One game I like to compare shops with is Everquest 2. They have very similar items. Armor and weapon skins, building blocks, and placeables. Their shop is also quite old in video game terms, having been available since around 2007.
The prices of items in EQ2 vary pretty wildly, which is interesting because it does give players of different price points something to enjoy. For example some armor sets are only a few dollars in their currency, while others can be as high as $17.
But over all the average for an armor and weapon skin, or a placeable is about the same as Conan Exiles. With some cheaper, and some more expensive. But what about building pieces?
These are incredibly cheaper. Being at around 10-20 cents ($0.10-0.20) each. Or are they?
The issue with the EQ2 shop is items purchased are delivered to your character and not crafted. Meaning you only get one per character. If you wanted to build a 5x5 floor with those building pieces. Youâre looking at $2.50-5.00 spent for that. With a 10x10 being four times as much ($10-20) and so forth.
Whereas in Conan Exiles, we get the knowledge on our entire âaccountâ and can make as many armors, weapons, building pieces, and placeables as we wish with the one purchase.
And there is the rub, CE lets us get some decent value out of what we purchase. While contemporaries do not allow the same level of flexibility.
The Everquest games do this as well. Between the two of them there is over 30 expansions (>$1,000) worth. They also require (as ESO does) a subscription for the full experience. I can only speak for myself, but I am glad the just under $40 I spent (for both Conan and Siptah.. I never pay full price due to Steam, and some of its âexploitsâ) was all I had to pay in order to play the full content of Conan Exiles and its continued development.
I really do find it ironic that people in this thread are wishing for CE to be like other games because they think it would result in a better value. But they arenât playing those games, yet have probably spent quite more of an investment in said games than in CE.
Iâve spent less on Conan Exiles than I have for a year sub on any of the aforementioned game. If I were to play one of those games for the six years that I played CE, I would have spent 8 times more than I have on CE. And that is without buying expansions or any shop items. Just with expansions alone⌠saying about 1 per year (the Everquests used to do more than that), that would have jumped that up to 9 times more easily.
Economically speaking.. CE is the better value. The math supports it, and the fact that everyone here is here and not in those other games despite their âvastâ new content added every few months. I mean I did do a short stint recently on EQ2 with a friend, but that cost me 35% of the amount I spent on Conan Exiles for just that. With NOWHERE near 35% of the time being played, maybe closer to 3-5%.
This is really what it comes down to. I mean if weâre going to blame whales, then I am going to define a whale as anyone who has spent more money since Age of Sorcery on the game than I have. That means everyone who has purchased a single crom coin, for any reason, even for a looping battlepass, is a whale, a white knight, a shill, a foolish spender, and ever other nasty term people have come up with to displace responsibility.
Obviously that is wrong, but as @erjoh pointed out, its just jealousy that would drive that. No one is at fault for buying anything they wish to have. Its their decision, only they can determine the value to themselves, NO ONE else.
And letâs all be honest here. Letâs look at the game today. Lets take the storefront out and pretend it never existed. Leaving only the bits added since it was put in. This is the same game for those of us who have never purchased anything. Thereâs nothing new added in this example. The shop has changed nothing about the game in this example. Iâm not even going to entertain the idea that the game would be less developed by now without it, Iâm not going to make that argument (even though it is a valid one).
The point is, if you do not like the shop, donât participate in it. Your game will not change. Your game does not get worse because someone else has something that you think looks cool and you do not. It really doesnât. If youâre in a mental state where it actually DOES cause significant issues, you need to speak to a professional medical provider. That is a medical condition (and a potentially serious one at that). Seriously guys, if you see another player walking around with stuff you donât have and it sucks the enjoyment you have with the game, you need to tell this to your doctor, that is not normal.
But I donât believe most are actually suffering from some form of delusional disorder. Its more likely most are just misunderstanding or misattributing value or changes.