Tiered sub equivalent for Radiant Apex currency.

WhyMustItBe

There have been many changes to the Zenimax Crown Store model over the years. Many of these changes have been positive: The addition of Crown Gems was sorely needed to prevent the entirety of the store being essentially a real-money cosmetic gambling casino. Furthermore, the Crown Gifting system alleviates the compounding disappointment and burnout of customers constantly missing limited time sales due to lack of liquid income on demand to pay for Crowns.

The last remaining vestige of the 'evil loot box casino' stigma which has still not been accounted for is the Radiant Apex mount gamble. I am sure you've known a streamer or heard the stories of people spending in the neighborhood of $500 or more PER SEASON (their are 4+ seasons a year) in Crates just for the chance at ONE of these. To my way of thinking it is wrong to deny customers availability of the most desired content in the game (and cosmetic customization IS a form of highly desired content in this genre) unless they gamble hundreds of dollars ON TOP of their monthly subscription.

If the standard monthly subscription is no longer adequate to sustain the needs and interests of the company, rather than resorting to social manipulation tactics intended to leverage psychology against a minority of big spending 'whale' customers, pandering to addiction and a need for validation and exclusivity and the like, a simple tiered sub seems like a far more wise and sophisticated solution.

Think of it like the quintessential RPG design: Many ways to play but all are valid and can (with reasonable time investment) achieve the same goal in the end.

The question then becomes how much average investment distributed over what period of time (think 'payment plan') would be adequate equivalent to surpass the net demand by 'whales' for the current gimmick. Weighed against the long term customers you lose to burnout, and the changing demographics of whales as new products hit the market, there should be a pretty clear breakaway point.

I propose this could be gauged by 2x the current ESO+ subscription extrapolated over the course of 1 year: Paying the equivalent of a 2nd subscription every month for a year (total not necessarily consecutive) would amount to ~$180 which would be ~70 crates worth of crowns (not counting those for subbing).

MY SUGGESTION:

For each month an account is subscribed to this x2 'ESO++' give that account 1 unit of Radiant Currency, and make the Radiant Apex mounts available on the store for 12 (adjustable) of these units of currency, so that after an ENTIRE YEAR (adjustable) of paying for a double subscription, customers could choose any ONE of any previous crate season's Radiant Apex mounts.

I theorize that enough customers would opt to pay the 2x sub tier price (for months they could afford it) in order to save up these Radiant Tokens so they could buy ANY of those mounts eventually that the net profit to the company would be greater than by leveraging gambling addiction against big spenders alone, which sees diminishing returns over time (due again to competing entries on the market along with burnout and other social factors) and is ultimately unsustainable in the long term which is well known in the industry.

It also allows for a sense of meaningful investment which I believe is a key metric to why people continue returning to spend money on these games. It gives them something to aim for, rather than a never-ending lever of uncertainty and frustration to pull.

I believe this compromise would satisfy both the desire for relative scarcity (the odds of someone picking the ONE Radiant Mount you had in a given YEAR), as well as for rewarding long term loyal customers. Both of these encourage continued investment (of time and currency) and are good for the company from a business and PR standpoint. It would also help to permanently divorce the company from the growing anti-loot box climate as well as help avoid any troublesome international legal entanglements in that area.

It would also make (I believe) for a much less toxic experience overall.

What do you think?

Nairinhe

I think, get rid of Radiant Apex category altogether

Acrolas

WhyMustItBe wrote: »

What do you think?

A lot of assumptions using the same tired arguments that do nothing more than bash and name-call some of the very people you expect to take this thread seriously.

WhyMustItBe

Acrolas wrote: »

WhyMustItBe wrote: »

What do you think?

A lot of assumptions using the same tired arguments that do nothing more than bash and name-call some of the very people you expect to take this thread seriously.

I don't see how anything I wrote could be construed as bashing or name calling and it certainly wasn't intended as such. I will just have to trust that if any of the people in question do happen to read this thread, they will recognize this fact.

As for this topic being 'tired' I suppose the same could be said about anything people had talked about in the past. But if that were the case why talk about anything? I believe that the whole point of conversation and debate is to get at new perspectives and insights on a topic, and there are as many different perspectives as there are people in the world.

A thing having been talked about does not necessarily imply what was said is all there is to say.

Dragonnord

This means that if I keep going to the casino I will be able to eventually buy the jackpot? Nice!
 

Kagukan

I like the fact that some things are very rare and hard to get. I don't disagree that having someway other than crates to get those items would be cool though. If some system was in place it should still be very difficult so the rarity of said item is not diminished.

themaddaedra

That sounds like a good way to go imo. Should be win/win because it wouldn't harm any ZOS income (whales will keep spending loads of pennies to get them on day one), and it'd make a warmer climate with the rest of community. I also believe that many people who don't even bother trying for radiant apexes will switch to double subscription method which would mean more money for ZOS.

Edit: ZOS should read this system out correctly and keep it limited to these ultra rare cosmetics tho, because looks to me like they have a great potential for putting more stuff in those currencies and forcing people into double subscription.

Alchemical

I'm not going to say 'no one would spend $400 just for one mount' because I remember the guy who dropped 2 grand trying to get the Plague Horse. But I think it would be unlikely, unpopular, and breed even more ill will towards the company with the the perception of them trying to viciously wring even more money for even less effort out of their most loyal players, subscribers.

Just make Radiant Apex buyable for like 1k gems. That's about $300 worth of crates anyway. Whales are happy because they can finally know exactly how much money to throw at the game per season. Casuals are happy because of the illusion they'll one day be able to afford one. It'll still cost about $900 to get all 3 Radiant Apex mounts, which is about what the people who seriously gun for them end up spending on them, according to their Reddit posts where they brag about getting a full set. It likely wouldn't lose them any money because most people know better than to try for RAs and those that don't will still throw money hand over fist at them anyway because they lack impulse control.

Taleof2Cities

A good idea for players? Maybe.

A good idea for the Suits at ZOS? Probably not.