Gold for real money

Swarog · January 2015

Will it be possible to buy crowns for real money, buy pots by crowns, sell pots for ingame gold to vendor? I hope it will be impossible.

nerevarine1138 · January 2015

Will it be possible to buy crowns for real money? Yes. That's how you get crowns.

Will it be possible to buy potions with crowns? Sounds like it, based on the description we've been given.

Will you be able to sell those potions for gold? Highly unlikely. Cash shop items are rarely things that can be vendored for gold.

Heruthema · January 2015

It has already been stated that Cash Shop items will be bound to your account. You can not even send them to someone else.

starkerealm · January 2015

Swarog wrote: »

Will it be possible to buy crowns for real money, buy pots by crowns, sell pots for ingame gold to vendor? I hope it will be impossible.

They specifically said in the livestream, you won't be able to vendor or trade ♕ purchases. So there won't be a way to convert ♕s into gold.

Frenkthevile · January 2015

Heruthema wrote: »

It has already been stated that Cash Shop items will be bound to your account. You can not even send them to someone else.

hope so.

AlnilamE · January 2015

Swarog wrote: »

Will it be possible to buy crowns for real money, buy pots by crowns, sell pots for ingame gold to vendor? I hope it will be impossible.

Considering how much potions and soul gems vendor for, that would be a really bad return on investment for real money.

Stuff that is currently bound to account can still be vendored, but not sold to other players (with a few exceptions that I noticed. There's something I always try to vendor because it has a 0 value and I don't need it, but the game won't let me. Can't remember what it is now, though).

starkerealm · January 2015

AlnilamE wrote: »

Swarog wrote: »

Will it be possible to buy crowns for real money, buy pots by crowns, sell pots for ingame gold to vendor? I hope it will be impossible.

Considering how much potions and soul gems vendor for, that would be a really bad return on investment for real money.

Stuff that is currently bound to account can still be vendored, but not sold to other players (with a few exceptions that I noticed. There's something I always try to vendor because it has a 0 value and I don't need it, but the game won't let me. Can't remember what it is now, though).

Some of the disguises, I think?

JamilaRaj · January 2015

Just think about it guys. The moment they have in cash shop any item that you would otherwise pruchased for gold, you are buying gold for real money. If you purchase bonus to gold gained, same thing, you are buying gold for money.
You just do not buy it directly and so they can pretend no dirty gold-for-cash transactions are taking place and players can pretend it's credible, if sick.

nerevarine1138 · January 2015

JamilaRaj wrote: »

Just think about it guys. The moment they have in cash shop any item that you would otherwise pruchased for gold, you are buying gold for real money. If you purchase bonus to gold gained, same thing, you are buying gold for money.
You just do not buy it directly and so they can pretend no dirty gold-for-cash transactions are taking place and players can pretend it's credible, if sick.

Except they've already said they aren't going to let you vendor things from the Crown Store.

So your conspiracy theory kind of falls apart there.

JamilaRaj · January 2015

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

JamilaRaj wrote: »

Just think about it guys. The moment they have in cash shop any item that you would otherwise pruchased for gold, you are buying gold for real money. If you purchase bonus to gold gained, same thing, you are buying gold for money.
You just do not buy it directly and so they can pretend no dirty gold-for-cash transactions are taking place and players can pretend it's credible, if sick.

Except they've already said they aren't going to let you vendor things from the Crown Store.

So your conspiracy theory kind of falls apart there.

It does not matter that you can't vendor them. Let's say you normally buy potions from NPCs and you spend 1000 gold on them per month. Now you will instead buy them in cash shop for real money and keep your 1000 gold to spent it on something else; you will therefore buy 1000 gold for real money. Hm?

nerevarine1138 · January 2015

JamilaRaj wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

JamilaRaj wrote: »

Just think about it guys. The moment they have in cash shop any item that you would otherwise pruchased for gold, you are buying gold for real money. If you purchase bonus to gold gained, same thing, you are buying gold for money.
You just do not buy it directly and so they can pretend no dirty gold-for-cash transactions are taking place and players can pretend it's credible, if sick.

Except they've already said they aren't going to let you vendor things from the Crown Store.

So your conspiracy theory kind of falls apart there.

It does not matter that you can't vendor them. Let's say you normally buy potions from NPCs and you spend 1000 gold on them per month. Now you will instead buy them in cash shop for real money and keep your 1000 gold to spent it on something else; you will therefore buy 1000 gold for real money. Hm?

Do people actually buy potions from NPCs?

The reason that potions and soul gems are the only utility items that look like they're going on the Crown Store is that they're pointless, valueless items. The effort required to get them currently in-game is so minuscule that it couldn't possibly make a difference.

starkerealm · January 2015

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

JamilaRaj wrote: »

Just think about it guys. The moment they have in cash shop any item that you would otherwise pruchased for gold, you are buying gold for real money. If you purchase bonus to gold gained, same thing, you are buying gold for money.
You just do not buy it directly and so they can pretend no dirty gold-for-cash transactions are taking place and players can pretend it's credible, if sick.

Except they've already said they aren't going to let you vendor things from the Crown Store.

So your conspiracy theory kind of falls apart there.

Nooo... what about the Argonian Astronaut project!?

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · January 2015

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

The effort required to get them currently in-game is so minuscule that it couldn't possibly make a difference.

The keyword here is "currently". If the cash shop revenue does not turn out to their satisfaction, they can just change the loot tables to make small commodities like potions and soul gems less common, and create a demand for them in the cash shop.

I'm not saying it will happen, but in any game with a cash shop, there is a real risk that the cash shop becomes king and the rest of the game is neglected. Can they really resist the temptation to create artificial scarcity of some common items, and then introduce them in the cash shop while spinning it as something positive? "Finding it hard to find those hard to find items? Buy them with cash to save you from trouble!"

They might be setting higher standards for themselves, but color me skeptic.

nerevarine1138 · January 2015

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

The effort required to get them currently in-game is so minuscule that it couldn't possibly make a difference.

The keyword here is "currently". If the cash shop revenue does not turn out to their satisfaction, they can just change the loot tables to make small commodities like potions and soul gems less common, and create a demand for them in the cash shop.

I'm not saying it will happen, but in any game with a cash shop, there is a real risk that the cash shop becomes king and the rest of the game is neglected. Can they really resist the temptation to create artificial scarcity of some common items, and then introduce them in the cash shop while spinning it as something positive? "Finding it hard to find those hard to find items? Buy them with cash to save you from trouble!"

They might be setting higher standards for themselves, but color me skeptic.

Again, this thread is about what the system as proposed in the official announcement looks like. If it changes down the line, then let's reassess it then. But until then, any speculation about what could/will change is just that: speculation.

josh5813 · January 2015

starkerealm wrote: »

Swarog wrote: »

Will it be possible to buy crowns for real money, buy pots by crowns, sell pots for ingame gold to vendor? I hope it will be impossible.

They specifically said in the livestream, you won't be able to vendor or trade ♕ purchases. So there won't be a way to convert ♕s into gold.

There might be maybe in the future. Crowns into Gold would help drive sales for crowns if we can covert them into gold.

Look at Guild Wars 2. You can buy gems with real money, use them in the cash shop on items or convert it into gold.

egosumacunnus · January 2015

I would bet that some cash shop items will be seen on a guild store. DDO does it and so does EVE. It generates a lot of income from teh HAVE's who want a short cut to gold from the HAVENOT's.

The problem becomes the pricing, DDO for example really take the *** with some of their prices because of the lack of customers, i can't see ESO being any different. Standard money orientated thinking. Imaginary items only of use in imaginary land should not be expensive but they will be and people will pay it.

Dragath · January 2015

worry not.
it wont take long till ZOS will realize that they have to offer some good stuff in their cash shop, or they wont make money with it.
after a few month, the term "convenience item" will be used for a lot of stuff.

Funkopotamus · January 2015

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

JamilaRaj wrote: »

Just think about it guys. The moment they have in cash shop any item that you would otherwise pruchased for gold, you are buying gold for real money. If you purchase bonus to gold gained, same thing, you are buying gold for money.
You just do not buy it directly and so they can pretend no dirty gold-for-cash transactions are taking place and players can pretend it's credible, if sick.

Except they've already said they aren't going to let you vendor things from the Crown Store.

So your conspiracy theory kind of falls apart there.

How does it fall apart? You still buying gold for real money. Just though a different way. The gold bonus/exp bonus are still just a "Pay2Winmoar-Faster"