Ridiculously Expensive In Game Content

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
What is with this new trend of ridiculously expensive in-game content? If you thought a $60 gun was bad (here), at least that has functionality. There are games now charging $70 for a monocle...as in...a half a pair of glasses. I just don't get it. :( Thanks to Johan G. for the link.

If you’ve followed that, you’ll have realised that in real money terms the clothes cost around $17.50 each and the implant costs more than $70.00 (or four months subscription). An astonishing amount for an item with no in game functionality. For comparison, Bethesda’s often mocked Horse Armour DLC cost $2.50 on release, some 28 times less.
Click to expand...
 
Bethesda was mocked because they opened a friggin can of worms when they decided to try charging for content. Now look what happened.

Buying content should stay with Second Life where gamers create and sell content between themselves.
 
I used to make a pretty penny selling/buying shit in Asheron's Call. Game companies have finally become hip to the fact that people will buy shit that other people can't have. People, we are a silly lot.
 
ElGuapo242 said:
I used to make a pretty penny selling/buying shit in Asheron's Call. Game companies have finally become hip to the fact that people will buy shit that other people can't have. People, we are a silly lot.
Click to expand...

"Theres a sucker born every minute" It only took a few to start the ball rolling.
 
the explanation of PLEX on eve was confusing...

Do you get a PLEX for each month you pay your subscription? aka 1 PLEX a month for allowance?

Or do you buy PLEX @ 2 for $35 and have the option to either use PLEX to buy stuff or pay for your sub?
 
I've seen much much worse. The WoW Spectral Tiger mount used to go for $900. Now it's only $500 or so [ame="http://cgi.ebay.com/Warcraft-WoW-TCG-Spectral-Tiger-Mount-LOOT-Unscratched-/260806277949?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb943fb3d#ht_500wt_1156"](here)[/ame]. LOL! :p
 
Who the hell are these people with that much disposable cash.... I'd reather go on a vacation..
 
dandirk said:
the explanation of PLEX on eve was confusing...

Do you get a PLEX for each month you pay your subscription? aka 1 PLEX a month for allowance?

Or do you buy PLEX @ 2 for $35 and have the option to either use PLEX to buy stuff or pay for your sub?
Click to expand...

The way I took the article is you can buy an use a PLEX for 30 days of game time, OR you can go to an in game store and turn the item in for another currency called Aurum.

It says you can also turn the in game currency into PLEX, which means for EVE if you play good enough the game pays it's own subscription fee. That also means you don't HAVE to pay $70 real dollars for the glasses, you just have to forfeit 5 months worth of subscription time (which you might have gotten just by being good at the game and having lots of in game currency.)
 
Abusrb yes, and where will it end? I won't pay for stuff like this. I may pay for map packs. If this stuff starts getting out of hand I'l.....*hands start to shake*......stop gaming.

I can do it. I'll just need lots of drugs and therapy. :) What I won't do is contine to pay for every little thing like that rat Bobby Kotick wants us to.
 
toy4x4 said:
Who the hell are these people with that much disposable cash.... I'd reather go on a vacation..
Click to expand...

Probablay younger types. I know I used to value stuff over experience but now I'd rather just be comfortable and use extra cash to see new things.
 
This story is just plebs bitching about how those with higher income spend their money. If the internet is a big part of your life and you "enjoy the finer things in life," a $70 monocle is no more silly than a $70+ pen IRL. Good for CCP for exploiting that niche.

If CCP ever puts that monocle on a big sale and destroys its exclusivity after the initial buy in, there will be hell to pay.
 
EVE introduced PLEX to try and curb RMT. You can pay for your subscription with a CC/cash, or you can buy a plex in game on the open market and right-click-->apply to account to extend it for another month.

You can also buy PLEX from CCP separately if you wanted to sell them for in-game currency or (now) convert them to Aurem for clothing "microtransactions."

So basically your last line is accurate.
 
Just to give some perspective on the amount of time required to earn 1 PLEX, a typical mission runner can earn about 30-50 million ISK per hour if they have a good setup. So for about 10 hours investment your month is "free" (assuming your time is worthless). Of course, the nature of Eve makes it that the typical player operates 2-3 accounts, so you now need to invest 30 hours to pay for them to avoid using RL cash. If you make US minimum wage, you'd earn $210 or so (after taxes) for that same time--or enough for 12 PLEX.

Yeah, it's dumb.
 
It's not a lot of money. It's just people translating the ISK into in RL money and getting their knickers in a twist.

I've got about 70 Billion isk in game and I'm lazy.
 
It is possible to get ridiculous amounts of ISK, especially if you're smart with the market, but the average player has under a billion in their wallet at any given time.
That non-functional monocle would be over 2% of your net worth to acquire at cost, however. On the market it will probably be closer to 3-4%
 
Gaming used to be so egalitarian... No more. Now if you are rich you buy a leveled character. Actually in China online gaming is free (think free WoW) but you got to spend money to get good equipment and stuff.
 
They're going to destroy games, but say it's a good thing because it's "what people want" and they're making money too. People should avoid all in game purchases and stop the onslaught before it's too late.
 
The key word being most... inheritors has a huge possibility of being in this list of dumb people.
 
Man, I'm so glad I finally broke the EvE addiction when I did.

I was "moderately wealthy", but good god, 4 Plexes for a freaking Monocole?! I can only imagine what this is doing to the PLEX market. Good thing I don't need them anymore.
 
Those are a drop in the bucket.

Its the Facebook games that are ridiculous. I have one game that has the balls to ask for $60 bucks. And its still basically in perpetual beta. Though they don't say it.
 
Quick straw poll of my corp and no one has the captain's quarters turned on, though we are missing be able to spin our ships.
 
Maybe blizzard will raise the prices of ponies from $25 to $50 after seeing this.
 
Hmmm...a monocle, huh?

Now, if it was a HAT, *then* we'd be talking!
 
im all for micro transactions on free or almost free games, but to be paying full price plus subs, plus content... getting bit much

i mean if for example the keys in tf2 were .25$ each theyd probably make more money as alot more people would buy them instead of giving away crates to rich people, they also need to make sure that purchasable content doesn't offset game balance, otherwise like real life, rich people will be the only ones having fun
 
What's ironic about the vanity items CCP is selling in game is that they are about as expensive, and in some cases more expensive, the real eve related items that you can buy and wear yourself.

Also most of the complaints about the cost of these items have less to do with the items and more to do with what appears to be CCP's attitude as of late.

Many people feel that this current "expansion" does very little for the core game of Eve and insteads simply adds a minigame that many now call the Captian's Closet and Barbies in Space.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
What's ironic about the vanity items CCP is selling in game is that they are about as expensive, and in some cases more expensive, the real eve related items that you can buy and wear yourself.

Also most of the complaints about the cost of these items have less to do with the items and more to do with what appears to be CCP's attitude as of late.

Many people feel that this current "expansion" does very little for the core game of Eve and insteads simply adds a minigame that many now call the Captian's Closet and Barbies in Space.
Click to expand...

What he said.

I miss spinning ships in station and this expansion offers seemingly nowhere near what previous expansions offered. (Eve Online game and all expansions are free btw).
 
Ahh, the fickle court of public opinion.

Despite the fact that they charge almost nothing to buy the game (Extra 5 bux on your first month), have completely revamped the game engine twice without charging , and even give you a mechanic to pay for your sub by playing the game, it's all just a money grab. Those bastards. :rolleyes:

All this hulabaloo about an item that does nothing but change a few pixels, all because it's expensive.... oi. I wouldn't even mind if they started selling T3 stuff for cash, just so long as you have the option to also acquire it with in game time/isk. Grind or Pay, just so long as it all works the same in the end.

Wanna be pissed at someone? Be pissed at all the peeps who actually fork over their hard earned cash for this crap. As long as they keep buying it, the companies will keep peddling it.

And as for the Capt Lounge or whatever...

Peeps have been whining for years to be able to manipulate their avatar in EVE. Now that they get it, they are whining cause they aren't changing the core parts of the game? CCP said from the beginning that having a 3d avatar would be kinda pointless, since all it would do would change how you accomplished tasks. In fact it would make lots of stuff more of a pain. Now it's here, and people complain because *GASP* it is kinda useless. Peeps should just be glad it's optional, remember when they took away the classic client?

*note: I'm no longer active in EVE, but I had some good times there*
 
I play eve and while I wouldn't pay for for items or plex... There is more to it. For example, one time I was in jita( the trade hub), some pirate blew up a freighter right next to me. I quickly opened the wreck and looted 17 plex. It is very possible to not down real money on these things :)
 
pgwalsh said:
Most people that have become rich didn't get there by being dumb. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Glad you mentioned that because I recently came across a study on the subject. There is no correlation between wealth and intelligence. Most people that have amassed wealth exhibit much greater self control was their conclusion.
 
Truthfully, I think the better bargain is "Buy two, get $20 off".

So $120 for two or $60 each isn't as bad. /sarcasm
 
My brother plays Eve pretty frequently and ISK is like water for him, if you are smart enough you can have revenue streams that will just constantly feed you money whether you are playing or not. Eve requires a certain level of intelligence to play, that most games don't require. It doesn't require a lot of time to acquire money in the game if you understand the underlying economics. I doubt too many Eve players will purchase any of these accessories with real money.
 
Companies respond to market demand by providing products that consumers want, at prices they're willing to pay.
 
Dreknaught said:
Ahh, the fickle court of public opinion.

Despite the fact that they charge almost nothing to buy the game (Extra 5 bux on your first month), have completely revamped the game engine twice without charging , and even give you a mechanic to pay for your sub by playing the game, it's all just a money grab. Those bastards. :rolleyes:

All this hulabaloo about an item that does nothing but change a few pixels, all because it's expensive.... oi. I wouldn't even mind if they started selling T3 stuff for cash, just so long as you have the option to also acquire it with in game time/isk. Grind or Pay, just so long as it all works the same in the end.

Wanna be pissed at someone? Be pissed at all the peeps who actually fork over their hard earned cash for this crap. As long as they keep buying it, the companies will keep peddling it.

And as for the Capt Lounge or whatever...

Peeps have been whining for years to be able to manipulate their avatar in EVE. Now that they get it, they are whining cause they aren't changing the core parts of the game? CCP said from the beginning that having a 3d avatar would be kinda pointless, since all it would do would change how you accomplished tasks. In fact it would make lots of stuff more of a pain. Now it's here, and people complain because *GASP* it is kinda useless. Peeps should just be glad it's optional, remember when they took away the classic client?

*note: I'm no longer active in EVE, but I had some good times there*
Click to expand...

Interesting take, although I believe it's inaccurate.

I've played Eve for coming up on 5 years and have been in various alliances each of which had thousands of members, and 10's of thousands of allies and not once in all that time did I ever hear, or read a post from, a player requesting 3D avatars or anything of the sort.

CCP on the otherhand have long felt, and stated, that they wanted to make 3D avatars because research by their marketing department showed that not having a body was one reason people didn't play Eve.

As for your comment about not caring if they sold T3 stuff, sure, why would you as you yourself say you don't play anymore.

Finally, yes it's voluntary at the moment, but if you think CCP will leave it that way you obviously didn't play for long. :D
 
Remember when games had RGB sliders to change the color of your vehicle / clothes / item / whatever? Now they are $2-3 paint buckets for each combination you want (and you need 3 buckets, I think). :rolleyes:

Yes, it's amazing that people pay for $10-20 in-game items on FB, there must be a boatload of old rich retired people sitting around. I don't know.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top