Vote with your wallet. How to end ESO greed.

MythicEmperor · September 2016

If you are like me, you do not agree with the business choices being made by ZOS recently. If you do not know what I am speaking of, here are some examples:

1. Name change price
2. The long awaited Breton Hero costume is absolute rubbish
3. The announcement of gamble crates, which will make this game comparable to COD. Yep.
4. The Imperial City bundle, once and for all taking the "Limited" out of "Limited Time". And please don't respond with, "Limited time doesn't mean limited, it can come back whenever!" Do you not realize that they could come up with so many more mounts, but instead they re-skin, and when that isn't enough they decide to re-release old mounts just to spite those who bought it thinking it would never return?
5. I am sure there are more examples that I haven't seen or simply won't mention to keep this short.

Now that you know why I am bitter, here is how we solve it. Stop buying stuff. Yep, at this point I am proposing a boycott. Why? The answer is simple. If they don't make money from it, they won't do it. That is why they lazily released the shoddy Breton costume, and that is because they knew they could get away with it. They removed all new threads about it to quell the uprising and silence the players.

I know this may seem like a rather strong action, BUT let us not forget what has happened to other MMORPGs. They offer convenience, and that works fine at first. Then, they get greedy and decide they can milk a little more out of the community. Eventually, we get fed up with it and leave the game. We can stop this greed prematurely by working together to make ESO great again. Signs are already becoming apparent about the direction ESO is taking, and that is a direction that will hurt us all.

Do you want this game to end up like Black Desert Online? I certainly don't. If we band together and do not buy these gamble crates, ZOS will notice. We have to let them know we are not OK with becoming their pawns. We have to let them know that this is NOT OK. Now, I know this may seem a bit ranty, but a thread like this NEEDS to exist. If this isn't stopped, things will only get worse. So stop praising ZOS. Stop supporting these gamble crates and. Stop supporting these ridiculous prices. Only we, the player-base, can fix this game.

Morgha_Kul · September 2016

The pricing is indeed rather excessive, if you ask me. I mean, 5000 crowns for a single recipe or costume? That's more than $50 in actual money. I can buy a WHOLE GAME for that.

Even lesser things, like character slots, are greatly overpriced. Again, 1500 crowns translates to nearly $20 Canadian, for ONE character slot. It's crazy expensive.

I fear they're pricing themselves out of the market, and will lose revenue as a result.

I mean, would you rather have one sale at 1500, or five sales at 500? This is the question they need to ask themselves.

Reverb · September 2016

Not enough people will participate in a boycott. I agree that as individuals we vote with our money, and not buying things on principle is something I applaud. But don't think that it will make any difference to zeni in the overall scheme of things. Plenty of people will continue throwing money into Crowns, and all you will be doing is denying yourself and standing alone on your soapbox.

PrinceBoru · September 2016

I've unsubbed and won't spend another penny on this game.
The die is cast.
This game is a cash-grabbing glitch-fest.

Danikat · September 2016

I already only buy things if I want them and I think they're reasonably priced.

The only thing that's made me worried about the future of this game is the crown crates, and it's the long-term consequences I'm worried about there (amount of effort spent on new items for those vs. in-game/direct sale, availability of limited time items outside of crates, and new items which may not be purely cosmetic in particular) so I'm going to wait and see what happens. (I also won't be buying any, because RNG boxes are always, always a waste of money. Everyone knows the 'friend of a friend of a cousin's girlfriend' who once got the rarest item on their very first try and it tempts them to think they might be as lucky, but chances are you'll throw away more money than you'd have ever paid for a direct sale and end up with nothing you wanted.)

Nestor · September 2016

I have a character from since release week I desperately wanted to rename (Occam CraftAlt and she is not a dude), and I have two other characters that I desperately wanted to change the looks on (both have always had a full face helmet and I normally hide my helmets).

Have not renamed or changed the looks of any of my characters. I won't pay the price being asked.

Woeler · September 2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

NewBlacksmurf · September 2016

I moved to a new game. PTS pretty much other than some logic updates killed the game. Update 12 launch is the end of TESO and TESO TU which is fine but they have a bad habit of not actually resolving player feedback issues.

Notably
1. Cadwell silver and gold
2. Craglorn
3. VR levels
4. CP
5. Nodes
6. RNG and loot
7. PvP and PvE skills don't mix.
8. Finding groups
9. Crown store

All of these are highly debated and suggested topics of change since closed beta.
What they're doing is keeping the problem and trying to make adjustments instead of fixing those problems with each category.

Change without direction and intent is only creating more chaos.
It's not all bad, don't take it that way, however the concerns certain very vocal groups have about each has not been addressed.

christbh · September 2016

5000 crowns for single crafting motif that isn't even account wide is ridiculous. Someone at ZOS is clearly on drugs or out of their *** mind.

Rohamad_Ali · September 2016

I am always frugal with my spending here . Waiting for crown sales before any purchases to offset the high costs .

negbert · September 2016

I enjoy playing this game. I will continue buying items I want and that I am happy to spend the money on.

Sorry

MarkusLiberty · September 2016

I cant make sense of how certain crown store prices can ruin the game for some people, cosmetics are just a small part of the game, and most of them aren't even that expensive.

In fact I think we should appreciate that some people are willing to spend large amounts of money on the crown store, it helps keep the game alive for all of us.

I'm not a heavy spender myself, but i did buy the race change/name change bundle a few days ago, it was fairly expensive as far as crown store prices but it's kind of alright as this is the type of thing you shouldn't and probably won't need to do very often.

Slurg · September 2016

I think the majority of people here generally only buy the items they want, at the price they feel the items are worth to them.

They aren't all running out throwing cash at the screen every time something comes out no matter whether or not they want it at that price. No one was forced to buy the Breton hero costume just because it was there. I didn't. Think name changes cost too much? Don't buy one! I didn't. Gamble boxes suck. I'm not buying those either. Lots of people aren't.

However, the evidence seems to suggest that a lot of people think the items they purchase are worth what they are paying.

I don't think it's taking any kind of high and mighty stand to simply decline to purchase things one thinks are not of value! But it's not going to make any difference to the company's bottom line as long as others think they are of value and continue to buy them.

TL/DR:
The vast majority of players already are voting with their wallet.

KingMagaw · September 2016

I believe Z0$ has went down a bad path with this mad overpricing of items.

Game costs $10
Cosmetic items cost $50.

Even banker cost $50 and is an addition to ESO+. Now they bring out a premium banker, which probably comes with ESO+ but then shafting everyone who bought it the first time. Then restricting crafting bags solely to ESO+ is another poor and greedy. We just moved from a sub based model but seems ZeniHAX clearly wants everyone to keep subbing.

5500 for IC collectors edition. Content has been out 1 year and priced more than new content=Brain dead. I bought IC already, yet i would have to pay another premium to get a horse i had no chance of getting as i never played when it was released?, greedy AF.

I stopped subbing, will never support this game with my money as doing so just pushes them to overprice more stuff. In addition to spamming the crown store with cosmetic items and blatantly ignoring the cheating, exploiting leader boards and rescinding perma-bans, they purposely remove digital items from the crown store in a poor attempt to bully people to buy them then and there, bet the people who bought the banker aren't happy.

MythicEmperor · September 2016

Woeler wrote: »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

Perhaps you are correct, but this seems to be the path all failed MMOs take. Rather have a slippery slope than http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hindsight is 20/20

yodased · September 2016

The market sets the price.

If people did not buy what they were selling in a satisfactory amount, the prices would drop.

Very low % of people even use these forums, the massive majority simply play the game.

Also, this game is more candy crush, less WoW, so tell the mobile guys that in game micro transactions don't work.

They utilize dark patterns to bring out the addiction in all the players and are literally introducing slot machines soon™ so, sure, get the majority to stop payment and it will stop, but you are not going to be able to do that on forums that they control.

Easily_Lost · September 2016

One way to cut the cost of items is to stock up on Crowns when they go on sale.

Avenias · September 2016

u guys are the minority. Most ppl will end up buying the crap ZOS throws out at them.

Thymos · September 2016

I just resubscribed... maybe that'll help offset those unsubscribing

Oh, I haven't been subscribed since the last loyalty reward was given.

Hanokihs · September 2016

As for #4 - Who buys something just because they think it won't come back? Why would anyone even want to do that in the first place? To brag about the fact that they logged in on X day and spent Y dollars for an item they wouldn't otherwise want or use? Sounds like the exact type of impulsive shopper that would buy the gambling crates you're complaining about, especially if they start putting crate-exclusive items in them.

Like others have said, people pay what they think items are worth, and not every person is a mindless drone buying into a corrupt system. The vast majority just get whatever handful of items they think are coolest or most useful that month/year; other people compulsively collect everything, and that's fine as well.

Wallet-ballots are already being cast, and threads like this one aren't gonna make millions of people suddenly see the light and refuse to buy things they want. Just saying.

Avenias · September 2016

Thymos wrote: »

I just resubscribed... maybe that'll help offset those unsubscribing

Oh, I haven't been subscribed since the last loyalty reward was given.

Funny thing is that there are more ppl like u then the ones unsubscribing. Its so funny to read an unsubscribe thread with the OP having an impression that he is actually making a difference.