28 replies to this topic

[DONTOR]

Bilbo, on 22 April 2014 - 12:04 PM, said:

I see the them everywhere.

Maybe he is playing in a low income ELO range?

Daekar, on 21 April 2014 - 09:25 PM, said:

I believe that most people find the camo prices a bit hard to swallow, which is why you don't often see them. The people who do want them seem to be willing to pay the price that's asked. I imagine there is a good reason that camos go on sale so frequently - drum up sales while maintaining the nominal "market value" at the elevated number.

[zagibu]

750 MC for a pattern that can be used on only 1 chassis is too much for me. 75 for a throw away pattern is fair, but I know I'd quickly get tired of it, so it would probably cost even more than 750 in the long run.

I might buy one of the cheap patterns if it ever goes on 50% sale. 250 - 500 MC is really the maximum a pattern (that doesn't even do something if you don't buy colors as well) is worth to me for a single chassis.

Colors are too expensive, as well, but at least they are a full unlock. I'll probably buy one or two even if I never get around buying a pattern.

[Deathlike]

As a better "compromise" it would be better of a "permanent pattern" would be applied towards an entire WEIGHT CLASS. There are 4 weight classes, and PGI seems to want to keep adding more mechs to each of them (well, not so much for Lights). It would make better sense to price it as such as we will EVENTUALLY have 10 chassis per weight class (mediums with the most chassis has 9), which would make more sense. That assumes you as a player FIT in that class. You could increase the MC to compensate for that value (no more than 1500MC IMO).

That would "improve value" w/o "giving it all away" as the OP's idea goes.

Edited by Deathlike, 22 April 2014 - 02:12 PM.

[zagibu]

Patterns per weight class is a good idea, that would already make them more valuable in my eyes, and I might even buy one for 750 MC. Not for 1500 though.

[Xeno Phalcon]

Having it across all mechs like paint might actually get me to buy them, as it stands the much cheaper oneshots are perfectly fine.

Also the fact that I own a perma pattern for orions but never use it cause I favor Protector now further reduces the chance ill ever bother in another perma camo unlock.

[Kyynele]

LauLiao, on 22 April 2014 - 01:26 PM, said:

Okay, welcome to Economics 101. Nobody is necessarily asking for anything for free. The general consensus is that prices on patterns is too high. By lowering the price of these, or otherwise making them more "economically viable", they could potentially sell MANY MORE of these, making up for the lower cost with a much higher volume, and possibly making MORE money by lowering their prices.

I have 101 mechs at the moment (coincidence >_>), and every one of them has a camo pattern. Except for the Heroes and Phoenix Mechs that I can't buy new camos for. Of course most of them are one shots, I only have a couple unlocks for Catapults, but still, lowering the cost would've meant I would've paid less. Which I wouldn't mind. But, it's infinitely easier to get people like me to pay these prices than to get for example 3x more people, people that otherwise aren't spending much if any money in the game to buy all the camos as well, even for 1/3 price.

This game is a niche product, and the correct way to monetize niche products is through high enough prices (F2P monetization 101, I've actually been to that lecture), so that the people who are willing to pay comparatively much, can do so. Trying to monetize a niche product by volume leads to bankruptcy.

You can rest assured PGI and IGP are monitoring the spending patterns of players very closely.

Just buy a couple one shot camos for your favorite mechs. They're cheap.

[zagibu]

They can't observe patterns with people NOT spending money, though. The only thing I've considered valuable so far are mech bays.

Edited by zagibu, 22 April 2014 - 02:47 PM.

[Tynan]

I'm still working off my founder's MC. Bought a couple of heroes when they went on 50% sale and mechbays, and that's it. The camo spec is very, very expensive IMO for a pure cosmetic. I've put $140 into this already (founders / Phoenix overlord) which is more than I've spent on any other game in many, many years. I realize that they need to make some cash somehow, and I think I'd have less of an issue with the cost if there weren't other (much more important) things to spend MC on (mechbays, primarily).

The comparison that keeps coming to mind (probably because it's the only other F2P game I've been into anytime recently) is Path of Exile--the only real gameplay thing to spend cash on are stash tabs, but a few dollars in you pretty much run into practical limits of usefulness. The cosmetics are crazy expensive there, too, but they're about the only thing to spend money on.

[Kyynele]

zagibu, on 22 April 2014 - 02:47 PM, said:

They can't observe patterns with people NOT spending money, though. The only thing I've considered valuable so far are mech bays.

Yes they can. Even tiny mobile gaming companys typically track all sorts of information of player behaviour, and MWO is way bigger than those.

A conversion rate of 30% would be exceptionally good, with most succesful F2P titles peaking at under 10% conversion rate. I'm assuming MWO has some pretty fanatic BT fans, and would bet that it has a conversion rate better than industry average. Anyway, you get the picture, majority of the players aren't even expected to pay anything, ever. Many players don't consider the game worth spending money, at all, no matter what the prices are. The biggest F2P games in the world are casual games, they actually typically have really really poor conversion rates (like 5% is still very healthy), but the volumes are just so vast they still bring in millions per day.

Getting everyone or even nearly everyone to pay is totally unrealistic. PGI/IGP have calculations of their target conversion rate, and it is easy to monitor if they are on target or not, and prices can easily be adjusted as needed. There is a point of maximum profit, where enough people buy cheap stuff while there's still enough expensive stuff for the big spenders to burn their money on.

If you have already bought mech bays, you are already converted, one of the paying players. You have a spending pattern. You apparently aren't one of the stupid superficial players with not enough other hobbies to spend their money otherwise, so you aren't prime target audience for the overpriced superficial goodies. But the even smaller fraction of players that are part of that target audience are very likely to put in more money than you would if the prices were lowered to a point where you find them reasonable.

I'll conclude with stating that while I have spent more money in the game than I can consider reasonable, I, too aren't quite the ultimate whale. I have no plans of getting any gold clan mechs, and am still contemplating whether to get a clan package at all. I'm sure that the true whales already have all these. And I thank them for supporting the game.