$10-$15 for armor sets/crystals? Really?

[Izorii]

I am always amazed at the price of Vanity items in games. But most people only buy one or two items, if there were dirt cheap I suspect there would not be the reason to invest in them. I am sure BW have a simple rule when it comes to items where they want to charge the maximum amount they can for items and the item must have a very low investment cost. New outfits, pets and speeders are what they want, boosts are even better as veyveyr little development time and selling legacy stuff is just cash in hand as next to no development time.

[Exgrunt]

If you don't like the prices don't buy them then pretty easy. I personally tgink the prices are fairly reasonable after all they still have to make money. Now that its going free to play their money will not be coming solely from subs.

[Darth-Rammstein]

If you don't like the prices don't buy them then pretty easy. I personally tgink the prices are fairly reasonable after all they still have to make money. Now that its going free to play their money will not be coming solely from subs.

 

They probably won't lose any current subs to downgrading due to f2p restrictions and the cash shop is pure profit, most of that crap was probably already in the game and is just surfacing. It's called double dipping, wow makes a fortune off idiots with too much extra cash to blow.

[Ellipsys]

Could someone please clarify the nature of this? Are these prices for free players to have access to those items, but Subscribers will be able to attain them without paying? Or is this the case for subscribers as well? If subscribers have access to these items without paying, then I can understand but if they have to pay additionally, I can't abide that.

[Costello]

Everyone has to pay for them if they want them.

 

They may also be sold on the galactic market as its a means to turn real cash into in game credits without using an illegal gold selling sight. This option will not be available to free to play players as they are limited to 200k credits and nobody will sell an items that cost this many cartel coins for that.

 

What I suspect though is this is a means to get players to spend their 'free' cartel coins from the last year. 1500 isn't hat much for a set if you have just been given 2000. Once all this has been spent then we will see a drop in prices to encourage free to play players where instead of the value of one months sub it will be on mega sale at 75% off. Suddenly 5 bucks for a set of orange armour doesn't seem to so bad.

 

Give it a month or so untill the initial interest dies off and most causal f2p gamers realise there are better titles that offer more for free go elsewhere then the prices will drop.

[schwartzpedro]

Can anyone tell me if there's mandalorian armor with medium weight on the Marketplace?I'd spend 15$ on that!

[Soluss]

Could someone please clarify the nature of this? Are these prices for free players to have access to those items, but Subscribers will be able to attain them without paying? Or is this the case for subscribers as well? If subscribers have access to these items without paying, then I can understand but if they have to pay additionally, I can't abide that.

 

Yes and no. Subscribers still have to pay for cash shop stuff too but they also get a 500 stipend per month to spend. You could save up and get stuff without ever paying anything extra. However, if you are the type that wants everything you see or you want it all right away.... you are going to pay extra.

[Ellipsys]

Yes and no. Subscribers still have to pay for cash shop stuff too but they also get a 500 stipend per month to spend. You could save up and get stuff without ever paying anything extra. However, if you are the type that wants everything you see or you want it all right away.... you are going to pay extra.

 

This was exactly the sort of thing that I was worried about when SWTOR decided to go F2P. Subscribers shouldn't have to pay extra atop their subscription to have access to any in-game content. Now, it would be one thing if all these items were available in-game (at a reasonable chance of acquiring them) for in-game credits for Subscribers, and they could optionally pay Cartel Coins for things to give them access to them swifter (ie currency/experience "boosters", or "licenses" that make some items available below their normal requirements in game, such as an item that cuts the price of mounts and driving licenses in half etc...), but I find it repugnant if someone paying $15 a month is told they have to buy a 320 Cartel Coin "lottery ticket" to have a CHANCE to get the Sith Meditation Throne; and that is the only way to get in in game. Its preposterous that the "neat stuff" should be denied to those who are already paying the full subscription fee per month unless they pony up more cash.

 

At absolute minimum, I think we as the community need to insist that

 

1. ALL items, cosmetic and otherwise, should be available through a reasonably accessible in-game method for subscribers.

2. The "Stipend" needs to be much higher to encourage both F2P users to subscribe, and subscribers to play and enjoy their included bonus Cartel coins by spending them on "boosters" for various things.

 

SWTOR ended up with the "TORTanic" and necessitated its switch-over to F2P because of cutting corners, lack of content added at a reasonably swift manner and more. Huge numbers of players played at the start and found that it just didn't hold up to other MMOs and not enough was being done to improve and make the game a better value. The answer to getting renewed interest in the F2P model is not to put all the "cool stuff" and updates that many of us paid our $15 expecting to see on the way, behind an additional paywall for those who are willing to actually subscribe!

 

I'm so bloody tired of the greed. The model that allowed MMORPGS to rise to prominence in the West (including WoW's meteoric rise to millions of new subscribers, all before they started offering pets/mounts that were not charity-donations) was the "All you can play subscription model". You pay your monthly fee, you get complete access to the in-game experience. Cosmetic items were accessed through in-game means; you didn't need to pull out your wallet again. You paid, you played as you wished. If that meant you raided the biggest bosses, fine. If that meant you wanted to find every posh set of clothing in the game, fine. There was no bias, no tax on players that wanted to enjoy cosmetic items etc... Now, we're seeing developers who want it both ways. The playerbase needs to show this isn't acceptable, but sadly thus far they keep opening their wallets again and again. You should not put up with being nickled and dimed...or rather "5-dollared" again and again atop your subscription fee for ANY kind of in-game content! Until people stop and vehemently reject this paradigm, I don't see many changes coming. I hope it is early enough in the process that for SWTOR at least, these elements can be tweaked and "reconsidered".

[Kourage]

They will eventually go on sale. Just look at other games like LotRO. Always running a sale or special.

[Diefenbaker]

Government bailout so that I can buy vanity items in the SWTOR shop! Make it happen politicians!

[Gullesvupper]

Could understand if it was new, unique armors. But it's just boring old rehashed gear, that they've just made available for the other side. IMO, it's disgusting.

[Lord_Karsk]

The prices seem fair to me - and all my money goes to making TOR better I don't see a downside... other than 'I can't buy all the stuff I want at once - WAAAAH!!!'

 

No most of the money people give them goes to buy new sports cars for the kids of EA shareholders and EC etc.

 

Funny thing is these armors are all things you can get ingame for free, and they are ugly.And

they just made them all grey....So people will pay real money to buy the ugly lvl 20/40 pvp armors

that you can alredy get for free.They did not even make new armors after all the hate people have

been giving them for the wow ouutfits.

 

Doesnt matter, most of the cool things are for Empire players as always, Sith throne etc hello

Developers love Empire.

Edited November 11, 2012 by Lord_Karsk

[Darth-Rammstein]

Could understand if it was new, unique armors. But it's just boring old rehashed gear, that they've just made available for the other side. IMO, it's disgusting.

 

All they did was slap a reskin on existing items and pass them off as "new content" for a premium price...EA working as intended.

[Rehneu]

I truly hope that everyone realized that with the recent purchase of the SW brand by Disney, if this Free to Play with Micro Transaction model does not start to turn a profit, Disney will shut this game down. This hybrid model has worked tremendously in other titles while turning those into profitable games.

 

Stop your complaining. Honestly, if you want it, buy it. If you feel it is to expensive, then pass on the items. Really no one is twisting your arms here.

[bahdasz]

On that note I never really understood needing to raise a level cap. Especially in this game which has the legacy deal. You work to get your purple sets, stick even better mods in em, augment em, then hey we're adding 5 more char. lvls? Why? Some are still lvling legacy. Why not add to legacy? Why not add more content period and worry about a lvl cap increase far off in the future? Meh just my 2 cents.

 

I do not get the whole raising the level cap thing either. They did it is SWG and it was like "oh wow, I can level 90 now! oh oh oh!" for about a week. Then everyone was level 90 after a few days of grinding and it was nothing special at all, everyone else was level 90 too, and you had to rebuild all your gear.

 

It's stupid, it's just a stupid developer way of getting stupid people excited about grinding more, tbh.

[Gerandar]

Appearance affects gameplay a lot.

 

no it doesn't I dont care if my character looks like a mouth-breathing lizard tard as long as its the best gear in the game thats all that matters.

[kaug]

You can see a couple of small discounts start to creep in. I think a lot of the items on the cartel market are not selling at all. The reason is obvious, the cartel items are way too expensive, even a 50% discount is not enough. Stop aiming for the greedy cash grab and start aiming for a nicer experience, people will pay, just not at retarded prices.

 

Armor suits you should add another tab for cosmetics so people can swap in armor what they want to wear without having to remod all there gear, so people can easily swap and wear what they want.

[Mazikeen]

The prices for items on the cartel market is just way too high. Do you really expect people to pay ten to fifteen dollars for an armor set or color crystals?

 

Yep. Bioware will lower prices if people don't buy them, but as long as people do then you can expect them to stay the same.

 

It also gives you something subscribers can save their coins up for.

[ZORG]

The prices for items on the cartel market is just way too high. Do you really expect people to pay ten to fifteen dollars for an armor set or color crystals? These prices need to be somewhat reduced. The cartel conversion from cash to cc is fine, but lower the price of actual armor sets and crystals a bit.

 

Cheaper to sub... LOL kinda the point...

[Naej]

It's actually kinda funny how everyone is SO pissed about the Cartel Packs, but yet, items that drop ONLY from them are flooding the AH right now.

 

Really, prices are fine like that. Time will prove that all of us bought stuff even though we all complained about prices and Cartel Packs randomness and robes looking ugly and stuff...

[Andryah]

I think a lot of the items on the cartel market are not selling at all.

 

Based strictly on what I see on the players and on the GTN... I disagree with you. LOTS of the armor is being purchased. I see it regularly on the players and I see a truck load of it on the GTN. There is some of the armor sets that I think are not selling well, but given how ugly they are.. I can see why.... but I'm sure there are people that like them and buy them.

 

Personally, I have aquired most of my cartel armor off the GTN.

 

Now, based on GTN listings though... I do think the market for the cartel packs has peaked and is declining quickly.

Edited December 6, 2012 by Andryah

[SWGEvictee]

The prices for items on the cartel market is just way too high. Do you really expect people to pay ten to fifteen dollars for an armor set or color crystals? These prices need to be somewhat reduced. The cartel conversion from cash to cc is fine, but lower the price of actual armor sets and crystals a bit.

 

Considering the amount of people I've seen in those outfits and using those crystals, I'd say the price is right.

[Atrimentus]

You can see a couple of small discounts start to creep in. I think a lot of the items on the cartel market are not selling at all. The reason is obvious, the cartel items are way too expensive, even a 50% discount is not enough. Stop aiming for the greedy cash grab and start aiming for a nicer experience, people will pay, just not at retarded prices.

 

Armor suits you should add another tab for cosmetics so people can swap in armor what they want to wear without having to remod all there gear, so people can easily swap and wear what they want.

 

Yeah they do seem too expensive. I get they want to make money but if armor sets and stuff like that were to cost a bit less I'M SURE more people would buy them. I'm nearing level 31 and have a few coins saved up but I don't think I'd be getting the Investigator armor set at its current price. I like the set but 1200 is too expensive for an armor set, no matter level it's for. I got the Dark Initiate Robe when it was 150 CC and I used it from level 15 to 25. That's only one piece and the Investigator set is 5 pieces so each piece ends up being 240 CC. I guess I could go for the Investigator set if it was ~100-150 CC per piece.

Edited December 6, 2012 by Atrimentus

[sankalp]

I'm shocked people still believe this. We've been told about a major content expansion, new PVP warzone, and a revamped Ilum hitting within the next 3 months or so. Just choosing to ignore this because they are supplementing their revenue with the cartel shop seems like a knee jerk reaction.

 

The reason it's taking significant resources right now is because they had to build the functionality of the cartel shop from the ground up. Now that the frame work is in place adding items is simple. A re-textured speeder, a re-coloring of an existing armor model, that doesn't take much to implement going forward. Anything new created for the store is paid for many times over by the revenue it brings in.

 

The dev team is active and will remain so as long as they hit their revenue goals. Creating new content to sustain the business is a given.

 

The deeper fear for you should be this. If this game can't survive with the 2nd largest subscriber base prior to F2P then the whole industry is in trouble. It's been a trend for a while now. Open an MMO, steal players from other games, bleed them out short term, and scatter the MMO players over a larger number of games reducing revenue for any specific one.

 

We are already saw what happened at Turbine when they lost about half lost their players when SWTOR opened, they haven't recovered from it and the downsizing is happening now. If SWTOR dies, the future of the MMO industry does too because funding for these type of games will dry up. Elder Scrolls will be the last big AAA game before Titan. If they both fail... get used to indie releases in the MMO space.

 

Had to comment.

 

We have been told many things that have not happened. Dont go viewing everything with rose tinted glasses

[Dire-Wolf]

Yeah, it's stupidly expensive, especially when none of the items are particularly good looking and you can get similar looking gear for free from quest rewards, dungeon drops etc.