Is the Price Rise to Spell Research Reduction Reasonable?

I was one of those that was vehemently opposed to the SC at the beginning. So apposed that I got temp bans for some, well comments not appreciated by the mods. I lost that argument, and now I am reaping the benefits of that lose. Buying my way past what I consider a stupid idea and allows me to sell all of my rares on the broker for big plat. I didn't make SC, didn't make it the way it is, didn't make SC so that you could buy game changing stuff, but now that it's there, I'll use it.... the way I want to use it. If you don't like that I can buy my grandmaster spells on the SC, I'm not sure what to tell you. It's available you use so I will. $20.00 per spell is a little steep, but I'll pay it, it will make SoE happy, it will make me happy. Sorry if it messes with your sense of right and wrong.

Not paying anywhere near that much SC for research reduction. Life goes on.

Did they just increase the research price again? an Expert research to Master grade now cost $30 dollars? and another $18 from master to grandmaster? 10 spells will cost nearly $500? Are you serious? What the hell is going on? Did US dollar just depreciate to 10% of it's original value?

I never looked into this as all my spells were mastered so when the GM spells hit I thought I would check it out. I worked out how much station cash I would have to add to do the M > GM upgrade and worked out that I could afford to go to the cinema TWICE for the same price!
If you are spending that sort of money on a game, regardless of how much you have spare then you probably need to re-evaluate your priorities in life.

You might be surprised at the number of people these games provide a 'window to the world' for. When a game provides that much for you I can see people spending more than a cinema's worth of cash. It might sound sad or crazy but when the alternative is simply isolation, you start to see a lot of good coming from games like this.

While it's not the money but the principle that would keep me from buying this I do wonder who put you in a place to decide what should be a priority in people's lives.

Agreed 100%, not to mention it goes beyond that. Times are tough these days and luxury nights out on the town with your significant other cost far too much for some. Even if affordable, are far to brief for the expendable cash spent. You can however enjoy the game rather cheaply together and purchase the occasional perk or upgrade from the SC store to enhance that your online gaming experience together.

The argument of "If you can't afford it, you shouldn't be looking at it, get a job" is ridiculous. Some are rightfully complaining that it was affordable to their limited budgets providing an entertainment value to them prior to the price increases. Many play as a family/couple and don't view it as "I can still afford enough for me, if I don't buy it for you". So now instead of SoE getting "X" amount of SC for an upgrade for the two of us, they get "0" as we pass it by.

Now, in the short run, they may make as much in the SC store as they did before, or even more. In the long run, they might have slighted a good amount of players who will now more carefully budget their SC purchases feeling that the bang for the buck is diminished and it's too rich for their blood to purchase such upgrades. For example, the wife and I often unlocked multiple mercenaries on our mains and alternates because the 100SC seemed cheap. Feeling that the 50% increase was unwarranted, we now unlock just one per new character, instead of three. So instead of them gaining 100x3, they gain 150SC. Given that between us we made 4 new characters, they passed up on the 1,200SC we would have spent and gained only 600SC and some dirty looks.