Justify the price of cosmetics to me.

[x Princess Leliana x]

Tried to have this conversation in global chat but people just chose to ignore the points and insult me.

To start with:

1: of course paid cosmetics are fine, its a f2p game, they need to make money.
2: "You're just poor" "get more money" "dont like it dont buy it" etc, are not arguments or justifications.


So, I was looking through the cosmetics, thought it would be fun to have a pet crab, looked at the price, $15.

Started exploring more, one pair of wings, $50, a new sword, $20, special zombies, $40. The prices are frankly, completely ridiculous, the amount you have to spend to get anything at all is far too high.

Take dota, or csgo, a new skin is $1, going up to $25 if you want really fancy ones (yes i know csgo knives are stupid prices and all that, just a quick example). This model works fine, those games make millions, etc.

The prices here just don't make sense, $50 for one pair of wings turns away 99% of buyers, so you get say, 1 buyer, make $50, whereas if it was $5, youd have 100 buyers, and make 500 dollars, the business side doesn't make sense.

There also isn't really a way to just give light support to the developers, if you wanna just chuck a spare $5 their way, you can't afford anything worthwhile or valuable to the player for that.

In short, when a set of basic wings, costs more than a new AAA game on release, your game has a problem.

[x Princess Leliana x]

Kai Shiba님이 먼저 게시:

davidb11님이 먼저 게시:

True. Fair enough point.
People will argue for no reason. I've learned that a long time ago.

Truth, it's funny too, I mentioned earnable cosmetics from Leagues and even that was ignored lol

Realistically, unless you no life the game, youre likely to only get the first cosmetic from the leagues. So if you play the game almost every day, in an entire year, youll get 4 cosmetics, that you have no control or choice over. Thats not really a point in the favour of the game, really.

Kai Shiba님이 먼저 게시:

Also OP you have no room to talk. Dota 2 has the season passes which, if you want to effectively get it done, you have to pay money for it and it gets very expensive, even some cosmetics are extremely pricey alone. Don't even get me started on Valve's lootbox market shenanigans.

Cool lets talk about dota, frequent item drops in game just for playing, a massively cheap and well supported secondary market, the most expensive items in the game are $30 and entirely change a character in every possible way, cosmetics that change spell effects, looks, add ambients, etc, can be had for under $1 most of the time. Dota is exactly what a f2p games market should be.

Yes there are the passes, think of those like the "supporters packs" for this game, only you actually get a ♥♥♥♥ ton of stuff in them.

As I said, I can entirely change the physical, audio, ambient, etc, everything, of a hero in dota, for $30.

In this game that gets me a pair of wings with ambient effects. The same item for a dota hero would be 20 cents.

Now of course I'm not asking this game to make those $30 wings 20 cents, but $30 is entirely ridiculous, $1-5 is far more reasonable, especially with the quantity of items they pump out.

[davidb11]

Please don't make up silly things to help your argument like the following. "Realistically, unless you no life the game, youre likely to only get the first cosmetic from the leagues. So if you play the game almost every day, in an entire year, youll get 4 cosmetics, that you have no control or choice over. Thats not really a point in the favour of the game, really."

It really doesn't help your argument.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The only reason prices are what they are is because back in 2013 people wanted to pay that much.
This is simple economics and you quite literally can't fight that.
I mean, you could, but you'd have a higher chance of succeeding with halting the Earth's rotation by looking at the nearest river funny. :P
I'm just saying, you can't fight economics. Period.
I made the quote earlier, and it will always fit in this situation. You just need to understand that people explained this over 2000 years ago.

[x Princess Leliana x]

davidb11님이 먼저 게시:

Please don't make up silly things to help your argument like the following. "Realistically, unless you no life the game, youre likely to only get the first cosmetic from the leagues. So if you play the game almost every day, in an entire year, youll get 4 cosmetics, that you have no control or choice over. Thats not really a point in the favour of the game, really."

It really doesn't help your argument.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The only reason prices are what they are is because back in 2013 people wanted to pay that much.
This is simple economics and you quite literally can't fight that.
I mean, you could, but you'd have a higher chance of succeeding with halting the Earth's rotation by looking at the nearest river funny. :P
I'm just saying, you can't fight economics. Period.
I made the quote earlier, and it will always fit in this situation. You just need to understand that people explained this over 2000 years ago.

I mean I'm not making things up, I'm talking from experience, ive played for 55 hours and im not even halfway to the first unlock.

[davidb11]

If I wanted to, I could get the second unlock in every league. Without spending 30 hours.
But I don't care about the challenges.
Neither should you.
Which honestly, no one should.

Seriously, they only exist as a "Hey, look, I can do this!" badge.
The cosmetics you can get from buying mystery boxes are a better use of your time, and far less annoying, and they sometimes just hand out mystery boxes.

They're fairly cheap too. Buy one or two, and you can get decent stuff.

[Kai Shiba]

x Princess Leliana x님이 먼저 게시:

Kai Shiba님이 먼저 게시:

Truth, it's funny too, I mentioned earnable cosmetics from Leagues and even that was ignored lol

Realistically, unless you no life the game, youre likely to only get the first cosmetic from the leagues. So if you play the game almost every day, in an entire year, youll get 4 cosmetics, that you have no control or choice over. Thats not really a point in the favour of the game, really.

Kai Shiba님이 먼저 게시:

Also OP you have no room to talk. Dota 2 has the season passes which, if you want to effectively get it done, you have to pay money for it and it gets very expensive, even some cosmetics are extremely pricey alone. Don't even get me started on Valve's lootbox market shenanigans.

Cool lets talk about dota, frequent item drops in game just for playing, a massively cheap and well supported secondary market, the most expensive items in the game are $30 and entirely change a character in every possible way, cosmetics that change spell effects, looks, add ambients, etc, can be had for under $1 most of the time. Dota is exactly what a f2p games market should be.

Yes there are the passes, think of those like the "supporters packs" for this game, only you actually get a ♥♥♥♥ ton of stuff in them.

As I said, I can entirely change the physical, audio, ambient, etc, everything, of a hero in dota, for $30.

In this game that gets me a pair of wings with ambient effects. The same item for a dota hero would be 20 cents.

Now of course I'm not asking this game to make those $30 wings 20 cents, but $30 is entirely ridiculous, $1-5 is far more reasonable, especially with the quantity of items they pump out.

Your first statement is completely made up. You can easily get the rewards and you do not need to no life the game to get them, perhaps it is too late to get all of them now seeing as the new league is starting soon (16th of april) but it is entirely possible to get cosmetics, there are freebies thrown about here and there as well.

For the dota part, for extremely old looking cosmetics, yes, few cents and a few bucks for something that isn't rare, because that is how they are valued, rarity which doesn't exist in PoE. However newer and what you glossed over, the valve lootbox/market (Which come on, some items go past $30), can be extremely pricy, even more than PoE. You just cannot compare them at all.

Davidb11 said what is true, this is basic economics and nothing will change. Everyone justified why the prices are the way they are and honestly like MANY have said already, if they saw what they were doing wasn't working, they would've changed it a long time ago since 2013.

Changing the prices in PoE cosmetics to 1$ to 5$ for a pair of wings or any cosmetic for that matter will literally kill the game. And saying that "Oh people will buy more if they were cheaper" is a dead excuse that has been proven to be wrong in finances.

Edit: If people want to get cosmetics. Get a supporter pack and use the points on sales. This is what many follow by.

[davidb11]

Yeah. The idea that making it cheaper would make more people buy it is a flawed concept that is proven time and time again in the real world itself.

[Kai Shiba]

davidb11님이 먼저 게시:

Yeah. The idea that making it cheaper would make more people buy it is a flawed concept that is proven time and time again in the real world itself.

Hell, it caused a friend of mine's family store to close when he lowered the value of his products thinking it'd sell more. He wasn't making a profit and he eventually had to leave it all behind.

[davidb11]

I'm sorry to hear that. :(

[Vyrtualis]

x Princess Leliana x님이 먼저 게시:

Vyrtual님이 먼저 게시:

It helps to understand the business model better if you don't view the microtransaction shop as a storefront. It's a donation box, and you get cosmetics in exchange for your donation. In fact, most people will not even use money on the cash shop directly - they'll use points they get from supporter packs.

GGG set the prices (donations) the way they are because that's how they feel they will meet their bottom line. Why? Only GGG knows. Go ask Chris why they set those prices in 2013. They've been the same since then. Nobody except GGG can tell you exactly why.

That doesnt answer the question.

I know what the cosmetic shop is, I get how f2p games work, I get that its to support the devs, my point is that this one costs 10x as much as any other f2p games.

Dude I answered your question. You're being willfully ignorant at this point.

GGG set the prices based on their initial bottom line.
This game isn't your average F2P. It was fully crowdfunded from supporter packs in the beginning, and those were priced fairly high too. Later on release, packs continued being made and sold at similar price points. MTX was priced on par with that. The prices reflect the financial need GGG had at the time.

It's doubtful to change even now that GGG isn't indie anymore. You're beating a horse that's been dead for 9 years.

[davidb11]

Yeah. GGG's model has been the same since 2013. If Tencent couldn't change their model, being Tencent, :P, why would anyone expect it to change now?

And yes, I know Tencent literally leaves it's properties alone for the most part as long as they make any kind of money.

[Tiberia]

x Princess Leliana x님이 먼저 게시:

Tried to have this conversation in global chat but people just chose to ignore the points and insult me.

To start with:

1: of course paid cosmetics are fine, its a f2p game, they need to make money.
2: "You're just poor" "get more money" "dont like it dont buy it" etc, are not arguments or justifications.


So, I was looking through the cosmetics, thought it would be fun to have a pet crab, looked at the price, $15.

Started exploring more, one pair of wings, $50, a new sword, $20, special zombies, $40. The prices are frankly, completely ridiculous, the amount you have to spend to get anything at all is far too high.

Take dota, or csgo, a new skin is $1, going up to $25 if you want really fancy ones (yes i know csgo knives are stupid prices and all that, just a quick example). This model works fine, those games make millions, etc.

The prices here just don't make sense, $50 for one pair of wings turns away 99% of buyers, so you get say, 1 buyer, make $50, whereas if it was $5, youd have 100 buyers, and make 500 dollars, the business side doesn't make sense.

There also isn't really a way to just give light support to the developers, if you wanna just chuck a spare $5 their way, you can't afford anything worthwhile or valuable to the player for that.

In short, when a set of basic wings, costs more than a new AAA game on release, your game has a problem.

ok lemme try to justify that for you toi actually give you something you can read and think about.

lets first talk about Ritual league, it wa sthe first league I made any challenges. How much time did I spend? 400 hours

how many challenges did I completed? 38 of 40

how much time did I wast 200 hours doing every single map from T1 to T15 after another and then again with awaken and corrpution before I learned you can complete the whole atlas in just 10 hours of gameplay with everything ....

so it took me around 200 hours to get 38 challenges done. a frined of mine took 150 hours to get 37 challenges done.

You need 24 challenge to get all mtx and 36 to get the ritual hideout which is not mtx but a reward. but for the point of argument lets regard it as mtx.

GGG wants the achivements to mean something they want people to really earn the mtx you can get.

Watch me doing 9 to 0 hours a day of work having a family and still managed to crame in 400 hours of playtime (just because I enjoyed it soo ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mutch.]


No why dose this matter?

The point is you can get all challenges in under 120 hours playtime if you follow the challenge guide even faster if you just want 36 challenges done. And thoes guides exist. The fastest time is around 50 hours. This is of course gatet behind game knowledge but a guide can easially circumvent that.

So just because you played 50 hours normaly and without really carring for completition (which looks like it pretty hard) dosen`t mean it takes long. and 50 hours for an MMO? Please that is really not a lot. even 120 hours for a challenge reward that you can try to get for over 3 month? even if you just play 1 hour eache day you can maybe get it. if you play 2 hours eache day you certainly will get it and if you play more than that or even no life a weekend you can get it in the first week (if you have the time)

and you have earned thosse MTX effects and the hideout making it much more satisfying to get them in the end which is the whole point maing it hard to get.


The rest of the shop is.. yes it is really expensive looking at the Tab cost even when reduced is ridicioulus no I am not one to talk having sspend probably couple of thausands in this ame but that dose not mean I think it is not to expensive.

I simply pay it because I believe the money iss worth it.

Yes it is expensive and there is no justification other than GG dosen`t want anyone to own shiny mtx and just give a couple of good paying users shiny wings to show of to create a more VIP feeling which is a tactik working great.. I belive I would not have spend 800 bucks on loot boxes to get the full set if I knew everyone else would run around in it in fact i was the only one I ever saw in all my groups having the full despair set with everything around it. And it just felt nice. I never bragged with it but I enjyed it when people said thinks like "Nice outfit looks sick" etc. It did sstroke my ego and felt nice. I never rubbed in anyonse face I just enjyed the glamour but I would probaly not have spended that money if everyone else could have gotten it. of ir it was easy to get.

[x Princess Leliana x]

Kai Shiba님이 먼저 게시:

x Princess Leliana x님이 먼저 게시:

Realistically, unless you no life the game, youre likely to only get the first cosmetic from the leagues. So if you play the game almost every day, in an entire year, youll get 4 cosmetics, that you have no control or choice over. Thats not really a point in the favour of the game, really.



Cool lets talk about dota, frequent item drops in game just for playing, a massively cheap and well supported secondary market, the most expensive items in the game are $30 and entirely change a character in every possible way, cosmetics that change spell effects, looks, add ambients, etc, can be had for under $1 most of the time. Dota is exactly what a f2p games market should be.

Yes there are the passes, think of those like the "supporters packs" for this game, only you actually get a ♥♥♥♥ ton of stuff in them.

As I said, I can entirely change the physical, audio, ambient, etc, everything, of a hero in dota, for $30.

In this game that gets me a pair of wings with ambient effects. The same item for a dota hero would be 20 cents.

Now of course I'm not asking this game to make those $30 wings 20 cents, but $30 is entirely ridiculous, $1-5 is far more reasonable, especially with the quantity of items they pump out.

Your first statement is completely made up. You can easily get the rewards and you do not need to no life the game to get them, perhaps it is too late to get all of them now seeing as the new league is starting soon (16th of april) but it is entirely possible to get cosmetics, there are freebies thrown about here and there as well.

For the dota part, for extremely old looking cosmetics, yes, few cents and a few bucks for something that isn't rare, because that is how they are valued, rarity which doesn't exist in PoE. However newer and what you glossed over, the valve lootbox/market (Which come on, some items go past $30), can be extremely pricy, even more than PoE. You just cannot compare them at all.

Davidb11 said what is true, this is basic economics and nothing will change. Everyone justified why the prices are the way they are and honestly like MANY have said already, if they saw what they were doing wasn't working, they would've changed it a long time ago since 2013.

Changing the prices in PoE cosmetics to 1$ to 5$ for a pair of wings or any cosmetic for that matter will literally kill the game. And saying that "Oh people will buy more if they were cheaper" is a dead excuse that has been proven to be wrong in finances.

Edit: If people want to get cosmetics. Get a supporter pack and use the points on sales. This is what many follow by.

Yeah there are a couple expensive secondary items on dota. $150 for a mace for faceless void for example. What can you get for $150 in poe? oh a scorpion that looks the same as the $5 one.

And no, not "old looking" cosmetics, 90% of all cosmetics in dota go for under a couple bucks, regardless of if they were released half a decade ago, or last month.

[Wladaas]

bruh, cosmetic problems yeah, everything aside we need to deal with cosmetics thats what we need xd

[davidb11]

x Princess Leliana x님이 먼저 게시:

Kai Shiba님이 먼저 게시:

Your first statement is completely made up. You can easily get the rewards and you do not need to no life the game to get them, perhaps it is too late to get all of them now seeing as the new league is starting soon (16th of april) but it is entirely possible to get cosmetics, there are freebies thrown about here and there as well.

For the dota part, for extremely old looking cosmetics, yes, few cents and a few bucks for something that isn't rare, because that is how they are valued, rarity which doesn't exist in PoE. However newer and what you glossed over, the valve lootbox/market (Which come on, some items go past $30), can be extremely pricy, even more than PoE. You just cannot compare them at all.

Davidb11 said what is true, this is basic economics and nothing will change. Everyone justified why the prices are the way they are and honestly like MANY have said already, if they saw what they were doing wasn't working, they would've changed it a long time ago since 2013.

Changing the prices in PoE cosmetics to 1$ to 5$ for a pair of wings or any cosmetic for that matter will literally kill the game. And saying that "Oh people will buy more if they were cheaper" is a dead excuse that has been proven to be wrong in finances.

Edit: If people want to get cosmetics. Get a supporter pack and use the points on sales. This is what many follow by.

Yeah there are a couple expensive secondary items on dota. $150 for a mace for faceless void for example. What can you get for $150 in poe? oh a scorpion that looks the same as the $5 one.

And no, not "old looking" cosmetics, 90% of all cosmetics in dota go for under a couple bucks, regardless of if they were released half a decade ago, or last month.

There is no scorpion in this game that sells for $150.
please do not use overexaggerations to help your claim.

[Tiberia]

davidb11님이 먼저 게시:

x Princess Leliana x님이 먼저 게시:

Yeah there are a couple expensive secondary items on dota. $150 for a mace for faceless void for example. What can you get for $150 in poe? oh a scorpion that looks the same as the $5 one.

And no, not "old looking" cosmetics, 90% of all cosmetics in dota go for under a couple bucks, regardless of if they were released half a decade ago, or last month.

There is no scorpion in this game that sells for $150.
please do not use overexaggerations to help your claim.

for 150 you can litteray get 5 skills a full set with wings and a pet wtf as well as stash tabs and so on.