I really like Ruunin’s cardback. However, I couldn’t buy it when it appeared in the store. I have, mistakenly, assumed that individual items that are normally part of a set wouldn’t appear in the shop while the full set was on offer. So I spent some gems on 2 Mythic chests and couldn’t afford the cardback anymore. If I had known I’d be able to buy it that same day, I would, of course, have waited a couple hours, but such things are less predictable than the wind…
After thinking about it for a bit, I have come up with a solution to the problem, which might also increase revenue for the item shop! Clicking on a picture of a set should present us with a drop-down menu. Like a menu in a restaurant, it sould list all the items in the set, with a price next to each one. The purpose of this menu would be to allow us to buy any item in the set Individually.
Let me list the multiple benefits of this:
a) Those people who, like me, are interested in purchasing a particular item in a set, will have a guarantee that they will be able to do it for as long as the set itself is in the shop, decreasing waiting times and randomness.
b) As individual items are cheaper than the full set, more people will be able to afford them. It will also allow players to prioritize which item(s) they’d like to buy first, making budgeting easier.
c) One of the items in the menu could be the full set itself. Offering it at a small discount compared to the total price of individual parts (let’s say, 20% off) would stop the current torrent of complaints about the sets being too expensive!
d) The menu would mean there would be no need to clutter the Deals of the Week spaces with set items. This would give more choice to those who are not interested in the set items at all.
One final idea: The more likes and comments this post has, the more likely the devs will be to pay attention to it. So what are you waiting for, Ladies and Gentlemen?
You are aware that the positives you listed are the exact bullet points on how current pricing works?
A) Lack of guarantee and low chance to get a single item in a random rotation means you either spend big on a full set or grind chests.
B) As more people buy cheaper premium items, they will spend more gold and less gems, and in general less money
C) But we already have discounted full sets… And they are cheaper than individual parts (both time and money wise)… though they are pretty darn expensive for what they are.
D) I’m doubtful the current number of weekly deals is designed around menu space, and not the other way around.
All in all, I don’t see how you can implement selective buyouts in a game that is build (price model wise) around lack of such.
I would be the first to grab selected items off of Magda’s set, no doubt. And some redesign might be in order. I’m not against your idea per se, but I do believe you need a lot more work and insight in in, before I could sign under it.
Ok, let me explain:
A and B: Even though each person will spend less money per transaction, the ability to spend less will surely entice at least some of them to buy stuff more often. Also, those people who currently cannot afford full sets at all, might wish to buy them one item at a time instead. Right now, it is impossible to determine when exactly a particular item from a set will come up in Deals of the Week. More people, buying more often = more money for the store overall. And the gold prices are already so exorbitant, I’m sure everybody uses gems anyway.
C: I’ve never realized the sets were discounted! Putting them side by side with the individual items will make it obvious for everyone.
D: If you go to the Character screen in game (by clicking on your avatar) you’ll see various tabs - avatar, orb, etc. These always show all the options available in game, with the ones you don’t yet have being greyed out. This demonstrates that the number of weekly deals is determined by the menu space - the devs obviously wanted to fit everything on a single screen, with no scrolling required.
As for your final point, if the store is indeed designed around the need to wait for particular items to appear, which I very much doubt, it’s not a good business model at all! The longer people are made to wait for the stuff they want, the more time they have to change their mind and decide they “can live without it, after all”. Every item shop is designed around “Impulse buys”!
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Payment model is not designed around necessity to wait, it is designed around necessity to gamble… with a nice addition of being able to grab a daily deal once in a while. Your idea completely wrecks that model, and makes mystic chests an overpriced gizmo. I do believe shop side of things is just there to make the model more accessible for low income players and allow them to grab something for themselves too - but requesting to go all out on low payment deals and give up the main money maker needs a bit more concrete data.
As for the priorities in GUI design, I find it impossible to comment… you could as well argue Faeria is board based only so that the cards could be smaller…
After I have watched last month’s Cup, I got a Mythic chest as a reward. It contained 2 cosmetic items, instead of the usual 1, and one of those was an Epic. If I had bought that chest in the shop, it would only cost me as much as a Rare cosmetic, and I got 2 cards from it too. By the way, the 2 chests I mention buying in my post contained no cosmetics at all - just Mythic cards, which you can’t obtain in any other way, unless you get lucky with ordinary battle chests. Seems pretty good value to me, in both cases!
The full set could be one of the items on the menu. Even at its full price, since you’ve pointed out they are already discounted. There’s nothing wrong with giving people more options
