800 gems for the mount

Hexi

Rowjoh wrote: »

You have to seriously question who is buying this stuff.

Apart from the odd Radiant, the vast majority of mounts are old ones re-hashed. Further more there was nothing special or cool about them in the first place, and the 're-designs' look even worse.

Think I might go and paint my car luminous green, stick some googly eyes on the the bonnet and a pair of cardboard cut-out dragon wings on the roof then find an ESO player to sell it to as a 'limited edition model' for x100 times its value

I still use my white Imperial launch horse on most chars. I did buy the current armored black horse for my Vampire necro as I had the 100 gems laying around but other than that the mounts look like crap.

Fischblut

That's what I'm trying to point out, it targets those who CAN afford it

Agree!
I never see gem-exclusive items as reason to buy crates. Real reason to buy crates is collecting some of Radiant Apex mounts (and getting everything else from the crate seasons in process). People who collect Radiant Apex mounts naturally have gems - and gem exclusive items were introduced exactly for such people, so that they have something to spend their gems on. At least, that's what I think about gem-exclusives.

Maybe there are people who buy crates only when there is gem-exclusive item which they want... For them, it can be like lesser and cheaper Radiant Apex item, and I could understand that.

From all gem-exclusive items ever, the only mount which would make me buy crates (if I didn't already have enough gems for it) was Sabre cat Frost Atronach. I was dreaming about it since it was datamined, and had promo picture saved to view every day Sadly, it doesn't even have summoning animation and has rather boring roar effects... But overall it is unique sabre cat model (armored and full tail) with permanent frosty trail.
Even when it became bugged and lost almost all his special effects, I didn't ask for refund - I asked for bug fix (fix is coming live with Blackwood update), simply cause I love this unique mount model.

Its not even that good. If i had 800 gems, id only want it if i didn't have 2 better senches... and even then for that much money where's the 8 foot glowing raidius of epic like the other mount?

Also agree.
I would buy it only if Gloomspore crate season didn't exist - cause I like Gloomspore senche model in general. If Nighthaunt senche was the only mount who uses this model, it would be unique enough - together with nice effects and cool summoning animation.
But as ordinary Gloomspore senche exists, I have no reason to buy the body recolor (with literally same effects and same summoning animation). That's what I personally don't like about this 800 gem mount - higher price, lower quality

When I see a gem-exclusive item, I don't think "I must own it". I see it simply as another offer "Here is new item, do you like it?"
If I don't like it for any reason, I don't buy it and wait for some better offers Last time I've bought gem-exclusive item was 7 months ago - there was simply no more exclusive offers which I liked since then... I never feel like I have to buy every exclusive offer.

Riptide

I just don't think we should shy away from valid criticism when we are concerned by things we observe.

Indeed.

I mentioned seeing Elden Root early on in response to being called naive, and that got me called egotistical. Perhaps I am both and I will cop to it, but see, I’ve never used ad hominem in this thread - and I rarely do. My trouble is not with players. It is true I do pity those that purchase these items, but not in the way I think some folks defensively think.

Back early on in the game, whether within the pre-beta, or in early release, you arrived at Elden Root. The storyline guided you in such a way that the great tree was a moment of relative awe. There were many such moments spread all through, and the game had a truly epic feel in ways that the disorganized new user experience simply doesn’t now. I used that experience in passing because it is the one I remember the clearest.

Further, the crown store itself was added later. Purchasing was spurred not by price but exclusivity. It was specifically said that storm atronach crates and the subsequent seasons’ offering would never return.

The prices were reasonable. A hundred dollars could get you whatever fancy thing out of it you wanted. And then they were gone.

Then much later we came to find out that CSRs were selling exclusive items directly to players upon request. Then they returned those items to the store in waves, removing the exclusivity that was much of the reason behind many purchases.

Then came the crown gem mechanic, and the creeping up of cost to now as much as 2500, which if you do some informed arithmetic and note that those items were released within days of stimulus checks being released, well.

What I and others lament is the loss of what was ESO at its best, the epic experience, in exchange for - this. And so I pity the newer player who did not have a chance to experience the game before it became a Xanadu like mishmosh of confusing storylines all thrown at a player at once, and where the “apex” rewards are so directly, baldly monetary as to be distasteful.

The crown store time gated exclusivity with reasonable prices was a fair balance. By reintroducing older items and mining them for revenue it started them down a path whereby they have grabbed, and grabbed at higher and sadder pricing.

The “wow” factor in games are what make them special. Rather than spend development time cultivating it through the user experience, they have attempted to provide it through methods that take from them at egregious rates.

There is no resale value of these items, and now no time gated exclusivity - any item is likely to return one day.

It is akin to a bottle of body glitter that costs hundreds of dollars. What else but pity would you feel if you saw someone wearing body glitter in real life that costs hundreds of dolllars, and then defend the company that prices it so? That might not be a comfortable analogy, but it is an honest one.

For my part I thought very, very highly of ZOS and defended them on here when they essentially sold inexpensive, quality adventure tours. They have let the tour busses rust and age, the seats are torn and the tours are now disconjointed and far more perfunctory - and have went into the hundreds of dollars body glitter business. And focus on it. That got them bought by a bigger company and gives senior executives a golden parachute, but it isn’t a value added shift for their employees or customers.

Lugaldu

Fischblut wrote: »

I never see gem-exclusive items as reason to buy crates. Real reason to buy crates is collecting some of Radiant Apex mounts (and getting everything else from the crate seasons in process). People who collect Radiant Apex mounts naturally have gems - and gem exclusive items were introduced exactly for such people, so that they have something to spend their gems on. At least, that's what I think about gem-exclusives.

I think that you maybe assess the situation a bit too "positive". I don't see it in any way that gem-exclusive items were created only for collectors, so that they can do something with their gems. Because to get gems at all, you have to buy crown crates first (I dont believe that there is such a large amount of people who get crates from the game itself) and at prices of 800- more than 2000 gems for a radiant apex we are talking about enormous quantities of crates. They speculate on people buying crates because some players want those "exclusive" mounts, nothing else.

PizzaCat82

The last 3 crate seasons I used gems to by "Apex" mounts, not radiant ones.. hell, even legendaries had to be gotten with gems because the RNG was so bad.

These extra mounts are just for [snip] who might have gotten lucky with their crates and didn't have to spend all their gems.

[Edited to remove Baiting]

Spearpoint

At 800 gems, it should at least have room for your companion friend >_<

I mean.. 800 is A LOT. Especially for a re-skin