The Ridiculousness Of The Elk Mount

Panda_iMunch · December 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpvajsiG6JQ
This is the video version of the post for those who want the full argument or just a visual aid!

The whole deal with the Elk mount is pretty sad when you think about what it means.

To get an idea of what the pricing is when dealing with exotic mounts, this is beyond overpriced. The mount has a few flaws that hold it back.

One, the lack of upgrading armor. This is a standard of pretty much any mount in the game and has been for a long time. Apparently this is due to the geometry of the face. While it may have been challenging to make the whole face and lower jaw covered in metal, there is still other parts, like the neck, they are typically covered by armor. On top of that, to prevent the upgrading of bags and leather straps seems odd to do when there is already bags on the mount and leather straps could've just countered to the body or ankles like every other mount.

Secondly, the lack of animations. When it comes to exotic mount, many of them are magical or mystical in some fashion, which is why many of them have their own animations or special effects. The atro mount summon a lightning bold when space is pressed or the dro'mathra mount comes from a black hole. This elk mount? Nope. Just a safe domestic elk, which is fine, but not for $32.

Last, the precedent this sets. When it comes to setting up for the future, a good step in the right direction is really needed. I found the crown crates inevitable and I thought they were fine, at best. They were fairly cheap and had a decent amount of item variety. This mount, oh boy. Underwhelming (or lazy for the terse) wouldn't even begin to describe it. That is why this 4,500 crown price perplexes me so much. Why charge 250% more for a basic mount? Any answer that isn't "We thought it was of higher quality (that's a god damn lie)." would be heinous.

Also, keep in mind any of the missing basic features were not initially disclosed.

(Cross post from Reddit)

CeaseSphire · December 2016

Great video and many great points. Due to the missing mount upgrades it should be priced no greater than 1,500 or even less or heck it could have been a freebie in thanks to being a loyal premium member but noooo. I'm sickened and I am very reluctant to purchase anything from the crown store anymore due to this blatant cash grab around the holidays.

Zenimax you should be ashamed.

JimT722 · December 2016

Not every mount needs magical or mystical animations. Were people really expecting that with an elk? The description in the showcase said they were trained so wouldn't make sense to have them.

Ourorboros · December 2016

Did we really need another Elk mount thread? I get it's a disappointment, but there are already umpteen threads crying about it. Just post in one of them.

Panda_iMunch · December 2016

JimT722 wrote: »

Not every mount needs magical or mystical animations. Were people really expecting that with an elk? The description in the showcase said they were trained so wouldn't make sense to have them.

Sure, not every mount needs special effects or animations. The issue is that when you charge a hellish amount for a mount, there should be a reason. If the mount has the same work and effort put into it as the bear or wolf (which it seems it doesn't, it appears to be even less) then it should be priced similarly, not 250% higher.

Ourorboros wrote: »

Did we really need another Elk mount thread? I get it's a disappointment, but there are already umpteen threads crying about it. Just post in one of them.

I could've posted in another thread, but it seems people don't appreciate it and see it as advertising when mixed in their pages. It can also be said the more pages, the more exposure to this issue and maybe a higher chance for it to be addressed.

Abeille · December 2016

JimT722 wrote: »

Not every mount needs magical or mystical animations. Were people really expecting that with an elk? The description in the showcase said they were trained so wouldn't make sense to have them.

I think they were expecting visual upgrades, since all mounts before it had them (except for the alliance mounts, but they had armor of their own), and a price that matched the simplicity of the mount.

nordsavage · December 2016

They can charge what they want for mounts as long as DLC start to come out of the crapper. The amount of content per DLC is going down while the price stays high in comparison. That is the real problem.

Abeille · December 2016

nordsavage wrote: »

They can charge what they want for mounts as long as DLC start to come out of the crapper. The amount of content per DLC is going down while the price stays high in comparison. That is the real problem.

That's a major problem, yeah.

We really could use a huge DLC announcement ASAP to renew some faith on the game and the company.

Panda_iMunch · December 2016

Abeille wrote: »

nordsavage wrote: »

They can charge what they want for mounts as long as DLC start to come out of the crapper. The amount of content per DLC is going down while the price stays high in comparison. That is the real problem.

That's a major problem, yeah.

We really could use a huge DLC announcement ASAP to renew some faith on the game and the company.

They say they have something in the works in Q1 for next year. There is quite a bit of floating info around saying it might be Mephala themed, Clockwork City, or Black Marsh

Rosveen · December 2016

JimT722 wrote: »

Not every mount needs magical or mystical animations. Were people really expecting that with an elk? The description in the showcase said they were trained so wouldn't make sense to have them.

We weren't, actually. We expected an ordinary-looking, but unique mount for ~2500 crowns (in line with the kagouti). But ZOS priced it unusually high - it's the most expensive mount to date, in fact - so we wonder what's so special about it? The answer is nothing. The previous most expensive mount, the Dro-m'Athra senche, is the obvious point of comparison and the elk falls woefully short. The senche had a fancy glow, new unique animations and visual upgrades. The elk reuses horse animations and is technically inferior to all other mounts due to forced saddle bags and lack of other visual upgrades. For a higher price, we expected higher quality, but received the exact opposite.

Sigtric · December 2016

Abeille wrote: »

nordsavage wrote: »

They can charge what they want for mounts as long as DLC start to come out of the crapper. The amount of content per DLC is going down while the price stays high in comparison. That is the real problem.

That's a major problem, yeah.

We really could use a huge DLC announcement ASAP to renew some faith on the game and the company.

I remember when we had some sort of an idea what to expect, 2, 3 updates down the road. Now we're lucky if we've got any information on the immediately pending update.

As for the mount, it is so lackluster it is not even funny.
During my preview of it, my characters knees and part of its legs clipped inside the body of the elk every time it turned its head slightly.

But, I've figured out why it's so expensive. Judging from the "fur", this is not an elk, it is a melted wax atronach.

Slurg · December 2016

That cloud farting glow senche and the atronach atrocities look horrific to me and I wouldn't want any of them, but the elk looks like a fine enough steed. I think they really messed up by not communicating the visual upgrade differences in advance though.

The only conclusion I can draw from the price is that the days of 2,500 crown limited time mounts are over. I don't think the pricing is a one-off. They want to make those gambling crates more attractive in the future, they're going to raise prices on the other stuff.

nordsavage wrote: »

They can charge what they want for mounts as long as DLC start to come out of the crapper. The amount of content per DLC is going down while the price stays high in comparison. That is the real problem.

Yes, let's not lose sight of that in all of this. One Tamriel and housing are great, but when/how often is the DLC coming?

Panda_iMunch · December 2016

Slurg wrote: »

The only conclusion I can draw from the price is that the days of 2,500 crown limited time mounts are over. I don't think the pricing is a one-off. They want to make those gambling crates more attractive in the future, they're going to raise prices on the other stuff.

They could be doing that, but the launch of the crates has been pretty bad so far. Hardly anyone was happy when they bought them and they would have to be changed a whole lot to be even considerable in the future.

Although, I wouldn't put it past this community. People on Reddit seem content to say "Hur, it's my money and I can do whatever I want with it!" Why yes you can, that doesn't make the pricing any better.

dodgehopper_ESO · December 2016

I don't know that I agree with the notion that Elk mounts should have magical or mystical animations. I picture the Elk mount as something comparable to what the Saami do in the real world. I like the Elk mount, I'm just debating whether the price is worth it.

Panda_iMunch · December 2016

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

I don't know that I agree with the notion that Elk mounts should have magical or mystical animations. I picture the Elk mount as something comparable to what the Saami do in the real world. I like the Elk mount, I'm just debating whether the price is worth it.

The reason I mentioned the special effects, new animations, new skin, was in relation to the mount's price. The Dro'mathra mount was priced at 4k crowns for that reason, but the elk is just a normal, fairly bland elk. So why is it 500 crowns more than the Dro mount? It makes no sense to have a mount with less work and effort put into it to cost more. Well, unless you want to price gouge your fan base for whatever reason.

dodgehopper_ESO · December 2016

Panda_iMunch wrote: »

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

I don't know that I agree with the notion that Elk mounts should have magical or mystical animations. I picture the Elk mount as something comparable to what the Saami do in the real world. I like the Elk mount, I'm just debating whether the price is worth it.

The reason I mentioned the special effects, new animations, new skin, was in relation to the mount's price. The Dro'mathra mount was priced at 4k crowns for that reason, but the elk is just a normal, fairly bland elk. So why is it 500 crowns more than the Dro mount? It makes no sense to have a mount with less work and effort put into it to cost more. Well, unless you want to price gouge your fan base for whatever reason.

I agree the price is a bit much.

Asteroth · December 2016

not a new mount, just a $32 skin for your horse

MythicEmperor · December 2016

The elk is clearly the Breton Hero Costume of mounts.

Drazhar14 · December 2016

Very disappointed with how greedy ZOS is getting. First crown crates now this? Ripping players off at Christmas time for crying out loud, this elk mount should have been half the price they are selling it at... I love ESO but I don't know if I can continue supporting ZOS when they do things like this...

Curragraigue · December 2016

I think it shows don't ask for new animals that require new animations and shapes unless you want another expensive animal.

Panda_iMunch · December 2016

Curragraigue wrote: »

I think it shows don't ask for new animals that require new animations and shapes unless you want another expensive animal.

The same could've been said for the bear, camel, world, or guar. All of them need new animations and their own armor pieces. Those are on sale for 1,800-2,000 crowns. This thing uses similar animations to that of the horse and has no evolving armor, but this is costs 250% more than those mounts?

I would agree that the community shouldn't ask for more expensive mounts if they don't want to pay for them. However, this mount isn't of high quality and therefor shouldn't have the highest price tag in the store. If they want money, they actually have to put the time into it.

Nerouyn · December 2016

Drazhar14 wrote: »

Very disappointed with how greedy ZOS is getting. First crown crates now this? Ripping players off at Christmas time for crying out loud, this elk mount should have been half the price they are selling it at... I love ESO but I don't know if I can continue supporting ZOS when they do things like this...

Absolutely. Regular animal mounts are 1800 crowns and the special versions 2500.

This would seem to be a regular elk. The only reason it's so pricey is because they know lots of players want it. We can only imagine and tremble at the thought of how much a special elk would cost.

Slurg · December 2016

Panda_iMunch wrote: »

Slurg wrote: »

The only conclusion I can draw from the price is that the days of 2,500 crown limited time mounts are over. I don't think the pricing is a one-off. They want to make those gambling crates more attractive in the future, they're going to raise prices on the other stuff.

They could be doing that, but the launch of the crates has been pretty bad so far. Hardly anyone was happy when they bought them and they would have to be changed a whole lot to be even considerable in the future.

Although, I wouldn't put it past this community. People on Reddit seem content to say "Hur, it's my money and I can do whatever I want with it!" Why yes you can, that doesn't make the pricing any better.

The crown crates will never be attractive to a lot of people. But if they skyrocket the crown store pricing to oblivion they might manage to convince a few people that the crates are not a bad way to get new shinies in comparison to the cost for buying directly. If people complain about having to drop $100 on crates for a new mount when they could just buy one for $20 before, and they have no intention of improving the drop rate, double the cost for exclusive mounts the store. If we want new mounts we're going to have to pay up one way or the other.

Nerouyn · December 2016

Slurg wrote: »

The crown crates will never be attractive to a lot of people. But if they skyrocket the crown store pricing to oblivion they might manage to convince a few people that the crates are not a bad way to get new shinies in comparison to the cost for buying directly. If people complain about having to drop $100 on crates for a new mount when they could just buy one for $20 before, and they have no intention of improving the drop rate, double the cost for exclusive mounts the store. If we want new mounts we're going to have to pay up one way or the other.

That would be completely insane but exactly the sort of insanity we're accustomed to from ZO.

If they start getting even crazier with with pricing the most likely outcome is that most will simply stop spending at all. Buy the DLC and ignore everything else.

The game already has a decent selection of mounts. There isn't a 'need' for any more and getting even more stupid with the prices would only highlight that.

Panda_iMunch · December 2016

Nerouyn wrote: »

That would be completely insane but exactly the sort of insanity we're accustomed to from ZO.

If they start getting even crazier with with pricing the most likely outcome is that most will simply stop spending at all. Buy the DLC and ignore everything else.

The game already has a decent selection of mounts. There isn't a 'need' for any more and getting even more stupid with the prices would only highlight that.

From what I can tell, ZoS is going the way of every other F2P or B2P game out there. Cosmetics will only increase in price, for whatever reason, and less and less will buy them. This type of pricing is not only seen as heinous in the eyes of the consumer, but also as quite a bad economic decision as demand will drop extremely low if cosmetics cost more than the game.

Nerouyn · December 2016

Panda_iMunch wrote: »

From what I can tell, ZoS is going the way of every other F2P or B2P game out there. Cosmetics will only increase in price, for whatever reason, and less and less will buy them. This type of pricing is not only seen as heinous in the eyes of the consumer, but also as quite a bad economic decision as demand will drop extremely low if cosmetics cost more than the game.

I think you should say most, but not all. Douchebaggery is very common in the monetization of free to play games but not universal. And sometimes games come good.

For example, look at the zombie horse mount. That was 2500 crowns at Halloween in 2015. In 2016 it was 1200 crowns.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Palomino_Horse#Zombie_Horse

It's possible we might see the elk again at Christmas next year for a much more reasonable price. I bought crowns when they were on sale so the current price is acceptable for me personally. And I wouldn't have any problem with them offering it more cheaply next year. I don't want anyone not to enjoy the game because of something like this.

Panda_iMunch · December 2016

Nerouyn wrote: »

It's possible we might see the elk again at Christmas next year for a much more reasonable price. I bought crowns when they were on sale so the current price is acceptable for me personally. And I wouldn't have any problem with them offering it more cheaply next year. I don't want anyone not to enjoy the game because of something like this.

I think we will see the model come up in a Microsoft Pain version where they turn it into a arctic elk or some nonsense lol