Bradyfjord wrote: »

Some people have the money, and want to buy it.
Some people have the money, but don't want to buy it.
Some people don't have the money, and want to buy it.
Some people don't have the money, and don't want to buy it.

If you don't want to buy it, just move on. There is no one making you buy it.
If you do want to buy it, and you have the money, why not? No harm no foul. You get what you want, and so does ZOS.
If you don't have the money, then you can't buy it anyway. It is best to move on.

Marketing is simply making a value proposition to you. Only you can choose to buy or not.

All very true, but one wonders how many sales ZOS loses from the “has money and wants to buy” category by so limiting availability so severely (every two years seems not uncommon for notable homes although some are offered more or less frequently). Will they still be playing and still want to buy when (and if) what they want is available?

Not disagreeing with anything you posted. I just wonder about ZOS’s marketing strategies sometimes and what that may indicate about most gamer’s buying habits. 🤔

ynimma wrote: »

redspecter23 wrote: »

bearbelly wrote: »

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

To induce FOMO.

FOMO then overrides your more logical thought processes (as fear tends to do) and causes you to end up spending money that you might not have otherwise.

Can't really induce that fear in the supposed hordes of new people that come to this game regularly if you go months (or years?) between limited-time offerings.

I missed the initial offering of the Hunter's Glade (another limited-time house). As far as I know, they haven't offered it since the Wolfhunter DLC dropped.
How they gonna scare me into buying it if they never offer it again?

They use that to set a precedent for the next thing that comes along that you might want. Say some other home is coming up and looks like exactly what you want. You'll remember this example and know that if you don't buy the new one right away, it could be years before you get another chance. They don't care about that older house at this moment. They used it to set an example in your mind of how long it might be between offers for any particular item and this manipulates you in the future.

And still how many "gamers" (I'll have to redefine this term sometimes because right now, understanding fully what you have described about this FOMO-effect, I'd rather call them as how Molag Bal addresses humans at the dolmens) are supporting a company with their money unquestionably in this absolutely abusive behaviour.
Tragedy.
And the best recipe to avoid quality in gaming as well.
I'm really sad.

This marketing strategy happens across the business spectrum not just gaming. As example when DVD players were still in the early adapter only phase Disney ran a campaign with a good portion of their animated line-up. They ran ads saying this is the last time these movies will be made available on VHS so get your copy now. The commercials hit on planning ahead for grandkids and all kinds of things. Most people were not aware DVD was right around the corner. Then of course several months later the movies slowly started being released on DVD. Subway sandwiches has limited time breads available. They are just playing on our basic behaviors. Tell us we can't have something or can only have it for a limited time and all of a sudden we want it. This comic kind of explains it.

Linaleah wrote: »

ynimma wrote: »

They certainly couldn't manipulate me.
Quite the opposite.
But now I see that it's the decadent psychological capabilities of the average, easy-to-manipulate gamer masses what prevents the non-automatons like my kind to play full contents in a game.
I don't know what is the bigger disaster: that this is the average gamer mind or that there are business models abusing this human defect successfully.

its not just average gamer mind. its average HUMAN mind. why do you think every company under the sun runs limited time sales? everything from limited time sandwiches or sauces, or pizza toppings, or buy one get one free promos for all sorts of things, the entire concept of black friday and cyber monday and I can keep going. ZoS didn't invent this marketing strategy and its not limited to gamers. they merely adopted something that was proven to work well enough to justify limited availability window as more profitable then just having a thing available indefinitely.

I'm pretty sure they have the metrics of how many houses they sold that are indefinitely available vs houses that were temporary. if this strategy didn't work? they wouldn't keep using it. just because it didn't work on you, doesn't mean it doesn't work, period. a lot of people will see something available that's not going anywhere, so they say to themselves - I can wait... and then they never buy it at all. that is a lost sale too.

I think it was.. JC Penney that tried a strategy of just having every day lower prices? no special limited sales, just "sale" prices every day? their profits dropped. psychologically, we are practically trained to think that if we buy something limited - we get better value out of it.

meep, type too slow :P

Can't believe I left out my favorite example. I am a photographer and sold prints for a while. A print would sell better if you put limited edition 7/150 (as example) on it. Also sold better if signed. With photography underpricing is often worse than overpricing. And so nobody thinks I am a monster...if I put limited addition I never went over the number. Most times I didn't even get to the number but that is a different story.

kargen27 wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

ynimma wrote: »

They certainly couldn't manipulate me.
Quite the opposite.
But now I see that it's the decadent psychological capabilities of the average, easy-to-manipulate gamer masses what prevents the non-automatons like my kind to play full contents in a game.
I don't know what is the bigger disaster: that this is the average gamer mind or that there are business models abusing this human defect successfully.

its not just average gamer mind. its average HUMAN mind. why do you think every company under the sun runs limited time sales? everything from limited time sandwiches or sauces, or pizza toppings, or buy one get one free promos for all sorts of things, the entire concept of black friday and cyber monday and I can keep going. ZoS didn't invent this marketing strategy and its not limited to gamers. they merely adopted something that was proven to work well enough to justify limited availability window as more profitable then just having a thing available indefinitely.

I'm pretty sure they have the metrics of how many houses they sold that are indefinitely available vs houses that were temporary. if this strategy didn't work? they wouldn't keep using it. just because it didn't work on you, doesn't mean it doesn't work, period. a lot of people will see something available that's not going anywhere, so they say to themselves - I can wait... and then they never buy it at all. that is a lost sale too.

I think it was.. JC Penney that tried a strategy of just having every day lower prices? no special limited sales, just "sale" prices every day? their profits dropped. psychologically, we are practically trained to think that if we buy something limited - we get better value out of it.

meep, type too slow :P

Can't believe I left out my favorite example. I am a photographer and sold prints for a while. A print would sell better if you put limited edition 7/150 (as example) on it. Also sold better if signed. With photography underpricing is often worse than overpricing. And so nobody thinks I am a monster...if I put limited addition I never went over the number. Most times I didn't even get to the number but that is a different story.

that reminds me of example of this I'm seeing a lot lately. makeup. good god, do they ever do that with makeup. limited edition packaging or limited edition eyeshadow palettes, limited edition this, holiday that.... and they sell out..... every time.... (and then of course, miraculously restock within days, which is impossible for vast majority of makeup companies that outsource their manufacture overseas - so they already had more stock ready to go, but it wouldn't have sold out if they didn't use artificial scarcity )

and then there is a thing I have just learned about recently - this line of furniture/plush toy called Nugget. its not a bad concept, per se - and its been copied since, but because the numbers for original are small - they are far more in demand as people see them as a status symbol to own.

I also remember an absolutely obsenely long line for some limited edition comiccon only funco pops. you know back when we could still go to comiccons physically. even though I wanted one for myself, I ended up skipping because waiting in line for hours, for a single figurine, while missing out on panels and other fun was not my idea of time well spent... but it WAS for enough people who formed that line in a first place (many of them were scalpers, but again, they stood in line becasue they knew that thanks to that limited factor - they can make a LOT of profit off their time investment).

I can come up with more and more examples outside of video games as well as inside them.

artificial scarcity works. unfortunately.