Chat and Balens Pricing

[Cerden]

[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.

Or if its actually Yuan and not Yen... it's roughly 6.96 yuan to one dollar. That means, I can get roughly 70 Balens on the chinese server for the same US dollar. Which also means, I can get 35 items at the 2 balen cost like you said. Which means you are inflating our price 7 times than the chinese servers.

Sorry, new conversion. 6.33 yuan to a dollar is current price. Which is still 63 balens, and 31.5 items at the price we pay for 5. So.... still it's over 6 times at the current exchange rate.

[Tazzadar]

It fluctuate. Let's hope the dollar conversation in china will be 1:1
so you will not be worried anymore.^^

[ciroth]

Overhead in China is so much cheaper than overhead in the US

Sadly.

100 usd wont last you long here in the US, but 100 usd in China can be used well for a month

[Tazzadar]

I spent always $65 a day.

$30 Train back and forth
$15 for Subway
$4 for hotdogs
$19 for my lunch -- burger @ Heaven's burger in New York Manhattan

So I say I should stay in China and bring along my $ )

[WrenBoh]

marketing in the us is more ? Internet is full of free marketing and banner adds. I mean come on just create a google ad account and you have all the advertisements for free.

[lance137]

it is very easy to use 500 balens a day so thats 5 bucks a day = 150 dollars a month to play this game cmon guys that is ridiculous.

[ciroth]

marketing in the us is more ? Internet is full of free marketing and banner adds. I mean come on just create a google ad account and you have all the advertisements for free.

Paying your employees USA wages, Not chinese wages (ha)
Paying for your overhead (the building, utilities etc.)
Paying for advertisement (Google has a trial service, but its not free if you want to keep advertising)
Paying your legal department
Making a profit, no point if the game doesn't make you money
Paying license fee to 7Road

You reminds me of people who scream in the restaurant, "Why is this fried potato so expensive! its just potato chopped us and fried!" Its because A, the cost to get the ingredients delivered to us costs money, B... a person chopped that up... then a person fried it... then a person delivered it to you at your table. C... I have to pay for my utilities, my rent is not free, my employees don't work for free, my insurance company doesn't give me insurance for free, my accountant doesn't work for free, my security company doesn't work for free, the government doesn't give me my wastewater or right to serve food licenses/certifates for free.

Etc.

[Cerden]

So, why raise the prices and have people spend less? Why not have the prices at the right range, and have more people spend money?

[Fluxty]

Paying your employees USA wages, Not chinese wages (ha)
Paying for your overhead (the building, utilities etc.)
Paying for advertisement (Google has a trial service, but its not free if you want to keep advertising)
Paying your legal department
Making a profit, no point if the game doesn't make you money
Paying license fee to 7Road

You reminds me of people who scream in the restaurant, "Why is this fried potato so expensive! its just potato chopped us and fried!" Its because A, the cost to get the ingredients delivered to us costs money, B... a person chopped that up... then a person fried it... then a person delivered it to you at your table. C... I have to pay for my utilities, my rent is not free, my employees don't work for free, my insurance company doesn't give me insurance for free, my accountant doesn't work for free, my security company doesn't work for free, the government doesn't give me my wastewater or right to serve food licenses/certifates for free.

Etc.

Paying for advertisements is irrelevant - the ads on this forum and their sites should compensate (ran a blog for a childrens game and made $1600 a month off of ads, only put $800 - $1000 in, they're generation is probably this same ratio on a much higher scale). Even if it is relevant though, what I have to say is still important.

Paying a legal department, staff at US wages, and a license fee should not cause an inflation in prices the way it is now. The balen exchange rate was designed to look more than fair at first glance. I could imagine some of the Chinese thinking the US version of the game receives more bang for their buck.

All in all, it's very hard to dispute this due to the high levels of bias that may be involved, and what we may or may not know R2Games has to pay to keep the American version of the game running. Basically, we can statistically prove that the Chinese are receiving more for spending their currency than we are, but we can't prove that this isn't fair.

Looking at the evidence, we can clearly see a manipulation of Balen output to make it seem like we are being rewarded just as well as the Chinese, if not more, when we really are not. This indicates some sort of further deception, such as a scheme for producing more profit. However, this could simply be a method to stop high amounts of accusations of unfairness arriving from something that is still fair (based on US spending on the game vs. Chinese spending).

There really is no way to decide this matter, and you should not take sides, but instead ask deeper questions about spending and expect honest answers. If I had to choose whether the current price conversion were fair based only on what I know, I would say that the US is on the unfair side of the deal. Sway did not seem to know how to reply to questions, and after a couple of attempts redirected everyone to the forums. The argument would've been more convincing had he not tried to argue at all.

My opinion about Balen prices in general (disregarding any conversions or other comparisons) is not that the pricing is unfair, but I believe we should be rewarded for our money a bit more. The prices are on the absolute bare minimum of what I consider acceptable and buyable, and I feel I've wasted a lot of money buying $10 dollars worth of Balens that will be gone in 2 - 3 days even when used conservatively.

Please note that I appreciate the game that R2 has brought to us and I have the upmost respect for Sway and the rest of the staff team. I'm no lawyer, but you could say I am "cross-examining" everything going on here.

[Cerden]

Especially on the prices of consumable items..... I could see spending decent money on an item thats going to be around. But a one time use item that cost 2 bucks or so? Come on.

[lance137]

1000 balens for 4.99 would be more reasonable then you may be able to socket and refine a piece of gear im not paying 20 bucks to get 10 star stats on a level 30 gear that will be replaced in 2 days.i got 3 stats 10 star and almost used 500 balens doing so on 1 piece of gear

[terayaki2]

its not only u need to pay 1$ for 100balens , other ppl play in american server is the same ... but its still seem overpriced

what u are saying so true Fluxty , mine gone in 1 min tho lol item so overpriced with current 1$=100balens

[SEPPO86]

You talk like this is the only game with cash shop in the world. In a way it is, since it's the most expensive one. I've never ever seen a game with such ridiculous prices.

[ProNab]

Paying for advertisements is irrelevant - the ads on this forum and their sites should compensate (ran a blog for a childrens game and made $1600 a month off of ads, only put $800 - $1000 in, they're generation is probably this same ratio on a much higher scale). Even if it is relevant though, what I have to say is still important.

Paying a legal department, staff at US wages, and a license fee should not cause an inflation in prices the way it is now. The balen exchange rate was designed to look more than fair at first glance. I could imagine some of the Chinese thinking the US version of the game receives more bang for their buck.

All in all, it's very hard to dispute this due to the high levels of bias that may be involved, and what we may or may not know R2Games has to pay to keep the American version of the game running. Basically, we can statistically prove that the Chinese are receiving more for spending their currency than we are, but we can't prove that this isn't fair.

Looking at the evidence, we can clearly see a manipulation of Balen output to make it seem like we are being rewarded just as well as the Chinese, if not more, when we really are not. This indicates some sort of further deception, such as a scheme for producing more profit. However, this could simply be a method to stop high amounts of accusations of unfairness arriving from something that is still fair (based on US spending on the game vs. Chinese spending).

There really is no way to decide this matter, and you should not take sides, but instead ask deeper questions about spending and expect honest answers. If I had to choose whether the current price conversion were fair based only on what I know, I would say that the US is on the unfair side of the deal. Sway did not seem to know how to reply to questions, and after a couple of attempts redirected everyone to the forums. The argument would've been more convincing had he not tried to argue at all.

My opinion about Balen prices in general (disregarding any conversions or other comparisons) is not that the pricing is unfair, but I believe we should be rewarded for our money a bit more. The prices are on the absolute bare minimum of what I consider acceptable and buyable, and I feel I've wasted a lot of money buying $10 dollars worth of Balens that will be gone in 2 - 3 days even when used conservatively.

Please note that I appreciate the game that R2 has brought to us and I have the upmost respect for Sway and the rest of the staff team. I'm no lawyer, but you could say I am "cross-examining" everything going on here.

Nice Read...Think It Deserves A Sticky

[ISuk?]

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