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Anyone else noticed the price difference between Patron and buying apex to get patron?
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Member UncommonPosts: 244
in ArcheAge
So not to start another free player vs. paying player thread but has anyone else noticed the price difference between buying a patron sub (30 day pass) and using apex to aquire a patron sub? In the online store it is $14.99 for patron, the cost for apex is $10.00 per apex and one apex equals 1250 credits. It costs 2400 credits to purchase patron which is the equivalent of $19.15 meaning any player that purchases apex off the auction house, another player, or buys apex and then redeems it for a patron sub is actually paying an extra $4.15 for that sub. I know I know convenience etc.. but when its all done electronically and pre-programmed in to the game is there really a legit reason for the price difference other than greed?
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Assuming they did this on purpose, they must want to encourage people to sub directly instead of use APEX for some reason. So the main question is what's that reason?
Only thing I can think of is they'd rather have people subbing directly instead of buying patron status with in-game gold, so those people feel invested into the game. Once you get someone's "foot in the door" in spending some real life money, there is a VERY high chance they will spend more. If people are getting patron status by buying APEX in game, then Trion still gets that APEX money but those people don't have that "foot in the door" feeling and thus aren't as encouraged to spend even more on the game. So by encouraging subbing directly, Trion is encouraging people to get hooked on spending and thus likely sub for longer as well as buy from the cash shop.
.....well, that's my theory, at least.
There is a middle man involved. The middle man has to be able to receive some benefit otherwise the system will not work.
People buy APEX for in game gold. They dont buy them to subscribe. People buying APEX off the AH are using something they got for 'free' (unless you value your time in real life) to buy something someone spent real life money on.
Or soem people buy gold off gold spammers or they steal mommy and daddies credit card or whatever.
There are several currencies in the game and each has some 'value' There is however no hard and fast rules of exchange. You cant look and say X credits are worth X amount of real life dollars or X amount of in game gold. Some items that are priced exactly the same in terms of credit have much different in game gold prices on the AH. Similar to APEX. One has to be able to do math to figure out the 'best' deal for what they want. Some times it will be cheaper to use credits, other to buy with gold, and some might even feel it is cheaper to spend real life money buy some credits (or gold illegally) and go that route.
But to me as long as you are NOT pulling money from your pocket to play a game at the 'top' (patron) level then youre 'winning'.
In game gold in this game is ridiculously easy to make even with the teleport hackers killing half the trade pack turn ins in the game. So it really has no 'real world' value other than what people want to try and put on it in some weird reverse engineered formula.
Trying not to be much offtopic but I need help with math here, maybe im missing something:
4.220 credits cost 20€
30-DAY PATRON PASS = 2.400 credits
So:
IF 4.220credits = 20€ THEN 2.400 (2.400x20/4.220)= 11,56€
Better buy credits and then buy patron status with credits then direct monthly sub (12.99€)
am i right or im failing in math somewhere?
If im right, what the point or advantage to use monthly subscription?
I self identify as a monkey.
The fact that they are merely spending in-game gold for the APEX means they get their Patron status for free. Gold is not that hard to get.... so those using APEX are getting their game for free whilst the subscribers are paying $14.99.
Add into that the fact that you really aren't getting land with that subscription, you're already paying for something you're not getting.
been playing the auction house, crafting has brought me 2k gold or more, so i buy apex as much as possible just to save, they will always go up in price good way to keep your gold safe, first week you could buy apex for 35g, now its 60g or so.
Allow me to break the game for you, if you spread the word youll see many F2P people do this to get patron easy.
1. Create an account, get a character to level 10 and take that character to the factions public farm that allows you to plant trees, don't know what its called in the American version. For haranyians buy 5 grapevines (apples for Nuians). log out.
2. Repeat.
3. Repeat.
4. Plant the trees with each account and harvest every 4.4 hours. You can do this 3 times in a day on your days off if you time it right before it becomes public and someone can cut it down. best way would be to plant the trees before going to bed the night before your day off so you can harvest it all day long the next day.
5. feed the grapes (apples) gained to your main account after doing this for a few days. you should have over 240 of them.
6. Bring a character to the main public farm, plant/harvest potatoes (same for Nuians) for 4-5 hours. In fact, do this on a day you are doing the above steps, keep track of time so you can log the potatoe farmer out and the other accounts in near the time to harvest the grapes.
7. once you obtain 240+ grapes and a ton and a half of potatoes...cut those potatoes into whatever the English named product is that they become.
8. go to the specialty bench and create the commerce item...and make the trip to sell it to its gold seller. You will get between 3.8 and 5.5 gold for it.
9. repeat 7 more times.
10. Congrats, you just made 30+ gold in a few days and should be close to being able to buy half what you need for Patron.
This is just a few days work. you can easily earn patron in a week...one week to earn 30 days of patron. its not hard and its FAR easier if you have friends or are in a guild that will give you even a tiny bit of space on one of their farms. If you have that, all it will take is 1 commerce run to the other factions side to earn all of the aboves work in terms of gold.
And once you have patron and you manage to get land, you can then make the commerce products needed for cross faction trade runs quickly, making gold far easier and faster, helping you keep patron status.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster
http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
This may be true, but doesn't sound very fun. There are other options that don't require this draconian method.
I self identify as a monkey.
And that option is to kill someone trying to do that...trade runs are the fastest way to earn gold other than spending real money for in game cash/credits which is the way to avoid the difference spoken of by the OP because gold is so easy to get in the game.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster
http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
Believe it or not, Trion wants to discourage the buying and selling of APEX for patronage. Those selling APEX on the AH, want or need the gold fast. The cost of APEX in real world money is excessive, it's more than the subscription price. Will APEX buyers continue to buy and sell them on the AH? I think this will slow down, meaning the supply will dwindle and the price will go up. Supply will fall because the number of people willing to spend real money on it will drop, or the amount they will spend will drop.
They need or want the most powerful ships, land, homes, and gear. Once they have these things their shopping days will be over. Maybe there will be a second wave, or not. But the APEX buyers are considering that they are spending a lot on APEX. This will make them stop eventually.
I have two account, a Patron and a F2P. The patron never seems to hurt for LP, and is 10 levels ahead, even though I play it less. The patron has earned enough Gold to buy a second month of patronage. The F2P has a hard time with LP and acquiring gold to buy a single APEX. APEX is geared towards patrons seeking sugar daddies for the next month.
The reason for the higher price of Patronage though APEX? To discourage it. To make APEX more valuable than F2P players can afford. A Patron can quickly afford 2 x APEX. My personal experience, and that of chat, it takes a F2P 4 x as long to raise the credits needed to buy Patronage.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
I wasnt talking about APEX, sorry using your thread to my question, i know wasnt about this.
My math is based on buy credits and then buy the 30days patron on website, doing this way seems cheaper for me, a subscriber.
About the topic, APEX is a tradable credits so make sense be more expensive imo.
Correct. AFAIK, CREDD, REX, ICE and PLEX are done the same way.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
For those wishing to FTP their way to Patron Status as a solo player.
Patron Status = 2 APEX
2 APEX = 150 In Game Gold (roughly)
150 in Game Gold = 3750 Labour Points **
3750 Labour Points = 60 Hours Logged In
So you need 60 hours logged in then you need to use in game activities to convert those hours to gold.
** A rate of 4 Gold for 100 Labour Points is fairly easy to achieve as a solo player without land or AH. If you prefer to open purses (less effort but only about 1.3 Gold for 100 LP) then you will simply need more logged on hours. You can subtract the quest reward silver you get but it is not that significant.