VIP subscription option in addition to Crown Store?

ChaosWotan · September 2017

Crown store and crates have made ESO less addictive, imo, because it's less fun chasing rewards in the game when the coolest items can be bought in the crown store. The game now feels a bit like a boutique, an online store. ESO would be much more addictive if there was an alternative route which made it possible to get crown store items as rewards in the game.

So is it perhaps possible for ESO to offer customers a "VIP" subscription option, at the price of for example $50 a month, where items from crown store and crates become ingame rewards? "VIP" customers can then get these items at the end of quests instead of the regular rewards given to non-subscribers.

This high-value subscription should not replace the crown store, but can be an alternative to it. Is it possible and realistic to create such an algorithm for "VIP" customers? One of the advantages is that ESO will appear less like a casino creating gambling addiction.

theamazingx · September 2017

The sort of system you're suggesting isn't worth the dev effort for the return they'd get. Most people don't play for Elf Barbie Dressup, and most of those who do don't play in such a way that they'd be "earning" these cosmetics.

Turelus · September 2017

$600 a year just for the ability unlocked cosmetics within the game?

A better solution would just be to scrap crates and go back to direct sales of items. This would mean the player would spend less then $600 a year and get the exact things they wanted.

Also for what it's worth ZOS heard about our wants for more items to achieve in game and Morrowind and HotR reflect that.

rootimus · September 2017

ChaosWotan wrote: »

a "VIP" subscription option, at the price of for example $50 a month

I think £8.99 a month would be the ideal price.

ChaosWotan · September 2017

@theamazingx

I don't have statistics but assume most people play ESO for three reasons: 1) storylines and character development, 2) cool fights in pve and pvp, and 3) nice rewards. Giving people an option to get crown store items as rewards in the game will attract those who feel that costumes and a variety of mounts are one of the major reasons they play a RPG game.

@Turelus

Fifty bucks a month was only mentioned as an example. I will pay that, but most people will not, so $25-30 a month is more realistic.

Nice to hear that ESO has now already started to provide better rewards in the game. New and better rewards will motivate many people to create new toons and continue playing after their main characters have finished most of the game. For example, I will do all Cadwell quests again if they offered new rewards that are cool enough to justify the effort.

Apache_Kid · September 2017

Will this special subscription tier also prevent my game from crashing to the Xbox dashboard every 1-2 hours? If so I'd consider it...

ChaosWotan · September 2017

@Apache_Kid

The Ultra Superduper VIP subscription, at only $100,003 a day, will fix that problem.

Neirymn · September 2017

I'd pay more per months to bypass the gambling in the Crown Crates and get a toggle on/off for other players noisy, useless non-combat pets that make me feel like I am playing The Elder Zoo Online, it's not immersive to me to see almost every player running around with a pet, it's like I was going outside and everyone in the street was followed by a dog, a cat, a snake, a rat, etc.

I'd even pay a little more just to be able to return items I no longer want to get a small crown refund so that they don't pollute my collection tab anymore.

idk · September 2017

Considering that $420 more per year and if someone used that to buy crowns on sales at could buy anything they wanted and not be concerned with the higher sub rate.

It's just not needed. If someone wants something they can buy it. The game is not ok the crown store by any means.

Banana · September 2017

Do i get a better ping

ChaosWotan · September 2017

@idk

You are right about how $420 a year can be used to just buy things in the crown store, but this store makes the game boring, unless you are an online shopaholic. The advantage of a "VIP" subscription is that ingame crown rewards at the end of quests, trials and vet dungeons make it an accomplishment to get these items, though some of the fun in doing this is of course lost when you know that you could have just bought them in the store. (But we find a similar problem in many games, like Battlefield, where one also can buy all weapons at once instead of levelling to get them.)

Personally I think the game would have been more addictive with a "VIP" subscription and no crown store at all, but ESO will not shut down the store, so a compromise is to create an alternative and more exciting route to get crown items.

TaintedKurse · September 2017

We have a VIP subscription its called ESO plus. I would like to see less additional fees if possible.

I think ZOS should just add more unlock-able and purchasable mounts and pets into game. With no additional fees. Half of these "limited" mounts are things I would never pay for anyways.

idk · September 2017

ChaosWotan wrote: »

@idk

You are right about how $420 a year can be used to just buy things in the crown store, but this store makes the game boring, unless you are an online shopaholic. The advantage of a "VIP" subscription is that ingame crown rewards at the end of quests, trials and vet dungeons make it an accomplishment to get these items, though some of the fun in doing this is of course lost when you know that you could have just bought them in the store. (But we find a similar problem in many games, like Battlefield, where one also can buy all weapons at once instead of levelling to get them.)

Personally I think the game would have been more addictive with a "VIP" subscription and no crown store at all, but ESO will not shut down the store, so a compromise is to create an alternative and more exciting route to get crown items.

I completely misunderstood. I thought you essentially meant that the VIP sub automatically granted access to all crown store items without any additional costs.

However, it does make more sense to have players pay an additional 35 USD a month so they can get a new mount for clearing vMoL on HM the first time. /sarcasm

Paying more to have items unlocked for clearing an achievement would likely place the nicer items behind the more challenging content, vMA and especially a flawless run or vMoL HM/vHoF HM.

I do not think that would be appealing to a majority of players nor do I think it would be a good addition to the business model.

ChaosWotan · September 2017

@idk

I think it sounds great to ask average gamers to pay 25 bucks a month to get crown items as rewards after finishing vMoL and vMA. It will really motivate them to do their best or else they will feel like having lost $25 that month. It will make ESO more exciting. The higher the stakes, the more fun, right?

idk · September 2017

ChaosWotan wrote: »

@idk

I think it sounds great to ask average gamers to pay 25 bucks a month to get crown items as rewards after finishing vMoL and vMA. It will really motivate them to do their best or else they will feel like having lost $25 that month. It will make ESO more exciting. The higher the stakes, the more fun, right?

If they are not motivated to work on vMoL or vMA as it is why would they pay a premium to play it so they can get a reward. Especially since it could push them to pay for the clear if they are not already in a group that clears it.

I recall during the first year vMoL was out some groups I joined had issues with Lunar phase, in normal.

$25 or $50 does not matter. It does not sound like it would be very enticing to the masses.

ChaosWotan · September 2017

@idk

Since you mentioned sarcasm in your earlier post about vMoL and vMA I thought I reply in kind with a friendly meta-ironic comment in my last post above, assuming that you would notice it. Because it's obvious that almost no gamers will buy a "VIP" subscription if rewards are tied to finishing the most difficult content in ESO.

Sigtric · September 2017

This is the worst monetization idea I think I've ever seen.

ChaosWotan · September 2017

@Sigtric

Interesting, you seriously think that giving customers an option to buy different subscriptions is one of the worst ideas in the history of making money? Please explain, if you have time.

Jayne_Doe · September 2017

I understand the idea, and I think it could be rewarding for some to earn the Crown Store items in game, but I'm not sure how many people would actually do so - pay more money than they otherwise would have to just so they can earn it in game.

So, first, would it be worth it to the developers to implement this system? How many people would actually pay this VIP sub?

Second - which items would be rewards and for what content? Would people have to create new characters (potentially spending money for a new slot) if they already completed the content associated with a reward?

What happens when items are retired from the CS or new items are released? Do they remove them as in-game rewards or update them with new ones? What about the crates? Is the content in there part of the in-game reward system? What happens when a new crate season starts?

As you can see, there are lots of things that would have to be determined for this to even happen - the main one being how many people would actually pay extra just to earn a crown store mount in the game. People already complain about CS prices. Do you think there are enough people who would be willing to pay more just to get these "overpriced" items in game?

ChaosWotan · September 2017

@Jayne_Doe

Each time a new set of crown crates is released, it costs about $100 to secure that you get 400 crowns that can be used to buy an apex mount. So the yearly total is $400 if you want an apex mount each quarter. This is an insane price, but the CS is still alive and kicking, so one can assume that many people are willing to pay at least $45 each quarter to gamble on getting the best rewards or pay $100 to simply buy it.

$45 divided by three is $15 a month, and in many cases that's in addition to the basic subscription. I'm pretty certain that those who are willing to use $15 a month to gamble in the CS are willing to pay $10 extra each month to secure that all CS rewards become ingame achievements.

$25 a month on a "VIP" subscription is $300 a year, which is less than the yearly $400 dollars it costs to just buy an apex mount each quarter.

The question is how difficult and time-consuming it is to create an alghoritm that will replace ordinary ingame rewards with CS items if you got a VIP subscription. New DLCs are released each quarter, so new CS rewards can be tied to new DLCs. Another solution is to create an alghoritm which gives you a 5 % chance to get a CS item each time you finish a quest, trial or vet dungeon.

If a VIP subscription secures access to all CS items that have been released in the past, then I'm pretty sure that many people will spend $25 dollars a month on a VIP subscription.

But only ESO has statistics on how people use money in this game, and therefore it's difficult for others to really know whether a VIP subscription is a good business plan or not.

Axoinus · September 2017

I would go for a VIP sub for an extra $5 and on a monthly(Or quarterly) basis get a random item from the store.

City of heroes had a VIP reword system. If you subbed, you would get VIP rewards on a monthly basis. I know that it kept me motivated maintain my sub even after it went FTP

ChaosWotan · September 2017

@Axoinus

If a VIP sub only costs $5-10 a month, ESO will probably get so many subscribers that they will earn more money than if the sub costs $25 a month. But it's difficult to know what ESO thinks in this case, since the devs believe that the truly insane prices in the CS are normal, reasonable and economically justifiable from a business point of view.