22,250 crowns for skyshard packs and 11,700 crowns for any race any faction? Is this a joke?

redlink1979 · May 2019

Wolfpaw wrote: »

redlink1979 wrote: »

The majority of shards are easily and quickly collectible, you buy them if you want to...
Gambling boxes with purely cosmetic things, you buy them if you want to...
Houses, you buy them if you want to...
Subscription you buy it if you want to...
Expansions, you buy them if you want to...

Everything IS optional...

So is playing the game, what's your point?

Sorry if you didn't get it. My point is you buy the stuff if you want to: you don't need to buy shards, crates/boxes, house or a sub to play this game. None of the purchases are required to play/advance in-game.

Michae · May 2019

Some_Guy wrote: »

Coerce - verb - persuade (an unwilling person) to do something by using force or threats.
The dictionary is your friend. I'm not shooting people down for voicing opinions, I'm pointing out when something is factually wrong. Again, they are not making anyone buy anything. I chose, willingly, to buy the Elsweyer DLC, and started to level my new necromancer when I got home from work yesterday. I did not, and will not, buy the skyshard packs. There are plenty of add-ons (for PC) and online maps (for console players who can't get add-ons) to help track skyshards which make it easy enough to find them so you don't have to pay for them.
I would like everyone who was forced to buy the skyshards to raise their hand. And I mean forced. Not convinced, not given a supply to a demand that was obviously there, but truly coerced into buying skyshards. How did they do it? Did they hack your bank account? Did a Zenimax employee come to your house and hold you down until you agreed to buy skyshards? If so, please contact your local authorities, as this is illegal.
It is a slippery slope to say that willingly participating in a transaction, no matter how compelling it may be, is coercion. Not attacking the person, but the logical fallacies in the argument itself. 🙂

You clearly didn't read what I said. I didn't even state that I think this is outright a coercion. The skyshards are fine, you can get them manually in one day if you're insane enough. They weren't designed to sell stuff, the selling now is just coincidental.

What I was talking about is game devs making playing the game a chore to incentivise paying for various boosters. ESO's not that bad although it still has for example horse training that requires you to wait for no real reason than te offer you up a solution, for a fee of course. And as commuting is a big part of this game one could argue that they are making your life harder on purpose, hm? Same with item traits, which take absurd amount of time to research. Nobody's forcing you to buy it but at the same time the bosters aren't completely irrelevant. Still, those are not core aspects of the game and with a little patience you can get them and still feel progression from the ather aspects of the game.

But that's where the slippery slope starts. I provided examples of games so entwined in selling boosters (Shadow of War) that were utterly a bore to get through without buying boosters, something thet even the devs admitted indirectly, as the game had to be rebalanced after the removal of the cash shop. Then I mentioned that devs don't even inform players about some of those problems that are invented to make the game slower and to incentivise players to buying boosters, like in for example Destiny 2 where you got less exp when you were gining it too fast and the game outright lied about how much exp you were getting.

And my conclusion was that I wouldn't like for ESO to become like that. I don't think the skyshards are particularly good example of coersion, but at the same time I do find making the game harder (just harder, not more challenging mind you) just to sell you some boosters a shady practice. So I speak out about it. I personally don't ever buy boosters but as my gaming time is limited due to job and various real life responsibilities I wouldn't want to spend my gaming time on grind for grind's sake. When gampley starts to suffer I speak out. And I speak out when I see red flags like that, before it's too late. Nobody here is against you, you can only benefit from ZOS practicing a healthier and less shady business practices.

SiAScORCH · May 2019

Either buy or don't, but no need to cry about the way they price stuff, especially when you can collect them for free. I think the price is absurd, I'm not going to cry about it, instead I'm just going to get them myself. Simple solution. Mounts are overpriced, you don't need 2342342304982340283402398 mounts, the horse you can buy with gold works perfectly fine.

Gravord · May 2019

22k for skyshards would be almost okay, if it was for whole account, not per ONEchar...

Some_Guy · May 2019

Michae wrote: »

Some_Guy wrote: »

albertberku wrote: »

I dont really care about the crown store or prices. I buy what i want, i would still buy if everything would be 10x more expensive than their current prices. But if you design something to be a grind, and then allow people to pay for it to avoid the grind, then it is not OPTIONAL. It is a grind by design and it is designed to make some people pay. If there would be no payment option the grind would be less. I am not judging if it is right or wrong, i dont care at all. But all these "Optional" comments are just so naive.

Optional- adjective- available to be chosen but not obligatory
I haven't bought any of these skyshard packs, and I play just fine. I think you misunderstand what the word optional means, hence why I posted what the dictionary says the meaning is.
Just because you feel that they're pushing you to pay for something, doesn't mean you're required to do so. You're not going to automatically lose by not paying. Your characters aren't going to be weaker because you didn't pay for more skyshards. All of your lock picks aren't going to automatically break because you didn't buy the skyshard packs.You aren't going to suddenly be unable to complete content due to a lack of paying for skyshards.
The only thing naive is your belief that the words optional and obligatory are synonymous.

Stil it's a fine line they're threading. Skyshards were introduced way back before you could buy them so they weren't designed to coerse players into buying them. They just noticed a demand for that and put them in CS in a way that we can see. They could've done it differently or they could've not do it at all.

Sorry, I went by the word you were using. They didn't just make the game a chore to play.... It didn't suddenly become more a chore to level/grind/obtain skyshards/lorebooks. If anything, they've alleviated the grind in previous patches and that's what this skyshard pack is aimed to further. The grind from new character to vet rank 14? That was a chore that took a dedicated day or more to get through. They've made the grind to top level something that can be done in 6 hours (granted, you'll be needing a few extra skill points to unlock abilities to use in endgame content). Mage guild lorebooks have increased in density to alleviate that grind as well. The new leveling system introduced in One Tamriel made it so you could teleport to any zone and choose where to start leveling. You couldn't start to level in a tier 5 zone four years ago and a tier 1 zone wouldn't give XP after a certain level. Now you can grind to max level in the same place if you wanted. All these things Zenimax implemented to make the game easier for people to play.
People aren't mad about skyshard packs. They're mad at the price they're given the option to pay for them.

shadyjane62 · May 2019

If they were going to lock faction they should have offered free faction changes. I now have two chars I can never play again. Two max level chars I spent time and money on.

Will never buy anything at ESO again, nor will I re up my sub.

Feel ripped off.

Some_Guy · May 2019

shadyjane62 wrote: »

If they were going to lock faction they should have offered free faction changes. I now have two chars I can never play again. Two max level chars I spent time and money on.

Will never buy anything at ESO again, nor will I re up my sub.

Feel ripped off.

I feel that parts of this may be a slight exaggeration... You can't use those characters again? Like, you physically cannot log into them? Or, you just can't use them to faction hop in the same campaign? (I don't agree with the faction lock either, but let's be real...)
They tried faction lock before, people didn't like it, so I'd wager they'll go back on it again. Just be patient 😉

CleymenZero · May 2019

Gravord wrote: »

22k for skyshards would be almost okay, if it was for whole account, not per ONEchar...

I think it would be perfect! At that price, take my money right away!

CleymenZero · May 2019

Some_Guy wrote: »

shadyjane62 wrote: »

If they were going to lock faction they should have offered free faction changes. I now have two chars I can never play again. Two max level chars I spent time and money on.

Will never buy anything at ESO again, nor will I re up my sub.

Feel ripped off.

I feel that parts of this may be a slight exaggeration... You can't use those characters again? Like, you physically cannot log into them? Or, you just can't use them to faction hop in the same campaign? (I don't agree with the faction lock either, but let's be real...)
They tried faction lock before, people didn't like it, so I'd wager they'll go back on it again. Just be patient 😉

I think what he probably means is that he can't run any 30 day campaigns on them. I like pvp'ing but did it mostly for the geodes. I also have 2 characters that won't be able to participate in any 30 campaing. Not saying his claim is right but that was a loss to me.

validifyedneb18_ESO · May 2019

redlink1979 wrote: »

The majority of shards are easily and quickly collectible, you buy them if you want to...
Gambling boxes with purely cosmetic things, you buy them if you want to...
Houses, you buy them if you want to...
Subscription you buy it if you want to...
Expansions, you buy them if you want to...

Everything IS optional...

Playing the game is optional too. And at some point people chose to simply not play. Which is a shame because this game does do some things well, for all the *** it has wrong with it.

Casterial · May 2019

We had to pre-order the game back in the day to get play any race, any alliance. Can we just remove it?:)

Some_Guy · May 2019

validifyedneb18_ESO wrote: »

redlink1979 wrote: »

The majority of shards are easily and quickly collectible, you buy them if you want to...
Gambling boxes with purely cosmetic things, you buy them if you want to...
Houses, you buy them if you want to...
Subscription you buy it if you want to...
Expansions, you buy them if you want to...

Everything IS optional...

Playing the game is optional too. And at some point people chose to simply not play. Which is a shame because this game does do some things well, for all the *** it has wrong with it.

Many hundreds/thousands of players have quit the game due to the changes made over the years. Part of the marketing and development department's job, is coming up with changes that will keep more players than they would lose due to stagnation of an unchanging game. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes, not so much. However, if they were losing players at a higher rate than their retention, they would surely change their marketing tactics. After all, game developer or not, Zenimax is a business and that's how they both function and thrive.

Grandma · May 2019

it's amusing watching people convince themselves that a company is holding a gun to their head and demanding their money because they have good, if not somewhat sleezy business ideas. They don't know your debit card number unless you tell them, you know.

idk · May 2019

Any race/Any alliance is on sale for 2k, as they note. If OP wants that then this is the time to buy, not the time to complain. Why they increased it, have no idea as the timing does not make sense.

As for the sky shards, that is totally a convenience. If it is beyond what you want to pay then skip it. No sweat.

Michae · May 2019

Some_Guy wrote: »

Michae wrote: »

Some_Guy wrote: »

albertberku wrote: »

I dont really care about the crown store or prices. I buy what i want, i would still buy if everything would be 10x more expensive than their current prices. But if you design something to be a grind, and then allow people to pay for it to avoid the grind, then it is not OPTIONAL. It is a grind by design and it is designed to make some people pay. If there would be no payment option the grind would be less. I am not judging if it is right or wrong, i dont care at all. But all these "Optional" comments are just so naive.

Optional- adjective- available to be chosen but not obligatory
I haven't bought any of these skyshard packs, and I play just fine. I think you misunderstand what the word optional means, hence why I posted what the dictionary says the meaning is.
Just because you feel that they're pushing you to pay for something, doesn't mean you're required to do so. You're not going to automatically lose by not paying. Your characters aren't going to be weaker because you didn't pay for more skyshards. All of your lock picks aren't going to automatically break because you didn't buy the skyshard packs.You aren't going to suddenly be unable to complete content due to a lack of paying for skyshards.
The only thing naive is your belief that the words optional and obligatory are synonymous.

Stil it's a fine line they're threading. Skyshards were introduced way back before you could buy them so they weren't designed to coerse players into buying them. They just noticed a demand for that and put them in CS in a way that we can see. They could've done it differently or they could've not do it at all.

Sorry, I went by the word you were using. They didn't just make the game a chore to play.... It didn't suddenly become more a chore to level/grind/obtain skyshards/lorebooks. If anything, they've alleviated the grind in previous patches and that's what this skyshard pack is aimed to further. The grind from new character to vet rank 14? That was a chore that took a dedicated day or more to get through. They've made the grind to top level something that can be done in 6 hours (granted, you'll be needing a few extra skill points to unlock abilities to use in endgame content). Mage guild lorebooks have increased in density to alleviate that grind as well. The new leveling system introduced in One Tamriel made it so you could teleport to any zone and choose where to start leveling. You couldn't start to level in a tier 5 zone four years ago and a tier 1 zone wouldn't give XP after a certain level. Now you can grind to max level in the same place if you wanted. All these things Zenimax implemented to make the game easier for people to play.
People aren't mad about skyshard packs. They're mad at the price they're given the option to pay for them.

Sure, it didn't become a chore, yet. I personaly don't really care about skyshard pack as I didn't even collect half of them even one character. And as I said, you can do it in a few hours if you have some dedication. The game is ok to play in most cases, you level up fast and I'm glad for it. The only elements I find designed to really try to make you buy things are horse upgrades and researching traits as you can't do them faster unless you pay up. And it's different to levelling as you can level up faster by playing more, with horse training or traits research you're looking at long days of waiting for the progress bar to finish or a 20h reset so you can click on the thing again. And as a rp player I don't really like scam crates but hey, what can you do?

You don't have to be black and white on those issues. I like this game just fine, it's a blast to play, but I can still criticize the things that I don't like or that worry my. I wouldn't like for ESO to change into something akin to Shadow of War or The Old Republic where the cash shop became the main feature in the game and you couldn't really do anything unless you paid up. And it doesn't matter if it was optional when the game is designed to be unplayable without using the cash shop.

And I agree that some of the outrage is about the pricing and still people disagreeing with the model chosen aren't wrong in voicing their opinions. I for one won't buy any skyshard pack, but I'd consider it if it was sold as an account-wide upgrade instead of zone-to-zone and character-to-character we got here. People've been asking for a way to link skyshards for years and they got the most costly option at the end.

So TL;DR The game is not the chore to play (yet) but monetizing everything, even when it's "optional" is a dangerous trend that can eventually ruin the game, so people get rightfully worried even if this particular change isn't that bad (but it's not really good either).

Casul · May 2019

Was hoping they would be affordable so that I might be encouraged to make an alt. Oh well I’ll just stick to playing one characters and spending my money elsewhere.

Some_Guy · May 2019

BuildMan wrote: »

Was hoping they would be affordable so that I might be encouraged to make an alt. Oh well I’ll just stick to playing one characters and spending my money elsewhere.

Don't you mean "spending my money Elsweyer"...? 😉
I'll see myself out.

Rawkan · May 2019

Grandma wrote: »

it's amusing watching people convince themselves that a company is holding a gun to their head and demanding their money because they have good, if not somewhat sleezy business ideas. They don't know your debit card number unless you tell them, you know.

The new trend is to pretend that the customer is forced to buy said product. I wonder how some of these people's personal economy looks.

Liww · May 2019

in regards to the skyshards, I think it's funny that you expected something that skips dozens of hours of gameplay to come cheap.

Dominator046 · May 2019

tHe dEFeNSe fOrCe fOr tHiS sAyInG "it's optional!" iS dIsGuStInG. iT's nOt eVeN aCcOuNt-WiDe fOr cHrIsT's SaKe.

The Skyshard Addon exists, and is probably nearly as efficient as using the crown store.
Content is more soloable than it's ever been.
A very small amount of Skyshards are necessary on individual toons to be successful.
This is far from the worst monetization practice present in the game. Honk honk.

BuddyAces · May 2019

Rawkan wrote: »

Grandma wrote: »

it's amusing watching people convince themselves that a company is holding a gun to their head and demanding their money because they have good, if not somewhat sleezy business ideas. They don't know your debit card number unless you tell them, you know.

The new trend is to pretend that the customer is forced to buy said product. I wonder how some of these people's personal economy looks.

Holy crap that's exactly what I was thinking while reading the last 2 pages. Y'all have problems. Running around on a new toon getting skyshards is no harder than it was a year ago. Of all the things to gripe about ffs.

Uryel · May 2019

AlexanderDeLarge wrote: »

Pay attention to the price before the discount. That's $80 in crowns. For reference this pack used to cost 2000 crowns which is roughly $20

I've just noticed that the old pack doesn't exist anymore...

To be accurate, it's not that it "used to cost 20 bucks", it's an entirely different package we're talking about here, which includes the old 2000 crowns one. That wouldn't be so bad if the old one still existed.

They removed the previous package, and cramed lots of things you will likely not care about with it, to ramp up the price. But, lo and behold, it's discounted. For now. That's one heck of a d*ck move.

!! EDIT !!

Hämähäkki wrote: »

Look here

ZOS_SarahHecker wrote: »

Hey all, just to clear up some confusion here. The price you see on the Any Race, Any Alliance bundle is its permanent price. It's meant to display the total value of the bundle, rather than a sale (which is why there's no timer.)

Allright, nevermind. It's not a d*ck move, it's actually pretty cool. But that should be so much clearer... Add the "permanent" into the description

JiKama · May 2019

I would like to state that I spoke out against this in the past and was labeled an elitist. Same with purchasing the edvent tockets with real moneys. Having these Skyshards available for purchase with real money opens the door for other things. What will be next? The psijic skill line, fighters guild, mages guild, or maybe any other basic skill line for the sake if making it *easier*? Are some things in the crown store terrible? Nope. This just opens the door for far worse things in the future. The real thing that frustrates me is the Cyrodiil Skyshards in the store. Back before I PvP'd I would go into Cyro simply to gather Skyshards. I would go in and fight to open a gate to get one Skyshard. Eventually I got that one skyshard in DC territory and it felt great breaking through the DC army to get that 1 shard.

Michae · May 2019

Uryel wrote: »

AlexanderDeLarge wrote: »

Pay attention to the price before the discount. That's $80 in crowns. For reference this pack used to cost 2000 crowns which is roughly $20

I've just noticed that the old pack doesn't exist anymore...

To be accurate, it's not that it "used to cost 20 bucks", it's an entirely different package we're talking about here, which includes the old 2000 crowns one. That wouldn't be so bad if the old one still existed.

They removed the previous package, and cramed lots of things you will likely not care about with it, to ramp up the price. But, lo and behold, it's discounted. For now. That's one heck of a d*ck move.

!! EDIT !!

Hämähäkki wrote: »

Look here

ZOS_SarahHecker wrote: »

Hey all, just to clear up some confusion here. The price you see on the Any Race, Any Alliance bundle is its permanent price. It's meant to display the total value of the bundle, rather than a sale (which is why there's no timer.)

Allright, nevermind. It's not a d*ck move, it's actually pretty cool. But that should be so much clearer... Add the "permanent" into the description

I'm glad I didn't buy the items on sale a month ago. I wanted the alliance costume, hood and horse but the price even after discount was not worth it for me. That could be considered a *** move as they didn't inform then about the items going to far a cheaper pack. Same with timer on the items going out of the store but at least then this pack was already announced, albeit without the price. I'm sure I'll get it someday, maybe when it's on a discount

.
I have ARAA fro mpreorder bonus, I'm only after the other stuff with this one btw.

BuddyAces · May 2019

JiKama wrote: »

I would like to state that I spoke out against this in the past and was labeled an elitist. Same with purchasing the edvent tockets with real moneys. Having these Skyshards available for purchase with real money opens the door for other things. What will be next? The psijic skill line, fighters guild, mages guild, or maybe any other basic skill line for the sake if making it *easier*? Are some things in the crown store terrible? Nope. This just opens the door for far worse things in the future. The real thing that frustrates me is the Cyrodiil Skyshards in the store. Back before I PvP'd I would go into Cyro simply to gather Skyshards. I would go in and fight to open a gate to get one Skyshard. Eventually I got that one skyshard in DC territory and it felt great breaking through the DC army to get that 1 shard.

No. Wrong. The scary thing was the announcement of crates back then. Me and a few others plastered these forums about what it was going to do to the game and we were RIGHT.

Btw, don't really care if they add all that stuff to the crown store. I'm perfectly fine grinding em out because in the grand scheme of things, the time invested in psijic/fighters guild/whatever is small in the over all picture. If someone wants to open their wallet and purchase those sort of things, fine by me. It's their game. As long as it can be earned in game then whatever.

Some_Guy · May 2019

BuddyAces wrote: »

JiKama wrote: »

I would like to state that I spoke out against this in the past and was labeled an elitist. Same with purchasing the edvent tockets with real moneys. Having these Skyshards available for purchase with real money opens the door for other things. What will be next? The psijic skill line, fighters guild, mages guild, or maybe any other basic skill line for the sake if making it *easier*? Are some things in the crown store terrible? Nope. This just opens the door for far worse things in the future. The real thing that frustrates me is the Cyrodiil Skyshards in the store. Back before I PvP'd I would go into Cyro simply to gather Skyshards. I would go in and fight to open a gate to get one Skyshard. Eventually I got that one skyshard in DC territory and it felt great breaking through the DC army to get that 1 shard.

No. Wrong. The scary thing was the announcement of crates back then. Me and a few others plastered these forums about what it was going to do to the game and we were RIGHT.

Btw, don't really care if they add all that stuff to the crown store. I'm perfectly fine grinding em out because in the grand scheme of things, the time invested in psijic/fighters guild/whatever is small in the over all picture. If someone wants to open their wallet and purchase those sort of things, fine by me. It's their game. As long as it can be earned in game then whatever.

Agreed. I don't like the crates and have never purchased them. But that's my personal choice. I've never seen anything that can be paid for in this game that gives a game breaking advantage, that is not available for free as well. Crown riding lesson, skyshards, new skins for mounts/costumes, etc; none of these allow other to pull higher dps, they don't make them take less damage, and they don't give them an auto-win in PvP. So, while I may not buy them for myself, I have no problem with the people who do.

ZOS_SarahHecker · May 2019

Hey all,

Quick update here: We've removed the 11700 slash through to clarify the price on the Any Race, Any Alliance bundle.

Bloodraven187 · May 2019

to be fair that original price on that bundle was for all the items individually combined. the 2000 bundle price if 500 crowns less than the original for just the horse

Wifeaggro13 · May 2019

Sanctuary_Reaper wrote: »

Remember there creating a new AAA game on a new engine, they need to prop that up with more money from ESO, because they certainly dont do anything worthwhile in this game with the money it generates, NEW SERVERS OR UPGRADES ANYONE?

hahaha you hit the nail on the head ESO has been on milk mode for abouot 2 and a half years. ZOS new MMO will be another casual half assed featured game .look athe the travesty FO76 was. would you buy another game from either Bethseda or ZOS? not me they have gone ful electronic Arts. i dont hink they even have the talet that created their IP's in their bull pen anymore all the talent and vision left the building. only one left is Matt and he sold the farm long ago.

dimensional · May 2019

Wifeaggro13 wrote: »

Sanctuary_Reaper wrote: »

Remember there creating a new AAA game on a new engine, they need to prop that up with more money from ESO, because they certainly dont do anything worthwhile in this game with the money it generates, NEW SERVERS OR UPGRADES ANYONE?

hahaha you hit the nail on the head ESO has been on milk mode for abouot 2 and a half years. ZOS new MMO will be another casual half assed featured game .look athe the travesty FO76 was. would you buy another game from either Bethseda or ZOS? not me they have gone ful electronic Arts. i dont hink they even have the talet that created their IP's in their bull pen anymore all the talent and vision left the building. only one left is Matt and he sold the farm long ago.

100% factually incorrect, all of it.