You are waaaaaaaaayyyy over thinking this. Advertisement and pre-orders are not immoral. We tend to over identify stuff. Everything is great, not just good. that type of deal. Pre-order for some is bad, but immoral is too strong a word. Good businesses try to get people to buy there prodcuts, sometimes using incentives. Pre-orders are an incentive. It is not required to have, but it is a way to entice one to buy early before anyone has had a chance to play. All reviews are word of mouth in reality. Someone has to be the first to play so reviews can be given. Funcom chose to entice early access for that, and to get bug testing/feedback done on a large scale to help speed up the QA process. That is not immoral. That is a business plan they chose. Advertisement and pre-orders are not about ethics. They are about highlighting the strongest attributes of your product, and then selling that. Is there some unethical ads out there, i am sure there are. But overtime those companies start to feel it in the wallet, thus company’s strive to hold up to what was advertised.
In your world, one would have to play/consume said product, then decide if it was worth it and then pay. That is not realistic in any nature of successful businesses.
Hey how about looking for players that can make what you want. Armor or Swords and trade them supplies. You could also have a friend from another server come in and make what you want and leave. Unless there’s a level cap
What word would you recommend I use instead to describe an unfair and perverse practice that necessarily disadvantages some people. Unscrupulous? Don’t get too hung up on a word, the meaning is more important. Are timed-exclusive pre-orders okay or the right thing to do? Would you do them if you were in charge of marketing? Is it better to do them or not?
Yes, that is why traditionally review copies are given for free to ‘journalists’. I am not arguing against early access here. That’s another kettle of fish entirely.
You contradict yourself here. Advertisements/pre-orders cannot be both ‘not about ethics’ and yet also have unethical examples existing in reality. Commercial activity is not immune from ethical judgement. Nothing is.
As an aside, I don’t think that the vast majority of advertising focuses on ‘highlighting the strongest attributes’ of products. I wish they did. That would be more ethical. That would be better. In reality, most advertising consists of attention-grabbing and appealing to emotion. Look at car ads, which are probably the most ubiquitous type of ad on tv. They almost invariably tell you nothing about the actual qualities of the car.
One often here’s the phrase, ‘it’s just business’. This is the epitome of a non-argument. It’s an excuse for poor behaviour.
No, I’m not claiming people have to do anything. I’m merely arguing that pre-order exclusivity is inherently unfair, so it shouldn’t be done.
I don’t think it unrealistic to suggest that the world would be a better place if exclusive pre-orders didn’t exist (no matter how relatively trivial the concern). They are also unnecessary to successful business. Consider the success of Firaxis in the article i linked in my op.
The solo player could advertise on this forum or others that they are looking for a person with the pre-order DLC who is willing to make a character to join them in a co-op game specifically to make these items but not play other than that. Excessively complicated to get it but their choice if it’s THAT important to them.
@Kwalya
That’s a practical bandaid solution that anyone could do (at least on PC, I’m not sure how it would work on consoles), even if it doesn’t solve my main concern. Thank you.
@Shadoza
I appreciate your point of view, I believe I do ‘get’ the concern(s) about the devaluation of items and perceived treachery.
However, did you read all of my op, or my other posts? I’ll again need to restate for the third time that some people are necessarily disadvantaged by timed pre-order exclusives. This is unavoidable. People who don’t become aware of the game (or the preorder deal) prior to release fall into this category. It is especially and unavoidably unfair to them precisely because they get to exercise no choice.
From my point of view, such 'gift’s in gratitude for free-testing are akin to bribes if they consist of exclusive items, because it obligates paying customers to undertake testing if they want to access the full content of a game. Not so much a bribe to the person freely giving their time, but for the precedent it incentivizes if people know that they will (or could possibly) receive a ‘gift’ they would otherwise miss out on through no fault of their own, as no paying customer should be obligated to do testing.
Nothing is ‘unfair’ to them, though. There’s nothing unfair about missing out on a deal. If you had as much a chance as anyone else of getting in on the deal and did not, for whatever reason, nothing unfair has transpired.
Some are more knowledgeable and willing to research these things than others. Some are more willing to gamble. There are many reasons that constitute the foresight to have gotten in on this at an earlier stage.
I did not, and I harbor no resentment towards those who did, or towards Funcom for making this incentive. It is an attitude of ENTITLEMENT that fosters the attitude you are approaching this with. The term gets overused in today’s world but here it’s totally appropriate.
You do not need these items, you do not ‘deserve’ these items, and you did not earn these items. So you don’t get these items. “Oh well” or “it is what it is” is the appropriate response. Not “IT’S UNFAIR!” because really, there’s nothing unfair about it.
For the record, I did buy CE with the pre-order bonuses. I can understand the conflict on this contentious issue, and like many others I am torn between mindsets in this regard. Many pre-order bonuses do become available to download at a later date. Two examples from my own library. For Mortal Kombat X, I got Goro as a preorder bonus, he was later released as a dlc for the game of GotY edition. Whereas Resident Evil 2 remake, ALL of my pre-order bonuses were made available as purchasable content the day after release. So it is not uncommon for them to be sold as purchasable content at a later date. It is often only the length of time which varies. Look it has now been around 10 months. I can safely say I wouldnt mind if it were now made available to the wider Conan Exiles community.
Also just putting it out there. Many of us only got either the Atlantean Sword OR Royal Armour; but not both. Im sure those if us who got the sword as a pre-order wouldnt mind finally getting the armour, and also vica versa.
Actually the Conan sword is DMG 30 at leel 10.
Lets’ just say combined with a ceratin area, on official PVP one could get to level 60 in @6 to 7 hours, and not have crafted a single thing (outside of savory steaks for heal) after making the sword.
Think about this…there was NOT ONE distributor in the US that sold the hard-copy of the game in a store, therefore I COULD NOT get the Atlantean Sword as a pre-order.
I could only pre-order through STREAM, which forced me to take the Royal Armor.
I don’t disagree with this general sentiment on anything going forward, but people who buy something under the pretense of exclusivity should not have that exclusivity retroactively stolen from them.
I preordered on Amazon for ps4 Got the Sword no chance to get armor would be happy to purchase armor. And if someone else buys it does not bother me. I will sit in my recliner chill and enjoy the game. Maybe we should all relax.
Seriously, why would I care that someone bought a DLC of the Sword and Armor even if I pre-ordered and received the Armor.
I am more than happy to pay a DLC fee that has both even though I already have the armor. To reiterate, I did not have the option of buying a physical copy for the PC through any US Distributors and therefore was denied the ability to get the sword through no fault of my own during pre-order.
There are those who say do not use “it is not fair” when in fact it is not fair since I was not provided the same opportunity as those in the EU to walk down to a store and pre-order a physical copy.
Im honestly not sure Mikey, but to the best of my knowledge it was not stated that these bonuses would be made available at a later date for either game at the time of their release, if that is indeed what you are asking…? For MKX Goro was only announced for general sale in conjuction with the GotY edition. There was no announcement at all for REmake 2, which was kinda frustrating considering I technically brought it twice beforehand to secure all preorder bonuses (I know, I know its crazy, but its my favourite franchise of all time, and I also collect it). Thats a longer story which I will go over in a different post if requested. As far as I know, the pre-order items for each are still available even now on the PS store.
The thing is that the sword and armor are really not all that great compared to the other weapons/armor. There are no flawless versions and are not really that powerful so I do not see why it should not eventually be made available as a DLC to those that want to buy them.
Why not even make each one its own DLC that way, those that already have the armor can buy the sword and vice versa if they want them.
The development team will not release preorder bonus. It would insult people who bought the game for full price. It also would lose funcom future money. A broken promise looks bad on companies.
(I know, I know its crazy, but its my favourite franchise of all time, and I also collect it). Thats a longer story which I will go over in a different post if requested. As far as I know, the pre-order items for each are still available even now on the PS store.