Chat and Balens Pricing

[Fluxty]

hell i still cant figure out what im even supposed to use my balens on? u guys might not want to tell me ive had several thoasands of dollars into games like this before lol...im like the target demagraphic for these types of games

Balens are used to obtain better gems, gem synthesis scrolls, XP scrolls, rare seeds (in the new market), etc. You mostly receive items that are convenient and allow you to spend less time trying to get the items in game. Though a big spender like yourself should be able to get better item sets (just note that the items will only give you a temporary high, better items become available after 5 - 10 levels).

Nice Read...Think It Deserves A Sticky

Hahaha, thanks. But something makes me feel like that isn't going to happen.

[Tazzadar]

Hahaha, thanks. But something makes me feel like that isn't going to happen.

They won't sticky this, 'coz you're Rallying them.

[uberek]

comparing to chinese verion or not its still too expensive!! Im from poland and for me 10$ its like for u guys 35$, so would buy buy 1000 balens for 35$? to spend it for few things?

[Fluxty]

comparing to chinese verion or not its still too expensive!! Im from poland and for me 10$ its like for u guys 35$, so would buy buy 1000 balens for 35$? to spend it for few things?

Agreed. I've played a lot of MMO's where real currency can be exchanged for exclusive in-game currency, and this is the first to make me feel like I did not get my moneys worth. Something is wrong here

[Apothis]

You guys should go to my post and see, there is some misinformation here and missing information from when i tried to follow up , also your math is off on the Yuan and US dollar conversion go check my post out.

http://forum.r2games.com/showthread....-one-has-to-go!

[22:57] <@R2-Sway> RE: <Apothis_> My question pertains to the pricing here versus the Chinese Servers pricing, and a few questions rolled into one long one, are there any plans to make the balen shop more reasonable like the chinese servers ? and why are our servers so much higher?
[22:58] <@R2-Sway> One major thing to realize is that the conversion rate from dollars to balens is significantly different between the Chinese and North American servers
[22:58] <@R2-Sway> On the Chinese servers, the conversion rate is 1Y = 10 Balens
[22:58] <@R2-Sway> While on the US servers, it is $1 = 100 Balens
[22:59] <@R2-Sway> So while items may look to be very cheap at only a few balens each on the Chinese servers, in reality, they can still be pretty expensive
[23:00] <@R2-Sway> Something that is 2 balens on the Chinese servers, would be 20 balens for us, just because of the difference in conversion between 1:10 and 1:100


So, roughly, 1 us dollar is 77.8 yen. Which to this analysis.... for the same price you can buy 100 balens in the US or 778 balens in china. But you said, the balens price is lower 10-1. So, for my dollar I can get say 5 items at 20 balens each. But for the same amount of money converted to Yen, I can get 389 of those same items. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what you said.

'

This was not my entire conversation, when they stopped me and told me they did not want to discuss this when I proved his reply was not only poorly thought out as a reply but a lie.

http://forum.r2games.com/showthread....-one-has-to-go!

[autlos]

Yup, Chinese *edit* up when they did their conversion rates... And I thought they were good with math... smh :P

[sway]

As I mentioned in the dev chat, prices for the US servers are more expensive than the Chinese servers. This is not an attempt at ripping players off; this is due to the increased costs of doing business in Western markets (staffing, marketing, etc.). If you've got a good way to drive millions of users to our site for little-to-no cost, you're welcome to apply for a job in our marketing department In addition, items which affect player stats or the balance of the game itself, (i.e. pay to win items), have been priced in a way to keep paying players from becoming overly strong and, therefore, turning off non-paying players from the game.

That being said, there are items in the game that are mispriced, including many items in the Mystery Shop. We are aware of these issues, and will make adjustments as necessary. Please remember that the game still is in beta, and it will take us a bit of time to work the kinks out.

I do not mind threads discussing item pricing here, but let's keep the discussion away from simply 'US prices are more expensive than Chinese prices'.

[WrenBoh]

As I mentioned in the dev chat, prices for the US servers are more expensive than the Chinese servers. This is not an attempt at ripping players off; this is due to the increased costs of doing business in Western markets (staffing, marketing, etc.). If you've got a good way to drive millions of users to our site for little-to-no cost, you're welcome to apply for a job in our marketing department In addition, items which affect player stats or the balance of the game itself, (i.e. pay to win items), have been priced in a way to keep paying players from becoming overly strong and, therefore, turning off non-paying players from the game.

That being said, there are items in the game that are mispriced, including many items in the Mystery Shop. We are aware of these issues, and will make adjustments as necessary. Please remember that the game still is in beta, and it will take us a bit of time to work the kinks out.

I do not mind threads discussing item pricing here, but let's keep the discussion away from simply 'US prices are more expensive than Chinese prices'.

Ok sway overall they are like a trip to the Beverly hills Strip malls where I can't even afford to walk down the sidewalk or I'll get a ticket for loitering

[ciroth]

One of many articles about F2P games and Cash shop balance.

http://mmohuts.com/editorials/cash-shop-woes

"...The lesson PWE learned through trial and error in America is that Western players are less likely to tolerate premium items that cause unbalanced gameplay. Apparently, this isn’t a major concern in China or Russia where Allods first appeared."

Wonder if Chinese players actually complain about buy2win cash shop in this game on the chinese servers.


Another good article i agree with on how f2p with cash shops can be done right. After all LoL doesn't sell power (which cannot be obtained by hard work) and they are pulling in a lot of dough
http://www.gutenbergn.com/apple/free...ay-done-right/

It just feels like you guys are pricing Balens by throwing darts at a board. I don't see any logic behind any of your pricing other than "gut feelings"

Even if you argue you want to make "buying" power expensive, you already made the mistake by making it only way to obtain is by buying it. No matter how hard we work, we cannot obtain socket rods in game, we cannot obtain higher level gem synthesis, we cannot obtain crypt key. a cash shop where you can spend money to "skip" the time needed to work for it is understandable. But you are selling power that cannot be obtained no matter how much you work for it in game. Saying you will host events for these items is NOT a solution. That is a poor "bandaid" you are putting over the main issue at hand. All this does is prolong the wounded beast until he can't stands it no more.

End of the day :

"...The lesson PWE learned through trial and error in America is that Western players are less likely to tolerate premium items that cause unbalanced gameplay. Apparently, this isn’t a major concern in China or Russia where Allods first appeared."

AND

"The most impor*tant con*se*quence of the pre*vi*ous high*lighted fea*ture is that every gameplay-altering ele*ment can be unlocked for free as long as the player spends enough time play*ing the game. This means that there are absolutely no in-game advan*tages for play*ers that choose to spend real money."

Is what will kill this game in the US if R2 doesn't work with the Dev to adapt it to Western market.

Just my 2cents.

I think most problem with Balens is this game makes it essential if you want to even have a chance to fight at the top. People complain about the Balens because you make it so the only way to fully play the game is by using Balens. As stated earlier, you have locked out content to non-Balen users... and they will, no matter what, never be as good as the worst casher. Why? Because casher can fully socket their equipment, run crypt as much as they want, synthesis super high gems with cash, etc. If all these was obtainable through hard work, then not as many people would complain.

I think the problem is not the balen is expensive, but rather you have made it so Balen is no longer an "optional" aspect, but rather an MUST in order to stay competitive. This is where you went wrong.

[Tazzadar]

I think most problem with Balens is this game makes it essential if you want to even have a chance to fight at the top. People complain about the Balens because you make it so the only way to fully play the game is by using Balens. As stated earlier, you have locked out content to non-Balen users... and they will, no matter what, never be as good as the worst casher. Why? Because casher can fully socket their equipment, run crypt as much as they want, synthesis super high gems with cash, etc. If all these was obtainable through hard work, then not as many people would complain.

I think the problem is not the balen is expensive, but rather you have made it so Balen is no longer an "optional" aspect, but rather an MUST in order to stay competitive. This is where you went wrong.

Indeed! Only to stay competitive is balens which they choose so wrong. We might perhaps, accept the monthly subscription of the game though. $7.99 a month? Why not? as long as there is no way balen can only be the way to make you strong.

[Stormaggedon]

We've heard the request for making ways for certain Cash Shop items available to non-cashing players. Which I personally agree with and I'm pushing for. However the issue arises that we're not the only ones who get a say on this happening or not. We make the change in our game, word will get back to the players in the Chinese version. The folks running that game know this will happen, and they'll get requests to make their version like ours. Now obviously, their setup is working for them as it stands. So they have no interest in making this change. As such, it is against their interests in allowing us to make the change as well. Its a partnership, and sometimes your partner just says no.

Now that's not to say it isn't going to happen. We're looking into options and we're in talks. But any kind of major change...and this is a major change from their perspective will take time. One of the things about Chinese culture is that if things are currently working fine, then there is no reason to risk changing anything. Yes, you can argue that if we made the change, more players would stick around, which means we'd have more prospective buyers, which means more money. But until you can prove that will be the case, its an uphill battle.

TLDR version: Yes, we hear you on the items, but its not something we have complete say on. We are trying, please be patient.

[ciroth]

Indeed! Only to stay competitive is balens which they choose so wrong. We might perhaps, accept the monthly subscription of the game though. $7.99 a month? Why not? as long as there is no way balen can only be the way to make you strong.

Going Monthly Subscription isn't a great solution. F2P with cash shop has the potential to bring in a lot of money to R2. P2P is a dying system. The problem with this current Cash shop is... noone did their research on localizing a cash shop from a chinese game to the western market. Maybe they decided to go with the lets try then change approach, but that will cause untold number of damage and alienate a lot of your customer base. The current system may be highly successful in the asian market, but this isn't the asian market.

End of the day. Free to play players are the Ultimate Content. The moment you provided cashers a way to buy power that non cashers can't obtain by hard work, you killed any "challenge" of players wanting to defeat others. Why? Because we know there is no point to even try to beat a casher when they have access to more power than we can obtain by just hard work. We can work as hard as we want as a free player, but we will never catch up because there are some "power" only obtained by cash shop.

With no way to have a fighting chance against challenging cashers, more f2p players will leave because its pointless. Who wants to play a game where everyday you just get slaughtered by a casher... who is a bad player but because he has extra money... he wins?

With so much bought power, if there is no players, they will leave... because there is nothing you can do. And they have so much extra money to spend, they will just go to another f2p game with cash shop. Being the #1 player out of 1 player on a server means nothing.

[ciroth]

We've heard the request for making ways for certain Cash Shop items available to non-cashing players. Which I personally agree with and I'm pushing for. However the issue arises that we're not the only ones who get a say on this happening or not. We make the change in our game, word will get back to the players in the Chinese version. The folks running that game know this will happen, and they'll get requests to make their version like ours. Now obviously, their setup is working for them as it stands. So they have no interest in making this change. As such, it is against their interests in allowing us to make the change as well. Its a partnership, and sometimes your partner just says no.

Now that's not to say it isn't going to happen. We're looking into options and we're in talks. But any kind of major change...and this is a major change from their perspective will take time. One of the things about Chinese culture is that if things are currently working fine, then there is no reason to risk changing anything. Yes, you can argue that if we made the change, more players would stick around, which means we'd have more prospective buyers, which means more money. But until you can prove that will be the case, its an uphill battle.

TLDR version: Yes, we hear you on the items, but its not something we have complete say on. We are trying, please be patient.

I'm Chinese myself.
Chinese food in America is American Food.
Us Chinese restaurant owners who open up restaurants don't cook food that is super authentic and yummy to us (unless we living in Chinese population area). We sell food that our customers will find yummy. I just hope they will go the extra mile to understand that if you want to cook real chinese food... then you must know only chinese people going to eat it. A lot of my American customers say they love our chinese food, but when they goto china... they hate chinese food. Why? Because we "localized" Chinese food in america to their tastes... but with the essence of chinese flavor. If developer want the game to succeed well in western market, they need to make "chinese food for the western tongue."

Sounds weird but that is the only way I can put it as a family of a popular chinese restaurant.

Either ways I love this game, i have spend some balens - though i'm regretting my last 10 dollars.

Oh and about that part of, "Chinese culture is that if things are currently working fine, then there is no reason to risk changing anything." Maybe for the mainland Chinese, but the 2nd generation ABCs totally do not share this point of view.

[R26629721]

Sorry for spelling errors , English is not my language of origin , and also never done any type of course for English. But anyway , I will try to explain the reasons for my frustration with the game :
1 ° My goal is not to be the top player , I ‘m happy to make the MPS and complete them , makes me very sad when I can not , because it means that I will get behind on things you can not buy , such as loids level 6 , exp . But what makes me very " frustrated " is playing the duel arena , and be beaten in less than 15 seconds , and not by the same team , but for several teams . I can tell by the clothes / wings / FATE they spend a lot of money in the game , something like 1000 U $ D / month , which I can not compete , and that creates a huge gap between them and me.
2nd discourages me to spend much money on this game , because the rewards are terrible , for example ; sylph Sepulcrum , 1495 ballens is 50, are you guys kidding ? Even though I bought the whole package , which would give around ( gasp ) 89700 ballens , I would not even get close to having my pet in the top 10 ( crosserver ) , and even though I bought a single for the sum of 1495 than point? My pet will win maybe 200br and will continue to be slaughtered in the arena or in mps
I have no hatred or envy of those who spend thousands of dollars on this game, it’s fun, it’s a hobby, we all have a hobby, my hobby has always been video games (yes I am nerd xD) But the way the game goes, I think seriously about quitting this game because greed is very large. I play this game to exactly 1 year, my br is 107k, and I can not defeat people who started playing four months does not, but they are big kosher, the only reward for being an old player is having a high HS that often does not help, if the opponent has 15kbr more than you. So it’s ridiculous the way this game has been administered.
As I said before, the top players have almost twice my BR, so because I’m going to spend more money, or spend a lot, if I have no chance to get “away”?

I am player of kongregate, we are having some discussion about the ballens price, so i decide to bring here the discussion, since never an adm came there to talk to us. Sorry for the bump, but is for a good reason.

[Elitank]

I already have a thread out there stating about how r2 price items. At first glance it may appear high and ridiculous. But the truth is that, R2 has a good reason at keeping prices high, especially for items relating to increasing player's power. This is to keep the heavy cashers from getting too powerful! However, R2 does need to lower the pricing of essential items like crypt keys, socketing rod. In addition, why are we comparing prices in US and china? The average salary for a worker in the United States and china are not the same.