Can we discuss the time items are for sale? I would buy a lot, but...

myskyrim26 · November 2019

I love costumes. They are a vital part of my game.
I want my characters to wear local clothes in every location. Why can't we have all the costumes available in the Crown Store? I started Morrowind chapter. I want Dunmer clothes. I need them now, take my money! But no. No costumes for me. They will appear in Crown Crates - ok, that's great. But by that time my Morrowind adventures will be over. I will travel to some other place, where I'd want to wear something local. So, I will not care about a Dunmer look anymore. Why do we have such an approach at all? I could buy a lot, but... No goods I need are for sale.

tomofhyrule · November 2019

This x100.

I'm really into the RP and storytelling, so I feel this is a huge missed opportunity. I remember that one of the Dunmer outfits was in the store and rotated out around July, but I didn't buy it since I didn't really think I needed it. Come October, and my character was in Stonefalls, and I had a part of the story where he lost his armor and needed an outfit - but no basic Dunmer outfit to give him.

Pity.

I would like to see more stuff in the store already. I feel that things either rotate out too quickly, or don't rotate at all, and now there's little incentive to buy something.

Zulera301 · November 2019

so many kinds of this. I don't care about mounts, I don't care about crates, I prefer to find my own motifs and furnishings, and I've already got the banker and merchant, so the 17,000+ crowns I'm sitting on have basically just been there as I wait for a certain handful of costumes to make a comeback.

ahh well.

TelvanniWizard · November 2019

This happens a lot to me. I love cosmetics and stuff, and would buy a lot, but the things I want are never for sale. If we had a permanent store It would be way better imo. But it seems that that Zo$ bets only for limited sales, wich don´t work at all for me, because I don´t play everyday, and tend to miss those offers.

bluebird · November 2019

Yes, absolutely agree.

ZOS's 'Limited Time Offer' mentality always seemed like a wasteful business model to me. They are assuming that an item will generate more profit over a 4 days LTO than it would over 365 days.

From any Crown Store item's perspective, players fall into these groups:

Players who will never buy it because they don't want it under any condition
Players who buy it only because it was 'limited time' but would not want it if it wasn't scarce
Players who buy it and would have bought it anyway even if was common because they like the item
Players who would buy the item in the remaining 361 days of the year, but missed out on its brief limited time sale (didn't log in during the 4 days it was available, didn't have Crowns at that time, they weren't even playing the game yet when the item was available, etc.)

So it comes down to ZOS's assumption that Group 2 outweighs Group 4. Which I'm pretty sure is wrong.

Because, let's be realistic here, of all the players who would ever pay for that item, how many did that 4-day LTO reach? How many would-be-buyers were taking a break and didn't log in during those 4 days? How many items did potential customers miss out on, just because the items were put up for 4 days and then removed, before they even joined the game? How many of the players who would buy the item right then and there had the funds to convert that willingness into a successful sale?

LTOs lose out on the majority of their potential customers, and they also prevent players from making impulse purchases since they can't act on their purchasing willingness when ZOS refuses to sell them a whole bunch of things they would happily pay for.

There are also some other possible things we could consider that might play a role in this, so I'll put them behind a spoiler tag, but I still think their LTOs are costing them more than whatever they're gaining through them.

1) ZOS may think that LTOs force players to buy Crowns at full price as opposed to waiting for discounts if the item is available for a long time. But again, to assume that this group outweighs all their other losses is probably wrong.

Of the players who would buy the item but have no Crowns for it, how many will be able to buy Crowns on the spot, and how many will be unable to do so until they get their paycheck or their Christmas money from the parents or whatever? Many players also only use their ESO+ Crowns, never actually buy any, so if they already spent their Crowns and see a LTO they would like, they won't buy more Crowns, but instead will have 1650 Crowns leftover unspent next month because the item they would have wanted is no longer available. 'Wants LTO, has no Crowns' may translate into 'Won't buy LTO' more often than into 'Will buy Crowns'. Also many people only buy Crowns during a sale anyway and stock up 5-figure amounts then, but never buy full-priced Crowns.

2) ZOS may think that leaving items in the Crown Store longer reduces demand for them since players will have more options. There's probably merit to this assumption, but I don't think it makes up for all the impulse purchases they lose out on.

For example if ZOS put up a basic Dunmer dress on the CS without a LTO, some players may wait with the purchase and then lose interest if ZOS put up a fancy Dunmer dress as well and buy that instead; while they may have bought a basic dress during a LTO out of fear of missing out, and then later bought the fancier version too. But there's also a group of players who would buy every single dress they can (because purdy dresses, duh

) even if they're not LTO. And then on top of that there's the accumulative total of every single player ever since that LTO who felt like buying Dunmer dresses but couldn't because they were removed. So again, the balance isn't on ZOS's side, I think.

3) ZOS probably greatly overestimates the role that 'scarcity' plays in Crown Store purchases.

There have been plenty of 'LTO' Pets, but I haven't bought any because I'm not interested. So 'scarcity' won't convert players from Group 1 into Group 2. A rubbish item (subjective) won't suddenly become attractive just because it's available for 4 days only. So the 'LTO' only works on people who were already on the fence about the item. And they're disregarding loads of 'Yes I would absolutely buy that item if it was available' customers in favour of the 'Maybe they'll be swayed by the LTO time pressure to buy the item' crowd. That doesn't add up to me.

4) ZOS think that the demand generated by a short LTO's 'Don't miss out! Buy now! Last chance!!!' psychology outweighs all the lost 'Ooh, shiny, I want it and I want it now' impulse purchases over the rest of the year.

Players who join the game and see the huge number of cosmetics and houses online may be totally excited and willing to buy sooo many of those cool things!!! But... can they? No, 80% of Crown Store items are permanently unavailable. Even old players, who get in the mood for some cosmetics that would be perfect can't act on those impulses. They can't buy Imperial dresses for their new Imperial character that they're leveling... and by the time those LTOs return again (if they do at all), they might be over their Imperial alt, or found a new ingame Outfit that works better, or maybe even stopped playing entirely.

Personally for example I would have bought Erstwhile Sanctuary when I was leveling my Dunmer NB through the Dark Brotherhood, but since it wasn't returning for so long, I eventually settled for Velothi Reverie. I bought it with gold, and over time customized it so much in a way that is perfect for me that I now don't even want Estwhile any more as I just see many issues since the haze of the impulse purchase lifted from my eyes.

((Anyway, sorry for the post length, I'm just confused as to why ZOS insist on LTOs when there are tons of frustrated threads already about people wanting to buy items - if only ZOS would let them, lol!!! If an economist or business person can explain to us how ZOS's LTOs make any sense, please do!))

tl;dr: Basically, the LTO system leads to player frustration most of the time, loses out on plenty of impulse purchases, and the demand generated by the time pressure probably doesn't make up for the fact that most Crown Store items never reach the majority of their target demographic, but instead just end up gathering pixel dust on a pixel shelf after only a couple of days of market time.

If I was a Crown Store dev at ZOS I would be really annoyed that my creations are only sold for 4 days, after which ZOS flushes down my hard work and all potential profits down the drain.

TelvanniWizard · November 2019

@bluebird you are totally right imo.

renne · November 2019

I've missed out on so many things I'd LOVE to get, because I only started properly playing the game really recently.

Plus I freaking LOVE impulse purchases.

Tigerseye · November 2019

bluebird wrote: »

If I was a Crown Store dev at ZOS I would be really annoyed that my creations are only sold for 4 days, after which ZOS flushes down my hard work and all potential profits down the drain.

Don't think they're flushed.

They normally come back, sooner or later.

Sometimes, things that were originally sold for Crowns come back in crates and/or being sold for gems, or vice versa.

Sometimes they cost more than they did originally, sometimes less.

kaisernick · November 2019

Its the fomo mentality so many games do this, sure items come back but a lot of times that can be over a year waiting.
Hell look at this black friday sale, last year they had houses at a discount, this year there is practally nothing and what little they have on sale now will likly not be around next year either.

Its a preditority tatic to try and manipulate players into spenind their money now with little regard on weather some might not be able to afford it right away.

bluebird · November 2019

Tigerseye wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

If I was a Crown Store dev at ZOS I would be really annoyed that my creations are only sold for 4 days, after which ZOS flushes down my hard work and all potential profits down the drain.

Don't think they're flushed.

They normally come back, sooner or later.

Sometimes, things that were originally sold for Crowns come back in crates and/or being sold for gems, or vice versa.

Sometimes they cost more than they did originally, sometimes less.

Well, they're figuratively flushed, from the 4 out of 365 days yearly perspective. A handful of people saw it during those 4 days, and a couple of those people bought it, but that's nothing compared to all the people who won't even see your creation and won't be able to get it...

I'd feel bad personally, feeling like my designs are being wasted if I can't share them with the playerbase who would be happy to buy it if they could (or even knew it existed, lol).

A lot of items still haven't returned after over 2 years so some are left gathering pixel dust on a pixel shelf indefinitely (Azura pack, Witch Knight Charger, Off-the-Shoulder Evening Dress, etc). And many items that get put in Crown Crates also haven't made a return in over a year, since there are so many Crown Crate seasons already that we barely ever see the old crates return, and when they do it's usually for a 14-day LTO. And the Crown Gem exclusive returns are also LTOs so they're facing the same wasted potential of 2 weeks out of 52.

ZOS leave a handful of mounts pets and costumes in the Crown Store for literal years, but then keep the rest of their items unavailable 96% of the time. They haven't brought back anything for Black Friday for example, so one wonders when, if ever, they will make old stuff return. They don't seem interested in cycling through their supply despite many people willing and ready to throw money at the screen for a lot of limited time items.

Tigerseye · November 2019

bluebird wrote: »

Tigerseye wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

If I was a Crown Store dev at ZOS I would be really annoyed that my creations are only sold for 4 days, after which ZOS flushes down my hard work and all potential profits down the drain.

Don't think they're flushed.

They normally come back, sooner or later.

Sometimes, things that were originally sold for Crowns come back in crates and/or being sold for gems, or vice versa.

Sometimes they cost more than they did originally, sometimes less.

Well, they're figuratively flushed, from the 4 out of 365 days yearly perspective. A handful of people saw it during those 4 days, and a couple of those people bought it, but that's nothing compared to all the people who won't even see your creation and won't be able to get it... I'd feel bad personally, feeling like my designs are being wasted if I can't share them with the playerbase who would be happy to buy it if they could (or even knew it existed, lol).

A lot of items still haven't returned after over 2 years so some are left gathering pixel dust on a pixel shelf indefinitely (Azura pack, Witch Knight Charger, Off-the-Shoulder Evening Dress, etc). And many items that get put in Crown Crates also haven't made a return in over a year, since there are so many Crown Crate seasons already that we barely ever see the old crates return, and when they do it's usually for a 14-day LTO. And the Crown Gem exclusive returns are also LTOs so they're facing the same wasted potential of 2 weeks out of 52.

ZOS leave a handful of mounts pets and costumes in the Crown Store for literal years, but then keep the rest of their items unavailable 96% of the time. They haven't brought back anything for Black Friday for example, so one wonders when, if ever, they will make old stuff return. They don't seem interested in cycling through their supply despite many people willing and ready to throw money at the screen for a lot of limited time items.

Yeah, they're flushed from the point of view that they're not permanently on sale, certainly and a few things are discontinued entirely, sadly.

I don't see why they don't leave more things on sale permanently, either.

Of course, there are pros and cons to cycling through the crate seasons faster.

On the one hand, it gives people more choice - but, on the other, it means people who like that season have less time to raise the funds to buy crates from it.

Ideally, there would be multiple seasons available at once, but that probably won't happen.

thegreatme · December 2019

Pretty much agree with everything that was said here.

There's a lot of LTO stuff I would have bought if it was still available. Furnishing packs, houses, mounts, pets. I know I was counting on some of these things to return for Black Fredas, never happened. I know several friends who were counting on a lot of the seasonal Notable homes to return like Aldmeri Grotto and Hunter's Glade, like they did last year. Never happened. So ZoS just lost out on quite a bit of money there.

Also their LTO model really just discourages me from buying most things, especially when we get short notice on when it will be in the store and for how much.

The only thing I really bought up was New Moon crates, and only because I had LOTS of warning ahead of time (saw the leaks a month and a half in advance of their release, and anticipated a 20% off end of season sale, planned accordingly, got them for 30% off instead, pleasantly surprised -- point being I had a lot of time to plan, which means I bought them instead of went without). And the Hallowjack furnishing pack, because I've been waiting to get it since last year and it thankfully returned.

But their LTO last-minute announcement and vagueness around price when things do get released just makes me not buy a lot of things.

Firstly, it makes me not want to buy things that are currently in the store ALL the time, because what if I miss out on an LTO I really want when I don't have crowns? Its not that I wouldn't buy the things in the store all the time because they're in the store all the time, its because ZoS has taken away its urgency by putting on pressure to wait and see what the next big LTO will be and make sure I have the crowns to afford it. Which is stressful. It doesn't make for a happy customer.

And secondly, a lot of the time I'm just not able to get the LTO's because either I didn't have the crowns saved up when something I want comes along, its pricier than I predicted it would be, or again, I'd rather save up my crowns either for something I like more than that, no matter how shiny it is, or I'm HOPING something that was up in the past will make a return (and there's quite a few things I'm hoping to see come back).

So long story short, the ONLY time I've spent crowns on this game is when I've had lots of warning and time to prepare accordingly. I don't mean a monthly showcase article that doesn't outline what the prices will be. I mean things I already knew months or a year in advance how much it will cost me, and had months ahead of time to prepare and count my money and know I can afford something. I've never made a purchase from ZoS where I didn't strictly follow these budgeting conditions. I'm sure I'm far from the only one like this.

whitecrow · December 2019

thegreatme wrote: »

Firstly, it makes me not want to buy things that are currently in the store ALL the time, because what if I miss out on an LTO I really want when I don't have crowns? Its not that I wouldn't buy the things in the store all the time because they're in the store all the time, its because ZoS has taken away its urgency by putting on pressure to wait and see what the next big LTO will be and make sure I have the crowns to afford it. Which is stressful. It doesn't make for a happy customer.

Note that even items that are in the store all the time sometimes get removed eventually.

Hymzir · December 2019

Live service models and microtransactions are a science at this point. Marketing departments have done surveys and experiments and psychological research on what makes people spend money on virtual stuff. They have crunched the numbers to find the best payoff vs. actual effort. And ultimately, whaling just is more profitable than constant small revenue streams.

And for the whales, exclusivity and FOMO are big triggers, which is why we get lot of LTOs.

I'm not defending ZOS policy here, just offering my take on why they practice their business in the way they do. It's not like they decide things by rolling dice or just on a whim. They got bunch of people working for them whose job it is to plan out what way they can squeeze maximum profit out of their customers. And due to the trend of LTOs continuing, I wager their data supports their conclusions on what makes the most money.

It's not gonna change until the general population is gonna grow fed up with having their entertainment nickel and dimed. Without plebs to whom they can show off their virtual goods, the stuff loses its luster to whales and they will turn their attention to something else.

Sadly, the only thing one can do, is either turn into a whale and just buy everything as it is released, or accept that you aren't really the people they are peddling their wares to. You aren't the target audience of the Crown Store. Buy what you want, if it is available at the time you need it for a reasonable sum, and just learn to live without it when it's not. Both options suck, but at the end of the day, there are bigger things to fret over in life.

The good news is, though, that lately there have been more and more reports indicating that maybe the whaling days of gaming are coming to a close, as more and more people grow fed up with the system, and instead turn to more reasonably monetized alternatives. But for ESO... Well, I have a feeling this game is gonna be long dead and buried before that sea change takes place. We're talking years here, after all.

- p.s. Then there is always, of course, China... And people there have no sense of reason when it comes to microtransactions. Thankfully the gaming culture as a whole is different there, so it wont keep the current live service nonsense model alive solely on it's own. But when and how things will change... Only time will tell, but for now, it's the age of live services, and they are predicated on FOMO and LTOs.

TelvanniWizard · December 2019

Hymzir wrote: »

Live service models and microtransactions are a science at this point. Marketing departments have done surveys and experiments and psychological research on what makes people spend money on virtual stuff. They have crunched the numbers to find the best payoff vs. actual effort. And ultimately, whaling just is more profitable than constant small revenue streams.

And for the whales, exclusivity and FOMO are big triggers, which is why we get lot of LTOs.

I'm not defending ZOS policy here, just offering my take on why they practice their business in the way they do. It's not like they decide things by rolling dice or just on a whim. They got bunch of people working for them whose job it is to plan out what way they can squeeze maximum profit out of their customers. And due to the trend of LTOs continuing, I wager their data supports their conclusions on what makes the most money.

It's not gonna change until the general population is gonna grow fed up with having their entertainment nickel and dimed. Without plebs to whom they can show off their virtual goods, the stuff loses its luster to whales and they will turn their attention to something else.

Sadly, the only thing one can do, is either turn into a whale and just buy everything as it is released, or accept that you aren't really the people they are peddling their wares to. You aren't the target audience of the Crown Store. Buy what you want, if it is available at the time you need it for a reasonable sum, and just learn to live without it when it's not. Both options suck, but at the end of the day, there are bigger things to fret over in life.

The good news is, though, that lately there have been more and more reports indicating that maybe the whaling days of gaming are coming to a close, as more and more people grow fed up with the system, and instead turn to more reasonably monetized alternatives. But for ESO... Well, I have a feeling this game is gonna be long dead and buried before that sea change takes place. We're talking years here, after all.

- p.s. Then there is always, of course, China... And people there have no sense of reason when it comes to microtransactions. Thankfully the gaming culture as a whole is different there, so it wont keep the current live service nonsense model alive solely on it's own. But when and how things will change... Only time will tell, but for now, it's the age of live services, and they are predicated on FOMO and LTOs.

You are very right in everything you say in this well written post. So damm right, sadly. BUT, Zo$ could still try to catter to a wider audience with the crown store, expanding the basic/always available items a bit, with more old stuff that many people want, and still have many LTO´s for their whales.

Nestor · December 2019

I like playing the Game.

I hate when the Store plays a Game with me.

Should some things be a bit exclusive? Sure. But 4 days? Should mundane things like Clothing and such be limited time? No. It's a virtual store, you can list as many things as you like. Sure, maybe rotate some stock every 90 days to keep things a bit fresh. But this 4 day time frame has got to go.

Now, some Event related items maybe should be pulled soon after the Event ends. Not the day of, but soon after.

But 4 days? Really? It's just a blatant attempt at manipulation that causes resentment in your player base. You will make more sales if you sell things for a longer period of time.

Hymzir · December 2019

TelvanniWizard wrote: »

Hymzir wrote: »

Live service models and microtransactions are a science at this point. Marketing departments have done surveys and experiments and psychological research on what makes people spend money on virtual stuff. They have crunched the numbers to find the best payoff vs. actual effort. And ultimately, whaling just is more profitable than constant small revenue streams.

And for the whales, exclusivity and FOMO are big triggers, which is why we get lot of LTOs.

I'm not defending ZOS policy here, just offering my take on why they practice their business in the way they do. It's not like they decide things by rolling dice or just on a whim. They got bunch of people working for them whose job it is to plan out what way they can squeeze maximum profit out of their customers. And due to the trend of LTOs continuing, I wager their data supports their conclusions on what makes the most money.

It's not gonna change until the general population is gonna grow fed up with having their entertainment nickel and dimed. Without plebs to whom they can show off their virtual goods, the stuff loses its luster to whales and they will turn their attention to something else.

Sadly, the only thing one can do, is either turn into a whale and just buy everything as it is released, or accept that you aren't really the people they are peddling their wares to. You aren't the target audience of the Crown Store. Buy what you want, if it is available at the time you need it for a reasonable sum, and just learn to live without it when it's not. Both options suck, but at the end of the day, there are bigger things to fret over in life.

The good news is, though, that lately there have been more and more reports indicating that maybe the whaling days of gaming are coming to a close, as more and more people grow fed up with the system, and instead turn to more reasonably monetized alternatives. But for ESO... Well, I have a feeling this game is gonna be long dead and buried before that sea change takes place. We're talking years here, after all.

- p.s. Then there is always, of course, China... And people there have no sense of reason when it comes to microtransactions. Thankfully the gaming culture as a whole is different there, so it wont keep the current live service nonsense model alive solely on it's own. But when and how things will change... Only time will tell, but for now, it's the age of live services, and they are predicated on FOMO and LTOs.

You are very right in everything you say in this well written post. So damm right, sadly. BUT, Zo$ could still try to catter to a wider audience with the crown store, expanding the basic/always available items a bit, with more old stuff that many people want, and still have many LTO´s for their whales.

They could... But it just isn't worth the time, effort and resources at the moment. And yes, even virtual goods do cost something for the seller. Not much, but still, a cost is a cost is a cost. There is maintenance involved, as well as increased customer service traffic, and someone still needs to implement all those basic/always available items. Even if they were just a fast reskin of an old asset.

The biggest issues for ZOS however, would be that they would water down that sense of exclusivity and lessen the impact of FOMO. Which is why they won't do it. That and the fact that a shop that is too full of stuff leads to decision paralysis, and worst of all, from the ZOS point of view: "thinking it over and maybe purchasing later" behaviour.

Especially on those LTO items. If a new LTO is on offer, that rates like 10 points of ultra coolness for 2000 crowns, and there was similar but less cool item that rates only 6 points of ultra coolness for 1000 crowns, then a lot of people might shy away from the LTO or worst of all, not buy at all, since they can think it over. And if the LTO ends before they decide, there is always the cheaper always on offer option, should the fancy hit hard later on.

And that's why things are as they are. That's why the Crown store stocks the bare minimum and most of the stuff is sold as LTOs.

But eh... I don't think I got anythign else to add to the topic, besides I gotta go kill my daily dragons, (I am so not gonna bother with the next idnrik, once this current nonsense is done and dealt with.) and then am gonna relax and unwind by checking out a bunch of cool Skyrim mods I stumbeld on, and not think about microtransactions.

Nestor · December 2019

Too Full of Stuff?

Have you ever shopped at Amazon? Or Ebay? Or Overstock? Or Rock Auto? Or New Egg? Or Walmart.com? Or....

The layout and UI would take care of any clutter related issues that would impact sales.

Goregrinder · December 2019

Hymzir wrote: »

TelvanniWizard wrote: »

Hymzir wrote: »

Live service models and microtransactions are a science at this point. Marketing departments have done surveys and experiments and psychological research on what makes people spend money on virtual stuff. They have crunched the numbers to find the best payoff vs. actual effort. And ultimately, whaling just is more profitable than constant small revenue streams.

And for the whales, exclusivity and FOMO are big triggers, which is why we get lot of LTOs.

I'm not defending ZOS policy here, just offering my take on why they practice their business in the way they do. It's not like they decide things by rolling dice or just on a whim. They got bunch of people working for them whose job it is to plan out what way they can squeeze maximum profit out of their customers. And due to the trend of LTOs continuing, I wager their data supports their conclusions on what makes the most money.

It's not gonna change until the general population is gonna grow fed up with having their entertainment nickel and dimed. Without plebs to whom they can show off their virtual goods, the stuff loses its luster to whales and they will turn their attention to something else.

Sadly, the only thing one can do, is either turn into a whale and just buy everything as it is released, or accept that you aren't really the people they are peddling their wares to. You aren't the target audience of the Crown Store. Buy what you want, if it is available at the time you need it for a reasonable sum, and just learn to live without it when it's not. Both options suck, but at the end of the day, there are bigger things to fret over in life.

The good news is, though, that lately there have been more and more reports indicating that maybe the whaling days of gaming are coming to a close, as more and more people grow fed up with the system, and instead turn to more reasonably monetized alternatives. But for ESO... Well, I have a feeling this game is gonna be long dead and buried before that sea change takes place. We're talking years here, after all.

- p.s. Then there is always, of course, China... And people there have no sense of reason when it comes to microtransactions. Thankfully the gaming culture as a whole is different there, so it wont keep the current live service nonsense model alive solely on it's own. But when and how things will change... Only time will tell, but for now, it's the age of live services, and they are predicated on FOMO and LTOs.

You are very right in everything you say in this well written post. So damm right, sadly. BUT, Zo$ could still try to catter to a wider audience with the crown store, expanding the basic/always available items a bit, with more old stuff that many people want, and still have many LTO´s for their whales.

They could... But it just isn't worth the time, effort and resources at the moment. And yes, even virtual goods do cost something for the seller. Not much, but still, a cost is a cost is a cost. There is maintenance involved, as well as increased customer service traffic, and someone still needs to implement all those basic/always available items. Even if they were just a fast reskin of an old asset.

The biggest issues for ZOS however, would be that they would water down that sense of exclusivity and lessen the impact of FOMO. Which is why they won't do it. That and the fact that a shop that is too full of stuff leads to decision paralysis, and worst of all, from the ZOS point of view: "thinking it over and maybe purchasing later" behaviour.

Especially on those LTO items. If a new LTO is on offer, that rates like 10 points of ultra coolness for 2000 crowns, and there was similar but less cool item that rates only 6 points of ultra coolness for 1000 crowns, then a lot of people might shy away from the LTO or worst of all, not buy at all, since they can think it over. And if the LTO ends before they decide, there is always the cheaper always on offer option, should the fancy hit hard later on.

And that's why things are as they are. That's why the Crown store stocks the bare minimum and most of the stuff is sold as LTOs.

But eh... I don't think I got anythign else to add to the topic, besides I gotta go kill my daily dragons, (I am so not gonna bother with the next idnrik, once this current nonsense is done and dealt with.) and then am gonna relax and unwind by checking out a bunch of cool Skyrim mods I stumbeld on, and not think about microtransactions.

Yep anything added to a game requires man hours of some kind to plan it, implement it, and support it. Everything ZOS does costs money, even if it's a "collection of pixels".

Anotherone773 · December 2019

myskyrim26 wrote: »

I love costumes. They are a vital part of my game.
I want my characters to wear local clothes in every location. Why can't we have all the costumes available in the Crown Store? I started Morrowind chapter. I want Dunmer clothes. I need them now, take my money! But no. No costumes for me. They will appear in Crown Crates - ok, that's great. But by that time my Morrowind adventures will be over. I will travel to some other place, where I'd want to wear something local. So, I will not care about a Dunmer look anymore. Why do we have such an approach at all? I could buy a lot, but... No goods I need are for sale.

We say this about a lot of things. Houses are a big one. Certain (not seasonal) houses are only available certain times of year. Why? Some people wanted to be able to buy old crown crates because they wanted a mount,pet,costume, etc in those crates.