ARX pricing is inconsistent across regions. This is NOT okay, we're being ripped off.

[Shin-no-Ken]

Just checked up on the prices for purchasing ARX on the Frontier site today, and discovered possibly the worst thing I could've imagined from this system.

The tl;dr in advance is: It costs considerably more money in USD to buy ARX than it does in GBP, due to lazy rounding by the developers.

The actual amounts of ARX per tier are equal across different currencies. We'll be looking at the bottom two for our comparison, but this issue affects higher tiers as well, to different degrees.

So, the bottom tier is 5,000 ARX for £2.99 GBP or $3.99 USD. Anyone who knows exchange rates is already seeing a big red flag here-- £1 GBP converts to $1.25 USD, roughly. This means that if you convert your USD to GBP and buy ARX that way, you're paying just under $3.75 instead of $3.99, for the same amount of ingame currency. But, you might think, 25 cents isn't that big of a deal. And you'd be right-- But there's a bigger problem here. Because you're paying that 25 cents extra, it means the value of the ARX changes.

Now let's look at the second tier: 8,400 (+420) ARX for £4.99 GBP or $6.99 USD. Again, based on conversion rates, the USD price should only be ~$6.25. 75 cents still isn't a huge problem, but think again about actual value per unit of your preferred currency. Paying $3.99 USD for 5,000 ARX means that our exchange rate is just over 1,253 ARX per $1 USD. The ARX conversion rate to GBP, however, is just over 1,672 ARX per £1 GBP. Following some simple multiplication, then, £4.99 should be just over 8,344 ARX. Instead, you get 8,400. So it's rounded up a bit-- Whatever, right? Well, our same math using the USD numbers results in a value of just over 8,759 ARX for $6.99. And instead, you get 8,400. This is a pretty big disparity-- One that seems unjustified.

The solution is simple, and has been around forever-- There exist services that can be used to automatically convert a webstore's prices across multiple currencies, and one could simply rely on payment services like PayPal to do the conversions for them as well. Either of these methods would result in proper, fair pricing across all markets, instead of actively ripping parts of the community off.

So, my suggestion to anyone who lives outside the UK: Buy ARX in GBP, using PayPal. And my suggestion to the developers: Fix this issue immediately. Your playerbase is justified to throw a lot of hate at you over this.

P.S. The other available currencies, EUR and RUB, also get screwed over by this rounding, to lesser degrees. The value of the second tier if paid with EUR is just under 8,582 ARX, and if paid with RUB it's exactly 8,500 ARX. But, of course, in both cases, you get the standard 8,400 (+420) ARX instead.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Shin-no-Ken:

Just checked up on the prices for purchasing ARX on the Frontier site today, and discovered possibly the worst thing I could've imagined from this system.

What????

The proceeds from ARX are going to fund terrorists?

They are going to use the money from ARX to fund Star Citizen?

They are using it to have a party, with blackjack and hookers?

Originally posted by Shin-no-Ken:

It costs considerably more money in USD to buy ARX than it does in GBP, due to lazy rounding by the developers.

Oh.... erm.... you might need to work on that imagination of yours. I can imagine a lot worse.

Not idea for the different amounts. Maybe FD being an English company are hedging against currency fluctuations, giving themselves a buffer so they don't have to keep changing prices as exchange rates change. Maybe its because they get hit with currency conversion costs, so they add a bit in to cover that. Or maybe they just want to screw over people in the US!

But come on, its not exactly much money. If you are complaining about a few cents on the dollar i think you probably have more worries in life than buying cosmetics for a space game.

[Vape Lord Tutti Fruity]

Nobody here in the UK wants to buy ARX though.

[Shin-no-Ken]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

But come on, its not exactly much money. If you are complaining about a few cents on the dollar i think you probably have more worries in life than buying cosmetics for a space game.

My real concern isn't over the prices, but that this indicates a significant lack of respect towards the non-English community. Regardless of how little a difference it is, these pricing differences are still unfair towards not just the US, but everyone outside the UK.

[Berserk Breton]

You can't trade arx for real world money unless you're the vendor, it's not a currency it's a thing for sale that costs different prices in the domestic market and others.

90% of the time this difference absolutely hammers uk customers for anything from that 1.25 to 6x the price and more where the US is the domestic market - for instance the last thing I went to buy that is mfrd in the US is ~$50 in Walmart and £2-300 in the UK. In the instances where the UK is the domestic market I honestly think there is a lot less fleecing going on tbh, but even if there isn't, it's just a thing that happens sometimes. :)

[Shin-no-Ken]

Originally posted by Mote:

90% of the time this difference absolutely hammers uk customers for anything from that 1.25 to 6x the price and more where the US is the domestic market - for instance the last thing I went to buy that is mfrd in the US is ~$50 in Walmart and £2-300 in the UK. In the instances where the UK is the domestic market I honestly think there is a lot less fleecing going on tbh :)

I wasn't aware of this, that's ridiculous.

I don't know that comparing physical goods to digital currency is particularly fair, though. And revenge isn't a great justification, either.

[Berserk Breton]

Originally posted by Shin-no-Ken:

Originally posted by Mote:

90% of the time this difference absolutely hammers uk customers for anything from that 1.25 to 6x the price and more where the US is the domestic market - for instance the last thing I went to buy that is mfrd in the US is ~$50 in Walmart and £2-300 in the UK. In the instances where the UK is the domestic market I honestly think there is a lot less fleecing going on tbh :)

I wasn't aware of this, that's ridiculous.

I don't know that comparing physical goods to digital currency is particularly fair, though. And revenge isn't a great justification, either.

It's certainly not. We should have free trade between the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Commonwealth IMO, but what can you do?

[Laurreth]

It's probably hedging against a currently really weak GBP or a weakening USD. The GBP/EUR rate seems to be around 1.16 to 1.22, which is also a bit optimistic when you look at the past 3-4 years.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Or maybe they just don't want to check the conversion rates and change their prices every hour. They are not the bank, after all.

And if you find it to be cheaper to buy in GB£, then pay in GB£, and let your credit card to do the conversions.

I know some software that is being sold for $399/€399. I just pay in dollars.

[Casualty0War]

Hey nerds help me out!! I just bought a python but I don’t know how to actually use it do I have to go to someplace specifically to use it or what I’m new to this game and I love it!

[ZombieHunter]

They are using it to have a party, with blackjack and hookers?

Never bad for a dev team. Oh crap did I say that out loud? If it is going to fund that I'll throw in some.

The ARX pricing is relative to real world currency. The prices will be different from region to region b/c ARX use to be real world local currency. I would imagine this might change if they completely remove the ability to buy the items with real world money. Then they don't need to be able to convert from ARX to local currency b/c local currency would be a moot point.

So given the conversion rate my British friends across the pond will be charged less ARX for an awesome paint job than I would be since the pound is worth more than the dollar. However, because my British friends have allowed their government to pass a billion tax laws they can now not revoke it will still probably cost me less.

But if neither of us can buy these things with real world money then we should both be able to purchase the same thing for the same ARX. However, then how do you measure how much work your artists and modellers did for the item if you are charging the same around the world with no respect to real world currency? Makes billing and salaries kind of difficult. Thus ARX should have value relative to your local economy b/c that represents the 'billing' and 'profit margin' for the item in question. So if the work is worth 50 pounds then that will be converted to ARX for what 50 pounds is equal to in my neck of the woods.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Vape Lord Tutti Fruity:

Nobody here in the UK wants to buy ARX though.

Sorry. You can speak for everyone in the UK?

Are you Boris Johnson?

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Shin-no-Ken:

My real concern isn't over the prices, but that this indicates a significant lack of respect towards the non-English community. Regardless of how little a difference it is, these pricing differences are still unfair towards not just the US, but everyone outside the UK.

A lack of respect? Unfair?

Dude, seriously.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Or maybe they just don't want to check the conversion rates and change their prices every hour. They are not the bank, after all.

And if you find it to be cheaper to buy in GB£, then pay in GB£, and let your credit card to do the conversions.

I know some software that is being sold for $399/€399. I just pay in dollars.

And get charged for the conversion ;)

Unless you have a multiple currency card. My card has Dollars, Roubles, and Euros.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by SledgeHammer:

Hey nerds help me out!! I just bought a python but I don’t know how to actually use it do I have to go to someplace specifically to use it or what I’m new to this game and I love it!

Please, stop wasting your real money before you learn about the game. You can't buy ships with real money (or by proxy ARX). You can only buy cosmetics for the ships. The ships you buy in game, at shipyards, by using in-game Credits (not ARX).

Do the tutorials to learn how to fly a ship. You can also read the manual to learn more details about it. It will get you up to the basics.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

And get charged for the conversion ;)

Of course! And that's part of the equation that the OP doesn't put in his calculation. It can even make the GB£ payment to be more expensive than the US$ one. For the British company that has to convert other payments to GB£.