Appearance - race - name tokens

Leandor

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

[...]I played a few different F2P and sub required MMOs with and without DLC or major expansions.
I've spent more on ESO than any other game in 10 years regardless of the game type just for basic access. I'm approaching having spent more on this than WoW where I subbed for 8+ years off and on in 2 year spans.[...]

But how much of that is due to you having more money available (due to starting/improving your job) and higher willingness to spend?

How much of that is based on the fact that for the first 10 years of WOW, there was no possibility to spend anything other than the subscription fee and how would that comparison look like now, where WOW has almost as much of cosmetic fluff available for real life coin?

There is no "right" pricing. You can say both with equal justification:

No matter how much it is, you never get your money's worth if you spend it on a computer game, since you do not gain a physical equivalent or sustenance.

No matter how much it is, you always get your money's worth if you spend it on a computer game, since you do what is fun for you and happiness is the most valuable thing one can attain.

Are there people paying the asked price? Yes there are. I am one of those. Would there be more if it is cheaper? Possibly. But not all who don't buy it now do so for monetary reasons. That is why calculations like this:

BalticBlues wrote: »

• ESO has about 8.000.000 players.
• Let's assume there are 25% active players, like 2.000.000 players.
• Let's assume that 25% of them would like to change their name, like 500.000 players.
• Let's assume that 5% are willing to pay 25$ per character, this would be 25.000 x $25 = $625.000.
• Let's assume that 50% are willing to pay 5$ per character, this would be 250.000 x $5 = $1.250.000.

and the conclusion given in that post are utter cowpoop. Spending in a game is NOT motivated by pricing. It is motivated only by monetary resources available for spending. Neither 5$ nor 25$ are significant, if you spend it once. Both 5$ and 25$ are significant if you spend it 1000 times.

Race change pricing is restrictive towards FOTM rebuilding and that is a very good thing.

Name change, appearance change? If you are that concerned with your game characters name/appearance that you spend money to change it - you would probably spend it anyways.

The only valid question about the token prices is this: Is it worth it for me personally to spend that much money? If the answer is yes, go ahead. If it is no, well, don't. Demanding to have it your way is, in all honesty, ridiculous.

NewBlacksmurf

Leandor wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

[...]I played a few different F2P and sub required MMOs with and without DLC or major expansions.
I've spent more on ESO than any other game in 10 years regardless of the game type just for basic access. I'm approaching having spent more on this than WoW where I subbed for 8+ years off and on in 2 year spans.[...]

But how much of that is due to you having more money available (due to starting/improving your job) and higher willingness to spend?

How much of that is based on the fact that for the first 10 years of WOW, there was no possibility to spend anything other than the subscription fee and how would that comparison look like now, where WOW has almost as much of cosmetic fluff available for real life coin?

There is no "right" pricing. You can say both with equal justification:

No matter how much it is, you never get your money's worth if you spend it on a computer game, since you do not gain a physical equivalent or sustenance.

No matter how much it is, you always get your money's worth if you spend it on a computer game, since you do what is fun for you and happiness is the most valuable thing one can attain.

Are there people paying the asked price? Yes there are. I am one of those. Would there be more if it is cheaper? Possibly. But not all who don't buy it now do so for monetary reasons. That is why calculations like this:

BalticBlues wrote: »

• ESO has about 8.000.000 players.
• Let's assume there are 25% active players, like 2.000.000 players.
• Let's assume that 25% of them would like to change their name, like 500.000 players.
• Let's assume that 5% are willing to pay 25$ per character, this would be 25.000 x $25 = $625.000.
• Let's assume that 50% are willing to pay 5$ per character, this would be 250.000 x $5 = $1.250.000.

and the conclusion given in that post are utter cowpoop. Spending in a game is NOT motivated by pricing. It is motivated only by monetary resources available for spending. Neither 5$ nor 25$ are significant, if you spend it once. Both 5$ and 25$ are significant if you spend it 1000 times.

Race change pricing is restrictive towards FOTM rebuilding and that is a very good thing.

Name change, appearance change? If you are that concerned with your game characters name/appearance that you spend money to change it - you would probably spend it anyways.

The only valid question about the token prices is this: Is it worth it for me personally to spend that much money? If the answer is yes, go ahead. If it is no, well, don't. Demanding to have it your way is, in all honesty, ridiculous.

@Leandor

If you've played WoW there were plenty of real money opportunities other than a sub after the first few years.
Mounts, collectors editions, pets
Then other paid changes came years ago so if you read my post...my point is very comparable if you played on PC with us at launch

This game only offered a sub, and 1 mount and one other real money item for over a year.
Those offerings are actually less than what WoW offered in actual cost.

So if I'm spending more now than then, it does conclude things are overpriced.

As far as my income and such....

Being willing to spend for me even though my income has exponentially changed, I've also gain exponential expenses like a house, kids, work travel and project costs.

ESO cost per quarter in comparison to a few other popular MMO's is still higher.
This game is set up from the start to charge a sub + real money for any convienience items or features.


There is a right price.....today I'm a part of two big companies who live and die off of pricing products and services "right" each year.

See the "right price" involves potential, actual and future customers and each quarter these groups tend to change as to what the "right price" falls under.

Then within those categories there are global and regional classes so to speak of income which lead to understanding potential spending habits.

The "right pice" leads a company like ZOS if done well on a consistent basis to excess profits or to long-term debt.
When you go into the game there are customers who seem to buy all the premium items and then others who seems to have little to nothing. There are subscriber groups and non subscriber groups, there are many different types of customers but when features, cosmetic, QoL, as well as new services offered, the "right price" differs by each category.

In short....the character cosmetic changes which were sought for over 2 years by many is /was requested as results of ZOS' very poor lighting and character creation setting. So to charge at this premium cost is "the wrong price" for a few reasons but namely a lack of consideration to feedback given since 2013 closed beta for character creation.

It's a slap in the face to offer a one time hair change but require all other changes at a different premium with multiple purchase requirement.

wolfydog

I think the prices are very fair overall in this game. The fact that ZOS gives you access to all DLC with a sub, plus a stipend of crowns is excellent.

All the clothes are fairly prices too, except the hero outfits really, since the quality is there for that much.

As far as name/race changes and such, its basically the same as other MMO's which is fine. I only wish for appearance changes instead of a one time use token, maybe they give you 24 hrs once you activate it with unlimited changes. That way you could mess around a bit and make more changes if you notice something you don't like still on your toon.

Drakoleon

ArchMikem wrote: »

Drakoleon wrote: »

Sure the prices are reasonable!!! Name or race change costs more than DLCs......
Wtf people? Have anyone of you respect to value of money or you just kids milking your parents 30$ for your cartoon

We're not obligated to pay, the change tokens are NOT necessary to play the game. It's purely a cosmetic consumer item. Besides, "Reasonable" is a loose term here. If you wanted to sell me something like a Crafting Motif, you'd want to charge some pretty coin for it and I'd start complaining about highway robbery. Prices aren't set by the buyer, or else everything would be cheap and then value would cease to exist.

I would say the prices are fair enough. 1,000 crowns for an Appearance change isn't bad at all. I got three of those. Race Change? Why do you want to change your whole Race? Just make a new character, and if you already maxed out your slots, then surely you already have a character of that Race, and if you don't, buy another slot, or delete one of your characters to free up a space. And Name Change? What point is there in caring about your character's name when other people pay more attention to your Gamertag.

I ll tell you why.....races/classes are unbalanced since BETA! Every 3 months zeni's "masterminds" nerfing or buffing classes big time! That means that my X endgame build becomes obsolete or at best much less effective

Some examples. Just before the last major(stamina) patch my redguard Templar was almost obsolete for 2,5 years and my bosmer NB mediocre..... while my Breton(magicka)DK and my Breton Sorc were top DPS .
Today both my stam builds are top burst DPS while my magicka builds are.....playable? Same goes for my highElf Templar witch was a decent healer/light dps and today one of the top DPS builds

Of course if race change prices where reasonable i would change couple of my chars too! But 30$ each? Forget it!

New chars sure! When races/classes will be balanced? In the next 2,5 years? Will see:)

I truly believe that, if race change tokens were like 1K, lots of my guildies that i talk with they would have done some too.
But 30$ each? Forget it!

PS
If zeni's marketing dept was smart they would have sold 3 toons race/appearance/name change packs for 6K

Daemons_Bane

+1 for that the prices are fine as they are.. you are not to supposed to change race/look as often as you change clothes.. that would be wrong, and not in the spirit of the game.. I hope that we get beards/accessories as we have gotten hairstyle packs, but keep the prices as they are..

waterfairy

Name change and race change should be costly but appearance change should be cheap. They don't understand how much money would be had if appearance change was 25-50 crowns. Roleplayers would change on a daily basis, perfectionists would keep paying until they got it right, and people like myself would've done it for several of my characters.

As is, it's too costly for me to justify spending money just to fix my faces so I'm not buying 1.

Daemons_Bane

@Vigarr spend more time om character creation instead

CJohnson81

davey1107 wrote: »

@newtinmpls It depends on which college you attend and what their accreditation is, but my "marketing degree" from USC is actually a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration majoring in marketing and finance with a minor in macroeconomics.

But that was long to type, so I said marketing degree.

I figured out where the attitude comes from. There's a joke around here in Southern California that goes like this:

How do you know a person graduated from USC?

Wait a minute and they'll tell you. I'll go back to my hole now.

Orlacc

davey1107 wrote: »

You can take your $35 name and race change tokens and stick them in that private spot you find just below any khajiit or argonian's tail (or under any altmer's nose). No, seriously - go screw yourself ZOS. Charging the same as the cost of the game disk to change the name and race of one character is INSANE.

Suggested prices:

Appearance token: 50 crowns
Name: 100 crowns
Race: 300 crowns
Name and race: 300 crowns

Trust me...I have a marketing degree. The prices I listed will earn you WAY MORE than your highway robbery garbage.

Edited to remove bashing remark

A marketing degree? Wow.

waterfairy

Daemons_Bane wrote: »

@Vigarr spend more time om character creation instead

It doesn't matter as my character looks differently in creation. There's been several times that I've created a character, got them in game and thought "wtf happened?". It's usually the eyebrows or eyes that don't translate right into game.

newtinmpls

davey1107 wrote: »

@newtinmpls It depends on which college you attend and what their accreditation is, but my "marketing degree" from USC is actually a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration majoring in marketing and finance with a minor in macroeconomics.

But that was long to type, so I said marketing degree.

If you want people to understand what sort of degree that you have, it's not too long to type.

I have a masters in Advanced Practice Nursing with a specialty in Mental Health/ Psychiatry. To people who are not familiar with nursing or health care, it likely means not much; but giving them that much detail means they can look it up if they want

Vigarr wrote: »

Roleplayers would change on a daily basis.

RP'ers would never change - we play "characters" not collections of min-maxed BiS statistics.

itscompton

jeedrzej wrote: »

Prices are the same like in others MMO. They wont change them.

Race/class/power change tokens are only $10 in DCUO, just sayin.

davey1107

@newtinmpls I didn't care if people knew what sort of education I have, lol. It was asked...I replied.

Any discussion of the state of collegiate education in the United States is moot. The race and appearance change costs are stupidly high to me, which I posted in a comment directed at ZOS.

Their bottom line in three months will indicate to them whether I'm right or not. In general, they often put out profitable services, but they also often alienate their consumers (Skyrim launch, TESO launch, dlc issues, etc). They're not the worst video game publisher when it comes to customer service, but they're not the best either.