Discussion: Arrrr! The Pirate Costume Power be on sale in the Paragon Market!

Let's stick to the 90% off sales if the base prices are going to be like this! That will be the ONLY way I'll consider buying them. Well except this particular item for reasons already mentioned above, ie. kills stealth/hide/superior camo and FREE to create a better/individual costume slot.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I never had the chance to be mislead that VIPs weren't going to pay under the new pay model, given that almost as soon as it was announced, we were given examples of powersets that (even) VIPs would need to buy to access.

My concern isn't over that, because I've effectively understood that all along. My concern is that the things they want people to buy have prices that look like they were set using some semblance of what I consider sanity.

There are two parts to what I consider a sane price. One is how it works out in absolute terms - if I were to buy it using my monthly VIP stipend of points, how long would it take me to save up points to buy it? The other is the relative value of the points - what opportunity cost is there to me spending my points on it?

This one costume power is 3/4 the non-sale price of a whole powerset. It would take me two months worth of points accrual to replace the points spent on it. (Technically a month and a half, but we can't claim fractions of our stipend like that.)

And that's the VIP's perspective. Someone who's a Premium account is going to be looking at this in terms of what the cash spent on points could buy them. $7.50 may not buy you a lot these days, but my feeling is that it can surely buy more value than a costume power.

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Originally Posted by CaptainMoodswing
Did anyone here go to herocon in 2009 and buy any of the convention exclusive costume powers for $20 American? Just wondering. I believe they did sell out.

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Originally Posted by Seldom Forgive me for saying so, but such people may well have spent a great deal more on travel, as well as taking a great deal of time for an event associated with the game. Such do not, in my opinion, represent the situation of most players. For me: The price is to high. Someone went into an existing power and altered the duration of it, and you charge that much? The time/effort disconnect with the pricing is astounding. Will all the pricing be not "How much is it worth, as measured by our effort" but "What's the highest we can ask before they say no?" Folks, I've said it before. Don't aim for the few big spenders. Make moderate prices the masses will pay, you get not only a better return, but you also keep a better relationship.

Being a player that was at Hero Con... Hell no, I didn't pay $20 for a costume toggle. I was given one in my goodie bag if I remember correctly. I purchased a hand full of pins... 1 defender pin for myself, 1 defender pin for a friend, 1 blaster pin for a friend... and maybe a Hero pin.... I guess I am cheap... I spent my $ on Long Islands that didn't even get me remotely tipsy *shakes fist at California bartenders*. >.> <.< and then there was Jameson in a sock.

I would MAYBE pay $2 per code. I would get the few that I'm missing that I think are super awesome (most of the awesome ones have been given away as con codes and I have most of those).

I would pay $1 per code in a heartbeat; I'd buy about half of them in a heartbeat.

I will NEVER buy ANY at $10, and I will NEVER buy ANY at $7.50.

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Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

I don't think it is too high... they can charge whatever they want... they just won't be getting any $ or points out of me at this rate.

Like many others, I think this is too much money for a costume toggle. They're all too expensive, and I won't be buying them.

I have paid more than this for costume codes on eBay, but the goal there was to have something interesting and unique.

These are not "limited" in any way - just like the Halloween badges, they'll be back next year. That's transparently manipulative marketing, and it makes people unhappy. Stop it.

I thought I'd say something here so Ghost Falcon and the rest of marketing can see it, but I'll also be voting with my dollars - they don't get my money for these.

Like someone else said, at $1 I might buy a lot of them. At $2, I might pick up a few. Any higher, no thanks.

How can costume sets, which are more flexible and I get to choose what is what be cheaper? I think they're a touch high, and I find them worth more than the costume toggles.

I hope this information helps Paragon Studios adjust their pricing to something more reasonable. I am sure they wanted to start high and go down - no one likes increases.

Not a buyer.

In fact, I haven't been a buyer of anything in the store that I couldn't get with my VIP allotment, so far. It's not that there aren't things that I want - it's that the price points are outside my comfort zone.

If these were priced at "leftover points" levels, sure. I might look at one. Heck, I spent the last 80 points from my main account on two goofy dance emotes (mainly because doing ;disco dance, followed by ;collapse, amuses me), and if I ever do buy points, I'll probably do other random inexpensive impulse purchases with leftover points, leaving me fewer points when things I want come up and forcing me to buy more.

But with prices this high, I'm more likely to not have "leftover points" very often, because I'll be hoarding points for the few "big" things that I actually want.


tl;dr version: This pricing model is destined not to make much, if any, money off either of my accounts, or my wife's. Drop the prices and I probably start having more trouble with self-control.

I'll admit it - I made an impulse buy on day one of the Malta Gunslinger toggle. And I bugged the text because it, too, says it only lasts for 2 weeks, is listed as a temporary power, but was sold as permanent. The impulse buy was driven by the fact that I tried to make a Gunslinger clone on my blaster way back in summer 04 and was never really successful, so I was pretty giddy.

After purchasing it, I was happy with it for about 5 minutes. Then I started to realize it sucks. I mean, really sucks. Any character with a jacket top who tries to use it - the jacket clips through the entire upper body (Here's an example of jacket texture fail). Kilts do the same for the lower body (Here's an example of kilt texture fail). Trench coats work, but it leaves the trench tail clipping through the lower body. If I want to use it and actually have it look right, I have to switch to a nearly nude character 'costume' before enabling the toggle.

I paid 800 points for this? In retrospect, 800 points is really outrageous. I find it funny that you have the pricing of the costume powers in line with their station in the game (ie. the Malta Operative [Minion] is much cheaper the Gunslinger [Lieutenant/Boss]), but I have zero intentions of purchasing any more of these powers at these prices, especially after seeing just how buggy they are.

You know what I'd pay 600 to 800 points for (possibly), despite the bugs? Like others have said: The convention costume codes. 600 to 800 points would be fair since they were a limited event item. But I have a feeling we'll never see those on the store since they seem to be the only thing they like to try to "give away" to disgruntled players after long downtimes or server crashes.

Gonna conclude by saying I agree, nearly entirely, with everything EarthWyrm said above. The pricing on this model do not inspire me to want to buy anything. The prices are too high and the disposables are too tawdry for me to want to spend money on.

Edit: After reading other posts, I see people giving their opinions on where they'd price it. Personally, I'd point to a system like Xbox Live. These costume toggles are, for all intents and purposes, the same as an avatar t-shirt. They don't do anything, most of them were already in the game (as evidenced by the power text being wrong).. they're just for show. So, put them in the same range as Microsoft charges for Avatar crap: 80 to 160 points. 1 or 2 bucks. Because that's really all they're worth.

Arrrrr!................no thanks. Me sword bucklin' stalker looks alot like ye'r matey thar.

I reckon they added an extra 0 to that price for a laugh!

I'm not sure I'd even spend 60 points on it, but that's the sort of level it ought to be at.

I wouldn't even pay 1 PP for it in a game where we can make our own looks. :P

I'd also like to chime in that I think the Pirate code was way too expensive. I considered it for a second, saw the price tag, and stopped considering it less than a second later.

Since they overwrite your costume, rather than potentially add to it like a costume set, I see a lot less value in the costume codes. Valued as a single costume piece (40-80 points), since that what they are, I might buy them. Valued at more than a costume set? No way.

These market prices are ridiculous. You earn 400PP /month @ $15, so 600PP = 1.5(15) = $22.50. For a stupid costume toggle. I guess price gauging in the market is the new revenue model for NCSoft. Server transfer = 800PP, or $30. Name change = 800PP, or $30. Costume sets are $15, and without any of the powers, you get to buy those separately. New powersets? Yea, you get to buy those too for 800PP, or $30.