Notable home availability needs looked at

Kwoung

The number and model of notable homes available rarely changes. These are basically the only homes that can be used for a full service guild hall and only a few of them are even usable. Numerous "Limited" homes have been available for very short periods, but then are never seen again. I have been trying to work with customer service to obtain one of those no longer on the market homes, but they refused the sale. They also would not tell me when it was last available or when it may be available again, so we could at least make interim plans until such a time as we are "allowed" to purchase it, if ever! I find this extremely frustrating. Currently there are 4 homes available as guild halls, 2 of which are nothing more than pure open space.

Why ZOS is refusing a 10-13,000+ crown sale that would make 500 players very happy is beyond me. How about at least making the few homes the game has ever offered that would make decent guild halls, available to GM's of larger guilds who need them.

To qualify as a guild hall the house must have:
700 item limit
A huge area to fit 248 and growing crafting stations.
Numerous other areas for different niches, like a vamp shrine area, etc...

Preferably it also has a training area like the Elinhir Arena home or something similar as well for newer players to train and practice some game mechanics.

Grandchamp1989

Kinda agree with you..

Things rotate beyond slowly in the Crown Store..

Some things were on sale 3 years ago and never came back............

They could make a lot of money if they had a bigger selection and more rotations...

tomofhyrule

I'd offer that availability of anything in the Crown store needs to be looked at.

It's not just the notable homes. The base store doesn't really rotate, they just remove a handful of items every six months or so, and maybe we'll get one new thing in there every two or three months to compensate. There's no massive change in stock.

This means that thigs that got rotated out before we started, or anything that came in as a limited time only offer is completely unavailable. And there are people who are begging to be able to throw their money at the store, but I guess they don't want our money.

I get LTO things, I really do. If I see a "3 days left!" warning, I'll be more likely to jump. But what about all the stuff that the artists put time into, and then it ends up sitting on a shelf for all but 3 days over a period of two years? Is the money it made in those three days really offsetting the 727 days it wasn't making money?

Besides, if things in the store rotated, people would be more likely to browse through to see what new offers there are, which could lead more people to buy things. Right now, we see the frontpage and then go to the next menu. There's very little reason to go into the store and look at what's available. Again, nobody looking = nobody buying.

ZOS also used to have things come out outside of the showcase as well. Before, we'd have the stuff in the showcase some out usually Thurs-Mon, but every Monday would be a surprise thing in the store, like a sale or a returning item for a bit that wasn't in the showcase. Now everything's mentioned in the showcase, so any week that isn't mentioned we know it'll be a 40% off sale on the Starter Pack, Adept again. Nothing new and exciting.

I'd love if we could buy things. There have been some things gone from the store for over 3 years at this point...so why can't they be made available again? Do you not want money?

Faiza

I was very fortunate and received a limited time home that I put in a ticket for. I had to be very persistent though, and the whole time I couldn't stop wondering the same thing, like why turn down a sale? Like, my wallet is open and you're just gonna stare it and and say, "Nah"??

You'd think they'd want sales to be as easy as possible??

Kwoung

Faiza wrote: »

I was very fortunate and received a limited time home that I put in a ticket for. I had to be very persistent though, and the whole time I couldn't stop wondering the same thing, like why turn down a sale? Like, my wallet is open and you're just gonna stare it and and say, "Nah"??

You'd think they'd want sales to be as easy as possible??

I know, its like a $100 home I want to purchase for my guild, and the only one in the entire game that has a training area built in. Why that home isn't one of the standard notable homes is beyond me. I already have a complete layout planned for it, I am ready to buy the home and probably another $500 worth of furnishing to make it "ours", but they won't take my freakin money!

Jaraal

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I'd love if we could buy things. There have been some things gone from the store for over 3 years at this point...so why can't they be made available again? Do you not want money?

It's a common marketing ploy. "Better buy it now because you may never see it again!"

If you knew that expensive home you wanted would be guaranteed to be available the same time next year, you might pass on it this time because funds are tight. But with the current availability guessing game, people are more likely to buy now just in case it never comes back.

idk

I would suggest we need to be able to purchase a home to serve as an actual guild hall vs pretending a home owned by a player is a guildhall. It would have to be purchased through the guild/gifted to the guild vs transferring one already owned by a player. It would solve the issue of a player leaving the guild or the game ruining all the work the guild members donated.

Kwoung

idk wrote: »

I would suggest we need to be able to purchase a home to serve as an actual guild hall vs pretending a home owned by a player is a guildhall. It would have to be purchased through the guild/gifted to the guild vs transferring one already owned by a player. It would solve the issue of a player leaving the guild or the game ruining all the work the guild members donated.

Totally agree, guild halls are much needed.

tomofhyrule

Jaraal wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I'd love if we could buy things. There have been some things gone from the store for over 3 years at this point...so why can't they be made available again? Do you not want money?

It's a common marketing ploy. "Better buy it now because you may never see it again!"

If you knew that expensive home you wanted would be guaranteed to be available the same time next year, you might pass on it this time because funds are tight. But with the current availability guessing game, people are more likely to buy now just in case it never comes back.

As I said, I get FOMO. I just think there's a limit to how well FOMO will work.

Obviously if we know that something like the Iceheart style set will release every year around the holidays (which it has for the past three years), and we want it but don't have the funds now, we can say "eh, I'll wait for next year."

The other extreme is "We paid our art team thousands of dollars to make this one piece of content. We want to ensure that we get the maximum profit from the players buying it, so let's have it active for only three days and never bring it back." Is this really the best rate of return? To make something available for three days and then be unavailable for three years thereafter? Are we assuming that everyone playing now was also playing three years ago when it was available?

There is a happy medium here, and they do it with crate seasons. We aren't guaranteed returns (well, maybe the Halloween ones), but we get a returning season for a week or two every three months or so. No guarantee on which set, but they come back around.

That's what I think. Bring some of these "ZOMG 3 DAYS ONLY!" back for another 3-day only stint. If you want to keep the mystery, you don't need to announce "This will release every January 27th at 3pm EST!" but just bringing stuff back will allow the players who didn't exist back then to buy it. And then maybe the people who skipped out before will also be able to say, "man I wanted it and missed it, so I'm getting it this time!" After all, there's not much of a difference in the "I need to buy this now or else I'll miss it!" attitude between 'NEVER COMING BACK EVER SO SAVE YOUR MONEY' and 'MAY OR MAY NOT COME BACK, COULD BE A WEEK OR A YEAR AND A HALF, IDK,' but there's a huge difference in the number of people who will be able to buy it in the first place.

...I just feel like spending the $0 to rerelease something randomly will bring in more money than just leaving it in the dark. Especially if you want to stop flooding support with "I've been waiting for three years for this content, sell it to me please!"

Kwoung

tomofhyrule wrote: »

...I just feel like spending the $0 to rerelease something randomly will bring in more money than just leaving it in the dark. Especially if you want to stop flooding support with "I've been waiting for three years for this content, sell it to me please!"

I feel like they are trying to placate the "exclusive few" who actually bought the items/house X years ago so they feel special. Although I suspect, most of those people no longer even play and those homes just sit empty and unused. Not to mention, housing is a huge deal in this game, they could sell the heck out of anything they make available and people would spend gold and $$$ decorating, limited release or not. I really feel like their "limited release" item method is probably costing them more than it is making them.

And quite honestly, if I am unable to buy the home now when I need it, I will just make due with what I have and just not spend the $$$ when it comes back around. This is a would be nice/great to have thing... now. A month from now after I put in the time and effort to redo our current guild hall and make it work as best I can, I will not be interested in spending the $100-150 for a new place that I am willing to spend today.

The whole "limited availability" thing, it actually goes both ways.

LadyNalcarya

Agreed! I hate those "BUY NOW 3 DAYS ONLY" shenanigans. Especially during crisis, when many people cannot just randomly buy stuff whenever they want.
Crown items, especially houses, are already pretty expensive, more expensive than the game itself. I see no reason for such harsh buying limitations. They obviously want impulse buyer's cash, but not everyone has been playing the game for the last 5 years without breaks. Not to mention new players that never had the opportunity to buy old crown store items. I'm pretty sure they alone would spend more cash than impulse buyers. I think the best solution would be to make "special" houses somewhat limited, like this snowglobe house or witches hut. So people who missed them would still be able to buy them, even if they'll have to wait. The timeframes should also be more reasonable, around 2-3 weeks.
It's also quite upsetting that even customer support won't always help with those limited time items. Like, what's the point of refusing to take my money?

tomofhyrule

Kwoung wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

...I just feel like spending the $0 to rerelease something randomly will bring in more money than just leaving it in the dark. Especially if you want to stop flooding support with "I've been waiting for three years for this content, sell it to me please!"

I feel like they are trying to placate the "exclusive few" who actually bought the items/house X years ago so they feel special. Although I suspect, most of those people no longer even play and those homes just sit empty and unused. Not to mention, housing is a huge deal in this game, they could sell the heck out of anything they make available and people would spend gold and $$$ decorating, limited release or not. I really feel like their "limited release" item method is probably costing them more than it is making them.

And quite honestly, if I am unable to buy the home now when I need it, I will just make due with what I have and just not spend the $$$ when it comes back around. This is a would be nice/great to have thing... now. A month from now after I put in the time and effort to redo our current guild hall and make it work as best I can, I will not be interested in spending the $100-150 for a new place that I am willing to spend today.

The whole "limited availability" thing, it actually goes both ways.

I will say I don't agree with the "exclusive" attitude. I get it, but I don't agree with it. Who cares if someone else has something that I do? Does it affect my game in any way that they got it too?

There are a few things I'll begrudgingly accept as exclusives, and that's things like the monkey pet from doing the beta or the tiger pet for being a day-one subscriber. I'd have preferred if those were more obviously 'special,' like if the monkey wore a vest with the ESO logo or if they had special particle effects so the 'generic' version could be made available for us plebians who started later, but c'est la vie.

I'll agree those are special. But anything besides those? What, you're trying to flex "I just happened to be playing on September 14th, 2017, so I was able to get this thing!"? ...ok. Especially not with housing - you can't even run around trying to flex that you were here on a specific day since the only people who will see the house are you and anyone you invite over. Definitely not as flashy as running around town with a specific mount/pet.

But yeah - I started playing around July 2018, so anything that left the store before that I missed. I'd throw loads of money at the store for a few things, but the store evidently doesn't want my money. It all comes down to how much extra money they're making from people who wouldn't buy it unless they felt pressured versus how much they're not making from the people who never even got the chance. And with this game moving towards casual fans, it's likely there are loads of people who would buy cosmetics...if they were available.

I'll get that '3 DAYS LEFT' works - I would have bought The Standing Wave hairstyle if it ever got one of those notifications before it left, but it just disappeared without warning one day so I missed it. But then there are things like The Heroic Poet hairstyle have been out of the store since November 2017 - how much money has it made up to that time, and does it offset the number of new players who would have bought it in the 3 years it's been unavailable?

Also to note your other point - it's a big thing for me. I take screenshots and write my character's story, so there are times that I'll need a certain cosmetic for a specific time. Like I've got a great part in the story right about now to use the Ilambris weapons, but I missed those. If I have to use something else, then I really won't need the Ilambris pack if and when it ever does come back... so that's a sale that could be missed. Also I'm dying for the Short Mussed Wave hairstyle to release since my next character would look great with it, but if I start him before it releases... I guess I don't need it...

In short, @ZOS_GinaBruno, so sorry to bother you, but could you pass some of these messages to the people in charge of the Crown Store? Yes FOMO will drive sales, but there's also a point where making things unavailable so long will end up making the store miss out on customers and just making players frustrated. There are people begging to buy things that have been out of the store for ages, but we're only getting the idea that the game doesn't want our money.

Kwoung

Honestly, if they even did a 3 day sale 2x a year where EVERY crown store item EVER was available for purchase, they could make a fortunate. The Jubilee Festival comes to mind as a great time to do this. Wouldn't hurt if The Golden did a similar thing a couple times a year, imagine how much gold and unused AP that would drain from the game.

Then maybe they could spend more time creating awesome new items, rather than planning on which old ones they are going to "allow" us to buy this month.

Ratzkifal

There is so much wrong with the notable homes in this game. Most of them are limited and none can be bought with gold since Hakkvild's Highhall, despite the money sink from housing being a celebrated feature that revived the economy back in the day. And don't forget they cost 100$ each and aren't even fully furnished yet. 100$ divided by 500 guild members might not be much, but it's silly that a house in the game would be priced higher than the entire game in the physical collector's edition.

Anotherone773

I agree with most in this thread...

ZOS has missed out on a few sales to me and the wife because of limited availability. I would have bought the home when i "discovered/viewed" it but it wasn't available so i didn't even when it became available. We have done this a couple of times each at least over the last 3 years. I can't impulse buy stuff that isnt available and impulse buying in the only way i am buying more homes as i own many now.

Was the marketing team sitting around thinking of a Mc Donalds McRib or Monopoly and its limited time only and thought" it would be a good idea to do this with houses in the game to create artificial demand and rarity! Then we could quadruple what the house is worth and limit the furnishing to what should be the limit for a medium house and make a fortune!"

Houses were suppose to be a money sink. We never get gold homes anymore. It is always crappy inn rooms no one wants or free houses that you have to jump through hoops to get and are available for a limited time. Why do they have make everything in this game so frustrating? Do they think frustrating players makes them want to spend more money? It does make me want to spend more money...on a different game, which is why i haven't played since Spring. This game frustrates me into needing to take a break from it. Housing is one of those frustrations.

I want furnishing limits raised.They keep telling us its because of potato systems, let everyone run that risk themselves. Just have a way in which we can select a house remotely and strip furnishings( in reverse order added) back down to the limit if it becomes unstable. Give warnings to people that are porting into a home with a higher than safe( current) furnishing limit telling them this home has 921/700 furnishings in it and may make their system unstable. Do they want to proceed?

They need to stop making homes available for a few days a year. It's fine for the holiday homes but regular homes should always be available for purchase. All it does is frustrate people. I have not seen one single person in this game that enjoyed only being able to purchase something once a year. ZOS =/= Ronald McDonald. There should be gold homes. We should get two gold homes for every crown home. Inn rooms dont count. Maybe do an apartment and large home one time and a small and medium home another time FOR GOLD.

[snip]

[Edited to remove Bashing]

Mettaricana

Grandchamp1989 wrote: »

Kinda agree with you..

Things rotate beyond slowly in the Crown Store..

Some things were on sale 3 years ago and never came back............

They could make a lot of money if they had a bigger selection and more rotations...

Bigger sales if they just put everything ever available in the store and let us pick and choose all of it. Why do arms packs have to go away why not keep another reason to run your content? Why cycle out dresses just let us buy them. I got a mile long list of purchases i wanted but likely never gonna see those items again so their loss.

Hell put in a crown to gold market where players can buy crowns with cash and sell them to other players for gold at a supply and demand rate system like 1cr >100g and when supply is low for crowns on market 1cr>150g kinda deal. Stops scammers from scamming crowns as well as prevents players drom setting bull**** prices like 99,999,999,999g per crown and players who want gold will keep buying crowns and players who want crowns will keep buying those crowns endless supply and demand.

LadyNalcarya

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tomofhyrule wrote: »

Yes FOMO will drive sales, but there's also a point where making things unavailable so long will end up making the store miss out on customers and just making players frustrated. There are people begging to buy things that have been out of the store for ages, but we're only getting the idea that the game doesn't want our money.

Exactly.
People who are ready to randomly spend $100 on a videogame AND are completely against other people being able to do the same if they happened to join the game when the item they have wasn't available anymore are a very tiny minority. Especially with houses - like you said, you can't really show off these. Sure, there are housing tours and stuff... But it's about creativity, no one cares if your house is a limited exclusive or not.
There is a market for houses, and this artificial scarcity is completely mind-boggling. From housing enthusiasts to guild masters wanting to make a perfect guild hall, there's a bunch of people who would gladly spend their money, but they just can't.

WuChiWuGen

Even a 1 day only sale of every cash shop - cosmetic item. Maybe they don't want our money, they definitely are unwilling to add more resources to handle cyr lag.

SeaGtGruff

Speaking purely for myself, limited-time items that never-- or very, very rarely-- return to the Crown Store sort of kill my desire to even bother trying to collect things. I mean, if I'll never be able to complete my collection anyway, then what's the point?