Crowns/Crates/Jewels nonsense..

vivisectvib16_ESO

I feel like crates and crown jewels need to be addressed.

600 crown jewels to get a rad new mount? And the only way to get jewels is to spend real money on crowns, spend those crowns on crates, and then hope for enough dupes and deconstructs until you have enough jewels to make the purchase.. I mean, I absolutely love this game, but this practice is BS and is also shady af as it locks people out of purchasing exclusive items unless you play the ZOS gambling addiction simulator with Pacrooti.

Dupes and deconstructs from crates should be giving an appropriate amount of Crowns, period, instead of this lame secondary currency that is simply designed for us to sink more real money into the primary currency. This way you can still at least directly purchase some of these double-gated items using the primary currency of the Crown Store.

Bullseye1914

Simply put--agreed.

ghastley

And you've hit the nail on the head. The idea is that the mounts are only available via crates, and the gems are just a way to ensure that enough crates will eventually get the mount, so they don't get the complaint that they never drop.

Direct purchase won't get the same income as the RNG indirect route. People will gamble more than than they'd pay for anything, and that's why these items are "sold" that way.

Starlock

Go a step further - fake currency shouldn't be a thing, period. There is no (ethical) reason for it. It exists for one reason - to obscure the cost of items from the consumer and manipulate them into buying products. That they can literally hold your money hostage is an unfortunate consequence of this system. It should, frankly, be illegal for a company to do this. Especially if they do not offer an easy way to convert your fake currency back to the real money you actually used to get said fake currency in the first place.

vivisectvib16_ESO

Starlock wrote: »

Go a step further - fake currency shouldn't be a thing, period. There is no (ethical) reason for it. It exists for one reason - to obscure the cost of items from the consumer and manipulate them into buying products. That they can literally hold your money hostage is an unfortunate consequence of this system. It should, frankly, be illegal for a company to do this. Especially if they do not offer an easy way to convert your fake currency back to the real money you actually used to get said fake currency in the first place.

I'm fine with in game currency to a point, but I do agree that the bolded line should be something that is mandatory for any game company that is going to put it's own micro-transaction currency into place. There should absolutely be a way to convert that currency back into an equivalent value of real world currency.

Haenk

I have a much simpler approach. If I have crown left (from subscription), I might buy stuff I don't really need.
Otherwise I'll just won't buy anything at all. Purchasing a virtual home for 100,- of real money. Uhm, no. (But I do have to admit, that I did it in the past, when special crown store items were an uncommon appearance in the store.)

Just ignore the stuff.

vivisectvib16_ESO

Haenk wrote: »

I have a much simpler approach. If I have crown left (from subscription), I might buy stuff I don't really need.
Otherwise I'll just won't buy anything at all. Purchasing a virtual home for 100,- of real money. Uhm, no. (But I do have to admit, that I did it in the past, when special crown store items were an uncommon appearance in the store.)

Just ignore the stuff.

I don't think you can blanket statement things like this with "just ignore it" as a solution to this combating this business practice. Especially when it's clearly targeted.

redspecter23

vivisectvib16_ESO wrote: »

Haenk wrote: »

I have a much simpler approach. If I have crown left (from subscription), I might buy stuff I don't really need.
Otherwise I'll just won't buy anything at all. Purchasing a virtual home for 100,- of real money. Uhm, no. (But I do have to admit, that I did it in the past, when special crown store items were an uncommon appearance in the store.)

Just ignore the stuff.

I don't think you can blanket statement things like this with "just ignore it" as a solution to this combating this business practice. Especially when it's clearly targeted.

The only way the business practice goes away is if players stop buying these things. Either by choice or mandate. As long as players are spending, it doesn't matter what players think is right. The money wins. Trying to appeal to ZOS to change something that is most certainly making them a boatload of cash will get you nowhere.

It's obvious that crates are predatory. Maybe not as bad as some other companies, but ZOS still knows how to trigger impulses that make people want to buy loot boxes. As long as they are legal, companies (including ZOS) will sell them. They can try to be more ethical than the other guy but at the end of the day they know what works.

Xerodom

The gem exclusive items are a big part of why I no longer buy crown crates and I used to spend a minimum of 15,000 crowns per season. I was happy to do so but not anymore.

I'm also still really salty about my duplicate radient apex mount. 132 gems, really?! Nope, my money goes to other games now. 132 gems is what you get for a regular apex, I feel ripped off.

Dusk_Coven

vivisectvib16_ESO wrote: »

as it locks people out of purchasing exclusive items

EXCLUSIVITY is the whole point.
In the real world, that's what people pay for and use to compare themselves with others. Example: Handbag costing $50k and they deliberately limit the supply to 10 in the ENTIRE WORLD. People will get into a years-long waitlist to get the next one.

In the MMO world, comparing yourself with others is why people play MMOs.
You may not understand exclusive items and their use for comparing to others. But I guarantee you as soon as those Apex mounts become too common, there will be uproar.

Legate_Lanius

Sadly they won’t as it’s made indeed to make you purchase for more.
The droprate and common items (useless potions and scrolls) are the WORST I’ve seen in all my years of gaming.

You can’t extract gems from unwanted or items made for specific races you don’t play.

They still have that system because it appears it just works with wales...