Cash Shop Overpriced?

[Fyce]

You're paying REAL money... for VIRTUAL items that you cant hold, resell or take with you if you stop playing....

Of course its overpriced.... you're getting nothing real/tangible for something very real/tangible.

Of course, corporations have convinced the current generation of gamers that that's just a-ok..... and will take every penny they can from you.

What are you talking about? If it's not "real/tangible" it's worthless?
The pleasure you have from playing with these items is not worth anything just because you can't touch it?

So, in short terms, if I do a piece of artwork on my computer, it's worthless because it's not tangible, right? Same thing as going to the movies. A Movie is not tangible, you can't even taking it at home with you.

... Damn I hate that argument. It's wrong on so many levels.

[Teirshin]

Damn I hate that argument. It's wrong on so many levels.

When I go to the movies, I'm getting a service in the REAL world, not a VIRTUAL thing that has no true value. My monthly sub gives me access to the service of being able to connect to the servers and play the game, again a real world service, with value.

Cash shop items? Emotional value? Sure, I suppose so. Monetary value? Nonewhatsoever.

Cash shop items are simply a way for them to suck more money out of you for the least amount of effort on their part. And it preys on those who are addicted to MMO's and the mentality of "Gotta have em all", which is a large portion of most MMO playerbases.

The real shame is people think its a great thing, but that short lived rush when you buy your new mount wont last, and it'll be replaced by a new shiny thing in short order, and the lure of shelling out more money will be right there again so you arent the only one without it among your friends.

[Fyce]

Cash shop items? Emotional value? Sure, I suppose so. Monetary value? Nonewhatsoever.

Why? Because it's not "tangible"? That's BS.
Plus, the "emotional value" given from these items is directly related to their price. If they were completly free and given to you with absolutly no effort required, you would not have anywhere near the same amount of pleasure for "getting" and "owning" them.

The price is the wall between people who are willing to pay for it, and people who are not.
By paying for these item, you can set yourself appart from the rest of the players. How far you are from the rest if bound to the price of the item itself.

That pleasure is valuable.
Real people have real emotions with these items. It doesn't matter if you think that a virtual world goods are worthless just because they cost next to nothing to produce.

The only proof I need to show you that you're wrong in assuming that emotions doesn't have a monetary value is the fact that the whole entertainment industry exists. And the goods produced by this industry can be virtual or real, it doesn't matter, the emotions are the same.

[whiskeybravo]

Why? Because it's not "tangible"? That's BS.
Plus, the "emotional value" given from these items is directly related to their price. If they were completly free and given to you with absolutly no effort required, you would not have anywhere near the same amount of pleasure for "getting" and "owning" them.

The price is the wall between people who are willing to pay for it, and people who are not.
By paying for these item, you can set yourself appart from the rest of the players. How far you are from the rest if bound to the price of the item itself.

That pleasure is valuable.
Real people have real emotions with these items. It doesn't matter if you think that a virtual world goods are worthless just because they cost next to nothing to produce.

The only proof I need to show you that you're wrong in assuming that emotions doesn't have a monetary value is the fact that the whole entertainment industry exists. And the goods produced by this industry can be virtual or real, it doesn't matter, the emotions are the same.

I don't have a leg in this race.. But it's a good opportunity to point out that that value is subjective to the individual. Value does not equal price or cost. Some will value the "item" more than it's cost, and others will not. You can't really argue over someone else's valuation because it's their own, made for their own reasons.

And, just an aside.. Emotions do not have monetary value outside your own mind.. You can't buy anything with your emotions, and there probably isn't anyone willing to pay you to be sad or happy or angry. Nobody wants to trade you emotions.. An emotion is a psychological influence on decision making, you can value your own emotion and compare it to the cost of enjoying, amplifying, or removing that emotion to something such as a movie or video game or virtual item in a video game - but it doesn't follow that someone else has to value that emotion the same way.

As for this statement:

Plus, the "emotional value" given from these items is directly related to their price. If they were completly free and given to you with absolutly no effort required, you would not have anywhere near the same amount of pleasure for "getting" and "owning" them.

"Emotional Value" only effects the price insofar as how little or how much someone is willing to pay. Making the mount cost $200 instead of $24 does not necessarily increase any "emotional value" you might obtain by purchasing it. Second, something given to you for free can be just as pleasurable (if not more so) than earning it. For example, your workplace randomly selects an employee each month to receive a $100 gift card. They just draw a name out of a hat and the winner gets free money, you do nothing more than show up for what you're already getting paid to do. You wouldn't value that extra $100 a little more than just your regular paycheck at all? It wouldn't make you happy because you didn't "earn" it like your paycheck? Unlikely.. but this is a subjective, of course, you may not :P

[Fyce]

I don't have a leg in this race.. But it's a good opportunity to point out that that value is subjective to the individual. Value does not equal price or cost. Some will value the "item" more than it's cost, and others will not. You can't really argue over someone else's valuation because it's their own, made for their own reasons.

Of course it's subjective. And I never said otherwise.
My point was the following: saying that something doesn't have any economical value just because it's virtual and intangible is silly, to say the least.
Even if it's subjective, one cannot say for sure that "virtual = 0 value". That's it.

And, just an aside.. Emotions do not have monetary value outside your own mind.. You can't buy anything with your emotions, and there probably isn't anyone willing to pay you to be sad or happy or angry. Nobody wants to trade you emotions.. An emotion is a psychological influence on decision making, you can value your own emotion and compare it to the cost of enjoying, amplifying, or removing that emotion to something such as a movie or video game or virtual item in a video game - but it doesn't follow that someone else has to value that emotion the same way.

Well, yes. But... just like above: I never said otherwise. Plus, I never talked about "selling your emotions".
In fact, I was saying pretty much the opposite: the fact that the entertainment industry is actually selling you emotions. People are paying money for a service which will provide them some emotions. And again, my point was to say that the nature of the service and/or the goods are irrelevant. No matter if they are virtual or real, in the end, you are still getting what you want from buying those: emotions.

"Emotional Value" only effects the price insofar as how little or how much someone is willing to pay. Making the mount cost $200 instead of $24 does not necessarily increase any "emotional value" you might obtain by purchasing it. Second, something given to you for free can be just as pleasurable (if not more so) than earning it. For example, your workplace randomly selects an employee each month to receive a $100 gift card. They just draw a name out of a hat and the winner gets free money, you do nothing more than show up for what you're already getting paid to do. You wouldn't value that extra $100 a little more than just your regular paycheck at all? It wouldn't make you happy because you didn't "earn" it like your paycheck? Unlikely.. but this is a subjective, of course, you may not :P

This is something I'll disagree on. Studies and report showed that free stuff is less impactful than things you buy with your own money.
I remember of an Activision guy who said, during an interview, that the map pack they are selling had much more impact on the player's emotions than free updates.

That said, even if I said that price and emotional value are linked, I did not say that the more you increase the price, the more the emotional value rise. This is only true for rare collectible objects. But here, the mount isn't rare, it's virtually infinite and cost nothing to produce.
So, the goal is only to set the "correct" price and try to aim for what people are willing to pay to get it, in exchange of the joy of having it in game.

As for your second point, with your example, you are talking about getting money, at your workplace. If you go to work, it's to get money in the first place... so, this extra bunch is only a "bonus" that you can win, only by being lucky, which will break the monotony of your daily routine and paycheck. Of course people would enjoy that (or maybe not, because it can raise tension between co-workers if someone gets it and does not 'deserve' it).

Free stuff is not perceived like a reward. It's not something you'll buy with your own money, that very money you earned with your efforts. It's something you can easily see as "yeah it's cool, but whatever".
It's exacly the same as the actual mounts available ingame with the Extreme Primals. People will take the time and put the efforts into getting one, because they want it. However, if these mounts were just unlocked automatically and send to them via the mailmog, the emotional value of getting it would dramatically decrease.

In short: getting something you want in exchange of your own time and/or money is more often that not more "emotionaly valuable" than getting something for free without especially wanting it.

[Lux_Rayna]

Cash shop items? Emotional value? Sure, I suppose so. Monetary value? Nonewhatsoever.

Please explain why RMT thrives to this day if virtual items have no monetary value. Please explain how ppl sell and resell entire accounts if what you're paying for has no monetary value. Everything has monetary value. It may not have any for you, but it doesn't mean that value doesn't exist. Whether its tangible or not makes no difference. People pay for an experience, and if Sleipnir is that experience for them, I don't see the problem. Its pretty difficult to make a sweeping generalization about what is/is not worth $$ spent.

[Ilitsa]

When I go to the movies, I'm getting a service in the REAL world, not a VIRTUAL thing that has no true value. My monthly sub gives me access to the service of being able to connect to the servers and play the game, again a real world service, with value.

Cash shop items? Emotional value? Sure, I suppose so. Monetary value? Nonewhatsoever.

Cash shop items are simply a way for them to suck more money out of you for the least amount of effort on their part. And it preys on those who are addicted to MMO's and the mentality of "Gotta have em all", which is a large portion of most MMO playerbases.

The real shame is people think its a great thing, but that short lived rush when you buy your new mount wont last, and it'll be replaced by a new shiny thing in short order, and the lure of shelling out more money will be right there again so you arent the only one without it among your friends.

Sounds like someone has pony-envy.

[Dwill]

Snip

Your entire argument falls flat when you consider that whether it is in a virtual world or the real world, they both serve the same purpose which is to provide entertainment. And here's the kicker, for me and for plenty of other people, what matters is not really whether the service provided is in the real world or in a virtual one, it's whether the amount of entertainment provided for the dollar is worth it and for a lot of people, it is. It's even better than shelling out 20$+ to go sit in front of a giant screen with a possible terrible experience from having to deal with the other people watching the movie. Especially since you will be able to buy the movie later on for around the same price and you'll be able to have multiple people watching it, in the comfort of your own home and as often as you want.

It's pretty hypocritical of someone like you, to go ahead and insult people who buy it just because they have the spare income and they wish to spend it on something they enjoy when you are someone who seems to support people who go to the movies and yet, the way theaters and Hollywood are successful is by using the same type of business model, making you think that you absolutely need to see "X" movie because it will be the comedy of the year, but without forgetting to remind you that "Y" movie is going to be the action-packed movie of the summer so don't miss it!

[Teirshin]

Your entire argument falls flat when you consider that whether it is in a virtual world or the real world, they both serve the same purpose which is to provide entertainment. And here's the kicker, for me and for plenty of other people, what matters is not really whether the service provided is in the real world or in a virtual one, it's whether the amount of entertainment provided for the dollar is worth it and for a lot of people, it is. It's even better than shelling out 20$+ to go sit in front of a giant screen with a possible terrible experience from having to deal with the other people watching the movie. Especially since you will be able to buy the movie later on for around the same price and you'll be able to have multiple people watching it, in the comfort of your own home and as often as you want.

It's pretty hypocritical of someone like you, to go ahead and insult people who buy it just because they have the spare income and they wish to spend it on something they enjoy when you are someone who seems to support people who go to the movies and yet, the way theaters and Hollywood are successful is by using the same type of business model, making you think that you absolutely need to see "X" movie because it will be the comedy of the year, but without forgetting to remind you that "Y" movie is going to be the action-packed movie of the summer so don't miss it!

I dont trust Hollywood to tell me whats worth watching, not one bit, they lie like a rug. I trust people I know whose opinions I value.

If it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy watching your character ride around on a virtual mount for $24, then enjoy. SE will be enjoying your money and the money of millions of others all the way to the bank for the tiny bit of effort it takes them to make a trivial virtual item then sell it to you for real money.

Its a sad state of affairs, whether anyone realizes it or not, and I'm not alone in thinking that.

And just because we disagree, doesnt make you wrong or right, or me wrong or right, but we're both free to post here what we think, so we do, if someone doesnt like it, thats fine, but we all have the same right to express it, and SE needs to know what we both think so they can hopefully make better decisions overall going forward.

[Tsumoro]

People are really looking at this wrong, the cash shop funds allows them to better the game. Its basically allowing people to essentially donate money to keep the game growing. Depending on the amount you donate, you get an item.

Yoshi-P has said that cash shop revenue is being funneled back into making the game better, I believe him, if it helps give an EU data centre then I am up for that deal.

So, do you trust the man in charge or not.

It should also bare saying that you do not have to purchase a single thing, none of it affects you in game. You may want the items, but everyone has their price and this is the one they decided. So ante up, or go without.