My theory on Assistant Pricing

TheBrownWiener · March 2016

I might be totally wrong but let's look at some facts.

So the assistants are very expensive meaning that they will be fairly rare.
That actually might be a good thing, just stay with me a moment and put aside your own selfishness.

IF assistants were say 1000-2000 crowns like many people advocate for. That would increase sales dramatically most likely right?

ZOS would actually likely make more money, a lot more. They would be massively more popular. So why are they opting to make less money?

I just want to throw this out there.
People will summon these just to summon them because they can. People will summon them in major cities and could basically double the npc population. Which would have a negative impact for everyone and then people would be on the forums with pitchforks complaining about the massive lag increase.

Imo (and I might be wrong) but this is the reason for pricing them high, it IS to limit the sale of them as not to potentially cause lag in high population places.

Korah_Eaglecry · March 2016

I doubt it. They more than likely think that the whales, who usually pay regardless of the price, will pay to have them. The Devs really have no say in the pricing. Their job is simply to plug it in when it goes live on the Store.

Im going to predict these things flop and flop hard. Just like the Nord Hero Costume. Ive seen the 1 Year PC Loyalty Reward on PS4 more than Ive seen the Hero Costume. And I suspect that these things will be extremely rare as long as they remain at the 5k price tag.

NewBlacksmurf · March 2016

It's a pet. Nothing more with some additional options. Nothing bad or increased lag.
AND

The whole point of adding them was due to popular demand, but pricing them out so high doesn't do anything but upset your customers. Upset customers don't just get upse but the stop buying and then soon will stop playing.....nothing about items over 2500 crowns is good for the game regardless of what it is.

D0ntevenL1ft · March 2016

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

It's a pet. Nothing more with some additional options. Nothing bad or increased lag.

This, its a pet. According to this theory all pets should be 5000 crowns as well.

TheBrownWiener · March 2016

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

It's a pet. Nothing more with some additional options. Nothing bad or increased lag.

Does your pet go away, when you summon the trader? If not then it is an additional npc.
Can anyone who used one on PTR confirm or deny?

UrQuan · March 2016

TheBrownWiener wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

It's a pet. Nothing more with some additional options. Nothing bad or increased lag.

Does your pet go away, when you summon the trader?
Can anyone who used one on PTR confirm or deny?

Yes, it does. The assistant takes the place of your pet.

NewBlacksmurf · March 2016

TheBrownWiener wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

It's a pet. Nothing more with some additional options. Nothing bad or increased lag.

Does your pet go away, when you summon the trader? If not then it is an additional npc.
Can anyone who used one on PTR confirm or deny?

Yes....and sorry but I made edits to my post

D0ntevenL1ft wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

It's a pet. Nothing more with some additional options. Nothing bad or increased lag.

This, its a pet. According to this theory all pets should be 5000 crowns as well.

I don't follo that logic nor do I agree. Pets and this should be 300-800 crowns. Pushing it is 1000

TheBrownWiener · March 2016

Well then, if that's the case and it replaces the pet.
Then ya it should be no worse than a pet.

phaneub17_ESO · March 2016

Those who farm for mats regularly and almost daily will be buyers.
Those who accumulate the most amount of gold every week will be buyers.
Those who are impulsive, must have everything right away will be buyers.
And those with a lot of expendable income who don't care, will be buyers.

Now think about you're in a Vet dungeon or deep in a trial, you've wiped so many times on a boss, all your gear is broken "brb, I need to go repair" some guy drops the portable merchant, sell all your junk, repair your gear, restock your potions.

How about if the portable merchant has some secret merchandise that can randomly appear in his buy inventory, it's limited maybe 1 or 2 max that refreshes every 24 hours. While anyone can buy the item, only you who has the merchant can summon it anytime you want. One day he's selling Tomatoes, the next day there's a Tempering Alloy for sale for stock price.

runagate · March 2016

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

It's a pet. Nothing more with some additional options. Nothing bad or increased lag.
AND

The whole point of adding them was due to popular demand, but pricing them out so high doesn't do anything but upset your customers. Upset customers don't just get upse but the stop buying and then soon will stop playing.....nothing about items over 2500 crowns is good for the game regardless of what it is.

I'm not saying that's not true, but I thought this would be a good place to point out that when you or anyone does a search of the things that we experience as lists in the game, whether it be items in a guild bank or the history of your transactions with a particular vendor (stablemaster, for example) ZOS's database querrying is incredibly, incredibly slow and affects absolutely everyone in that particular subzone.

It might not be a lot for one person doing it, but it sure does add up, and they could (but do not) allocate sufficient backend resources to handle it.

starkerealm · March 2016

I remember reading someone's suggestion in another thread (and I can't find it now), that the pricing was to keep players from not going to the cities, giving a more desolate feel to the game. Which... kinda, almost, would, maybe, make sense. It meshes with the lack of guild bank and store access, as well as the lack of repairs from the merchant. So, that's a possible reason.

SienneYviete · March 2016

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Those who farm for mats regularly and almost daily will be buyers.
Those who accumulate the most amount of gold every week will be buyers.
Those who are impulsive, must have everything right away will be buyers.
And those with a lot of expendable income who don't care, will be buyers.

Now think about you're in a Vet dungeon or deep in a trial, you've wiped so many times on a boss, all your gear is broken "brb, I need to go repair" some guy drops the portable merchant, sell all your junk, repair your gear, restock your potions.

How about if the portable merchant has some secret merchandise that can randomly appear in his buy inventory, it's limited maybe 1 or 2 max that refreshes every 24 hours. While anyone can buy the item, only you who has the merchant can summon it anytime you want. One day he's selling Tomatoes, the next day there's a Tempering Alloy for sale for stock price.

As has been stated before the merchant cannot repair gear and as far as i'm aware most raiders use spell power/weapon power or tri pots not the generic overpriced and under performing pots available from a merchant, also to the OP how is not wanting to be ripped off by a blatant cash grab by ZOS selfish on our part? I fail to see the logic in this statement.

Korah_Eaglecry · March 2016

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Those who farm for mats regularly and almost daily will be buyers.
Those who accumulate the most amount of gold every week will be buyers.
Those who are impulsive, must have everything right away will be buyers.
And those with a lot of expendable income who don't care, will be buyers.

Now think about you're in a Vet dungeon or deep in a trial, you've wiped so many times on a boss, all your gear is broken "brb, I need to go repair" some guy drops the portable merchant, sell all your junk, repair your gear, restock your potions.

How about if the portable merchant has some secret merchandise that can randomly appear in his buy inventory, it's limited maybe 1 or 2 max that refreshes every 24 hours. While anyone can buy the item, only you who has the merchant can summon it anytime you want. One day he's selling Tomatoes, the next day there's a Tempering Alloy for sale for stock price.

They dont repair your gear. Sorry but that argument about how great itll be in a Vet Dungeon is moot here. They dont let you drop items into your Guild Bank and they dont Repair broken items. Whats worse, if you go to drop something into your Bank and its full, but everything in there is worth saving. Youll STILL have to run back to move things around. The same with the Merchant....Break something and need it desperately repaired. Youll have to run back and get things fixed. The convenience is extremely limited for that 40 dollar asking price.

ManwithBeard9 · March 2016

SienneYviete wrote: »

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Those who farm for mats regularly and almost daily will be buyers.
Those who accumulate the most amount of gold every week will be buyers.
Those who are impulsive, must have everything right away will be buyers.
And those with a lot of expendable income who don't care, will be buyers.

Now think about you're in a Vet dungeon or deep in a trial, you've wiped so many times on a boss, all your gear is broken "brb, I need to go repair" some guy drops the portable merchant, sell all your junk, repair your gear, restock your potions.

How about if the portable merchant has some secret merchandise that can randomly appear in his buy inventory, it's limited maybe 1 or 2 max that refreshes every 24 hours. While anyone can buy the item, only you who has the merchant can summon it anytime you want. One day he's selling Tomatoes, the next day there's a Tempering Alloy for sale for stock price.

As has been stated before the merchant cannot repair gear and as far as i'm aware most raiders use spell power/weapon power or tri pots not the generic overpriced and under performing pots available from a merchant, also to the OP how is not wanting to be ripped off by a blatant cash grab by ZOS selfish on our part? I fail to see the logic in this statement.

The assistants are being sold as purely convenience. Nothing more, nothing less. Dont like the price of an of item that has no real need or purpose in the game, dot buy it. This isnt DLC with BiS slot gear hidden behind a pay wall. Its just because you cant be inconvenienced to go back to town to empty your bags.

SlayerTheDragon · March 2016

I actually just want one for the pet value - to have a follower/companion follow me on my adventures.

BlackguardBob · March 2016

Wow, just wow!

ZoS stipulate their pricing reasons on the store announcements of these new summons.

What is the OP trying to do here, undermine ZoS or just another troll?

Sausage · March 2016

I dont get it, Assistants are super convenient and one time buy, imho they should cost even more, also being pure convenient stuff, no-one should get pissed off either.

Nerouyn · March 2016

Here's a simpler theory - whoever is in charge is completely bonkers.

When I heard these were coming I thought this might be a partial answer to ESO's famously bad inventory experience. I should have known they'd be outrageously priced like nearly everything else in the crown store.

There's no way I'd ever spend $50 on any single cash shop item. And subscribing for 4 months just to get one of them? Forget it.

Personofsecrets · March 2016

Crown Store management is just pushing the envelope. "Wow we charged $25 for a horse, but can we charge more for this other mundane stuff?"

khele23eb17_ESO · March 2016

Nerouyn wrote: »

Here's a simpler theory - whoever is in charge is completely bonkers.

Or theyre testing the waters. They want to see how many whales they have playing their game.

Abeille · March 2016

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

Nerouyn wrote: »

Here's a simpler theory - whoever is in charge is completely bonkers.

Or theyre testing the waters. They want to see how many whales they have playing their game.

People keep using that expression. Does that mean "rich people" or "impulsive people"? Or someone who is both?

Anyway, the assistants are way too limited for such expensive items.

Thornen · March 2016

Lol Zos is a company first and foremost.

A company is profit driven, they are not your friend they are not a charity they are simply here to make money and if their metrics show that people are stupid enough to pay $40 or so for a crappy assistant that doesn't even have normal merch/banker fucntionality then they will price them at that.

TheBrownWiener · March 2016

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

also to the OP how is not wanting to be ripped off by a blatant cash grab by ZOS selfish on our part? I fail to see the logic in this statement.

Because sometimes some people just want free/low-cost crap because they feel entitled and do not know all of the underlying reasons why things are priced the way they are.

Example:
"IF" the motive was to limit them for the betterment of the server (I.E They would cause lag or as some suggested make cities much less populated making the game feel desolate, I can actually see this, and likely is more plausible than my original thought.). And they are NOT doing it as solely a "cash grab", people should not be "assuming" that.
Because "IF" you are assuming, it's a cash grab and they are truly doing what is best for the entire community, and you just want a cheap companion then you would indeed be selfish. (Definition: seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others)

Now granted this is all predicated on the basis that the price is high because they want to limit these because they feel if everyone (or a huge percentage) of the population had them, it would damage the overall game.

I'm not saying this is 100% the case, maybe it was solely a let's see how much we can charge and who will buy.
"IF" they ever put these on sale at a deep discount then it will be clear it was not for the good of the community and purely whale hunting.

Nerouyn · March 2016

Abeille wrote: »

People keep using that expression. Does that mean "rich people" or "impulsive people"? Or someone who is both?

In MMO cash shop parlance, a whale is a player willing to spend crazy amounts of money on cash shop items. ESO's crown store seems to be geared very much towards them.

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

Or theyre testing the waters. They want to see how many whales they have playing their game.

I think they'd already know. There's already a lot of outrageously priced items in the store.

Merlight · March 2016

TheBrownWiener wrote: »

Imo (and I might be wrong) but this is the reason for pricing them high, it IS to limit the sale of them as not to potentially cause lag in high population places.

Perhaps they could apply the same to Cyrodiil -- 500 Crowns per day of access. Way to monetize The Lag.

// In case the sarcasm wasn't clear, I think you are wrong. 1) there are other ways to limit (ab)use; 2) they never tried to limit pets in towns, did they?

mb10 · March 2016

I see your point but they could easily just remove them from being viewed by other players like when NPCs help you in a quest and they have the marker above their heads.

5000 crowns is ridiculous considering the whole thieves guild dlc was 2000. Simply cannot justify the prices at all.

I always defend ZOS but 5000 crowns for such useless things that are nothing but a 2 minute time saver are simply not worth it plus im very sure you cant access your guild bank with the banker.

NewBlacksmurf · March 2016

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Those who farm for mats regularly and almost daily will be buyers.
Those who accumulate the most amount of gold every week will be buyers.
Those who are impulsive, must have everything right away will be buyers.
And those with a lot of expendable income who don't care, will be buyers.

Now think about you're in a Vet dungeon or deep in a trial, you've wiped so many times on a boss, all your gear is broken "brb, I need to go repair" some guy drops the portable merchant, sell all your junk, repair your gear, restock your potions.

How about if the portable merchant has some secret merchandise that can randomly appear in his buy inventory, it's limited maybe 1 or 2 max that refreshes every 24 hours. While anyone can buy the item, only you who has the merchant can summon it anytime you want. One day he's selling Tomatoes, the next day there's a Tempering Alloy for sale for stock price.

The problem is these assistants don't offer repairs

SienneYviete · March 2016

TheBrownWiener wrote: »

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

also to the OP how is not wanting to be ripped off by a blatant cash grab by ZOS selfish on our part? I fail to see the logic in this statement.

Because sometimes some people just want free/low-cost crap because they feel entitled and do not know all of the underlying reasons why things are priced the way they are.

Example:
"IF" the motive was to limit them for the betterment of the server (I.E They would cause lag or as some suggested make cities much less populated making the game feel desolate, I can actually see this, and likely is more plausible than my original thought.). And they are NOT doing it as solely a "cash grab", people should not be "assuming" that.
Because "IF" you are assuming, it's a cash grab and they are truly doing what is best for the entire community, and you just want a cheap companion then you would indeed be selfish. (Definition: seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others)

Now granted this is all predicated on the basis that the price is high because they want to limit these because they feel if everyone (or a huge percentage) of the population had them, it would damage the overall game.

I'm not saying this is 100% the case, maybe it was solely a let's see how much we can charge and who will buy.
"IF" they ever put these on sale at a deep discount then it will be clear it was not for the good of the community and purely whale hunting.

Honestly you really believe that the only reason they have put the price so ridiculously high is to not impact server performance? Sorry I don't buy that for a second nor do I accept that we want this so called "low cost crap" because we feel entitled to it. There is a fair price for these types of items and the price stated by ZOS goes well beyond that, there is zero reason why minor convenience items should EVER be priced higher than the DLC.

If this type of cash shop fluff was put into the game and was expected to have any impact on the game server, knowing full well server stability issues are prevalent already in the game and are a daily forum topic by a large portion of their community then why would you put it in the game to begin with?

NewBlacksmurf · March 2016

runagate wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

It's a pet. Nothing more with some additional options. Nothing bad or increased lag.
AND

The whole point of adding them was due to popular demand, but pricing them out so high doesn't do anything but upset your customers. Upset customers don't just get upse but the stop buying and then soon will stop playing.....nothing about items over 2500 crowns is good for the game regardless of what it is.

I'm not saying that's not true, but I thought this would be a good place to point out that when you or anyone does a search of the things that we experience as lists in the game, whether it be items in a guild bank or the history of your transactions with a particular vendor (stablemaster, for example) ZOS's database querrying is incredibly, incredibly slow and affects absolutely everyone in that particular subzone.

It might not be a lot for one person doing it, but it sure does add up, and they could (but do not) allocate sufficient backend resources to handle it.

Not discounting the search but these assistants don't offer full services in the guild so I'm not aware that these assistants are doing anything different than if you were in town. The assistant as far as lag and resources is no different than a pet. The services are similar but limited to what any merchant offers in a town so I don't foresee any increased resources.

Honestly due to their limitations, I foresee less lag but at the current price, I'm not sure ppl will buy enough for the entire server to experience changes whether positive or negative.

Usara · March 2016

TheBrownWiener wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

It's a pet. Nothing more with some additional options. Nothing bad or increased lag.

Does your pet go away, when you summon the trader? If not then it is an additional npc.
Can anyone who used one on PTR confirm or deny?

I confirm. I used it, it's a pet. Just as you can try it live with the TG smuggler.

starkerealm · March 2016

Nerouyn wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

People keep using that expression. Does that mean "rich people" or "impulsive people"? Or someone who is both?

In MMO cash shop parlance, a whale is a player willing to spend crazy amounts of money on cash shop items. ESO's crown store seems to be geared very much towards them.

Actually, up to this point it really kinda hasn't. Most whale bait you'll see in MMOs comes as lucky bags. Of course, if ESO does implement lucky bags, or worse lockboxes, I'm out.

ESO actually has a finite amount of items on offer. About the only whale bait after that is the mimic stones and crown consumables... which, that's pretty terrible whale bait, honestly.