Official Allods Online Item Shop Feedback Thread

[inarakatt]

We are well aware that there is a great deal of feedback coming from the community about the Allods Online Item Shop. In an effort to help compile all the feedback so that we may rapidly improve the current situation, we would like to open up this thread for you to direct ALL of your constructive criticism and feedback.

There are a few rules for this thread. Posts found to be out of compliance with these rules will be immediately deleted.

1. All posts must be constructive.

"I hate the current prices, make them lower nao!" is not constructive. Tell us why you hate them, why you think they should be lowered and to what prices should they be lowered.

2. No flaming or attacking other players OR gPotato employees.

We understand that emotions are running a bit high right now, but there is absolutely no reason to ever attack or flame your fellow players, or your GMs. Posts found doing this will immediately be removed and disciplinary action may be taken.

3. This is not a discussion thread, this is a feedback thread.

This means we don't want you to be debating with other players about their feedback or opinions. It sends the thread off-topic rapidly and derails us from the main goal of the thread, which is to gather as much feedback and constructive criticism from you as soon as possible.

Please stick to these rules/guidelines when responding here. We don't want to have to lock this thread, as we feel it is important for each and every one of you to be heard.

Now go!

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02/23 EDIT - There have been a number of people who have asked "Why are you creating this thread now when there are already multiple threads where this is discussed? Is it to just buy yourself time and distract us? Why don't you go read the other threads?"

We are aware that there are a number of large threads where the current situation is being discussed, however, many of those threads have turned into nothing but a flame war, where players are attacking each other, as well as gPotato and Astrum Nival. Any constructive criticism or feedback that is in those threads is buried down deep and almost impossible to find amongst all the anger, frustration and flames. This thread was NOT created to act as a distraction and "buy us more time" while we fix things. We are not going to simply leave it up here for the next two weeks and ignore the situation while you all respond to this thread. We are reading this on an hourly basis and relaying the feedback and suggestions to those who can make such decisions and changes. Let me assure you that I know tensions are high right now, I know many of you feel as though the game you love is being run into the ground, and changes need to be made. We are working on it, I promise. In the meantime, keep the feedback and constructive criticism coming.

[elsloan]

Simply put, the prices and the combined effect of Perfume makes the Cash Shop way overpriced.

Perfume will be nigh on mandatory at high levels and will need to be consumed often. THe current price for Perfume makes just a few hours of playtime upwards of a subscription based game.

I do not mind paying $15-30 bucks a month to enjoy Allods but for just a few hours? That is ludicrous.

In addition, a 6 slot bag for $20? I intend to buy a bag and bank space, but not a 6-slotter for $20. It is outrageous.

Either the FoD effect needs to be removed entirely or Perfume needs to be brought down to reasonable prices. By reasonable, I mean a months supply for around 15 bucks, leaving me with enough budget to then buy bags, mount food etc..

Truthfully, I would much rather have a subscription based option but I don't think that is ever going to happen.

[godhalo5]

I am not happy with the prices right now because... think about it , you can play world of warcraft for 1 month = $15, but just to get a 6 EXTRA slot bag, you need to pay 20 dollars? this is insane. and also you guys RAISE THE FoD UBERLY so we would spend more in cash shop. Now please look at the prices, they are insane. We are not just money trees, which grow money that we spend on this game. Really all my family makes is around $20,000 a year. And we only save $1,400 a year after all the stuff we have to spend it on. Really man this is like say, "Ok give me 5 dollars and ill give you a doll hair" , and you go to a store and buy a whole doll for $5 . Please lower the prices, this is a burden. I will be adding more things soon.

[omgabear]

I agree with elsloan that the cash shop is not a solitary problem. It is a combination of the price gouging on perfumes along with the game being rebuilt to force their use. If you can not wrest more control over the creative content for the NA release than I would suggest an item that works as infinite perfumes that lasts for 30 days. It should not cost more than your current 6 slot bag increase.

[zocram]

The FoD duration at lvl 40 is 2 hours in the latest patch, making perfume mandatory for astral/end-game pve raids/big pvp wars, it's just ridiculous. With the current prices playing @ end-game costs 1.35$/hour.

1.35$ should get you a pack of 20, depending on how long you play you could use several of those in just 1 day.

[sentinel_]

Here is 127 pages of Cash Shop complaints i'm sure you've already seen so you can go over again - viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8826


Simply put, with the way the game mechanics work end game in regards to FoD and Perfumes the price is just simply too expensive. Most people will look at a price of $15-20 and believe that they shouldn't pay any more than that per month. One exception might be when they first start playing, and spend $50 on bags, bank slots, accessories and similar, but it still has to be value for money for those items.

$13.50 for 10 hours gameplay is a joke. Try $13.50 for 100 hours gameplay. That is three hours a day for a month, which is the average amount for people playing games like World of Warcraft or similar.

Also, just don't insult us with the bag and bank prices. You're charging us the price to feed a family for two nights, sub to WoW for a month and 10 days, go see two movies, go buy two DVD movies... the list goes on. The prices are simply too expensive. Try $5 at the most for that bag you currently have on there.

The main difference I want to stress is that you have the P2P crowd as much as the F2P crowd looking over this game. We understand you are used to having 5% of your playerbase pay exorbitant prices to be the best and support the other 95% of your playerbase. This game is different, its quality compared to any other game you've had and is raising eyebrows. You've got the publicity for the game you wanted due to the item shop prices, now drop them down gain some good publicity and a stack more players while you're at it.

Thanks for the opportunity to share our feedback, even if it is three days too late.

PS: Also consider an optional Premium membership which contained a good amount of Perfumes if you won't directly change the price the main point is you need to have competitive prices in regards to a $14.95 sub.

Also I was under the impression that the decision to buy a bag would be easy after seeing how much grinding it took in game, that pretty much says "Yeah well I can either spend over 12 hours getting this bag or drop 2 bucks on it" it makes it a really easy decision a no brainer if thats the case but then you charge $20 just makes it ridiculous people wanna do neither and makes them want to quit the game

[roland_dragovich]

I have to admit, prior to open beta I was planning to spend at least $20+ monthly on Allods. $40 if you consider that the stipend doubles when counting my significant other, who I like to make sure has the same neat stuff I do When I really feel items are worth the cost, I've been known to spend hundreds in a single month. EverQuest 2 ran me dry just because there were so many interesting things I wanted, across multiple accounts.

Since the item shop opened however and I have had a chance to see the prices for myself, I've decided to withhold any purchases until I see things addressed -- not only the item shop prices, but also issues such as the latest patch which has come to light amidst this whole debacle. As this thread is specific to the item shop however, I will address only that.

If I had to choose a word to describe Allod's item shop, it would be ruinous. The fact is that this is one of the, if not the only high quality free-to-play MMORPG out there right now. It has the opportunity to be a genre pioneer, and is one of the first games that I as someone who has played MMOs since EQ1 in 1999 have been able to enjoy thoroughly in years. I want to give you guys my money. I really do. I would gladly be spending more on this game monthly than I do for pay-to-play games were it for a number of desirable items at reasonable fees. I think that sentiment is shared by a lot of players, from what I have read.

The problem is twofold. One, the current prices are just too high for what is being offered. In particular the backpack/bank vault is the most immediately noticeable to me as someone who isn't very familiar with the rest of the game's mechanics, but in general I find the prices to be very high. While I think that items such as say, a respec, appearance/gender change, or name change can fairly range between $5-$10, more general use items or things that would be commonly wanted between characters should never exceed the $5 amount, perhaps even not half of that.

The second problem is in Fear of Death, and the perfumes. Being told that I must either save up perfumes from dailies, or spend almost as much as I do monthly for 10 hours worth of uninterrupted gameplay, is a very easy way to get me to leave and never want to pay a single cent. Time is a valuable commodity in the MMO genre, and putting such a high price on playable time is a surefire way to kill your game quickly. That is even more disappointing when one considers what a unique and groundbreaking game Allods is / has the opportunity to be. I would rather see Fear of Death removed completely, or lessened enough that it didn't impede regular PvP or PvE gameplay.

Instead of offering items that are required, or at least near-required, to be competitive or have uninterrupted gameplay, why not look into vanity items? I personally would rather pay smaller fees more regularly for interesting outfits, perhaps unique faces/hairstyles/haircolors. A non-combat pet lottery would be very nice to see - I would love a little kitten like the one found in Nezebgrad's Bort Quarter. Illusion potions are also a good option here, as well as potions that make gameplay more interesting but do not impact regular conflict, such as fatigue-extensions or exp/gold/loot drop boosts.

If you must add premium items at large fees, then make them worthwhile. An impressive astral ship model, an instanced house Allod, etc. Highly desirable things worth the price, but nothing that will severely impact the experience of one player versus another, or provide a significant advantage.

Allods has the potential to be the most accessible and populated free to play MMO, and bring more wide-spread validity to that business model here in North America where it is often overlooked or shunned. gPotato and Astral-Nivum can capitalize on this by building an item shop for the everyman, where players will buy at small prices in large quantities not because they are forced to, but because the game is such great quality that they want to.

Please, please do not ruin what you have by going down the path of forcing your players to pay for an interrupted, fair gaming experience. If that is what you choose, then you will not get my money.

[mmohost23]

I really think you need to have the cash shop prices near the same price as Rus. Your prices are not even close and I'm confused why you think it should cost someone 100 bucks a month to play?

We want to give you money but were not going to be robbed either.

Best solution nerf the prices a lot lower and you will get more people buying and not only that your game will have less people qqing and quitting.

Ohh and you may not end up having to shut the game down.

[amairgen]

A pay to play game is built around the idea that you create incentives for your playerbase to pay money without FORCING them to pay. Essentially, you assume that the 'base of the pyramid' will continue to play for free, indefinitely, while the more committed consumers will pay at a level roughly analogous to that of a subscription game.

Currently, however, the FoD/Perfume system locks non-paying customers out of level 40 play entirely. It is functionally impossible to play without paying. Additionally, even if they do pay, they're paying significantly more than the subscription model would cost. At $13.50/10 hours, the average endgame player (who logs 60-70 hours a month) would be paying $87.75. Per month. Let's say that they only need Perfumes for half that time. That's still ~$45 dollars per month. Clearly, that price is simply not sustainable. For the price of one month of play, the consumer could buy an entirely new game.

In fact, the changes need to be quite dramatic. If, for $13.50, FoD was reduced to 1 minute duration for an entire month, that would be price-reasonable. I know that sounds like a massive change but, again, let's look at this as compared to a subscription model. Essentially, I'm paying $13.50/month to have the gameplay experience of, well, a $10-$15/month subscription game. There's price parity there.

Better still would be to remove the perfume system instead of, as we seem to be noticing, further entrenching it (by trying to add value to Perfumes by giving them additional effects). Adding supposed value to Perfumes is a mistake. It further widens the divide between casual and hardcore, it creates even higher barriers for entry for your consumers, and it creates an even more aggressive price structure.

I think pricing the 6-slot bag upgrade at $7.50 would be plenty. And Perfumes either need to be massively scaled down in price ($13.50 for an entire month) or removed as a mechanic.

[lantesh]

I'm going to try to put this as plainly as possible as to what the general consensus has been as to what needs to be changed. Overall, the idea is to bring prices in line with current and potential changes to gameplay.

Currently:
Prices need to be reduced in general. Right now it appears we're being charged 20x what the Russian group is being charged. Without due explanation or transparency as to why this is, the situation is in fact insultingly out of line. If not across the board, "required" items such as perfumes should see a significant price cut.

I understand that "one time" items like bags and stuff are going to be priced higher due to their nature than consumables. However, by charging more than a monthly subscription to another MMO for a single item, I believe you are pricing yourselves out by charging $20 for a single item. I would suggest in the future that prices for individual items go no higher than $15, as it will not alienate those used to spending no more than $15 a month on an MMO, but will still generate similar revenue from those who would spend more. That being said, due to the obvious displeasure about the 6slot bag, you may wish to adjust the price of that even lower.

As things stand currently, I think simply keeping the above in mind would be an amicable solution for everyone.

Short Summary:
-- Reduce CS prices across the board, or at the very least, reduce perfume prices.
-- Cap individual item purchases at no more than $15



The Future
Now it should be no surprise to you that the community knows about the changes coming down the pipe from RU and the recent patches. In themselves, the patches appear to make the game barely playable even WITH the support of CS items. If at all possible I implore you to discuss either modifying these changes or delaying for a later patch with Astrum Nival! However, assuming these changes will be coming, we would like to see the following.

A similar reduction in Perfume cost, in addition to the one suggested above. I understand, perfumes and FoD are essentially your "money maker" with the game, however, the changes being introduced VASTLY increase the need for Perfume, and if demand is going to be driven that high, it is only fair that your unlimited supply be discounted. Keep in mind that you are more likely to frustrate and cause players to abandon their characters by keeping prices for perfumes high, where as a reasonable price would ensure a fairly constant stream of sales, be it in smaller increments.

Additionally, something that could apply to our current situation as well, in the future we would prefer if there were more vanity/customization items as opposed to simply performance enhancing ones. Armor/Pets/Custom Mounts/Custom Astral Ship parts/perhaps housing should it be added in the future etc. These items are always in high demand, and at the same time, prevent long winded discussions such as these where balance vs cost must be discussed.


Short Summary:
-- Speak on our behalf about the changes coming to the game
-- If the RU updates are localized, a further reduction in perfume prices to compensate for the demand
-- A future focus on vanity and customization over performance enhancements.

We ask for these changes understanding that you are a business and that obviously, you need to profit from this game so that you can continue to operate and feed your families. That being said, as your customers and community, we feel that our fondness for your game is being taken advantage of, and would like to come to a compromise that will make all parties involved happy with the results. Allods Online has considerably more promise than perhaps any F2P game to date, and many of us here came from mostly playing games with a traditional P2P model due to the quality of the title and it's community. Please take these suggestions under serious consideration. Thank you.