To me, the FOMO idea makes... no sense at all.

I would spend far more money in the Crown Store if everything were available all the time, because I'd likely play more alt characters knowing I could get whatever fancy things I want for them; instead I'm focusing on one character because I know all the things I want will cycle around every 2 years IF I'm lucky...

Nope. I can be a stubborn and ornery old man. I will dig my heels in and flat out refuse(even if I want it) if I feel like I'm being pressured or rushed into a purchase. By the same token you are MUCH more likely to catch me in an impulse buy, provided you actually have it for sale. Decades in market management says this isn't smart business, but I also will admit that I do not have the numbers from any of Zos's reports (projected, actual etc) AND the fact that there is very little competition for ESO at the moment has a huge effect on how you handle your customers. Its working for them, /shrug end of story.

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax does not make any money off selling a home or mount. They make it when people buy crowns and make more of it when they buy them at full price. That is why they do limited-time offerings to get people to buy more crowns.

Except that makes zero sense when players will just buy them on sale & hoard them, thanks to the glacial rotation of the Crown Store.

I've only bought crowns the past two times they've been on sale, and I get monthly crowns from the ESO+ sub I'm paying for regardless of the crown store. By the time anything comes up that I actually want, I'll be able to get it for far less real money than I'd have to pay otherwise.

I'm not sure how much is profit oriented and how much is inventory oriented. That is, if everything stayed available all the time, I don't know if that might be too many items in the crown store for the pixels to handle.

I like the limited items whenever I can allow myself to buy them, but hate it when I can't.
For example when the kyne's skin was for sale I didn't have the crown gems to buy it, it took zos almost 2 years to bring it back, I was super excited that I can buy it after 2 years.

Ideally all items should be available all the time, but that may be difficult given how many items have been released over the years, so instead I think a good compromise is too cycle through items a lot faster than what we have currently, so someone for eg., won't have to wait 1-2 years for a house to reappear, but instead a couple of months at the most.

I mean, yes, absolutely! Week long offers add value to the items, no? Value of exclusivity. Of belonging to the club. Why, just the other day, i was stopped by some stranger on the road. "Dude i like your horse". It was indeed one lovely mare, proud and noble. Nothing fancy like burning legs you know. And the stranger asked where i got the beauty. How much, and stuff. Oh, you know, limited time offer. They don't make them like this no more. Guess you can't have it mate, so sorry. M-hm. See ya! How empowered i felt, dude

I like housing - it's usually a big part of why I play ESO and make new characters.

As part of making a new character, I enjoy planning out their story, lore, etc. This almost always involves finding them a home that fits, as well as furnishing items that are inspired by the character and what I want to do with their home.

When that perfect home ends up being some limited time option that won't see the light of day for another 2-3 years... then all of that stops.

With no home to purchase, there's no point in purchasing items or furnishing packs to go with the home - am I really expected to buy something and saving it for the chance to use it in a few years? Provided I'm even still playing at that time.

Additionally, it also kills a lot of the motivation to build that character in the first place, knowing that I'm going to be arbitrarily limited in regards to what I can get out of that character and experience from the start.

So despite the marketing gimmick of the limited time home... this ends up costing ZOS not only the home I would have purchased if given the opportunity, but all the other sales that having it may have generated - additional furnishing items and character related items, mounts, crates, and so on.

It feels like they're trying to sell me paints, but refusing to let me purchase the canvas on which to use them. I can only speculate about their business and numbers, but the crown store seems poorly run, and poorly optimized, it just seems lazy - like since it makes them money it's good enough and not worth improving (the amount of old, stagnant, items on there is lunacy).

I feel like if they put some work into the crown store, they could not only vastly improve the experience for their customers, but also stand to generate a lot more additional purchases.