Shop Store pricing

I understand all about transaction fees, but the way they're going about it, is just annoying as hell to the players wishing to buy some points that they can use in the store/shop. These are "virtual" currency "points" and it's just marketing ignorance to tie it directly to real money in a way that transaction fees cause players to receive less points.

I have 150 points from my closed beta support purchase and need 50 more points for what I'd like to purchase from the shop. Unfortunately, I can't just drop $5 for those 50 points and it makes no sense to drop $10 just to obtain the 50 points I need. There's absolutely nothing in the point pricing that is encouraging me to spend $1 in the store on virtual points in order to purchase a virtual item.

The pricing needs to be made in a marketing way to encourage purchases, not discourage them. The odd points make no sense since there's no odd prices in the store. Keep the prices simple. If you want to encourage players to spend more $ for points, then offer more points in a way that it evens out in the store. Also, there are too many options, make it simple with fewer tiers. For example, it should look something like this:

$5 = 50 points (10 points per $1)
$25 = 275 points (11 points per $1 or 25 extra points)
$50 = 600 points (12 points per $1 or 100 extra points)
$100 = 1300 points (13 points per $1 or 300 extra points)

This keeps it simple with packs that make sense and offers bonus points per $1 spent. These are virtual purchases and should not incur transaction fees. The transaction fees should be so minimal in the scope of purchases made that it shouldn't even be factored in.

SOE has been making a killing with their cosmetic store, especially when they offer double and tripple cash days, where players can purchase 2x or 3x the virtual currency per $1. It makes the players feel the overwhelming need to spend a lot of real money for virtual currency even if they don't plan on spending it immediately. They stock up so much of the virtual currency that they don't even think about store prices and will drop virtual currency on items they may not have ever purchased before.

There are MANY cosmetic items that can still be added into POE's shop. I know my son, alone, dislikes the basic clothing that some of the classes have. For example, if he could purchase a different color shirt than the default red one for his character, he would spend the virtual currency in a second. If the shop prices were similar to the above and there were bonus points days, he wouldn't mind dropping more money on virtual currency than he ever planned on spending on this game before.

The shop needs to be tuned to a more marketing and psychological way than as a serious currency exchange system with results that make absolutely no sense to players and the current shop prices. In the current state, it deters point purchases than encourages it. I'm sure if GGG comes back and replies that they're making a ton of $ right now, they have absolutely no clue as to the potential with a system similar to the above.

I'm agreeing with the people here who are referring to putting the prices in a scheme where players pay for the transaction cost, but get an appropriate amount of points for it. Best ones I've seen have been the one where players pay in the scale of

• 50 pts = $5.50
• 100 pts = $10.50
• 200 pts = $20
• 500 pts = $48.50

With that in mind, what does GGG do now that players have already spent some money and wound up with strange values? For the sake of fairness, does GGG round up all of their current values to the next 5? If you have a 1-4 as your last number, it turns to 5, and if you have a 6-9 in your last number, it goes to the next 10? That would change it in a fair manner to players, but some would be annoyed because they have a "useless" amount still, if they are stuck with only 5, 10, or 15 microtransaction points. But that's still more easily usable than 1, 6, or 11.

Transaction fees and monetary conversions are variable and a cost of doing business. They shouldn't be carried forward to players in virtual currency purchases. Even having prices like "$10.50" doesn't make sense. Again, keep the prices and points simple... the players will spend even more.

buying points is stupid. IMO you should be able to purchase items for that price without having to deal with the whole points issue. Seems like something Microsoft would do.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

A thought: if it was $5 for 40 points, and buying it 5 times gave you a bonus 30 points, like one of those loyalty card things they get in cafes, would that be a better 'feeling' way of having (mostly) the same prices? Since it gives you the 'nicer' numbers, and is giving you something extra where currently people seem to interpret those 6 points as taking something away?

I think people just want options to either buy the EXACT amount of points they need, or just a use for a low amount of points.

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KibaArtist wrote:

I think people just want options to either buy the EXACT amount of points they need, or just a use for a low amount of points.

Something consumable, like armor dyes, are perfect for single point cosmetic purchases. Another low-point offer, could be used for limited use purchases as well. For example, 24 or 48 hour use of a spell effect or pet rental.

I don't think a "slider" for exact point purchases are necessary and may just add complexity to the pricing as they'll need to have a direct $ to virtual currency conversion with a minimum purchase amount. Personally, I prefer the packs with bonus points.

If there is a problem with transaction fees for $5 purchases, then don't offer the $5 packs. Start it at $10 or $15 for currency purchases. SOE has no problems with their $15 station cash cards, which provide 1500 points. They make bank on these during triple cash days (promotion that rewards 3x the virtual currency points if purchased that day).

I can't believe people are actually complaining about this, if you love the game you will support it regardless of how the points system is setup. Imo, the way it is now seems completely fair for a small company delivering a f2p game to the masses. And those small portions of unused points you have leftover... Believe me, you will buy something else in the future and use those points. If not, oh well, you just have a couple bucks sitting there that you won't use... But you made a donation to the further development of the game.

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Nyt wrote:

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KibaArtist wrote:

I think people just want options to either buy the EXACT amount of points they need, or just a use for a low amount of points.

Something consumable, like armor dyes, are perfect for single point cosmetic purchases. Another low-point offer, could be used for limited use purchases as well. For example, 24 or 48 hour use of a spell effect or pet rental.

I don't think a "slider" for exact point purchases are necessary and may just add complexity to the pricing as they'll need to have a direct $ to virtual currency conversion with a minimum purchase amount. Personally, I prefer the packs with bonus points.

If there is a problem with transaction fees for $5 purchases, then don't offer the $5 packs. Start it at $10 or $15 for currency purchases. SOE has no problems with their $15 station cash cards, which provide 1500 points. They make bank on these during triple cash days (promotion that rewards 3x the virtual currency points if purchased that day).

You do realize if they have armor dyes, everyone will be walking rainbows right?

Yeah it makes the game really unbearable you should just quit the game and give me all your loots, cause you know, it's a terrible consumer unfriendly game that hates you by leaving a few extra points in the system that you can't use. The game isn't even out of beta yet, save your QQ for a released game.

Compared to the stuff that goes on in the selling subforum, GGG's pricing practises are the height of virtue.

Also, I'm pretty sure most things sold are priced like this. From ITUNES cards to LeagueofLegends RP