The cash shop rip off that both Black Desert Online and Guild Wars 2 both do

TheScavenger · September 2018

Not sure about other cash shops...but these two games are ones I've personally seen

BDO the value pack is 15 dollars worth of gems
You can't buy 5 dollars worth of gems
You can't buy 15 dollars worth of gems

Nope only 10 or 20 dollars. Which actually means the monthly fee is increased by 20, granted value pack is sorta optional but actually not. Of course the 5 dollars extra worth of gems is an extra...but why can't they let you buy 15 dollars worth of gems like a typical MMO sub?

Which goes right to GW2

You also can't buy 5 dollars worth of gems
You also can't buy 15 dollars worth of gems
Nope exactly the same as BDO

And maybe its a dumb thing to be annoyed at...but that is the biggest annoyance (ignoring pay to win schemes, talking about more annoyances) I've seen come out of these cash shops. They get rid of the monthly fee, and sneakily increase the price by 5 dollars. Sure can buy 10 dollars worth, but that isn't what I want to pay...I personally want to pay 15 dollars worth like I would in a WoW monthly sub or any other monthly subscription MMO. If I can pay 15 a month for WoW, I should be able to pay that much for gems or pearls. Especially BDO with the value pack being a sneaky 15 dollars, but you really can't pay that much for pearls. That makes it more obvious. GW2 is no better here though.

And actually the problem wouldn't be an issue if...

they didn't have items that cost in the range of 11-15...literally they have items between that price. So if you pay 10 dollars worth of gems or pearls, still can't afford the items. So are forced to pay 20 dollars when that isn't what the item costs or even close to what the item costs if its priced low but still higher than 10.

In fact, it would be fixed if you can just buy the item without junk gems or pearls and pay the straight amount. Let me just buy the item with real money and not go with your stupid gems and pearls conman schemed methods.

Wellspring · September 2018

Also wouldn't be a issue if you didn't play games with a cash shop

Ungood · September 2018

This is the whole.. Hot dog / Bun ploy.

They sell Hotdogs in Packs of 8. And Buns in packs of 10.

Sop you always have some reason to keep getting more of one or the other.

Quazal.A · September 2018

is this more about your restraint because.
Month 1 - Buy £20 pack, and have £5 left over
Month 2 - Buy £10 pack and have £5 from the previous month

So you need only buy £30 every 2 month.

so it doesn't really matter unless you only plan on playing 1 month which you would usually get with a starter pack.

Azaron_Nightblade · September 2018

Just about EVERY MMO with cash shop currency does this, Scav... xD

And yes, it's very much designed to:

1) Make you spend extra.

2) Make you spend more in the future so that you're not wasting those few bucks of currency you have left.

Basically what Quazal brought up as a "work around". So that you wind up spending $30 compared to the $15 you would've spent otherwise.

Cryomatrix · September 2018

Another thing is that 15 dollars a month started in early 2000. Should be 20 bucks now.

Kyleran · September 2018

Azaron_Nightblade said:

Just about EVERY MMO with cash shop currency does this, Scav... xD

And yes, it's very much designed to:

1) Make you spend extra.

2) Make you spend more in the future so that you're not wasting those few bucks of currency you have left.

Basically what Quazal brought up as a "work around". So that you wind up spending $30 compared to the $15 you would've spent otherwise.

All just a big ole trap to get gamers to keep spending money and that is the one area Pearl Abyss truly excels at.

Making good games...not so much.

Xiaoki · September 2018

Ungood said:

This is the whole.. Hot dog / Bun ploy.

They sell Hotdogs in Packs of 8. And Buns in packs of 10.

Sop you always have some reason to keep getting more of one or the other.

Hotdog buns are sold in packages of 8 and cheap Oscar Meyer weiners are sold in packages of 10.

Tuor7 · September 2018

In GW2, the drop rate for rare materials varies based on its' store price.

Theocritus · September 2018

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Wellspring said:

Also wouldn't be a issue if you didn't play games with a cash shop

Or if you weren't using the cash shop...

I dont even look at them

GeezerGamer · September 2018

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Ungood said:

This is the whole.. Hot dog / Bun ploy.

They sell Hotdogs in Packs of 8. And Buns in packs of 10.

Sop you always have some reason to keep getting more of one or the other.

But then... if you buy 5 packs of hotdogs and 4 packs of buns, you can make exactly 40 hotdogs...

Let me know when you do, If I am in the area, I'll swing by your cookout.

@OP, wait a month and by $10. Then you have 60 days / $30 spent.......It's not so bad.

AAAMEOW · September 2018

Instead of buying 2 package of 15$. Just buy 3 package of 10$...

If you are a cashshop user, you probably spend so much money the package size dont' matter.

TheDarkrayne · September 2018

GW2 has an excellent cash shop and isn't ripping anyone off since it's 100% optional.

BDO is a mess.

Don't include GW2 in this discussion.

MrMelGibson · September 2018

I don't really have a problem with BDO cash shop. My problem (when I was playing around launch in NA) was that there was almost no variety in the way your characters gear looked by just playing the game. All mmos have cash shops, almost all have cosmetic gear choices. But unlike most mmos that do offer good looking and a variety of gear looks, you can earn by just playing the game.. BDO forces you to buy from the CS unless you want to look like a vagrant hobo santa.

Xasapis · September 2018

My problem with BDO and the reason I quit playing was that the items that was on purchase were character bound and not account bound. When eventually I decided I wanted to alternate my gameplay by starting an alt, I realised that any and all money spent on the game would be wasted if I insisted playing with that alt.

I did keep my cash purchases on the same level as what I would have given to a subscription based game. So as far as I was concerned, they didn't gain any extra money from me via the cash shop. They merely lost me completely when I realised that a game without a subscription option was inferior to other games having that option.

Coming to GW2, the main difference I see is that you can convert your ingame wealth into cash shop gems. I don't know how viable is the conversion rate these days (was viable when the game was new), but it's an option that I don't believe exists in BDO.

On the downside (if you can call it that), I've spent more money in GW2 cash shop buying gems that a subscription system would justify. In fact, the recent developer controversy reignited my interest in the game, which led me to buy the latest expansion at the highest possible offering and spend more than a years worth in subscription fees since then.

My only beef with GW2 so far is that their support is really really slow. Efficient when my turn is up, but takes ages for tickets to be resolved.

jusomdude · September 2018

Blizzard has the right idea... let players sell currency to each other while making a profit off it. Genius idea actually, since the players that buy gold for money then sell them to players for gold then they buy the player's goods with the gold they bought. Rinse and repeat, filling Blizz's pockets.

cheyane · September 2018

I enjoyed and loved BDO without using the cash shop at all. Never even checked it out.

Ah wait I bought that monthly thing for inventory sorry forgot about that but that is like a subscription so it does not count.

Phry · September 2018

Are the cash shops for GW2 and BDO just as bad as the one in Archeage though, i mean when it comes to really bad cash shops, its a prime example?

Quazal.A · September 2018

jusomdude said:

Blizzard has the right idea... let players sell currency to each other while making a profit off it. Genius idea actually, since the players that buy gold for money then sell them to players for gold then they buy the player's goods with the gold they bought. Rinse and repeat, filling Blizz's pockets.

Dont know what the first game to do this was, but EvE have had plex in game for about 10 years they definitely supers-seeded WoW by many years.
and the fact is nothing from the cash-shop cant be bought with using ingame cash just buy the plex from market and convert. I believe with WoW its only gametime applied and if you want anything from cash-shop your dipping in wallet.

Morgenes83 · September 2018

I'm more upset that I have to pay money to get things instantly which should normally be acquired by quests. So for me shops are also a lazy approach to get new items into the game without developing some kind of story around it.
Paying is fine as I would do with sub's. The missing content from bought items is the real bad thing.
I mean instead of just looking like a Pirate I could have gotten a whole quest line where I have to befriend the pirates spy on them or others and in the end earn that costume.

TEKK3N · September 2018

I still have a year worth of value packs (BDO).
And you know what the funny part is?

I DIDN'T SPEND A SINGLE PENNY ON IT!

Such a rip off........

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The cash shop rip off that both Black Desert Online and Guild Wars 2 both do

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The cash shop rip off that both Black Desert Online and Guild Wars 2 both do

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Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV