38 replies to this topic

[Xtrekker]

Oh, and to answer the question, I'd probably agree that MC prices are about double what they should be.

[Sandpit]

Nope, I'd get more for my MC but it wouldn't change how much money I spent on the game. If McDonald's cut the price for the McDouble to .50 instead of 1.00 I'm not going to spend $2 to get four, I'll just spend the same amount of money I would have before and just get 2 instead.

[Commissar Aku]

if things like skins and colors were half as much I would buy many more, Hero mechs on the other hand would have to be like 1/5th as much but then I would most likely own them all as well.

[Zordicron]

A lot of people are reading more into the question I think then was intended.

I believe the OP is just trying to ask if you would find the value of available items compared to the cost of real money more in line if things were cheaper. To this I would answer yes. Would I buy more of the items if they were then in line with the real money cost? I would also say yes to this.

Mostly i think it falls on camo and paints, but to some extent hero mechs. For sure champion mechs. I would probably buy most colors if they were on the cheap. 1000 MC for one color is not on the cheap, that is pretty crappy price point IMO. I bought Obsidion Black when it was on sale for 500MC. I regret this purchase in honesty, because while I hav used it extensively, it was still, at 50% off, almost enough to buy 2 mech bays. The divide between premium and not colors is also sily, IMO all colors should cost the same, and that same should probably be more like 200MC, with sales to put them at 100MC. If this was the case, I could see myself dropping MC on colors, as the value in real money would then align with the value of the item. At least for me. there are players who value paints at zero. Of course, there are players who feel they should get the entirety of MWO for free.


Heros I do not buy unless on sale, and even then they are borderline worth the cost. IMO, 50% is about where they should be. Especially the assault ones. The Hero Atlas, LOL. I am not sure I will pny up for that thing, ever. It will be what, 25 dollars or 30 dollars or so on sale? They could at least include a mech bay. Or heres a thought, reduce the cost of every MC mech by 300 to make the mechbay cost moot.


That said, i would not buy more MC just to buy more stuff, in a sense. i would be more inclined to buy MC if I felt I had items of value to spend it on. As I feel some hero mechs and most colors and camos are not worth the cost, I am not inclined to buy more MC. So, in a sense, I would not buy more MC, but in another I would end up buying more MC in the long run as there would be more items I wanted to have because the price point was good. So the effect wouldnt be immediate if there was a cost reduction, but it would show up down the road. I suppose you could say i would budget it in more.

[Sandpit]

Eldagore, on 23 November 2013 - 11:30 PM, said:

A lot of people are reading more into the question I think then was intended.

I believe the OP is just trying to ask if you would find the value of available items compared to the cost of real money more in line if things were cheaper. To this I would answer yes. Would I buy more of the items if they were then in line with the real money cost? I would also say yes to this.

Mostly i think it falls on camo and paints, but to some extent hero mechs. For sure champion mechs. I would probably buy most colors if they were on the cheap. 1000 MC for one color is not on the cheap, that is pretty crappy price point IMO. I bought Obsidion Black when it was on sale for 500MC. I regret this purchase in honesty, because while I hav used it extensively, it was still, at 50% off, almost enough to buy 2 mech bays. The divide between premium and not colors is also sily, IMO all colors should cost the same, and that same should probably be more like 200MC, with sales to put them at 100MC. If this was the case, I could see myself dropping MC on colors, as the value in real money would then align with the value of the item. At least for me. there are players who value paints at zero. Of course, there are players who feel they should get the entirety of MWO for free.


Heros I do not buy unless on sale, and even then they are borderline worth the cost. IMO, 50% is about where they should be. Especially the assault ones. The Hero Atlas, LOL. I am not sure I will pny up for that thing, ever. It will be what, 25 dollars or 30 dollars or so on sale? They could at least include a mech bay. Or heres a thought, reduce the cost of every MC mech by 300 to make the mechbay cost moot.


That said, i would not buy more MC just to buy more stuff, in a sense. i would be more inclined to buy MC if I felt I had items of value to spend it on. As I feel some hero mechs and most colors and camos are not worth the cost, I am not inclined to buy more MC. So, in a sense, I would not buy more MC, but in another I would end up buying more MC in the long run as there would be more items I wanted to have because the price point was good. So the effect wouldnt be immediate if there was a cost reduction, but it would show up down the road. I suppose you could say i would budget it in more.

I agree with you 100% but that's not what the poll implies. I have always thought and stated that the price point of most MC items are just exceedingly high. A color costs more than a mech bay? I understand why mech bays are priced so low. PGI has done an EXCELLENT job at keeping this form becoming a P2W title and by keeping mech bays priced so low it lets those players who don't want to spend a lot of money on a gaming budget still have an inexpensive way to have a good size hangar of mechs.

BUT, that went out the window when it came to everything else in this game. I still have my 10k MC that I received from my founder's package. Think about that. I haven't spent a single MC. I almost bought a hero mech once but then I figured, why? I can earn my c-bills without it. Now that was pre-nerf on earnings and now I can definitely see an advantage to using premium time. for 10k MC I could basically buy 2 mechs (not heroes mind you, just regular mechs that would be free otherwise) and that would be about it. I still had and have premium time so there's no need to spend it on that. I now own PP equivalent of hero mechs for a nice c-bill bonus so no need for that. That leaves camos, colors, and decorative items for my cockpit.

With 10k "free" MC jsut sitting around why haven't I just spent it on this stuff? Well because in MY eyes, it's not worth it. Even with 10k MC just sitting around I think the "stuff" I can buy with it is just too expensive. There's not enough value. I mean 10,000 MC and I'd be lucky to buy 3 camos, 4 colors, and a couple of little baubles for my cockpit. The minute I see something that I feel is valuable enough to spend my MC on I promise it will get spent and I'll be buying more but for now? I bought the PP package because THAT was a value. Nothing else thus far is in my opinion.

[mouser42]

yes I'd be more inclined to by hero mechs. But as of now 40 to a 100 drops till I get board with it, well the cost versus value of the boars head is a good example. I think it sells around 35 US dollars and for most players will get four to ten hours of play time before moving on, it's not a real tempting buy.

[Diego Angelus]

Yes I would buy and spend a lot more money if they reduced prices. Also I would spend twice as much if they didn't milked me with mech bays. its also well known that if we are treated well we would be more happy to give them money and same goes for new players.

[Krysic]

Every store in the world has a set of items near the front counter. They're called impulse items and people buy them because they're convenient (right there at the checkout) and usually because they don't cost very much.

Many people say they wouldn't buy more MC, well I assure the designers there are thousands upon thousands of us that don't buy anything in this game at all. I wont buy anything because $5 - $30 for a single game item (out of all the games I own) is a ridiculous waste of my money.

I have however, spent $30 - $60 on other games I barely like because I'm spending it $1 at a time.

If the consumer doesn't feel the impact of the sale they'll be more likely to do it a thousand times over.

[xhrit]

I voted other. It is a simple matter of economics. If they lower the price by half, and sell twice as much stuff, they have accomplished nothing. In fact - they have devaluated their product and will earn less long term returns.

The reason is called 'Price discrimination'.

First they sell it at an exclusive price that very few people will buy - the few elite people who are willing to buy it no matter the cost will pay that much.
Next then they offer a limited discount. All the people who are willing to pay slightly less will buy it.
Last they offer the item at a huge discount, and everyone who would only buy it if it is really cheap buys it.

This allows them to sell the same product at multiple price points to multiple different target audiences, Whereas if they had started the offer at the cheapest price, they would have the same number of total sales, but would make much less money off them.

Quote

For certain products, premium products are priced at a level (compared to "regular" or "economy" products) that is well beyond their marginal cost of production. For example, a coffee chain may price regular coffee at $1, but "premium" coffee at $2.50 (where the respective costs of production may be $0.90 and $1.25). Economists such as Tim Harford in the Undercover Economist have argued that this is a form of price discrimination: by providing a choice between a regular and premium product, consumers are being asked to reveal their degree of price sensitivity (or willingness to pay) for comparable products. Similar techniques are used in pricing business class airline tickets and premium alcoholic drinks, for example.
This effect can lead to (seemingly) perverse incentives for the producer. If, for example, potential business class customers will pay a large price differential only if economy class seats are uncomfortable while economy class customers are more sensitive to price than comfort, airlines may have substantial incentives to purposely make economy seating uncomfortable. In the example of coffee, a restaurant may gain more economic profit by making poor quality regular coffee—more profit is gained from up-selling to premium customers than is lost from customers who refuse to purchase inexpensive but poor quality coffee. In such cases, the net social utility should also account for the "lost" utility to consumers of the regular product, although determining the magnitude of this foregone utility may not be feasible.

http://en.wikipedia....Premium_pricing

Edited by xhrit, 08 December 2013 - 09:36 AM.

[Myke Pantera]

Depends a little on the item but in general 'Yes'.

Colors:
Love them, but only buy them at sales, and even then i think, they are too expensive. Gimme colors for 200MC and i'll not think about it, but just buy them.

Camos:
Single shot camos are quite ok i think.
Permanent camos MC prices for one chassis are ridiculous! If i could apply them on every chassis, i might have bought some camos already. This way i only use the single-shot camos.

Cockpit Items:
Lol, NO. I do love the spinning holos, so i bought 2-3 of them during sales, but honestly, these types of items are way off the mark. Sell them cheap and i'll equip every mech i have with holos, but this way: no way.

Mechs:
I have to think hard about every mech if i really want to spend that much money on them. Bought all but one hero/champ during sale. All in all i feel, that if they where more generous i would spend the same or even higher amounts of money, but would be more happy about it.

MechBays:
Should either be CBill purchasable, or they keep up with challenges to get them for free, which has 2 positive side-effects. 1) Welcoming to F2P players, which are needed as well to keep the servers busy. 2) Keeps players coming back. They should send out emails about those challenges though.

Premium Time:
For me to expensive, especially since i don't get anything i can't get otherwise. I still have to buy mechbays. If i could start/stop on a per day basis, or if i could buy 1month of premium time for $10 then maybe.

Edited by Myke Pantera, 21 August 2014 - 10:22 AM.

[Mitsuragi]

Xtrekker, on 08 October 2013 - 09:39 AM, said:

[rant]
Also, all these people who go on about their "disposable income"...I'm guessing these are younger people who are too immature to understand they have real use for that in real life. Wait until you have to worry about real life concerns...insurance, mortgages, car notes, kids, medical bills, retirement, then trying to "better" that all the time...then you'll see just how disposable these virtual purchases are. While it's great that these whales are bankrolling my future gaming, they artificially inflate prices for the rest of us. And don't think for a second that you are respected for the amount of money you throw at a game. Trust me, developers look at whales as their target suckers, not their loyal customer base.
[/rant]

I feel like what this guy said: a sucker. The mechs are WAY too expensive in this game. The most expensive mech, an assault, should cost less than $10.

[Basilisk222]

I think overall things costs are too high. 30 dollars for a chassis is just way too much, and if I'm honest, archaic game design. Games are coming out with more features than ever, and F2P titles have models and gameplay elements that cost just a few dollars.

Take Warframe and LOL as comparisons, most content only costs a few dollars. in MWO, if you buy an expensive assault for 30 bucks, sure more exclusivity to you I suppose, but we've established that special mechs offer often times little more than a cool paint job, if that.

So you're paying for exclusivity and no real bonus save looking neat. I mean, sure you get money increasing bonuses etc from the mechs but often they aren't "better" is my point.

Dropping assaults to 10 dollars would drastically improve purchases I think, but would it increase profits 3 fold, that i'm not sure. But I think MC purchases would go up, since the 10 dollar price point is equivalent to like 20 in game hours if you're decent.

I think the game should be a certain level of pay to pretty on a big level. Mech Pilots always customized their mechs, they were important, passed down generation to generation. They were part of the culture. I think more people would take part and enjoy the mech aspect if it really feels like their own.

I think over time, that should be the goal. This game should drop prices to achieve some of that, but we'd have to see how far until it becomes an issue. I'd say Price point should be dropped by a lot though, right now I don't feel 2 mechs for the price of another game entirely is a fair bargain.

Edited by Kilgorin Strom, 21 August 2014 - 09:48 AM.

[Mirkk Defwode]

Need to have the costs adjusted for camo patterns to be the same as buying it individual for all the mechs of that chassis you're attempting to buy it for. Or generally unlocking it for all mechs for the current cost value.

Right now it's actually cheaper to buy camo patterns on an individual basis for the mechs you own. It's pretty simple math to figure all that out...

Mech costs in MC are super expensive unless on a 50% sale...

And generally colors cost waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much, for minor shade variations. I'd rather see them sold as color packs for specific patterns or styles.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

Considering I currently only buy with MC when things are on sale, cutting prices significantly would go a long way toward making me more inclined to buy things at regular price. Anything available via c-bills I'd only buy with MC if it were super heavily discounted, most likely with significant ancillary incentives attached.

[Hoffenstein]

I would absolutely buy more MC if the prices were cheaper in this game. Heck, I'd go as far to say that I'd constantly have Premium Time activated if that were the case.

[IllCaesar]

Oh hell yes. Right now, there's a hero mech that goes for $35. Look, I know this is a free-to-play game, and that you have to make money somehow, but $35 for a single mech? You could go "oh, well, thats a hero, it should be more expensive", and you've got a point there - but vanilla variants are absurdly expensive as well. I'll probably never buy another mech using MC ever again, including any of the heroes because its so damn expensive. I think premium time and mech bays are fairly reasonable- Mechbays are roughly $1.50 each, and Premium Time is about $11 a month - a price I'm willing to pay for both of those, but hell to the no for any of the mechs. The Starter Packs are reasonable given what you're getting from all of it, and the same for the Mastery, but most of that money goes to mechs I'll just buy with C-Bills anyways. Cockpit items are nice, and there's some good ones in there, but they're just way too damn expensive. Hmmm, do I want an ornament, or a Mechbay to hold a shiny new Mech? No contest, new mech. I'd probably buy a few Steiner Holos and Newton Cradles if it weren't for the fact they're like $5 each, and for the fact that the inventory system is poo, not letting us know where anything is. One colour for camo costs something like $5+ dollars, and a pattern is similarly expensive.

If they cut only the cost of Premium Time, my Mechbay expenditures would go up, and if they only cut Mechbay costs and not premium time, it'll encourage people who don't buy PT to get it to help fill all of their extra mechbays. The more mechs I have, the more likely I am to get camo and patterns. The cheaper patterns and camos are, the more likely I am to just buy a ton of them and have fun with my mechs, instead of running around in drab green like most players do. If you lower the MC barrier of entry for anything, you're going to spur MC spending elsewhere.


P.S. - PGI, give descriptions for your stuff in the in-game store. Seriously, no details for anything there except how much it costs, with exception to premium time. You'd have to search through the forums to find what everything sold there is.

[Celtic Warrior]

Yes and only yes because you need to purchase 3 of the same type to get it completely unlocked for modules. This triples the amount of money you need to spend to be able to pilot a single mech at its maxed performance.

[Mothykins]

Price is a huge factor.

Let's start with the basics here; Normal, physical objects pricing is based on research time, prototyping, component value, production labour and shipping costs.

These objects have only research time and prototyping.

I'm not saying that those shouldn't be paid for, but that comparably the production cost for any in game items is relatively low.

At this point in time, the Boars Head costs $30, give or take. This is the equivalent of buying either a bluetooth speaker or a new game on Steam.

I would have dropped much more money into this game if it wasn't so cost prohibitive. When things are less expensive, its easy to justify buying more.

[MauttyKoray]

Hero mechs roughly 2/3 the current price and colors/camos at 1/2 their current and I'd buy more. SPECIALLY CAMOS, cause that pattern you have for every mech needs to be purchased for them separately, and they all cost half your body in transaction.