Official Discussion Thread for "Meet Your New Assistants"

gw2only1b14_ESO

If the banker would allow you to access your Guild bank and your Guild traders Id have been all in on it but with the banker just being equal to the thief refuge banker and the merchant really being useless I find myself seeing these as a big money sink .

Zombiehunter7X

Now if that was for 5 more character slots i could agree but for this i have to disagree.

Alorier

Don't know why people are shocked at the prices just look at how much they charged for the heroic costumes so it is as safe to say these would be as much or close to those prices

James-Wayne

Remember these items are for convenience only, its the price you pay for such convenience.

Would be great if you could earn these by playing the game thou like the smuggler with TG DLC.

gw2only1b14_ESO

James-Wayne wrote: »

Remember these items are for convenience only, its the price you pay for such convenience.

Would be great if you could earn these by playing the game thou like the smuggler with TG DLC.

Hit L enter cyrodiil ( yes theres one not full) run to wayshire select and town you wish to go to walk few feet go to banker.

yep thats even more convenient and cost nothing

Zombiehunter7X

James i totally agree I'd rather have them as reward s as you feel geat after you work hard to get them.

Caeric

Oh sure, I'll buy them - the next time there is a 1/2 off sale on crowns AND a 1/2 off sale on assistants.

Otherwise, not worth the cost. I would have much preferred ZOS just increasing the bag space limit to this.

Mysticman

Darkestnght wrote: »

Why not something for nothing. This should have been part of the base game as far as I am concerned.

If this was still $15 a month a subscription game the assistants would be free but it was still a subscription game you probably wouldn't be playing this game. I going give ZOS the benefit of the the doubt that the 5000 crowns price reflects their costs to create and maintain these assistants and remember these are "convenience" items if you don't need the convenience don't buy the assistants.

ObsidianKaesken

petraeus1 wrote: »

Why is everyone crying? If you think the price is too high, you can, you know, just not buy them. As long as DLC prices are reasonable, let convenience and cosmetics be priced high as far as I'm concerned.

I see a lot of people saying 'if it were this or this much crowns, a lot more people would buy it'. Exactly. Don't get me wrong, ZOS is a business and wants to make money, but if every other person suddenly has one of these, they're effectively depopulating their own in-game hubs.

I also see people saying 'it's not worth it, it's already too convenient to just wayshrine and there's traveling vendors etc., and crafting bags are coming'. Well then: hurrah! Why are you crying again?

I don't know what your version of "crying" is via text on the internet but I've been following this thread and have only seen 1 post (maybe 2) that may be even close to being considered a "crying" post. There's absolutely nothing wrong with people discussing their distastefulness towards this new feature and discussing what they do or don't like about it or suggesting what can be removed/added to make them want to buy it. This is the point of a "Discussion Thread" so the owners can get a general idea of what the population thinks about this. There's no need to assume everyone who dislikes this is making a cry-baby post because we're not.

davidtxr wrote: »

Question if in a group would everyone have access to the Banker ? If so it could justify paying the 5000 crowns

Yes, the summoner and his/her group has access to it.

davidtxr wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno will it be the personal bank of the person that bought the banker when in group content , or the individual banks of those players ?

Hope you don't mind my answering it instead but it'll be the individual banks of those players. They won't have access to your bank.

Kwivur

Can I get a merchant that fixes lag in Cyrodiil? I'll pay 50,000 crowns for that..

RazielDERF

Mysticman wrote: »

Darkestnght wrote: »

Why not something for nothing. This should have been part of the base game as far as I am concerned.

If this was still $15 a month a subscription game the assistants would be free but it was still a subscription game you probably wouldn't be playing this game. I going give ZOS the benefit of the the doubt that the 5000 crowns price reflects their costs to create and maintain these assistants and remember these are "convenience" items if you don't need the convenience don't buy the assistants.

I am completely for giving ZOS the benefit of the doubt but clearly this is not the cost for which is takes to create the assistants. If it is true that the assistants will cost 5,000 crowns each then that only means based on the wording means that the DLCs (which cost anywhere between 2k-5k) should be a lot more expensive. Creating an NPC that simply gives you access to systems already in place compared to developing complete zones, textures, story, music, and even other NPCs is simply not a comparison. DLCs cost a lot for a reason, to cover those developmental and maintenance costs amongs other things.

However making NPCs which simply tap into a system already in place with the benefit of using the options elsewhere other than in town does not cost 5,000 Crowns, hell not even 2,500 crowns at that. These should be offered to ESO+ members for free, complete a quest line to unlock, or simply lower the cost all together.

I will not be leaving the beautiful world of Tamriel for this poor business decision ZOS decided to price the assistants at. But as many have mentioned, even if the price sticks the cost will more than definitely be reduced at some point in the future. For those like myself who completely disagree with their choice of price, I will just simply not get it because it is not worth it. Just as I DID NOT purchase a 5,000 crown Mofit crafting knowledge because I worked on it the hard way and earned it in game to save myself 5,000 ridiculous crowns just to learn it instantly. Besides it was much more fun that way.

BLOOD FOR THE PACT!

LearnThis

So... I have asked this before, but what value does this place on ESO's DLC when re-skins and add-ons cost more than the actual DLC? Did someone come up with the entire DLC in a week so ZOS was like, "It is worth $20." Then, someone else spent the past year deciding what color the re-skin should be so ZOS said, "That should cost $40 and be a limited time offer."

I am truly baffled at this. ZOS releases an entire new story and it costs less than some guy that pops up and will hold your items. For those of you that can remember, right now I am picturing the Grey Poupon commerical and some guy popping up and asking to hold my items.

I do not understand. Am I supposed to understand? Is this supposed to make sense? Is this some reverse psychology marketing? Should my clothing store start selling my ties for $320 and my suits for $50? Would they stay in business?

WHY IS THIS SO CONFUSING?!

Slurg

LearnThis wrote: »

So... I have asked this before, but what value does this place on ESO's DLC when re-skins and add-ons cost more than the actual DLC? Did someone come up with the entire DLC in a week so ZOS was like, "It is worth $20." Then, someone else spent the past year deciding what color the re-skin should be so ZOS said, "That should cost $40 and be a limited time offer."

I am truly baffled at this. ZOS releases an entire new story and it costs less than some guy that pops up and will hold your items. For those of you that can remember, right now I am picturing the Grey Poupon commerical and some guy popping up and asking to hold my items.

I do not understand. Am I supposed to understand? Is this supposed to make sense? Is this some reverse psychology marketing? Should my clothing store start selling my ties for $320 and my suits for $50? Would they stay in business?

WHY IS THIS SO CONFUSING?!

It's not confusing. This has been answered many times by many people. It is in the company's best interest to make DLCs affordable so many people can buy them. They do not want dead zones that are too expensive for most people to buy. Dead zones are fail. DLCs are for the masses.

The other items - vanity items - are meant to appeal to the players wanting to show off how much money that have to throw around on frivolous status symbols. Different target audience. Convenience items are for people who want to pay cash for shortcuts. Bypassing game play should be expensive.

I don't get the appeal of a half functional banker and merchant but some people might. Or they just might like the idea of having NPCs follow them around. How does that work when you're on a mount, do they run after you? Could be amusing.

Divinius

LearnThis wrote: »

So... I have asked this before, but what value does this place on ESO's DLC when re-skins and add-ons cost more than the actual DLC? Did someone come up with the entire DLC in a week so ZOS was like, "It is worth $20." Then, someone else spent the past year deciding what color the re-skin should be so ZOS said, "That should cost $40 and be a limited time offer."

I am truly baffled at this. ZOS releases an entire new story and it costs less than some guy that pops up and will hold your items. For those of you that can remember, right now I am picturing the Grey Poupon commerical and some guy popping up and asking to hold my items.

I do not understand. Am I supposed to understand? Is this supposed to make sense? Is this some reverse psychology marketing? Should my clothing store start selling my ties for $320 and my suits for $50? Would they stay in business?

WHY IS THIS SO CONFUSING?!

This has been discussed at length several times in the past in other threads.

Essentially, the DLCs and the cosmetic items are marketed to two entirely different groups of players, therefore pricing standards between them are radically different (and hence, should not be compared to each other).

DLCs are considered "game content" and the assumption is that virtually all players will want to buy them. Therefore, they are priced such that they are reasonably affordable to everyone for the large amount of content that they provide. ZOS makes their money from DLCs based on a high-volume of low-price sales.

On the other hand, the percentage of players that are interested in purely cosmetic items is generally far smaller. So cosmetic items already have a limited market, regardless of price. Furthermore, the types of players that ARE interested in cosmetic items, are often the types that are also willing to spend seemingly ridiculous amounts of money on them. Therefore, even though creating cosmetic items is a relatively easy process, the items are priced to provide a lot of revenue with far fewer sales. ZOS makes their money from cosmetic items based on a low-volume of high-price sales.

Ashtaris

The merchant seems pretty worthless to me. Perhaps if it did repairs and offered some special items I MIGHT consider it. As far as the banker goes, at 5000 crowns I'm going to think about that one. It's not that I don't have the crowns or can't afford it, but it seems that without the Guild Bank or Guild Store access, it's functionality is too limited. Perhaps later if they lower the price or add more to the assistants.

LearnThis

@Slurg and @Divinius
Thank you both. Yes, I do understand this and I appreciate you both responding. I guess more than anything I should have simply said, "I do not agree with this business model." Thank you for taking the time to respond though, I appreciate it.

Tai-Chi

Too much cash for minimal benefit. This is the kind of small perk that ESO Plus members should get for free!

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO

If noone buys them they will be forced to lower the price. My guess is a few will go ahead and pay it. Then maybe 30-60 days down the line they will reduce the price once the people with the cash for it all have it.

ObsidianKaesken

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

If noone buys them they will be forced to lower the price. My guess is a few will go ahead and pay it. Then maybe 30-60 days down the line they will reduce the price once the people with the cash for it all have it.

That's usually how new stuff goes. I'm good without it until it does get reduced because it is a nice feature to have, especially when I don't have Wayshrines closest near me and I'm too lazy to travel back. Especially if I have to go through a monster area that I don't feel like dealing with.

Grileenor

Tai-Chi wrote: »

Too much cash for minimal benefit. This is the kind of small perk that ESO Plus members should get for free!

I agree. In fact we get the opposite, we get slapped in the face. (nearly)No player without ESO plus will buy the crowns needed for these assistents. They are not that useful. So it is an attempt to get some of those hoarded crowns from the loyal customer paying ESO plus again and again.

A horse is 700-2000 with a reagular use. A DLC is 2000-3000 offering many hours of fun, even continued fun is possible. An assistant with limited use (account? guild bank? trading house? repair?) is offered for more than three months worth of abo costs? Really? You should be ashamed even offering things like this ZOS!

Lukefus

I was hyped about both these assistants, but seeing they're worth 5000 crowns, the avarage price of 2 DLCs, each! Around 40€ per assistant, has put me off buying them completely. I mean come on... great new games can be bought at those prices!

To be fair, at that price the banker should include guild bank and stores, and the merchant should at least allow you to repair your gear, that would make them worth their price. People would still complain about the price, but hey, that's what we do as unsatisfied customers.

ObsidianKaesken

Lukefus wrote: »

I was hyped about both these assistants, but seeing they're worth 5000 crowns, the avarage price of 2 DLCs, each! Around 40€ per assistant, has put me off buying them completely. I mean come on... great new games can be bought at those prices!

To be fair, at that price the banker should include guild bank and stores, and the merchant should at least allow you to repair your gear, that would make them worth their price. People would still complain about the price, but hey, that's what we do as unsatisfied customers.

I agree. If the merchant sold health/magicka/stamina potions and repaired gear (or at the very least sold repair kits), I'd still be slightly "I really shouldn't...." and if the Banker had (as others stated previously) access to the Guild Bank and Store then I'd totally spend 10,000 crowns needed to spend on them. I really shouldn't because I still think it should be lower priced but hell, I'd buy them if they had all that attached. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they'll add that. Not getting my hopes up but keeping my fingers crossed!

Ironside

The free assistant is worthless... why did you guys think the store assistants wouldn't be? - Now for the price... ZOS employees need mandatory drug tests, because they are high as heck.

Smaxx

If you think 5,000 crowns for both would be a good deal, just wait for the next crown discount. It's not a time-limited offer after all.

Rizzai

I am ashamed of some here who seem to think ZOS just should give things away.

This is a CONVENIENCE item, it is in no way game braking or altering game play in any way.

NO ONE IS FORCED TO BUY IT.

I am actually very good at saving, and don't spend my crowns frivolously on anything I can earn in game on my own, and I have plenty of crowns to spend, and this is not a problem for me if I choose to buy both.

The game has to make $$$ for it to survive, I am always amazed when people complain about prices for things that they say they don't need/want anyway, probably ZOS should just make this a sub only game, and then there would be less "spoiled children" who are given so many choices, and yet complain about them all the more!

Divinius

Rizzai wrote: »

...probably ZOS should just make this a sub only game...

It used to be. And it was much better then.

jmgrant44ub17_ESO

I was debating with myself after the PTS, “would I pay 1500 crowns for these assistants, hum not sure”. I logged in just now and had to log out because the whole idea of charging 5000 crowns was making me sick. This is a big finger to the ESO Plus members and validates a lot of the criticism that has been leveled at ZOS in these forums over the pass year. I don't think anything will change which makes me sad. I just hope Bethesda comes out with a regular Elder Scrolls game.

Slowly building the pay wall brick by brick.

Rizzai

Sooo, something is for sale, and you don't like the price?

Are you now also upset that some people buy something you think is too expensive?

I bet you really like that flat screen TV or monitor your using right now, I wonder if you would have had it at all if no one ever bought any when they were "too expensive".

Why should anyone who is subbed or buying something you think is too expensive bother you?

We are paying for the game you play! lol!

I guess if you prefer, play a different game, it's not rocket science, why people just can't stand that someone else enjoys something they don't or buys something they don't want to pay for complain will always amaze me.

UrQuan

Copied from another thread for the benefit of @Rizzai so that he (or she - I don't know which) can understand the real issue with these prices.

One thing that a lot of people saying things like "Who cares - if it's not worth it to you just don't buy it" are missing is that this isn't just about whether we think the price is too high for us. It's that this price is actively bad for ZOS.

There are generally 3 types of Crown Store purchases, and they need different pricing strategies to be successful.

DLC: These should always be priced significantly lower than the actual amount of effort that goes into creating them would seem to indicate. DLC = content, and content is what's going to keep people playing the game, potentially get new players interested in the game, and potentially draw old players who stopped playing back into the game.

As such, it needs to be at a price point where the majority of players will see the value in it - especially as any group content in the DLC will fail utterly if most of the player base doesn't see the value in getting the DLC, because then anyone who did get it will have trouble finding groups for that content.

Cosmetic items: These should be priced in all ranges. Some cosmetic items should be cheap, some should be moderately priced, and some should be expensive. Cosmetic items are aimed at a different target audience than DLC. Purely cosmetic items automatically have a smaller target audience, as there's always a portion of the player base that only cares about gameplay and not at all about cosmetics. Additionally, different people have different taste in cosmetics, so there will never be a cosmetic item that appeals to everyone who cares about cosmetics.

As such, you want to price some cosmetics (usually ones that look more "common" in the game world - example: the various common horse skins) cheap enough that everyone who cares about cosmetics can look at them and say "yeah sure, at that price I'll get it". You want to price some (usually ones that are a bit less "common" in the game world, and more specialized - example: the various guar skins) moderately so that the smaller subset of people who would be interested in those ones anyway will look at them and say "hmm, that's more expensive than X but not that expensive, and I like it enough to get it at that price". Then you want to price some (usually ones that should be exotic in the game world, and generally ones that people may look at as something extra special or cool - example: the Frostmare mount) expensively as it's going to appeal to a more narrow market of people anyway, and the people who it appeals to are likely to say "that's cool enough that I'm willing to pay more than I normally would for it".

Convenience items: These should never be priced too low (if they're too low they'll generally take away from the base game as people find it way easier to buy these than to play, and then it becomes a game of nothing but tons of micro-transactions), and they should never be priced too high (I'll get into that). Instead they should be priced moderately, or on the low end of expensive.

The target market for convenience items is the entire player base, but you don't want the entire player base using them excessively (particularly if they are consumable). You want people to look at it and say "hmm, that's a pretty good item at that price so I'll buy it" but you don't want people feeling like they have no choice but to buy it, because then the game quickly becomes P2W and people get pissed off and leave. If you price it too high, far far fewer people will buy it and you'll simply make less money. If only 10% of people will buy it at 5,000 Crowns (not a number I pulled out of my ass: in this poll 90% of people have said they won't buy the assistants at 5,000 Crowns), but 30% of people will buy it at 2,000 Crowns then you're simply going to make more money by pricing it at the lower price point.

Additionally, when you price a convenience item at a price that the majority of people see as being far too high, people get pissed off and are more likely to feel like there's an attempt to rip them off (you also see this when cosmetic items are priced particularly high, but as more people are likely to say that they didn't want a particular cosmetic item anyway, the effect is more noticeable with convenience items). This leads to people vowing not to support the company anymore, not to buy anything from the store, etc. Not everyone, naturally, but the more this happens the more customers you lose.

So the bottom line is that when an item like this is priced too high, it's a big deal because it's bad for ZOS and bad for the game in the long-term.

Giraffon

A story problem!

Test group of 400 players:

10% is 40, so 40 people in the test group would purchase at 5000 crowns = 200,000 in crown sales
30% is 120, so 120 people in the test group would purchase at 2000 crowns = 240,000 in crown sales.

Price lower make more!