Elder Scrolls Online's First Microtransaction Is a Horse

[Ian Mantell]

From there it's just a tiny step to pay2win, just do the hop, little Zenimax as better things await your customers elsewhere. They just need the last push over the edge, do them the favour, will you. /SCNR
EDIT: I'd do the full loop and write it that way: the devs would not have wanted their game to take an arrow to the knee that early.

 

[Hagi]

Oh for God's sake. You want to have a subscription fee? Fine, it's a legit business model, if not the most popular one. You want to have a cash shop? Fine, just so long as what it offers is cosmetic and/or convenience items and not demanding a person pay to get the basic features of the game after it was advertised as F2P. But having BOTH? No. No, no, nonononononono. $15 a month is too much to ask from a customer to THEN demand MORE real money from them. Make those items available for in-game currency; don't get greedy when you're already getting regular payments from customers.

You can buy a horse with in-game currency. You can't buy the Palmino horse in game though. Speaking of in game, the term cash shop in mmos has always referred to an in game item store which accepts real money. That's why people raised a fuss about WoW adding a cash shop when they had already sold services and skins through account management for years. With ESO you have to go to account management to buy the imperial upgrade, cheap spotty horse and name change. It's not a cash shop.

I'm genuinely curious,

If some developer were to take their cash shop game, remove the in-game button for the shop's interface and instead put all the exact same items for the exact same prices under account management, you'd say it didn't have a cash shop?

I mean because that's all the in-game screen is, an interface. In almost every single MMO it's quite literally a screen loading HTML directly from their web-shop.

 

[SecondPrize]

Oh for God's sake. You want to have a subscription fee? Fine, it's a legit business model, if not the most popular one. You want to have a cash shop? Fine, just so long as what it offers is cosmetic and/or convenience items and not demanding a person pay to get the basic features of the game after it was advertised as F2P. But having BOTH? No. No, no, nonononononono. $15 a month is too much to ask from a customer to THEN demand MORE real money from them. Make those items available for in-game currency; don't get greedy when you're already getting regular payments from customers.

You can buy a horse with in-game currency. You can't buy the Palmino horse in game though. Speaking of in game, the term cash shop in mmos has always referred to an in game item store which accepts real money. That's why people raised a fuss about WoW adding a cash shop when they had already sold services and skins through account management for years. With ESO you have to go to account management to buy the imperial upgrade, cheap spotty horse and name change. It's not a cash shop.

I'm genuinely curious,

If some developer were to take their cash shop game, remove the in-game button for the shop's interface and instead put all the exact same items for the exact same prices under account management, you'd say it didn't have a cash shop?

I mean because that's all the in-game screen is, an interface. In almost every single MMO it's quite literally a screen loading HTML directly from their web-shop.

Were someone to do that, then it'd be a cash shop, wherever it is. What ESO has isn't, it draws close to the line, but it isn't. Yet you have people calling it such. You have other people thinking it has an in game cash shop because people keep saying cash shop. Until someone carries out your hypothetical, cash shop still means what it does and straight up lying about what ESO does isn't going to help whatever game the people using the term are championing, it just gives others a false impression about ESO. I don't like the horse for sale, but spreading disinformation isn't the answer.

 

[Mike Fang]

*snip*

*Just rolls his eyes and shakes his head.*

 

[SecondPrize]

*snip*

*Just rolls his eyes and shakes his head.*

If you don't like the answer, perhaps you shouldn't have asked the question. There are people in this thread who think the game has an in game cash shop, is that fair to ZOS? Why not allow them to fail on their own rather than helping them along by muddying the waters?

 

[Mike Fang]

If you don't like the answer, perhaps you shouldn't have asked the question. There are people in this thread who think the game has an in game cash shop, is that fair to ZOS? Why not allow them to fail on their own rather than helping them along by muddying the waters?

Good God man, stop getting so worked up over some piddly-ass, nit picky detail and DROP IT.

 

[Hagi]

Were someone to do that, then it'd be a cash shop, wherever it is. What ESO has isn't, it draws close to the line, but it isn't. Yet you have people calling it such. You have other people thinking it has an in game cash shop because people keep saying cash shop. Until someone carries out your hypothetical, cash shop still means what it does and straight up lying about what ESO does isn't going to help whatever game the people using the term are championing, it just gives others a false impression about ESO. I don't like the horse for sale, but spreading disinformation isn't the answer.

So seeing as it's not the in-game part that makes it a cash shop where's the line then?

I'm just confused as to your definition of a cash shop, especially since you say ESO draws close to the line. I don't see how it's something you can draw close to. You either have a cash-shop or you don't. Just like you either have a subscription or you don't. You can't draw close to the line of having a subscription, you're either on one side or the other.

 

[SecondPrize]

Were someone to do that, then it'd be a cash shop, wherever it is. What ESO has isn't, it draws close to the line, but it isn't. Yet you have people calling it such. You have other people thinking it has an in game cash shop because people keep saying cash shop. Until someone carries out your hypothetical, cash shop still means what it does and straight up lying about what ESO does isn't going to help whatever game the people using the term are championing, it just gives others a false impression about ESO. I don't like the horse for sale, but spreading disinformation isn't the answer.

So seeing as it's not the in-game part that makes it a cash shop where's the line then?

I'm just confused as to your definition of a cash shop, especially since you say ESO draws close to the line. I don't see how it's something you can draw close to. You either have a cash-shop or you don't. Just like you either have a subscription or you don't. You can't draw close to the line of having a subscription, you're either on one side or the other.

you couldn't figure out where the line is between his hypothetical f2p cash shop removed from in game and what EOS is selling in account management? You see no difference there? No space at all between them? If that's the case, then I don't know what to say.
Right now, the term cash shop, as it is used to relate to MMOs, always means in game. So when people say ESO has a cash shop, others without any experience in the game are led to believe that there is an in game cash shop in addition to the sub and box price. Were his hypothetical scenario to take place, it'd be different, but that's how it is right now.

 

[Hagi]

Were someone to do that, then it'd be a cash shop, wherever it is. What ESO has isn't, it draws close to the line, but it isn't. Yet you have people calling it such. You have other people thinking it has an in game cash shop because people keep saying cash shop. Until someone carries out your hypothetical, cash shop still means what it does and straight up lying about what ESO does isn't going to help whatever game the people using the term are championing, it just gives others a false impression about ESO. I don't like the horse for sale, but spreading disinformation isn't the answer.

So seeing as it's not the in-game part that makes it a cash shop where's the line then?

I'm just confused as to your definition of a cash shop, especially since you say ESO draws close to the line. I don't see how it's something you can draw close to. You either have a cash-shop or you don't. Just like you either have a subscription or you don't. You can't draw close to the line of having a subscription, you're either on one side or the other.

you couldn't figure out where the line is between his hypothetical f2p cash shop removed from in game and what EOS is selling in account management? You see no difference there? No space at all between them? If that's the case, then I don't know what to say.
Right now, the term cash shop, as it is used to relate to MMOs, always means in game. So when people say ESO has a cash shop, others without any experience in the game are led to believe that there is an in game cash shop in addition to the sub and box price. Were his hypothetical scenario to take place, it'd be different, but that's how it is right now.

Yup, I don't see any real qualitative difference. A quantitative difference, sure. But both ESO and our hypothetical cash shop would be selling in-game items for real money.

I don't really see how a small selection of items (singular horse plus a pack with a race, horse and a few other goodies) makes any qualitative difference compared to a large selection of likewise items.

What's the exact characteristic of our hypothetical cash shop that makes it a cash shop where ESO isn't?

 

[SecondPrize]

Were someone to do that, then it'd be a cash shop, wherever it is. What ESO has isn't, it draws close to the line, but it isn't. Yet you have people calling it such. You have other people thinking it has an in game cash shop because people keep saying cash shop. Until someone carries out your hypothetical, cash shop still means what it does and straight up lying about what ESO does isn't going to help whatever game the people using the term are championing, it just gives others a false impression about ESO. I don't like the horse for sale, but spreading disinformation isn't the answer.

So seeing as it's not the in-game part that makes it a cash shop where's the line then?

I'm just confused as to your definition of a cash shop, especially since you say ESO draws close to the line. I don't see how it's something you can draw close to. You either have a cash-shop or you don't. Just like you either have a subscription or you don't. You can't draw close to the line of having a subscription, you're either on one side or the other.

you couldn't figure out where the line is between his hypothetical f2p cash shop removed from in game and what EOS is selling in account management? You see no difference there? No space at all between them? If that's the case, then I don't know what to say.
Right now, the term cash shop, as it is used to relate to MMOs, always means in game. So when people say ESO has a cash shop, others without any experience in the game are led to believe that there is an in game cash shop in addition to the sub and box price. Were his hypothetical scenario to take place, it'd be different, but that's how it is right now.

Yup, I don't see any real qualitative difference. A quantitative difference, sure. But both ESO and our hypothetical cash shop would be selling in-game items for real money.

I don't really see how a small selection of items (singular horse plus a pack with a race, horse and a few other goodies) makes any qualitative difference compared to a large selection of likewise items.

What's the exact characteristic of our hypothetical cash shop that makes it a cash shop where ESO isn't?

Because it was an in game store selling in game store type stuff before it was removed from game in the example. ESOs sells name changes, a CE upgrade and a portion of that upgrade with a palamino skin attached all through account services. Does that compare to any cash shop you've ever seen? When you call it a cash shop, do you think those who haven't played are going to see that term and think ESO has a traditional cash shop or that they sell those things through their website?

 

[Hagi]

Because it was an in game store selling in game store type stuff before it was removed from game in the example. ESOs sells name changes, a CE upgrade and a portion of that upgrade with a palamino skin attached all through account services. Does that compare to any cash shop you've ever seen? When you call it a cash shop, do you think those who haven't played are going to see that term and think ESO has a traditional cash shop or that they sell those things through their website?

Seems pretty much the same to me. In-game mount, kinda standard for your normal shop. In-game race, actually more than your average shop has. In-game ring with XP boost when grouping with a specific person, unusual implementation of fairly standard functionality.

As I said, it's a very small selection of items but I don't really see any qualitative difference with what's usually sold in cash shops. Doesn't seem to be any pay to win type of stuff, which is nice but luckily becoming more common for cash shops these days. There is stuff which does give a temporary in-game advantage, rather standard for shops though.

And when I personally hear the term cash shop, in relation to a game, I think of them selling in-game stuff for real money.

 

[SecondPrize]

They're not selling a race, and they're not selling a ring. They're selling a collectors edition upgrade that contains those things. It's not uncommon to find small advantages in CEs, though a separate race is a new one. That you've mentioned the ring while neglecting to mention that you can't just buy it alone without getting the CE or upgrading to it is pretty telling though.

 

[A-D.]

Meh this is going to fail, they are already halfway up shit-creek and soon without a paddle.

Between this and their "defense" of the Subscription model, i cant help but notice that somehow they dont really seem to have a clear idea of what they are actually doing to begin with, there are so many things fundamentally wrong, from pre-order incentives right down to game-mechanics that i cant help but wonder why any TES fan would actually buy this game. At this point the negatives outweigh any positives i could think of that would make the game worthwhile to play.

Plus, just for clarification on the issue, a "Cash Shop" is universally a feature where you can selectively buy in-game products, whether these are entirely cosmetic or have a direct benefit is irrelevant. The moment you can buy something, for actual US Dollars, Euro, British Pounds, Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Yen, Rubel..whatever, you have a "Cash Shop".

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Now this is some ridiculous shit. Subscription and initial purchase, and now they'll be pushing microtransactions as well. Even if it was all completely justified they'd LOOK like dicks for doing it.

 

[Atmos Duality]

TES fans demanded an Elder Scrolls MMORPG for many years, and now they've got one.
I'm not at all surprised that Zenimax is trying to capitalize on it and wring every last dime it can out of the fans.

It's Oblivion's Horse Armor DLC all over again. Memories.

Oblivion set an ugly precedent with that didn't it?
Look at the mess that devolved into now.

In hindsight, I'm glad I stopped bothering with the TES series after Oblivion.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Microtransactions in a fully priced game that is also a subscription? Fuck right off. I will not touch it.

It could be they are already planning for it to go free to play. In which case, I will wait.

 

[Glaice]

Nope, no more interest in this despite being an Elder Scrolls fan.

Good job screwing things over that is likely in the interests of Zenimax.

 

[ckam]

Aw yeah, man. Game of the Year here.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Spoiler: BUT GUYS

IT'S SOOOOO CUTE!

Fail all you want, TES Online, as long as I get my single player titles.

I'd say it failing will actually harm the franchise (or will be perceived as such) and thus decrease the chance for a new Elder Scrolls game. Its pure existence probably also means that they won't be starting development of any single player Elder Scrolls games anytime soon.

I'd expect this game to be blamed quite a lot for not getting another single player Elder Scrolls game. Just think of SWToR and how we could have gotten KotoR 3 instead.

Thing is, ESO is made by a completely different dev from the main singleplayer games, Zenimax Online Studios as opposed to Bethesda Softworks. I wouldn't be too worried about the main series.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

Am I reading that right? You can't play as an Imperial unless you get the Imperial Edition?
Like a whole race of people are locked up?

Imperials are not boring. I can't believe people are talking about the horses over the Imperial price wall. The ten races are integral to the Elder Scrolls games. At least I can eventually get a horse.

But high prices for a horse and real money price walls kinda shows that this is not an Elder Scrolls game. I mean all this bullshit is adding on walls to the free-roam experience we are used to. I mean, why can't I steal my real money back.

Horse stealing still better be in there for a quick lift.