By the takes on several issues in the social networks and general population that talks in news sequences and whenever someone is allowed to talk, it seems very hard for people to understand that a business pays more to that/those who bring more, no matter what/who they are or what they do.
But I am inclined to think it is even harder to people affected by the Dunning-Kruger effect, because they think:
It is impossible in a just world that someone who seems to me less anything than me to have more success in life doing something I think I do better.
So they need to find a way to construct something that proves the World still just, and those people have something that denotes they are “inferior” in some way.
It would be nice if things were always that logical, but we don’t live in that world anymore.
Instead, we live in a world where profitable businesses will be shut down because the parent company needs to make some numbers look better1.
We live in a world where parasitic companies make money “flipping” game studios, like houses but in reverse.
We live in a world where executives make money by monetizing a franchise into the ground and deploying the golden parachute when there’s nothing left to squeeze and the carcass is sold for parts2.
There’s no such thing as “simple commerce” anymore, no matter how much you love the idea. That quaint notion is just the tip of the iceberg, and you keep telling yourself that there’s no such thing as goblin shark just because you can’t see any fins.
Pretty words, but ultimately hollow. Let me know when you have the courage to stand by your ideals by daring to reply to those who address you and maybe even own up to your own prejudices. Until then, your words are nothing but hypocritical platitudes.
Wish we all had your good fortune and money to burn. Sure must be delightful living a lifestyle where money is no object. Moreover at a time, where inflation is rampant and the poor and middle class are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with cost of living pressures and putting food on their table.
Where I live, this is not rich. It’s probably just barely upper middle class. It’s just perspective. Even a dump of a house here is over $650k. That’s the lowest you’ll find on the market. The rent on a crappy 2 br 2 bath apartment is over $4k
Where I live you can buy 6 nice houses for that.
Just because you are living in some price gouging big city doesn’t mean everyone does.
I’ve never made more then MO minimum wage not $8 an hour. I may have lived poor and pinched pennies till they screamed but my bills were paid and I had 0 debt.
But hey, when the landlords run the city the renters are always broke and living in squealer. They get held responsible for breaking some law, they hand some politician some cash and the law gets taken off the books.
Precisely my point. YOU invoked everyone. I don’t expect someone in a poverty stricken part of Africa to be able to afford the base game price at all, but there is a market for the bazaar prices where it’s not expensive, and some of us live in places like that. I grew up poor too, and I controlled my spending.
If you don’t want to have discussions about affordability for everyone, don’t invoke everyone. Everyone has unique circumstances and I’m not saying the bazaar is for everyone.
Flamboyant Feasts, including the table was 1794 Crom Coins, which translates to a price between $11.48 and $14.89, depending on what level Crom Coins are purchased.
The platters are running between $9.60 and $12.45.
In associated news, the Aquilonian Elevators, which I really want, but won’t buy because I don’t know how much longer I can stand the game, are between $8.13 and $10.54.
And then there are the DLC packs for $9.99, which can be used offline and during beta testing.
I wouldn’t mind the idiocy of the bazaar so much if the game was not in a constant state of “what can we f*ck up now?”
Ok, how about why price out a large segment of your market by pricing items that only seem reasonable to a very small part of your market?
For a game, content should be priced at a level your average player is comfortable with. But then your average player expects a quality that apparently frivolous spenders don’t.
The price should be set to be profitable and meet revenue goals. Nothing more. I don’t pretend to be an expert on Funcom’s pricing model, but they have to answer for it internally. If changing the price makes financial sense to them, they will.
Exactly. Yes some are overpriced but subsequent posting on the bazaar shows a deep discount while others like the hidden library door receives no discount because the full price numbers look good. And the goal isn’t to get a handful of whales to purchase but an larger population to. It’s a linear relationship where 5 whales purchases at $20 a pop and 20 people purchase at $5. No there is a number out there that gets significantly more money and the transaction rate is high.
Also please note that the actual transaction is to conversion to crom coins. To which, it markets itself. The prices are high when you purchase $10 worth but how high is it when you purchase $50? The prices go down fast when you just save up and pay the bigger load of crom coins. What someone in sales needs to do is remind folks about that and the prices were set with that transaction in mind.
And there is precedent for purchasing Crom coins on sale now… people may not like that method, but it does bake a steep discount into the cake by bulking up.
Ultimately, that’s the full story. If Funcom (Tencent, whoever) estimates that the return is sufficiently profitable, then the prices are ‘correct’. I don’t buy much now (especially now, since I’m not playing for the foreseeable future), but I’m just one player - if aenough players are buying at the current prices, then the system is working. I’ve written elsewhere about my belief that Funcom could have made more money (and earned more goodwill) by a different method - but, ultimately, so long as Funcom sees enough revenue by this method (and believes it to be the most efficient way to make that revenue), then it is the ‘correct’ way.
This does raise another issue, of course - the whole ‘problem’ of being locked into that conversion. By converting to a virtual currency, game publishers get round some of the legal issues that may exist with loot boxes etc (less of a direct Funcom issue, but still I’m sure a part of the justification). But mostly it does seem to be about locking purchasers into higher expenditure - you want ‘good’ prices, you need to buy the larger bundles, which means Funcom gets all that money guaranteed. (Also, on the topic of ‘guarantees’ - by adding an intervening stage to the process, the customer is buying the Crom Coins, not the bazaar products - which of course leads to the issue Deacon has pointed out about the lack of product guarantees.)
In the end, I’m not very happy with the ethics of this particular monetisation approach (though I do think Funcom’s a lot cleaner on this than some of the competition - but being ‘less unethical’ is not the same as ‘not being unethical’…). As a consequence, I do not put money into it, but I have no issue with those who do choose to spend. Their money, their right to do with it as they choose - the ultimate basis of capitalism (don’t get me started on capitalism ). I do get a bit confused about those who complain that the bazaar is unfairly priced but then buy anyway - that does feel like maybe it could represent a little bit of an impulse control issue - but it’s still their choice.
It’s a difference of 36 crom coins per dollar before taxes: netting you a whopping 1800 extra crom coins for the $50+tax. Which will give you the funds to buy… checks notes… some plates of food and a scrub brush.
While it’s not nothing, it feels like going to an arcade and paying $10 to earn 300 tickets to buy a $0.10 eraser.
Nothing to be confused about brother here, it’s simple! When people are on “fun time” , they will buy an expensive bottle of wine, they will eat and expensive dish, simply because they are on fun time! A life without fun times is monotonous, boring!
Flowers are expensive, yes, but if i feel like, i will buy some to see my Angelika smile!
Life is not a happy route, it’s a nusty route with happy moments! Sometimes, for having some happy moments you have to pay overpriced things, fact!
It could sound this way but it’s not an issue. Not being a bit impulsive in your life will create you more serious issues. Everyone has to be a bit impulsive, but positive impulsive, not negative, the ones who’s around you need to see you this way, Yolo it’s real you know, very real actually!
I bought the overpriced elevators! Like i said, i don’t use elevators often. A common friend of ours called me to his server to exhibit his glorious Aesir towers. They had elevators of course, but now they have Aquilonian funcy elevators. We made purges and have fun for about 3 straight hours and we laugh our as out. We had a beautiful Sunday night and that’s all that matters brother, nothing else. Will we had the same fun without these elevators, definitely! But when you go somewhere as a visitor, it’s always best not to visit with empty hands.
). I do get a bit confused about those who complain that the bazaar is unfairly priced but then buy anyway - that does feel like maybe it could represent a little bit of an impulse control issue - but it’s still their choice.