Make Pre-Order Packs retroactive to the Skins Prior to Purchase - But at a Premium

Hello Ashes of Creation Community,

I just wanted to let everyone know, I appreciate everyone that took the plank walk of faith on this project, well before mine- and I do think that your faith should be rewarded.

The idea of monetization is a tricky one, where do you draw the line?

I think the idea of drawing the line of P2W is a clear cut black and white, but there are shades of grey outside of this.

I am one of probably many that succumbed to hedging their bets to pay 375 USD for the highest tier of pre-order packs (i'm not American, and my currency exchange is noticeably higher) because they wanted to be a part of something special. To many, this amount of chunk of change is not insignificant but it is something worthwhile when someone feels that there is something special to be a part of, with a reasonability that it would most likely come to a fruition but you are still paying a premium to be a part of that movement for change.

For me, that point was the pre-order packs. From a personal standpoint, I care less about the Alpha 2 keys then having something special in the form of a skin that I would want to call my own. I realize that a commercially produced MMO with aspirations of being a Triple A Studio, aims for something higher then this, but I think Ashes of Creation as held firm on their sense of reasonability.

They've honored kickstarter price points when pricing out the pre-order packs and they've honored the early pre-order pack purchasers when making pre-order packs future proof, but not retroactive. Here is where I think the grey area of monetization can benefit the community as a whole.

I think the purchasers of pre-order packs should be able to purchase skins retro-actively according to their purchase tier, at a premium....and at an extreme premium. They should not have the same comfort of knowing whether this project would be successful at the point of purchase without paying the price to ensure it's fruition. The cost of the skins can even scale according to how far off the critical path of production it was available to purchase. In the end, everyone buying and everyone contributing here on this forum want to ensure one thing....the absolute success of this MMO. A lot of you took that leap of faith before me, and people like me. I am , as well as others like me are willing to invest to make this MMO as successful as can be. The pre-order packs raised 30 million towards this project. How much do you think people willing to pay a very high premium for retroactive purchases of skins can contribute to an incredible development path?

I think a grassroots project like this, depends on the community....and to be clear, a grass roots project like this is incredibly rare. I respect that and I hope people with realize how much Intrepid Studios is pigeon-holing themselves into a pure subscription based and cosmetic shop means of monetization compared to current industry standards vs production output from a musty privately funded project. How much is your pre-order skin worth to you if another pre-order can have it available at a 3x, 4x, 5x or more to take a similar leap of faith at a later timeline, but still honor the earlier risk by contributing to the success of this project well beyond yours at the time you made it.

Thank you for your consideration and your input.

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Comments

Perryuppal

As much as I would like this idea, I think it would go over very poorly with the people that purchased those packs before. Remember, packs have always been sold as being exclusive to the month that they were sold. It would be very unsuprising if a large percentage of people that purchased packs felt slighted by having their "status" of owning a very old monthly pack cosmetic be de-valued by others having the option to retroactively purchase them. Again, I don't think it's an awful idea, but the optics of it would leave a sour taste in people's mouths for any future cosmetics they release with the promise of exclusivity.

AnimusRex

I'm the opposite and place much less stock in cosmetics etc than I do playing time, early access to Character Creation, maybe Beta access. And I have the same issue with cost and currency conversion testing my wallet.

Hopefully, closer to launch, its a higher priority for Intrepid to offer a reasonably priced window into the game for those of us wanting the above, than to go back and revisit cosmetics deals that have already had an opportunity to be bought.

Sure, I wouldn't say no to a limited skin and some embers tossed into my gift bag, but they are not the reason I'll be playing the game. To me, they are peripherals you should have the option of forgoing with a corresponding reduced price.

kanersen

Perryuppal wrote: »

As much as I would like this idea, I think it would go over very poorly with the people that purchased those packs before. Remember, packs have always been sold as being exclusive to the month that they were sold. It would be very unsurprising if a large percentage of people that purchased packs felt slighted by having their "status" of owning a very old monthly pack cosmetic be de-valued by others having the option to retroactively purchase them. Again, I don't think it's an awful idea, but the optics of it would leave a sour taste in people's mouths for any future cosmetics they release with the promise of exclusivity.

'

I think this would be a lot more relevant in terms of optics if the people that purchased the packs in the months that they did, didn't also have access to purchase future skins in upcoming packs at net cost. Purchases after these months did not have the opportunity to purchase previous packs retroactively.

While I do think that the people that went on the limb financially earlier then others should warrant some sort of discount for doing so as their risk was higher at the price point they got in, I think people that did otherwise should still have the same opportunity to purchase the skins in the pre-order at a higher multiplier then net cost, even if it is a much higher multiplier.

Mag7spy

Just support them in other ways when they get the new merch store up with things to buy.

AnimusRex

Mag7spy wrote: »

Just support them in other ways when they get the new merch store up with things to buy.

Yeah. Inevitably, supply and demand gravitate to each other. That's the history of, well, the whole world.

Down the line, there will be means for players to get what they want as long as it doesn't qualify as p2w.

AoC is the flagship of a franchise. They have plans.

unknown

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Noaani

kanersen wrote: »

I think this would be a lot more relevant in terms of optics if the people that purchased the packs in the months that they did, didn't also have access to purchase future skins in upcoming packs at net cost. Purchases after these months did not have the opportunity to purchase previous packs retroactively.

Let's talk optics.

Intrepid said that once cosmetics leave the store, those specific cosmetics won't become available again.

As such, if Intrepid made them available again, it would be a bad look.

Nothing more really needs to be said about this. The cosmetics shouldn't be made available again because Intrepid said they wouldn't be. Their word is the key thing here.

Roxi

No.

Taleof2Cities

Roxi wrote: »

No.

^ This is the correct answer. ^

Undead Canuck

Based on the number of these threads, a lot of people want exclusive stuff after the fact.
Based on the number of times Intrepid has ignored or said no, this will not happen.

nanfoodle

For me it's more a badge for me. I don't care what others have or have earned. I will not FOMO over what others have. IMO the ones that jumped first should have their badges as there's. There is something said for ones who saw this vision and stepped up first. Let them have that badge.

Liniker

enough cosmetics for games that haven't released, lets just do merch I'll happily support them with that

Iuri

I would be happy if they put more skin packs on sale leading up to the game's release every month.

Ralista

Skin packs will eventually be so numerous and different that no one is really going to be able to tell how old yours is in all likelihood.

Jhoren

Yeah, no. I really dislike the whole FOMO nature of the packs in the first place, but them going back on their word is aguably worse.

Iuri wrote: »

I would be happy if they put more skin packs on sale leading up to the game's release every month.

They might do some before release, but I am almost 100% sure that we're going to see more fomo style sales in the shop after release too. Steven seems to really like it, but I think it's the single worst aspect of Ashes so far.

unknownsystemerror

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