114 replies to this topic

[cephyn]

jay35, on 27 March 2013 - 11:24 AM, said:

I've picked up a significant amount of premium content over the past two months but completely agree that the prices are way too high for most of the Premium content delivered.

Premium Time: The standard price would be a good deal if the timer only ran when you were actually logged into the client, instead of also running it down the other 18+ hours of the day.

This is why I don't buy Premium Time. I can't play for very long most of the time. An hour or 2 here, an hour or 2 there. I may think I have 3 hours but then something comes up after 30 min that I have to go do. I am an adult, I have more money than time - but I'm not going to spend that money if it just goes to waste. And so, PGI loses out.

[jay35]

cephyn, on 27 March 2013 - 11:45 AM, said:

This is why I don't buy Premium Time. I can't play for very long most of the time. An hour or 2 here, an hour or 2 there. I may think I have 3 hours but then something comes up after 30 min that I have to go do. I am an adult, I have more money than time - but I'm not going to spend that money if it just goes to waste. And so, PGI loses out.

So true! Particularly for this game with its audience skewing somewhat older due to the lineage of the BattleTech and MechWarrior IPs.

[Renthrak]

I can't speak for anyone else, of course, but my feelings on spending money are as follows:

I prefer to spend as little money as possible on any given transaction.
I am willing to spend money to have more fun, even though money is in short supply.
The amount of money that I am willing to spend is related to the value of the purchase. (The more I get for the money, the greater the amount of money I will spend)

Consequently, if the cost of purchasing MC and/or the MC cost for items is lowered, I would be more inclined to purchase and use MC. If the larger packages of MC offered a significantly higher $ to MC value, I would buy the more expensive packages.

[BlackSquirrel]

I think planetside has a nice pricing model. Also offer a sub that have really nice bonuses. (Some of the items are costly, but this is elevated with the sharing of weapons etc across characters.)

[UloPe]

I'll just leave this here: http://slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win

[Shiinore]

UloPe, on 27 March 2013 - 01:54 PM, said:

I'll just leave this here: http://slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win

Not applicable. Pay-to-win means that there is an element to the game accessible only through paying real money that grants the player an overwhelming advantage. An example cited in that video is the "super" and "uber" weapons introduced to Heroes.

As it stands, MWO does not have anything of the sort implemented. This is a simple complaint addressing the extra luxuries being outside the bounds of reasonably affordable.

[UloPe]

Shiinore, on 27 March 2013 - 01:58 PM, said:

Not applicable. Pay-to-win means that there is an element to the game accessible only through paying real money that grants the player an overwhelming advantage. An example cited in that video is the "super" and "uber" weapons introduced to Heroes.

As it stands, MWO does not have anything of the sort implemented. This is a simple complaint addressing the extra luxuries being outside the bounds of reasonably affordable.

Not my point. They drastically increased prices which had no noticeable effect on the player base.

[VerusZetec]

I think both Hero Mechs and Colors are about twice as expensive as I feel they should be.

When I have a choice of buying one color at 1000MC, I'm not very tempted. But, buying three colors at 1500MC, to fully color a mech, that's slightly more do-able.

The quanity payoff increases with Hero Mechs: Spend $10-15, tops, for a hero mech, and I'll buy every single one you release. But, at $30 for a single one? I'm sorry, that's half the price of another game. And, if I'm playing another game, I'm not playing or making purchases in MWO. Yes, I'm completely prepared to drop $30 on 'Mechs, but getting just one 'Mech at that price doesn't seem like a great deal to me. Two or Three 'Mechs, now we're talking. You're probably not going to get much more than that $30 out of me in any given month, so why not make sure you get it with things at a more reasonable pricepoint, rather than gamble that you've put something together that meets the $30 justification? (I haven't seen anything other than premium time that currently justifies $30. And that's just because I buy in bulk... again, trying to get the most bang for my buck.)

Lower prices = more items sold, in my book. I completely understand that PGI needs to get paid, and I'm more than happy to help out; I just want a better return on investment for my money. They're digital assets, so once they're created, there isn't a ton of work to maintain them, other than the occasional balance tweaks that would take place anyways.

[Maxx Blue]

I also evaluate purchases in this game based on perceived value. I can, and do, figure out how much real money something is going to cost me before buying and feel that the mech prices are largely too high. I budget a certain amount of money for entertainment every month and if you want that money, you have to offer enough fun-per-dollar to keep me from going to watch a movie or buying someone else's game instead. There aren't many mechs I wouldn't consider spending $5 to buy, so that is probably a good price point for less popular stuff like Spider 5K's, raven 4X's and hunchback J's. Conversely, I have a real hard time paying more that $10 for any one mech. Much more than that, and the value compared to other stuff I could buy starts becoming a question. So $10 is really about all I am comfortable spending on one mech variant. Regardless, you are unlikely to get much more than $20-$30/month out of me in any given month, no matter how cheap stuff is.

Mechbay pricing is OK. Maybe there should be some giveaways or sales on occasion, but I don't have a problem with 300 for a mechbay.

I'm not the type of person who cares much about colors and mech bling, and you are unlikely to get me to spend money on those things no matter how cheap they are so I don't have a comment on their pricing.

Premium time feels like a waste because I have to use it in 24hr chunks. However, when I think of it as paying for three hours (which is about all I can realistically spend playing in any 24hr period) the pricing isn't terrible. It isn't cheap enough to be an impulse buy (which it probably needs to be), but it doesn't feel as bad as mech prices. Honestly, the 24hr thing makes it seem like a worse deal than it really is because most people are going to loose at least half of that time to sleep and other parts of their life. It makes people feel like they are wasting money to pay for time they know they can't play. If you sold premium time by the number of drops rather than clock time, that would 'feel' a lot better. You could probably figure out from server stats how many matches a player averages in 24hrs and make the current MC price for one day of premium buy that many premium drops. Paying for larger time periods like a week or a month doesn't feel as bad since we are already used to paying for things monthly that we can't possibly use all the time (cable, internet, etc.) but the 24hr period needs to get dropped and replaced with something like "30 premium matches for XXX MC" instead.

Edited by Maxx Blue, 27 March 2013 - 09:41 PM.

[Specials4uc3]

The real problem for me comes when I start to compare my dollars spent in MWO with dollars spent elsewhere in gaming. It sucks hard. I spent 50$ in MWO and that got me an Ilya, a mechbay and camo with premium colours for my Cataphracts. I am left sitting there having paid the price of a full release game and having gotten a reskinned Cataphract and a place to park it next to a few cans of paint. Some people have pointed out that MWO is somehow an MMO, which it isn't, and that justifies outlandish value equasions. Unfortunately I am also playing GW2 which cost 60$ and is MASSIVE with an enormous amount of customization and heaps of content meaning I can't much appreciate that multiplayer needs to mean low value per dollar.

I would love to see more people playing and spending in MWO but really they will need to feel like they are not just throwing money away. The 50$ I spent were from a Visa gift card or I never would have been able to justify it. I think for what it is my Ilya should run around 9.99$ and come with a bay to park it. If you want to charge 29.99$ for the thing hows about calling that a Specialist Pack: Cataphract including all variants with bays to park them and unlocking paint customization for those variants. If that sounds like alot of content for 30$ think about it, browse the Steam store and take a spin through a Nexus mod site. Content like a retextured mech/armour/character simply doesn't have that kind of value, that's what entire games cost.

If PGI addresses this it would net them at least two more paying players, I have a couple buddies that won't pay for heroes at the current prices.

[Xerxys]

I have every intention of buying MC, about $50 worth. I'll probably buy the X5 and then blow the rest of it on mech bays. The only reason I'd buy the X5 is to have a mech for grinding c-bills.

[Jetfire]

PGI should know I have spent a lot of cash to support this game... not because I think the current prices are fair, but because I know they need to pull in money to keep growing. I really hope at some point they realize how much they are coasting on goodwill rather than value and make things more inline with a F2P price point, especially once there is more content available.

Standard Mechs should top out at $10 max
Hero Mechs should top out at $15, still a healthy premium, but much more reasonable overall.
Premium time is close
Mechbays are good
GXP conversion is good
Paint needs a massive tune, there is more than enough colors, STD should be $1-3 per unlock, Premium $2-5 and Patterns should unlock across all chassis for the current prices, the 1 off price for patterns is fine.

The mech body mods should hit the $1-5 price points and unlock per chassis
Decals should hit the $1-5 price point and unlock for all chassis

Then offer package deals such as Basic (Camo), Elite (STD) and Master Painter (Prem) in the store which include all the tier paints and below for a package price, say $20, $50 and $100

I bought all the paints, not because I think they were fairly priced, but because I promised PGI if they changed their rediculous model they originally had I would. If they make the model better, I will buy even more content much more enthusiastically and so will a lot of other people.

For the $700 + I have fed this game to help fund it... I expect more PGI if you want to keep getting my money in the future. Seriously that's like $100 a month for the past 7 months and I can't even unlock all your content.

Edited by Jetfire, 28 March 2013 - 02:59 AM.

[BloodyDziq]

There is one simple solution if you want IGP to drop prices.

don't buy things for regular prices, wait for a sale !!!

if they'll see that players don't want to pay the full price, they will have to lower the price. But I guess this is just their business model, and they know that for most people the full price is unacceptable, and they will wait for sales, but there are some that don't mind the full price.

[Corros]

While I agree with most of what has been said I would like to also point out that some of us Founders such as myself are/have carelessly wasted MC. I spent my money so long ago the actual cost of things typically isnt noticed but I stopped buying things and have been holding on to my last MC as if it was my life savings. I tried sticking to buying things only on sale but it still feels too high.

So this is more as a heads up to PGI than anything else. Just because there has been alot of people buying things dont forget to factor in that founder's MC doesnt weigh as heavily as MC that was directly purchased. As it stands I cant justify buying MC at its current rate, but I WANT to give you my money! Sales are great and all but the difference is me giving $5-10 per week or $20 two months later asuming I dont get bored by then. I'm not saying lower prices or I'm quiting but rather just pointing out that I'm willing to part with my money more often if things were more reasonable.

Hope something in all that made sense!

[Sable Dove]

Seraphims Blood, on 28 March 2013 - 05:20 AM, said:

There is one simple solution if you want IGP to drop prices.

don't buy things for regular prices, wait for a sale !!!

if they'll see that players don't want to pay the full price, they will have to lower the price. But I guess this is just their business model, and they know that for most people the full price is unacceptable, and they will wait for sales, but there are some that don't mind the full price.

Sale prices are still very expensive. If you want them to lower prices, don't buy anything.

[Jay Z]

I am pretty happy with the current pricing actually. The sales keep it interesting too. However, there is one thing I would add. That is new mech bays should be available for purchase using C-Bills. It should be 5 000 000CB or higher so that MC purchasing is still encouraged.

[PalinRMA]

The prices are to dam high, I drop 120 on the founder pack and thats about all MWO will ever get out of me. I have played Mech games for 20 years and the prices in this game are crazy.

SMITE, Tribes unlock everything for 30 dollars. PlanetSide 2 also a lot cheaper then this game, there only so much good will.

Edited by PalinRMA, 29 March 2013 - 08:45 PM.

[SteelDusk]

Agreed. They really should halve the current MC prices, and make some adjustments for certain in-game items that are bought with MC.

[Red squirrel]

The color/cameo pricing is mind boggling .....
I bought a 'crimson red' but besides that,
I wont buy anything but mech bays and mechs (bought the Ilya and honestly it was not worth the price)

Edited by Red squirrel, 11 May 2013 - 01:09 PM.

[EyeOne]

The cost of MC is too high. However I have bought MC so maYbe I have no room to talk.

The real outrageous issue is the color price. 1000 for all the (good) colors is unbelievable.