Battle pass feedback

Everything about the battle pass is unprecedented as far as Conan is concerned. They are already taking a risk just by implementing it.

I would argue that not following other games that tarnished the reputation of a battle pass for good reason and doing things differently that would be less likely to tick off their current fans would be the less risky move.

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While you are correct you will still be missing stuff from the store as they stated on the stream some things will be exclusive to the battle pass and others to the store.

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Worthy of quoting in it’s entirety and an accurate reflection of my own thoughts and opinions.

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I would assess it the same way.
I was really expecting the PTW cryers to somehow find a reason to bloat the forum, but this FOMO hand wringing caught me completely off guard.
It makes me think back to those very late night study sessions in college, when the infomercials played in the background and the evil “limited time offer” ribbon of death scrolled across the screen.
Of course in my anxiety to not miss out I bought everything I saw. . . oh wait , I did not. Hmmmm.

Is it possible that some of us have a natural immunity to FOMO, and others go into an anime’ like scream, complete with the drool flying everywhere?

After reading this forum I had to look in my closet and under my bed for marketers before going to sleep last night. Almost. . . . . wait for it. . . . .**deepstate**. (GASP!)

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It depends on the company and how they choose to operate their battle pass. It does not need to be FOMO to make the company a profit.

We are weighing Consumer Satisfaction (over the the lifespan of the product) vs Corporate Greed (over the span of 3 months). We already know Conan Exiles has been around for 4+ years. In 4 years time, how many additional sales could a 3 month Battle Pass have sold if it functioned alongside newer Battle Passes… Even if it just cycled back old Battle Pass items in the item store…

How many more sales of the Battle Pass for Dec-Jan-Feb would Conan Exiles sell if players could also grind the content from the Sep-Oct-Nov Battle Passes. Over the span of years, that is huge in terms of profits, player retention AND in terms of allowing slower players to slowly grind out all of the stuff they want without suffering that feeling of FOMO.

It would still encourage people to “grind” and therefore play on the server, thus keeping it populated. It would sort of fill the content gap that the lack of quests create.

There is really no good reason not to allow players to continue grinding through the old Battle Passes, so long as they are paying for the current Battle Pass.

I don’t see how any other opinion is a sane one.

Provide the best service for your customers, reap the rewards.

No need for FOMO.

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There is absolutely nothing positive to gain for players from the addition of a cash shop and battle pass that the DLCs couldn’t give. This is not a good change for the game at all.

I have no problem giving Funcom money for this game, in fact this game is one of like two games in the last five or so years where I did buy every DLC put out, twice (PS4 and PC) without a second thought, because I really enjoyed the game they made. But adding either a cash shop or Battle Pass system on their own would have been bad. Adding them both is just awful. The fact I can’t even buy things directly, but have to buy a special type of coin is just the most clear indication of this being a predatory cash shop system. Cash shops like this are a way to nickle and dime players, and provide no benefit to the players at all.

“Al la carte” shopping is not an improvement for us over big DLC packs, as all it does is let the devs charge more per individual piece. Game Pass “challenges” are not additional game content, they are a way to pad out gameplay with fetch quests and unnecessary tasks that actually distract from ACTUAL gameplay. Having to log on every day to keep up with it is just a way to reinforce additive habits. Time limited items add to that with FOMO for a lot of players when there is no actual reason a DIGITAL ITEM has to be time limited.

These are awful mobile game monetization tactics being tacked on to a survival game where they just do not belong. But I knew this kind of stuff was coming when Tencent bought out Funcom. While the devs at Funcom may genuinely care about making a great game and keeping their players happy, Tencent as a company only cares about profits, even if it’s the detriment of the game itself. I guarantee these new real money transaction systems will only lead to the death of the game while milking it’s player base out of every last penny they can squeeze from people.

they announce lots of new features and the only thing that interests you is the possibility of missing some skins for lack of time, really I don’t understand…
Will the game be more fun, won’t so many novelties distort it?
here’s what interests me and if I don’t have all the skins in due time it won’t prevent me from sleeping

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No its like any limited time collectible. You miss it and its gone. They can rerelease it, but the value is in the original. I rrmeber the death of superman comic when there were a bunch of different covers. Collectors bought all. No one made them, but we didnt have a term FOMO then. The same applies here. Its just a different cover. No one needs them all if they cant afford it and like any collectible, if you miss it, its gone. I guess the entire hobby of comic collecting is just one big predatory practice…. or its just a hobby, and people without the means should not feel bad that they don’t get everything. I don’t cry myself to sleep because I dont have a Ferrari.

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I do. . .

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Waaahh…

Again, it was stated the BP stuff will not come back or be in store… (like every other season thing in any other game)

So its missable… not sure why you compare stuff thats known to get brought back.

Man… I really wish I had 67 GTO…

Anyway… in Context of Video games… whats point of missable items? Aren’t we trying to avoid real life bs of not everyone gonna be rich, famous, have million, not be homeless or w/e.

Last thing anyone should have on there plate to worry about, is ahving to spend 30-50$ for a 5$ item, they then have to invest there time into getting or miss out on.

WHEN Funcom could Clearly takes there 5$ in 1st place and get them damn item. Why add extra steps like time limit… CAUSE… a majority of Community will shell out the 30-50$ for season pass like fools.

Look, I want to give Funcom money for there hard work. I DO NOT want to add extra steps…

Black Lotus Shop is 100% fine.
Battle Pass can burn in hell… it need to be deleted from gaming industry. BUT… it wont, cause sadly, to many people fall for the BS, and it makes truck loads of money of people who don’t get its nature.

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Because no one ever brought back Action Comics #1. Collectibles never get brought back. Even if it was reprinted, The value is in first printing and you can never bring back first printing.

People need to stop comparing non-fungible real world objects to fungible virtual items with artificial scarcity.

It is a false equivalence.

There are altogether way too many arguments from analogies going on in here. Virtual items are not pizzas or comics or cars or anything else that isn’t a virtual item.

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Its no different. Its scarcity is controlled by the producer which drives up the perceived value. It has no function just like there is no function of a first edition over a 10th printing. If you cant live without it, pay up or jump thru the hoops. There are lots of things in this world that I dont need, but want, that I dont do whats necessary to get because I deem it not worth it. If people really think its worth it then they need to do whats necessary to get it.

This topic is specifically about the Battle Pass and subsequent cash shop feature, there are threads dedicated to the other additions to the game, so those are where discussions for them should take place.

As for the “why is it such a big deal to miss out on stuff” argument, I ask this.

Why does an item need to be limited in the first place?

Unlike the other poster’s mention of the Death of Superman comic cover fiasco (which was also an awful marketing move which helped lead to the crash of the Comic market as a whole), the items in Conan are digital. Once they’re designed and coded, it costs Funcom absolutely nothing to release them. The item is already developed and released, Funcom does not need to invest any more time or effort into it. Hell, since all the assets for these items will have to be loaded into my hard drive whether I buy them or not, I have more negative repercussions from these items being made then Funcom does after they get released.

The ONLY reason a game like this has limited release items is to encourage people to buy them. It is a straight up abusive marketing ploy and nothing more, it adds no value to the player that the item is limited. There is no after market value, and the only “bragging rights” one can attain from purchasing these items is that they happened to play at the right time.

This game already has some time limited items. Conan’s Armor, the Watcher gear, the old furniture and animal statues, that one Rhino skin, there’s plenty of time limited items already in the game, and I’m not complaining about any of them. The main reason being they weren’t specifically limited time sales events. Some where pre-order bonuses, other in game rewards for special events, but none of them had a specific window of time for you to buy them outright. Hell, I think that since it’s been so long since they’ve been released, these items should get released as Paid DLC sets. The people who were around at there initial launch get the benefit of obtaining them for free, while late comers can still obtain them buy giving Funcom money. In my mind, that would be a win for everyone. But I get that Funcom wants these items to remain rare, and that’s fine, they came out from special events so I can see why they’d want them to remain “special”.

But timed Battle Passes and limited Cash Shop items are not special events. They’re a marketing ploy to get players to spend more money on items that they really shouldn’t be paying for. They create an artificial scarcity on items that have no limit on production, and that’s a manipulative marketing scheme. It’s a predatory practice that takes advantage of players while providing no positive change for the player base as a whole.

This game has been out for four years, and in that time has released twelve paid DLCs of various price points. It’s released on average three DLCs a year since it’s launched, that should be more then enough to keep funding the game. With straight DLC packs, there’s no hoops to jump through, no timed limited items, no nickel and dime purchases or log in requirements. You buy the DLC, Funcom gets your money, you get your additional items and everyone is happy.

A Cash Shop and Battle Pass are convoluted marketing schemes designed to derive maximum profits for minimum effort. They’re additions no one asked for. They’re well known and common methods of manipulative marketing, and give the players less content while charging them far more on average per item. Propriety currency specifically is one of the most vile ways to siphon money from fans of a game, and are often priced specifically to make it so you have to spend more then the minimum of an item to purchase the things you actually want. This change is not good for the players nor is it good for the long term health of the game itself.

I have no problem with giving Funcom money. Again, I’ve purchased all their DLCs, multiple times. I’ve spent more money on this one game then all my other game purchases in the past five years combined. But when their paid system goes from quarterly DLC packs you can buy directly to cash shop, proprietary coins and battle passes, all of which are known abusive monetization systems, it does not bode well for the future of the game.

I honestly feel this isn’t even something Funcom themselves wanted to do, as prior to 2020 they seemed very adamant about being against such practices. But with their buyout, they seem to have to fall in line to keep the game running and that’s bad for everyone in the long run.

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To answer your question, yes some people are more susceptibe to a fear of missing out. Just as some people are more likely to become addicted to certain substances or activities.
Generally speaking, it’s not that something being limited time will make someone want it just based on that (altho there are some people that such a thing is enough, often it is related to being the only person who doesn’t have a thing and thus feeling like a lesser individual because of that. In some places, social ostracism based on ownership of some assinine object is not uncommon), but more that someone might already want a thing, but not have the budget for it at the moment. The time limit causes a shift in the mind that makes it seem more urgent to acquire. It doesn’t create the desire, it readjusts the place in hierarchy of needs.
It’s quite impactful, otherwise we wouldn’t see it so frequently.

That said, it doesn’t hit all persons equally, and this one sees it more frequently in persons under 40ish, but the available sample size for that anecdote is limited. As this one’s students were usually in their late teens to late twenties that is the bulk of the group this one observed.

This isn’t the general feedback thread.
This is the Battle Pass feedback thread.

Reading someone complaining about people giving Battle Pass feedback in the Battle Pass Feedback thread is a particular amusement.

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I need more of Conan. If this is the way it has to be, so be it. I don’t mind. I’m expecting some great content there. The idea of chapters/ages sounds intriguing. My only regret is that it’s still months away.

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The magic about what people should and should not pay for is that each person assigns a value to something based on their own standards.

If one feels that others shouldn’t have to pay for things in a game - thats a great opinion to have. But at the end of the day thats that person’s opinion.

I’m glad to see conan continuing on and am very excited for 3.0 and what they are doing. If you don’t feel the need to buy anything out of the new shop… simply don’t. Its really that easy. For others that want to do that - awesome.

I’m a game dev. I work in the industry. They need to make money as well or else the things you enjoy simply cease to get any updates and they move on to something else. You can call that greed or shady marketing or whatever neat edgy words you want, but almost every game dev I know makes less than industry standard wages for a software developer and works double the normal hours of most industry standard developers - so this whole “greed” and “shady marketing” really doesn’t apply to the game developers - they certainly aren’t living on gold plated yachts laughing at their players.

They tend to love their players and their games with a great deal of passion. They also need to pay their mortgages and feed their families.

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I completely agree with everything you just said in your previous post, it really is that easy, people might not think it’s “fair” that they can’t get access to all the shiny new cosmetics and vanity items for free but I think people do forget that there are real people behind the game that need to pay their bills and keep the lights on.

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I don’t think you read what people’s problem with the monetization is. Nobody is saying they are unwilling to pay money for things, in fact, it looks like most people commenting here have bought the DLCs.

The problem is how they are trying to make money, using predatory tactics.

They could still make money, possibly even more in the long run, by not utilizing shady marketing. The limited-time exclusives style of business manipulates people for short-term gains, but devalues its content, alienates customers, and sacrifices its reputation in the long-term.

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