Monthly Development Update - 2nd April 2014

[Encyros]

Mobs on long timers are ideal. See how well the Tara business works if you don't believe me.

It's excellent for all the people who can set timers and camp them regularly. There is ofc that tiny minority of people with schedules who can only participate sporadically and never make enough points to buy anything.

Those damn losers with jobs and schools to attend to, seriously...

Those losers should build a multibox team so they can get a shot at downing Tara over the raidbots.

[Leetlover]

Those damn losers with jobs and schools to attend to, seriously...

Collector.

It's (tara) also a pvp-raid that doesn't quite work. Hope this (timer/ann) help that and those with busy irl-schedules 2 attend it.

[charmant]

One more thing to fix FC, i will guide you since for years you dont seem to care:
open google, search for EUR/USD exchange rate
Surprise!
Fix the damn subcription rates to be the same for everyone!
My country does not have EUR or USD as an official currency! Why do I have to pay 38% more than an American for the same product?

Its frustrating

[Towerblock]

One more thing to fix FC, i will guide you since for years you dont seem to care:
open google, search for EUR/USD exchange rate
Surprise!
Fix the damn subcription rates to be the same for everyone!
My country does not have EUR or USD as an official currency! Why do I have to pay 38% more than an American for the same product?

Its frustrating

I live in America, and I can walk into X store and buy a pair of shoes for $49.99. I can walk into Z store on the other side of town and the same pair of shoes can go for $54.99. I can also purchase the same pair from Amazon.com for a different price as well. Its not that hard to imagine why exchange rates and shipping/trading fees are between countries, particular those with dissimilar internal economies.

True, its frustrating, but hardly worth the outrage. This is how its always been.

[Pennypacker]

I live in America, and I can walk into X store and buy a pair of shoes for $49.99. I can walk into Z store on the other side of town and the same pair of shoes can go for $54.99. I can also purchase the same pair from Amazon.com for a different price as well. Its not that hard to imagine why exchange rates and shipping/trading fees are between countries, particular those with dissimilar internal economies.

True, its frustrating, but hardly worth the outrage. This is how its always been.

Yet, this does not apply in The secret world, or age of conan

It's honestly a joke at this point. It has been pointed out 300 times on forums but no response has ever been made to it.

[Phatkeep]

One more thing to fix FC, i will guide you since for years you dont seem to care:
open google, search for EUR/USD exchange rate
Surprise!
Fix the damn subcription rates to be the same for everyone!
My country does not have EUR or USD as an official currency! Why do I have to pay 38% more than an American for the same product?

Its frustrating

Some of it is due to VAT I think. But not all of it.

[charmant]

As of 1. July 2003, EU regulations require us to apply VAT to all purchases made from EU countries. Funcom's subsidiary in Luxembourg collects EU subscription revenues at a flat 15% VAT (lowest VAT rate within the EU).

OK, I understand the VAT part but they apply the VAT after they consider that 14.95 EUR = 14.95 USD, so I end up paying 17.19 EUR

to reiterate, ok with the 15% VAT imposed by EU, but why EUR=USD?

setup a fix price for everyone, then apply to that price the VAT!

fix price: 14.95 USD that is 10.79 EUR
With the 15% imposed VAT i should pay 12.4 EUR per month, not 17.19 EUR

[Towerblock]

Yet, this does not apply in The secret world, or age of conan

It's honestly a joke at this point. It has been pointed out 300 times on forums but no

I'm positive with enough searching, I can find both of those in different price ranges.

[Pennypacker]

I'm positive with enough searching, I can find both of those in different price ranges.

huh ?

I guess TSW is b2p now so it doesn't really apply any more, but when it had subscription fee it was 12,99€ and 14,99$. As is the thing with Age of Conan

[Sephiroth56]

As of 1. July 2003, EU regulations require us to apply VAT to all purchases made from EU countries. Funcom's subsidiary in Luxembourg collects EU subscription revenues at a flat 15% VAT (lowest VAT rate within the EU).

OK, I understand the VAT part but they apply the VAT after they consider that 14.95 EUR = 14.95 USD, so I end up paying 17.19 EUR

to reiterate, ok with the 15% VAT imposed by EU, but why EUR=USD?

setup a fix price for everyone, then apply to that price the VAT!

fix price: 14.95 USD that is 10.79 EUR
With the 15% imposed VAT i should pay 12.4 EUR per month, not 17.19 EUR

When you run a company, you don't want to bet on currencies. It is a "fixed price", since it's a static EUR price. If Funcom were to set it close to its 'inherent currency' (USD), then they'd take a gamble things don't change. I'm not going to go into further detail about it, because it's delicate and complicated, and it's too late for me to further indulge in it.

Essentially, they can't constantly alter the price. They do it in bulks. Right now, perhaps the EUR is strong compared to the USD. That doesn't hit consumers right away. Funcom is not an entity that should be speculating in currency, so it makes sense that the price remains fixed, and with a buffer towards its inherent currency.

If you ever played EVE, you'd get this mechanic, where you can go to Jita and bring back wares that are more expensive in Dodixie and make money that way. That's equalizing currency differences. It takes time, because you need agents to equalize the differences. In Funcom's position, there's equalization is in terms of purchasing power. 17 EUR is still 17 EUR to you, and approximately the same amount of purchasing power despite the USD fluctuating. If the price was to be constantly changing, it'd also be profitable to speculate currency for players, to time 12-month purchases so that the pricing is right. All in all, it's not viable. The way it is is the way it should remain.

[Pennypacker]

When you run a company, you don't want to bet on currencies. It is a "fixed price", since it's a static EUR price. If Funcom were to set it close to its 'inherent currency' (USD), then they'd take a gamble things don't change. I'm not going to go into further detail about it, because it's delicate and complicated, and it's too late for me to further indulge in it.

Essentially, they can't constantly alter the price. They do it in bulks. Right now, perhaps the EUR is strong compared to the USD. That doesn't hit consumers right away. Funcom is not an entity that should be speculating in currency, so it makes sense that the price remains fixed, and with a buffer towards its inherent currency.

Then why do they have a different in regards to age of conan. Just admit it, it's dumb and it needs to be altered. Either way or the other, bump the price on AoC to equal levels for all i care but equality among the games of funcom should be a basic instinct in regards to different prices on different currencies.

[Sephiroth56]

Then why do they have a different in regards to age of conan. Just admit it, it's dumb and it needs to be altered.

In what way is it different?

[Pennypacker]

in what way is it different?

12.99€ 14,99$

That's how they had it last time i checked onto this issue, albeit it was while TSW still had sub fee so it might have changed since then but i doubt it-

[Sephiroth56]

12.99€ 14,99$

That's how they had it last time i checked onto this issue, albeit it was while TSW still had sub fee so it might have changed since then but i doubt it-

A differently timed update of the subscription prices does not invalidate any of the arguments I've made. charmant literally said "setup a fixed price for everyone". Well, 17€ is a fixed price.

[Towerblock]

huh ?

I guess TSW is b2p now so it doesn't really apply any more, but when it had subscription fee it was 12,99€ and 14,99$. As is the thing with Age of Conan

I was talking about buying the titles, not their sub fees.

[Antimony]

Pvp daily missions that normally don't involve much pvp, will not provide any xp/tokens as reward, just victory points.

Heh, another awesome marketing move by FC.

Froobs are the only new players that we are getting.
Now they will get absolutely zip from that daily mish.
Hurrah for more borg grinding or getting slaughtered in BS! :P

Gotta keep those froobies in their place, brilliant!

[Snakebite]

There's a simple answer to the subscription difference...

When I buy things online from abroad, I pay in the currency of the country I'm buying for, so...

If FC is in a country that uses euros, there's the currency they should use!
Set the subscription cost in euros, and wherever the subscribers are, their own banks will magically do the conversion for them! Sorted...

Of course, this will probably mean that the Americans will end up paying more for their accounts (I wonder how long it would take for uproar to ensue from the country that keeps saying 'meh, live with it'...)...

[Grandpa]

There's a simple answer to the subscription difference...

When I buy things online from abroad, I pay in the currency of the country I'm buying for, so...

If FC is in a country that uses euros, there's the currency they should use!
Set the subscription cost in euros, and wherever the subscribers are, their own banks will magically do the conversion for them! Sorted...

Of course, this will probably mean that the Americans will end up paying more for their accounts (I wonder how long it would take for uproar to ensue from the country that keeps saying 'meh, live with it'...)...

Currently I live in the US, but I have played (and paid) from Europe as well.
I never agreed with the discrepancy, it's just arbitrary and another example of poor customer relations.

Then again, I also don't agree that $14.95 per month is a fair price for:
- a 13 year old game,
- with about 500 players left,
- and its last booster being 5 years old.

To me, it appears that FunCom believes it is Electronic Arts.

Year after year, EA is voted top or near-top as "most hated company" by Forbes.
But EA also has a ~20% market share and ~$4B in annual revenue.
Treating customers poorly is a business strategy that works for EA.
Every fed-up customer can be replaced by another child growing into the video-gaming age.
For EA, marketing is cheaper than good customer relations.

But FunCom isn't even in the top 10 of its sector, with about $20M in annual revenue and a market share of less than 2%.

Among other poor decisions, FunCom keeps making patches for AO that upset more people than they please.
When players voice their discontent, FC says that "they don't care if we quit".

Well, all delusions of grandeur aside, FunCom is not EA, not even close.
What works for EA will spell certain death for FunCom (and not just AO).

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Having lots of people in game is great... if there's something for them to do.
Having very few people in game is great... if there's some way for them to connect and get a bunch of them doing something where everyone benefits.

I really think AO needs something to reinvigorate desire to PVM. PVM is and always will be the heart and soul of any game that lacks a solid PVP retinue, and FC is clear on their stance that they aren't doing anything about the multiboxers, so that means AO is a PVM game.

If AO is going to be a PVM game, something has to change to make people want to DO PVM.

The only thing I can think of is raid tokens. I would really like to see raid tokens introduced that are:
1. two tiered, one tradeable, one not tradeable
2. provided to all members of the activity (and potentially given at completion of different stages)
3. redeemable for proper phatz so we can start moving towards a system where people WANT to participate instead of just AFKing/messing around

[ozzrik]

Pvp daily missions that normally don't involve much pvp, will not provide any xp/tokens as reward, just victory points.

This completely sucks, really. When i dont have much time, i like to just do my little tower tagging daily on all toons.
I wont go to bs for just for waiting it to be finish. And for having vp i'll just go farm some more stuff and buy parts... great.