We currently have the silver personal colour in the depot for 99,995 energy.
Let me start by saying that I understand that it is roughly, at the moment, just over three million crowns, which for some players is perfectly reasonable due to the life span of the game and how much they've saved.
The problem is, though, any new player that comes in and sees a colour being sold for over $200 worth of a premium currency is going to be turned off the game pretty much instantly. That's an insanely priced "microtransaction" to see, especially if the relaunch is actually in the works.
I think the game is certainly in an awkward position with how many crowns some players have saved up, and making something a status symbol is fair too. But the way it's shown to players is not a great look.
If it needs to remain a status symbol item, having it be a crown-only purchase would help mitigate the issue. Sure, you can convert energy to crowns but suddenly it isn't shown to players as an incredibly overpriced real-money purchase.
I'm trying to remain positive about the relaunch but between discussions with other players who have a long history with this game and the availability of Entire Other Gaming Experiences for far less, I am starting to get increasingly cynical about the prospects of the game going forwards. I *was* excited, even participated in the recent competition, but between the lack of communication (I know that the team is on a part-time, "when we can" basis, but weeks at a time is silly) and the baffling attempts at economy fixing ("player driven," sure...) is leaving me and a slack handful of other players wondering if we're being had.
I'm trying to hold on for the relaunch and see if things change, but according to other players, there's been a historic stagnancy in the game's pricing structure and it seems to needlessly align itself with whale-buyers to a seemingly unreasonable extent rather than inducting new players. I've been looking into the pricing of other games with cosmetics on sale and honestly, the whole situation doesn't look superb in comparison.
It's currently the summer sale. That amount of money gets you between three and five moderately recent entire triple-A experiences and I'm sure people have a lot of nostalgia for Spiral Knights, but 200 dollars is an asking price worthy of genuine ridicule. I would be completely unsurprised to hear that a returning player recommended the game to a new player and they bounced off it from, 1) the samey gameplay, and 2) the prices, taken together. Spiral knights doesn't exist in a vacuum.
The tragedy is the optics of buying the silver colour, honestly. If you have the silver personal colour at this point it really feels like the only bragging rights you could attest to are "I spent $200 dollars on a game with maybe three things to do in," which for a new player just fosters a sense of resentment for existing community members and it's going to cause tension for new players. It's not going to make the item "radioactive" so to speak; cosmetics should mostly be appraised for their "wow, cool outfit" reaction, but the last few depot drops have felt - as politely as I can manage - "wildly out of touch."
Yes. I am aware how revealing my statements are. No, at this point I don't think I'm being unfair. OCH is a mission pack, for goodness sakes. I'd rather buy 10 to 20 different mission packs than a *colour*, come on. I'd rather buy three to five Other Games. Two hundred dollars is groceries, you are out of your mind if you think that's even close to reasonable and I don't really think that the excess of in-game currency should be taken as part of that, actually. Not at this point, not any more.
I am well aware of the need to control the excess of energy and crowns in the game economy. I am well aware that making the game "buyable" is important for its overall health. I just don't see the rationale for doing this with singular expensive items in contrast with putting up a much wider selection of much more affordable cosmetics.
I hope, desperately, that this is the result of someone clicking "list item" on their server management dashboard, and the price we see is the price that was set years and years ago in a CSV file that hasn't been touched in so long it should stand as a testament to the value of whatever server backup system they use to keep the game in one piece, but the fact of the matter is that I struggle to believe the prices even need to be this high.
Spiral knights had been left fallow, but remained playable for *years* seemingly without any maintainers. Most businesses cut even mild losses when it comes to running online games on this kind of timeline, so Spiral Knights cannot have cost much at all to keep running, and it's fully serversided. All of this paints an uncomfortable picture. I don't want to believe that we're just being squeezed for our nostalgia dollars, but I must be missing something very subtle if that's not the case. Anyone who could see the timeline of my forum posts so far has seen me go from "really excited to see a game I love come back," to "hopeful and eager to offer suggestions," to "worried about the game's longevity both as a player and with a designer's perspective," to "disappointed at the lack of any change in bad habits," to "considering leaving again because, come on, really?"
TL;DR: I am that player who is looking at the price of new depot listings and thinking, "that's embarassing." A new player who isn't savvy to the pressures of the in-game economy absolutely will have that reaction, because I'm having it, and that's even with being lucky enough to actually get background details and notes on game history from other players.