Yes it's honestly worrying that sometimes people don't realise some of the big houses can cost *more* than an entire single player triple-A game. In the UK, at least.

I've often wondered how players can justify buying the extremely expensive houses, especially when they're just using them for a guild hall or something and it's not really any different to the ones you can get with gold.

I suppose this provides one answer, if you're paying for ESO+ for other reasons and consider the crowns a bonus you're likely to value them less than if you're buying crowns directly.

It's difficult to get a definitive value for crowns because the price per crown is different depending on how you buy them, and they're often on sale, so rather than keep track of exactly where mine came from I calculate the price of crown store items based on the cost of a full price 5,500 crown pack (because that's the one I buy most often). So for example for Pariah's Pinnacle is (£29.99/5500)*10,400 = £56.71

Sometimes I do the calculation and decide it's definitely worth it, other times I look at the result and think "oh wow, it's not that nice".

I don't know, but I always look very closely at the equivalent between crown prices and the value of real money and the prices of things in the crown store. And then I evaluate how much joy I can get from buying something in the crown store or not. I compare it to a visit to the restaurant, where at the end you had nothing but a full stomach and maybe good company. But when I buy a package of 21,000 crowns in the sale for around 80 euros, then - for me - I will have invested this money better than with 2-3 visits to a restaurant, because I can buy at least one large house and numerous other things for it , which I will enjoy for weeks. And not just one or two evenings.

I too have to force myself to do a reality check when looking at the latest Crown House that I really want to own!

I have brought a few when they appear at a time that I have enough ESO+ crowns saved up and I'm also guilty of getting my grown up kids to give me money for Birthday and Christmas pressies....

I suffer from way less guilt when I spend their money on huge overpriced houses in a game!!

I'm certain ZOS would have collected the demand modeling to figure out the best pricing model, but I do always question whether a reduction in price would increase revenues. But I have to assume that ZOS has near perfect demand model data because of how they can monitor crown purchases and volume. So your simple answer is--at a single price point, it is priced where it is at because people are willing to pay for it at that price.

I do think ZOS is making some enormous pricing errors though by not discriminating the market further. There are a lot of buyers who are willing to buy the product above cost (like OP) but won't because the price is too high. I'm almost certain there are also a lot of buyers who are willing to pay more for these houses but they end up paying less because of where the house is priced. Currently, the price discrimination only separates into a Furnished and Unfurnished model, but the furnished model comes with crown furnishing which is objectively less valuable than in-game furnishing (because it cannot be traded or easily stored). Despite being willing to pay more for a furnished model I know many who will not because the crown furniture is more a hassle then a help.

You're welcome ZOS, that's my light consulting for the day. You're welcome to hit me up and we can discuss how to come on board to do more.

^

It's about 26 million gold at current PC-NA rates in some crown exchange discords.

runa_gate wrote: »

it occurs to me this person will not see my offer before the house leaves the store which would be really messed up

It's a really kind one. If you message with the @ signal will at least give a notification. @DreamyLu

Their signature even says PC/NA like me but trying to /w DreamyLu would only work if they were logged in, wait I'll try in-game mail

Dear All

Yep, I'm in EU playing on NA, and at the top of it I'm playing at Aussie & Asia times (early morning my local time), so I see everything with lag.

I thank all the persons who offered their help to get me the house (I also got messages).

I would like to apologize because I'm not sure if I was clear enough in what I said: I'm lucky enough to be "comfortable" with money - both in rl and in game - and could afford to pay for the house without second thought. The issue was more emotional, as I realized the real price of that house. Where I live, that's about one week food for 2 persons for example. And ESO isn't even my main game... I was overwhelmed by an enormous feeling of guilt and couldn't cope with it in that moment.

@runa_gate, thank you so much. Should you have gifted me the house in game, I would like to compensate. I will see it once in game.

A big sorry again to All if I gave the wrong impression that my problem was that I couldn't afford the house. It wasn't the point.

You All rock guys!

runa_gate wrote: »

Sadly, not knowing your @name and seeing mail fail to @DreamyLu we appear to have missed our opportunity

No worries at all and thank you for caring.

Its perplexing when people support ludicrous prices on digital goods that require no storage space compared to tangible items, are infinitely (for all intents and purposes) re-producable with little to no warehouse overhead and the allegedly predatory practices that some game studios employ against their clientel. These "micro transactions" are not even remotely micro. There is literally no reason a house in a video game should cost more than the base game copy or any expansion ESPECIALLY when their is a mandatory subscription (and lets be brutally honest, no one is playing ESO to its fullest without ESO+, due to the craft bag alone and the necessary materials to do crafting dailies).

"So you're telling me you don't go out to movies, to bars/nightclubs, etc?"
If you are referring to me, then no, I do not. I do not go to bars, or night clubs, nor pubs. If I watch a movie, I purchase it on blu-ray, music on CD or vinyl.

Everyone, literally everyone will get more mileage out of a tangible item than any digital good. I might counterpoint myself and suggest that digital music will get you your moneys worth, but as someone who enjoys finer reproduced audio, you simply are not going to get better than vinyl on a well balanced high fidelity audio rig. But back to the point, very few people have everything they need, and this is proven if you are paying rent or have a mortgage. A tangible item, a better pot for cooking, a better blanket for warmth, a better mattress for a good nights rest, the list goes on and on. Digital goods can not touch these items that make every day living better, less of a chore or even enjoyable.

I have played thousands of hours over the years in ESO, but the money spent in hindsight has not been worth it. I should not have to pay insane amounts of money to make the game fun, which is exactly what all the cosmetics are.

I played world of warcraft for 20,000+ hours and felt every month sub was absolutely worth it because anything I collected in game that made the game better like outfits for transmog, or mounts, were all had by enjoying the content itself. I never had to spend insane amounts to make the base game fun.