Paragon Market prices

That's often true in other microtransaction systems, Seldom, but clearly less so in the paragon market. Most such systems do not have a conversion rate as easy as "cents are 125% of points," and this is the first microtransaction system I have ever seen that sells virtually everything for multiples of twenty five cents. You'd have to go out of your way to end up with an unusable quantity of "change" in the paragon market.

In regards to the enhancement inventory pricing, it's my personal opinion that no single item should cost more than the price of a monthly sub. The point stipend for VIP's does alleviate some of that concern for me, but I still find it a little off-putting there are individual items that actually cost more than a month's access to the game.

Was comparing notes with a couple of friends on pricing.

What we concluded is that the current prices vary from way too high to really cheap depending on:

* What aspects of the game you spend the most time with
* What your income and available cash are like
* Things like that

Basically, those factors dominate. I got both enhancement tray unlocks on both accounts, because I do a lot of shuffling of stuff wherein being able to move 20+ enhancements at a time is really convenient to me, and saves me other kinds of time and hassle. I only got one each salvage/auction/recipe storage increases, because those numbers are already pretty livable. Now that I have the equivalents of vet rewards from the points I picked up to get those things.

Power set prices? Fine by me. Costume/part/etc prices? Prices are fine, lack of bundling is annoying. I really want the option of buying something roughly equivalent to The Mutant Pack all at once. Otherwise it's just so many things to keep track of, a problem massively amplified by the store listing things you already have.

The special deal on server transfer tokens is awesome when you realize that 480 points buys you three character renames.

But yeah. For an active marketeer with serious short-term memory problems and sufficient income, enhancement trays are cheap. For someone who doesn't marketeer, has a really good memory, and has to survive on a smallish fixed income, they're ludicrously overpriced.

What I would suggest ncsoft do, if they want to maximize revenue, is a Rotating Sale. There's a company ("The Learning Company") who sell video and audio courses on various topics, and they do this; absolutely everything they sell is on sale at 50% or more off at least once per year. People who really want a given thing will buy it, people who can't afford that price will wait for the sale. ncsoft could do the same kind of thing; make sure everything goes on sale occasionally, so people who are really strapped for cash will still buy stuff eventually, but for people who have the money, it won't be worth waiting.