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No Coverage of Elk-gate?
Ikeda
Member RarePosts: 2,751
I would have thought a $36 DLC Elk (that really isn't a very good model) would have at least made some statement over here.
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Sorry, Swedish humor.
The cynic in me says this is their way of depleting peoples crown stock before housing comes out.
Still, its not the end of the world. When stuff goes beyond cosmetic and starts affecting game play, thats when there are issues.
I just don't get, thankfully, what motivates people to buy all of these fluffy things. I think they play a different game than the one I play. I get excited about things like improving my 2 sharpened Viper daggers to legendary gold, beating Velidreth in vCOS HM and walking away with her mask in medium armor divines, getting a purple Red Mountain ring from a chest in Stonefalls, being part of a group of 8 who holds off an attack from 40+ at Alessia...
Strutting around displaying my foolish conspicuous consumption just doesn't do anything for me. Heck, the only reason I ride around on my Stripped Senche instead of my basic mount is because that was a loyalty reward for subbing back in the early days that can't be bought. I hope it annoys everyone that can't have it for any price when they see me on it.
OTOH, I do try not to laugh at your bling publicly since, after all, you're helping keep the lights on.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I'm no business expert regarding MMOs but don't companies that have real money curranices have to account for account surplus of those currancies at year end via taxes? This may explain the sudden item and cost.
I sure as shit don't defend EVE or CCP like that, and that's my favorite game. If CCP steps in shit, I'm gonna point and say "CCP stepped in shit" like monoclegate. I was on the front row sharpening my pitchfork as I played.
Yes you could buy 5500 crowns for the $24.99 (plus tax) if they were on sale; however, they are presently not on sale and the discussion relates to buying that mount now at the cost of $39.99 (plus tax) for those 5500 crowns.
I'll leave it to those with better math skills to break down the cost of using 4500 crowns out of 5500 to buy the elk.
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And at the end of the day something is paying for the Housing expansion. Although to be fair that could just be from new sales.
I fall into the all-inclusive category. Maybe it's because I'm old, but when I bought Diablo 1, I got all of Diablo 1 and if there was some item I needed, then all I needed to do was play until it dropped. The trend over the past half decade to itemize our games into chunks and sell different parts to different people, and sometimes at absurdist prices is sickening to me. If I want to have the full Total War: Warhammer experience, for instance, then I would have to pay $110 for the game today. They wouldn't even reduce the DLC price for the winter steam sale like 100% of the other games that I had in my wish list. That's absolutely bullshit.
I literally, in the first sentence of the second paragraph said that I don't defend CCP so that question was totally unnecessary. I doubly hate any cash shop that's tied to a game with a subscription. If I pay my $15 a month, then there shouldn't be a damn thing I would have to go to a cash shop to buy.
What else have i been saying over and over,developers are ONLY adding in a login screen so they can run cash shops.This is why the term MMO is false,just because you have thousands,millions go through a login screen does not make it a MMO,NOBODY plays a game for the login screen,your game NEEDS to be played as a mmo not as a single player cash shop game.
It is so pathetic at this point,i bet most of the game studios are designing their cash shop before half the game ideas.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I think, by now, we're beyond considering mounts or other optional items in a cash shop as "controversial". It's a freaking mount. It's fluff. Buy it if it's worth it to you. Don't buy it if it isn't. Simple, really.
If this were a mandatory subscription game, then I could see a bit more of an issue. Though even then, it's still aesthetic/optional, and not at all compulsory. No one's game is impacted by someone else riding around on an Elk.
But in a B2P game? No, I don't see the problem. I personally don't see the value in it, so I simply won't buy it. However, I'll be happy for those who got one for themselves.
People looking for controversy where none exists.
I think after beaver-gate and moose-gate we lost interest in the *-gates.
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https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
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Rather most of the whining appears to come from those who chose not to pay for them.
My guess is envy drives most of those who have the most issue with it.
(but of course they will deny it)
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
how do you survive???
but seriously. . .
Going off your Warhammer example, how does having MORE options for a customer ever a bad thing?
You could have parts of the game for X dollar amounts OR you could have the "All-Inclusive package" for $110. so there it is
Now take Diablo, When I bought that game I had to play for ALL of the content, regardless of whether I used it or not. for example in Diablo I have only ever played the Warrior class yet you don't see me beating down the doors of Blizzard H.Q. demanding they compensate me for content (the two other classes) that I never used that was bundled in a product I bought. . .because there was no choice.
and finally I will use the age old defense for cash shops in sub based games. . .mainly that while the purchasing power of $15 has sunk over the last 10-15 years the cost of development and running a MMO service has dramatically increased. Now businesses could have forced everyone to pay more, instead they mostly offered optional fluff content at a premium to offset rising costs. Again, they gave you and me a choice.
More choice is never a bad thing, your main complaint seems to be on the opinion that prices of products are too high to be considered a good purchase in today's video game market. . .Your argument seems to be; take away choice and make everyone pay $110. . .
. . .no thank you.
buying a mount in ESO is now like when my mom caught me smoking and guilted me into never ever smoking again
wait... maybe that is good
I am SO confused!
Sz
First the original sub was $10; the jump to $15 only happened in 2004.
Cost of simply running an mmo has fallen. what changed though was companies pushing the idea of "content included". Originally new content was via DLC.
Development costs though? Software tools are more powerful; engines more powerful; ideas are already out there; QA systems are well defined etc. Salary costs are higher. Generalising is dangerous but looking at what is being produced today e.g. via crowd funding vs. what was produced 15-20 years suggests that better games are being produced for the same money. So probably not much different.
Expectation is also behind the other thing that has changed - what people expect in an mmo. game. Back then the internet simply couldn't handle "AAA" data. Myst - released years earlier in 1993 - looked better.
So its not really the fact that development costs have increased and more about our - as in mass market -expectations.
1. Cost of simply running an mmo has fallen. what changed though was companies pushing the idea of "content included". Originally new content was via DLC.
So Everquest simply gave out their yearly content expansions for free back in '99? Did Ultima do so as well?
I think not. . .
As far as server costs go Blizzard paid $50~ million per year their first 4 years of WoW's operation.( 2008 investor conference call) the cost now? $82~ million. (2015 investment report)
SE's FF14 server costs were $59~ million in 2016 (investment report). . .compared to FF11's $22 million at its peak of 2 million active players in 2009 (investment report)
so I dont know what data you are looking at, but it is vastly different than what I've seen in investment reports. . .
2.Development costs though? Software tools are more powerful; engines more powerful; ideas are already out there; QA systems are well defined etc. Salary costs are higher. Generalising is dangerous but looking at what is being produced today e.g. via crowd funding vs. what was produced 15-20 years suggests that better games are being produced for the same money. So probably not much different.
Really? better AAA games are being made now with the same budget as 15-20 years ago?? 20 years ago it was 1996, do you know the cost of AAA game development back then? it was $1-2 million. tell me, what AAA game released in 2016 for less than $2 million? I sure can't find one. . .
But back on topic of MMORPG costs
Everquest total production cost: $3 million (1999)
Dark age of Camelot total production cost: $3.1 million (2001)
City of Heroes total production cost: $7 million (2004)
World Of Warcraft total production and marketing costs: $60 million (2004)
Guild Wars total production cost: $20-30 Million (2005)
Age of Conan total production cost: $22 million (2009)
Rift production cost: $70 million (2011)
Star Wars the Old Republic production and Marketing costs: $100-200 million (2011)
DC Universe Online production cost: $50 million (2012)
The Secret World production cost: $50 million (2012)
Destiny production and marketing costs: $140 million (2014)
and as an added bonus.
Final Fantasy 14 1.0 production and marketing costs: $400 million! (2010)
yes that's not a lie, the original version of FF14 made SE lower their projected net earnings by a whopping 90% in 2010. SE also told investors that they spend more than the initial 400 million on even more marketing in 2010 after the game's poor review by critics and players.
back on topic.
Notice how the cost of EQ and DAoC was significantly lower than DCU or AoC?
all of the MMOs on this list were considered AAA titles at the time of their release, now tell me of 1 MMO title released in 2016 that cost $3 million. . .
3. Expectation is also behind the other thing that has changed - what people expect in an mmo. game. Back then the internet simply couldn't handle "AAA" data. Myst - released years earlier in 1993 - looked better.
to be honest I really dont know what you are trying to say here.
Are you saying that MMO games released years ago were not AAA because of internet technology?
that does not make a whole lot of sense, just because AAA games look better today by leaps and bounds because of the inevitable progress of technology does not invalidate a past game's AAA status upon its release.
20 years from now are you going to say that GTA5 was never a AAA title because GTA22 looks so much better?
I really hope I simply misunderstood you, as that idea is simply idiocy. . .
TL;DR
Someone brought Facts to a Forum Discussion.