Idea: Crown as possible loot?

Lil_Willie

Community,

This idea has dawned on me. I know some players are not into buying ESO plus or buying Crowns to purchase items. Some never will desire to do so. What if Crowns started becoming a very rare drop from named bosses and you can only get a certain amount at one time? For example, I was to get lucky and kill a world boss and get 10 Crowns as a loot. Do you guys think this would be something good for this game? Why or why not?

Phinix1

Bear arses don't pay dev salaries.

TheValkyn

Phinix1 wrote: »

Bear arses don't pay dev salaries.

Box sales do. Even SWTOR offers cash shop currency as simple quest rewards. It's not much but it's still noteworthy.

mb10

If it doesnt make money, it doesnt make sense.

So in very short the answer is: No.

Phinix1

I'm not saying it wouldn't be cool. I just know ZOS would never do anything remotely like that.

Lenikus

Never.
I don't want those filthy peasants buying the petty aesthetic things that I paid to brag about.

lihentian

imo they should just stopping selling dlc content.. sale mount, outfit that came with each dlc but not the content it self.. am having very hard time finding group for the dlc trail T_T

Phinix1

Lenikus wrote: »

Never.
I don't want those filthy peasants buying the petty aesthetic things that I paid to brag about.

Good show, ol' chap.

theher0not

I would like it but I doubt the devs would do it, At least not enough to use the crowns for anything else than the cheapest items.

Vaoh

Agalloch

Gw2 offer gems for completing achievements.

Bigevilpeter

SWTOR gives cartel coins (the equivalent of crowns) for a lot of different achievements in the game and it works out pretty well. They dont give a lot though but it adds up if you are really insisting on not buying more

Volkodav

No,..keep those crowns in the store where they belong.They'd have to do a lot of changing the sales of items ingame,cos the merchants dont use crowns.Plus,how would you port them into the crown store?It isnt actually an integral part of the game.

medusasfolly

mb10 wrote: »

If it doesnt make money, it doesnt make sense.

So in very short the answer is: No.

Actually, at a low dispense rate, it could prompt people to pay for additional crowns in order to use the ones they've earned. Ten crowns won't buy you anything. And even if you earned it a few times over, still not much. But having that burning a hole in a player's pocket might push them to buy more.

UrQuan

medusasfolly wrote: »

mb10 wrote: »

If it doesnt make money, it doesnt make sense.

So in very short the answer is: No.

Actually, at a low dispense rate, it could prompt people to pay for additional crowns in order to use the ones they've earned. Ten crowns won't buy you anything. And even if you earned it a few times over, still not much. But having that burning a hole in a player's pocket might push them to buy more.

This is very true. There's a segment of the player population who would just grind out whatever activity gave you a chance of getting Crowns for hours, and never buy any Crowns again.

The majority of the player population, however, isn't going to bother with doing that (insert "ain't nobody got time for that" lady here), and instead is more likely to see that they earned some free Crowns, and stop to say "hey cool, what can I buy?" That's when they're likely to see some things that cost just a bit more than they have, and spend some actual money on Crowns.

If ZOS got the dispense rate right, having one or more ways to earn Crowns in-game could actually boost Crown sales. Too high and it'll reduce Crown sales, too low and people will just get frustrated with it (which would also likely reduce Crown sales).

WhiteCoatSyndrome

I don't think it would be worthwhile. The purpose of Crowns is to make Zeni money, which handing out Crowns for free wouldn't do. This is also ignoring the problem of people farming bosses, which already happens.

Now, if they wanted to give Crowns for OUT of game actions--say, give players Crowns because they got ten of their friends to join ESO--that I could see.

Lil_Willie

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

I don't think it would be worthwhile. The purpose of Crowns is to make Zeni money, which handing out Crowns for free wouldn't do. This is also ignoring the problem of people farming bosses, which already happens.

Now, if they wanted to give Crowns for OUT of game actions--say, give players Crowns because they got ten of their friends to join ESO--that I could see.

Good point but at the same time I feel as a lootable but very low count Crown as drops will not hurt Zenimax economically. I feel as if it would draw people in as far as using Crown store more precisely.....for example, if I wanted a costume, I would rather farm a few Crowns and use the store to buy Crowns that I need.

As for farming, I dont see much of an end to farming in this game. Better yet, an idea that would mitigate farming

idk

TheValkyn wrote: »

Phinix1 wrote: »

Bear arses don't pay dev salaries.

Box sales do. Even SWTOR offers cash shop currency as simple quest rewards. It's not much but it's still noteworthy.

Swtor provides them as rewards with acheivements and most of those are locked behind the pay wall. The most recent acheivements in ToR that provide cash shop tokens require a subscription. In total, not a lot is to be gained.

Besides, ToR has a different model to begin with.

If people want crowns they can pay for them.

Spacemonkey

UrQuan wrote: »

medusasfolly wrote: »

mb10 wrote: »

If it doesnt make money, it doesnt make sense.

So in very short the answer is: No.

Actually, at a low dispense rate, it could prompt people to pay for additional crowns in order to use the ones they've earned. Ten crowns won't buy you anything. And even if you earned it a few times over, still not much. But having that burning a hole in a player's pocket might push them to buy more.

This is very true. There's a segment of the player population who would just grind out whatever activity gave you a chance of getting Crowns for hours, and never buy any Crowns again.

The majority of the player population, however, isn't going to bother with doing that (insert "ain't nobody got time for that" lady here), and instead is more likely to see that they earned some free Crowns, and stop to say "hey cool, what can I buy?" That's when they're likely to see some things that cost just a bit more than they have, and spend some actual money on Crowns.

If ZOS got the dispense rate right, having one or more ways to earn Crowns in-game could actually boost Crown sales. Too high and it'll reduce Crown sales, too low and people will just get frustrated with it (which would also likely reduce Crown sales).

This. And it's been down in so many games with real money currencies in-game. It WOULD be part of ESO if ESO had not started off as Pay to Play.

The way things are, it's more likely this type of strategy would be used to lure players BACK to the game. (free crown drops weekend - where crowns have a tiny chance - or larger chance but smaller amount - to drop from monsters) - This can be used to increase population on PvP servers too. For example if this weekend MOBS had a 25% chance to drop 1-3 crowns on AZURA, the server would be completly queued up, and PvPers (gankers) would be having the time of their lives. Or Alliance that wins X campaign will see all the participants awarded 50 crowns, etc... etc... etc..... annnnnd I let the Idea run away on me again. Anywaaaay....

Slurg

I think if crowns were rewarded for defeating named bosses that the average player would never be able to get near one again because they would be crowded out for the rewards by macro-using farmers who would kill it instantly on spawn over and over again until they got their reward. Reminds me of the not-so-good old days of trying to squeeze in between asdnfmsdnnd and zchxvjr and their 10 friends trying to get an AOE on a delve boss.

idk

Personally, I think the forum threads would be hilarious. The ones that complained about how rare and small the crown drops are. After all we want everything for free.

Would grab the pop corn, fill up a cooler with Cold ones and enjoy the entertainment.

starkerealm

The purpose to paying out cartel coins in TOR, Gems in Guild Wars 2, and grind or cash shop currencies in any number of other MMOs is to, effectively, bait the player into paying for cash shop currency. It encourages the idea that you actually have something of value from the game, with the intention of making it harder to leave.

Honestly, it's a really deceptive and scummy, mechanic. At a psychological level.

It also allows developers to stick flat out pay to win mechanics in their MMOs, (Cryptic, I'm looking at you guys), and still say, "no, but, you can earn dilithium, and convert it to zen to buy these things, so it's open to everyone."

So, while I can understand the desire to get crowns for free... it's probably for the best that they're not. It encourages a hard line between stuff you can buy that's cool or saves time, and stuff you can buy that actually makes you powerful, but the "convenience" is you can get it without having to grind crowns for six months.

UrQuan

starkerealm wrote: »

The purpose to paying out cartel coins in TOR, Gems in Guild Wars 2, and grind or cash shop currencies in any number of other MMOs is to, effectively, bait the player into paying for cash shop currency. It encourages the idea that you actually have something of value from the game, with the intention of making it harder to leave.

Honestly, it's a really deceptive and scummy, mechanic. At a psychological level.

It also allows developers to stick flat out pay to win mechanics in their MMOs, (Cryptic, I'm looking at you guys), and still say, "no, but, you can earn dilithium, and convert it to zen to buy these things, so it's open to everyone."

So, while I can understand the desire to get crowns for free... it's probably for the best that they're not. It encourages a hard line between stuff you can buy that's cool or saves time, and stuff you can buy that actually makes you powerful, but the "convenience" is you can get it without having to grind crowns for six months.

Oh, yeah, the bold part is a very good point. Yeah, I don't want something that opens the door to that possibility. I'd like to think ZOS knows that doing that would *** people off and therefore wouldn't do it, but best to just avoid the possibility in the first place.

SneaK

#No ETA

starkerealm

UrQuan wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

The purpose to paying out cartel coins in TOR, Gems in Guild Wars 2, and grind or cash shop currencies in any number of other MMOs is to, effectively, bait the player into paying for cash shop currency. It encourages the idea that you actually have something of value from the game, with the intention of making it harder to leave.

Honestly, it's a really deceptive and scummy, mechanic. At a psychological level.

It also allows developers to stick flat out pay to win mechanics in their MMOs, (Cryptic, I'm looking at you guys), and still say, "no, but, you can earn dilithium, and convert it to zen to buy these things, so it's open to everyone."

So, while I can understand the desire to get crowns for free... it's probably for the best that they're not. It encourages a hard line between stuff you can buy that's cool or saves time, and stuff you can buy that actually makes you powerful, but the "convenience" is you can get it without having to grind crowns for six months.

Oh, yeah, the bold part is a very good point. Yeah, I don't want something that opens the door to that possibility. I'd like to think ZOS knows that doing that would *** people off and therefore wouldn't do it, but best to just avoid the possibility in the first place.

Hypothetical situation:

Crowns drop in 10 crown bundles as a purple rarity drop from enemies.

The Crownstore adds bundles unrefined materials 10 units each, for 10 crowns. You pick the type (wood/cloth/leather/metal), but they scale to your crafting perks.

Oh, look, you can now make V16 leather gear for $1.50 a piece, but it's convenience, not power, because you could go grind that stuff up yourself.

(._.)

Worst part is, I've seen developers pull stuff like this.

idk

starkerealm wrote: »

The purpose to paying out cartel coins in TOR, Gems in Guild Wars 2, and grind or cash shop currencies in any number of other MMOs is to, effectively, bait the player into paying for cash shop currency. It encourages the idea that you actually have something of value from the game, with the intention of making it harder to leave.

Honestly, it's a really deceptive and scummy, mechanic. At a psychological level.

It also allows developers to stick flat out pay to win mechanics in their MMOs, (Cryptic, I'm looking at you guys), and still say, "no, but, you can earn dilithium, and convert it to zen to buy these things, so it's open to everyone."

So, while I can understand the desire to get crowns for free... it's probably for the best that they're not. It encourages a hard line between stuff you can buy that's cool or saves time, and stuff you can buy that actually makes you powerful, but the "convenience" is you can get it without having to grind crowns for six months.

The concept of the cash shop and providing in game rewards of tokens for the cash shop is one thing that has absolutely nothing to do with P2W in games such as ToR and ESO since neither game has P2W.

ContraTempo

I see no incentive for ZoS to get into something that would at best be very messy and fraught with potential issues. And at worst, legally actionable in some circumstances.

phaneub17_ESO

I think it wouldn't be a bad idea, but it would have to only apply to those on ESO Plus subscription, it would be another incentive to subscribe to the game. While you do get your monthly allowance, you also get additional crowns for completing content or acquiring achievements as the best way to go about it. I wouldn't make it on mob kill drops or anything grindy, but on doing things with other players.

1. Completing the first random Vet Dungeon would give 5 Crowns each day, subsequent random Vet Dungeons would give 1 Crown thereafter; that would increase the pool of players doing Dungeons possibly making the Queues go faster.

2. Every Achievement you earn while subbed grants you 5 Crowns each, but can only be applied once per achievement account wide so you aren't restarting new alts to farm it.

3. In PvP Cyrodiil 30 Day Campaigns you get 5 Crowns for capturing a primary location for your Alliance; once per Castle per Campaign so you don't farm it via trading back and forth, it resets at the start of the next Campaign. 7 Day Campaigns give less, like 1 Crown per capture.

And anything else that has you playing with other players cooperatively, I can't think of much else that would work. Nothing where you solo, its an MMO after all.

starkerealm

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

The purpose to paying out cartel coins in TOR, Gems in Guild Wars 2, and grind or cash shop currencies in any number of other MMOs is to, effectively, bait the player into paying for cash shop currency. It encourages the idea that you actually have something of value from the game, with the intention of making it harder to leave.

Honestly, it's a really deceptive and scummy, mechanic. At a psychological level.

It also allows developers to stick flat out pay to win mechanics in their MMOs, (Cryptic, I'm looking at you guys), and still say, "no, but, you can earn dilithium, and convert it to zen to buy these things, so it's open to everyone."

So, while I can understand the desire to get crowns for free... it's probably for the best that they're not. It encourages a hard line between stuff you can buy that's cool or saves time, and stuff you can buy that actually makes you powerful, but the "convenience" is you can get it without having to grind crowns for six months.

The concept of the cash shop and providing in game rewards of tokens for the cash shop is one thing that has absolutely nothing to do with P2W in games such as ToR and ESO since neither game has P2W.

"(Cryptic, I'm looking at you guys)..."

Yeah, that wasn't a random reference. Star Trek Online has an entire tier of (basically) cash shop only ships. The earliest ones were equivalent to the free endgame ships, with slightly different station and console loadouts. But, now, you can't even obtain the ships aimed at level 50+ content without either waiting for one of the seasonal events, and hoping the freebie is useful to you, or coughing up $30 worth of Zen.

With TOR the free currency is specifically there to bait you into buying more currency, because what you get is woefully insufficient to buying anything. But, if you're in a position, and going, "well, I only need X more..." you'll end up paying full price for whatever you're buying anyway, because you have to buy Cartel coins in fixed quantities. But it feels like you're getting it for less.

With STO, the free currency is there to justify sticking straight upgrades into the C-Store and saying, "but, you can get it if you're willing to grind enough."

With ESO, right now? It's a pretty good system. There's nothing in the Crown Store that I'd think twice about. The closest are the repair kits, but, if you started dropping currency in game, then that would leave the door open to redefine "convenience" items.

Let's stick with things the way they are in ESO, and never even think about that door again.