Ya'll.. Snow is pricey

[Lostar]

Unfortunately you didn't, since you paid for it. You disliked paying so much, but to you it was still worth paying the price.

The only metric a business really needs to care about is units sold. If the customers claim they aren't happy but the items are reeling in the profits, there's no reason to change it.

Of course. I don't have access too their numbers, however. Heck -- I feel the price of keeping every retainer accessible to be ridiculous too but I do it as well.. There's really so little impact a single individual can have on these numbers to reel them in so I buy them regardless. Sure, if there was a movement for change where the community would come together; I'd participate. I'm certain there are many who have more money sense than I and are not buying these things are doing their share of keeping those additional profits far from the mog station as well and I thank those silent objectors. I, however, will gripe about being fleeced since I /do/ want what's being offered and the only way to get it is to pay their price. I wonder why stuff like this is so expensive.. Maybe it's storage load costs. Then there's stuff that's been in the game since 2.0 and they're charging $36 USD just for the novelty of having a 4 seater mount... but surely less development went in it? Could have pulled the rigging from its original source though doesn't take that much to rig characters.. Coding it in as a player mount; suppose that can cost a fair amount... but it's just.. so much... for a game that we already spent $14.99 (unless you're a lucky legacy) a month + $2 for each additional retainer. D:

[Jojoya]

but it's just.. so much... for a game that we already spent $14.99 (unless you're a lucky legacy) a month + $2 for each additional retainer. D:

It's still cheap entertainment. Think about all the other little things you buy on a regular basis that you don't actually need but you want to have and how much they cost when added up.

If you truly thought the price too steep, you wouldn't buy it because it is not necessary to play the game.

It doesn't even make sense as "required for RP". What RP event would you be holding at your house that requires it to be present? How would you explain how your house has it and all the surrounding houses don't? Please don't say you're going to pretend all the other houses have snow as well because you could just as easily pretend your house also has it.

[Lostar]

It doesn't even make sense as "required for RP". What RP event would you be holding at your house that requires it to be present? How would you explain how your house has it and all the surrounding houses don't? Please don't say you're going to pretend all the other houses have snow as well because you could just as easily pretend your house also has it.

It snows in The Mists.. and near about every housing district-- it is a weather effect they add at this time of year.. it makes less sense for every house to 'not' have snow on the ground. It would be nice if SE didn't break the immersion so much where you see snowfall and your lot is still as green as a midsummer day. When I RP at my 'leathershop' I do pretend it is snowing everywhere not that any other house in the surrounding areas matter too much to my immersion. The immediate area, however does. Is it required?.. I never said it was... I RP as an ice attuned and I mourn not having the shiva emote that came with the $200 statue... but I just as easily pretend such without emotes.. My character can snap their fingers without paying $7 ... and so on.. It's a thing I value.. maybe cause I'm a visual person .. maybe cause I like to make my lots pretty.. But I value them and $3.50 for a pile of snow isn't a terrible amount.. it's if you want 3 of them to have some coverage.... it's when your mind keeps going back to --"they must be making a killing.. if only 5% of the game population buys this snow.. they could definitely afford to lower the price to negate this terrible buyer's remorse"...

But back pushers are going to push back with their "but let me share my logic so as to tell you how to live your life/spend your money/what *I* don't value so it must not be such a big deal to *you*"

Lower the price to negate buyer's remorse.. Lower the price because it's a silly, nearly contrived amount.. lower the price so many more might consider enjoying the items as well..

[Jojoya]

It snows in The Mists.. and near about every housing district-- it is a weather effect they add at this time of year.. it makes less sense for every house to 'not' have snow on the ground.

Guess you've never lived in an area where snow can melt as it falls and definitely melts once it hits the ground. Being used to that (snow here only lasts on the ground more than an hour maybe once every 10-15 years), I don't find it immersion breaking at all.

But I value them and $3.50 for a pile of snow isn't a terrible amount.. it's if you want 3 of them to have some coverage

So then you admit the price isn't actually bad. You feel it is worth it to enhance the rather specific way you want to experience the game. If you want 3, it makes sense you're going to have to pay 3 times as much. That's still only $10.50 and you'll have them to enjoy as long as you play the game in the future.

What other $10 (or less) purchases have you made lately that give you equivalent lasting value?

Lower the price to negate buyer's remorse.. Lower the price because it's a silly, nearly contrived amount.. lower the price so many more might consider enjoying the items as well..

Buyer's remorse comes from buying a product that turns out inferior to/other than what was expected, and it generally could have been avoided by doing proper research first instead of impulse buying. Are the snow piles themselves disappointing you in some way?

Every price in life is a silly, contrived amount because currency is just a convenience tool and has value that's only accepted through common agreement. People are always arguing that such and such item is not worth the price and it should cost less. Maybe we should just do away with currencies and go back to the days where we traded goods and services directly instead of pushing around digital bits of metal and scraps of paper (considering physical currency itself is slowing phasing out in favor of debit/credit cards and other digital forms of payment).

Lowering the price won't get that many more to buy in the long run because the lower price stops being a "special value" so consumers lose interest. A few major retailers tried that strategy in recent decades just to have to end up declaring bankruptcy because their overall sales ended up decreasing, not increasing. The retailer might get a sharp short term spike in sales but then end up losing out over the long term.

[ItMe]

This isn't relevant to the conversation at all, but...

Maybe we should just do away with currencies and go back to the days where we traded goods and services directly instead of pushing around digital bits of metal and scraps of paper (considering physical currency itself is slowing phasing out in favor of debit/credit cards and other digital forms of payment).

This gave me the hilarious mental image of your MMOs demanding you pay in cash.

Lowering the price won't get that many more to buy in the long run because the lower price stops being a "special value" so consumers lose interest. A few major retailers tried that strategy in recent decades just to have to end up declaring bankruptcy because their overall sales ended up decreasing, not increasing. The retailer might get a sharp short term spike in sales but then end up losing out over the long term.

That's interesting.
Where can I read up on this?

[Jojoya]

That's interesting.
Where can I read up on this?

JC Penney was of the retailers. Here's one article that mentions what happened.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmo...h=282c48c11bcf

There had been another article I had read at the time it originally happened that made mention of the other retailer who had also tried and failed with the strategy but it was long enough ago I can't remember what the name of the retailer was.

Consumer psychology is an interesting thing if you ever feel like reading up on it.

What kind of goods and how large a drop in price? Some luxury goods have positive price elasticity of demand, meaning that lowering the price will make the product less desirable. On the other hand, if it's a commonly available item but the price is too much lower than the competition, customers may suspect that something is up and the goods are counterfeit or otherwise inferior quality. Like if someone offered me an RTX 3080 for 400 money right now, I wouldn't buy it because no one in their right mind is selling them that cheap. It's gotta be either stolen or it's really a GTX 1650 with a replaced heatsink and hacked BIOS or something.

Yeah, but you're talking about the Ebay fly-by-night types looking to rip people off. That's not what I'm talking about.

[tdb]

JC Penney was of the retailers. Here's one article that mentions what happened.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmo...h=282c48c11bcf

There had been another article I had read at the time it originally happened that made mention of the other retailer who had also tried and failed with the strategy but it was long enough ago I can't remember what the name of the retailer was.

Consumer psychology is an interesting thing if you ever feel like reading up on it.

It looks like a big part of the mistake here was to forgo sales, coupons and other promotions and instead have constant low prices. Final prices weren't necessarily lower than during sales earlier, but losing the advertisement value of a limited-time sale is bad. When people see something is 50% off! Only until tomorrow! With lots of exclamation points and clipart! They're less likely to research prices elsewhere or apply common sense to whether they even need that product.

The situation with FFXIV is a little different because SE has a monopoly on FFXIV items, so there's no competitors to hog customers' attention. They do have something or other on sale fairly often (like the topical snow drifts are currently 30% off), but they don't advertise the cash shop much. The regular "new optional items" posts on Lodestone are visually very similar to other news items and don't grab attention. So rather than lowering price permanently, I think they could boost sales by increasing visibility of sales in particular. Then again a lot of players would raise a ruckus about how that's a "cash grab" so maybe it's best to keep it low key.

[tdb]

Lowering the price won't get that many more to buy in the long run because the lower price stops being a "special value" so consumers lose interest. A few major retailers tried that strategy in recent decades just to have to end up declaring bankruptcy because their overall sales ended up decreasing, not increasing. The retailer might get a sharp short term spike in sales but then end up losing out over the long term.

What kind of goods and how large a drop in price? Some luxury goods have positive price elasticity of demand, meaning that lowering the price will make the product less desirable. On the other hand, if it's a commonly available item but the price is too much lower than the competition, customers may suspect that something is up and the goods are counterfeit or otherwise inferior quality. Like if someone offered me an RTX 3080 for 400 money right now, I wouldn't buy it because no one in their right mind is selling them that cheap. It's gotta be either stolen or it's really a GTX 1650 with a replaced heatsink and hacked BIOS or something.