any way to buy missed limited homes?

BackStabeth

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

Raideen

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

Anotherone773

BackStabeth wrote: »

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

Microsoft will have leadership that oversees and manages the companies/studios that it buys. These leaders will give a general direction they want the company/studio to go in and the people running those companies will report projects and such to the MS division(s) in charge of overseeing them. That is how corporations work.

Someone from MS will be reviewing everything about the companies it picks up. I would even expect MS to have a LEAN officer that would lean its acquisitions out. "Lean" is a process of management developed by Toyota that creates a more efficient and profitable company by reducing waste on the management/manufacturing side. Redoing the crown store so that it appealed to more players and had more to offer would be a lean move. From a lean standpoint creating content but not offering that content to your customers except a few days a year is a waste of labor of the employees who create and manage that content.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

I can tell you don't know a lot about "corporate managers". You have a very "TV" view of a manager.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

As i mentioned previously, because MS bought the company things will be a little rocky. So don't be disappointed when they just follow a basic formula this year while all the legalities and leadership are switched over to MS.

Lumenn

I wish I'd read this before. (im usually in general chat) I usually spend $100-$200 a month or so on the game(cosmetic mostly) and been subbed for years. It's a hobby I enjoy. This month I spent a LOT more mainly hoping to get the lakemire home. Got the canned response from Nick about changing policy to not accommodate paying customers anymore. Is ESO trying to drive away people? I truly don't understand telling customers we won't serve you anymore just because but go look at our crown store and leave me alone.

idk

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Lumenn

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Many of these businesses use actual product though and have to manufacture them. This....this makes no sense

idk

Lumenn wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Many of these businesses use actual product though and have to manufacture them. This....this makes no sense

LTO is to increase sales during a given time and even drive sales that may not have happened otherwise. For Zos it is to drive the sales of crowns and usually at full price. Zos is not selling digital homes as that does not generate revenue. They are selling crowns. As such the end effect is the same, revenue is increased.

We can all have our opinions but the fact of the matter is Zos is likely seeing that burst of crown sales with most LTOs of they would not have a reason to continue using that tactic. As such it would make sense.

Raideen

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

idk

Raideen wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

Please provide your supporting evidence that Zos is in fact bringing in less money.

Zos is the only one that can see their revenue from the crown store, specifically revenue increases from full price crown sales during LTO offerings.

Sure, we can offer our opinions on the matter but we lack the insight into Zos revenue to base them on actual information. I would expect the largest private gaming developers in the world, a company that has grown to be worth billions of dollars has analysts that can determine this with real information and advise the company properly.

EDIT: Offering the homes all year round, leading to the sale of a few more homes, is not what increases revenue for Zos. Selling crowns are the revenue source, not homes. The LTO is used to drive the sale of crowns at full price. Offering the homes all year long would likely mean more players that would have bought crowns at full price will just wait until they can buy for 60% of their cost, hence reducing revenue.

As such Zos could care less if they could sell a few more of those homes and mounts if they were offered all year long. They are interested in selling crowns at the highest value they can. That is what is important.

Lumenn

BackStabeth wrote: »

I recently requested the Lakemire Xanmeer Manor, and was denied.

This is the form message I received:

"After review I regret to inform we are unable to grant the item requested. We have recently made a new policy change. Unfortunately we are unable to make the exceptions we made previously anymore. "

I pursued this further, as I think this is ludicrous, you have a customer whom you can make happy by doing something very simple and easy, and it's a digital item. This has commonly been done in the past, so there is precedent.

I'm disappointed mind you, the whole limited time housing thing seems idiotic from my point of view. Give your customers what they want, make them happy as often as is possible seems a far better practice to me.

" it was always a case by case exception moreso a courtesy. Therefore there is no player facing policy to be seen, this is all internal and private information."

So this seems like there is no policy? Yet there was some sort of internal policy made? It's all conflicting and hard to understand how they come to these decisions to deny people, and yet not say anything on the forums nor allow their first level support to address these requests, which seems far better to do. Just outright say you are not going to grant any requests.

"Furthermore there is none higher than me that would make an exception in this case as all matters of item request relating to the crown store go through me."

By the way this person's name is "Nicholas" evidently Nicholas is the person you always get when you request a limited time house to be sold to you. So Nicholas is who you will eventually come into contact with and it's Nicholas's policy to deny you what you are requesting. It used to be just a few month's ago that they allowed these requests, but Nicholas has evidently decided for some arbitrary reason to now deny these requests. This was his answer to my request.

"we do look and feedback and all our official channels so yes if there are alot of requests for certain content it is much more likely to be seen sooner rather than later"

My take away from this is instead of granting any requests, they now refuse them outright because of some arbitrary internal policy they cannot talk about. Instead, it seems they are encouraging people to post their requests on the crown store forum. This to me seems that they are attempting to get us, the players, to create excitement over previous crown store items, to generate the interest and then simply offer for sale whatever gets the most attention at whatever given time they decide to grace us with the decision to grant us a crown store limited item. It's like sorting out your recycle material so the garbage company can make money off your labor.

Anyway, I'm deeply disappointed with the way this entire thing was handled. If this arbitrary decision, this policy so to speak was recently changed then say so clearly in the forum instead of playing games with customers. When a customer requests a limited time item, then direct your first level support to tell them about this new arbitrary internal policy not to grant any limited time housing sale requests. Officially post on the threads like this that talk about requesting the housing, or remove them all together.

There are ways to handle things, and ways that cause your customers to become angry and upset. It seems ZOS has failed in this respect as well. It's so easy and simple to just come out and say that this is an internal arbitrary policy change, that these requests will be denied when requested. Or hey, you could also just come out and say you don't want to make your customers happy.

Yep. Got the same guy, New policy, etc. When I asked who might have the authority to override this new policy for customer service he told me ALL crown store requests go through me so no one can override me and that customer service isn't a work around to get items that are no longer available. Warm regards

Well there you have it. One guy working customer support handles everything and he has his (opinions?) Directions? And he has no boss. You buy when we tell you to and stop bugging customer support. Got to admit even after everything I've seen somehow I STILL thought better of this company. Disappointed.

Lumenn

Wouldn't be so bad if they rotated them more. Some lto haven't been seen in years

StabbityDoom

Hi. I'm a housing nerd/streamer. So I say this with lots of input from many many housing people:

I do not believe the sales staff looks at these forums the way the housing devs do (Thank you housing devs for caring!!!). So I therefore request @ZOS_GinaBruno can you please pass along this thread (from the beginning) to them, because this is literally, more than item limit, my and many other peoples' biggest complaint about housing. Let me break it down here for tl;dr purposes.

1. High pressure "limited time only" sales by function limit your player base from buying the houses they would want year round. I doubt people who you get in that pressure impulse 3 day buy exceed those who maybe don't have the money saved up - ESPECIALLY in this economic climate - and the people who don't realize they need/want it until later. I only buy a house when I have an idea for it, for example.
2. High pressure sales make people buy things they regret. Impulse buyers. They end up... guess what.. dissatisfied. You want to focus those kinds of things on the personalities that need that instant gratification, and housing is not that. Housing is something that takes patience, time, and investment in things to do. We WILL spend the money, but when we -can- wisely because we are not impulse people.
3. This is a no-work-added on Zos' part thing you can do to make a huge and growingly popular (as @ZOS_MattFiror himself pointed out) community feel recognized, listened to, and increase our morale. When the pvp'ers have moved on, it's the housing people who will still be here, holding our own contests and creating beauty and art in the world you have made us.
4. I'm willing to bet you will make more money on this ONE MOVE than these pressure buys will get you. Isn't that reason alone?

In sum, to have happier players - DO THIS ONE WEIRD THING - Make the houses available all the time.

SantieClaws

This one agrees. Why not have goods available when you have a customer who wants to buy?

You may get an extra sale or two from those who feel rushed to purchase when something is on a limited time offer - but you lose far more sales when you do not have the item available for new players or for people who were just unlucky enough to be away that week.

You can look at your metrics and your spreadsheets and your marketing textbooks. The one thing you are not paying attention to is your customers.

You do not have issues with stock availability or storage. You are shooting yourself in the paws with your present approach.

This one is not saying have all the things all the time if that really is much too far from what you mistakenly believe is to your advantage - but each house should be available for at least one week in any three month period. That way people know they will not have to wait more than three months for a house they want.

Plenty of other distractions in Outside World for a Tamriel traveller yes. Houses keep people busy. They keep them coming back. Consider not just what you sell but how what you sell is used. Be smart about this perhaps? Smarter than at present.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Anotherone773

SantieClaws wrote: »

This one agrees. Why not have goods available when you have a customer who wants to buy?

You may get an extra sale or two from those who feel rushed to purchase when something is on a limited time offer - but you lose far more sales when you do not have the item available for new players or for people who were just unlucky enough to be away that week.

You can look at your metrics and your spreadsheets and your marketing textbooks. The one thing you are not paying attention to is your customers.

You do not have issues with stock availability or storage. You are shooting yourself in the paws with your present approach.

This one is not saying have all the things all the time if that really is much too far from what you mistakenly believe is to your advantage - but each house should be available for at least one week in any three month period. That way people know they will not have to wait more than three months for a house they want.

Plenty of other distractions in Outside World for a Tamriel traveller yes. Houses keep people busy. They keep them coming back. Consider not just what you sell but how what you sell is used. Be smart about this perhaps? Smarter than at present.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

It is also one of the reasons to keep a sub since it doubles the furnishing limit. If people get bored with housing then that is one less perk for having a sub for them.

bluebird

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

Please provide your supporting evidence that Zos is in fact bringing in less money.

Zos is the only one that can see their revenue from the crown store, specifically revenue increases from full price crown sales during LTO offerings.

Sure, we can offer our opinions on the matter but we lack the insight into Zos revenue to base them on actual information. I would expect the largest private gaming developers in the world, a company that has grown to be worth billions of dollars has analysts that can determine this with real information and advise the company properly.

EDIT: Offering the homes all year round, leading to the sale of a few more homes, is not what increases revenue for Zos. Selling crowns are the revenue source, not homes. The LTO is used to drive the sale of crowns at full price. Offering the homes all year long would likely mean more players that would have bought crowns at full price will just wait until they can buy for 60% of their cost, hence reducing revenue.

As such Zos could care less if they could sell a few more of those homes and mounts if they were offered all year long. They are interested in selling crowns at the highest value they can. That is what is important.

ZOS being a large company doesn't mean they always make the best decisions all the time (that's a logical fallacy, an argument from authority), and even if they are making profit, it doesn't mean they couldn't make much more profit if they tried things differently. People can't provide evidence for what ZOS didn't try, so you can't dismiss the discussion because ZOS have no data from sales they didn't even try to make.

ZOS's Black Friday sales were lackluster compared to other sellers - do you really think that ZOS not offering most of their LTOs for Black Friday is because they know better than 90% of all other marketing sectors, sellers and games? Surely you can't insist that professional marketing people know best, when what they do goes against what the majority of professional marketing people do.

People don't buy Crowns at full price to have Crowns at full price - they buy Crowns to spend on items. More items available - more people having a reason to buy Crowns. Items available for longer - item reaches more of their target demographic and more people have a chance to make a purchase.

People who buy full-priced Crowns on the spot during a 4-day LTO are a minuscule proportion of the entire ESO demographic and potential buyerbase, so it's wrong to focus on that alone, when there are other factors not accounted for. Even with an LTO, many people will just use their ESO+ Crowns, or their stocked up sales Crowns; or, since houses have become giftable, they just buy it with gold from sellers that stock up during a Crown sale. So you can't believe that focusing on 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available' gives even a remotely accurate and whole picture. Because the second part of that data is 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if no LTOs are available' - not - 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if the item is available not as an LTO'. Obviously the only thing to conclude is that more items available than baseline times mean more sales than baseline times, not that being limited is better for sales than being available.

• Of the people who do buy the item in a 4-day LTO (green, pink and blue combined), only a fraction will use freshly-bought full-priced Crowns (the others use their ESO+, sales Crowns, or gold-bought Crowns), so for those three groups, ZOS' revenue is no more or less than if they offered their item at any other point of the year.
• ZOS loses out on the would-buy-but-can't demographic (green) on all other 361 days of the year (or years, when items don't return for several years). Furthermore, they also lose out on the fraction of people who would buy full-priced Crowns for it on other days of the year too, if it was available.
• ZOS also can't account for the lost demand that results from these huge wait times. Demand that would have ensured a sale in January may no longer exist in December, when people found more available substitutes or stopped playing - since they aren't 100% assured of buying the item, but would if they could when the mood struck them. Or the lost revenue due to not having enough items for purchase during times people are actively looking for a purchase (anniversaries, black friday, etc).

So ZOS is gambling on the chance that the blue section within the LTO window is greater than the green and pink sections throughout the year combined; and specifically that the fraction that buys Crowns on the spot in 4 days (rather than using saved Crowns or gold) is greater than the same fraction among the entire year. Fear Of Missing Out is just one aspect - there are others that ZOS is missing such as ability to Impulse-Buy and having an attractive, tempting display (rather than the meager offerings in their shopping window for most of the year). If people have things to spend Crowns on, they buy more Crowns. What a shocker.

chuck-18_ESO

Araneae6537 wrote: »

chuck-18_ESO wrote: »

"BackStabeth wrote: »

Anyway, I'm deeply disappointed with the way this entire thing was handled. If this arbitrary decision, this policy so to speak was recently changed then say so clearly in the forum instead of playing games with customers. When a customer requests a limited time item, then direct your first level support to tell them about this new arbitrary internal policy not to grant any limited time housing sale requests. Officially post on the threads like this that talk about requesting the housing, or remove them all together.

There are ways to handle things, and ways that cause your customers to become angry and upset. It seems ZOS has failed in this respect as well. It's so easy and simple to just come out and say that this is an internal arbitrary policy change, that these requests will be denied when requested. Or hey, you could also just come out and say you don't want to make your customers happy.

This says everything I could say on the matter perfectly. I informed "Nicholas" that it was more than a slap in the face to a paying customer who had been assured YEARS AGO that this service would be available to him.

I certainly won't be investing another dime in the game after this insulting and arbitrary about-face.

As a sidenote, I find it more than a little amusing that I've always gotten a survey after contacting Support, and always had reason to give them a glowing review. The one time I'm unhappy, though? No survey. Sus.

You had been assured that you could buy a house this way?

Not a house, but a limited-time furnishing item, the Transliminal Rupture. I'd been told that it was common place for people to request purchases of the like, and that I could contact them to acquire more Ruptures at 1,000 Crowns each any time I like. I've planned multiple projects around being able to make similar purchases. Hence why I;m so angry about the change.

Araneae6537

chuck-18_ESO wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

chuck-18_ESO wrote: »

"BackStabeth wrote: »

Anyway, I'm deeply disappointed with the way this entire thing was handled. If this arbitrary decision, this policy so to speak was recently changed then say so clearly in the forum instead of playing games with customers. When a customer requests a limited time item, then direct your first level support to tell them about this new arbitrary internal policy not to grant any limited time housing sale requests. Officially post on the threads like this that talk about requesting the housing, or remove them all together.

There are ways to handle things, and ways that cause your customers to become angry and upset. It seems ZOS has failed in this respect as well. It's so easy and simple to just come out and say that this is an internal arbitrary policy change, that these requests will be denied when requested. Or hey, you could also just come out and say you don't want to make your customers happy.

This says everything I could say on the matter perfectly. I informed "Nicholas" that it was more than a slap in the face to a paying customer who had been assured YEARS AGO that this service would be available to him.

I certainly won't be investing another dime in the game after this insulting and arbitrary about-face.

As a sidenote, I find it more than a little amusing that I've always gotten a survey after contacting Support, and always had reason to give them a glowing review. The one time I'm unhappy, though? No survey. Sus.

You had been assured that you could buy a house this way?

Not a house, but a limited-time furnishing item, the Transliminal Rupture. I'd been told that it was common place for people to request purchases of the like, and that I could contact them to acquire more Ruptures at 1,000 Crowns each any time I like. I've planned multiple projects around being able to make similar purchases. Hence why I;m so angry about the change.

Wow, I had no idea! I wish that I had known that last year! I had thought, maybe just assumed, that such sales were the exception rather than the rule and never made any such request myself.

Having been told thus, I can see why you would be more than disappointed but rather quite upset at the policy being changed without any notice or even being given any kind of satisfactory reason!

idk

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

Please provide your supporting evidence that Zos is in fact bringing in less money.

Zos is the only one that can see their revenue from the crown store, specifically revenue increases from full price crown sales during LTO offerings.

Sure, we can offer our opinions on the matter but we lack the insight into Zos revenue to base them on actual information. I would expect the largest private gaming developers in the world, a company that has grown to be worth billions of dollars has analysts that can determine this with real information and advise the company properly.

EDIT: Offering the homes all year round, leading to the sale of a few more homes, is not what increases revenue for Zos. Selling crowns are the revenue source, not homes. The LTO is used to drive the sale of crowns at full price. Offering the homes all year long would likely mean more players that would have bought crowns at full price will just wait until they can buy for 60% of their cost, hence reducing revenue.

As such Zos could care less if they could sell a few more of those homes and mounts if they were offered all year long. They are interested in selling crowns at the highest value they can. That is what is important.

ZOS being a large company doesn't mean they always make the best decisions all the time

(that's a logical fallacy, an argument from authority), and even if they are making profit, it doesn't mean they couldn't make much more profit if they tried things differently. People can't provide evidence for what ZOS didn't try, so you can't dismiss the discussion because ZOS have no data from sales they didn't even try to make.

ZOS's Black Friday sales were lackluster compared to other sellers - do you really think that ZOS not offering most of their LTOs for Black Friday is because they know better than 90% of all other marketing sectors, sellers and games? Surely you can't insist that professional marketing people know best, when what they do goes against what the majority of professional marketing people do.

People don't buy Crowns at full price to have Crowns at full price - they buy Crowns to spend on items. More items available - more people having a reason to buy Crowns. Items available for longer - item reaches more of their target demographic and more people have a chance to make a purchase.

People who buy full-priced Crowns on the spot during a 4-day LTO are a minuscule proportion of the entire ESO demographic and potential buyerbase, so it's wrong to focus on that alone, when there are other factors not accounted for. Even with an LTO, many people will just use their ESO+ Crowns, or their stocked up sales Crowns; or, since houses have become giftable, they just buy it with gold from sellers that stock up during a Crown sale. So you can't believe that focusing on 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available' gives even a remotely accurate and whole picture. Because the second part of that data is 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if no LTOs are available' - not - 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if the item is available not as an LTO'. Obviously the only thing to conclude is that more items available than baseline times mean more sales than baseline times, not that being limited is better for sales than being available.

• Of the people who do buy the item in a 4-day LTO (green, pink and blue combined), only a fraction will use freshly-bought full-priced Crowns (the others use their ESO+, sales Crowns, or gold-bought Crowns), so for those three groups, ZOS' revenue is no more or less than if they offered their item at any other point of the year.
• ZOS loses out on the would-buy-but-can't demographic (green) on all other 361 days of the year (or years, when items don't return for several years). Furthermore, they also lose out on the fraction of people who would buy full-priced Crowns for it on other days of the year too, if it was available.
• ZOS also can't account for the lost demand that results from these huge wait times. Demand that would have ensured a sale in January may no longer exist in December, when people found more available substitutes or stopped playing - since they aren't 100% assured of buying the item, but would if they could when the mood struck them. Or the lost revenue due to not having enough items for purchase during times people are actively looking for a purchase (anniversaries, black friday, etc).

So ZOS is gambling on the chance that the blue section within the LTO window is greater than the green and pink sections throughout the year combined; and specifically that the fraction that buys Crowns on the spot in 4 days (rather than using saved Crowns or gold) is greater than the same fraction among the entire year. Fear Of Missing Out is just one aspect - there are others that ZOS is missing such as ability to Impulse-Buy and having an attractive, tempting display (rather than the meager offerings in their shopping window for most of the year). If people have things to spend Crowns on, they buy more Crowns. What a shocker.

You are correct that Zenimax does not always make the right decision on the business side of things. No business has ever made the right decision every single time. However, we do not for a fact that Zos make the right decision most of the time and they are probably smart enough to change their minds when a decision proves to be wrong. The LTO offerings have been going on long enough for Zos to have figured out if it is working as intended or not. Seems they decided they were right with this one.

You are also correct that not everyone that wants the new home and lacks the crowns will pay full price for crowns so they can buy it. The simple truth is that is not a problem for Zos as they seem to conclude that enough players are buying crowns at full price to purchase the LTO offering that they are making more money with the LTOs marketing than if they did not use the LTO technique.

However, in the end, only Zeniax can answer any of these questions. Only Zenimax has the information and knowledge to determine if they are making the right choice and driving revenues successfully or if they are leaving money on the table. We can only guess and those guesses are not well informed as we lack the real data involved as that is private information that only Zenimax has.

So yes, we are entitled to our opinions but all we have here is opinions. Zenimax has the information germane to this discussion and their decisions are made on the basis of those facts. I think Zenimax has people on the business side that are smart enough to figure out how to run this aspect of their business.

bluebird

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

Please provide your supporting evidence that Zos is in fact bringing in less money.

Zos is the only one that can see their revenue from the crown store, specifically revenue increases from full price crown sales during LTO offerings.

Sure, we can offer our opinions on the matter but we lack the insight into Zos revenue to base them on actual information. I would expect the largest private gaming developers in the world, a company that has grown to be worth billions of dollars has analysts that can determine this with real information and advise the company properly.

EDIT: Offering the homes all year round, leading to the sale of a few more homes, is not what increases revenue for Zos. Selling crowns are the revenue source, not homes. The LTO is used to drive the sale of crowns at full price. Offering the homes all year long would likely mean more players that would have bought crowns at full price will just wait until they can buy for 60% of their cost, hence reducing revenue.

As such Zos could care less if they could sell a few more of those homes and mounts if they were offered all year long. They are interested in selling crowns at the highest value they can. That is what is important.

ZOS being a large company doesn't mean they always make the best decisions all the time

(that's a logical fallacy, an argument from authority), and even if they are making profit, it doesn't mean they couldn't make much more profit if they tried things differently. People can't provide evidence for what ZOS didn't try, so you can't dismiss the discussion because ZOS have no data from sales they didn't even try to make.

ZOS's Black Friday sales were lackluster compared to other sellers - do you really think that ZOS not offering most of their LTOs for Black Friday is because they know better than 90% of all other marketing sectors, sellers and games? Surely you can't insist that professional marketing people know best, when what they do goes against what the majority of professional marketing people do.

People don't buy Crowns at full price to have Crowns at full price - they buy Crowns to spend on items. More items available - more people having a reason to buy Crowns. Items available for longer - item reaches more of their target demographic and more people have a chance to make a purchase.

People who buy full-priced Crowns on the spot during a 4-day LTO are a minuscule proportion of the entire ESO demographic and potential buyerbase, so it's wrong to focus on that alone, when there are other factors not accounted for. Even with an LTO, many people will just use their ESO+ Crowns, or their stocked up sales Crowns; or, since houses have become giftable, they just buy it with gold from sellers that stock up during a Crown sale. So you can't believe that focusing on 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available' gives even a remotely accurate and whole picture. Because the second part of that data is 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if no LTOs are available' - not - 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if the item is available not as an LTO'. Obviously the only thing to conclude is that more items available than baseline times mean more sales than baseline times, not that being limited is better for sales than being available.

• Of the people who do buy the item in a 4-day LTO (green, pink and blue combined), only a fraction will use freshly-bought full-priced Crowns (the others use their ESO+, sales Crowns, or gold-bought Crowns), so for those three groups, ZOS' revenue is no more or less than if they offered their item at any other point of the year.
• ZOS loses out on the would-buy-but-can't demographic (green) on all other 361 days of the year (or years, when items don't return for several years). Furthermore, they also lose out on the fraction of people who would buy full-priced Crowns for it on other days of the year too, if it was available.
• ZOS also can't account for the lost demand that results from these huge wait times. Demand that would have ensured a sale in January may no longer exist in December, when people found more available substitutes or stopped playing - since they aren't 100% assured of buying the item, but would if they could when the mood struck them. Or the lost revenue due to not having enough items for purchase during times people are actively looking for a purchase (anniversaries, black friday, etc).

So ZOS is gambling on the chance that the blue section within the LTO window is greater than the green and pink sections throughout the year combined; and specifically that the fraction that buys Crowns on the spot in 4 days (rather than using saved Crowns or gold) is greater than the same fraction among the entire year. Fear Of Missing Out is just one aspect - there are others that ZOS is missing such as ability to Impulse-Buy and having an attractive, tempting display (rather than the meager offerings in their shopping window for most of the year). If people have things to spend Crowns on, they buy more Crowns. What a shocker.

You are correct that Zenimax does not always make the right decision on the business side of things. No business has ever made the right decision every single time. However, we do not for a fact that Zos make the right decision most of the time and they are probably smart enough to change their minds when a decision proves to be wrong. The LTO offerings have been going on long enough for Zos to have figured out if it is working as intended or not. Seems they decided they were right with this one.

You are also correct that not everyone that wants the new home and lacks the crowns will pay full price for crowns so they can buy it. The simple truth is that is not a problem for Zos as they seem to conclude that enough players are buying crowns at full price to purchase the LTO offering that they are making more money with the LTOs marketing than if they did not use the LTO technique.

However, in the end, only Zeniax can answer any of these questions. Only Zenimax has the information and knowledge to determine if they are making the right choice and driving revenues successfully or if they are leaving money on the table. We can only guess and those guesses are not well informed as we lack the real data involved as that is private information that only Zenimax has.

So yes, we are entitled to our opinions but all we have here is opinions. Zenimax has the information germane to this discussion and their decisions are made on the basis of those facts. I think Zenimax has people on the business side that are smart enough to figure out how to run this aspect of their business.

This seems to end on a bit of a circle. First you acknowledge that professionals aren't automatically right about things; but end on the belief that ZOS are surely right about it, since they are professionals and probably know best.

Your argument about skepticism in itself - that certain things are unknowns - isn't wrong in itself; and generally I would agree with you. But it's just applied wrongly because you exclude ZOS from the group of people who may have things they don't know (probably because you default to your 'they must know better' belief). However, even ZOS can't disprove something that they don't know. Let's focus on a reduced small fraction of players (just those that buy full-priced Crowns for an item when they want to buy it) for the sake of simplicity, so you can see:

Number of people who bought full-priced Crowns for Bastion Sanguinaris in a 4-day LTO: XXX <--- known by ZOS.
Number of people who bought full-priced Crowns for Bastion Sanguinaris in a year: ??? <--- unknown by ZOS.
ZOS can't 'conclude' that their LTO sale was better, when they have no data about the other option.

So, again, ZOS doesn't have the facts about things they never tried, and they can't know whether 'a decision proves to be wrong'. So there is no way for them to have seen or 'conclude' whether their method is better, when that's all they tried, and it's not a 'fact' that they make the right decision most of the time. (It would be easy for me to 'conclude' that my items sell better in a Belkarth guild, if I never tried selling them in a Mournhold guild). You can't make conclusions based on incomplete data. All ZOS has are assumptions; and we are just as correct to challenge those assumptions - because even ZOS doesn't know the facts.

And that's in addition to the fact that selling Crowns at full price isn't the be-all and end-all of ZOS's revenue bottom line as you seem to insist. So data about that is scarcely enough anyway, and if ZOS only look at that and find that enough to conclude something as you said, they are more clueless than even I suggested in my comment.

• They make just as much money if they sell reduced-Crowns to more people (If 20% of players buy Crowns at 60% cost, ZOS already earned 20% more revenue than if 10% of players would buy Crowns at 100% cost);
• and if get more people to subscribe due to the furnishing bonus by making more people get into housing;
• and if they make subscribers get rid of their 'free' Crowns so that they have to top up (full-price or reduced-price), rather than sitting on piles of Crowns for years at a time with nothing to spend it on
• and any content that enhances the longevity of the game for players (e.g. more house furnishing projects to start, because they have more houses and furnishing packs available), enhances ZOS's revenue, as active players are more likely to subscribe for longer, or buy new content DLCs, or buy new Crown Store items that they will be exposed to, than if they had nothing to do ingame and moved on due to a lack of things to look forward to.

So not only is the full-price Crown sale during LTOs not the only aspect of their bottom line, but even that is unproven to be right by ZOS, because they didn't try it any other way, and can't have data about things they never tired. So ZOS isn't in possession of the pertinent facts that would allow them to 'decide they were right'; and this thread is quite justified and correct in discussing the assumptions that ZOS makes.

Ruhlf

Hunters Glade should be available all year round. It’s the only house for werewolves.

Same for the vampire housing.

What are we supposed to do if we want to play these characters? Just sit around and wait for the housing to pop up again? I’ve waited well over a year now like a dummy for the werewolf house. I know some who’ve waited much longer. This is kinda kooky.

idk

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

Please provide your supporting evidence that Zos is in fact bringing in less money.

Zos is the only one that can see their revenue from the crown store, specifically revenue increases from full price crown sales during LTO offerings.

Sure, we can offer our opinions on the matter but we lack the insight into Zos revenue to base them on actual information. I would expect the largest private gaming developers in the world, a company that has grown to be worth billions of dollars has analysts that can determine this with real information and advise the company properly.

EDIT: Offering the homes all year round, leading to the sale of a few more homes, is not what increases revenue for Zos. Selling crowns are the revenue source, not homes. The LTO is used to drive the sale of crowns at full price. Offering the homes all year long would likely mean more players that would have bought crowns at full price will just wait until they can buy for 60% of their cost, hence reducing revenue.

As such Zos could care less if they could sell a few more of those homes and mounts if they were offered all year long. They are interested in selling crowns at the highest value they can. That is what is important.

ZOS being a large company doesn't mean they always make the best decisions all the time

(that's a logical fallacy, an argument from authority), and even if they are making profit, it doesn't mean they couldn't make much more profit if they tried things differently. People can't provide evidence for what ZOS didn't try, so you can't dismiss the discussion because ZOS have no data from sales they didn't even try to make.

ZOS's Black Friday sales were lackluster compared to other sellers - do you really think that ZOS not offering most of their LTOs for Black Friday is because they know better than 90% of all other marketing sectors, sellers and games? Surely you can't insist that professional marketing people know best, when what they do goes against what the majority of professional marketing people do.

People don't buy Crowns at full price to have Crowns at full price - they buy Crowns to spend on items. More items available - more people having a reason to buy Crowns. Items available for longer - item reaches more of their target demographic and more people have a chance to make a purchase.

People who buy full-priced Crowns on the spot during a 4-day LTO are a minuscule proportion of the entire ESO demographic and potential buyerbase, so it's wrong to focus on that alone, when there are other factors not accounted for. Even with an LTO, many people will just use their ESO+ Crowns, or their stocked up sales Crowns; or, since houses have become giftable, they just buy it with gold from sellers that stock up during a Crown sale. So you can't believe that focusing on 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available' gives even a remotely accurate and whole picture. Because the second part of that data is 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if no LTOs are available' - not - 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if the item is available not as an LTO'. Obviously the only thing to conclude is that more items available than baseline times mean more sales than baseline times, not that being limited is better for sales than being available.

• Of the people who do buy the item in a 4-day LTO (green, pink and blue combined), only a fraction will use freshly-bought full-priced Crowns (the others use their ESO+, sales Crowns, or gold-bought Crowns), so for those three groups, ZOS' revenue is no more or less than if they offered their item at any other point of the year.
• ZOS loses out on the would-buy-but-can't demographic (green) on all other 361 days of the year (or years, when items don't return for several years). Furthermore, they also lose out on the fraction of people who would buy full-priced Crowns for it on other days of the year too, if it was available.
• ZOS also can't account for the lost demand that results from these huge wait times. Demand that would have ensured a sale in January may no longer exist in December, when people found more available substitutes or stopped playing - since they aren't 100% assured of buying the item, but would if they could when the mood struck them. Or the lost revenue due to not having enough items for purchase during times people are actively looking for a purchase (anniversaries, black friday, etc).

So ZOS is gambling on the chance that the blue section within the LTO window is greater than the green and pink sections throughout the year combined; and specifically that the fraction that buys Crowns on the spot in 4 days (rather than using saved Crowns or gold) is greater than the same fraction among the entire year. Fear Of Missing Out is just one aspect - there are others that ZOS is missing such as ability to Impulse-Buy and having an attractive, tempting display (rather than the meager offerings in their shopping window for most of the year). If people have things to spend Crowns on, they buy more Crowns. What a shocker.

You are correct that Zenimax does not always make the right decision on the business side of things. No business has ever made the right decision every single time. However, we do not for a fact that Zos make the right decision most of the time and they are probably smart enough to change their minds when a decision proves to be wrong. The LTO offerings have been going on long enough for Zos to have figured out if it is working as intended or not. Seems they decided they were right with this one.

You are also correct that not everyone that wants the new home and lacks the crowns will pay full price for crowns so they can buy it. The simple truth is that is not a problem for Zos as they seem to conclude that enough players are buying crowns at full price to purchase the LTO offering that they are making more money with the LTOs marketing than if they did not use the LTO technique.

However, in the end, only Zeniax can answer any of these questions. Only Zenimax has the information and knowledge to determine if they are making the right choice and driving revenues successfully or if they are leaving money on the table. We can only guess and those guesses are not well informed as we lack the real data involved as that is private information that only Zenimax has.

So yes, we are entitled to our opinions but all we have here is opinions. Zenimax has the information germane to this discussion and their decisions are made on the basis of those facts. I think Zenimax has people on the business side that are smart enough to figure out how to run this aspect of their business.

This seems to end on a bit of a circle. First you acknowledge that professionals aren't automatically right about things; but end on the belief that ZOS are surely right about it, since they are professionals and probably know best.

Not really. Zos has been using these LTOs for a few years now. That has allowed them to collect information to see if the results meet or exceed their expectations or have fallen short.

Yes, you are correct that they can make mistakes and might have when they started this marketing move. However, at this point, it would be rather inept if they did not recognize if the LTOs were meeting/exceeding their expectations or were failing.

That is where I am expecting a company that has been successful at growing to become the largest privately-held gaming developers globally, valued to be worth billions of dollars, to have been able to analyze the results properly and figure this out.

Again, you are correct that Zenimax is very capable of making mistakes, like anyone or any organization. However, with all the times they have used LTO, it would be complete incompetence for them not to recognize if they were right or wrong by this point and time.

That is where I think Zenimax has been capable of hiring people talented enough to figure this out. After all, they are a very successful corporation and have several years of real data on this to review to see if it meets their goals.

And as I have stated before, we all have our opinions. That is all either of us can speak to and speculate on from the outside looking in. Only Zos has the real data, the actual facts.

bluebird

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

Please provide your supporting evidence that Zos is in fact bringing in less money.

Zos is the only one that can see their revenue from the crown store, specifically revenue increases from full price crown sales during LTO offerings.

Sure, we can offer our opinions on the matter but we lack the insight into Zos revenue to base them on actual information. I would expect the largest private gaming developers in the world, a company that has grown to be worth billions of dollars has analysts that can determine this with real information and advise the company properly.

EDIT: Offering the homes all year round, leading to the sale of a few more homes, is not what increases revenue for Zos. Selling crowns are the revenue source, not homes. The LTO is used to drive the sale of crowns at full price. Offering the homes all year long would likely mean more players that would have bought crowns at full price will just wait until they can buy for 60% of their cost, hence reducing revenue.

As such Zos could care less if they could sell a few more of those homes and mounts if they were offered all year long. They are interested in selling crowns at the highest value they can. That is what is important.

ZOS being a large company doesn't mean they always make the best decisions all the time

(that's a logical fallacy, an argument from authority), and even if they are making profit, it doesn't mean they couldn't make much more profit if they tried things differently. People can't provide evidence for what ZOS didn't try, so you can't dismiss the discussion because ZOS have no data from sales they didn't even try to make.

ZOS's Black Friday sales were lackluster compared to other sellers - do you really think that ZOS not offering most of their LTOs for Black Friday is because they know better than 90% of all other marketing sectors, sellers and games? Surely you can't insist that professional marketing people know best, when what they do goes against what the majority of professional marketing people do.

People don't buy Crowns at full price to have Crowns at full price - they buy Crowns to spend on items. More items available - more people having a reason to buy Crowns. Items available for longer - item reaches more of their target demographic and more people have a chance to make a purchase.

People who buy full-priced Crowns on the spot during a 4-day LTO are a minuscule proportion of the entire ESO demographic and potential buyerbase, so it's wrong to focus on that alone, when there are other factors not accounted for. Even with an LTO, many people will just use their ESO+ Crowns, or their stocked up sales Crowns; or, since houses have become giftable, they just buy it with gold from sellers that stock up during a Crown sale. So you can't believe that focusing on 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available' gives even a remotely accurate and whole picture. Because the second part of that data is 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if no LTOs are available' - not - 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if the item is available not as an LTO'. Obviously the only thing to conclude is that more items available than baseline times mean more sales than baseline times, not that being limited is better for sales than being available.

• Of the people who do buy the item in a 4-day LTO (green, pink and blue combined), only a fraction will use freshly-bought full-priced Crowns (the others use their ESO+, sales Crowns, or gold-bought Crowns), so for those three groups, ZOS' revenue is no more or less than if they offered their item at any other point of the year.
• ZOS loses out on the would-buy-but-can't demographic (green) on all other 361 days of the year (or years, when items don't return for several years). Furthermore, they also lose out on the fraction of people who would buy full-priced Crowns for it on other days of the year too, if it was available.
• ZOS also can't account for the lost demand that results from these huge wait times. Demand that would have ensured a sale in January may no longer exist in December, when people found more available substitutes or stopped playing - since they aren't 100% assured of buying the item, but would if they could when the mood struck them. Or the lost revenue due to not having enough items for purchase during times people are actively looking for a purchase (anniversaries, black friday, etc).

So ZOS is gambling on the chance that the blue section within the LTO window is greater than the green and pink sections throughout the year combined; and specifically that the fraction that buys Crowns on the spot in 4 days (rather than using saved Crowns or gold) is greater than the same fraction among the entire year. Fear Of Missing Out is just one aspect - there are others that ZOS is missing such as ability to Impulse-Buy and having an attractive, tempting display (rather than the meager offerings in their shopping window for most of the year). If people have things to spend Crowns on, they buy more Crowns. What a shocker.

You are correct that Zenimax does not always make the right decision on the business side of things. No business has ever made the right decision every single time. However, we do not for a fact that Zos make the right decision most of the time and they are probably smart enough to change their minds when a decision proves to be wrong. The LTO offerings have been going on long enough for Zos to have figured out if it is working as intended or not. Seems they decided they were right with this one.

You are also correct that not everyone that wants the new home and lacks the crowns will pay full price for crowns so they can buy it. The simple truth is that is not a problem for Zos as they seem to conclude that enough players are buying crowns at full price to purchase the LTO offering that they are making more money with the LTOs marketing than if they did not use the LTO technique.

However, in the end, only Zeniax can answer any of these questions. Only Zenimax has the information and knowledge to determine if they are making the right choice and driving revenues successfully or if they are leaving money on the table. We can only guess and those guesses are not well informed as we lack the real data involved as that is private information that only Zenimax has.

So yes, we are entitled to our opinions but all we have here is opinions. Zenimax has the information germane to this discussion and their decisions are made on the basis of those facts. I think Zenimax has people on the business side that are smart enough to figure out how to run this aspect of their business.

This seems to end on a bit of a circle. First you acknowledge that professionals aren't automatically right about things; but end on the belief that ZOS are surely right about it, since they are professionals and probably know best.

That is where I am expecting a company that has been successful at growing to become the largest privately-held gaming developers globally, valued to be worth billions of dollars, to have been able to analyze the results properly and figure this out.

You said essentially the same thing three times already: that surely, ZOS would know better by now. And every time I pointed out to you that ZOS can't analyse data they don't know. They can't compare results from practices they didn't try; so they can't conclude that their current way works best. If you just keep reiterating the same belief, no matter how many times people point out the false premise it is based on, it really just clogs up the thread unnecessarily without contributing to discussion or engaging with evidence in the slightest

Being satisfied with an outcome (that selling an item for 4 days results in X profit) doesn't mean that they couldn't earn more (that selling the same item for 365 days would result in ??? profit). They never tried, so they don't know what they're missing out on. The data you trust them to analyse doesn't actually exist.

Araneae6537

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

Please provide your supporting evidence that Zos is in fact bringing in less money.

Zos is the only one that can see their revenue from the crown store, specifically revenue increases from full price crown sales during LTO offerings.

Sure, we can offer our opinions on the matter but we lack the insight into Zos revenue to base them on actual information. I would expect the largest private gaming developers in the world, a company that has grown to be worth billions of dollars has analysts that can determine this with real information and advise the company properly.

EDIT: Offering the homes all year round, leading to the sale of a few more homes, is not what increases revenue for Zos. Selling crowns are the revenue source, not homes. The LTO is used to drive the sale of crowns at full price. Offering the homes all year long would likely mean more players that would have bought crowns at full price will just wait until they can buy for 60% of their cost, hence reducing revenue.

As such Zos could care less if they could sell a few more of those homes and mounts if they were offered all year long. They are interested in selling crowns at the highest value they can. That is what is important.

ZOS being a large company doesn't mean they always make the best decisions all the time

(that's a logical fallacy, an argument from authority), and even if they are making profit, it doesn't mean they couldn't make much more profit if they tried things differently. People can't provide evidence for what ZOS didn't try, so you can't dismiss the discussion because ZOS have no data from sales they didn't even try to make.

ZOS's Black Friday sales were lackluster compared to other sellers - do you really think that ZOS not offering most of their LTOs for Black Friday is because they know better than 90% of all other marketing sectors, sellers and games? Surely you can't insist that professional marketing people know best, when what they do goes against what the majority of professional marketing people do.

People don't buy Crowns at full price to have Crowns at full price - they buy Crowns to spend on items. More items available - more people having a reason to buy Crowns. Items available for longer - item reaches more of their target demographic and more people have a chance to make a purchase.

People who buy full-priced Crowns on the spot during a 4-day LTO are a minuscule proportion of the entire ESO demographic and potential buyerbase, so it's wrong to focus on that alone, when there are other factors not accounted for. Even with an LTO, many people will just use their ESO+ Crowns, or their stocked up sales Crowns; or, since houses have become giftable, they just buy it with gold from sellers that stock up during a Crown sale. So you can't believe that focusing on 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available' gives even a remotely accurate and whole picture. Because the second part of that data is 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if no LTOs are available' - not - 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if the item is available not as an LTO'. Obviously the only thing to conclude is that more items available than baseline times mean more sales than baseline times, not that being limited is better for sales than being available.

• Of the people who do buy the item in a 4-day LTO (green, pink and blue combined), only a fraction will use freshly-bought full-priced Crowns (the others use their ESO+, sales Crowns, or gold-bought Crowns), so for those three groups, ZOS' revenue is no more or less than if they offered their item at any other point of the year.
• ZOS loses out on the would-buy-but-can't demographic (green) on all other 361 days of the year (or years, when items don't return for several years). Furthermore, they also lose out on the fraction of people who would buy full-priced Crowns for it on other days of the year too, if it was available.
• ZOS also can't account for the lost demand that results from these huge wait times. Demand that would have ensured a sale in January may no longer exist in December, when people found more available substitutes or stopped playing - since they aren't 100% assured of buying the item, but would if they could when the mood struck them. Or the lost revenue due to not having enough items for purchase during times people are actively looking for a purchase (anniversaries, black friday, etc).

So ZOS is gambling on the chance that the blue section within the LTO window is greater than the green and pink sections throughout the year combined; and specifically that the fraction that buys Crowns on the spot in 4 days (rather than using saved Crowns or gold) is greater than the same fraction among the entire year. Fear Of Missing Out is just one aspect - there are others that ZOS is missing such as ability to Impulse-Buy and having an attractive, tempting display (rather than the meager offerings in their shopping window for most of the year). If people have things to spend Crowns on, they buy more Crowns. What a shocker.

You are correct that Zenimax does not always make the right decision on the business side of things. No business has ever made the right decision every single time. However, we do not for a fact that Zos make the right decision most of the time and they are probably smart enough to change their minds when a decision proves to be wrong. The LTO offerings have been going on long enough for Zos to have figured out if it is working as intended or not. Seems they decided they were right with this one.

You are also correct that not everyone that wants the new home and lacks the crowns will pay full price for crowns so they can buy it. The simple truth is that is not a problem for Zos as they seem to conclude that enough players are buying crowns at full price to purchase the LTO offering that they are making more money with the LTOs marketing than if they did not use the LTO technique.

However, in the end, only Zeniax can answer any of these questions. Only Zenimax has the information and knowledge to determine if they are making the right choice and driving revenues successfully or if they are leaving money on the table. We can only guess and those guesses are not well informed as we lack the real data involved as that is private information that only Zenimax has.

So yes, we are entitled to our opinions but all we have here is opinions. Zenimax has the information germane to this discussion and their decisions are made on the basis of those facts. I think Zenimax has people on the business side that are smart enough to figure out how to run this aspect of their business.

This seems to end on a bit of a circle. First you acknowledge that professionals aren't automatically right about things; but end on the belief that ZOS are surely right about it, since they are professionals and probably know best.

That is where I am expecting a company that has been successful at growing to become the largest privately-held gaming developers globally, valued to be worth billions of dollars, to have been able to analyze the results properly and figure this out.

You said essentially the same thing three times already: that surely, ZOS would know better by now. And every time I pointed out to you that ZOS can't analyse data they don't know. They can't compare results from practices they didn't try; so they can't conclude that their current way works best. If you just keep reiterating the same belief, no matter how many times people point out the false premise it is based on, it really just clogs up the thread unnecessarily without contributing to discussion or engaging with evidence in the slightest

Being satisfied with an outcome (that selling an item for 4 days results in X profit) doesn't mean that they couldn't earn more (that selling the same item for 365 days would result in ??? profit). They never tried, so they don't know what they're missing out on. The data you trust them to analyse doesn't actually exist.

Well, they do have data from the items that are available year round, although whether or not the items would be informative to a direct comparison may be debatable, as the housing, for instance, is mostly also available for gold in-game as well.

What really baffles me is why LTO isn’t combined with bringing things back more often and regularly rotating more of the items available. I would expect that to generate more interest in the Crown store and showcase and cause people to spend Crowns more regularly so may be more likely to purchase Crowns at full price for other LTO instead of having stocked up during a sale and nothing to spend them on for months. I think that I can say that’s more than supposition on my part as other companies use this tactic, such as GW2’s cash shop. Now of course I am in no position to know the comparative profitability, but only my own spending habits in each game.

And I think that you make excellent points that I hope ZOS is considering too, including the impact of housing on revenue beyond the initial sale! For instance, I saved up my gold and bought Mathiisen Manor but was that a loss when it was to decorate with antiquity furnishings I need to collect and several rather expensive furnishings from the Crown store that I bought specifically for the house?

idk

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

Please provide your supporting evidence that Zos is in fact bringing in less money.

Zos is the only one that can see their revenue from the crown store, specifically revenue increases from full price crown sales during LTO offerings.

Sure, we can offer our opinions on the matter but we lack the insight into Zos revenue to base them on actual information. I would expect the largest private gaming developers in the world, a company that has grown to be worth billions of dollars has analysts that can determine this with real information and advise the company properly.

EDIT: Offering the homes all year round, leading to the sale of a few more homes, is not what increases revenue for Zos. Selling crowns are the revenue source, not homes. The LTO is used to drive the sale of crowns at full price. Offering the homes all year long would likely mean more players that would have bought crowns at full price will just wait until they can buy for 60% of their cost, hence reducing revenue.

As such Zos could care less if they could sell a few more of those homes and mounts if they were offered all year long. They are interested in selling crowns at the highest value they can. That is what is important.

ZOS being a large company doesn't mean they always make the best decisions all the time

(that's a logical fallacy, an argument from authority), and even if they are making profit, it doesn't mean they couldn't make much more profit if they tried things differently. People can't provide evidence for what ZOS didn't try, so you can't dismiss the discussion because ZOS have no data from sales they didn't even try to make.

ZOS's Black Friday sales were lackluster compared to other sellers - do you really think that ZOS not offering most of their LTOs for Black Friday is because they know better than 90% of all other marketing sectors, sellers and games? Surely you can't insist that professional marketing people know best, when what they do goes against what the majority of professional marketing people do.

People don't buy Crowns at full price to have Crowns at full price - they buy Crowns to spend on items. More items available - more people having a reason to buy Crowns. Items available for longer - item reaches more of their target demographic and more people have a chance to make a purchase.

People who buy full-priced Crowns on the spot during a 4-day LTO are a minuscule proportion of the entire ESO demographic and potential buyerbase, so it's wrong to focus on that alone, when there are other factors not accounted for. Even with an LTO, many people will just use their ESO+ Crowns, or their stocked up sales Crowns; or, since houses have become giftable, they just buy it with gold from sellers that stock up during a Crown sale. So you can't believe that focusing on 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available' gives even a remotely accurate and whole picture. Because the second part of that data is 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if no LTOs are available' - not - 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if the item is available not as an LTO'. Obviously the only thing to conclude is that more items available than baseline times mean more sales than baseline times, not that being limited is better for sales than being available.

• Of the people who do buy the item in a 4-day LTO (green, pink and blue combined), only a fraction will use freshly-bought full-priced Crowns (the others use their ESO+, sales Crowns, or gold-bought Crowns), so for those three groups, ZOS' revenue is no more or less than if they offered their item at any other point of the year.
• ZOS loses out on the would-buy-but-can't demographic (green) on all other 361 days of the year (or years, when items don't return for several years). Furthermore, they also lose out on the fraction of people who would buy full-priced Crowns for it on other days of the year too, if it was available.
• ZOS also can't account for the lost demand that results from these huge wait times. Demand that would have ensured a sale in January may no longer exist in December, when people found more available substitutes or stopped playing - since they aren't 100% assured of buying the item, but would if they could when the mood struck them. Or the lost revenue due to not having enough items for purchase during times people are actively looking for a purchase (anniversaries, black friday, etc).

So ZOS is gambling on the chance that the blue section within the LTO window is greater than the green and pink sections throughout the year combined; and specifically that the fraction that buys Crowns on the spot in 4 days (rather than using saved Crowns or gold) is greater than the same fraction among the entire year. Fear Of Missing Out is just one aspect - there are others that ZOS is missing such as ability to Impulse-Buy and having an attractive, tempting display (rather than the meager offerings in their shopping window for most of the year). If people have things to spend Crowns on, they buy more Crowns. What a shocker.

You are correct that Zenimax does not always make the right decision on the business side of things. No business has ever made the right decision every single time. However, we do not for a fact that Zos make the right decision most of the time and they are probably smart enough to change their minds when a decision proves to be wrong. The LTO offerings have been going on long enough for Zos to have figured out if it is working as intended or not. Seems they decided they were right with this one.

You are also correct that not everyone that wants the new home and lacks the crowns will pay full price for crowns so they can buy it. The simple truth is that is not a problem for Zos as they seem to conclude that enough players are buying crowns at full price to purchase the LTO offering that they are making more money with the LTOs marketing than if they did not use the LTO technique.

However, in the end, only Zeniax can answer any of these questions. Only Zenimax has the information and knowledge to determine if they are making the right choice and driving revenues successfully or if they are leaving money on the table. We can only guess and those guesses are not well informed as we lack the real data involved as that is private information that only Zenimax has.

So yes, we are entitled to our opinions but all we have here is opinions. Zenimax has the information germane to this discussion and their decisions are made on the basis of those facts. I think Zenimax has people on the business side that are smart enough to figure out how to run this aspect of their business.

This seems to end on a bit of a circle. First you acknowledge that professionals aren't automatically right about things; but end on the belief that ZOS are surely right about it, since they are professionals and probably know best.

That is where I am expecting a company that has been successful at growing to become the largest privately-held gaming developers globally, valued to be worth billions of dollars, to have been able to analyze the results properly and figure this out.

You said essentially the same thing three times already: that surely, ZOS would know better by now. And every time I pointed out to you that ZOS can't analyse data they don't know. They can't compare results from practices they didn't try; so they can't conclude that their current way works best. If you just keep reiterating the same belief, no matter how many times people point out the false premise it is based on, it really just clogs up the thread unnecessarily without contributing to discussion or engaging with evidence in the slightest

Being satisfied with an outcome (that selling an item for 4 days results in X profit) doesn't mean that they couldn't earn more (that selling the same item for 365 days would result in ??? profit). They never tried, so they don't know what they're missing out on. The data you trust them to analyse doesn't actually exist.

As I have said, we both have our opinion on the matter and Zenimax has the data they feel they need.

I will agree to disagree with you about whether Zenimax is wise enough to figure out how to run their business and wish you a good day.

bluebird

Araneae6537 wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

BackStabeth wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Actually it is more likely to be because of the transition from Zenimax to Microsoft of basically all their game assets. Employees will, either through self preservation or on order, adhere to policy guidelines. Then next 12-18 months will be a little rockier than normal while they get all their ducks in a row, and Microsoft is updated on newly acquired assets and lays out a roadmap for those assets.

Microsoft might even revamp the whole crown store for us. Not likely but it is possible.

I don't think that is likely at all. A corporation like Microsoft buys corporations like Zenimax because they generate a profit and look good on the books. Microsoft is not going to directly manage the crown store of a company they purchased, that sort of thing just doesn't happen. They expect the company managers to do their job, and those under them to do theirs. The bottom line so far as Microsoft is concerned is profit, not what is sold on the crown store.

It's far more likely that a Zenimax manager believes they can force people to do what they want them to do. Many times corporate managers get it in their head that they are more clever or smart than other people and feel they can manipulate people to do what they want. I am not saying that this is the case, I'm saying it's more likely. Instead of conforming and doing what the customers want you to do, they end up because of ego or just plain arrogance wanting to exert power over their customers and force them to do what they want them to do.

The reason I feel this is perhaps what might be happening in the case of the crown store offerings is because there has been absolutely no effort on Zenimax's part to provide anything that we have asked for. Not one thing. They encourage us to post on the forums, to express what we would like to see in the crown store and then nothing, zip, nada. Also, this has been one of the worst years in modern history, it seems that a company that is gaining more from the pandemic, might want to give some of that back in the form of you know, previous crown store offerings. DO something that generates good will, good feelings, happiness, something. But nothing, not one thing, nada, zip. I feel we the customers, the players, the people who pay the wages of those who are not treating us the way we want to be treating us are being punished for not buying what they want us to buy, so we continue to see crap instead of what we want.

I can not agree more. In fact, I feel like I am treated like their enemy instead of a valued customer. From a business perspective this makes no sense at all. Something is definitely not adding up.

A lot of businesses use LTO marketing. I am talking about large, very successful businesses. Something seems to add up since these large successful businesses have been using LTO marketing for years, decades even.

Not on digital goods it does not. Not when the LTO was available 3 years ago and in that three years there are literally thousands upon thousands of people who'd be willing to spend the money if the product was available.

LTO in the real world are also often based on a limited supply run. The manufacturer gets buy of some parts being phased out by a supplier and creates a "limited run" "special edition" item to pad the bottom line. Digital products do not adhere to these same rules.

It is a 100% absolute that ZOS current policies regarding crown store items and LTO are in fact bringing in less money.

The ONLY way this would not be true, is if the player base is much much smaller than is alluded to. It simple math.

Please provide your supporting evidence that Zos is in fact bringing in less money.

Zos is the only one that can see their revenue from the crown store, specifically revenue increases from full price crown sales during LTO offerings.

Sure, we can offer our opinions on the matter but we lack the insight into Zos revenue to base them on actual information. I would expect the largest private gaming developers in the world, a company that has grown to be worth billions of dollars has analysts that can determine this with real information and advise the company properly.

EDIT: Offering the homes all year round, leading to the sale of a few more homes, is not what increases revenue for Zos. Selling crowns are the revenue source, not homes. The LTO is used to drive the sale of crowns at full price. Offering the homes all year long would likely mean more players that would have bought crowns at full price will just wait until they can buy for 60% of their cost, hence reducing revenue.

As such Zos could care less if they could sell a few more of those homes and mounts if they were offered all year long. They are interested in selling crowns at the highest value they can. That is what is important.

ZOS being a large company doesn't mean they always make the best decisions all the time

(that's a logical fallacy, an argument from authority), and even if they are making profit, it doesn't mean they couldn't make much more profit if they tried things differently. People can't provide evidence for what ZOS didn't try, so you can't dismiss the discussion because ZOS have no data from sales they didn't even try to make.

ZOS's Black Friday sales were lackluster compared to other sellers - do you really think that ZOS not offering most of their LTOs for Black Friday is because they know better than 90% of all other marketing sectors, sellers and games? Surely you can't insist that professional marketing people know best, when what they do goes against what the majority of professional marketing people do.

People don't buy Crowns at full price to have Crowns at full price - they buy Crowns to spend on items. More items available - more people having a reason to buy Crowns. Items available for longer - item reaches more of their target demographic and more people have a chance to make a purchase.

People who buy full-priced Crowns on the spot during a 4-day LTO are a minuscule proportion of the entire ESO demographic and potential buyerbase, so it's wrong to focus on that alone, when there are other factors not accounted for. Even with an LTO, many people will just use their ESO+ Crowns, or their stocked up sales Crowns; or, since houses have become giftable, they just buy it with gold from sellers that stock up during a Crown sale. So you can't believe that focusing on 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available' gives even a remotely accurate and whole picture. Because the second part of that data is 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if no LTOs are available' - not - 'more people buy Crowns if LTOs are available, than if the item is available not as an LTO'. Obviously the only thing to conclude is that more items available than baseline times mean more sales than baseline times, not that being limited is better for sales than being available.

• Of the people who do buy the item in a 4-day LTO (green, pink and blue combined), only a fraction will use freshly-bought full-priced Crowns (the others use their ESO+, sales Crowns, or gold-bought Crowns), so for those three groups, ZOS' revenue is no more or less than if they offered their item at any other point of the year.
• ZOS loses out on the would-buy-but-can't demographic (green) on all other 361 days of the year (or years, when items don't return for several years). Furthermore, they also lose out on the fraction of people who would buy full-priced Crowns for it on other days of the year too, if it was available.
• ZOS also can't account for the lost demand that results from these huge wait times. Demand that would have ensured a sale in January may no longer exist in December, when people found more available substitutes or stopped playing - since they aren't 100% assured of buying the item, but would if they could when the mood struck them. Or the lost revenue due to not having enough items for purchase during times people are actively looking for a purchase (anniversaries, black friday, etc).

So ZOS is gambling on the chance that the blue section within the LTO window is greater than the green and pink sections throughout the year combined; and specifically that the fraction that buys Crowns on the spot in 4 days (rather than using saved Crowns or gold) is greater than the same fraction among the entire year. Fear Of Missing Out is just one aspect - there are others that ZOS is missing such as ability to Impulse-Buy and having an attractive, tempting display (rather than the meager offerings in their shopping window for most of the year). If people have things to spend Crowns on, they buy more Crowns. What a shocker.

You are correct that Zenimax does not always make the right decision on the business side of things. No business has ever made the right decision every single time. However, we do not for a fact that Zos make the right decision most of the time and they are probably smart enough to change their minds when a decision proves to be wrong. The LTO offerings have been going on long enough for Zos to have figured out if it is working as intended or not. Seems they decided they were right with this one.

You are also correct that not everyone that wants the new home and lacks the crowns will pay full price for crowns so they can buy it. The simple truth is that is not a problem for Zos as they seem to conclude that enough players are buying crowns at full price to purchase the LTO offering that they are making more money with the LTOs marketing than if they did not use the LTO technique.

However, in the end, only Zeniax can answer any of these questions. Only Zenimax has the information and knowledge to determine if they are making the right choice and driving revenues successfully or if they are leaving money on the table. We can only guess and those guesses are not well informed as we lack the real data involved as that is private information that only Zenimax has.

So yes, we are entitled to our opinions but all we have here is opinions. Zenimax has the information germane to this discussion and their decisions are made on the basis of those facts. I think Zenimax has people on the business side that are smart enough to figure out how to run this aspect of their business.

This seems to end on a bit of a circle. First you acknowledge that professionals aren't automatically right about things; but end on the belief that ZOS are surely right about it, since they are professionals and probably know best.

That is where I am expecting a company that has been successful at growing to become the largest privately-held gaming developers globally, valued to be worth billions of dollars, to have been able to analyze the results properly and figure this out.

You said essentially the same thing three times already: that surely, ZOS would know better by now. And every time I pointed out to you that ZOS can't analyse data they don't know. They can't compare results from practices they didn't try; so they can't conclude that their current way works best. If you just keep reiterating the same belief, no matter how many times people point out the false premise it is based on, it really just clogs up the thread unnecessarily without contributing to discussion or engaging with evidence in the slightest

Being satisfied with an outcome (that selling an item for 4 days results in X profit) doesn't mean that they couldn't earn more (that selling the same item for 365 days would result in ??? profit). They never tried, so they don't know what they're missing out on. The data you trust them to analyse doesn't actually exist.

Well, they do have data from the items that are available year round, although whether or not the items would be informative to a direct comparison may be debatable, as the housing, for instance, is mostly also available for gold in-game as well.

Yes, that is true! I actually did go on quite a rant in another thread about Lucky Cat Landing being put up permanently while other houses weren't. I hope for example that they don't look at Lucky Cat Landing sales (which was the 6th Elsweyr-style house of the year, which had only 400 slots which was complained about on the PTS as uncharacteristically small, and which had the same unbecoming mouldy walls and crumbling stones that many people felt didn't fit an expensive Crown home in previous releases either) as some general indicator that people wouldn't be interested in seeing houses for longer or more frequently - as the relative lack of LCL is most likely due to it being a relatively garbage house compared to most alternatives , especially the free-from-questing Hall of the Lunar Champion.

So trying to draw direct parallels is probably inaccurate with the few houses they tried to leave up (2 of them are empty plots, 1 is LCL), when most of their elaborate, special or impressive homes have been released only as LTOs in the past years. Same with most Costumes, Pets, Mounts, Weapon Styles, etc. The majority of stuff goes into LTOs, and what they do have in the store for longer tends to be worse stuff that they already don't expect much from (just look at the utterly basic mounts they have for sale; the furnishing packs are basic bushes while the cool statues and special furnishings aren't available). Or 5-year-old costumes at this point. They didn't try leaving all of the Skyrim Hero and Jarl-costumes up for the entirety of the Skyrim year (though I'm sure that would've been pretty cool for fans of Skyrim).

So totally. If LTOs worked so well, surely they would do them more frequently with more items, as GW2 does. Funnily enough, GW2 never has to discount their virtual currency by 40% twice a year, and they still manage to make profit; and return most of their old stock for anniversary and black friday sales.

Spell-Slinger

I know that if the Hunter's Glade had been available two weeks ago, I would have bought it. Now I'm starting to slowly lose interest and consider other options. I've also done a fair bit of impulse buying THROUGH support for things that are no longer available - I'm the proud owner of the Colossal Aldmeri Grotto, and I still haven't done anything with it. Meanwhile, I don't think I've bought a single crown furnishing pack as a limited time offer - I want to buy them when i have a project in mind for them, and not just because. I'm pretty sure lots of other people are the same way.

Lumenn

Well, my last response to Nicholas was a suggestion to rotate things out more often since he won't help customers anymore. He responded he pays attention to feedback that's why so many popular items came up this last year......so maybe customer service might read these and take a suggestion or two........

LadyNalcarya

volkeswagon wrote: »

i don't see why they would say no since it's money in their pocket. The whole reason why certain houses are only available temporarily is to create a sense of urgency causing us to buy it.

I don't know why, but they refused my request for some reason. Even though I asked politely and already had the crowns on hand.

SantieClaws

Two of the older homes coming back in the January showcase.

Topal and Linchal.

Topal is very nice. Very versatile as long as you like sand yes.

This one would happily have islands of all kinds.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

StabbityDoom

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

volkeswagon wrote: »

i don't see why they would say no since it's money in their pocket. The whole reason why certain houses are only available temporarily is to create a sense of urgency causing us to buy it.

I don't know why, but they refused my request for some reason. Even though I asked politely and already had the crowns on hand.

they changed their policies right around the microsoft buyout