New in-game item Amulet of Akatosh's Blessing

Gillysan · November 2014

What ESO needs is an in-game item that can be traded for gold between players. The Amulet of Akatosh's Blessing can be sold between players and can via right click add 30 days game time to a players account. This item is not a drop or quest reward of any kind. It will come into existence only if someone purchases one with real money. Thus the supply and demand is solely governed by the players usage of this item.

smacx250 · November 2014

So it essentially lets players purchase an indeterminate amount of in-game gold for real $$$? I personally hope that is never legitimized!

khele23eb17_ESO · November 2014

So you want them to change their business model?

Gillysan · November 2014

It's been done for years
https://secure.eveonline.com/plex/

What is PLEX?
PLEX

PLEX is an in-game item that can be used to pay for your subscription without using more traditional payment methods. By using PLEX, you can pay for your game time simply by playing the game.

You can buy PLEX through our Account Management site or you can buy PLEX with in-game ISK. Because PLEX is an in-game item you can also make in-game profit for yourself by buying and selling it on the market.

PLEX (Pilot License Extension)

PLEX ad on Amazon

EVE Fanfest 2014: Economy talk highlights PLEX prices and reveals titan production statistics

The case for PLEX in WoW

Gillysan · November 2014

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

So you want them to change their business model?

EVE Online is a subscription based game that has been around for about 11 years. PLEX was one of their solutions to get rid of RMT and botters.

Gillysan · November 2014

Snippets from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Online

Unlike some games such as Second Life, in-game currency is not freely convertible with real world currency. Players may only pay real world currency to CCP for in-game items (specifically the Pilot License Extension (PLEX), a token for renewing one's game subscription that can be traded in-game for virtual currency). The reverse, turning in-game currency or items into real-world money, is prohibited.[36] A reason for this, related by a CCP representative at Fanfest 2010, is that free interchange of currency causes in-game banking to fall under the same regulatory domain as real-world banking. CCP would rather not place this restriction on in-game behavior, due both to the difficulty of regulatory enforcement, and the desire to allow players to create illegitimate in-game banks or Ponzi schemes if they wish to do so.[citation needed]

Commentators have attempted to estimate the value of Eve Online entities in real-world currency. One such conversion valued a fleet-ready titan (the most powerful ship in the game) at US$7,600.[37]

In 2007, in a first for a gaming company, CCP hired an economist, Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, to oversee Eve's in-game economy. Guðmundsson was previously dean of the faculty of business and science at the University of Akureyri.[38]

In November 2008, CCP introduced PLEX, the CONCORD Pilots License EXtension, which is an in-game item that can be used to extend a subscription for 30 days. PLEX can be purchased on the Eve Online website for real money, or inside the game for ISK. 60-day ETCs can be converted to two 30-day PLEX within the Eve Online client, which can then be sold via the in-game market. PLEX is the reason that the cost of in-game assets can be translated into real-life money. As the price of a PLEX is around €15, it can be calculated how much a certain ship or implant is theoretically worth in a real currency.

zaria · November 2014

Gillysan wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

So you want them to change their business model?

EVE Online is a subscription based game that has been around for about 11 years. PLEX was one of their solutions to get rid of RMT and botters.

it would get rid of RMT, but botting would be just as interesting or more so than before as you could use bots to farm so you could buy plex.

AlexDougherty · November 2014

zaria wrote: »

Gillysan wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

So you want them to change their business model?

EVE Online is a subscription based game that has been around for about 11 years. PLEX was one of their solutions to get rid of RMT and botters.

it would get rid of RMT, but botting would be just as interesting or more so than before as you could use bots to farm so you could buy plex.

Indeed.

I doubt ZOS will ever allow you to buy game time with game currency, I know EVE does it, but it's bad financial sense for ZOS.

Gillysan · November 2014

AlexDougherty wrote: »

zaria wrote: »

Gillysan wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

So you want them to change their business model?

EVE Online is a subscription based game that has been around for about 11 years. PLEX was one of their solutions to get rid of RMT and botters.

it would get rid of RMT, but botting would be just as interesting or more so than before as you could use bots to farm so you could buy plex.

Indeed.

I doubt ZOS will ever allow you to buy game time with game currency, I know EVE does it, but it's bad financial sense for ZOS.

No sir, this would be incorrect. The item doesn't drop in-game. It is created when someone purchases it.

babylon · November 2014

zaria wrote: »

Gillysan wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

So you want them to change their business model?

EVE Online is a subscription based game that has been around for about 11 years. PLEX was one of their solutions to get rid of RMT and botters.

it would get rid of RMT, but botting would be just as interesting or more so than before as you could use bots to farm so you could buy plex.

This^

It would have to sell for over 40,000 gold (cost of a sub vs goldfarmed gold) or it would be cheaper to buy the gold from goldfarming websites, then pay the guy selling this item ingame using goldfarmer gold. Can't imagine normal people farming up 40,000 gold each month to play the game.

So it would basically make this game more appealing to goldfarmers.

Gillysan · November 2014

zaria wrote: »

Gillysan wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

So you want them to change their business model?

EVE Online is a subscription based game that has been around for about 11 years. PLEX was one of their solutions to get rid of RMT and botters.

it would get rid of RMT, but botting would be just as interesting or more so than before as you could use bots to farm so you could buy plex.

Actually it wastes the botters time. They want to pull real money out of the game. This gives those players that have real money, but not enough time, a mechanism to trade players who have enough time but (maybe) not as much real money. The transactions of gold occur within the game. ZOS get more real money, but plugs some of the leak of real money leaving the game.

You don't need to deal with botters anymore and risk your CC information. You are now dealing with the game company directly.

DenverRalphy · November 2014

PLEX is a scam. Basically, it gives the illusion that a subscription game can be F2P, when realistically PLEX just increases profits to the game owner at the expense of the players.

The only possible way it could work in ZOS's favor and thus encouraging them to adopt it, would be to also provide a compelling cash shop with more than just fluff/vanity items. Which is what EVE Online does.

Thanks... But no.

Robocles · November 2014

Gillysan wrote: »

It's been done for years
https://secure.eveonline.com/plex/

What is PLEX?
PLEX

PLEX is an in-game item that can be used to pay for your subscription without using more traditional payment methods. By using PLEX, you can pay for your game time simply by playing the game.

You can buy PLEX through our Account Management site or you can buy PLEX with in-game ISK. Because PLEX is an in-game item you can also make in-game profit for yourself by buying and selling it on the market.

PLEX (Pilot License Extension)

PLEX ad on Amazon

EVE Fanfest 2014: Economy talk highlights PLEX prices and reveals titan production statistics

The case for PLEX in WoW

This isn't EVE. So, no.

Gillysan · November 2014

EVE is not a F2P game it is a subscription based game nor does it try to to be a F2P game. The only reason why PLEX exists in game is because someone purchased it. The player economy takes care of the rest.

Gillysan · November 2014

Robocles wrote: »

Gillysan wrote: »

It's been done for years
https://secure.eveonline.com/plex/

What is PLEX?
PLEX

PLEX is an in-game item that can be used to pay for your subscription without using more traditional payment methods. By using PLEX, you can pay for your game time simply by playing the game.

You can buy PLEX through our Account Management site or you can buy PLEX with in-game ISK. Because PLEX is an in-game item you can also make in-game profit for yourself by buying and selling it on the market.

PLEX (Pilot License Extension)

PLEX ad on Amazon

EVE Fanfest 2014: Economy talk highlights PLEX prices and reveals titan production statistics

The case for PLEX in WoW

This isn't EVE. So, no.

No it's not EVE. However this is a solution, and a successful one at that for almost 7 years now, to a common issue with all games: botters, RMT and a clear market of players who want a quicker way of getting in-game currency aka casual players.

babylon · November 2014

Why is this guy going on about botters? We don't even see them any more...in fact this idea would bring them all back in if anything /facepalm

Shinra · November 2014

PLEX would add a nice pay to win option to the game. No more boring grinding

I would love it.

But the mayority won't. That this game is currently as free from pay to win as it is, is an important reason for many players to stay with the game.

So the playerbase will get smaller as soon as some pay to win will be implemented. And that means less money. So why should Zenimax implement something that will only cost them?

Gillysan · November 2014

Shinra wrote: »

PLEX would add a nice pay to win option to the game. No more boring grinding
I would love it.

But the mayority won't. That this game is currently as free from pay to win as it is, is an important reason for many players to stay with the game.

So the playerbase will get smaller as soon as some pay to win will be implemented. And that means less money. So why should Zenimax implement something that will only cost them?

It's not pay to win, you don't get an in-game item that anyone else in the game does not have access too. If anything it would reward players that have been playing the game for awhile.

Once again, this is not an item that drops in the game. It is created when someone with the cash buys it and it is tradeable in-game.

Also, this doesn't "cost" ZOS, it actually makes them money.

babylon · November 2014

Gillysan wrote: »

this doesn't "cost" ZOS, it actually makes them money.

No it wouldn't, it'd cost them because we'd all go once the botters/goldfarmers and f2p types came in.

Gillysan · November 2014

Many of the attitudes I see here are the same I had when I first tried EVE. After I learned how it all worked I could see the brilliance of this move by CCP.

Once again, this is not a F2P game. If you played EVE or read anything I linked you would see that PLEX isn't that easy to obtain. I see people in EVE start trial accounts to earn free game time. They fail miserably. There is a big trade off in-game with whether you decide to "earn free game time" or just pay the subscription. Only the seriously dedicated ever do this.

Also because it's controlled by the in-game free market the prices stay reasonable. Not too cheap but also not insanely priced high.

Botters/gold farmers goal is to get real money from players who have more money than sense. This does a pretty good job of cutting them out. The transactions are now all contained within the game and the real money goes to CCP.

In reply to a previous post: botters are greatly reduced but still see some from time to time. So far only in the lower zones. When I play the few remaining lower level alts I sometimes end up reporting one or two here and there.

bosmern_ESO · November 2014

So you want a pay-to-win feature to come into the game while also allowing bots and people who aren't serious/care about the game to start playing? No thanks.

AlexDougherty · November 2014

bosmern_ESO wrote: »

So you want a pay-to-win feature to come into the game while also allowing bots and people who aren't serious/care about the game to start playing? No thanks.

Um, you need to get a better definition of Pay to Win.

Pay to Win is where buying a buff or peice of gear for real cash gives you an unfair advantage.

This is about getting more play time, I may not like it, but it isn't Pay2Win.

Turelus · November 2014

Gillysan wrote: »

Shinra wrote: »

PLEX would add a nice pay to win option to the game. No more boring grinding
I would love it.

It's not pay to win, you don't get an in-game item that anyone else in the game does not have access too.

It technically is pay to win and it's even been that way in EVE Online just the player base doesn't really realise it.
It's not pay to win on the level of you get special items or power but it does however get the PLEX purchaser a large some of in game currency to do with as they please. It's pay RL money to get a large sum of in-game money.

DenverRalphy wrote: »

PLEX is a scam. Basically, it gives the illusion that a subscription game can be F2P, when realistically PLEX just increases profits to the game owner at the expense of the players.

I'm not really sure how this is a scam or an illusion. The premise is that if you can earn enough gold in game you don't need to pay money. It's not creating free accounts as someone still has to buy the PLEX from ZOS but it does create a system where those with more time in game and less time for RL money making can play the free of charge for themselves.

In regards to the botters I don't think you would see a mass influx of them more than we have now. Normally the majority of botting in games falls on RMT companies trying to make money. It's not that common for a player to bot in order to pay his subscription via PLEX, it happens yes but to a lesser level than botting for RMT. This is at least what the CCP numbers have shown at their yearly security presentations.

Gillysan · November 2014

I disagree. The casual player weekend warrior who has a good job, but not enough time to complete what he wants to in the game, now has a mechanism by which he can trade with a more accomplished player. (I prefer not to devolve into using the term no lifer. Just because someone has more time to play doesn't mean you know why they have more time to play)

Shinra · November 2014

Gillysan wrote: »

I disagree. The casual player weekend warrior who has a good job, but not enough time to complete what he wants to in the game, now has a mechanism by which he can trade with a more accomplished player. (I prefer not to devolve into using the term no lifer. Just because someone has more time to play doesn't mean you know why they have more time to play)

It's rather that you "force" the casual player to pay real money to compete with elitists.
While this trading system would, as well, only benefit elitists because those would be the only ones to get enough ingame money to buy those PLEX thingies.

But this system won't even matter that much, because there won't be many of those PLEXes around. I don't even think it would bring botters or other *censored* into this game. And I don't think that it would change the game itself that much. So the only thing that would come out of it would be three types of players.

1) Those players that won't use PLEX at all. PLEX leaves a bad taste in their mouth because there is finally something ingame that at least resembles pay to win. They fear that other pay2win options may be added to the cash shop. (The biggest group)

2) Those players with too much real money in their hands who would love to get an (unfair) advantage over normal players and will buy PLEX. (A small group, I would probably be here)

3) Those 24/7 players who hate pay2play and don't think Zenimax deserves their money. They feel like they can use PLEX to go free2play. (Another small group)