Are People Here Really Ok With This Sort of Thing?

It was not work for hire, the asset is sold on a non-exclusive resale license, free for non-resale use, the artist does not need to charge their full time to only one customer. So Portalariums needs fewer sales thank you are thinking to make up the time spent. You are making the assumption that the money earned from the sell of the horse less the small resell fee only needs to pay for the time to get the horse into the game, then presuming that because the price is so high that the artists pipeline must be very inefficient.

They are not selling things solely to keep asset artists busy justifying their positions, they are selling things because that is what keeps the rest of the office employed so that the asset artist has a game to put things into in the first place. The STEAM buy to play fee is not enough to do that. The horse price is way more than it cost to put the thing into the game, obviously because that is the point of the entire store is that it funds the entire game not just the asset importer/creators.

So it is not about how much the horse is worth, it is about how much do you want to spend per year instead of a subscription to play this game. The established subscription for MMO's is $180/yr, and if you choose to achieve that by buying a house or many horses, then the system is working, think of the horse as nothing more than the artists thank you for supporting the game. If you choose not to 'subscribe' by using the store, they know that there are crazy collectors out there that are paying them way more than $15/mo that more than covers your lack of funding. There is no need to pay anything beyond the buy to play fee, because housing in this game is entirely decorative, just like in ESO.

 

To clarify, he wasn't providing reasoning for the pricing, but merely explaining that there was a cost involved, one way or another.

 

I was just saying the situation you described isn't the same in comparison. My original post is the main focus of the discussion. The price of items that are resold to us when they cost little to nothing from unity store that doesn't warrant the store price and if people are really OK with the sticker shock and price of those items. It seems they are fine with high prices and a smaller amount of people buying from the store at this time. Which is OK if that's the route they're going I guess. I think Ashlynn makes a good point and I've even seen people say that this game is for rich people not an average person.

 

That doesn't explain the $20-$50 price tag(s)... To put it in perspective, that's the price of a full-blown DLC for most games. A full expansion in other cases ($50).

... And the reasoning for the pricing of the horse (that one singular prop) is that there's a lot of work involved? On something they haven't originally made?

I want to support the dev team but... c'mon! There's a line that shouldn't be crossed and this kind of situation is dangerously close. I'm not here with a pitchfork but I certainly won't be closing the gates if there's a mob charging the castle... if you know what I mean.

Exactly.

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@yarnevk I know that the artist involved wasn't a work for hire. What I'm saying is that if they had to cover fees, that's roughly the pricing I would imagine this asset to cost... based on my own professional experience.

I'm well aware that Portalarium is trying to keep afloat by charging more for goods, but that doesn't make the process any more reasonable when you consider the source of the asset. I'm arguing that their pipeline MIGHT be inefficient if implementation is what warrants the current price tag... because THAT's what they used as an argument.

If they wanted to build an MMO with a subscription fee, I would've gladly payed for it... but, in exchange, I would also expect sizable content every 6-months or so. They specifically went this route and they specifically set the pricing of these items.

They're not better off if they're not getting any sales either... I don't want to go the "what's the point of the kickstarter pledge goals (we can't do this until we reach X amount) if you're going to go and ask for more money later?" route but you just went with the "this is an MMO and it's either this or an subscription fee" argument, so...

I personally don't care about the horse, I was commenting specifically about @DarkStarr 's reasoning... which is very much about how much it's worth. I mean, his post wouldn't have changed if it had costed $2-$5 but it is $20-$50... that's why I said the things that I've said.

Fair enough.

 

I fully expect there will be a subscription option at some point Gix. RG seemed to really like the idea when it was brought up. Though they didn't confirm they will be doing it for sure yet, I think they will go with the option after it releases at some point.

The store lacks focus, structure, and affordability on so many items. I can't see it being a sustainable store model long term in its current form.

 

I would like to know what the devs has to say about this.
Other than, this cost money.

That looks like a : wait for the storm to be over and keep going as normal.

 

Perhaps the price was set to deter everyone from owning the statue? The price of the horses and all the items on the add-on stores are the price you pay to have these items display in the game and persist on the server while help funding the development of the game. I mean.. If someone wants a horse statue and doesn't want to pay for it. Nothing stop that person from downloading the asset on Unity and place it in his/her own world and forget about buying one for SotA, right?

I disagree that the game is for rich people. Well.. unless these people want to obtain every single possible items in the game. All of the stuffs on the add-on stores are optional, people don't really need any of those things to play the game. However, one may convoluted what they need with what they want. Like... "I must have a house within a week.", "My life won't be fulfill unless I wear a kimono set." but that didn't change the fact that they can login and play the game without those items.

If they were to do subscription, I would they do something like Humble Monthly, where they show goodies upfront on what a person will get for that month and allow the users to cancel the subscription at any time. Might even give a discount rate like Xbox Live and PS Plus style while they're at it. However, I bet there will be someone post a thread "Are people here really ok with this sort of thing?" for the subscription model. Then we'll be spending couple days talking about it passionately.

 

@Roycestein Kaelstrom ,

Yea, I think a lot of the prices are based on how 'rare' they want the item to be; how the dollar value translates to igg. So you don't want everyone buying large statues for 2,000 gold.

 

Then that kind of foregoes the argument that they'd do it because they need income, doesn't it? Why not have it in-game and be rare within the in-game economy? If they need income, deliberately stunting their own sales doesn't seem to be a good marketing move.

Anyways, there's no much else I can say on the matter...

 

Maybe they want to have it both ways in the middle ground? Making it a supplement to the revenue and at the same time make it relatively pricey, so it can retain certain extend of rarity. It applies to all other items as well. The manufacturing cost is rather irrelevant unless people are intending to use it to lobby the dev team to lower the price of these items.

 

Maybe that's a factor, dunno. I don't get how the high prices could be for deterrence since as it was said it it takes time and money still for the effort to get these items to the store. Why put in the time and money to put things into the store to make money but deter from getting more money?

 

You don't create rarity with $2-5 items that everyone can afford, that is the reason they are $20-$50 so that RMT can go up in value once they expire. If everyone bought them already that will not happen. These things are intentionally designed as high priced collectibles for the fine lord and lady that can afford such things, those at the top of the economic food chain would not buy them if everyone has them. It is like crying about $40K new lexus when you can only afford a $4k used toyota. So what if they only sell a tenth as much, when they are making 10x more per? They are making the same amount of money, with the added value that it keeps the whales and their money in the game.

 

The value of an ingame item has nothing do do with the cost of producing the pixels. It's about what place it has in the game world/game economy and what level of rarity the devs decide upon. Every dollar I spnd I consider as a payment for the whole game, and the actual items are just nice trinkets.

 

And not everyone is complaining. You guys are doing a terrific job.

 

@Chris Well said. When you mentioned construction, it's like...do you want the contractors to make the bricks too? Carry on!

 

Could anyone point to where this is? Very helpful for having some of these discussions in a transparent way.

My experience with construction is that you need to visit the site regularly and inspect and ask questions regularly or things get missed .

I think this is what everybody wants; I think a lot of people have turned the corner in this discussion to agree with (or at least accept) your explanations. Seems like price point is the more controversial issue now. That's a complicated issue, I suspect, with lots of factors that could potentially affect the outcome.

I don't think anyone could question that you guys are working hard. I know I still have a hard time explaining the monetization of the game to friends, so for me, that's where some of this concern comes from.

 

I think the other thing to note is the very well priced 3 and 5 packs of statues that are more appropriate for a lot vs a town which are only $10-15 for a whole set!

 

There is no appreciable economy as yet. The price is set by what the cash market will bare and not a penny less. SotA is a niche title and niche titles have the ability to charge a premium for pretty much everything. This behavior keeps the servers on, but ensures they will never be full.