Spiral Knights - CE Price.... You're missing the point

CE Price.... You're missing the point

8 replies [Last post]

Thu, 06/09/2011 - 14:57

Dbltap

Okay so maybe I'm off base here, but that's why I'm making a thread to see what you all think.

To start let me quote SK Wiki Energy Depot page.

"Note that one cannot use coins to directly purchase energy from Three Rings, as crystal energy only enters the game through the crystal energy purchase interface, and occasionally through Game Master hosted events such as lotteries."

So everyone is upset that with the CE cost increase you can't do runs and come out with enough crowns to replenish your energy supply or in other words you all hate relying on ME. Well read the quote. The only way CE is getting on the market is through cash gamers purchasing it with real money with the rare exception of Game Master hosted events.

So tell me why would I buy CE with real money then sell it for less crowns than I can make off of it by doing runs?

Unless I'm an idiot I wouldn't. CE cost SHOULD be more than you can make off of it by doing runs otherwise those purchasing CE with real money are pretty much throwing money away.

So in closing, yeah SK is a free to play game, but you play with ME for free. It's just like any other "free" product, you usually get a limited version.

If you can make 10k doing runs with 100 energy then the price of 100 CE should be more than K. Cash gamers aren't responsible for fronting the cost for all those people wishing only to play for free. If you want to play for free then use your 100 ME, save crowns, and maybe buy CE to craft once in a while. The idea that you should be able to buy CE with crowns to do runs then come out ahead of the game is ridiculous.

All of you purchasing CE with cash unite! Either stop selling the CE and just do runs or sell it for more than you could make with it just doing runs.

Those are my thoughts. What do you think?

Thu, 06/09/2011 - 15:03

Heron

You know who needs CE? --

You know who needs CE? -- new players
You know who needs ITEMS? -- new players
You know who needs Crafting to advance? --- new players

Without new players, there's no market to sell anything .. it will be a ghost town!

Thu, 06/09/2011 - 15:06

Azurenightmare

"So tell me why would I buy

"So tell me why would I buy CE with real money then sell it for less crowns than I can make off of it by doing runs?"

Because a run takes an hour or two and there's this 5* recipe and mats in AH you'd like to craft now.

Thu, 06/09/2011 - 15:12

Neogilgamesh

Legacy Username

If a p2per wants to sell

If a p2per wants to sell their crystalized energy, the f2pers will most likely be their biggest customer base. If they can't profit off a dungeon run, their willingless to buy CE will decrease dramaticly, they will end up only buying CE to craft things requiring more than 100 energy to craft. If f2pers are forced to run dungeons on mist energy alone because running on CE nets a loss, there goes your customer base.

It takes time to run a dungeon, a p2per can make money faster purchasing CE then selling it as opposed to purchasing CE then using it to dungeon crawl. The whole point of buying CE with real cash is to reach the endgame faster, and selling the CE for crowns achieves that objective faster than using CE to run dungeons.

Thu, 06/09/2011 - 15:16

Pwnzord

Legacy Username

To further LoneKnight's

To further LoneKnight's comment - looking at the flip side:

Why did the cash players buy CE if they didn't want to save time? They could have played off mist and bought it for free.

Cash players pay because they want to advance faster than other players, or play for longer (which gives them more crowns, and advances them faster anyway).

I'm not saying that you should subsidise the free players (although from OOO's business perspective this is what you are doing :P), but at the same time you can't expect US to pay YOU for the privilege of fetching you a recipe and materials from the clockworks!

Thu, 06/09/2011 - 15:36

Oppenheimer

Most of us are here to goof

Most of us are here to goof off and have fun. Most of us either don't want to or simply can't afford to play the CE market. Some of us don't want to pore endlessly over the AH to get the best prices. Some of us technically are P2P players, subsidizing our play time with CE off the market. The higher CE prices go, the less our Crowns go, the less playing time we have from them, the less our IRL money goes. If we can't afford to pay for the playing time we want, of course we're angry.

I only want to spend $10 a month on this game. That's what it's worth. The closer the CE prices get to being more than a single run is worth, the more likely we'll be losing money on each run rather than gaining. If we lose money on those, than any IRL money is now going to pay for THAT, instead of the new 5* gear that comes out every month.

I don't want to spend more money than this game's worth to play how I want to play. Most of us agree, and that's why so many of us are angry, and so many of us are simply leaving.

Thu, 06/09/2011 - 17:44

Dbltap

Valid Points

I can see both sides of this and appreciate all of you posting.

Particularly interesting to me is this aspect of cash gamers wanting to advance quicker thus motivating them to sell CE for lower prices. I enjoy doing dungeon runs and wearing 5* gear around isn't as enticing to me as going through and dominating some monsters so I honestly never even considered selling CE for lower prices just to advance quicker. Obviously my way isn't the only way, and after reading your posts I'm absolutely positive there are people out there more interested in maxing out their gear rather than running dungeons.

I think we're going to see this kind of fluctuation quite a bit. New gear comes out = CE price drops then after all the end gamers are equipped and have no reason to sell CE for lower prices it will shoot back up as they try to boost their crown count before the next gear drops.

Maybe they should start making elevators cost a flat rate of like 12 Energy to activate (This is just an example flat rate price). You go solo you pay 12, two pay 6 each, three pay 4 each, and four pay 3 each. This would encourage gamers to band together and if you have 3 buds or are guilded you could stretch that mist tank out quite aways. This would allow new players to have ample play time, but still retain the value of CE since you would have to have it to craft.

Thu, 06/09/2011 - 17:55

Neogilgamesh

Legacy Username

Quite an interesting idea

Quite an interesting idea divying up elevator costs between players instead of everyone paying the full 10 energy. I wonder how that would affect the energy market. Would it make energy more expensive since more crowns would be generated per energy spent, or would the decrease in energy usage lower the demand lowering the cost of energy.

Thu, 06/09/2011 - 18:25

Dbltap

Lower Demand

I think overall splitting the energy cost of the elevator among party members would lower the demand and cost of energy; however, 4* and 5* gear requires crafting so the market for CE will still be there.

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CE Price.... You're missing the point