Seriously SE???

[Gilthas]

The funny thing about people complaining about the price of games: when you take inflation into account, the prices of games have become cheaper not more expensive.

Gamers want more and more from each game while paying less and less, all the while development costs have skyrocketed. Yes, it is true that the fact that the market is much larger these days helps, and more units are sold, helps offset the develpment costs, but paid DLC and Cash Shops in MMO's have become important for games to generate a profit. It sucks, but that's life for you.

And yes, it is true that there are companies out there releasing free additional content (Blizzard and CD Projekt ReD for example), but not all companies have the luxury to do that.

It's the fact that in spite of all these extra costs, they still feel the need to charge an expansion pack more than the base cost of the game itself. Where is the line actually drawn?

This isn't really a fair comparison though. You can't just pretend that FFXIV doesn't have a history. 1.0 was a true disaster that earned FFXIV a terrible reputation. To relaunch the game they needed to get past 1.0's terrible reputation, hence the small entry fee. Now that people know that 2.0 is a whole different beast, prices go back to normal.

[ScarletDawn]

Oh dear people taking retail Game stores as official price tagging. Considering they have not even given us a release date for 3.0 why are people so gullible. I will wait for the Heavensward site to be updated and to buy from the SE store.

[Nominous]

It's the fact that in spite of all these extra costs, they still feel the need to charge an expansion pack more than the base cost of the game itself. Where is the line actually drawn?

The line is drawn when you realize that the game was 40 dollars for PS3, and that the expansion was likely to be the same price. When you realize the only reason the PC version was 30 was because 1.0 got lowered to what... 20 dollars because of how poorly it was received?

All things considered, if all versions were released at the same time, bar the poor reception, it would have been the same price across the board, and definitely not 30 dollars.

The extra costs? You mean the optional things that nobody actually needs? I mean, maybe just maybe the extra retainers. I've been playing since 2.0 launch and I've never once needed more inventory space than currently available. I don't need the vanity stuff in cash shop, but if I did want it, what's a few bucks to me if I'm paying 15 monthly? To exaggerate, I could find the money to pay for extra retainers or optional 'vanity' on the ground.

There's no reason to treat MMO's different than any other industry. What can be monetized, will be monetized. If you have a problem with that, take that up with God or something, because that's not just gaming, that's literally everything, ever. It isn't changing any time soon, and if it were, it'd need a big movement with tons of big names, and radical influence behind it.

[SinisterJointss]

It's the fact that in spite of all these extra costs, they still feel the need to charge an expansion pack more than the base cost of the game itself. Where is the line actually drawn?

Ok I've been trying to avoid this thread because to me (as mmo player since EQ beta) this price is actually cheaper than they were during EQ (expac's were 60 then)


$40 is industry standard for expansions, in any mmo. What extra costs are you talking about? the OPTIONAL retainers? OPTIONAL Fantasia? OPTIONAL vanity cash shop?

You talking about the monthly sub? again... industry standard for ANY mmo. Actually ARR's monthly sub is cheaper than other mmo's. I'm confused here gramul, what is it you are talking about??

Oh dear people taking retail Game stores as official price tagging. Considering they have not even given us a release date for 3.0 why are people so gullible. I will wait for the Heavensward site to be updated and to buy from the SE store.

It actually was on the SE store this morning, I seen it myself but has since disappeared from there also.

[Gramul]

I know I'm laying on the passions thickly, but lately this industry and its fans have pushed me further and further into frustration. I've not bought an expansion for a game in a long tome and seeing it be double my expected cost pushed me over the edge.

Games have gotten so bloated and mismanaged that last year, we where met with broke.n release after broken release, and people still handed companies their hard earned money. Kiskstarted games are abandoned, people are still preordering games, pay to not wait has become a viable genre, game journalism has become an insane carnival of blame on all sides, people eagerly await a 5 hour long B movie reject of a game with 2 hours of cutscenes, content that would have been fun unlockables are now stuck behind paywalls. It's insanity. Pure diesel powered insanity.

If this is "just how it is" there is a major problem.

*stares*orz ARR CE was $120 here...

Unfortunately Australia's import/export laws will ensure the expansion will also be outrageously overpriced.

[Mugiawara]

I mean we're getting a whole lots of stuff in this expansion, all in one setting...
Seems fine to me. Try and save up until then, you have plenty of of time to do so.
We still dunno the true price but that looks around the ball park anything higher
I'll be kinda irritated lol.

[Niqote]

*stares*orz ARR CE was $120 here...

Actually ... in recent years I have not pre ordered anything... always waited for release + reviews and if its badly reviewed I forget about it (Which happens more and more often o_o).

[Nominous]

If this is "just how it is" there is a major problem.

I understand the frustration. This in particular is a small problem in the bigger picture of what you seem to be annoyed with.

All of the stuff you mentioned is just a part of gaming in the course of natural evolution. The internet/information generation changed a lot of things, and it changed a lot in gaming as well, arguably not for the better. It changed every form of entertainment. Music, Movies, Art, Novels, almost everything you can think of. With information so readily available, the issues that you mentioned were bound to come up. Issues that would have never been the spotlight of the community, were made big deals because it's immortalized on the internet. Gaming Journalism became so big that it made the idea of print magazines almost inefficient or obsolete in terms of getting information. Pirating became rampant. All sorts of 'bad' things.

All the other stuff is just like I said, how the world is, not gaming. If you haven't noticed by now, everything around you works on the same principles. We're nickled and dimed wherever we can be, because that's how businesses work. There's always a new trinket or new feature you can add to something for extra (DLC ideas), there's always 'optional' bonuses you can add to existing services (HBO/SHOtime, HD for cable, warranties for things, the list goes on). There's always overcharging for things that should be cheap. Stuff that you buy isn't always what's promised, sometimes it's bugged or defective.

For me, this is why I can cope with gaming being the way it is now. It's just kind of taking it's natural course of changes. Until there's a ton of radical companies that set the bar ridiculously high, without any of these practices being implemented, there won't be any reason for other companies not to.

[Magis]

snip

Why are you angry about an expansion being priced at what expansions have been priced at since MMO's began. CoP was $49 at release back in 2004 with less content than Heavensward has. Even single player expansions were around that price (Diablo II: LoD for example).

I get hate for things like the cash shop, but this isn't something new that came in the recent years.

[Welsper59]

I understand the frustration. This in particular is a small problem in the bigger picture of what you seem to be annoyed with.

All of the stuff you mentioned is just a part of gaming in the course of natural evolution. The internet/information generation changed a lot of things, and it changed a lot in gaming as well, arguably not for the better.

Agreed. Honestly, the closest thing to old school tradition is Nintendo (though some would argue against that). Note that "closest" is the keyword there lol. After the early rise of GREAT indie games like Super Meat Boy, quality control has dropped even further than it already was at the time. There was money to be made, not just by good indie devs (like Team Meat), but also those hoping to see equal results for **** products.

In the case of this games expansion though, even back in the day, it wasn't much different than it is now. Starcraft: Brood Wars, an expansion pack from 1998, had an MSRP of $30. Not sure where people are getting the idea that xpac games are dirt cheap... you know, given that BW is arguably the most recognized example of what an "expansion pack" is. I guess we could also include D2: LoD, but that was a few years after BW.