For those too lazy to check it on the front page So, we have changed YET AGAIN how we can purchase membership time? Does this mean they are phasing out station cash purchases for time? It says that they are NOT a payment method, but the only use for them is game time? How does that work out? Says $17.99 or less, can we not have an actual price please? Also, since it's not a payment method, should it really cost the same or more as a monthly payment method?
It lets people pay for game time with in game effort. Now you just have to produce something in game that is worth $17.99 to someone else. My guess is plat will be the big seller here. It will interesting to see how much $17.99 is worth in plat.
I wouldn't pay that much for plat. That puts 100k plat at roughly $9-$10. That's way to high especially early expansion when spell turn in items and trade able T1 gear is selling in the 25k-100k plat range.
Bad Idea period far as i'm concerned. Opens the doorway to lot's of plat farming, in-game scamming, and let's face it there's allready no gm's in-game for the most part... hopefully it won't fly.... iv'e played EVE online this same scheme is what makes that game so crooked and horrible.
I am going to reserve judgement on this system until later. It has some pros and cons. The one thing I would say is missing is the ability to convert them into SC instead of played time.
I'm curious, does the $18 price tag (rounded off) indicate that the monthly rate is going up, or does it indicate a split between the cost of a normal membership and an all access membership?
Pretty Sure he's the cousin of a time-traveling teenager the hooks up with girls born 400 years before him.
I agree, this seems to be SoE's answer to the people selling game cards in game. I don't know if I like it or hate it yet. I will wait for the trial period to pass judgement. Does sound like a decent way to pick up some play time for a second or third account though. I can see them only selling them at first, then giving them away during contests and in-game events.
I expect will get items that can be redeemed in game for SC next. A 500sc and 1000sc item would go well with Kronos and open up plat trading for lower amounts then $18.
Perhaps you are right, but it also gives them the ability to soften the blow for raising game fees. I personally think $15 is about as high as I want to go for game fees, and I never buy plat for cash myself, so I wouldn't know about that aspect. I know that if game fees approach $20 I will consider discontinuing any sort of pay to play game. I would certainly discontinue multiple accounts.
Looking at the plat buying sites now I would say more like 200k, none of your reasoning makes sense though just look at the current prices and compare to what SoE is charging. But this of course depends on rarity, they could go for more or less.
There is no rarity on Kronos you buy them from SoE for $ then sale them for plat in Baz. I made 3 million plat selling T1 stuff in the first week HoT could have done the same in VoA but didn't. That would be a years worth Kronos in just a few days if they sold say 200k plat in game. The above plat to $ ratio overvalues plat and would result in hordes of players item farming early in a expansion to pay for subscriptions when new items sale for large amount of plat. In end I see the plat to $ being much tilted in $ favor. Most likely 500-750k plat per kronos
They should have 1 million plat to buy them from the market place. (no trade versions) It would drastically eliminated the plat supply, they would sell bunchs to start but it would level out. Honestly any one who can generate that kind of plat in a month deserves 15 bucks worth of time.
There is rarity based on the amount bought by people to flood the market, I don't anticipate them to be too rare as this is basically SoE sanctioned plat buying. However you can already buy game cards from people for plat, and yes you did likely pick up years worth of game time if you chose to spend all your plat on game cards or now kronos. At worst I've seen the 30 days go for around 300k, at best about 150k. Kronos should be around the same.
You are misunderstanding supply and demand. The huge amount of plat in game is irrelevant. What matters is the amount of plat of people that would want to buy this item, the amount they are willing to pay, versus the amount of people that need plat that are willing to buy the item and sell them. One would hope that these go for $15 for EQ1 version, then you're talking about them selling for the same price (or more likely less since they are only for game time, can't use for SC) as what gamecards sell for in game. Right now you can get game cards for 150k plat on many servers, UNLESS, its a walmart card during a SC promotion, then I've seen them as high as 250-300k. Really, 200k is probably spot on. Many of the people with millions of plat have no use for these things, as they have no intention of dropping a recurring sub or bought years worth of play time with SC awhile back.
im not concerned too much with the possibility of plat flooding the game. and in fact it is a good way for soe to deal with the plat sellers , and people selling game cards in game. what does concern me is the ability to buy game time with plat through the use of kronos. it would seem that soe would lose revenue as more people start buying playtime with plat ( depending on the exchange rate. ) there is a benefit as its proposed in giving a fairly easy way for FTP players to gain gold membership through gameplay. though i would have liked it better if kornos could be bought with RL $ or plat and be able to be sold / gifted to others for plat or turned in for SC. keeping payment source for playtime and in game currency separated.
The Krono's costs more then the game time itself so people trading it should bring in more money to SOE instead of the plat selling companies The Krono's in game you can also do whatever you want with, sell for plat, give away free, trade for items, etc
