[Request] Please rotate costumes, mounts, etc. available for Crowns

Araneae6537 · September 2019

Most of the costumes, mounts, furnishing packs, etc. available in the Crown store are the same ones that were available when I started playing about two months ago. This would be fine if, like housing, most were always available and it was just certain notable and holiday themed homes that had limited releases. But there are a LOT more of these other items then are ever available at any given time. Limited availability encouraging impulse buys, I understand, but then why not rotate more of the costumes, mounts, pets, furnishing packs, etc.?

If you do not want to make the items available for Gems also available for Crowns, then could we buy a limited allotment of Gems each month? Then people who want several items would still be incentivized to buy crates. Or what if current items were only available for Gems and then the old items rotated to be available for Crowns for a time? I’m sure not losing crate sales is a priority, but surely there is a way to meet that objective and sell more items to those who do not wish to buy crates? I know there are many people who won’t buy crates for one reason or another — for me it’s simply not fun to pay money for something that will most likely disappoint or frustrate me. I would rather pay for what I want.

TelvanniWizard · September 2019

Totally agree.

Reistr_the_Unbroken · September 2019

This. Also wish we could finally buy the radiant apex rewards without having to take chance.

bluebird · September 2019

Yep, totally agree.

Having to wait a year or even longer for items to return (some of them haven't even returned at all) is really silly. There's a lot of people who would be willing and able to buy several Crown Store items if you would let them

ErinM31 wrote: »

Limited availability encouraging impulse buys, I understand, but then why not rotate more of the costumes, mounts, pets, furnishing packs, etc.?

See, ZOS and I clearly completely disagree about this. Limited availability hurts impulse purchases.

If I'm in the mood for Imperial costumes because I've just made a new Imperial character, I can't buy them.
If I saw a really inspiring build video of a house, and would love to get it for myself because I'm excited, I can't buy it.
If I'm questing through the Bosmer zones and would like to look appropriate with a Wild Hunt mount, I can't buy it.

Does ZOS really think that our purchase willingness will still be relevant by the time they re-release those items a year later? Will I still want them or will I have settled for something more common like an ingame armor outfit? Will my interest in that house still exist or did I spend time to redesign some of my older homes so that the new house is no longer necessary? Will I even still be playing the game by then, or will I have moved on to other games?

And conversely, will I suddenly find a desire to buy a random pet I'm not interested in just because it's 'limited time'? No. Limited time sales don't generate demand where there is none; but they do limit the demand when it would be there. In my opinion of course, but I speak from my own experience. Not a single time did the 'limited time' nature of the item convince me to buy it. But there were several houses I would have impulse-bought if they were available when I wanted them (e.g. the Erstwhile Sanctary when I was playing my vampire assassin, but when the house came back months later I was no longer interested).

They should offer most of their items for longer periods throughout the year, like rotate the whole Crown Store every two weeks or so - instead of leaving some costumes up there for an entire year and offering other costumes only for 4 days. They can still do their 'Limited Time' shtick, but those should be discounts. So full price item should be available through the Crown Store regularly, and they could do a limited time flash sale to perhaps sway people who were on the fence about it.

Anyway, this turned into a rant, sorry.

It just baffles me that ZOS make it frustrating for us players as well as harmful for their sales. Unless they actually think that the number of people who buy a 4-day LTO because it was limited time outweigh all the people on the other 361 days of the year who would purchase the item given the chance.

ghastley · September 2019

If only things came back annually, it wouldn't be so bad. Some items have been three years between sightings.

Araneae6537 · September 2019

bluebird wrote: »

Yep, totally agree.

Having to wait a year or even longer for items to return (some of them haven't even returned at all) is really silly. There's a lot of people who would be willing and able to buy several Crown Store items if you would let them

ErinM31 wrote: »

Limited availability encouraging impulse buys, I understand, but then why not rotate more of the costumes, mounts, pets, furnishing packs, etc.?

See, ZOS and I clearly completely disagree about this. Limited availability hurts impulse purchases.

If I'm in the mood for Imperial costumes because I've just made a new Imperial character, I can't buy them.
If I saw a really inspiring build video of a house, and would love to get it for myself because I'm excited, I can't buy it.
If I'm questing through the Bosmer zones and would like to look appropriate with a Wild Hunt mount, I can't buy it.

Does ZOS really think that our purchase willingness will still be relevant by the time they re-release those items a year later? Will I still want them or will I have settled for something more common like an ingame armor outfit? Will my interest in that house still exist or did I spend time to redesign some of my older homes so that the new house is no longer necessary? Will I even still be playing the game by then, or will I have moved on to other games?

And conversely, will I suddenly find a desire to buy a random pet I'm not interested in just because it's 'limited time'? No. Limited time sales don't generate demand where there is none; but they do limit the demand when it would be there. In my opinion of course, but I speak from my own experience. Not a single time did the 'limited time' nature of the item convince me to buy it. But there were several houses I would have impulse-bought if they were available when I wanted them (e.g. the Erstwhile Sanctary when I was playing my vampire assassin, but when the house came back months later I was no longer interested).

They should offer most of their items for longer periods throughout the year, like rotate the whole Crown Store every two weeks or so - instead of leaving some costumes up there for an entire year and offering other costumes only for 4 days. They can still do their 'Limited Time' shtick, but those should be discounts. So full price item should be available through the Crown Store regularly, and they could do a limited time flash sale to perhaps sway people who were on the fence about it.

Anyway, this turned into a rant, sorry. It just baffles me that ZOS make it frustrating for us players as well as harmful for their sales. Unless they actually think that the number of people who buy a 4-day LTO because it was limited time outweigh all the people on the other 361 days of the year who would purchase the item given the chance.

I totally agree with you and if what I want is available, may well go with something else (that costs fewer or no Crowns as relates to ESO) but I’m assuming the model generally works because it is commonly used. GW2 has nearly all such items on limited availability (with some more limited than others) but they usually change out what is available regularly. I was hoping that ESO would similarly change out what costumes were available each month.

On the other hand, I will confess that if I like something that is available for a limited time, I am more apt to buy it then, even if I don’t have an immediate use for it, whereas if I expected it to be available indefinitely I might wait. So there is that, but in my case, I think more is lost on items I would buy but which aren’t available, and by the time they are, I have found something else and it is no longer worth it to me. I just have to assume that a lot of people buy items they wouldn’t otherwise because they are limited time offers — or why else would so many companies follow this model? Still, how things are now, purchasable only with Gems, I can’t buy them at all whether they sit in the Crown store for a day or a century (well, maybe I might get enough Gems from the occasional free Crown Crate over the course of a century, lol) so I’m going to look into motifs I can get from quests or traders (I don’t know that I would consider buying motifs from the Crown store — certainly not at the price they’re listed — since seeing them selling the basic ones available dirt cheap from most guild traders, but I digress...)

Back on topic, please rotate more costumes, hairstyles, emotes, furnishing packs, etc. through the Crown store for CROWNS!

bluebird · September 2019

ErinM31 wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

Yep, totally agree.

Having to wait a year or even longer for items to return (some of them haven't even returned at all) is really silly. There's a lot of people who would be willing and able to buy several Crown Store items if you would let them

ErinM31 wrote: »

Limited availability encouraging impulse buys, I understand, but then why not rotate more of the costumes, mounts, pets, furnishing packs, etc.?

See, ZOS and I clearly completely disagree about this. Limited availability hurts impulse purchases.

If I'm in the mood for Imperial costumes because I've just made a new Imperial character, I can't buy them.
If I saw a really inspiring build video of a house, and would love to get it for myself because I'm excited, I can't buy it.
If I'm questing through the Bosmer zones and would like to look appropriate with a Wild Hunt mount, I can't buy it.

Does ZOS really think that our purchase willingness will still be relevant by the time they re-release those items a year later? Will I still want them or will I have settled for something more common like an ingame armor outfit? Will my interest in that house still exist or did I spend time to redesign some of my older homes so that the new house is no longer necessary? Will I even still be playing the game by then, or will I have moved on to other games?

And conversely, will I suddenly find a desire to buy a random pet I'm not interested in just because it's 'limited time'? No. Limited time sales don't generate demand where there is none; but they do limit the demand when it would be there. In my opinion of course, but I speak from my own experience. Not a single time did the 'limited time' nature of the item convince me to buy it. But there were several houses I would have impulse-bought if they were available when I wanted them (e.g. the Erstwhile Sanctary when I was playing my vampire assassin, but when the house came back months later I was no longer interested).

They should offer most of their items for longer periods throughout the year, like rotate the whole Crown Store every two weeks or so - instead of leaving some costumes up there for an entire year and offering other costumes only for 4 days. They can still do their 'Limited Time' shtick, but those should be discounts. So full price item should be available through the Crown Store regularly, and they could do a limited time flash sale to perhaps sway people who were on the fence about it.

Anyway, this turned into a rant, sorry. It just baffles me that ZOS make it frustrating for us players as well as harmful for their sales. Unless they actually think that the number of people who buy a 4-day LTO because it was limited time outweigh all the people on the other 361 days of the year who would purchase the item given the chance.

I totally agree with you and if what I want is available, may well go with something else (that costs fewer or no Crowns as relates to ESO) but I’m assuming the model generally works because it is commonly used. GW2 has nearly all such items on limited availability (with some more limited than others) but they usually change out what is available regularly. I was hoping that ESO would similarly change out what costumes were available each month.

Yeah I agree that other games also have this sales model, but where are their statistics from? That's why I'm really not convined that this strategy works. They never tried to sell the items any other way.

How on Earth would they know if that mount would generate more money over 4 days as a limited time offer, than what it would generate over 365 days if they left it on the Store, when they never tried to sell it that way?

The same goes for Crown Crates. SWTOR also used to have randomized cosmetic crates that you could buy for a limited time (it still does) but it later also released crates that contained many of these older limited time items so you could still get them, and they also started to sell the crate contents as limited time offers directly through the Cartel Market (their Crown Store). So how the hell do ZOS know that keeping their 10 Crown Crate seasons permanently unavailable apart from a week per year is better than making them available for longer regularly, or better than selling the crate contents direcly even? They never tried, so I find it hard to believe that they know that it's better for them this way.

Because the way I see it, Crown Store items' desirability doesn't come from their scarcity, but from their uniqueness and coolness. For example, do people want the 'Brassy Assassin' personality because it's a limited time scarce sale? No, it's just one of the coolest personalites that a lot of people would buy even if it was up on the store permanently. It's not rare or hard to get either, because almost every dunmer nightblade I see is running around with it, but people still liked it so much that they made countless threads about wanting it back. And is 'boring Nord male costume with boring pants version 3' going to be popular if it's a limited time sale? No because it's not unique and not cool.

TelvanniWizard · September 2019

bluebird wrote: »

ErinM31 wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

Yep, totally agree.

Having to wait a year or even longer for items to return (some of them haven't even returned at all) is really silly. There's a lot of people who would be willing and able to buy several Crown Store items if you would let them

ErinM31 wrote: »

Limited availability encouraging impulse buys, I understand, but then why not rotate more of the costumes, mounts, pets, furnishing packs, etc.?

See, ZOS and I clearly completely disagree about this. Limited availability hurts impulse purchases.

If I'm in the mood for Imperial costumes because I've just made a new Imperial character, I can't buy them.
If I saw a really inspiring build video of a house, and would love to get it for myself because I'm excited, I can't buy it.
If I'm questing through the Bosmer zones and would like to look appropriate with a Wild Hunt mount, I can't buy it.

Does ZOS really think that our purchase willingness will still be relevant by the time they re-release those items a year later? Will I still want them or will I have settled for something more common like an ingame armor outfit? Will my interest in that house still exist or did I spend time to redesign some of my older homes so that the new house is no longer necessary? Will I even still be playing the game by then, or will I have moved on to other games?

And conversely, will I suddenly find a desire to buy a random pet I'm not interested in just because it's 'limited time'? No. Limited time sales don't generate demand where there is none; but they do limit the demand when it would be there. In my opinion of course, but I speak from my own experience. Not a single time did the 'limited time' nature of the item convince me to buy it. But there were several houses I would have impulse-bought if they were available when I wanted them (e.g. the Erstwhile Sanctary when I was playing my vampire assassin, but when the house came back months later I was no longer interested).

They should offer most of their items for longer periods throughout the year, like rotate the whole Crown Store every two weeks or so - instead of leaving some costumes up there for an entire year and offering other costumes only for 4 days. They can still do their 'Limited Time' shtick, but those should be discounts. So full price item should be available through the Crown Store regularly, and they could do a limited time flash sale to perhaps sway people who were on the fence about it.

Anyway, this turned into a rant, sorry. It just baffles me that ZOS make it frustrating for us players as well as harmful for their sales. Unless they actually think that the number of people who buy a 4-day LTO because it was limited time outweigh all the people on the other 361 days of the year who would purchase the item given the chance.

I totally agree with you and if what I want is available, may well go with something else (that costs fewer or no Crowns as relates to ESO) but I’m assuming the model generally works because it is commonly used. GW2 has nearly all such items on limited availability (with some more limited than others) but they usually change out what is available regularly. I was hoping that ESO would similarly change out what costumes were available each month.

Yeah I agree that other games also have this sales model, but where are their statistics from? That's why I'm really not convined that this strategy works. They never tried to sell the items any other way. How on Earth would they know if that mount would generate more money over 4 days as a limited time offer, than what it would generate over 365 days if they left it on the Store, when they never tried to sell it that way?

The same goes for Crown Crates. SWTOR also used to have randomized cosmetic crates that you could buy for a limited time (it still does) but it later also released crates that contained many of these older limited time items so you could still get them, and they also started to sell the crate contents as limited time offers directly through the Cartel Market (their Crown Store). So how the hell do ZOS know that keeping their 10 Crown Crate seasons permanently unavailable apart from a week per year is better than making them available for longer regularly, or better than selling the crate contents direcly even? They never tried, so I find it hard to believe that they know that it's better for them this way.

Because the way I see it, Crown Store items' desirability doesn't come from their scarcity, but from their uniqueness and coolness. For example, do people want the 'Brassy Assassin' personality because it's a limited time scarce sale? No, it's just one of the coolest personalites that a lot of people would buy even if it was up on the store permanently. It's not rare or hard to get either, because almost every dunmer nightblade I see is running around with it, but people still liked it so much that they made countless threads about wanting it back. And is 'boring Nord male costume with boring pants version 3' going to be popular if it's a limited time sale? No because it's not unique and not cool.

So damm right!

Araneae6537 · September 2019

ghastley wrote: »

If only things came back annually, it wouldn't be so bad. Some items have been three years between sightings.

Whether limited availability increases revenue at all, any less availability than annual seems crazy! People will start and stop playing the game in that time! Or dedicated players who would buy said item may not be able to during limited rerelease because of real life stuff and everyone has to take breaks for various reasons at times!

bluebird wrote: »

ErinM31 wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

Yep, totally agree.

Having to wait a year or even longer for items to return (some of them haven't even returned at all) is really silly. There's a lot of people who would be willing and able to buy several Crown Store items if you would let them

ErinM31 wrote: »

Limited availability encouraging impulse buys, I understand, but then why not rotate more of the costumes, mounts, pets, furnishing packs, etc.?

See, ZOS and I clearly completely disagree about this. Limited availability hurts impulse purchases.

If I'm in the mood for Imperial costumes because I've just made a new Imperial character, I can't buy them.
If I saw a really inspiring build video of a house, and would love to get it for myself because I'm excited, I can't buy it.
If I'm questing through the Bosmer zones and would like to look appropriate with a Wild Hunt mount, I can't buy it.

Does ZOS really think that our purchase willingness will still be relevant by the time they re-release those items a year later? Will I still want them or will I have settled for something more common like an ingame armor outfit? Will my interest in that house still exist or did I spend time to redesign some of my older homes so that the new house is no longer necessary? Will I even still be playing the game by then, or will I have moved on to other games?

And conversely, will I suddenly find a desire to buy a random pet I'm not interested in just because it's 'limited time'? No. Limited time sales don't generate demand where there is none; but they do limit the demand when it would be there. In my opinion of course, but I speak from my own experience. Not a single time did the 'limited time' nature of the item convince me to buy it. But there were several houses I would have impulse-bought if they were available when I wanted them (e.g. the Erstwhile Sanctary when I was playing my vampire assassin, but when the house came back months later I was no longer interested).

They should offer most of their items for longer periods throughout the year, like rotate the whole Crown Store every two weeks or so - instead of leaving some costumes up there for an entire year and offering other costumes only for 4 days. They can still do their 'Limited Time' shtick, but those should be discounts. So full price item should be available through the Crown Store regularly, and they could do a limited time flash sale to perhaps sway people who were on the fence about it.

Anyway, this turned into a rant, sorry. It just baffles me that ZOS make it frustrating for us players as well as harmful for their sales. Unless they actually think that the number of people who buy a 4-day LTO because it was limited time outweigh all the people on the other 361 days of the year who would purchase the item given the chance.

I totally agree with you and if what I want is available, may well go with something else (that costs fewer or no Crowns as relates to ESO) but I’m assuming the model generally works because it is commonly used. GW2 has nearly all such items on limited availability (with some more limited than others) but they usually change out what is available regularly. I was hoping that ESO would similarly change out what costumes were available each month.

Yeah I agree that other games also have this sales model, but where are their statistics from? That's why I'm really not convined that this strategy works. They never tried to sell the items any other way. How on Earth would they know if that mount would generate more money over 4 days as a limited time offer, than what it would generate over 365 days if they left it on the Store, when they never tried to sell it that way?

The same goes for Crown Crates. SWTOR also used to have randomized cosmetic crates that you could buy for a limited time (it still does) but it later also released crates that contained many of these older limited time items so you could still get them, and they also started to sell the crate contents as limited time offers directly through the Cartel Market (their Crown Store). So how the hell do ZOS know that keeping their 10 Crown Crate seasons permanently unavailable apart from a week per year is better than making them available for longer regularly, or better than selling the crate contents direcly even? They never tried, so I find it hard to believe that they know that it's better for them this way.

Because the way I see it, Crown Store items' desirability doesn't come from their scarcity, but from their uniqueness and coolness. For example, do people want the 'Brassy Assassin' personality because it's a limited time scarce sale? No, it's just one of the coolest personalites that a lot of people would buy even if it was up on the store permanently. It's not rare or hard to get either, because almost every dunmer nightblade I see is running around with it, but people still liked it so much that they made countless threads about wanting it back. And is 'boring Nord male costume with boring pants version 3' going to be popular if it's a limited time sale? No because it's not unique and not cool.

All good points! I assume most people buy things because they like them, because it suits their character, etc. — not because of some artificial rarity!

Speaking of SWTOR, while it was probably not as good a deal as I remember (my first MMORPG and I was less wise and jaded, lol), I would regularly by stacks of crates when they came out because even if I didn’t get what I wanted, there would be items I could sell on the Trading Post (I did enjoy investing and flipping in both SWTOR and GW2) but with the Crown Crates, what you get is what you get so you may be stuck with something “super rare” that you don’t want but someone else would gladly pay lots of gold or Crowns for. And that’s why I don’t buy them. If I can’t sell what I don’t want, I’m not paying for RNG. But I’m happy to buy what I want directly and with real money so I wish that ZOS would give us more options to do so.

tomofhyrule · September 2019

I'd love to see some things come back. I joined really late, so there's a lot I missed out on.

I pretty much joined right before the last mass switchover in June/July timeframe. I remember there were a few costumes that I got since I thought I'd miss the chance, but there were also those that I missed out on (they had the Dunmer tunic up, which I didn't think I need...and now my character's in Ebonheart, and my story pretty much has him needing new clothes right there...and there now are no dunmer clothes in the store...)

ErinM31 wrote: »

Speaking of SWTOR, while it was probably not as good a deal as I remember (my first MMORPG and I was less wise and jaded, lol), I would regularly by stacks of crates when they came out because even if I didn’t get what I wanted, there would be items I could sell on the Trading Post (I did enjoy investing and flipping in both SWTOR and GW2) but with the Crown Crates, what you get is what you get so you may be stuck with something “super rare” that you don’t want but someone else would gladly pay lots of gold or Crowns for. And that’s why I don’t buy them. If I can’t sell what I don’t want, I’m not paying for RNG. But I’m happy to buy what I want directly and with real money so I wish that ZOS would give us more options to do so.

After just checking out the new pack...I really agree here.

I don't hate Crown Crates as much as I hate other lootboxes, simply because it's possible to get what you want without continually rolling...assuming you have enough gems and don't want a radiant apex mount. I tend not to care about mounts, skins are more my thing, but I just ended up getting a lot of collectibles I'll never use, including the New Moon Guar (when I take a mount, I usually stick to horses or wolves, or the occasional bear). I'd love if we could trade or sell the extra collectibles we don't want for gems as well...

Taleof2Cities · September 2019

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I'd love if we could trade or sell the extra collectibles we don't want for gems as well...

ErinM31 wrote: »

If you do not want to make the items available for Gems also available for Crowns, then could we buy a limited allotment of Gems each month?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but these two ideas cut into the whole premise of why crown crates exist.

If you start offering players the option of trading unwanted cosmetics for gems, that enables the player to get the items they did want sooner ... meaning they’re less likely to buy additional crates down the road.

Same thing with buying gems. If you take away the random chance of what’s in the crates, nobody would buy crates. Players could just get what they want with gems ... and skip the emotional void of not getting what they wanted in “random chance” crates.

I don’t think ZOS would be very receptive to these ideas ... due to the reasons explained above.

Remember that I don’t always make my talking points using real life money scenarios ... you can always be gifted crates to you for in-game gold.

Araneae6537 · September 2019

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I'd love if we could trade or sell the extra collectibles we don't want for gems as well...

ErinM31 wrote: »

If you do not want to make the items available for Gems also available for Crowns, then could we buy a limited allotment of Gems each month?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but these two ideas cut into the whole premise of why crown crates exist.

If you start offering players the option of trading unwanted cosmetics for gems, that enables the player to get the items they did want sooner ... meaning they’re less likely to buy additional crates down the road.

Same thing with buying gems. If you take away the random chance of what’s in the crates, nobody would buy crates. Players could just get what they want with gems ... and skip the emotional void of not getting what they wanted in “random chance” crates.

I don’t think ZOS would be very receptive to these ideas ... due to the reasons explained above.

Remember that I don’t always make my talking points using real life money scenarios ... you can always be gifted crates to you for in-game gold.

You’re probably right.

In which case I go back to the central request of my first post: Rotate the items available for Crowns! So we can’t get the items only available from current Crown Crates — there are lots of older items not currently available at all that could be made available for Crowns more frequently than they are now.

ZOS can see how much I’ve spent on Crowns for what I want. Surely I’m not the only one who will pay real money for what they want but do not like the Crown Crate system! Make more available for us or I won’t have reason to purchase more Crowns!

Please!