A quick note on how cash shops make players feel

Bradleyastab14_ESO

I'm not too well versed on whats in this cash shop, i just know that when i log in and see "Crowns store" realizing that "Crown currency" is bought with my real life cash it really makes me feel like im visiting a store in the mall with a guy whos consistently haggling me to buy more stuff.

I understand that, if i bought EVERYTHING in the crowns store (assuming thats what the devs want). Then i would feel complete. I could dive into the gaming experience and feel whole, like i'm really getting the most out of my time.

Well shoot, can't even do that now since there is an endless supply of stuff coming out of random loot boxes which i can also buy with crowns. So what am i to do? Do i just continue playing, oblivious to the fact that more and more content for everyone to enjoy is "expensive" and therefore not worth my money?

Or do i splurge and just buy everything! At least that way i know i'm not missing out on anything!

Ok, glad i got that out of my system

I come to games to really escape reality, thats the very nature behind even buying an elder scrolls game, its an alternate reality. I put my wallet away, i take off my clothes, and i sit naked in my dark room to enjoy a couple hours in another world. Now you challenge me with budgeting more money when i already paid. Suddenly all my weekly expenses come back to me and i ponder if i should buy something. Fudge... i came here to game. I think ill just play something else for now...

Anywhow, thats how it makes us feel. If you have an amount in mind that you wanted to make off each player, charge it up front next time. If you want $100 for your game, then ask for it from the get go. Stop playing coy.

Glurin

Erm, how about just buying things you like or can make use of and ignoring the rest? There's no law that says if you buy from the crown store, you have to buy everything it contains.

Rouven

You are saying the in-game shop is intrusive?

Have you played a game where the store actually pops up all the time and literally is in your face?

Because this one here isn't.

DigitalShibby

You can still have the full eso experience without ever using the crown store and that's a great thing. Crown store is filled with cosmetic goodie junk and nothing that gives any player an edge over another. I see no problem with this.

And that's how it makes you feel.. stop throwing the word "us" around. I'm not part of your mentality.

DeadlyRecluse

Bradleyastab14_ESO wrote: »

I understand that, if i bought EVERYTHING in the crowns store (assuming thats what the devs want). Then i would feel complete.

Seems like a personal problem, eh? Most people don't feel the need to buy everything to feel "complete."

Bradleyastab14_ESO wrote: »

If you want $100 for your game, then ask for it from the get go. Stop playing coy.

I am not aware of any B2P mmos without a cash shop of some sort--much less any with the level of content and continued development ESO has.

Kodrac

Cool story, bro!

skiptomyluau

Yea I kinda feel your pain. I'm old enough to remember when games were what they were before the endless sales and unlocking process began. Those days are long gone and this is the new reality unfortunately. I used to play the hell out of desert combat on pc back in the day. I remember when BF2 came out it was the beginning of the unlock process which ticked off a lot of people who liked equal terms in their combat. Since then the unlocking weapons process has evolved into B2W in lots of games and buy to play the whole game.

Brings back memories though of 8 hour sessions of El Alamein in my M1 lol

Uriel_Nocturne

I've played many MMORPG's over the years, and most of them have had a Cash Shop in some form or another.

Out of all of them, ESO's cash shop is the least intrusive cash shop I've ever seen.

I get one single pop-up when I sign in and they've added new stuff to the Crown Store. Compare that to say... SWtOR or LotRO where it seems as if I get a cash shop pop-up every half-hour and every time I load into a new area.

Some MMO's cash shops are even more intrusive than that.

When compared to other MMO's, ESO's cash shop is actually very, very "quiet".

menedhyn

The Crown Store has some interesting items in there on occasion, but they are purely optional. Buy things you like the look of if you feel that it offers fair and reasonable value to you and what you want to do with it. I have bought only a small percentage of items on this basis. I wouldn't say that I feel pressured to buy, but I do wish that the trend for very short time availability could be scrapped - hardly fair for new players to the game.

Katahdin

That is an extreme point of view.

You don't need anything from the crown store to enjoy the game. You can play the entire base game without buying one crown ever.

The only things worth anything are the DLCs. Those are additional content not part of the original budget of the base game because they ran out of money and/or time to do them. So we should expect to pay more for those as you would any expansion to the game.

Jim_Pipp

Mostly disagree. I dislike the price gouging on really popular items, but generally I like that crown store items are priced high so dlc can be sold cheap.

A lot of people seem to be telling the op that this is the reality of mmo''s and just to accept it. I like that the OP cared enough about the game to come to the official forums to ask if there could be another way. It is good to feedback that some players feel this way.

I really liked the final suggestion of an 'honest' price each player needs to pay for ESO to succeed. Sadly that is called a subscription model and it turns out it doesn't make enough.

Personally I would like another tier of ESO plus, one that costs more, but awards more crowns and EVERYTHING in the Crown store is free while you are subbed. It would mean players like me and the OP can use games as an escape without having to make real money decisions about pixels.

BlackSparrow

The only time the cash shop pops up "in your face" is when there has been something new in it since the last time you logged in... so maybe once every month or so. The rest of the time, it is an unobtrusive little button on the left side of your character menu bar.

Look, I get where you're coming from. I was a poor student not too long ago, playing my favorite MMO without spending a dime. I would watch other players passing on their gorgeous cash shop mounts, wearing their beautiful cash shop costumes and holding their weapons they made from cash shop materials that were hard to get in-game, and I would be so frustrated and jealous. It stinks to see something you want and not be able to justify spending money on it, even if it is "just pixels."

However... the fact is that an MMO needs to make money constantly to keep the servers up and content coming. Meanwhile, the majority of players don't want to spend anything past initial purchase. So, the cash shop is the best way to get money from players who are willing to spend while letting players who want to play for free do so. Yes, there have been some dubious decisions (Crown crates being the poster-child), but overall, this is the least intrusive, most fair cash shop I've seen in an MMO. Everything in the cash shop is either cosmetic (costumes, pets), convenience items (the banker and merchant), or achievable in-game fairly easily (bag and bank upgrades). In short, a player who uses the cash shop has no actual advantage over one who doesn't, minus maybe a little time saved and looking awesome. That is about as ethical and unobtrusive as a cash shop can get.

The MMO I played when I was in the shoes of the frugal non-cash-shop player? Much less ethical. The cash shop mounts were faster than any you could find in-game... the faster the mount, the higher the price tag (the fastest was over $100 in real money). The shop allowed you to buy stacks of crafting materials, even rare ones. You were able to trade all your cash shop items with other players for in-game gold, which basically allowed for an easy way to basically buy in-game gold.

Compared to that, the ESO cash shop doesn't even compare. It's the difference between a perfume seller who sprays their product in your face without asking, and one who stands quietly next to the counter, smiling and waiting for you to come to them. That perfume seller is always going to be there, because it needs to be sold to keep the business going... but trust me, their strategy could be much more aggressive.

MEBengalsFan2001

Bradleyastab14_ESO wrote: »

I'm not too well versed on whats in this cash shop, i just know that when i log in and see "Crowns store" realizing that "Crown currency" is bought with my real life cash it really makes me feel like im visiting a store in the mall with a guy whos consistently haggling me to buy more stuff.

I understand that, if i bought EVERYTHING in the crowns store (assuming thats what the devs want). Then i would feel complete. I could dive into the gaming experience and feel whole, like i'm really getting the most out of my time.

Well shoot, can't even do that now since there is an endless supply of stuff coming out of random loot boxes which i can also buy with crowns. So what am i to do? Do i just continue playing, oblivious to the fact that more and more content for everyone to enjoy is "expensive" and therefore not worth my money?

Or do i splurge and just buy everything! At least that way i know i'm not missing out on anything!

Ok, glad i got that out of my system

I come to games to really escape reality, thats the very nature behind even buying an elder scrolls game, its an alternate reality. I put my wallet away, i take off my clothes, and i sit naked in my dark room to enjoy a couple hours in another world. Now you challenge me with budgeting more money when i already paid. Suddenly all my weekly expenses come back to me and i ponder if i should buy something. Fudge... i came here to game. I think ill just play something else for now...

Anywhow, thats how it makes us feel. If you have an amount in mind that you wanted to make off each player, charge it up front next time. If you want $100 for your game, then ask for it from the get go. Stop playing coy.

I used my membership crowns to buy stuff. That is what I do and what others should do who have a membership. For those without a membership, I recommend buying a membership if you plan on buying crowns.