Official Discussion Thread for "Meet Your New Assistants"

UrQuan · April 2016

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

@UrQuan :

Personal attacks and insults are the useless weapons used by those who have run out of arguments. I don't change my mind if I think I'm right - I do when I think I'm wrong, which is not the case here.

Your "logic" is polluted by your own personal assumptions. If you worked in market research you'd know better about statistical representativity of a population via a sample, and the art of asking unbiased questions.

Knowing your posting history is considered a personal attack?

I suppose in your mind it's a "personal assumption" of mine that there will always be a segment of people who won't buy a given product at any price? And it's a "personal assumption" of mine that there will always be a segment of people who would buy a given product if it was at a lower price?

I'm well aware of the limitations of non-probability sampling (which any forum poll would fall under) vs probability sampling, by the way, but there are very good reasons why non-probability sampling remains widely used. Feel free to enlighten me on how exactly "At 5000 Crowns each, will you buy the new assistants?" is a biased question. Where is the bias? Demonstrate it.

And are you trying to imply that you work in market research? Because I don't believe that for a second. You'd be singing a completely different tune if you did. Oh, and for the record my real life job is doing analytics on a $12 billion loan portfolio with a focus on predictive risk indicators and market trends. Literally everything that I do at work involves taking market research and translating it into something meaningful that the ELT and board can use to make informed strategic decisions. Well, except for the stuff that I do just to be sent to the regulators. That's just compiling numbers from what we've got on the books.

anitajoneb17_ESO · April 2016

UrQuan wrote: »

I suppose in your mind it's a "personal assumption" of mine that there will always be a segment of people who won't buy a given product at any price? And it's a "personal assumption" of mine that there will always be a segment of people who would buy a given product if it was at a lower price?

Each product on each market has a particular price/sales "elasticity" factor (not sure what the english word is for it). It means that cutting a price in half does not necessarily mean you'll sell double volumes. This factor is different for each product/market, and also most times is not linear. You have no clue what this factor is for the assistants, you're just ASSUMING they'd sell more if priced lower - which might be the case, but also might not. You don't know, I don't know.
Your assumptions are not facts.

UrQuan wrote: »

Feel free to enlighten me on how exactly "At 5000 Crowns each, will you buy the new assistants?" is a biased question. Where is the bias? Demonstrate it.

- It disregards the people who would not buy it even at a lower price
- It disregards the people who answered "no" in the hope to influence ZOS' pricing, but would and will buy it at 5K crowns.
It disregards many other things too but those two are enough to invalidate your "conclusions".

Again, you have NO CLUE about the price/potential sales/margin curves of that product, nor do you know what ZOS' intentions are with them, not do you know the playerbase.

TL/DR : you know nothing, Jon Snow.

Tyrion87 · April 2016

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

So you think that ZOS intended to price it at a point where only 10% of people are willing to buy it?

You don't actually know about that, it's your guess.

You should really know better than to think I just pulled that number out of nowhere.

Don't tell me this joke of a poll is your basis for believing to know ESO's playerbase ??? LOL !!!!!!

First thing, a forum poll is NOT representative of a group of which 95% do not even visit the forums.
Second thing, the 90% who voted "no" include a variety of reasons - no money, no interest, other priorities, whatever. Nowhere does it ask if people would buy it if it was cheaper. Those 90% even include MY vote : but I wouldn't buy them either if they were priced 100 crowns instead of 5000. And not because the product is bad, I think it's very good, but simply because I made the choice long ago to never buy anything from the crown store besides DLCs, and I stick to that decision. Simple as that.
Third thing, yes, maybe ZOS intended to price it at a point where only 10% of people would be willing to buy it, because they want to keep city hubs ingame busy and not clutter the whole world with everyone's personal banker/merchant.

So yes, I insist : you know nothing about the playerbase, nothing about people's wishes and intentions, and nothing either about ZOS' strategy and targets when it comes to pricing this kind of items.

Hahaha so in your opinion which poll could be representative? The forum poll is not different from any other poll/survey involving e.g. the support for political parties in the elections. Each of them refers to the small part of the community with different needs/interests/opinions/wealth and each reflects general feedback regarding the poll subject. So yeah, this forum poll is representative and if not shows us the accurate percentage of players who definitely won't buy the assistants, it shows the general opinion regarding this matter. And yes, every opinion matters.
Apparently you defend the unreal prices set by ZOS for the assistants and apparently you have lost your contact with the reality.

anitajoneb17_ESO · April 2016

Tyrion87 wrote: »

Hahaha so in your opinion which poll could be representative?

None. We have no way to know. That's all.

Tyrion87 wrote: »

Apparently you defend the unreal prices set by ZOS for the assistants and apparently you have lost your contact with the reality.

The reality is that we have a simple choice : buy them or not buy them. Each of us has this choice.
I don't defend anything or anyone, I make my own choice (not buy).
But I don't pretend to know better than ZOS what's good or bad for their business, what's good or bad for the game, or what the playerbase wants. All these are made out of thin air.

Rune_Relic · April 2016

I think the price is obscene but not surprised to be honest.
Do you sell low and under value your product or sell high first ?
This is no different to tech companies practice with 20 years worth of product hidden on the shelves.
They milk todays product for as much as they can get, before they release "upgrades" and the next "must have" thing.
Except apple.. they just charge obscene amounts constantly.

Misleading customers with dubious advertising practice is crossing the line though.

Anyway, I'd never consider that a fair price for the functionality offered.
I burst out laughing and thought.... what ? Seriously ?
Maybe if it included full functionality it would have been considered....and indeed "expected" for that price.

Max2497 · April 2016

My biggest problem with the assistants is not even the price. They are VERY expensive, but I am willing to pay for the convenience. My problem with the merchant is that it only allows sales, nothing can be bought and it does not repair gear. Repairing gear was the entire reason that I purchased the merchant and so I feel that I completely wasted my crowns.

All other merchants in Tarmiel repair gear, so believing that the merchant would repair gear was completely reasonable. It needs to be stated in the tooltip that it does not repair gear, otherwise, it amounts to fraud.

Enodoc · April 2016

Max2497 wrote: »

My biggest problem with the assistants is not even the price. They are VERY expensive, but I am willing to pay for the convenience. My problem with the merchant is that it only allows sales, nothing can be bought and it does not repair gear. Repairing gear was the entire reason that I purchased the merchant and so I feel that I completely wasted my crowns.

All other merchants in Tarmiel repair gear, so believing that the merchant would repair gear was completely reasonable. It needs to be stated in the tooltip that it does not repair gear, otherwise, it amounts to fraud.

@Max2497 Agree completely. Some other people who bought it from the same reason as you have managed to get a refund; contact ZOS if that is something you would like to do as well.

Velazanth · April 2016

Please, God/ZOS, let merchants give us the ability to repair. The group functionality is otherwise useless.

Vangy · April 2016

The tooltip on these merchants needs to be abundantly clear that they only offer certain functions that bankers/merchants in game have. IE: No access to guild traders/no repairs. I know some of my friends got it and were unpleasantly surprised. This is false advertising cos everything on the web page article seems to suggest that these assistants have the same functionality as the regular banker/merchant....

Also 5k?? I wouldnt get these assistants even if they were 1.5k.... The most important things, Ie: repairs and access to guild is not available on them... Wai?

TheSpin · April 2016

I just started playing (again, but this time on ps4)

I bought the banker, and I don't regret it tbh. I got the digital collectors edition or whatever edition comes with the 5500 crowns, and that covered the banker. I have also purchased 2 months of premium and used those crowns to buy a costume and race/alliance unlock. I figure as long as there's something in the store for me to buy, I'll keep subscribing until I eventually have everything I need (including all of the DLC) and then I'll justify dropping the sub.

Sure I wouldn't pay 50 bucks for it by itself, but some people might, so when something is priced high like this, I think it is a great opportunity for subscribers to buy something with the crowns they are saving by not having to purchase DLC or for more conservative players to buy when there's a sale. I don't think this should be included automatically for subscribers because subscribers already get crowns each month as part of their sub (I do think ps4 subs should have multi-month options).

I don't think the intention is to have every-other player walking around with an assistant. I also think that there is a fine line to be traveled as far as the level of convenience that should be offered by these assistants and that giving repairs and guild store/bank access would not be a smart move. I do think that the bank is good and the merchant is not nearly as useful. My only 'constructive' feed back is that I think both assistants should be consolidated into one because selling stuff just isn't all that useful imo. There's plenty of merchants all over the game, but banks take a special trip to a big city.

Generally speaking, mmos are a great investment for the time you get to spend enjoying them. a month of eso is cheaper than a single ticket to the movies with popcorn and a drink. If I stopped playing completely after the 60 days have expired that I've paid for so far, that's still 80 bucks for 60 days of entertainment...not a bad deal. I spent more than that taking my family to see star wars.

Als3rd · April 2016

Removed by player

UncannyLinderman · April 2016

RazielDERF wrote: »

Clearly this is an outrage to ESO players. I been a long time Elder Scrolls player along with ESO Beta. This is by far one of the worst slaps in the face to us. I pay for ESO+ and also own a total of 5 accounts (4 of them free to play) but 5k for each assistant is ridiculous. Maybe, just maybe would I accept the 5k for both combined but highly doubt it. Many will simply teleport back into town to do their business. If you think about it though, you don't benefit much from these assistance considering what is being charged for them. You are only getting the convenience of spawning them wherever you want. For those of the long term players like myself we have plenty of bag space that isn't required to go back into town to dump your load. We can also use addons like Wyykyds mailbox and RTS items to other players or accounts which is actually just 10 gold for each email with 6 items. Not a heavy price to pay at all. Also considering that Crafting Bags is coming to ESO it will save even more space. Let's not forget about the merchants who walk around throughout the lands to also offer their services to repair and use their stores. 5,000 Crowns is ridiculous to be asking for and I hope other ESO members feel the same way about this in order for Zenimax Online to hear us out and lower the cost or simply allow us to beat a quest line to attain them just like with thieves guild.

Shame on you Zenimax, I am so disappointed with your decision to charge this much.

I could not have said this better myself.
While some items in the crown store CAN be useful, and for the most part, they're not absurdly priced, these assistants are above and beyond absurd.
Why would anyone even NEED them let alone pay that much for them?! I mean, just like you say, wayshrine it to town or stop at the wandering merchant.
Even the thieves guild assistant is completely pointless. I never use her. Why would I sell stolen goods to her at 35% LESS price when I could just wayshrine my way to a city with an outlaw refuge and dump it there for my full price?
The banker and merchant are even more unnecessary considering the options that were already there.
If they were 1k a piece, maybe and even then it's just a maybe, it would be reasonable. And that's pushing it. Because they're practically pointless.

I feel bad for anyone who actually pays for these things. Everyone should avoid this, lest we have more absurdity in the future. If we all say no to this, they'll get the memo and not try to bamboozle us again.

There's reasonable, and there's convenient, and then there's this. And this is neither of those things.

UncannyLinderman · April 2016

Tyrion87 wrote: »

One more thing. I feel very sorry for people who will eventually buy these assistants in the belief that they provide the same services as any other banker/merchant. And then they will open their services' windows and see what they have bought for 5k crowns... So my advice to ZOS is, if you really wish to set your prices that high, in the pop-up window/crown store provide players with accurate and not misleading information regarding which services are NOT included and do NOT call these assistants as 'bankers' or 'merchants'. Otherwise players, who don't read the forum or blog articles, will feel like they were deceived and misled.

Great point. I've been playing on console since last July, and I only just got involved with the forums this last week. Anyone who isn't on the forums at least from time to time would have no way of knowing what they can or can't do. Even so, if they did have those other basic services that they lack, 5k each is still absurd in my opinion.

Elsonso · April 2016

Well, based upon the comments in here, I would suggest to ZOS that they have, indeed, priced the Merchant and Banker correctly.

Less outrage would have had me wondering if it was too expensive, or too cheap. After 6 pages, it is pretty clear that it is neither.

I have seen the Merchant in the game, oddly enough as I stood near a full service NPC merchant. This just tells me that they are too convenient. As a personal servant, they should come at a hefty price if they are too convenient.

The only suggestion I would make to ZOS would have been to make only one of them and make it a "Stibbins" that acted like the limited Merchant and the limited Banker combined. For that, charge 8000-10000 Crowns.

ObsidianKaesken · April 2016

After seeing the merchant in game, I'd have to agree that they priced it well. I'm still not sure about the banker, unfortunately. It just doesn't seem like it's worth getting but I had the pleasure of coming across the merchant from another player and they follow them around like a lost pup, it's so adorable. The merchant is definitely on my "Next to grab" list.

My birthday is in five days. Maybe I'll get lucky and get a good Happy Birthday cash card, lol.

Mojmir · April 2016

whats funny is zos still trying to get absurd crown prices for motifs that cost so little in game.

virus40oz · June 2016

Can this merchant repair? The price is messed up, but if she can repair I can kinda see getting it.

Sporvan · June 2016

I own both and yes I'm in the surprised camp that they didn't have full functionality, ie. repairs, buying and guild store.

However, I like it this way! I think it's great that it still gives you a reason to visit merchants and banks - I'd hate for these locations the become obsolete with my assistants. They're still extremely useful.

I suggest that ESO simply updates the tool tip in the shop to reflect that these assistants have more limited functionality than regular assistants.

WowtowIV · January 2017

ZOS if you lower the price by half you guys would earn so much more money.
Now nobody (perhaps a few) buys these assistens for 5000.

Victoria_Marquis · January 2017

We bought both Assistants, they are very helpful when on a long dungeon runs, and those long adventures where you may need to sell to clear out your inventory or found some gear you want to put in the bank to share with an alt.

Since this is a premium purchase there needs to be a few tweaks on them though.
For one you should be able to fix your broken gear, or at the least buy repair kits.
You should be able to call them out even in Cyrodiil as long as they are in a safe place and not in the middle of a fight.

The bank should give you access to every guild that you are in, and be able to put items up in those Guilds trade stores, and purchase from them... Just like any bank.

Again this is the elite top dollar, premium purchase, for real money, they should be able to give you everything a normal bank and store dose, plus more.

How about in the store she will sell every form of fishing bait?
Soul shards...
Every Potions...
All enchantments.....

If we are spending $$ then the developers can at least make the Assistants well worth the price.

Thank you for your time.