I also think once you buy one assistant, the least they could do is offer a discount on future forms of that assistant. I know I got super bummed out when I bought the ragpANYWAY, another price I've discussed recently that is also superrrrr high is the $40 USD mundus stones which are almost considered necessary in order to "complete" a guild hall. That's real close to the price of a AAA game, as previously mentioned, and the cost of the whole set is the same price as a MINDBOGGLING amount of games.
Not to mention, it's
$150 USD for a set of assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer)
$60 USD for a trial training dummy
Whew, it really hurts when you start examining the prices in the crown store.
I did not pay anywhere near that much for my assistants.
My math must be off. Each of the assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer) cost 5k crowns when paying full price. WIth the 21k crown packages costing $149.99 that comes out to $107.14 for the three assistants. Almost $43 less than what is being claimed. I am a stickler for accuracy on such matters.
After making that purchase we still have 6k crowns remaining to buy the Iron Atronach Trial Dummy.
That means the entire purchase of assistants and the trial dummy that is listed above totaling $210 is only 149.99
That is not all. Crowns go on sale multiple times a year. That 21k crown package costs $90 when on sale (Hope I calculated that correctly) So all three assistants and the atronach target dummy can be purchased for the low price of 90 USD.
I note the sale because it is better to plan ahead than to pay full price. Especially for anyone who does not like the prices in the Crown Store.
You make a fair point. You just CAN get a "better" deal. But I think the point still stands. "Only 107.14" for 3 digital assistants and "only 149.99" for 3 digital assistants and a training dummy is veryyyy expensive. Hashing out the exact numbers down to the cent doesn't really matter. It's still equal roughly the cost of two full AAA games and in my opinion not worth the price point.
EDIT: Due to the difference in crown pack prices and the way you can obtain crowns from various tiers of ESO+, there is no real "accurate" price. It's more a slider. Admittedly, it seems I went for the high end, and you went for the low end. Still I think the slider's skewed to the "nosebleedingly expensive" side regardless.
I listed the best price for crowns and it was really accurate. The sale times are fairly predictable. I also left out that the assistants do go on sale from time to time which also reduces the cost but I chose to keep the example simple.
You're acting like I completely disagreed with you. I didn't. I said you made a fair point and that your listed prices were, to some degree, accurate. However, mine was also accurate because, as I said, it depends on how you've obtained the crowns. And, as you said, it also depends on whether the items are on sale. Still, my points stand.
The most expensive item in the crown store should never cost more than $15 real money. As it is now the most expensive houses cost in excess of $75. The crown store in ESO is by far the most predatory marketing I've ever seen in any video game. I'm certain the excessive costs in the crown store are the primary motivation promoting any fraudulent activity related to the crown store.
How dd you arrive at the $15 price point?
Not criticizing the price point but I am also curious as to why you settled on that number. It's cool if there's no reason and you just feel that number is a good value.
They did not settle on any price point. They commented on someone else's suggested price point, a post you replied to yourself.
... I was responding to the thread, which is what you do in a forum? I commented initially on another point in the post. And I'm sure you know I didn't literally mean them setting a price point because I've explained the purpose of this thread several times now, but to be absolutely clear, I mean, "Why do you think $15 is the best value for the most expensive things in the crown store?" And, again to be clear, I wasn't being critical; I was just curious if there was some reasoning or if it was just a number that felt right to them. And I mean "felt right" hypothetically.
I don't understand why you're being so antagonistic towards me, but I'd appreciate if you'd at least try to acknowledge when I make good points or rightfully refute what you've said (EX: You never did acknowledge that you mistakenly thought someone else was OP, and as OP, I didn't "mistake" the original purpose of the thread.)
I thank any of the powers-that-be reading for taking a look at this thread and humbly ask that you take what's been said under consideration. Since this thread keeps getting derailed, I'm going to leave the it at that. I hope all the people who provided thoughtful, insightful answers on the topic originally presented have a wonderful week! And, once again, that video by Azura, which may seem harsh, also has some interesting commentary on the crown store as well; the comments below the video are particularly worth checking out in my humble onion.
I love ESO; I offer feedback out of love for the game and live in the hope that things improve.
Freilauftomate wrote: »@Amottica Ah, i see. That's why the prices for food, living and everything else are skyrocketing. Because people want to pay more for everything. Thank you very much for your great economics and business lessons, very helpful.
ANYWAY, another price I've discussed recently that is also superrrrr high is the $40 USD mundus stones which are almost considered necessary in order to "complete" a guild hall. That's real close to the price of a AAA game, as previously mentioned, and the cost of the whole set is the same price as a MINDBOGGLING amount of games.
Not to mention, it's
$150 USD for a set of assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer)
$60 USD for a trial training dummy
Whew, it really hurts when you start examining the prices in the crown store.
I did not pay anywhere near that much for my assistants.
My math must be off. Each of the assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer) cost 5k crowns when paying full price. WIth the 21k crown packages costing $149.99 that comes out to $107.14 for the three assistants. Almost $43 less than what is being claimed. I am a stickler for accuracy on such matters.
After making that purchase we still have 6k crowns remaining to buy the Iron Atronach Trial Dummy.
That means the entire purchase of assistants and the trial dummy that is listed above totaling $210 is only 149.99
That is not all. Crowns go on sale multiple times a year. That 21k crown package costs $90 when on sale (Hope I calculated that correctly) So all three assistants and the atronach target dummy can be purchased for the low price of 90 USD.
I note the sale because it is better to plan ahead than to pay full price. Especially for anyone who does not like the prices in the Crown Store.
ANYWAY, another price I've discussed recently that is also superrrrr high is the $40 USD mundus stones which are almost considered necessary in order to "complete" a guild hall. That's real close to the price of a AAA game, as previously mentioned, and the cost of the whole set is the same price as a MINDBOGGLING amount of games.
Not to mention, it's
$150 USD for a set of assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer)
$60 USD for a trial training dummy
Whew, it really hurts when you start examining the prices in the crown store.
I did not pay anywhere near that much for my assistants.
My math must be off. Each of the assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer) cost 5k crowns when paying full price. WIth the 21k crown packages costing $149.99 that comes out to $107.14 for the three assistants. Almost $43 less than what is being claimed. I am a stickler for accuracy on such matters.
After making that purchase we still have 6k crowns remaining to buy the Iron Atronach Trial Dummy.
That means the entire purchase of assistants and the trial dummy that is listed above totaling $210 is only 149.99
That is not all. Crowns go on sale multiple times a year. That 21k crown package costs $90 when on sale (Hope I calculated that correctly) So all three assistants and the atronach target dummy can be purchased for the low price of 90 USD.
I note the sale because it is better to plan ahead than to pay full price. Especially for anyone who does not like the prices in the Crown Store.
You seem to think that's a reasonable price for some pixels that cost Zenimax next to nothing to produce - $149.99 or even $90 isn't a low price by any standard. I'm not really sure why you're defending the extremely aggressive and, quite frankly, ludicrous pricing, but since you seem to think that reducing prices would hurt profits - how many people would buy a $150 home, versus how many people would buy a $15 home? In most other games, even free gacha games, they use a smaller price-range because it's more palatable and people are much more likely to trickle purchases - $5 here, $10 there.
Very few people are going to drop $150 on a virtual house. And using rare crown sales isn't very "accurate" because the majority of players won't wait six months for them to go on sale, or even know about the sale.
From what I've seen, Zenimax management is either not listening to their economics and business people, or those people have no idea what they're doing. We can see that time and time again with unpopular choices they make. I predict that to make up for loss of sales they're going to continue on an upward spiral, raising crown store prices higher and higher. $1000 for a virtual home still sound reasonable to you?
Even worse, the predatory pricing generates a lot of bad will and player dissatisfaction - player retention and feeling like the company cares about you, the player, is vital to a game company, whether it's true or not. Right now I feel like very few players think Zenimax cares about anything more than their wallets.
Being that the prices have held solid over the years it seems clear that Zenimax is pleased with the results. Considering MS acquired Zenimax for 7.5 Billion USD it seems those economic and business people have a very good idea of what they are doing. A privately held business that sells for that much has some brilliant business people involved.
To determine fair pricing we would have to know development cost for individual items, how much revenue ESO generates and how much of it is spent again on ESO development. I would be willing to pay more if I knew that it will make the game better in the future, not to fund the development of games that I will never care about. I think all employees should also receive their due, if that is even a factor. Convenience items and items that are attainable in game can be more expensive, it is OK for a shortcut to cost you extra.
Selling store exclusives at extortion rates is just predatory.
My opinion about crates is mixed, as endeavours are quite OK, only the ugly mounts are overpriced. People who like those can't be helped anyway. Other games do the crate gambling much worse, but overall I am not a fan. But the lower end rewards like Chicken pets (core gaming experience) are reasonably priced within the crates, so that is actually ok for me.
ANYWAY, another price I've discussed recently that is also superrrrr high is the $40 USD mundus stones which are almost considered necessary in order to "complete" a guild hall. That's real close to the price of a AAA game, as previously mentioned, and the cost of the whole set is the same price as a MINDBOGGLING amount of games.
Not to mention, it's
$150 USD for a set of assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer)
$60 USD for a trial training dummy
Whew, it really hurts when you start examining the prices in the crown store.
I did not pay anywhere near that much for my assistants.
My math must be off. Each of the assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer) cost 5k crowns when paying full price. WIth the 21k crown packages costing $149.99 that comes out to $107.14 for the three assistants. Almost $43 less than what is being claimed. I am a stickler for accuracy on such matters.
After making that purchase we still have 6k crowns remaining to buy the Iron Atronach Trial Dummy.
That means the entire purchase of assistants and the trial dummy that is listed above totaling $210 is only 149.99
That is not all. Crowns go on sale multiple times a year. That 21k crown package costs $90 when on sale (Hope I calculated that correctly) So all three assistants and the atronach target dummy can be purchased for the low price of 90 USD.
I note the sale because it is better to plan ahead than to pay full price. Especially for anyone who does not like the prices in the Crown Store.
You seem to think that's a reasonable price for some pixels that cost Zenimax next to nothing to produce - $149.99 or even $90 isn't a low price by any standard. I'm not really sure why you're defending the extremely aggressive and, quite frankly, ludicrous pricing, but since you seem to think that reducing prices would hurt profits - how many people would buy a $150 home, versus how many people would buy a $15 home? In most other games, even free gacha games, they use a smaller price-range because it's more palatable and people are much more likely to trickle purchases - $5 here, $10 there.
Very few people are going to drop $150 on a virtual house. And using rare crown sales isn't very "accurate" because the majority of players won't wait six months for them to go on sale, or even know about the sale.
From what I've seen, Zenimax management is either not listening to their economics and business people, or those people have no idea what they're doing. We can see that time and time again with unpopular choices they make. I predict that to make up for loss of sales they're going to continue on an upward spiral, raising crown store prices higher and higher. $1000 for a virtual home still sound reasonable to you?
Even worse, the predatory pricing generates a lot of bad will and player dissatisfaction - player retention and feeling like the company cares about you, the player, is vital to a game company, whether it's true or not. Right now I feel like very few players think Zenimax cares about anything more than their wallets.
I have not said what I think is reasonable. I have said that enough players are willing to pony up the asking price Zenimax has for these digital items so that Zenimax is happy with the revenue and sees no need to adjust the price lower.
So Zenimax does listen to their economic and business people. After all It is their economic and business people that are involved in setting the prices to start with. Being that the prices have held solid over the years it seems clear that Zenimax is pleased with the results. Considering MS acquired Zenimax for 7.5 Billion USD it seems those economic and business people have a very good idea of what they are doing. A privately held business that sells for that much has some brilliant business people involved.
@LokiPagan
ANYWAY, another price I've discussed recently that is also superrrrr high is the $40 USD mundus stones which are almost considered necessary in order to "complete" a guild hall. That's real close to the price of a AAA game, as previously mentioned, and the cost of the whole set is the same price as a MINDBOGGLING amount of games.
Not to mention, it's
$150 USD for a set of assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer)
$60 USD for a trial training dummy
Whew, it really hurts when you start examining the prices in the crown store.
I did not pay anywhere near that much for my assistants.
My math must be off. Each of the assistants (banker, merchant, and deconstructer) cost 5k crowns when paying full price. WIth the 21k crown packages costing $149.99 that comes out to $107.14 for the three assistants. Almost $43 less than what is being claimed. I am a stickler for accuracy on such matters.
After making that purchase we still have 6k crowns remaining to buy the Iron Atronach Trial Dummy.
That means the entire purchase of assistants and the trial dummy that is listed above totaling $210 is only 149.99
That is not all. Crowns go on sale multiple times a year. That 21k crown package costs $90 when on sale (Hope I calculated that correctly) So all three assistants and the atronach target dummy can be purchased for the low price of 90 USD.
I note the sale because it is better to plan ahead than to pay full price. Especially for anyone who does not like the prices in the Crown Store.
You seem to think that's a reasonable price for some pixels that cost Zenimax next to nothing to produce - $149.99 or even $90 isn't a low price by any standard. I'm not really sure why you're defending the extremely aggressive and, quite frankly, ludicrous pricing, but since you seem to think that reducing prices would hurt profits - how many people would buy a $150 home, versus how many people would buy a $15 home? In most other games, even free gacha games, they use a smaller price-range because it's more palatable and people are much more likely to trickle purchases - $5 here, $10 there.
Very few people are going to drop $150 on a virtual house. And using rare crown sales isn't very "accurate" because the majority of players won't wait six months for them to go on sale, or even know about the sale.
From what I've seen, Zenimax management is either not listening to their economics and business people, or those people have no idea what they're doing. We can see that time and time again with unpopular choices they make. I predict that to make up for loss of sales they're going to continue on an upward spiral, raising crown store prices higher and higher. $1000 for a virtual home still sound reasonable to you?
Even worse, the predatory pricing generates a lot of bad will and player dissatisfaction - player retention and feeling like the company cares about you, the player, is vital to a game company, whether it's true or not. Right now I feel like very few players think Zenimax cares about anything more than their wallets.
I have not said what I think is reasonable. I have said that enough players are willing to pony up the asking price Zenimax has for these digital items so that Zenimax is happy with the revenue and sees no need to adjust the price lower.
So Zenimax does listen to their economic and business people. After all It is their economic and business people that are involved in setting the prices to start with. Being that the prices have held solid over the years it seems clear that Zenimax is pleased with the results. Considering MS acquired Zenimax for 7.5 Billion USD it seems those economic and business people have a very good idea of what they are doing. A privately held business that sells for that much has some brilliant business people involved.
@LokiPagan
You must not know who the original stockholders were or you wouldn't have made this claim in bold. MS paid to purchase the entire Elder Scrolls franchise, not just ESO.
Necrotech_Master wrote: »if the cost was 50-75% cheaper per assistant, i would buy pretty much all of them just for the variety, but as it stands im not buying them because why spend $20 on another banker assistant thats a reskin of the one i already have?
$20? Not sure where you are located, but here the 5500 crown pack is $39.99...so $40 for one assistant. That's the price of an entire game.
As for @Amottica , I'm sure there are some whales who are willing to spend a few hundred or thousand dollars for crowns for stuff like assistants, but the vast majority of players, like myself, only use the crowns we get via ESO+ or buying it with gold. Now that crown trading is disabled, I think we're going to see some changes, because very few people are willing to pony up those amounts.
In other games, though, I don't mind dropping $10 or $10 there - it adds up over time. Here Zenimax is just trying to cater to the whales, and it isn't a smart move. If every. Single. Other. Game. is doing something like the "nickle and dime" selling, maybe they're onto something.
Well, not that it matters, at any rate. They can't lower crown pricing because there would be outrage from the whales.
Still, I read that the Radiant Apex mount is a 0.1% chance drop rate - so that's 1000 crown crates if you're really unlucky. That's 320,000 crowns if you don't get them on sale - the 21,000 crown pack is $149.99, so roughly $2250 FOR A MOUNT. That's an extreme example, of course, but still...I paid for this game, and I paid for the DLC, and I pay a monthly subscription. It's insulting.
Necrotech_Master wrote: »if the cost was 50-75% cheaper per assistant, i would buy pretty much all of them just for the variety, but as it stands im not buying them because why spend $20 on another banker assistant thats a reskin of the one i already have?
$20? Not sure where you are located, but here the 5500 crown pack is $39.99...so $40 for one assistant. That's the price of an entire game.
As for @Amottica , I'm sure there are some whales who are willing to spend a few hundred or thousand dollars for crowns for stuff like assistants, but the vast majority of players, like myself, only use the crowns we get via ESO+ or buying it with gold. Now that crown trading is disabled, I think we're going to see some changes, because very few people are willing to pony up those amounts.
In other games, though, I don't mind dropping $10 or $10 there - it adds up over time. Here Zenimax is just trying to cater to the whales, and it isn't a smart move. If every. Single. Other. Game. is doing something like the "nickle and dime" selling, maybe they're onto something.
Well, not that it matters, at any rate. They can't lower crown pricing because there would be outrage from the whales.
Still, I read that the Radiant Apex mount is a 0.1% chance drop rate - so that's 1000 crown crates if you're really unlucky. That's 320,000 crowns if you don't get them on sale - the 21,000 crown pack is $149.99, so roughly $2250 FOR A MOUNT. That's an extreme example, of course, but still...I paid for this game, and I paid for the DLC, and I pay a monthly subscription. It's insulting.