Update on Armories

As I do appreciate them finally listening, is there anyway I can get those six marks taken off my record from the original armory announcement thread lol.

Alas I guess it was worth it.

4 for $20 I can do all day long.

Well, this is interesting. I'm going to keep an open mind here. With the change from legendary memberships to all-access passes, a lot changes. I don't feel so much like I'm a subscriber to DCUO anymore, so the surcharge (and this was a surcharge for a basic mechanic) isn't such a big deal. Instead, I actually am moving toward seeing the whole deal as several games of access with some bargains. I get that my old-style subscription is gone, which is disappointing, but at least I'm not getting gouged like before. My subscription is now worth a heck of a lot more, and I'm going to have some fun playing my EQ character that I've had for 13 years.

The new price is okay. I think if they're going to insist to All-Access people that items like this are included in our membership, 500 SC needs to be some sort of cap on things. Still, this becomes reasonable. Plus, I can get 4 for 2000, which is probably what I'll purchase. I have five characters that I play regularly, and one never respecs, so that's 4. I'm going to think of this as a graphical upgrade . These things do look cool in a base.

In terms of the overall relationship with the community, I think this is the best they can do. After all, they need to save face. If they'd totally folded, there's be a revolt every time they put something else. This revolt was genuine. I've played the game for over two years and I've never seen anything like it. They did what they could while saving face.

Long term, I hope this makes a difference to how the devs think about items and money. They know we have a limit now, so they'll think twice. I think in the end they'll make more money this way, since people will actually buy more armories at the new price. So, it's win-win. The community will get lower prices and SOE will make more money.

Anyway, an interesting week . Between the All-Access change and this, there's been a real shift in the community and in pricing. I'm hoping it will be a positive shift in the long run.

Thank you for lowering the price DCUO team. Again your team has shown you take the players feedback into account.

This has renewed my enthusiasm for armories and I will provide you with tangible proof (aka my money) upon their release.

To my fellow players, who still feel slighted I just want to say that while I find the constant dissatisfaction/negativity a bit disheartening, I completely support your right to not be satisfied I simply ask you don't hold it against those of us who are.

To Mepps: Now that this crisis has been averted...I need an eta on that Zatanna poster wall decoration to hang over my heart-shaped bed.

I prefered the 15 for $60 at $4 a pop...you completely lost my interest by saying those would be the prices then doubling them and making it so we can't even buy one without having to spend $10 on SC because the smallest price is just barely more than the 5$ SC...

Here are some better numbers.

One Armory - $5 ($5 per Armory)
4-Pack - $20 ($5 per Armory)
8-Pack - $32 ($4 per Armory)
15-Pack - $60 ($4 per Armory)

YES I know the price only drops once, however this is to allow people to purchase more than one at a time (which would get annoying after the first 4 hence the 4 pack) and to give better pricing with the more you spend.

YES I know it jumps from 1-4-8-15. I chose these numbers because you can only have 16 max per character so 15 is the reasonable number since you get one for free, assuming you use them all on one character.

Thumbs up if you agree with my feedback on this change.

Meh, there's always going to be fringe cases and no solution is going to make every one happy. Frankly, I think you'd be complaining just as hard if they were made redeemable. Just about all of us who were talking about that option said we'd be content to pay more per unit and not have price reductions for bulk purchases in that instance. If SOE'd gone that route, you'd be here complaining about lack of bundling, or the increase ppu.

The proposed solution was a fair compromise, and that's about the best kind of solution that could be hoped for. I suggest you be patient, wait for a sale, or use your sub LPs over time if you're discontented with it.

Is the first one still free?

...What? It's still 15 for $60.

Those happy with the price have to understand they are cheering on the clear transition from Micro to Macro transactions.

There are outrageously priced items sold already, namely Lair styles and Legend PvP characters.
These are extremely poor value for money but I, like most, didn't react to it because they can be ignored without much consequences.
The Armories however will have a very significant impact on the game experience of those who can afford them or not.

The previous overpriced items only mattered in that they created a space where absurd pricing seems about right.

Now that it really means something most are willing to accept these extremely low value for money prices as the norm.

This is how we live in a world where we elect people we don't trust.
This is why we all know and despise that our lives are governed purely by money and those who have it.

Because every time we could stand for ourselves and prevent it, we don't.

It will cost me at least 32$ to get what I want from the Armories.
Over 3 DLCs, for a single feature. Still heavily restricted. When I already pay 15$ every month.
7$ more than the price I paid last month for the new Walking Dead season.
Paid 25$ for high quality largely bug free content, a large number of features
many of which took no doubt just as much effort to create as our Armories.
That is real value for money, that is what we should keep our eyes on.

We are giving a free pass to MMOs to grossly overcharge us for trivial things.

For us captive users it is just a blow to be suffered.
But those blows are building an MMO world likely to turn more and more away as time goes on.
Accepting excessive prices is not helping the game.

It is to contribute to its ultimate fall.

Yep.

Given the responses by the majority of people since the price revision – things seem to be working as intended

Be under no illusion, SOE certainly haven’t “backed down”, or suddenly become “reasonable”. They merely continue to push boundaries to see what they can get away with.

For those of you that weren’t already aware:

For the upcoming SOE title EverQuest Next Landmark, customers will be able to *pay up to 100 bucks* for the “privilege” of beta testing a F2P game. Let me say that again – People PAY $100 to TEST a FREE game. Granted, this is not the first time we’ve seen something like this by any means. Let’s face it, this is essentially what PC owners with subscriptions have been doing here at DCUO since it went F2P over 2 years ago!


What it does show is SOE’s direction and intent for future endeavours.



The term micro transaction is very prevalent in online gaming at present and will no doubt continue to be so. However, I’m wondering how long it is going to be before people start having to use the term “macro transactions” in the same context?

A few years ago if somebody would have told you that you would have to pay to play an unfinished bug ridden version of a free game – you would have told them to go forget themselves. Today it would seem people are falling over themselves to hand over their credit card details at the mere prospect of such a thing.


Wow, progress is certainly “interesting” isn’t it?

This is what bothers me, you go down on the individual but leave the bulk price as is. Who is in charge of their marketing? This is absolute stupidity.

The bulk price was fine on the price per unit level. The only issue with the bulk price was the upfront cost associated with accessing those price per unit rates. That's been made more accessible. Those who wanted to and were willing to pay $60 upfront are still able to do so and get what they wanted out of it. The difference is a broader spectrum of players can now access that price point at a more reasonable front-loaded cost, and the entire feature is more reasonably accessible to more casual players or those without a desire or requirement for 15 armories. That's what we were arguing for in the original thread, and it's what we got.

Mission accomplished.

You guys are getting closer to the correct price, try again!

I think at this point if you are unsatisfied with the pricing the best course of action would just be to not buy one. If sales are nowhere near their expectation or doesn't cover development costs then I think they will get the message then and adjust or have a sale. I too think the base price should be no more than $5.00 especially now that you have to convert real world cash into market cash first and you are forced to at least convert $10.00 since the $4.99 market cash option doesn't cover it, but I'm no longer going to continually push the issue in the forums because I think it will fall on deaf ears for now since we've just had a price drop.

You are right, the original price went down. I just think then so should the bulk price as well. I am glad some people got what they wanted in the individual price going down but where is the incetive to buy bulk? There is NO savings to buy bulk so why would anyone do that? That is one of the basic principles of marketing in which the DCUO team fails to accomplish.

No, there's still an incentive to buy bulk. If you have a (perceived) need or desire to have over a dozen armories, you're still getting them at a $2 per unit price break. That's a 33% discount, which I'd call a fairly significant incentive. And, again, you can access that level of discount with much less of an upfront cost, which, again, was one of the concerns we were trying to address in the first thread.

OK, they lowered the price a little. I don't understand why they call it an armory when it does not include any actual storage for your armor. If you have multiple armories, you need to store that extra gear somewhere. That means you likely need to buy extra inventory or bank storage space. Why not create armory storage that comes with each armory? All of a character's armories would access the same storage bank and it would be separate from your regular bank slots. That is what I would expect from an armory.

As you say, they are trivial things. Lair styles, legends characters and armories are not necessary for game progression. They are conveniences...luxuries. Anywhere you go in life, luxuries cost more. Not buying them will not hurt any of us . Personally I tend to budget for luxuries but recognize that not everyone can.

Should the day come that game progression becomes purchasable, I'll take issue with pricing. In the meantime I understand that Johnny a Walker Blue costs more than the Black and buy to my taste.

Okay they did a OKay job with the price cut which it shouldn't have been that high in the BEGINNING but at least they some what listened the prices are now some what reasonable. MY only thing is it should've been account bound just like much of the current market especially considering the price. I'm debating personally I'm glad most people are happy with the changes I might get some I might not the fact it's not account bound means it has certain limitations. Especially considering I had no attention of buying anything over 4 or 8. For people buying more then that it's probably not a problem but to each there own I'll wait awhile and give it some thought.

P. S.-(The fact it's still more then the lair is a little weird considering everything)

I actually didn't consider the storage prices that's actually a good point especially with the price of them in general. To have to fork over more would make it even more expensive investment.