Discussion: Featured Items at the Paragon Market - 10/4/11

Basically, you're looking at the situation poorly. If a new power set comes out for 800 points every two months, it is still effectively free with your subscription, the difference being, if you decide you don't want it, you instead get 10 dollars worth of points to spend on what you want. If one comes out every three months, you're effectively getting it, and 5 dollars worth of other stuff free.

The problem arises because a lot of people have spent all their free points on things like the Barbarian Set, the CoT set, the Hover board, or what have you, and now they feel like they're being asked to pay extra for the power set.

Imagine if Going Rogue came out, and when you bought it, you were given the option to buy a version that came with Electric Control, Dual Pistols, Demon Summoning, AND Kinetic Melee, or you were given the option to buy a version that came with any three of the above, but also came with, for example, the entire Martial Arts Pack.

If you're a certain kind of customer, you'd buy all of it anyway, and a LOT of people are going to buy all of it anyway. It's just that some people have effectively chosen the second option, whether because they figured StJ would come later enough that they'd have the points ready, or that it would come out on sale, or something.

My only real problems with the market currently is that it's a bit TOO confusing overall...needs some streamlining and simplification, and the fact that armor and emote pics are not displayed.

Costume sets especially need pics to show what they have.

Overall, I think it's a pretty good setup and think it was LONG overdue. They should have done this 200k+ subscribers ago.

And Mids just got us our Beam Rifle update last week.

My two cents on this and on f2p in general as a 6.5 year vet:



I think making VIPs purchase sets is a bad idea. You have NEVER had to pay for powersets before. Demon Summoning and Electric Control were not bought sets, but you COULD buy "early access" to these sets. They came included with the expansion which they were part of, as did all CoV archetypes. You were paying for a complete expansion to the game, which insured you would get ALL new content the MINUTE it was released for those games. This included arcs, TFs, powersets, zones, and events. Making you now "pay" for those sets, or "wait" for them and save up to get them is a HUGE change from what many players have come to expect. The "established contract" we've been workng under is that our sub fees get us all the new content and new powersets. Like it or not, this is a slight deviation from it IF the monthly VIP points we're given doesn't cover the new sets AS they come out.

I was a HUGE supporter of the f2p move, because, as I understood it, VIPs would basically continue to get all of the "normal" content they always got for the cost of their subs. This would include any new arcs, TFs, zones, events, and POWERSETS. The way you could get these sets, even if they were for "purchase" was by using the 400 points a month you got. The game would get even MORE cool stuff that you could buy, and this new stuff wouldn't come at the expense of dev resources since the free players and VIPs who purchased them would bring added revenue.

The problem I have is that that isn't how it seems to be panning out.

At least not with powersets.

Issue 21 has been out less than 1 month and we've had three new powersets, all of which we knew were coming ahead of time and were part of issue 21 beta. Only ONE of them was released as "part" of issue 21, the second was for sale in the market for a "sale" price of 440 pts, if I recall. The third was for sale in the market for 860 pts. In short, a VIP would have to spend over three months of points to get those powersets (1300 pts). To me, that is simply unreasonable. It either means that new sets will be coming out faster than my sub gets me points to buy them, meaning I have to "Wait" and "Save" to get, which I never had to do before, all while hoping that next month a set doesn't comes out that I want even more, or it means that they'll be releasing them more sparringly and in waves, and this was just an initial wave. If that's the case, having them for "sale" to VIPs makes no sense for either party. There is no benefit to either VIPs or NCsoft. To me, there is only one reason why you would make VIPs purchase some sets with points: you know that some VIPs wont have enough points and wont want to wait, and you'll get money from them. That goes against the established expectations I mentioned above. When you begin to factor in the fact that what they've done for ALL of us is suddenly give us a choice: spend 15 dollars a month and get access to all the stuff freebs get +incarnate stuff and signature arcs, as well as 400 points a month (which equals roughly, 5 dollars or so) -or- save your 15 dollars, lose incarnate stuff, lose the signature arcs, and put some of all of that money toward the market to buy what you want. If you did that, without spending ANY more than you currently spend. you'd have about 1320 pts a month. That would buy at least one powerset per month and still leave you around 500 points to bu any extra stuff you need (access to Inventions and the Market, for example, are only 160 points.)

For me, the incarnate stuff is very "meh." Im not a raider, and find the lag and being part of 20+ member teams kind of boring. That's an opinion piece, but I know Im not alone with it. So I lose incarnate stuff and it doesn't affect me a ton. The first part of the first Signature Arc was -three- missions long. 3. It's a 20-25 minute arc. So basically, while I got two things that were "ok" but nothing special, I also had to spend three months worth of my points to get the new powersets. If I were freeb, I'd have enough points from just the first month alone to buy both powersets AND have points left over to buy, say, an AE license or a few of the other small things I'd lose.

I am, for the first time since I started the game, seriously considering dropping BOTH of my subscriptions. Not because I dont like the game or am somehow being a baby or having a tantrum, but because the pricing and the points system is so thoroughly not like I expected and not beneficial to me. I may get more out of being a freeb. It just means that NCsoft will likely be getting less money from me each month, and I think that's worriesome.


This is part of a growing dissatisfaction with the market prices on just about everything. If things like costume pieces, etc. were cheaper, I would probably literally be dropping 2 dollars a couple of times a week getting little trinkets here and there. When they're 5-10 dollars a pop, I hit the mental block that says "not worth it" and the get zero from me. From a marketing standpoint, if they lowered their prices they'd get a ton more revenue from most players.



And before someone says "be patient. Dont want it all now" I say "too late for that in this game" I have 6.5 years of history of associating my monthly fee/expansion costs with access to new powersets and conent as soon as it is released. I absolutely "want it now." That's why I sub. Now Im beginning to think if I "want it now" I need to go free...

I think that's a big mistake on their part. I hope that they adjust the pricing, or make powersets non-market things for VIPs like Time Manip was.

Marketting missed the ball on this one.

They could have charged 1000 - 1200 pts and made more cash.

I wholly expect Titan Weapons to be in that range... especially considering how hyped the boards were when it was announced.

This may or may not be the place for it but you guys might want to update your launcher blurbs. Under "Latest News" the most recent item is from Sept. 27th so no mention of Street Justice or anything else that's happened since.