Elinhir Private Arena - another example of a lack of value for money.

ploddab16_ESO

Has anyone actually bought this house? I mean, don't get me wrong, I like it, the surroundings are nice, it's open, I could do a lot with it and it comes with a few traps to play around with, but the cost is just staggering considering what you are paying for.

The furnishings are sparse for the full priced item, the house is locked to a max cap of 200 items without an ESO+ membership, so I'd need to spend even MORE money on it after shelling out £75 JUST FOR THE BASE UNFURNISHED VERSION. There's another thing, the price point these new houses are set at; if you want them you either spend at minimum £75 or £86 for the full version, but if you want to get even more stuff to fill them with, such as the furniture bundles, you're looking at £110 or more.

Zenimax: for what you seem to expect housing enthusiasts to pay for a single house I could purchase every DLC pack including Elsweyr for crowns. It's the most blatantly targeted piece of marketing you have in your store at the moment, more so than even the crown crates and it just does not justify it's frankly outrageous price tag.

You want me to shell out over a hundred pounds on an in-game item? Give me something that's worth that amount of money. Remove the need for an ESO+ sub to fully utilize these houses. Give us more housing items included in the price of the house, even if it means resorting to including furnishing packs in a bundle. Indeed, why not simply make this kind of item a bundle and change the price points to something far more reasonable? The Elinhir Arena, and houses like it, are not worth the cost you're asking. However, if you gave me three 'tiers' of options for houses such as these I'd be far more inclined to buy in. For example:

Elinhir Arena: Unfurnished - House item limits still in place - 3000 crowns.

Elinhir Arena: Furnished - House item limits removed - 7000 crowns.

Elinhir Arena Bundle - House item limits removed and increased to 800, includes Bundle: Imperial House Furnishings and Bundle: Imperial Arena Furnishings - 12000 crowns.

If more options were given for house purchases like this and more perks were given to those who did shell out more for a product then a great many of us who despise the current marketing for housing would no longer have cause to complain and might even buy into the higher tier of product because we'd finally be getting decent value for our money, something which, under the current system, we simply don't see.

Ratzkifal

People are buying them unfortunately. As long as these houses sell, ZOS won't offer an actual good deal.

And don't get me wrong, I am also guilty of owning a house like that. It's just that people pool their money to get a house together or for their guild and tell themselves that it's okay and worth it.

My friend who owns that arena house turned the central place into a hardmode training ground. Three of those murkmire plants, a centurion dummy in the middle, all three levers turned and your raid group can try to beat the centurion. It's really a great design, even though I am sad to see that 11k crowns had to be paid to achieve it.

Personally I am wondering why ZOS doesn't sell smaller crown exclusive houses with a higher chance of actually being sold and lower production value, possibly rekindling interest in the housing system as a whole.

Jayne_Doe

Wait...this is a medium house? As in 200/400 item slot count? For that price, I was expecting it to be a notable home (350/700) or at least a large home (300/600).

Well...that gives me less hope that Frostvault Chasm will be priced similar to the Snow Globe, which was 4k crowns unfurnished. I was hoping for a similar price for the Chasm, but if the Arena is the same "size" (i.e. 200/400), then I'm guessing the Chasm will be more, and I will therefore not be buying it.

If the arena had been a notable home (350/700), then the price would be in line with other homes of that category (although still too expensive for me).

Sporvan

The OP is incorrect - it is a notable home with 700 slots.

Watchdog

Are you absolutely certain about the size of the Elinhir Private Arena?

It is among the notable homes in the Crown Store, it costs 12k Crowns Unfurnished and ESO Fashion website lists it as a Manor: https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/homes-list/

Could you perhaps be mistaking it with the Frostvault Chasm, which is a Medium Dwemer styled home?

Jayne_Doe

Ah...if the arena is indeed a notable, then the price makes more sense, and I can hope for a medium-home price on the chasm (unless, of course, they've increased the slot limit on it).

Quantact

Usually people evaluate stuff based on their own need or want for it. In the case of clothing and hairstyles, this is pretty easy to pinpoint. If a person says "I hate this hairstyle" and it's your own personal favorite, you won't pay much attention to it.

Homes are pretty much the same thing.

The arena is useless to most PvE players. To PvP players it's a dream come true. I am in a high-end PvP guild and I personally am not a PvPer, I just like cooking for them, keeping the guild bank stuffed with Witchmother's Potent Brew and Dubious Camoran Throne, and Artaeum broth when I can afford it.

These people are always duelling each other and friends to keep their PvP skills sharp. They've been doing this for a very long time, and now this arena comes out and of course they're going to want this for the guild because it's better to duel and have friends spectate in. A lot of existing homes have been picked by such players because they had a large open area to duel and spectate duelling. This is more in line with such needs than any previous home.

So, it's useless to the OP and overpriced to the OP, but there are many people who will think otherwise and have been waiting for something like this for many years.

ploddab16_ESO

I'm actually rather confused with many of the replies to my original post. I mean sure, I might be wrong about the number of slots that the house has, but at the same time it's completely ignoring the actual gist of my arguments.

My argument was that to get the most out of your £75 or more purchase (again, I will reiterate, this is more than the cost of most AAA titles at release and for the cost of buying and furnishing one of these large homes you could buy pretty much all of ESO's DLC in crowns) you actually need to sub to the game, when for that price on a premium crown store only item you shouldn't have any kind of further paywall barring you from fully utilizing the home you've just paid a small fortune for.

I never said the house was useless, just that what was offered for it's asking price was not a good deal and that this kind of price banding would be better served as a premium bundle option whilst other options are made available for players who aren't really willing to shell out this much money on a single in game item that doesn't give gameplay advantages to your every day play (such as the assistants, those are worth their price because of their sheer convenience). That would then result in both a better perception of these timed sales as Zenimax is seen to cater for more than just the whales the industry likes to chase these days and an increase of sales for Zenimax as people who like what they see of the house but don't want to pay such a high cost instead opt for the cheaper option with less bells and whistles.

Also, I am not criticizing Zenimax's dev team. I am not calling anyone out, I am not asking for anyone to be fired, I am not being insulting to them. I am criticizing Zenimax's marketing practices as a company and am also offering them constructive feedback on how they might be able to alter their approach to the marketing of their product to increase customer interaction with their store and make their product more appealing to a larger clientele than they already serve with the crown store.

Jayne_Doe

Value is relative. To some, this house may be worth the price. To you, it clearly is not. It's not to me, either. The only CS-exclusive home I've purchased is Tel Galen, because I really wanted it and I was fine with the price (8k/10k). Others didn't, either because they thought it was too expensive or they really hated the way it looked.

Now, I'm not defending the pricing, per se, but comparing the cost of DLCs or the game to the cost of these vanity items is problematic since these vanity items are merely fluff designed to generate revenue. This keeps the cost of the actual game and DLCs down. If you just want to play and enjoy the game content, then it's relatively affordable. If you want to go all in on housing, then, yeah...it'll be expensive. But, here's the thing, you don't need to buy any of the CS exclusive homes. There are a lot of houses you can purchase for in-game gold. And, you can furnish them solely with in-game gold, too.

Now, the problem is that ZOS hasn't really offered many homes since Homestead that are available for gold. Most have been locked behind the Crown Store, and are large monstrosities costing a fair bit of crowns with an insufficient item limit.

Thus, I can agree with you that I think the price is too high, but it probably isn't for others. I think the problem is that ZOS hasn't gone with a balanced approach when it comes to housing. I think they're testing the waters with the snow globe home and the upcoming Frostvault Chasm (both medium-size homes). If they can generate good revenue with those offerings, then we may see more smaller homes in future, that are more reasonably priced and more easily decorated.

YaYaPineapple

ploddab16_ESO wrote: »

I'm actually rather confused with many of the replies to my original post. I mean sure, I might be wrong about the number of slots that the house has, but at the same time it's completely ignoring the actual gist of my arguments.

My argument was that to get the most out of your £75 or more purchase (again, I will reiterate, this is more than the cost of most AAA titles at release and for the cost of buying and furnishing one of these large homes you could buy pretty much all of ESO's DLC in crowns) you actually need to sub to the game, when for that price on a premium crown store only item you shouldn't have any kind of further paywall barring you from fully utilizing the home you've just paid a small fortune for.

I never said the house was useless, just that what was offered for it's asking price was not a good deal and that this kind of price banding would be better served as a premium bundle option whilst other options are made available for players who aren't really willing to shell out this much money on a single in game item that doesn't give gameplay advantages to your every day play (such as the assistants, those are worth their price because of their sheer convenience). That would then result in both a better perception of these timed sales as Zenimax is seen to cater for more than just the whales the industry likes to chase these days and an increase of sales for Zenimax as people who like what they see of the house but don't want to pay such a high cost instead opt for the cheaper option with less bells and whistles.

Also, I am not criticizing Zenimax's dev team. I am not calling anyone out, I am not asking for anyone to be fired, I am not being insulting to them. I am criticizing Zenimax's marketing practices as a company and am also offering them constructive feedback on how they might be able to alter their approach to the marketing of their product to increase customer interaction with their store and make their product more appealing to a larger clientele than they already serve with the crown store.

Most people who buy these large homes already have ESOplus subscription, and can easily add more furnishings because they probably know hundreds of furnishing plans.

bluebird

Jayne_Doe wrote: »

Thus, I can agree with you that I think the price is too high, but it probably isn't for others. I think the problem is that ZOS hasn't gone with a balanced approach when it comes to housing. I think they're testing the waters with the snow globe home and the upcoming Frostvault Chasm (both medium-size homes). If they can generate good revenue with those offerings, then we may see more smaller homes in future, that are more reasonably priced and more easily decorated.

I agree. However, it seems to be a shame that they 'test the waters' with the most random ugly houses ever, and when they don't sell as well for lower prices, they decide they'll keep the higher prices... But that gimmickly limited season Imperial identity crisis magic toy house would never have had much interest for it anyway...

I'm not sure if that made sense? Basically I think that ZOS started with a 'high price tag, low sales' approach thinking that it's expensive enough that a few rich players can carry the whole system. But now, most of their high quality houses are already sold, so even if they may try to do a 'lower price, maybe more sales' attempt, they may end up with a 'lower price, still low sales' result, this deciding that keeping prices high is their only option. But only because the items they 'tested' this new monetization structure on were never going to be popular in the first place (such as a ridiculous christmas globe house instead of a proper snowy skyrim home, a dwarven ice cave with nordic furnishings instead of a proper dwarven themed home with brass furniture). So low sales of a random unpopular home may mean that future more exciting homes will come with a higher price tag just because the interest for the crap ones was low.

Anyway, I hope I'm wrong And tbh I don't even know if they do experiment, or how they would even gaugue prices. It would be nice if prices were based on player interest, because clearly I want ZoS to remain successful (because I want to keep playing the game) and I think many of their prices are putting people off of purchases, even though they could increase their overall profit if they didn't set the prices so high. I guess they'll be seeing sales numbers from the recent discounts (houses during Black Fredas, returning reduced price houses, and upcoming furnishing sales).

Hymzir

I think am coming to this topic from a different tangent, but I end up with a similar conclusion as the OP. The arena is not worth buying. It's rubbish. Not worth a dime of anyone's money. Now you may disagree, and that's fine. But the way I look at things, from my personal viewpoint, the place is flawed beyond all reckoning.

This is so for the simple fact, that it is perhaps the most blatant example so far, of how the interiors and exteriors of building in ESO do not match.

Just go and look at the "arena caretakers building" Since it's all the same zone, no doors to disorient you, you can easily observe how the windows do not match at all. The upstairs should two dormers, but they do not exist inside. The building obviously has a third floor, but inside is only two. Downstairs has a large fireplace, but outside wall has windows where the fireplace is.

I do not mean to be rude here, but the fact remains, that this looks like the work of an imbecile. How on earth could one not notice these errors, when coming up with the models, otherwise?

Well... One reason does pop in mind, but that would mean it was an intentional choice by the designer, but that would make make the person responsible something far worse than an imbecile...

I just can't believe how little thought and care ZOS seems to put into these houses they are trying to sell fro utterly ridiculous prices.

ThanatosXR

Subprime Morgages Tamerial Style

Whats the cheapest house for in game coin with yard n stuff?

bluebird

ThanatosXR wrote: »

Subprime Morgages Tamerial Style

Whats the cheapest house for in game coin with yard n stuff?

Technically Humblemud for 40k, but I wouldn't necessarily call a mudpile in a marsh a house (no shade, Argonians, we love you). The others would be Black Vine Villa (54k), Autumn's Gate (60k), Twin Arches (73k) and Cyrodillic Jungle House (71k, requires Imperial Edition though).

The other small houses (as well as the inn rooms) have no yard, even though they're not always cheaper lol.

JumpmanLane

I bought the house. It's a notable house. I aint gonna "live" there. Technically my toons "live" at Linchal. Daggerfall is my public house with all my stations that my pals use. the psijic dump is where i put all the one of a kind things.

I like the housing. ZOS for whatever reason has so many furnishing, (lux achievment etc) that you really NEED more than one house. I use the arena for what its meant to be used for, dueling. I got pals who would duel all day long and NOTHING else, testing builds or JUST DUELING. If they are standing around for more than a minute it's all "Catch this duel!" lol

Now the mechanics added to the dueling pit are just silly and would interrupt an actual duel but this is a house i got for a reason: to duel in. I've decorated it to fit that purpose. I was happy with the game at the time (not wanting to quit eso lol THAT day) and didn't mind the expense. I like the house and will only duel my pals there now because its that house's purpose.

Kiyakotari

I got the Elinhir Arena, and the first thing I did was disable the traps (I tested different approaches to doing this on the PTS before the Anrea hit the CS, so I knew exactly what I was going to do even before I bought it). I now have an Imperial-styled arena with a home off to one side that I can decorate as I see fit .My only complaint was/is the stupid traps, which still provide some visual disturbance despite being no longer functional. But I'm content with the arena as it is, and look forward to decorating it.