The Secret World Cash Shop

[BloatedGuppy]

Anyone playing this able to give me a run-down on the prices they're charging? I'm hearing discontented rumblings, but I can't find an itemized list anywhere giving an indication what the prices are, just the odd forum post indicating they are "way too high".

I've heard $10 for a trench coat. A trench coat that, apparently, only unlocks for one character, so if you want a trench coat for all (whopping) three of your character slots, that's $30? Is this correct? And something about $20 for a title?

I ask because these prices make even the Sims 3 exorbitant nickel and dime fest of a cash shop look reasonable by comparison, so I'm uncertain as to whether they are accurate or not.

What on earth is that sub fee meant to be paying for, exactly?

 

[Tayh]

Meh. I don't have anything better to do right now, so here you go:
5? for 600 FC points.
Trenchcoats go from 225 FCp's to 540 FCp's.
Shoes go from 108 to 225.
Titles go from 225 to 2000.

The subscription fee goes towards development of further and additional quality content, upkeep of servers, payment of developers and whatever other fees and expenses maintaining an MMO incurs.
It really seems quite logical, I don't know why you had to ask about this.

 

[Sixcess]

The subscription fee goes towards development of further and additional quality content, upkeep of servers, payment of developers and whatever other fees and expenses maintaining an MMO incurs.

I'd say it's more likely that the sub fee is there to milk the day one MMO tourists who flock to new titles for a month or two, then wander back to wherever they came from.

I don't think I've ever heard of an MMO that launched with a box price, a sub fee and microtransactions. F2P incoming in 6 months...

 

[StriderShinryu]

As silly as the pricing may seem (though based on TayH's post, it's not bad at all), I'd say that if they're going to be selling anything in a cash shop at all, that's the sort of stuff they should be selling. Cosmetics aren't a huge deal and, quite honestly, it makes you stand out like a sore thumb in the game world if you're the one guy in a crowd wearing the obviously store bought outfit.

That said, the cash shop + monthly fee + initial box price issue is exactly what's keeping me from at least trying Secret World right now.

Captcha: Spell out this number: 7
Me.. "spell out thi.." Ooh, getting tricky aren't we?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

It really seems quite logical, I don't know why you had to ask about this.

It's a deviation from industry standard to have both a cash shop and a sub fee, so I was curious about how aggressive the pricing was. I appreciate you sharing the information, although I'll admit a little confusion regarding your apparent defensiveness about it.

 

[WoW Killer]

Anybody seen the shit you have to pay for in PSO2? No subscription on that one (or no forced subscription I should say), but I was still amazed at what they're asking you to pay for. There's a talent tree system just like in other games, but if you make any mistakes you'll have to pay for a respec. Now that to me is the wrong sort of thing to have in a cash shop. That's not a product, and it's not a service. That's not something that costs the company anything to carry out. It's a feature that could have been free that's been purposefully left out of the free part of the game.

Paid for features should be things that cost money to implement. You can charge for new content, like a mini-expansion pack; that's something you spent time and money making. And I guess cosmetics fall into the same catagory. Somebody had to design those accessories so I'm cool with it, even if they do usually end up a bit overpriced. While it sounds crazy charging a subscription on top of such things, it's not really any different from the celestial steeds they had in WoW. Ever since SW:TOR I started to think that the subscription model was just not right for games anymore, so it was that rather than the cash shop that was more of a deal-breaker for me. Well, that and that it's an abysmal game.

The real dodgy one is character slots. You could argue they take up space on the servers and that there's an expense involved in that, but it's peanuts really. A character that's not being played is literally a few numbers. In game would be the real expense, but you can only use the one character at once. So I was kind of dismayed that you only get the one slot for free in PSO2. One slot. But hey, at least that doesn't have a subscription. How on earth can you justify restricting character slots in a game with a subscription? BTW, how much are the extra slots in TSW?

Oh, and what's with this currency thing that all the micro-transaction systems are using? I get it, you pay for 600 SuperHappy points, spend 540 SuperHappy points on a new set of teeth for your toon, and then you're left with a surplus of 60 SuperHappy points that you can't spend on anything at all unless you pay more real money. We all know what you're doing and why you're doing it. If you'd let us pay for products directly for set amounts of real cash then you'd come across as more like an honest business and less like a chiselling vulture. Maybe that would even make people more inclined to part with their money. Image is everything, is it not?

 

[Schadrach]

As silly as the pricing may seem (though based on TayH's post, it's not bad at all), I'd say that if they're going to be selling anything in a cash shop at all, that's the sort of stuff they should be selling. Cosmetics aren't a huge deal and, quite honestly, it makes you stand out like a sore thumb in the game world if you're the one guy in a crowd wearing the obviously store bought outfit.

That said, the cash shop + monthly fee + initial box price issue is exactly what's keeping me from at least trying Secret World right now.

Captcha: Spell out this number: 7
Me.. "spell out thi.." Ooh, getting tricky aren't we?

On the upside, nothing in the cash shop impacts game play in any fashion, barring the fact that preorder, Secret War, and eventually ARG goodies are disbursed through it as well.

IOW, if you don't care about looking special, you can completely ignore the cash shop. If you didn't preorder, secret war, or ARG, you can even ignore the "claim items" tab as well.

My biggest issue with TSW so far is that Something Wicked appears to be bugged to hell and back.

 

[Korten12]

upkeep of servers, payment of developers and whatever other fees and expenses maintaining an MMO incurs.

They don't need money to upkeep server costs or anything like that. That was true back in the 90's with very early MMO's but now server costs are so cheap when they show their overall spendings the server upkeep cost is a footnote on the bottom of the chart.

MMO developers know they don't need a sub to keep up quality either, making it buy to play like GW2 is sufficient enough. But they know that people will buy it and pay monthly so that's why they did it.

And like others have speculated, The Secret World has a cash shop because they will probably milk the subs for a couple of months and then make it free to play with the cash shop.

 

[Korten12]

but you can only use the one character at once. So I was kind of dismayed that you only get the one slot for free t?

That is for the Open Beta only, they have stated that in full release you will have multiple slots.

 

[WoW Killer]

That is for the Open Beta only, they have stated that in full release you will have multiple slots.

Full release was today. I've still got only one slot.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Full release was today. I've still got only one slot.

Eh? Aren't you meant to have 3?

That's bizarre.

 

[Korten12]

That is for the Open Beta only, they have stated that in full release you will have multiple slots.

Full release was today. I've still got only one slot.

That sucks, well it doesn't really matter since you can switch your class like you could in PSU and such and not lose any progress.

 

[Grygor]

The real dodgy one is character slots. You could argue they take up space on the servers and that there's an expense involved in that, but it's peanuts really. A character that's not being played is literally a few numbers. In game would be the real expense, but you can only use the one character at once. So I was kind of dismayed that you only get the one slot for free in PSO2. One slot. But hey, at least that doesn't have a subscription. How on earth can you justify restricting character slots in a game with a subscription? BTW, how much are the extra slots in TSW?

You think that's bad?

In the Final Fantasy MMOs, extra character slots actually increase your subscription fee - in FF 14, each character slot (technically including the first one) costs $3 per month. (Or ?3, or ¥300.)

 

[WoW Killer]

That sucks, well it doesn't really matter since you can switch your class like you could in PSU and such and not lose any progress.

Aye, but remember you also only get one MAG without paying extra. Depending on how the gear ends up it might not be possible to build one in a way that works for all the classes. There's a class neutral stat you can buff, but it won't help you meet the requirements on weapons/armour/discs. On the other hand, you can just make three accounts. Thinking about it, I played PSO for years and had a fair few toons, but you know what? Each and every one of them was a Hunter. I don't know why. So yeah, I'll probably just stick with the one toon anyway.

You think that's bad?

In the Final Fantasy MMOs, extra character slots actually increase your subscription fee - in FF 14, each character slot (technically including the first one) costs $3 per month. (Or ?3, or ¥300.)

Ouch. That's exactly the sort of feature that makes sure I never buy a game.

 

[Tayh]

They don't need money to upkeep server costs or anything like that. That was true back in the 90's with very early MMO's but now server costs are so cheap when they show their overall spendings the server upkeep cost is a footnote on the bottom of the chart.

MMO developers know they don't need a sub to keep up quality either, making it buy to play like GW2 is sufficient enough. But they know that people will buy it and pay monthly so that's why they did it.

And like others have speculated, The Secret World has a cash shop because they will probably milk the subs for a couple of months and then make it free to play with the cash shop.

Right.
Who ya gonna believe, the people who have actually played and experienced the game, or the people who judge the game upon its proverbial cover?

 

[Schadrach]

That is for the Open Beta only, they have stated that in full release you will have multiple slots.

Full release was today. I've still got only one slot.

That's odd, I've got the appropriate number. Talk to Funcom live support.

 

[WoW Killer]

That's odd, I've got the appropriate number. Talk to Funcom live support.

Sorry I was on about PSO2 there not TSW. I kept switching between the two games through my ramblings, should've probably been clearer.

Still, do you know how much the slots are in TSW?

 

[Korten12]

They don't need money to upkeep server costs or anything like that. That was true back in the 90's with very early MMO's but now server costs are so cheap when they show their overall spendings the server upkeep cost is a footnote on the bottom of the chart.

MMO developers know they don't need a sub to keep up quality either, making it buy to play like GW2 is sufficient enough. But they know that people will buy it and pay monthly so that's why they did it.

And like others have speculated, The Secret World has a cash shop because they will probably milk the subs for a couple of months and then make it free to play with the cash shop.

Right.
Who ya gonna believe, the people who have actually played and experienced the game, or the people who judge the game upon its proverbial cover?

What..? Um, ArenaNet, a award-winning MMO developer stated this (the server upkeep cost and the payment of what they need to make new content). I didn't state ANYTHING about the quality about the game only that they know it will go f2p like many other MMO's. P2P is becoming extreamly unviable unless your world of warcraft and even that is losing it's numbers. Hell swtor is going f2p soon.

 

[Schadrach]

That's odd, I've got the appropriate number. Talk to Funcom live support.

Sorry I was on about PSO2 there not TSW. I kept switching between the two games through my ramblings, should've probably been clearer.

Still, do you know how much the slots are in TSW?

Not offhand, but there's not a terribly good reason to have more than one char (you can respec literally at will at no cost outside of combat, there's even a mechanic to store your favorite specs with their gear so you don't have to look through your bags to find it), and no reason to have more than three (which is default character slots), if you want to see the full assortment of storyline missions for each secret society.

 

[WoW Killer]

Not offhand, but there's not a terribly good reason to have more than one char (you can respec literally at will at no cost outside of combat, there's even a mechanic to store your favorite specs with their gear so you don't have to look through your bags to find it), and no reason to have more than three (which is default character slots), if you want to see the full assortment of storyline missions for each secret society.

I can think of a few marginal reasons. Family members sharing an account is one. I sometimes have characters that I level up only with other players. For instance in Diablo 3 I have a Demon Hunter that I only ever play once a week with my brother, and he has a Monk saved for the same purpose. I liked the character enough to make a separate Demon Hunter for solo play, but I keep that first character exclusively for coop so that we're always on the same level. Marginal reasons, sure, but there's even less reason to restrict players like that. There would be virtually no extra expense for Funcom to increase the limit. With how you say there being very little reason to have more than three slots, the additional slots in the cash shop aren't exactly going to be a hot sale. If there are any prospective players out there that see this as shady and are put off, then is it really a wise decision by Funcom?