Alphawolf01A wrote: »

cheapen its value for those that pay for it.

Eh, I disagree. It doesn't hurt ESO Plus people at all if the broader playerbase has access to inventory solutions. There already are free ESO Plus trials, and this just gives players some reprieve between those.

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

Plus, as a drop, it would offer no value to + subscribers.

Dropped consumables tend to be tradable, which I think this should be.

Inasmuch as inventory woes seem to be a driver-awayer of the mostly free-to-play population, everyone would benefit from keeping these players more engaged and able to group for content. I think this would go along with what they are doing with making future content included in the base game.

This is a food for thought type of suggestion that would be relatively easy to add and probably quite popular, and, if kept rare, would probably net more ESO Plus subscriptions.

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

If you give something away for free.

They already do that with the free trials. This is basically just a small supplement to that.

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

in-game value would skyrocket

Yes, keeping them rare would have people happy to earn the ones they do, give current ESO Plus people something valuable, and have people that want more wondering if they should just go the paid route, which would improve the financial health of the game.

I don't see how a "single-use rare drop consumable" would help new players. That sounds more like something that would help established players with large amounts of capital already.

After all, how many new players get good use from Aetherial Dust, versus the pro-level traders?

I get that inventory issues are a problem, but a lot of those issues are self-inflicted. Players who are not in the habit of being told that they need to collect everything and decon everything generally don't have overflowing inventory. I would ask if part of the problem is that every content creator with a "new player guide!" starts off by talking about how you have to go all in on crafting as your first step out of the tutorial... when crafting is really a thing that people should get to once they're established and decide they like the game.

As much as we all want everything to be free all the time and never have to pay for anything ever (especially in this economy), that's just unrealistic. ESO barely counts as a B2P game anymore when the standard edition is $20, and that's during the 25% of the year when it's not on a ridiculous sale. I really wouldn't be surprised for them to go full F2P in the near future. Beyond that, there's no mandatory sub, and no future paid DLC - the only paid DLC is old stuff, which we're seeing more and more of it going to basegame.
Realistically, the only way ESO is making money is 1) cosmetics, and 2) the Craft bag sub. That's it. Doing anything to reduce the value of either of those things means you're cutting directly into ESO's very few remaining ways to make money.

I know people love to pull out that "$2B" quote from before, but that was gross. That didn't include the salaries of the devs, or the server maintenance costs, or anything like that. And now, with a second Elder Scrolls game getting permanently deleted from the planet and becoming lost media, it should be in every Elder Scrolls fan's best interest to throw money at ESO to avoid ESO soon joining Legends and now Blades in the void.

You don't make a profit by giving stuff away for free. It used to be, you got what you got in game by earning it, working for it.

People wanted incentive to log in, so they gave us daily log in rewards. Then people said that wasn't good enough and wanted more. They gave us pets, costumes, mounts and even houses, but if they didn't give us the same each month, people complained about the log in reward value. They gave us endeavours and golden pursuits as ways to earn more things, and people complained that, "I don't like doing activity X so it's not fair, I can't earn currency Y to spend on item Z"

Moral of the story is, " Give people an inch, they take a mile".

You want the craft bag, pay for it. Otherwise, get better at inventory management. That is also why there are 8 storage coffers that can be earned in game, giving 360 more storage spots. Between the coffers, bank and backpack, there are more than enough storage slots. Early on, I used to have toons that were only for storage.

JHartEllis wrote: »

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

You don't make a profit by giving stuff away for free.

I'm not asking for a free craft bag. Lots of people ask for a free craft bag.

Perhaps not asking for the bag outright. But you're still asking for a way to use it.

DenverRalphy wrote: »

JHartEllis wrote: »

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

You don't make a profit by giving stuff away for free.

I'm not asking for a free craft bag. Lots of people ask for a free craft bag.

Perhaps not asking for the bag outright. But you're still asking for a way to use it.

A way to earn limited access. I don't personally need it at all. I'm offering it up as a broader health of the game suggestion for devs to consider. They know a lot more about these things.