The prices on the Black Lotus Bazaar have created much raucous, and have drawn passionate debate, analysis and differing viewpoints. With the start of 2023 upon us it may be a good time as any to get a snapshot of the community’s current sentiment of that and quantify it with a poll for feedback. Therefore I would ask each member of the community the following question:
Q: How would you rate the prices seen on the Black Lotus Bazaar?
Prices are too high: they should be reduced
Prices are too low: they should be increased
Prices are in a good place/fine as they are
0voters
You are all most welcome and encouraged to post discussion below. But please be polite, and respect the views of others members.
*please remember- this feedback is only in relation to the Black Lotus Bazaar, not the Battle Pass.
If this one may clarify their response.
Prices seem often too high. But also seem whimsical. What a thousand Crom Coins gets is a bit random. While Funcom is obviously still getting the hang of this, under advice from their handl- er… Monetization Expert, it is to be expected that pricing will fluctuated.
That said, for the frequency with which items drop broken, not in the pack they are advertised in, and without clarification as to what precisely they are, this one finds their opinion against the Bazaar poisoned. What might be the top of reasonable becomes unreasonable due to unreliability.
When this one is less irked about the matter, this one will present what they consider reasonable price points based on pack contents, if that is within the scope of the thread?
I voted that they’re too high. Not because I can’t pay these prices - I’m fortunate enough to be in a position that I don’t pay attention to the prices, but I’d like them to be a lower price purely so more people can buy and enjoy themselves.
We all play this game for what ultimately is a the same reason - our escape. With that, I’d love for everyone to be able to enjoy the new content as much as I am.
Of all the things the Bazaar has offered so far, I’ve only bought the Sanctum set, because it was the only thing I found to be reasonably priced.
Sure, whether the price is “reasonable” is subjective. And so, subjectively speaking, I find the prices ridiculously high for what is offered. The Sanctum set offered 21 building pieces for 1200 Crom coins. The Headhunter set offers 9 recipes - 1 armor set (5 pieces), 1 weapon, and 3 placeables – for 1995 Crom coins.
Someone needs to send Funcom a phantom tollbooth, because Rhyme and Reason seem to have been banished again…
Absolutely LostBrythunian! The value of the feedback in this thread is derived not just from the votes and the numbers, but also from peoples motivation and rationale.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on all points. Receiving a broken or incomplete product is never a good look for ones business. Greater priority needs to be given to rectifying these issues.
Once again, absolutely my friend, I am all for gathering a consensus on price adjustment rates and percentages. And who knows; maybe even a follow up poll.
That is incredibly noble of you everybodyvsME, and without meaning to sound snarky here, I wish that Funcom shared your good will and genuine nature of your sentiment on issue. And as myself and other users have pointed out in other threads devoted to discussing this issue, lower prices mean more sales. Dozens of people have already lamented that they would like to buy more items than they already have, but they just cannot justify the current asking prices.
My good fellow I would give you 5 likes for this post if I were able!
I agree with your assessment here. This is the only purchase I have made so far. Even though I can also afford other items I liked, I didn’t like them enough to pay the asking price. The other issue I have is how “features” of BLB items get qualified as bugs and subsequently “fixed” e.g the arcane bookshelf. I can understand some obvious bugs such as missing item e.g latrine but I am not comfortable buying items based on the way they look without being able to rely on clear description. IRL example will be buying a packed red T-shirt without knowing the size of it.
Hey there bud. Much like yourself I have only purchased the one item on the Black Lotus Bazaar to date, but for different reasons. The Crom Floorspray. Like a number of people now, I am voting with my wallet. And I wanted to show Funcom that there is both sufficient interest and a market for additional Crom items. It is my hope that the data will serve to reinforce what I have long stated in my thread: that members do want some additional Crom goodies so that they can roleplay, and proudly show their allegiance to him. For CROM!!
Now with that said, I am in firm agreement with yourself and @Narelle that the Sanctum Set has been the only reasonably priced item on the Bazaar thus far, and when it comes around next time, the prospect of me buying it is high. Nice pieces at a fair and reasonable price.
Of course, and every members baseline as to what is a ‘reasonable’ price will inevitably vary based on a number or variables. Most of us already know what these are, so I will not state the obvious.
I would regard the armor as a single item. It all appears in a single window, both here and in the battle pass, not 5 separate ones. Furthermore, if memory serves me correctly, the DLCs of old were advertised as ‘3 new sets of armor’, not ‘3 new helmets, 3 new chest pieces, 3 new gauntlets, 3 new leggings and 3 new boots’. Thanks for your support mate.
I participated because I respect you and feel you deserve to be heard on these forums. While I can and do easliy pay the prices for items I want, I voted that they are too high since I also have much respect for @CodeMage opinion and @Narelle .
They, as well as yourself have been the voice of moderate reason on this forum forever.
Thanks Narelle, I am glad that you decided to post your feedback here. Most of what I have already said to CodeMage in the post above relates to your own answer here.
I agree hands down.
This is another very important point. And frustratingly, this ambiguity still persists, even on the current rotation. Descriptions of what we are buying and the parameters of their functionality need to be both accurate and concise. This means letting people know, among other things, if an item has inventory slots for storage.
JJDancer you should know that that respect is absolutely mutual on my part. And much of that respect comes from the fact we are actually a lot a like. We both shoot from the hip, say what is on our minds and say what we mean with no BS. That is part of why I am the one who created this poll. I have never been affraid to kick the hornets nest, or to set the cat among the pidgeons.
Knowledge and progress is found not in safe spaces or echo chambers, but by us hearing the honest feedback of those around us, even when it is hard or uncomfortable to do so. And the situation warrants some numerical data to give a clearer and more accurate representation.
And JJDancer I just genuinely hope that you are at peace with your vote here, and if you are not, then certainly change it to what you feel is right. I will not lose any respect for you being you. The worst I will do is poiltely and respectfully agree to disagree with you!
I believe we all agree that bazzar is pricey! A plurality of people that payed these prizes was not because they find these prizes reasonable, but to help the cause of this new system, “to keep the lights on”.
I remember @Elth buying a humongous amount of crom coins, just for this. My program on this is more “monthly wage”, i pay each bb and i try to buy only 10 euro per month, but December is Christmas and i triple this amount for bazzar. For January i will again go back to the same program until Easter i guess! Bazzar on season 2 has improvements comparing to season 1. My reference to this is strictly on the comparison between sandstone set and Strom glass set.
Yesterday i had a conversation with @Kanza1. I believe that if the company wanted to “say thank you” to the costumers that support the product years now, here is the window! They could offer an additional discount to these players.
No matter the financial statement of each individual, i believe that “this” would be appreciated from the Conan exiles “zombies” .
This isn’t Funcoms pricing but their Chinese overlords at Tencent. This is their usual scheme if you look at all the other developers and games they own.
But how do you adjust consumer bias out to this? Say you get 100 participants and they all say prices are too high and the poor cs rep takes this to sales and marketing as customer feedback…only to be immediately shot down because all customer’s want lowest prices.
Look, ideally, everyone wants high quality items and say they will pay for that…but how does places like Walmart and Amazon dominate the retail and how does China become the leading manufacturer of the world…it’s not because of quality. People will gravitate towards the cheap… especially in tough times…which the past 3 years could easily be considered tough. So when you put out a poll like this, naturally everyone is going to want it cheaper. A better more holistic way is to work with FC and find out their disappointments in the Bazaar and then poll to see what they think of the set and what’s it’s value.
By offering lower prices then competitors. The problem is that there’s no competition until the rights to Conan become Public Domain in the next decade or so.
I haven’t bought a single item from the Bazaar and it is not that I don’t want to support the game, I’ve bought the game and all dlc’s for 2 family accounts and some of the dlc’s for a 3rd account, but the Bazaar pricing is so insanely high that it feels completely out of touch, I never did and don’t like this trend with overpriced stuff you can buy inside some games.
If they ever lower the price in the Bazaar it will likely never be to a level which I find fair, 200-400% for certain items compared to the item price from the dlc’s would in my opinion be fair, not up to 20 times or more, but I know this won’t ever happen, I think the Bazaar is meant to be selling as much as possible at as high price as possible to those that have enough money and are willing to spend almost whatever + those that cannot help themselves and just want the items.
This will likely continue until Funcom release their next big game(Dune) and then perhaps start lowring the Bazaar prices a bit to squeeze some extra cash out of fans as they slowly move away from developing Conan Exiles and let it live its own life until it dies, all games lose interest and development at some point
I bought the battlepass for 2 accounts, but I am not sure that I will ever buy anything from the Bazaar unless something tempts me too much, I almost bought the 20 something addition to the Stormglass set, but then I suddenly remembered that I have ever only built with it once so I decided not to, that was the only time I was tempted to buy anything from the Bazaar… Oh and yeah the food on the table, but the price on that set…
For the record, I do find the prices in the bazaar a bit high.
But these kinds of polls are silly. No one is going to choose to pay more money or avoid saving money if possible.
A vital option here is something along the lines of “prices are too high but I still buy things from the BLB.” So while well meaning, even at 100% of people saying prices are too high, it doesn’t really mean anything.
This poll doesn’t really give any indication of what the community is willing to work with.
I’m sorry but if I went to my grocery store and asked people if they’d prefer they lower bread prices from $0.95 a loaf for the store brand (yes that is how much it costs here). I’m sure the majority would say yes. Hardly anyone wants to pay current prices given the option of paying lower.
In the poll’s results, I see a number of users who have purchased Black Lotus Bazaar items saying yes they’d like to pay less. Well no kidding. If I spent 1800 on a set of bathroom items, being able to pay 1500 or less for the next set sounds great.
Personally I would request this thread to be closed and start a new one with hard numbers. Because I will wager more than 90% of people voting are going to take the first option. Its like a poll asking what the spelling of Orange is, Orange or Apricot?
We need to know what numbers will ACTUALLY entice people to buy stuff. Maybe use one of the bundled sets and ask people what they would pay in increments of 20%
It’s unfortunately not about what makes sense for items to be priced at. It’s how much people are willing to buy limited time items for in a predatory marketplace.
