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How can they possibly charge $130-$150 for a house

  • DoctorESO
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    Lyss1991 wrote: »
    Because I can

    Because in 2017 alone, I played over 3000 hours of ESO. (Im a stay at home mom)

    Im not a fancy person...I dont go shopping often, I dont go on lavish trips, I dont drink so I dont go to bars, I stopped clubbing before I was 21....

    THIS IS WHAT I DO. IM A GAMER.

    I have subscribed 22 out of 23 months ive been playing this game.

    Ive invested over $1000 into this game, Including subscription fees, ps+, and I make a point to buy extra crowns every month, Sale or not.

    Why, You ask?

    Because I enjoy this game. This is all I play, Except for the occasional time I pop Skyrim in when theres maintenance. I spend ALOT of time playing this game. I want more content, I want more stuff to customize my characters. Without support and funding, We either get no new content, Or the content we do get will be crappy. I can afford it. My bills are paid. My kids are spoiled. I deserve to spend money on whatever I like. And what I like so happens to be a video game and virtual houses.

    This game is projected to last at least 10 years. We arent even at the halfway point of that timeframe. I have many years to keep playing and getting use out of my houses, outfits, mounts, hair, makeup, accessories, etc. that I bought.

    Its not a waste if you enjoy what you are doing.

    Dont knock people who like to buy the extras and support the game because you dont want to.

    THIS. Well said!
  • DoctorESO
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    $80 on steak and lobster dinner that i enjoy for 30 mins then turn into poo vs $120 on something that will keep me entertained for 20-30 hrs. You figure out the ROI on that one

    Challenge accepted.

    Steak and lobster dinner: $160 per hour of enjoyment
    ESO house: $4-6 per hour of enjoyment

    In other words:

    Steak and lobster dinner: 0.375 minutes of enjoyment (return) per $1 spent
    ESO house: 10-15 minutes (return) per $1 spent
    Edited by DoctorESO on May 20, 2018 5:45PM
  • Minyassa
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    I've known people who literally spend around $300 to rent a seat for 3 hours just to watch a sports game they could see on tv and then they don't even have a digital object to look at whenever they want. Talk about crazy!
  • DoctorESO
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    Minyassa wrote: »
    I've known people who literally spend around $300 to rent a seat for 3 hours just to watch a sports game they could see on tv and then they don't even have a digital object to look at whenever they want. Talk about crazy!

    I never understood this. Yes, I get that it's the "experience," but wow...
  • BretonMage
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    It depends how long you play a game for. You'll typically pour over 1000 hours into an MMO, while most single player games are over in 10-20 hours.

    That's a fair point. I'm always happy to spend on more content, and I can see that ESO has more content than vanilla Skyrim (though modding Skyrim can give you more than 1000 hours). I guess I don't really see a house (especially one that you can barely do anything in) as content per se. But to each their own, I guess.

    I do think that there are many single-player games which merit increased pricing, to bring them more in line with MMOs - not all SP games are over in 20 hours. I spent about 200 hours on vanilla Skyrim, 200 hours on Dragon Age Inquisition...
  • Marginis
    Marginis
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    DoctorESO wrote: »
    BretonMage wrote: »
    How do you justify going to a concert or a movie or buying a new DVD or dropping $60 on a AAA game when people are starving?

    This is my first MMO and I am seriously having difficulty with the prices they are asking. I'm used to spending $60 on a game - I often spend about $100 if you take DLCs into account... But $60 on a house in a game, let alone $100? That just strikes me as bizarre.

    Obviously people do it and do justify it to themselves. I myself haven't been able to get over that hurdle.

    Also... what does it mean now for games that are $60? Does that mean they are massively underpriced?

    It's like airfare.

    Coach class is the basic game, and you pay $200 for it. If you want the extra luxuries like a bigger seat, quicker service, better food, then you pay an extra $600 to upgrade to first class. You don't need the extra luxuries, of course, and coach class will get you from point A to point B just fine.

    The base game is fine on its own. You can get the extra luxuries (the expensive houses), but, like upgrading to first class on a plane, it will cost more than the price of the game.

    I'm not sure if I would use that example. Although it is in many ways appropriate and fitting to compare airlines to game companies, it's not terribly flattering to game devs. Airlines keep their prices artificially low, putting all their costs into additional fees, so that while customers think they're getting a deal, they often end up paying more than they would if all the costs were upfront. Not only is this shady, but airlines are also largely accused of lowering safety standards and lowering comfort standards, in order to incentivize flyers to pay more via all the fees and addons. It's fairly transparent, because airline choice is very limited, but it's scarily similar otherwise to videogame monetization right now.
    @Marginis on PC, Senpai Fluffy on Xbox, Founder of Magicka. Also known as Kha'jiri, The Night Mother, Ma'iq, Jane Shepard, Damia, Kintyra, Zoor Do Kest, You, and a few others.
  • Aelorin
    Aelorin
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    Alinor Crest House is just 7500 crowns, so that is rather cheap for such a beatiful ans decorated home....
    And so the Elder Scrolls foretold.You will be shy, and I will be bold.
  • bellatrixed
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    The other thing to consider is that it really isn't totally accurate to put a dollar amount on houses based on crown prices. I save up on crowns during crown sales on top of getting some from my subscription... so I don't really just go out and drop $120 at a time just to buy a new house. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

    But yeah... I just saw a study that said the average person spends $80 on a night out. It will always be confusing to me that if I blow $100 at a bar nobody will really care but if I spend $100 on a digital house I can use for years suddenly I'm irresponsible with my money.
    ESO Roleplay | RP community for all factions/servers/platforms
  • DoctorESO
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    The other thing to consider is that it really isn't totally accurate to put a dollar amount on houses based on crown prices. I save up on crowns during crown sales on top of getting some from my subscription... so I don't really just go out and drop $120 at a time just to buy a new house. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

    But yeah... I just saw a study that said the average person spends $80 on a night out. It will always be confusing to me that if I blow $100 at a bar nobody will really care but if I spend $100 on a digital house I can use for years suddenly I'm irresponsible with my money.

    You said it.
  • Marginis
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    The other thing to consider is that it really isn't totally accurate to put a dollar amount on houses based on crown prices. I save up on crowns during crown sales on top of getting some from my subscription... so I don't really just go out and drop $120 at a time just to buy a new house. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

    But yeah... I just saw a study that said the average person spends $80 on a night out. It will always be confusing to me that if I blow $100 at a bar nobody will really care but if I spend $100 on a digital house I can use for years suddenly I'm irresponsible with my money.

    To be fair, that's how microtransactions work - you pay in small bits so you don't fully understand how much it all adds up to cost you. Not that I disagree with you, I'm just saying that your same logic can be used to point out how the system is exploitative.

    Also, in my world, blowing $100 at a bar is irresponsible. If the people you talk to think that it isn't, that probably says more about them than anything about a double standard.
    @Marginis on PC, Senpai Fluffy on Xbox, Founder of Magicka. Also known as Kha'jiri, The Night Mother, Ma'iq, Jane Shepard, Damia, Kintyra, Zoor Do Kest, You, and a few others.
  • CyberSkooma
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    This most simple answer, at least from the buyers perspective, is that it's not anybodies business what they spend their money on.

    ZOS puts it up because they know people will buy it. And people will buy it because they want it. We don't need to know the budget of the buyer, the salary, what bills they have, or what else they spend their money on. If somebody wants it enough, they will pay for it.

    Some of us(not me lol) have our bills paid, we don't have kids, spouses or families, and have the freedom to put our money wherever we want (again, not me). I know it's a crazy thought. Maybe this is the only game they play and they're not purchasing 30-60 dollar games every month or so.
    Edited by CyberSkooma on May 22, 2018 6:33PM
    I play this game a little bit I guess
  • notimetocare
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    To put cost into perspective, Path of Exile a full set of mtx armor is around$80us
  • stitchesofdooom
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    N0TPLAYER2 wrote: »
    The new house - Princely Dawnlight Palace - costs 17,500 crowns to buy furnished.

    Who can justify such a large price? I don’t see how the seller OR the buyer can reasonably defend these prices.

    What planet are they on? And who is buying these homes?

    If you’ve spent anywhere near this price on a house please explain the justification you made to do so. I just DONT get it. Even as a guild house, the game devs really shouldn’t be asking more than $15-$30 tops for these. They’re selling houses at 7x-8x the value of the base game plus dlc. It’s mind boggling to me.

    I actually have a guy in my guild that spent 11k Crowns on the big place outside Ebonheart - furnished. His brother, who is an officer in my guild and invited him, messaged me to say "dude, you gotta see this, my brother is CRAZY".

    He hasn't explained why he couldn't just wipe his backside with his cash like any other utterly wasteful person, but the mentality that I've previously encountered is "I buy ESO Plus for the craft bag, I get Crowns, I spend them".

    I like ESO Plus, but I ONLY buy it when I need the Crowns for DLC. The Craft Bag is insanely useful, but they should just sell it to us. Another thing that really annoys me is the insane cost of the Banker and Merchant. I want the Banker for my Guild, and would like the Merchant. I'm not paying more than 1000 Crowns for them though. They'd sell more stuff if their prices weren't so disgusting.
    Say NO to Crown Crates. Crown Crates are Loot Boxes. Loot Boxes are gambling. Zenimax makes enough money off us.
    ESO+ is part of the "Games as a service" trend. A trend that needs to die. Subscribe only when you need Crowns for DLC.
    Say no to "radiant" junk quests replacing proper side content and the dumbing down of our favorite franchises.
    PCMR EU.
  • Tiedän
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    N0TPLAYER2 wrote: »
    The new house - Princely Dawnlight Palace - costs 17,500 crowns to buy furnished.

    Who can justify such a large price? I don’t see how the seller OR the buyer can reasonably defend these prices.

    What planet are they on? And who is buying these homes?

    If you’ve spent anywhere near this price on a house please explain the justification you made to do so. I just DONT get it. Even as a guild house, the game devs really shouldn’t be asking more than $15-$30 tops for these. They’re selling houses at 7x-8x the value of the base game plus dlc. It’s mind boggling to me.

    I agree. Houses would need to be FAR more functional than what they are now to even come close to being worth that kind of money. Right now, houses are sadly just expensive, glorified trophy rooms...We would need to be able to farm nodes, fish, interact with more items (like dressers, chests, beds, shelves, etc..) have a far greater cap than what we have now for furnishings, maybe even have the ability to place assistants or NPCs in your homes that actually are capable of interacting with your furnishings. Not to mention a lot of the notable, mansion-esque houses have so much under utilized area. The Craglorn cavern and Hakkvild's High Hall both have inaccessible areas for the footprint that you're paying for. The first house that i think has ever come close to really utilizing the full space and multiple levels is the Princely Dawnlight Palace...but again, it's 17K.
    Edited by Tiedän on May 22, 2018 8:16PM
    "Battle-Born is a name out of legend, sung in the songs of old and heard in deeds of valor for a hundred generations. 'For Clan Battle-Born!' they cry in the mead halls. 'First into the fray and last to quit their ale!'" - Olfrid Battle-Born
    PC/Mac - NA
    Thian Battle-Born - Nord Stamina DK DPS
    Alynu Dreth - Dunmer Magicka Sorcerer DPS
    Reeh-Jah Nisar - Argonian Stamina Nightblade DPS
    Eraldil Riverrun - Bosmer Stamina Warden DPS
    Tsavani Khanai - Khajit Magicka Templar DPS
    Laila The Huntress - Nord Stamina DK Tank
  • shinikaze
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    Sergykid wrote: »
    at least if houses were good to something else rather than dress-up game

    Well, lots of people like this dress up game >.<
  • DoctorESO
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    This most simple answer, at least from the buyers perspective, is that it's not anybodies business what they spend their money on.

    ZOS puts it up because they know people will buy it. And people will buy it because they want it. We don't need to know the budget of the buyer, the salary, what bills they have, or what else they spend their money on. If somebody wants it enough, they will pay for it.

    Some of us(not me lol) have our bills paid, we don't have kids, spouses or families, and have the freedom to put our money wherever we want (again, not me). I know it's a crazy thought. Maybe this is the only game they play and they're not purchasing 30-60 dollar games every month or so.

    And maybe the only game, only hobby, only love in life

    You're my sun, my moon, my guiding star
    My kind of wonderful, that's what you are

    You're all I'm living for, your love I'll keep forevermore
    First, you're the last, my everything
    Edited by DoctorESO on May 23, 2018 4:01AM
  • DoctorESO
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    Tiedän wrote: »
    N0TPLAYER2 wrote: »
    The new house - Princely Dawnlight Palace - costs 17,500 crowns to buy furnished.

    Who can justify such a large price? I don’t see how the seller OR the buyer can reasonably defend these prices.

    What planet are they on? And who is buying these homes?

    If you’ve spent anywhere near this price on a house please explain the justification you made to do so. I just DONT get it. Even as a guild house, the game devs really shouldn’t be asking more than $15-$30 tops for these. They’re selling houses at 7x-8x the value of the base game plus dlc. It’s mind boggling to me.

    I agree. Houses would need to be FAR more functional than what they are now to even come close to being worth that kind of money. Right now, houses are sadly just expensive, glorified trophy rooms...We would need to be able to farm nodes, fish, interact with more items (like dressers, chests, beds, shelves, etc..) have a far greater cap than what we have now for furnishings, maybe even have the ability to place assistants or NPCs in your homes that actually are capable of interacting with your furnishings. Not to mention a lot of the notable, mansion-esque houses have so much under utilized area. The Craglorn cavern and Hakkvild's High Hall both have inaccessible areas for the footprint that you're paying for. The first house that i think has ever come close to really utilizing the full space and multiple levels is the Princely Dawnlight Palace...but again, it's 17K.

    What about the Grand Topal Hideaway? The private island?
  • Tiedän
    Tiedän
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    DoctorESO wrote: »
    Tiedän wrote: »
    N0TPLAYER2 wrote: »
    The new house - Princely Dawnlight Palace - costs 17,500 crowns to buy furnished.

    Who can justify such a large price? I don’t see how the seller OR the buyer can reasonably defend these prices.

    What planet are they on? And who is buying these homes?

    If you’ve spent anywhere near this price on a house please explain the justification you made to do so. I just DONT get it. Even as a guild house, the game devs really shouldn’t be asking more than $15-$30 tops for these. They’re selling houses at 7x-8x the value of the base game plus dlc. It’s mind boggling to me.

    I agree. Houses would need to be FAR more functional than what they are now to even come close to being worth that kind of money. Right now, houses are sadly just expensive, glorified trophy rooms...We would need to be able to farm nodes, fish, interact with more items (like dressers, chests, beds, shelves, etc..) have a far greater cap than what we have now for furnishings, maybe even have the ability to place assistants or NPCs in your homes that actually are capable of interacting with your furnishings. Not to mention a lot of the notable, mansion-esque houses have so much under utilized area. The Craglorn cavern and Hakkvild's High Hall both have inaccessible areas for the footprint that you're paying for. The first house that i think has ever come close to really utilizing the full space and multiple levels is the Princely Dawnlight Palace...but again, it's 17K.

    What about the Grand Topal Hideaway? The private island?

    Wow, totally forgot about Grand Topal Island. That whole island should be exploreable for how much that cost!
    "Battle-Born is a name out of legend, sung in the songs of old and heard in deeds of valor for a hundred generations. 'For Clan Battle-Born!' they cry in the mead halls. 'First into the fray and last to quit their ale!'" - Olfrid Battle-Born
    PC/Mac - NA
    Thian Battle-Born - Nord Stamina DK DPS
    Alynu Dreth - Dunmer Magicka Sorcerer DPS
    Reeh-Jah Nisar - Argonian Stamina Nightblade DPS
    Eraldil Riverrun - Bosmer Stamina Warden DPS
    Tsavani Khanai - Khajit Magicka Templar DPS
    Laila The Huntress - Nord Stamina DK Tank
  • Wreuntzylla
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    @Rain_Greyraven - my apologies.

    @badmojo

    It's the extent of monetization that concerns me, not the fact of it. I'm not by any means a socialist, but I do at least partially subscribe to egalitarianism.

    How many mounts has ZoS made available for purchase from the stables since release? What percent of houses have been added to the game for purchase with gold? How many are non-notable? How many costumes are available in the game versus how many have hit the crown store, and how big a quality difference?

    I am in a position to buy what I want, and yet I can still recognize a system that harms the overall community. One important element of MMOs is the broad spectrum of people you will run into. From white collar business men to bike gang members, people that work at Goldman Sachs and people that work at McDonalds, disabled veterans living at the poverty line and entrepreneurs that retired in their 40's. Heck, in ESO, there are several 70+ year old grands that PvP (and are absolutely hilarious).

    There are other ways to monetize than through the casino like methods used by ZoS.

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/02/world-of-warcraft-gold-can-now-be-used-to-buy-other-blizzard-items/
    Edited by Wreuntzylla on May 23, 2018 6:44PM
  • kind_hero
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    What is hard to understand is how the game costs a fraction of a house, even a premium one.

    If you think for a bit you will spend a tiny amount of time in that house, while the rest of your game time will be spend outside that house.

    I really enjoy decorating, but houses do not offer much interaction or stuff to do other than running around, deconstructing stuff (if you have crafting stations) and maybe occasional crafting consumables.

    It is sad that whales have created this trend and the gaming industry quickly followed the easy money trail. Don't sell me the story with the impoverished developer that needs the money from these items to create more content and so on. Amazing games have been created many years ago before this trend. Some of these games had a community making content for years!

    It is all about convenience and greed.
    [PC/EU] Tamriel Hero, Stormproof, Grand Master Crafter
  • Marginis
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    kind_hero wrote: »
    What is hard to understand is how the game costs a fraction of a house, even a premium one.

    If you think for a bit you will spend a tiny amount of time in that house, while the rest of your game time will be spend outside that house.

    I really enjoy decorating, but houses do not offer much interaction or stuff to do other than running around, deconstructing stuff (if you have crafting stations) and maybe occasional crafting consumables.

    It is sad that whales have created this trend and the gaming industry quickly followed the easy money trail. Don't sell me the story with the impoverished developer that needs the money from these items to create more content and so on. Amazing games have been created many years ago before this trend. Some of these games had a community making content for years!

    It is all about convenience and greed.

    Honestly, there are still many instances where devs don't make what they should. This isn't, however, a matter of the game not making enough money oftentimes - it's a matter of the publishers sapping the money from the developers lower down the food chain. My point is, while it is very often about convenience and greed, it's not always fair to say it's the developers - more often it's management.
    @Marginis on PC, Senpai Fluffy on Xbox, Founder of Magicka. Also known as Kha'jiri, The Night Mother, Ma'iq, Jane Shepard, Damia, Kintyra, Zoor Do Kest, You, and a few others.
  • bellatrixed
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    Marginis wrote: »
    The other thing to consider is that it really isn't totally accurate to put a dollar amount on houses based on crown prices. I save up on crowns during crown sales on top of getting some from my subscription... so I don't really just go out and drop $120 at a time just to buy a new house. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

    But yeah... I just saw a study that said the average person spends $80 on a night out. It will always be confusing to me that if I blow $100 at a bar nobody will really care but if I spend $100 on a digital house I can use for years suddenly I'm irresponsible with my money.

    To be fair, that's how microtransactions work - you pay in small bits so you don't fully understand how much it all adds up to cost you. Not that I disagree with you, I'm just saying that your same logic can be used to point out how the system is exploitative.

    Also, in my world, blowing $100 at a bar is irresponsible. If the people you talk to think that it isn't, that probably says more about them than anything about a double standard.

    By that logic any consumer goods are exploitative though. I just finished a 12 book series--the books were $7-$15 each--I didn't realize I spent $140 to read the whole series til I added it up just now! Exploitation!

    I get what you're saying, but I'm well aware of how much I spend on ESO. I mean, buying digital currency is nothing new or exclusive to ESO--does it really matter if I spend that $100 on one house or on a mount and a bunch of furniture or on costumes and consumables? What constitutes a good use of that $100 and what becomes exploitative?

    In other words, it's entertainment money. If you want to get technical, you can't really justify any entertainment expense while people are starving, but that's not how the world works. It's no more irresponsible to spend that $100 on a digital house than it is to buy several movies or singleplayer games or books.
    Edited by bellatrixed on May 26, 2018 7:52AM
    ESO Roleplay | RP community for all factions/servers/platforms
  • Amphithoe
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    Yeah, I wish they would bring back paid subscription already.
    Guildmaster: School of Julianos
  • Marginis
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    Marginis wrote: »
    The other thing to consider is that it really isn't totally accurate to put a dollar amount on houses based on crown prices. I save up on crowns during crown sales on top of getting some from my subscription... so I don't really just go out and drop $120 at a time just to buy a new house. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

    But yeah... I just saw a study that said the average person spends $80 on a night out. It will always be confusing to me that if I blow $100 at a bar nobody will really care but if I spend $100 on a digital house I can use for years suddenly I'm irresponsible with my money.

    To be fair, that's how microtransactions work - you pay in small bits so you don't fully understand how much it all adds up to cost you. Not that I disagree with you, I'm just saying that your same logic can be used to point out how the system is exploitative.

    Also, in my world, blowing $100 at a bar is irresponsible. If the people you talk to think that it isn't, that probably says more about them than anything about a double standard.

    By that logic any consumer goods are exploitative though. I just finished a 12 book series--the books were $7-$15 each--I didn't realize I spent $140 to read the whole series til I added it up just now! Exploitation!

    I get what you're saying, but I'm well aware of how much I spend on ESO. I mean, buying digital currency is nothing new or exclusive to ESO--does it really matter if I spend that $100 on one house or on a mount and a bunch of furniture or on costumes and consumables? What constitutes a good use of that $100 and what becomes exploitative?

    In other words, it's entertainment money. If you want to get technical, you can't really justify any entertainment expense while people are starving, but that's not how the world works. It's no more irresponsible to spend that $100 on a digital house than it is to buy several movies or singleplayer games or books.

    The tactics can be deemed exploitative in any form, as they take advantage of some (even if they don't take advantage of you), whether it's videogames or books. Videogames do have some differences that make them arguably worse, like converting currency with a strong association to a particular value to another currency with a less defined value to us. We know the value of a dollar, but the value of a crown, while mathematically possible to figure out, psychologically doesn't have that same connection to a particular worth, outside of what we can purchase with the crowns.

    I agree completely that it's the same as any entertainment money, I just think it's important to realize that for some people it can be exploitative, even if I'm not using that term relatively, and that is what can make spending money on ESO "worse" than on other things. It's like spending money in a casino as opposed to buying a new tv. They're both for entertainment, but one is typically considered less responsible than the other. Consequently, this makes the high cost of one less justifiable than the other.
    @Marginis on PC, Senpai Fluffy on Xbox, Founder of Magicka. Also known as Kha'jiri, The Night Mother, Ma'iq, Jane Shepard, Damia, Kintyra, Zoor Do Kest, You, and a few others.
  • GrimAndProper
    GrimAndProper
    Soul Shriven
    I just kinda feel like they would make more money if they reduced the prices.... I know I've looked at MANY things in ESO and thought, if that was half that price I would buy it but I can't justify $50 on that ($25 I could justify).

    Sadly, I think it is too late. They would need to give crown refunds to those who already bought the items if there was a substantial drop in price or there would be a huge backlash.
  • DoctorESO
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    I just kinda feel like they would make more money if they reduced the prices.... I know I've looked at MANY things in ESO and thought, if that was half that price I would buy it but I can't justify $50 on that ($25 I could justify).

    Sadly, I think it is too late. They would need to give crown refunds to those who already bought the items if there was a substantial drop in price or there would be a huge backlash.

    True. I guess what they could do, though, is offer new homes at lower prices.
  • Morgha_Kul
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    badmojo wrote: »
    There's a strange obsession about ZOS not getting paid in this community.

    How much money could a person have made if they did something productive with the hours they have spent playing ESO? Even at minimum wage here in Canada($15/h), I could make enough money to pay for this house in 10 hours of work, that's only 2 short days of work. But, ten hours is nothing in the ESO grind, that might get you one character to 50 during a double XP event.

    I am not trying to defend the pricing ZOS has implemented for housing, believe me I would love to pick up these houses for much less. But, there seems to be a strange disconnect in some players minds between the time they invest in this game and the money they invest.

    In 10 hours at a minimum wage job, I could get 15,000 crowns.
    In 10 hours of doing crafting writs, I could get maybe 350,000-400,000 gold.
    How big of a house can we buy for 400k gold? Certainly nothing like the Princely Dawnlight.

    I have probably spent 3000 hours playing ESO. At a minimum wage job I could have made $45,000 during that time. But suddenly I am supposed to be outraged at a 10 hour time investment for an in-game mansion? I also don't work for minimum wage, so it's more like 5hours of my time for access to a part of the game I really enjoy.

    If I was a casual player and only played ESO a couple hours a week, sure, the price would be outrageous. But, if I only played ESO a few hours a week I wouldn't be buying a house that extravagant.

    Minimum wage in this part of Canada is $14, but I get your point. The thing is, if I spent all the money I earned for 2 days on something like this, I will be very hungry by the end of those two days, because MOST of the money I made in those 2 days would normally go to things like food, rent, insurance, etc. LIVING expenses. For the price of one of these big houses in the game, I could feed myself for a MONTH.

    To me, that seems rather ridiculous, and I'm not even considering how little value the houses have.

    When I played Galaxies, the housing was FUN. I spent more time on housing my characters than I did doing ANYTHING else. The reason was that I could go out into the world and drop a house anywhere I liked. I would spend HOURS driving around a planet looking for a great location for my house.

    What made a location great? Several things.
    First, it had to have a spectacular view. MOST of the houses in this game have next to no view, because there's gigantic walls blocking line of sight to the world beyond.
    Second, it had to be somewhere at least on the way to someplace populated, so I could watch as people went by while sitting on my balcony. Here, there IS no world beyond the gateway, no other people at all, because the house is its own self contained little world... empty of anyone else.
    Third, it needed to be on a world where trade took place, because my character was a merchant, and I had vendors in my house. Here, no one is even ABLE to enter my house, unless they're on my friends list or in a guild I'm in... and then ONLY if I'm online. Likewise, I can't go into anyone else's house.
    Fourth, it needed to be a populated planet, so I could sit on my balcony and chat in world chat. Here, that's not possible, because the houses are not part of the world, they're self contained little instances. You will be alone in your house, forever alone.

    These are the kinds of things I looked for in the housing here. It's what I looked for in other games too. In LotRO, I got myself a house. It has a decent view, with a lake behind it. It's near Bree, where there's LOTS of traffic, though there's actually relatively little traffic in the instanced neighbourhood where the house stands. Trade doesn't take place in the house, but there CAN be visitors, and I CAN visit other people's houses. Finally, World chat is server-wide, no matter where you are, so I can sit on my lawn and watch to see if anyone goes by, or visit a neighbour's house to see if he's got any interesting decorations, or what have you, all while chatting with other people. LIVING in the game, so to speak.

    This game provides NONE of this... and at an absurdly high price. So, I've not bought a house in the game. I have the St. Delyn's Apartment from the quest, but that's it... and unless something changes drastically, it's likely going to BE it.

    And this is from a player who LOVES to become immersed in the world, who loves to become PART of the setting. It's what I love to do more than anything else. Housing could have been wonderful, but they dropped the ball badly.
    Exploring Tamriel since 1994.
  • Vanthras79
    Vanthras79
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    ZOS loves them some mullahs.
    Norion Germain - Telvanni Wizard, Covenant Battle Mage, Mage's Guild Magister, Resident of Daggerfall Overlook, Lord of Tel Galen, Psijic Monk, Antiquarian, Breton Scholar, and Traveler.

  • Gargath
    Gargath
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    N0TPLAYER2 wrote: »
    The new house - Princely Dawnlight Palace - costs 17,500 crowns to buy furnished.

    Who can justify such a large price? I don’t see how the seller OR the buyer can reasonably defend these prices.

    What planet are they on? And who is buying these homes?

    No idea why so much noise about this. If you can't afford you don't buy. Like in real life. I'd like to buy a porsche but I'm not that rich. I won't start crying or go start riots, otherwise I'll go buy Hyundai and be happy :).

    Anyway 17,500 crowns is just 12 months of subscribing game. If someone has all the mounts and costumes and is already bored about crown crates, can spend that much for a house. Who will forbid the rich.

    PC EU (PL): 14 characters. ESO player since 06.08.2015. Farkas finest quote: "Some people don't think I'm smart. Those people get my fist. But you, I like."
  • BretonMage
    BretonMage
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    Gargath wrote: »
    No idea why so much noise about this. If you can't afford you don't buy. Like in real life. I'd like to buy a porsche but I'm not that rich. I won't start crying or go start riots, otherwise I'll go buy Hyundai and be happy :).

    In real life, we have a large range of alternatives. If I can't afford a mansion, I have hundreds of smaller houses to be able to choose from. There is no small house choice in Alinor, or any of the biggest cities in the game, which makes it inconvenient (and quite unrealistic, really) for the majority of us.
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