Attorneyatlawl

lordrichter wrote: »

Nifty2g wrote: »

It's a horse people, a horse. get over it

Sigh. I know you mean well, but this is not about horses.

Slippery slopes are slippery slopes. Selling health potions has now slid into repair kits (roundabout way of saving gold you normally need to spend), crafting motifs (normally an optional cost, but allows paying to bypass the accomplishment and lowered their value for people with dropped ones trying to sell), and more.

Now we are seeing mount training, a vital necessity in Cyrodiil and a leveling speed boost in pve by greatly reducing travel time while questing. In cyrodiil a new player will feel very far behind if they don't buy their mount training for cash, constantly falling behind the rest of the group while pvp'ing and going to new hotspots of fighting, keep sieges, or chasing people to attack while moving.

The solution to this issue, already in the game, would have been to alter the mechanic to let you buy it with gold at any rate, rather than cash only, or allow you to pay a flat gold fee to match the training once it is finished in a station any character on the account. Even making the training account wide and raising the cost per skill training would have been a great way to fix this gameplay issue.

I made a joke in guild chat the other day about ZOS announcing user interface improvements and features coming to the crown store. Given the same arguments are being made in this thread about mount training not being "needed" to play as I have seen in some recent threads asking for user interface system improvements, maybe that hilariously sarcastic fake-announcement will be real some day . After all, you don't need to know how much stamina it costs you to block, or a minimap, to play. Technically. It just is a huge hindrance to not . Pay to progress is being earnestly defended here, and that's the same thing I am sure some will use to ask for scrolls to get item trait research or champion levels. "It's obtainable in game anyway".

PKMN12

Brandalf wrote: »

Sallington wrote: »

WebBull wrote: »

Sallington wrote: »

For all of the people thinking it's no big detail because it's just the dumb horses, it won't be long before you are bypassing trait research cooldowns. Or buying stacks of mats. Or purchasing AP packs.

Delusional. Paranoid.

Totally paranoid, because ZOS has a track record of sticking to their word. Just like how they were never going to stray from the subscription model, because that would be the best way for them to deliver the kind of quality content they were expecting to release, and how the cash shop was going to be 100% cosmetics only.

Have you never seen/played any other F2P MMO? It's common sense that this is how this type of thing progresses.

Too bad the developers never said either of the things I've bolded .

they said it A LOT, multiple times, in fact. it was supposedly one of the "Big draws" of the game, that they would stick to the sub model no matter what because that was the only way they would make the game they wanted. They also said "cosmetics only" i do not know HOW many times at first, thne switched to "convenience only" and now are slowly ignoring that.

BrassRazoo

Why would you pay for something in the Crown Store if the same thing was made available for little gold in game?
The fact that easy Horse training is not available in game is exactly why it will sell.
Just like costumes, just like pets, just like mounts.
If they make identical things available in game for gold then the Crown Store is useless.

Psychobunni

Varicite wrote: »

Psychobunni wrote: »

You know, I wish @ZOS would put an end to data mining. Half the time it just creates fights before we have final product.

Most data mined objects have been extremely close to the final product. Why would you not want the player base to discuss upcoming changes and voice their opinions on the matter?

Simply because it gets old. Obviously anything that allows you to bypass an in game mechanic (time invested/level/etc) is pay to win, even if what your are winning is non essential. But the "no its not", "yes it is"...........just gets old.

Attorneyatlawl

BrassRazoo wrote: »

My Horse is faster than yours .. I win!

Give it a rest.

"I got to the keep siege before it ended and got to fight people, and earn lots of alliance points! Your 5% speed mount was so slow that my 60% one got me there in nearly half the time and I enjoyed the battle while you rode slowly along the road hoping to make it in time. I win!"

That's more accurate .

We could also go with "You got attacked and knocked off your horse by one guy while another tried to hit me but I already bought my mount stamina training and just ran away to get to the fight. You got killed because you were stunned off your horse."

BrassRazoo

Attorneyatlawl wrote: »

BrassRazoo wrote: »

My Horse is faster than yours .. I win!

Give it a rest.

"I got to the keep siege before it ended and got to fight people, and earn lots of alliance points! Your 5% speed mount was so slow that my 60% one got me there in nearly half the time and I enjoyed the battle while you rode slowly along the road hoping to make it in time. I win!"

That's more accurate .

More like I was quicker to get ganked than you.

Attorneyatlawl

Psychobunni wrote: »

Varicite wrote: »

Psychobunni wrote: »

You know, I wish @ZOS would put an end to data mining. Half the time it just creates fights before we have final product.

Most data mined objects have been extremely close to the final product. Why would you not want the player base to discuss upcoming changes and voice their opinions on the matter?

Simply because it gets old. Obviously anything that allows you to bypass an in game mechanic (time invested/level/etc) is pay to win, even if what your are winning is non essential. But the "no its not", "yes it is"...........just gets old.

This. Paying real money to bypass or accelerate any in-game progression is by definition "pay to win" with how it is normally accepted. The severity of how much "win" it gains you can be debated, but that it is at all isn't a question.

Examples:
-"Motifs/cosmetic crafting styles" You're bypassing needing to earn the motifs through normal in-game means. Progression and gameplay is skipped, so it fits the test of whether it is pay to win. As to how much it matters in practical gameplay can be debated to the moon, of course.

-"Health/magicka/stamina potions and buff foods that scale to the second-best that are craftable of that quality tier (white/green) and second-highest level tier" You're bypassing learning the trade skills while leveling to gain these advantages, or bypassing needing to spend gold to buy them from other players pre-made for use. The practical impact wouldn't be very large in most people's opinions, but it does fit the test and technically is also pay to win.

-"Non-power affecting character costumes" In traditional gameplay, you earned these by accomplishing special achievements in games such as beating a very powerful boss, or finding a rare monster. They don't affect power, and if they are otherwise unobtainable in-game, they do not allow you to bypass gameplay. The practical impact of course is that you will see fewer costumes earnable by gameplay, but this does not fit the logical test of pay to win.

-"Mount training manuals" In ESO, you are limited to training your riding skills at a rate of one point every 20 hours, with 177 trainings to work through at a static cost of 250 gold per training. (You start with 1 in each skill, so there are 59 per to train, times three comes to 177 ). The mount statistics affect travel times, the mount's "health bar" (you can sprint indefinitely, but it consumes stamina. If you have no stamina and are attacked, you are knocked off the mount and stunned for 4 seconds with no way to break free of it in the game entirely. Any time you are attacked while mounted, your mount's stamina bar is depleted, regenerating only if you stop sprinting at a fixed rate), and carrying (which simply adds to your character's bag space)..

The practical impact can be fairly severe for a new player especially, as you will in PVE be slicing your quest travel times by a VERY large amount (Let's say you have to go 500 meters to the next area. With no training, everyone runs mounted at 10 meters per second, as a base number (not the actual one but stated for this example). You're running at 10.6 meters per second after training in-game with gold for five days and netting yourself a 6% speed boost, but another guy leveling decided to use crowns to get his speed rating to 60%. He is traveling now at 16 meters per second. To cover that 500 meter distance, it will take him just 31.2 seconds to travel at that rate of speed, while it will take you 47.1 seconds to go along that exact same route). This helps him level faster. In PVP areas, you can get to battles more quickly, increasing your progression rate potential by both getting to more of them and being at them longer, as well as not missing many fights entirely by not being too slow to get there before it's over. While traveling, if you are not at the maximum mount speed, anyone can catch up to you on horseback and knock you off the mount by attacking or stunning you (a favorite tactic of many is to use Streak off of horseback to stun and then attack a helpless enemy that cannot break free, and is shortly after removed from his mount by your attacks and suffers a 4 second long unbreakable stun). If you have the maximum mount speed training, you can maintain your distance unless you allow them to cut you off. This fits the logical test of pay to win, and arguably has a large practical impact on gameplay prior to a new player or character by an existing player having been online with it long enough to finish the training through normal in-game means (which takes, assuming one training per day, nearly six months).

BrassRazoo

Talking about drama.
I assume you all make your clothes as buying them would bypass the sewing.
You are all farmers too I guess as going to the butchers for a steak would be just plain wrong.
I must pay to win in life then.

Attorneyatlawl

BrassRazoo wrote: »

Talking about drama.
I assume you all make your clothes as buying them would bypass the sewing.
You are all farmers too I guess as going to the butchers for a steak would be just plain wrong.
I must pay to win in life then.

Real life is not a hobbyist videogame. You don't need to eat food because you find it fun and want to have a sporting game to compete in on a level playing field of opportunity. You eat food because you have to unless you desire death by starvation.

BrassRazoo wrote: »

Attorneyatlawl wrote: »

BrassRazoo wrote: »

My Horse is faster than yours .. I win!

Give it a rest.

"I got to the keep siege before it ended and got to fight people, and earn lots of alliance points! Your 5% speed mount was so slow that my 60% one got me there in nearly half the time and I enjoyed the battle while you rode slowly along the road hoping to make it in time. I win!"

That's more accurate .

More like I was quicker to get ganked than you.

That's a function of having gotten to fight in the first place and your skill as a player. It's fully unrelated to having gotten there .

Varicite

BrassRazoo wrote: »

Talking about drama.
I assume you all make your clothes as buying them would bypass the sewing.
You are all farmers too I guess as going to the butchers for a steak would be just plain wrong.
I must pay to win in life then.

Of course you pay to win in life...

winterscrolls229prerb18_ESO

Well, perhaps apart from pvp, there was actually no gameplay in the horse improvement game.. Any mechanic in any mmo that requires time for progression, especially when there is no gameplay involved is nothing more than a developer literally screwing with players to allow more subscription months to tick over. THERE IS NO GAMEPLAY involved in mount training. Increasing subscriptions is the ONLY purpose this mechanic can achieve. 100% developer $$, 0% players fun.

Luckily eso is beyond such shallow subscription antics tooday though.. Yeah its probably not the most healthy approach to monetize something that was only there to monetize players in the first place.

Perhaps add gameplay to horse training, and or sell account wide permutations in the crown store to actually make sense.

Major zenimax business guy failure x3.

Avindra

P2W is having a distinct advantage by spending real money in the cash shop on something that CAN NOT BE OBTAINED in game by any other means.

The whole concept of a cash shop is
Spend Money = Save Time
Spend Time = Save Money.

You can still get motifs/horse training/XP in the game. Cash shops are designed to be convenience.
Everyone ends up the same in the end, just some people will get there faster.

The horse riding skill in the cash shop is fine. Everyone will eventually max out.

Elsonso

Varicite wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

Nifty2g wrote: »

It's a horse people, a horse. get over it

Sigh. I know you mean well, but this is not about horses.

You should probably learn to pick your battles better. This is about horses.

When they introduce the XP pots linked directly to gaining CP faster, or AP pots, or things of that nature, you'll most likely have a much larger backing.

This is not about horses. This is not about XP pots. It is not about Crown Research or Crown Alliance Rank/Points. It is not about premium Motifs and Crown respecs. It is about end game characters for sale in the Crown Store. Rather than sell a VR14, they are starting to sell what an end game character is, one little aspect at a time. If they continue down this road, players will be able to simply spend money to fast track themselves into an end game character quite nicely.

This is not a conspiracy theory or wild conjecture. This is just business. This is what I would do to turn their target market into revenue. It monetizes the game, makes it possible for people to jump into the meat of the game with minimal time investment, and narrows the gaps introduced by long term max-level players and Champion System. People will have completely UNLIMITED freedom to get to max level using TIME, MONEY or BOTH. If successful, this could be the hallmark of all ZeniMax Online games.

But, you are right in that this is not a battle that can be won.

Iluvrien

Avindra wrote: »

P2W is having a distinct advantage by spending real money in the cash shop on something that CAN NOT BE OBTAINED in game by any other means.

Really? You can get a Daedric motif, that can be used by a level 3 character with no crafting training, in the game?

Excellent. Where?

UrQuan

PKMN12 wrote: »

Brandalf wrote: »

Sallington wrote: »

WebBull wrote: »

Sallington wrote: »

For all of the people thinking it's no big detail because it's just the dumb horses, it won't be long before you are bypassing trait research cooldowns. Or buying stacks of mats. Or purchasing AP packs.

Delusional. Paranoid.

Totally paranoid, because ZOS has a track record of sticking to their word. Just like how they were never going to stray from the subscription model, because that would be the best way for them to deliver the kind of quality content they were expecting to release, and how the cash shop was going to be 100% cosmetics only.

Have you never seen/played any other F2P MMO? It's common sense that this is how this type of thing progresses.

Too bad the developers never said either of the things I've bolded .

they said it A LOT, multiple times, in fact. it was supposedly one of the "Big draws" of the game, that they would stick to the sub model no matter what because that was the only way they would make the game they wanted. They also said "cosmetics only" i do not know HOW many times at first, thne switched to "convenience only" and now are slowly ignoring that.

I've heard a lot of people claim that they said that, but after challenging many people to find me a quote proving it, nobody has ever managed to do it. So now I challenge you @PKMN12 to find me a quote that says what you claim above in bold. Since, according to you, they said it a lot, and multiple times, it should be easy. Just prove what you claim, that's all.

LtCrunch

PKMN12 wrote: »

Brandalf wrote: »

Sallington wrote: »

WebBull wrote: »

Sallington wrote: »

For all of the people thinking it's no big detail because it's just the dumb horses, it won't be long before you are bypassing trait research cooldowns. Or buying stacks of mats. Or purchasing AP packs.

Delusional. Paranoid.

Totally paranoid, because ZOS has a track record of sticking to their word. Just like how they were never going to stray from the subscription model, because that would be the best way for them to deliver the kind of quality content they were expecting to release, and how the cash shop was going to be 100% cosmetics only.

Have you never seen/played any other F2P MMO? It's common sense that this is how this type of thing progresses.

Too bad the developers never said either of the things I've bolded .

they said it A LOT, multiple times, in fact. it was supposedly one of the "Big draws" of the game, that they would stick to the sub model no matter what because that was the only way they would make the game they wanted. They also said "cosmetics only" i do not know HOW many times at first, thne switched to "convenience only" and now are slowly ignoring that.

No, it wasn't said "a lot"; it was never said. The extent of anything regarding the business model was always "The subscription model is the best option for the vision we have for the game".How does that equate to "We will never drop the subscription fee"?

They have also stated repeatedly since the very first B2P conversion announcement on ESO Live in January that the Crown Store would only be cosmetics and convenience items.

You don't have any idea what you're talking about and your spreading false information. Just stop.

Adramelach

In the real world, in many many places, time = money. That's a saying for a reason. Sure, I can farm my own food, or I can just buy it, etc.

I have no trouble with having the option to pay money for something that would otherwise take me time to acquire in ESO, because I make that exact same decision in RL the time.

That's not P2W, that's just trading one resource (time) for another (money). I have no trouble with that at all.

The only thing I call P2W is when there are things the can *only* be acquired through money, or else a ludicrous amount of time - say years of RL time grinding away to get something I can just pay $10 for instead. but if the tradeoff is reasonable, it's perfectly fine.

Elsonso

UrQuan wrote: »

PKMN12 wrote: »

Totally paranoid, because ZOS has a track record of sticking to their word. Just like how they were never going to stray from the subscription model, because that would be the best way for them to deliver the kind of quality content they were expecting to release, and how the cash shop was going to be 100% cosmetics only.

I've heard a lot of people claim that they said that, but after challenging many people to find me a quote proving it, nobody has ever managed to do it. So now I challenge you @PKMN12 to find me a quote that says what you claim above in bold. Since, according to you, they said it a lot, and multiple times, it should be easy. Just prove what you claim, that's all.

You already know this, but I will back you up.

They did not say, nor did they imply, that they would do Subscription, no matter what. They never said they would shut the game down, either.

Crown Store was always "customization and convenience" from Day 1.

"Simply put, this means that an item in the Crown Store serves one of two purposes: it either provides a visual upgrade or distinction for your character, or it provides a way to save time at the expense of spending crowns."

"Our goal with the Crown store is to offer convenience and cosmetic items. Convenience will allow people to save themselves time. It will not allow people to get the best items or become more powerful in the game than another player could achieve. I will say openly that some people feel ‘time-saving’ items are buy-to-win such as being able to gain experience faster. But our perspective is that removing time barriers is something players want, without providing an unfair advantage in power."

tordr86b16_ESO

Obscure wrote: »

...horse training...ZOS is monetising horse training...

...yeah, that's a great idea, really going to keep people playing by circumventing a daily objective that encouraged daily logins...

Certainly a brilliant design move for a game struggling with low population...

THIS

Faulgor

For Shor's sake people, is this your first F2P game? Stuff like this is the very reason people despise them.
You introduce a feature into the game (riding skills). You let the player advance in increments so he has to wait constantly (daily task). Then you provide a monetary option for them to get instant gratification (crown shop).
--> Lots of dollaz for ZO$
--> Gameplay is ruined (people who put down the money find themselves with less to do / no incentive to actually play)
--> Imbalance between paying and non-paying players increased (see you on the horse-racing track, sucker!)
--> Dying game forces ZO$' hand to implement further monetization along this line

If this makes it into the game ESO has unequivocally passed the threshold to F2P filth. NO question about it.

Cry_Wolfe

Audigy wrote: »

Since you can get to 60 without using the shop, its not P2W. P2W is a term used for content that a player can not get while playing.

Examples are,

char slots, profession slots, Bank slots, access to dungeons or pvp ...

Actually P2W is often associated with purchases that provide advantage either unobtainable via normal gameplay or only obtainable after an inordinate amount of playtime (grind) or as an unfeasibly rare drop.

So far there have been no items offered that cannot be obtained via normal gameplay (though some offered are rare drops, and one offered: full dwemer style book is the rarest item ingame). There has yet to be offered any item, upgrade or ability that provides meaningful advantage.

... but that does not mean that the ESO playerbase should sit comfortable and trust ZoS entirely.

PKMN12

Audigy wrote: »

Since you can get to 60 without using the shop, its not P2W. P2W is a term used for content that a player can not get while playing.

Examples are,

char slots, profession slots, Bank slots, access to dungeons or pvp ...

ummmmmmmmmm, please tell me you are joking, i mean, yo uhave to be, no one can actually believe this dribble.

Characters, bank, etc slots have NEVER been P2W, EVER

P2W means buying someting in the store that gives you a tactical advantage over players who did not pay money. For example, teh original version of the XP pots that had also increased CP gain was P2W because they increased it so much that someone using that would get CP MUCH faster then someone who did not. Thus those who played a lot and used those potions would have a MASSIVE advantage over anyone else.

d.zid.816b16_ESO

Pay to win? hardly, people already have 60/60/60, a huge advantage over newer players which will literally take half a year to play catch up.. its more of a time saver.

If it let you go over the limit of 60 and it was the only way to do so, then that would be pay to win.

Revenant_Spartan

Adramelach wrote: »

In the real world, in many many places, time = money. That's a saying for a reason. Sure, I can farm my own food, or I can just buy it, etc.

I have no trouble with having the option to pay money for something that would otherwise take me time to acquire in ESO, because I make that exact same decision in RL the time.

That's not P2W, that's just trading one resource (time) for another (money). I have no trouble with that at all.

The only thing I call P2W is when there are things the can *only* be acquired through money, or else a ludicrous amount of time - say years of RL time grinding away to get something I can just pay $10 for instead. but if the tradeoff is reasonable, it's perfectly fine.

Problem with this type of thinking is simply this: What is obtaining the best gear in the game then? You spending your time (resource) for obtaining ingame items to defeat stronger opponents. "Everyone" will max out eventually right? So buying gear is just trading one resource (time) for another resource (money).

See where this ends up?

And I agree with lordrichter - they are pulling the typical "bait and switch" where they are selling a product the majority doesn't want, in small increments which will collectively become a VR14. Yes it's not instant like with buying a level 90 in WoW. But they are edging closer and closer - seeing how far they can push the envelope.

Dixa

To much extremism yet again. Why is it so many of you are unable to form a sentence or reply to a forum post without resorting to extremism bordering on the kind of psychotic lunacy that is slowly destroying our society as a whole?

Many of you wanted f2p or b2p. You got it. A side effect of these two game modes is they attract whales - google that term, not the animal. In order for f2p and b2p games to stay afloat, we need whales to pay for all of the free-loaders. Things like this keep the whales entertained.

And given the crazy dollar cost for the motifs, if you expect these to be a few cents each you are being a DELUSIONAL extremist.

TheBull

Kinda lame... Who am I to complain though. I'm waiting for v14 with 200 skill points for 6000 crowns...

Elloa

Faulgor wrote: »

If it circumvents the daily cooldown, it's P2W.

I agree

Iluvrien

Dixa wrote: »

To much extremism yet again. Why is it so many of you are unable to form a sentence or reply to a forum post without resorting to extremism bordering on the kind of psychotic lunacy that is slowly destroying our society as a whole?

I think my irony meter just exploded.

Dixa wrote: »

Many of you wanted f2p or b2p. You got it. A side effect of these two game modes is they attract whales - google that term, not the animal. In order for f2p and b2p games to stay afloat, we need whales to pay for all of the free-loaders. Things like this keep the whales entertained.

I didn't want it. I wrote posts speaking out against it as well as other posts defending ZOS from suggestions they were going to try it. I don't believe we need things like this to keep people entertained. I believe that we need actual content to keep people entertained.

Dixa wrote: »

And given the crazy dollar cost for the motifs, if you expect these to be a few cents each you are being a DELUSIONAL extremist.

I am sure that, should these ever make it into the store, they will be charging as much as they possibly can get for them. I would expect nothing less at this point.

Attorneyatlawl

lordrichter wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

PKMN12 wrote: »

Totally paranoid, because ZOS has a track record of sticking to their word. Just like how they were never going to stray from the subscription model, because that would be the best way for them to deliver the kind of quality content they were expecting to release, and how the cash shop was going to be 100% cosmetics only.

I've heard a lot of people claim that they said that, but after challenging many people to find me a quote proving it, nobody has ever managed to do it. So now I challenge you @PKMN12 to find me a quote that says what you claim above in bold. Since, according to you, they said it a lot, and multiple times, it should be easy. Just prove what you claim, that's all.

You already know this, but I will back you up.

They did not say, nor did they imply, that they would do Subscription, no matter what. They never said they would shut the game down, either.

Crown Store was always "customization and convenience" from Day 1.

"Simply put, this means that an item in the Crown Store serves one of two purposes: it either provides a visual upgrade or distinction for your character, or it provides a way to save time at the expense of spending crowns."

"Our goal with the Crown store is to offer convenience and cosmetic items. Convenience will allow people to save themselves time. It will not allow people to get the best items or become more powerful in the game than another player could achieve. I will say openly that some people feel ‘time-saving’ items are buy-to-win such as being able to gain experience faster. But our perspective is that removing time barriers is something players want, without providing an unfair advantage in power."

Please, that is absolutely incorrect and disingenuous. And gaining power quicker than you can do using in-game mechanics is indeed "pay to win", no two ways about it. If you have asked and challenged many people to find a quote, you could have found it with far less effort than ever even asking. A simple google search brings it right up ...

http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/the-elder-scrolls-online/artikel/the_elder_scrolls_online,44578,3026853.html

Took me quite literally 30 seconds to glance through the first 4 results on the search page and find the quotes.

Matt Firor: We're thrilled that gamers are looking forward to diving into The Elder Scrolls Online and we've been working hard to deliver the game that fans want - one that's worthy of the Elder Scrolls name. Choosing the right business model is part of that. We are going with the subscription model for ESO.

We're building a game with the freedom to play - alone or with your friends - as much as you want. A game with meaningful and consistent content - one packed with hundreds of hours of gameplay that can be experienced right away and one that will be supported with premium customer support. Charging a flat monthly (or subscription) fee means that we will offer players the game we set out to make, and the one that fans want to play. Going with any other model meant that we would have to make sacrifices and changes we weren't willing to make.

The Elder Scrolls Online offers unlimited play for the first 30 days with the purchase of the game. The choice is yours to play as much as you want; hundreds of hours of content, PvP, etc - is all there for you to experience with the base purchase of the game. If you want to continue playing for hundreds of hours more after that first month you'll pay a flat fee for continued, unlimited access to the game.

We'll talk about further discounts, etc. later, but for now, we are very happy to finally announce our model. It's very simple - you pay once per month after the first 30 days and the entire game is available to you.

The interviewer remarks that it is a brave step to push forward with a subscription model given its waning popularity. In response, Matt Firor further explains:

The Elder Scrolls games are all about allowing the player to go where they want, be who they want, and do what they want. We feel that putting pay gates between the player and content at any point in game ruins that feeling of freedom, and just having one small monthly fee for 100% access to the game fits the IP and the game much better than a system where you have to pay for features and access as you play. The Elder Scrolls Online was designed and developed to be a premium experience: hundreds of hours of gameplay, tons of depth and features, professional customer support - and a commitment to have ongoing content at regular intervals after launch. This type of experience is best paired with a one-time fee per month, as opposed to many smaller payments that would probably add up to more than $14.99/month any way.

And it's important to state that our decision to go with subscriptions is not a referendum on online game revenue models. F2P, B2P, etc. are valid, proven business models - but subscription is the one that fits ESO the best, given our commitment to freedom of gameplay, quality and long-term content delivery. Plus, players will appreciate not having to worry about being "monetized" in the middle of playing the game, which is definitely a problem that is cropping up more and more in online gaming these days. The fact that the word "monetized" exists points to the heart of the issue for us: We don't want the player to worry about which parts of the game to pay for - with our system, they get it all.

Understandably, plans do not always go as hoped for, and a business pivot needs to be done to right the ship. I agree with the original vision regarding this. I don't begrudge Zenimax in the slightest for choosing to change and recognize that they felt it was the best option at this point in time. But let's not mince words: Players claiming that it never was said, or never happened are wrong, @lordrichter . Given how effortless it is to pull up the quotes, you would need to simply not want to look, to think otherwise. @Urquan, and anyone else commenting they had seen the game marketed in this way are absolutely right. By the way, that interview was from August 2013, as to how long they were marketing it in this fashion pre-launch .

Elloa wrote: »

Faulgor wrote: »

If it circumvents the daily cooldown, it's P2W.

I agree

I also agree. Paying to progress in ways not possible through normal gameplay isn't "convenience".