A difference between my spending here and at other F2P markets

tl;dr summary: My spending at other games tends to be about enhancing existing characters, where my spending in CoH tends to be about investing in new characters.

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A thought had been percolating around in my forebrain for a while and it finally made its way up to the surface where I could make some sense out of it. It led met a realization that the nature of my purchases in the Paragon Market are fundamentally different than the nature of my purchases at most other F2P markets I've patronized. It's a difference that's significant enough to warrant some examination as to whether it speaks in some way to the motivations of the general population.

Generally speaking, when I buy things in other games, I typically have one or two characters that are my "mains". When I buy something in the market, I usually intend for it to be targeted for the use of one of my main characters. Even when the item is some kind of account-wide item or is transferable to other characters via a shared bank or email, the ability to share in that fashion is typically a secondary consideration. If I could not share, the odds are that I would still make the purchase because my motivation is to use it with my mains.

By contrast, my purchases in the Paragon Market are almost always driven by a desire to enhance my overall account. There are exceptions. I bought the wolf pet at its premium price because I wanted the wolf pet. It was nice that it's available for all of my characters, but I would have been pretty strongly compelled to buy it regardless if it was a single-character purchase (though I'd have expected a lower price in that case).

Overall, though, my purchases in the market tend to be powersets, costume bundles, and the special travel powers like the rocket board that I know will enhance characters with certain concepts. I have not purchased any consumables or enhancements in the market (though I have purchased super packs recently and acquired some of those things as a result).

The thing about these purchases is that, for the most part, I don't intend them to be used by pre-existing characters. It's true that a couple of sets have been used to fine-tune a pre-existing concept, but by and large none of my existing characters have made use of the new costumes. New powersets are not even useful to existing characters. The only reason at all to purchase a powerset is that you intend to create a new character using that powerset (or replace an existing character, which amounts to the same thing).

In other words, my spending at other markets is to enhance one or more existing characters while my spending in the Paragon Market is nearly always intended to enhance some character that doesn't actually exist yet. It's designed to expand my options in regards to my account as a whole rather than expand the capabilities of any particular character that currently exists on the account.

When the motivation for purchasing expansion content is viewed in this light, it makes me wonder whether this is just a personal holdover for me , behaving like a subscriber even though I am not a VIP, or if it's something that is general to some measurable part of the player base.

If it can be generally quantified as a motivation behind spending, then it says something about what the focus of the market should be. It might also say something about the value of character slots. I'm not sure there. I've not purchased any, because I still have slots from my veteran's allotment that I have yet to use up. I don't really have any feelings yet about the value of character slots at whatever price they are currently set to have.

It does make me wonder how the recent sale on character slots went off and how profitable it was.

It also makes me wonder just what sort of content the market ought to be carrying. If the best selling content consists of items that enhance the overall account, then what sorts of items are there that can do that, aside from the obvious selections of costume bundles and powersets?

Anyway, I thought it was interesting that I was able to qualify my Paragon Market experience as being so markedly different from the other games I play. I'd be interested to hear if other people feel similarly about their own experiences or if it's just my personal thing.

A month or so ago I was cycling through 11 alts, somewhat for the powersets but largely for the costumes. I would spend my points immediately to get new costume packs, I even paid for some costume packs and beast run.

I deleted all of my characters and started playing just 1. I've had 420 points now for a week or two, and since his costume is done I have no urge to spend them.

So I would say for me it is also about new characters and not spending on my current character

Well, consider that there's two primary endgames to City right now: Incarnate stuff and rolling a new character. Non-VIPs can't participate in Incarnate stuff, so the logical thing is to offer them either the VIP package or stuff that aids in rolling new characters.

It is an interesting distinction, though.

Slick,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I'll be sure to pass this evaluation along.

Thus far I have not purchased a lot from the market for my primary (long term vet) account. I don't really need to; he gets 550 points a month, and with that I've bought the rocket board and power sets as they become available. When character slots were on sale several weeks ago, I did spend to buy a set of five.

More interesting is the spending for my much newer second account (I believe it was established late November / early December). It was originally intended as an f2p account to which I would subscribe a month or two and then go back to free. Then the limited time offer of a discounted 6-month subscription occurred, and I bought that. I also bought the five character slots for the new account. Then there were the "must-haves":

* Ninja Run (I believe purchased while offered temporarily as a Ninja pack in December)
* Jump Pack (the one which originally came bundled with the Pocket D VIP pass)
* Rocket Board
* Pocket D VIP pass for porting to there
* Mystic Fortune
* Secondary Mutation

The first two were because I've gotten used to builds without traditional travel powers. The latter two were purchased because I've gotten used to these minor buffs, and as a vet I almost feel obligated to be able to share the card buffs, especially when teammates use it on me. The Rocket Board is a "nice-to-have" for new characters, but it gets annoying as your characters gain various toggle powers, only to have the Board de-toggle them.

So in essence the purchases were in support of new characters, even though I'm not really creating a lot of new guys on this account. When the subscription expires, the second account will return to f2p status, and I know I'll have a limited number of guys at that point. I also don't plan to spend money on power sets, although as points accumulate during the subscription period, I may purchase a set or two.

While I don't have experience with other MMO markets, my purchasing decisions and the reasons behind them are very similar to SlickRiptide's as explained above.

In a case that's particularly relevant for this thread, I've noticed that sales often induce me to buy services that enhance my whole account, such as costume slots or new character slots. On the other hand, I have yet to purchase any Paragon Market Enhancement Sets or other per-character items on the market, even when they go on sale.

For me the difference between the paragon market and other f2p mmo markets is that I actually buy stuff from this market (whereas I don't spend any money on other f2p games). Why? I dunno. Probably because I'm more invested in this game than other f2p games.

But in general I avoid buying certain things that have been put up on the paragon market that are pretty outrageous (imo) rip offs.

Like vanity pets *shakes head*

I refuse, on principle, to use real money to pay for a consumable virtual item. I will pay for consumable food. I will pay for consumable toilet paper. I will not pay for a line of code that makes pretty lights shine once and then disappears.

That being said, I also refuse to pay for Super Packs, because what that says to me is "Nobody's falling for out RMT consumables, let's throw a couple good items into a random draw and then pad the f**k out of it with consumables nobody ever wanted." If this is the future of CoX, gambling for a chance to get costume parts that used to be free with your subscription, then I'll have no part of it and I fear for the future of my beloved game. It's bad enough that they're releasing a glut of new items which the monthly stipend will never be able to cover, now you want me to gamble? No thank you.

I think the difference between CoH and the other F2P MMOs is , like Arcanaville eloquently said, that we see our multiple characters as options. Costume sets and powers give us more options so we will be more inclined to get them. It is my personal guess that the majority of CoH players have many characters and the few have only 1-2.

On the other side, the other MMOs dont offer the same variety of possibilities in character creation leading to a majority of players with 1-2 characters and few with multiples alts.

An other point of CoH is that you dont need to play a character very intensively to have a good character. A character with SOs is good, one with common IOs is pretty good, sets galore make them great and adding Incarnates abilities make them awesome. Outside of major IO setting and Incarnate abilities requiring a bit more dedicated playtime , you can easily get multiple solid characters. And outside of the Incarnate system, all this "gear" are relatively universal to all classes and can be move among our characters easily. The SSK also makes level difference with our friends much less relevant, encouraging even more alt-aolism.

In the other MMOs, having a good character requires more dedication to that character. Because some gear is bound on pickup, rewarded for specific quest, having rank or class requirements of whatever kind, you pretty much need to play that character to keep it strong. And you need to keep up with your friends if you want to play with them.


So to sum this up, in other MMOs we are inclined to buy for specific characters, all kind of perks and boost, gear and stats increase because these characters are the few we want to keep going and in CoH we buy more options, costumes and powersets to make new characters.


Personally I will buy account wide features that can be used by many characters first like shared storage (I agree with Rabid_M, ours is very costly), content, etc... then things for more specific or single characters like mounts or gear. Like AkuTenshiiZero said, consumables dont even register, I dont spend real cash on click - gone stuff.

Specifically in CoH, I buy costumes and powersets. Storage price is too high for me and the current options not useful enough to justify the cost. I dont like the buy it now before it's gone "trend" on the costume bundles and I honestly think you should put all the enhancers sets in the store and put 3-5 sets on sale for the first week of the month every month. It works great on Steam, I have many games I have not even installed yet, but bough them because they were just 5-10 bucks.

I have only ever spent money on one other F2P game, and that was to get a mount that ran really fast because otherwise I would have to pay out the nose for it *and* wait for umpteen levels just to get it. Stuck walking everywhere or spend $10 for a speedy mount? I took my lunch to work for a couple days and bought the mount.

I actually haven't spent *any* money on Paragon Points yet, though I have spent all but 20 of my pp at this point, and there are two costume sets and a powerset coming up that I have to get (HAVE TO) so that means I'll finally spend money outside of my subscription for the first time in the almost six months since Freedom dropped. I'll probably drop a big sum just so that I have a better pp:dollar ratio. Doing so will kick me up into Tier 9, which is exciting.

Quote:

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.

With me I find powersets and costume bundles are usually the main things I purchase. Each Powerset usually brings a new character idea with it, and costume bundles can be used to revamp character's outfits.

The main account upgrade I bought was the 5 extra costume slots. While the storage is tempting, even global as it is, I still find the price a bit too much to stomach setting down for, especially when I have access to /vault and /ah.

The thing I've never gotten is IO packs.

For one, they're too expensive for my liking. Basilisk's Gaze for example is 853 Paragon Points.

That's two costume bundles or one power set for something that can only be slotted on one character.

And in those sets where I might only need 5 of 6 enhancements (Like Crushing Blow, I tend to leave the Acc/Dam out of my builds as I'm mostly slotting for the recharge) I'm either left having to get each individual one or buying the set if the discount works out in favour and dumping the one I don't need.

Amusingly, if the IO's were much cheaper I'd have likely bought more points than I have at their current price.

I've only spent about $30 on PPs since coming back, which I spent on titan weapons, the titan weapon pack, the gunslinger pack (yay Dink), the Roman pack, the Vanguard pack, the atomic aura, the bio-whatever aura that looks a bit fiery, and the runes aura. All of these purchases were for specific characters, although it looks like I'll have at least two TW characters. I've also been refitting my old costumes with newer pieces.

I would like to get storage options, but like others I find them extremely expensive for what they offer. I also agree that the IOs are a bit high-priced for what they do.

I find the reason for this is a fundamental difference in how a game approaches its players and how it seeks to motivate us to play it. Most MMOs out there offer you options, yes, but the point of these options is to find the one specific combination you like and then dedicate your life to playing that. While it's a good idea and builds pretty strong investment, it also motivates people to ignore everything else. Our experience in most other MMOs is defined as much by what we do as by what we AVOID.

City of Heroes is different. As others have said, characters here are presented as options, and these are all good options. Because City of Heroes doesn't have a very heavy investment requirement and thus doesn't force you to choose one or two "mains," you have meaningful options. Do you want someone who punches people, someone who shoots people or someone who heals people? Why not have all three? Because you can, and at a cost that's not terribly significant.

Then there's the other side. The conceptual side. Most other MMOs I've played have some kind of overarching storyline, and player characters really have no place in it. You're just some nameless guy living out his life, killing stuff for money. You're not Arthas, you're not Jana Proudmore, you're some guy. Ever notice how other MMOs never address your character by name? Not even with City of Heroes simple "insert character name" mechanic? You're not a character, you're a fighter, because you like the fighter class the most. For a fighter, there are only one or two decent builds that you actually like. Why WOULD you make another character? You've already made the one you like, he already looks as well as the game can offer. Why make another character when you'll be remaking essentially the same person but with a slightly different build?

In City of Heroes, each character is a character. Like the action figures after characters from a cartoon or a comic book, we stick with them because they're cool to play, because the characters were cool to watch or read about. Even separate of their powers, they are still compelling AS CHARACTERS. City of Heroes does what no other game in living memory has done for me - it has made me view my characters as separate beings independent from me and my own personality. In nearly every game before, I was trying to recreate myself within the game. Why would I not? Am I not the player? Not in City of Heroes. Here, I fancy myself the storyteller, and my characters the actors in a grand tale.

Once you see things as I do, the question then becomes "Why not make MORE characters?" Each new one brings in a new idea, a new look and a new story. Each makes my roster and the stories I tell with it richer, more interesting and more diverse. Each new costume set enables new characters to exist, each new powerset brings even more possibilities. My character roster is ever-expanding, and I couldn't be happier with it.

What I buy for City of Heroes is never aimed at any character in particular, because I have no "main." Not even the character whose name I use on the forums. There are no mains, no favourites, no special ones. They are each cool in their own way. What I buy, therefore, either serves to improve them all by improving the scope of my choices, or otherwise serves to enable new ones to exist.

To be honest, most costume sets and powersets these days I buy without ever having an idea what I'm going to do with them. I buy them not because a character needs them, but because they represent an opportunity.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

here, I tend to spend points on account wide unlocks. Costume sets, power sets, storage boosts. while in others it tends to be consumables.

I've spent more on COH market stuff than any other game with a cash shop. Like many here the big things that catch my eye are things that affect my whole account. Costume bundles, unlocks that let me bypass doing it individually (capes, auras, roman costumes, etc), powers for every character even if I dont plan to use em (some characters like the rocket board, others work better with the carpet, some use traditional travel, all of them find a use for ninja run or beast run at some point). I didn't hesitate to get the expanded enhancement storage for all my characters

Would I buy a "personal account base" that all my characters can access and I can customize? sure!

Would I buy consumables? No. I do use the ones I get as vet rewards or through the super packs but actively going out of my way to get them no. COH just isn't designed to be a consumable intensive game.

Though if any consumable seems worthwhile to me its the windfalls. The problem for me with those is I feel like if I am gonna use one I need to get the most out of it and farm crazy maps full of mobs for the full duration of the buff to make sure I get the most bang for that buck.

I'm in a similar vein, but it actually applies to the two games I've ever paid into a "F2P" game (City and World of Tanks).

I constantly pass up the IO's and Insps, because they are excessively pricey for their limited scope. Why spend ~1000 points on 1 set of IO's which I'll only slot 5 (out of 6) in 1 (out of 24) power within 1 (of 50+) character? And while the increased duration, and persist through death is tasty on the team/dual Insps... those things drop for free from the game (insps, not the team/dual variants).

My first purchase, on both of my accounts, was to grab the increased storage of enhancements. Since then I've bought powersets, Ninja Run, and cape/aura unlock, with a few costume purchases here and there. Amusing thing, is that the costume pieces were all purchased for a specific character/concept, but it was worthwhile to me, since I have the option down the road to re-use it on someone else.

Within WoT I did a similar vein, all the gold I purchased with cash I used to unlock garage slots, to let me have more tanks, instead of buying a strong and powerful higher tier tank. Leftovers is being slowly whittled away to help convert experience for other tanks as I finish unlocking one.

Essentially, due to the faceted and alt-friendly nature of this game, I feel that the strongest items to place into the market are "global" or account wide, since every toon on my account can benefit from the expenditure.
So, here's to more toys for everyone, instead of just one character.

I definitely think this is one of the strongest appeals to CoX's cash shop.

I buy something new, it gives me not just a reason to play one of my characters more, but also gives me new ideas for new characters, and thus, when they add a new costume set (or powerset) to the game, it's as if they're giving me 2-3 new characters to play.

When A CERTAIN UNNAMEABLE MMO (as an example) adds a cash shop item, it's most of the time a new mount or minipet, which does not increase the appeal of my character or alts at all.

I'm glad to see that NCSoft and Paragon are doing such an incredible job at that. Perhaps THAT OTHER MMO COMPANY could use some pointers from you guys.