Over at wow-insider they asked the question, what would you buy, and although I have posted on this subject at least two other times in the past few years I figured I would chime in and revisit the topic once again because now those things I was thinking about might actually become a possibility whereas when I originally posted about them they where more of a what if.
1) Starter Bag Space:
If they offered an upgrade with cash for the starter bag, one that would be for all characters on your account, I would consider it. Actually I would more than consider it, I would buy it without thinking as long as the price was within reason.
A one time fee of five dollars, maybe even ten, to double the size of your starting bag to 32 slots from 16 slots seems like a fair deal to me. I would gladly pay to upgrade my starter bag. If I had to guess how much I would pay for an upgrade like this, I think five dollar would be a great price, ten of fifteen would be reasonable and 20 or 25 would be top end. Anything more than that I can't see being worth it. Yet I freely admit I would probably still buy it because to me bag space is quite possible the best quality of life improvement you could sell that does not actually give you a game play advantage. And you will see that in the next two points as well.
2) Void Storage:
Add new panels to the void storage, like guild bank tabs. As a matter of fact, lets us buy more guild bank tabs too while we are at it. Each new tab will hold the same amount as the original tab and they could keep expanding it to sell more if they see fit. This however would be per character and not over all like the starter bag and as such should be cheaper.
I think adding an addition tab should have a small but reasonable fee of something like 2 dollars. It is not a lot but it would offer the convenience for those people that like to collect a lot of gear for trasmog. While I am not a transmog person myself I do like to keep sets. I still have my original ZG set and various other sets that are no longer in game. I would never wear them but I am a sentimental fool that just wants to hold on to them for some reason.
So even if I won't wear them I want to keep them and a small fee like two dollars for an extra tab on a specific character in the void storage seems reasonable if you ask me.
3) Bank Slots:
Yes, another storage option I would buy. Have you ever noticed that your bank looks like it has extra space that is just, well, taking up space. You could easily fit a row of seven bag slots there to fill it up. Might even be able to fit two additional rows of seven bag slots to it.
Sell a row of bag slots. But this would be a tricky one because you are selling the bag slots, not the bag space. So you could make those slots whatever you want. Put bigger profession bags into them or regular bags into them and the amount of junk you can save chances.
So how much would a row of bag slots be worth? Five dollars seems exceptional if you ask me. I would gladly purchases that in a heart beat. But it would have to be a per character thing like the void storage option, not an account wide thing like the start bag thing. That changes that five dollars from being an exceptional deal to a deal that might be worth it and might not. On my main, the one that collects everything, the five dollars would be worth it but on my warrior, which basically has lots of bag space in his bank, it would be a complete waste of cash.
So what would be the line that would make me buy it even if I did not need it now but I might need it later? One dollar. But I probably still would not buy it unless I needed it. So maybe five dollars works. Cheap enough that people who do want it could get it but not so cheap that everyone would buy it just for the hell of buying it.
4) Clothing:
Yes, something that does not have anything to do with storage, but it would of course need storage. I would pay good money to not have to walk around looking like a walking scrap metal yard. Seriously. The armor looks horrible in most cases. I want something that looks a little more... normal.
Basic armor sets, ones that do not look like you are decorated like a chirstmas tree if we must have armor would be nice. My warrior would love to walk around in simple armor with a standard sword and a traditional shield. I might not be much for transmog but the few times I have used it I trasmogged into clothing.
My hunter does not wear armor. I went through serious efforts to find gear that did not look like armor. Sadly most of the pieces are not in game any longer so I could never get the set on any of my other hunters but I would pay for it if I needed as long as I never had to look at those gaudy repulsive armor sets they make for hunters any longer. I am a hunter, not a warrior, I should not look like I am ready for hand to hand battle. At least my hunter looks like a hunter not a ranged warrior.
Make the pieces somewhere from two to five dollars each and I could see picking up a set to trasnmog my hunter into and maybe even my other characters. I know those new helms they are going to be selling will sell but they will not sell to me. Those are the exact opposite of what I want to see. Those are ugly and I can't see how anyone could like they outside of a joke type of thing, but to each their own. I am sure for as much as I despise the armor in the game there are people that love it just as much.
Give me some hats to transmog into. Standard hats, baseball caps, fedoras, berets, cowboy hats, you name it. Anything that doesn't make me look like I am wearing a rhino or a murloc or an eyeball on my head. Hey, at least we have the hide helm option, but wouldn't it be nicer to actually have a hat instead of a hunk of metal on your head? To have a motorcycle jacket instead of chest armor that looks like a toaster oven? To have a pair of basic blue jeans? Just some basic clothing, yeah, I would pay for that.
I am sure there is more I can think of but that is all I have for now. What would you buy?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have bought mounts in the past for cash. Having a starting mount meant I could have more fun just playing and less worrying about earning money on each toon.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of doubling the original backpack for cash. If I were still playing, I'd go in for that.
Being an in game hoarder I'd also go for a 2nd row of bank slots, at least on a storage toon and my main.
I have a feeling that I am not the only hoarder as you verify by admitting it yourself. So many would buy bag space, I am sure of it.
DeleteI liked the mount thing too. Made it one less thing to worry about when starting a new character on a new server. Just wish they would have released a mount that was not so flashy. With shared mounts now it is no biggie however.
I did a quick look at a WoW gold seller. Really crappy sites... anyways, it looked like 1000g = $1, which seems a little high, but it'll be simple for comparison purposes.
ReplyDelete1) Starter Bag Space:
Bag space is tricky. A 16 slot bag costs about 15g (1.5 cents) but the outrageous 28 slot bags cost about 3000g ($3).
I'd consider $5 for an upgrade to all toons from 16 to 32. Anything more than that, and I wouldn't buy it. Bag space is not a big issue for me; a full set of 16 slot bags is generally enough space, especially if you have bank alts to hold stuff.
2) Void Storage:
This makes sense. I have more issues with storage of soulbound items, but it's mostly unique items that can't be put in void storage. As such, I don't use void storage a whole lot. I'd prefer Bank expansions instead.
3) Bank Slots:
I'd be all for this. The most expensive bank slots are only 25g (2.5 cents). Obviously things are much more expensive than when they setup the bank originally, so the prices are quite old. 1000g or $1 per slot would probably be the max that would make sense, so Grumpy's $5 for 7 seems appropriate.
4) Clothing:
Xmog items are definitely a good option, as Blizz has already started doing this. (Agree, those helms are silly). I make my gold selling xmog and prices per item can go as high as 10k for really rare things. However, for the store, I think 2000g or $2 per main piece (chest, legs, shoulders) and 1000g or $1 per secondary piece would be appropriate.
On a side note, I feel that all Store items should be purchasable with either money or in-game currency. I'd like to have something to spend my gold on but still have the option to use real money instead.
I am sure they would not make the things you could buy with cash be capable of being purchased for gold. Gold is easy to make and they want your money so why sell it for gold which would be basically giving it away.
DeleteI can however see them adding more things like the guardian cub where you can buy it with real money and sell it in game.
There aren't a lot of things that I'd be willing to spend actual dollars on but here are a handful...
ReplyDeleteI'd like to be able to send more than 12 items per mail message.
I'd like my mail to stay longer than 30 days and I'd like access to more than the latest 50 messages.
I'd like to be able to stack items in larger quantities. Simply allowing herb or ore stacking to 100 or 200 would, legitimately, save me a whack of time every month. I'd pay for that.
I'd pay for unattended milling/prospecting as long as the tool had controls so only the stuff I want will get processed.
I'd pay to upgrade my Yak/Mammoth so I get free repairs and a 20% cut of repairs that others do on it. I wouldn't expect this to actually make much sense financially but it's a principle thing, it's always bugged me that I pay MORE to repair on a mount I spent over 100K on than to do it in town.
I'd pay for a Moll-e and Jeeves on non-Engineering toons.
Larger backpack would be nice but not critical for me.
I wouldn't do cosmetic items like clothes or tmog gear.
I'd be willing to pay for additional profession slots (even if the additional slots came without the statistical profession perks - gem sockets, special enchants, etc). Enchanting for all would be great.
I'd pay for cross-server BoA in any fashion (mail or shared storage just for BoA gear).
I don't use void storage currently so expanding that wouldn't be useful.
I'd consider paying for additional bank slots but my bank storage issues are usually due more to me being a packrat rather than needing to have all that stuff... not sure I want to pay $ to overcome my inability to just sell stuff.
I'd pay for additional guild bank slots, I've always wanted a few more slots in my GB.
Also, 100% agreed with Jaeger, my preference would be for the store to be another way to get items for folks with money or time-restricted players, where those of us with in-game resources (gold or time) would have another way of getting them. BMAH has been decent for soaking up some of my gold but there are significant dry spells, it's basically just another RNG-based way to get items vs farming for low % drops... I'd like a less RNG-based way to get cool stuff.
Increasing mail options. I never thought of that one. Nice one. I too think I would consider purchasing something along those lines but it most definitely would not be something I would jump on instantly like I would with bag space.
DeleteBeing able to put more in a mail, to see more on your list and to last longer than 30 days would all be nice options. Perhaps if they made it account wide, as in a one time purchase, and including all three, it might help me consider paying for it if it were cheap.
I would most definitely love enchanting for all my characters. So many things wasted that could have been sha crystals makes me want to cry some times.
I don't think we should ever have to pay for cross server BoA items. They are BoA, we should have been allowed to send them cross server the second they were added to the game. Paying for it would be a step backwards in my opinion. I would buy it, sure, but would be upset if I had to.
You have a few good ideas here that I never thought of before. A few however I don't think we should have to pay for. Like ore or herbs should stack to 200 or even 2000 naturally. We should never have to pay for things that should be in the game to begin with, in my opinion at least.
Cross-server BoA is the only one on my list that I'd say should absolutely be included in the base sub, the reason I included it here is if the issue is development resources, I'd be willing to pay to get it bumped up in the priority list.
DeleteThe problem with increased stack sizes is that it'll cut down on required bag space. For most players, I view increased stack size as a functional equivalent to paying for more bag space so both of those should be pay options since they serve the same purpose. To ME, though, it isn't about bag space exactly, it's more about faster mail processing and being able to send 10K herbs from one toon to another in something less than 15 minutes (yeah, I do that often enough for it to be an actual issue)... mailing 500 stacks of anything in one session sucks. A one-time purchase where everything that currently stacks, stacks 10x higher? I'd buy that immediately and be thrilled about it. That's just time savings but it's saving time on something I don't consider core gameplay... that's why I'd buy this but not an XP boost potion which saves a different kind of time.
That makes sense. If it would be a high cost to develop and they needed to justify doing it I guess offering it as a pay service would make some sense.
DeleteTime savers like that make sense for a pay service. It might help you in game to make more money, but over all its main function is to save time. A quality of life change only so to speak. Those being things you can buy do make a lot more sense.
I could see those mail and stacking options as potential benefits for subscribers vs f2p users once WoW goes f2p.
DeleteAdditional professions are something I'd also pay for, and agree that they shouldn't get the buffs for those extra professions. It'd be for convenience and not for pay to win.
@Jaeger
DeleteI agree. I think that would be something that would fit better as a subscriber bonus then something you would just buy straight out.
I would make all my characters an enchanter if that were an option. No more wasted enchanting materials when I am out rare hunting.
I'm fairly stingy when it comes to paying real money for in-game items. Especially when that game has a subscription already. Still I can think of two things I want.
ReplyDelete1)A dimmer switch. I hate those flashy spell effects and how every piece of new armor seems to come with its own nuclear reaction going off inside it. I'd love it if I could turn those glows down a few notches.
2)The Emperor's Armor. What is it? Simple. A completely invisible suit of armor for every visible slot on your character. Want your monk to be barefoot? Love that tier set, but hate those shoulders? Invisible armor transmog those things away.
...3)...kind of... I don't know if I'd pay for it, but could I get an Forsaken character that doesn't shred their armor's elbows and knees out the moment they get it?
I would really love to remove all effects from friendly players completely. If it does not hurt or benefit me I do not want to see it. It is one of my issues with playing melee. I can never see anything, even more so in a 25 man where it is just spell effect on top of spell effect.
DeleteNot sure I would put it on my list of things I would pay for but I would put it on my list of things that should be baseline in the game.
I agree that pay services do not mesh with the subscription model. It is also the reason behind a post I made a short while back saying that I believe this is the test to move to the free to play model in a few years.
I think I read a while back that Blizzard is working on a way to minimize friendly ground effects. This should eventually show up without costing anything.
DeleteLessee... yeah, here it is:
---
Any chance of toning down other players spell effects on boss encounters, or having a setting for that. Can hardly see boss!
Yes. Working on it.
---
"Invisible" gear, or at least "tastefully invisible"? I could see that. I could see my monk going minimalist from a visual perspective. I wouldn't pay for it but I can see the appeal.
That would be a wonderful change. There is just way to much going on there. I am sure some people would rather not see all that for technical reasons as well. It has to be hell on older systems.
DeleteI love the minimalist approach to gear. You can find cloth and leather with it but finding mail with it, or plate even, is impossible.
One other thing I'd pay for:
ReplyDelete-Leveled toons (as mentioned on the WoW Insider article). You can basically do it anyway through other mechanisms. I'd probably pay $25 or something for a lvl 80 character or to level up an existing character to 80. As the WoW Insider article mentioned, it should only be available if you already have max lvl toons.
In one of my previous posts on the subject I had mentioned the idea of selling a max level character of a class you already have at max level.
DeleteSo if I wanted a hunter on another server I could just create a max level one and not need to level it. I could see them adding something like that but I am sure they would put a high price tag on it, at least in the 50 dollar range.
Armor has gotten insane. The next tier should be called Ludicrous. "Where did you get those weird gloves?" "Lets just say I had to kill 2 MALE mogu to make them."
ReplyDeleteYeah, the armor is a joke. I would love to see a return to the basics. Or like I said, at least offer us something that does not look like I am wearing a clown outfit.
DeleteAm I the only one who thinks 10-20 euros is way way too much for so little work? I mean... I just bought 'Remember me' (released a month ago) for 20 something euros and that's a full game worth of work.
ReplyDeleteThey ask 20 euros for a character transfer, for crying out loud, that's like a database script.
Every time I hear cash shop, I feel like we're a bunch idiots who have lost the ability to distinguish between what is acceptable and what is not and are willing to pay for anything they throw at us.
Their prices are through the roof on things, yes. And they do not need to be so. Games like rift offer free character transfers and warcraft should have been like that too. Perhaps there would not have been as many server complaints if they didn't charge for it.
DeleteFor the most part we are a bunch of idiots to value things well past what they are actually worth. I've bought all the pets and mounts. Kicker is, I never use any of the mounts. At least I do pet battle from time to time with the pets. But it is just a case of wanting to have it so I buy it and they know many people are like that.
Any time a new mount is released look at your main city that day. It seems like half the server is on the mount. That is why they keep making them. They are a huge income generator.
If anything our own inability to control our spending is what will make them add more and more. And we can not blame them. They are a business first and foremost. As long as we keep spending, they will keep making things for us to spend on.
The only thing I'd buy would be level 90 toons, or an x3 (or x100) leveling bonus. It's common to buy a second account just to have the x3 leveling bonus, anyway, so...
ReplyDeleteLeveling these days is a terribly boring and pointless repetition of the same instances and locations. I did it too many times to be able to say that I just DON'T WANT to endure it any longer. The old arguments of the sort that "leveling teaches you how to play" are complete nonsense and are at best only applicable to new players.
Yes, I am angry, sorry for that, I have been getting a 5th char to 90 and the insanity of the process simply infuriates me. Why the hell, after getting tens of characters to max level (3-6 every expansion), do I *still* have to go through hours and days of absolutely boring playtime just to play a spec I want in arenas? I seriously don't understand this.
I think they should add something that allows you to start a max level character of a class you already have at max level. That could sell and I have suggested it here a few times over the past years. I can see that coming some day.
DeleteI still like questing but I have changed a little in how I do it. I still do it really quickly but I have learned to stop and smell the roses while doing it. I fish at every fishing pool I see while leveling. As silly as that sounds, it really does make the leveling process feel more real, to me at least.
Leveling no longer teaches people how to play. It is bull shit. It taught me how to play but it also took me 40 days played to level. See, it took me time, an as such, I learned to play.
Anyone who says leveling never taught anyone anything just doesn't remember how they first learned. Leveling used to teach us because if it didn't we would have never gotten to max level.
Personally, I don't mind questing and leveling. I do enjoy that part of the game. I agree however that for the PvP player is makes less sense.
You could PvP at 15 just the same as at 90. Level means nothing except for the selection of abilities you have.
If they just made group PvP have a preset group of talents and gear there would never be a need to level. Be you 15 or 90 you would be on the same level and could fight each other. What you are outside of that arena shouldn't mean anything.
Just make everyone the same level, with the same gear, and the same skills, when they enter arena and level no longer means anything.