EQBallzz wrote: »

TheShadowScout wrote: »

weedgenius wrote: »

Obviously I'm talking about encouraging players not to buy in at ludicrous mark ups so eventually adjusting their pricing policies...

...which as I tried to point out (maybe a bit too snarkily) a company can react to in two ways - either adjust their prices, or decide that "this mine is played out" and drop the game.

Personally I would prefer them to have more reasonable prices myself, but I do look at other MMORPGs as well, and... well, at least ESO is not requiring you to buy the latest extra-special starship to stay competetive (cough, STO, cough). And the extra-special cosmetic stuff is just that... cosmetic.

Me, I would prefer to see less people go like "Don't buy from capitalists!" (and not only because I live in Austria and that sort of thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth thanks to the history my grandparents lived through) but instead see more people go like "I'd buy that too if it only was a -bit- cheaper..." to make the suits at ZOS put their greed to work for us in the hopes of gaining more profit...

Because as has been said:

danno8 wrote: »

...this is what determines their pricing policies.
If they can expect twice the buyers, they can lower the price...
But for such "epeen" stuff like super-special limited mounts, the -rarity- is part of the draw that gets people buying it, and thus the inflated price actually works in their favor... so don't expect it to change.

And this is why cash shops in games is such a bad idea for gamers. Game content is designed based on profit graphs like this instead of whether it's fun or good or innovative. Game content should be fun and interesting. Rare items should come from playing the game not getting out your wallet. If you don't have a stupid amount of money to waste that shouldn't prevent you from participating in the content (even cosmetics IMO).

It used to be that buying the game and paying a monthly sub was enough but now that isn't even enough to warrant full access to a game. Here is what I have spent on the game:

100 - collector's edition of the game
180 - sub cost from release to when it went B2P
200+ - ESO+
30 - Summerset

That's over 500 dollars I have spent on ESO and do I have full access to all the content? Nope. If you want access to all the cosmetics and other things you are expected to pay even more. These cash shops are nothing but greed.

Thankfully, I don't care about most of that crap in the cash shop. Most of the cosmetics just look embarrassing IMO.

I also don't care to buy convenience items even though some of the game is purposefully designed to be obnoxious unless you spend more money (primarily research, mount training and motifs). I used my ESO+ crown stipend to buy the new class and shorten some of that grind but not paying for more crowns..ever. With how much money I have given Zenimax since release I shouldn't *need* to give them any more but this is the new normal for MMOs, sadly.

How can non account bound horse speed etc be explained in any other way than greed? Very good argument there.

It is indeed greed, but what's good is that players have at least some power to change this, just refuse to buy cosmetics, mounts, or anything that comes out of the cash shop, the only thing i buy is content, that's it, doesn't matter how many crowns i have , that's the only thing i will buy, i refuse to enable developers into making money from things that should already be in the game, at the expense of actual good content.

Because as iv'e said before, why should the devs and higher ups make better content and most of all better balancing (new pve modes, separation of pvp and pve, nerfs, as a result of this very problem etc...), if they can just push some items in the cash shop and make just as much if not even more money?

So really stop, this is also not sustainable in the long run, i think it's pretty safe to assume that people aren't exactly happy with the current state of eso, and one day or the other that patience will run out, and they will either stop playing, or switch to another game, as i am currently planning to do, although you are in luck zos since mmorps are not all that good currently, so there isn't a lot of competition, although it is possible i will return to wow, if it gets better, just like during legion, were i didn't even touch eso, although there are some promising upcoming mmos, which i hope they won;t disappoint, and if they don't and eso is still like this, you can forget seeing me ever again, and sure i am only 1 person, but what about 100? what about 1000? numbers quickly racks up.

I say this because i really would like to see this game doing better, but no amount of love for the elder scrolls will keep me playing this game for a long time, iv'e never had as much fun in this game as i had in one tamriel/homestead, and i also think that was when the game was at it's peak in terms of players, i don;t really see as many players these days, but i could be wrong on this, afterall this is just gut feeling, i have no real data on this.