My name is Charlatan and I am a whale, possibly a kraken. I have played this game since Dec 2015 and I have spent a fair amount. From Chromiums, Aud, Ships, Rebel Packs (in order to star advance due to the malignant presence of rampant abusers), refreshing mod shop and purchasing enough mods to drown in, I've done it all and seen it all.
Others above have commented on how poorly various character releases have been (mis) managed so I won't reiterate the point. However, I do feel extremely appalled at the pricing of the current packs especially vis-a-vis the length of time these remain meta. By pricing it as such, the perceived "value" in the packs are insulting and in my humble view, reflects poorly in judgment. For us, it's a game we enjoy. For you, it's a revenue stream. So I am sure you agree that sustainability is important.
EA's vision is to be a "generous company and a community member". The 2008 iteration of the Code of Conduct has Customer Satisfaction as one of its key values where relationships are built and feedback sought. In your current Global Code of Conduct, player relationships are stated to be your most valuable asset. Your CEO's message in that same document talks about providing an ethical work environment and I submit that this ethical environment should extend to your most valuable asset.
I sincerely hope this would be looked at in detail and feedback solicited. I note there's a third party reporting service hosted via ethicspoints but I feel the forum is the place where feedback should be digested and examined AND comments from developers provided.
I too was a little shocked at the price but I'm much more scared at the way the new movie was handled compared to episode vii. Every episode vii character was available for f2p or p2p. Rogue one characters I have none of except for krennic and dt at 3 stars.
Rey: 3 hard nodes then eventually moved to guild
Finn: 2 hard nodes and cantina nodes
Poe: 2 hard nodes and cantina shipments
Phasma: gw shipments
Kylo ren: cantina nodes
Other unnamed characters (FO storm trooper/fotp) hard nodes
I think EA needs to realize giving me a free character with no realistic way to get them to 7 stars without spending $1000 is just as bad as not giving me the character at all.
I had been waiting for Krennic and Death Trooper to be added for months and to say I was excited when they where announced is an understatement. After jnlocking Death Trooper I immediately leveled him up and took him to the highest gear possible. The excitement was pretty higj as soon Krennic would be unlocked and my Empire team would become much stronger. Then you release the Tie Fighter Pack and all my excitement vanished because I immediately knew what it ment. You were testing the water with that pack and its new price. I knew at that moment that the Citadel Pack would be prices the same and I lost all interest in Krennic and Death Trooper. With one move you killed months of anticipation and excitement.
We have to be honest here, this pack is absurdly overpriced. The reason for it is because you are trying to see the spending limits of your player base. This game which has been expensive from the beginning has only continued to become more expensive and you get away with it because it is "Star Wars". Gone are the days when we had the Aurodium packs which where expensive as well but they were tolerable. I bought enough to 7* three toons with those packs and the average that I spent was $150. I think all players can agree $150 to 7* a toon is more than enough. With this new Citadel Pack, we would have to spend 4-8 times that amount which is baffling.
I agree, the pricing is perfect to stop me from even buying one pack, also most of the small whales will be so upset they will either quit or go completely free to play, therfore, making arena that much easier.
Exactly that, this is just testing how much people are willing to pay, how far people can be pushed.
@EA this is a terrible business model, bad press and bad for your company image. I love this game, it's been great but I for one will not be playing anymore of your games after this one. A company which repays years of player loyalty and support doesn't deserve any more respect. It's bordering on exploitation and I seriously wonder if Disney PR dept would allow their image rights to be used to support this ****.
I've posted before, but I would say without a doubt ea lost 15k in crysta sales today from my guild, most of us have been playing since release or just after and have spent thousands and thousands, and this feels like the final straw, dozens of I'm going ftp or im done or my shards whale just quit ect ect, your pricing is out of control, for that price those two characters would have to be game breaking in both pvp and pve and they are not even close to either. Mine are both gear 10 and guildies have max gear and they are nowhere near chaze op and certainly not worth the money. Bring back the auditorium packs I have zero problem dropping 300-500$ on new characters but I'm not spending 10 times that amount. Also I'm totally fed up with your 5-30 shard garbage we all know it's 5 shards Everytime I bet if a thousand people levelled them up not one would see 30 shards even once, give it a rest with this random trickery, drop the crystals to a third of what they are and make it 15 shards a pop and you will make 15k in crystal sales over night just from my guild. Or don't and have a bunch of loyal customers quit spending or quit all together.
You always bundle in a load of unwanted rubbish with packs to justify an increase in price.
You insist on having a random / gambling element to the packs, though no one is falling for it any more, we know when you say 'chance' of 30 shards it's equivalent to the 'chance' we have of winning the lottery.
At least have the honesty to publish the odds, but of course you don't do that because it would be simply embarrassing, and you know no one would take the gamble if they knew just how much of a gamble it really was.
But even without these gripes the price of this pack is way, way off the scale. At least 3x too high, and that's being generous.
And all this just adds insult to injury to the EU/UK price increases.
A vault now costs £100 GBP in the UK. That's the equivalent of $125 USD, except in the US A vault 'only' costs $100. You are ripping us off by an extra 25%.
I've spent easily £1,200 on this game, which is ridiculous in itself, but not a penny more, there's no point, that level of spending no longer gives you anything worthwhile.
I too was willing to spend a fair amount for Krennic/DT, but this is so far beyond what I consider a fair price. Honestly, you have not just lost whatever I would have paid for K/DT, but this sort of pricing makes me reconsider buying anything at all in the game. I'm not willing to support companies that don't care about their players, and your window to show us all what you think of us is closing quickly. It isn't too late to refund the crystals that have been spent and re-price the pack at a much more reasonable level. If you don't do that, you will lose many of your very best customers.
The thing is they are SO FAR off with their idea of pricing that I don't see spending being viable any more in future. The pack is overpriced by at least 300%
Krennic. My 2nd least favorite Star Wars character (Jar-jar #1). Back story on him would have helped. His seeking grandeur with Emp and greedy ambition was a big turn off. The movie did everything to convince me I don't want to promote him on my roster. Those who priced this pack reminds me of my description above.
Pricing for this pack is absurd at best. I can either pay my mortgage or buy a digital character. Not a hard choice. These characters are not even that great. Their kits a really nice but not thousands of dollars nice. Nothing in this game is worth that kind of money and I wonder who in the world at HQ thought this was a reasonable price point.
I don't expect anything to change or even be addressed any time soon as this is Super Bowl weekend and we all know that is way more important than making your paying customers happy. Bad move guys. Really bad move.
I forgot to mention in my previous post that I did purchase the Tie Attack pack once. I ended up getting the shards for the Tie Reaper. Thanks for making that ship another useless piece of inventory given the outrageous cost to level up DT (that I will never ever pay for).
The steady increase in pricing is definitely frustrating. When I started, I felt (rightly or wrongly) that spending on chromiums was a good investment since I was catching up with people who started earlier and could round out my roster quickly. I did a few aurodiums but also skipped a few. That felt right too (no regrets yet on not getting tusken shaman).
Starting with Baze and now with DT/DK the pricing doesn't feel right. As others have said, maybe the analytics say otherwise but it certainly doesn't feel like a good return on investment. I'm going to spend $1000 only have another character come out in 6 weeks that will change the meta? That's a seriously tough pill to swallow.
I don't think the answer is to have characters cost $1000 and increase the length of the meta. Changing things up makes us keep having to think about our full roster and keeps the game fresh. This just feels like...the way Charlie Brown must feel every time Lucy tees up the football.
This is upsetting. If this is a sign of things to come i dont feel like i support this game any longer and go complete f2p. You could buy a car for the price it would take to 7* these characters. Feels like a complete disregard for an already heavy paying fan base.
Understanding the need for a return on investment on developer hours and on going support costs I understand pricing of packs need to make a profit. I want to put 2 options on the table for consideration.
1) Like the tie pack where the first purchase guaranteed a higher pay out. This would create more incentive to purchase. I suspect the volume of one time purchase would off set the extra purchase the super whale would have spent anyways. Greater profit?
2) Recoup the pack price by volume. Instead of a pack targeted to the 1% of users. Set the pack price at entry level crystal cost (500). If you sell to all P2P users and also turn some F2P to purchase in the long run to level/gear/mod character would generate more momentum for crystals spend. Greater profits? Greater player engagement?
The current price is beyond my reach and wanted to share my feedback for consideration for future packs.
The best thing about the price is that it makes it an easy decision not to spend. After this, I think it's time to starting spending much less on this game. I recall spending a lot on clones in the past and they just didnt live up to my expectations in arena (Cody, Echo). I won't repeat the same mistake twice.
Hey All!
I just posted a video sharing my thoughts on the new Citadel Pack. Check it out and share your thoughts in the comments section. Have a great weekend!!
The best thing about the price is that it makes it an easy decision not to spend. After this, I think it's time to starting spending much less on this game. I recall spending a lot on clones in the past and they just didnt live up to my expectations in arena (Cody, Echo). I won't repeat the same mistake twice.
This pretty much sums it up. There will always be a new meta on the horizon.
First off, let me start with I enjoy playing this game. It's well done, aesthetically beautiful, my guild (and former guild) are all terrific people and I've met some really spectacular people from this game alone. The re-balancing and making older characters viable is very well done. New meta shifts, more faction synergy and more character synergy, awesome zetas, etc. etc. I like ships, I like just about every aspect of the game with the exception of what's going on now.
I've spent my fair share on vaults, crates, etc. etc. and my renewals of crystal subs. I saw the Tie Advanced / Reaper pack and thought to myself "the Krooper pack better not be priced like this". Welp, it was and and after seeing what it cost to 7* them both, it made my decision SO much easier to not purchase anything this morning after consideration depending on price.
Fact of the matter is this, this is becoming dealer status. First hit (3* toons are free) and then after that you're getting taxed. I should not have to refinance my house to play a mobile game. The "chance" for 30 shards is ridiculously low. I missed out on Aurodiums because I wasn't really spending then. I sort of regret that now with Rex and B2 in the start of that meta, but I digress. At least we knew what it was going to cost to get a max. Now, with the way the game is moving, $600.00 to 1,000.00 is getting ridiculous. Most of your spenders are adults and we can no longer justify digital characters over house and car payments. If this was a litmus test to see where the wall was, I think with what I'm reading, you just found it and I'll even go a step past that and say that a lot of people who spend are going to dial it back even after this. At LEAST in the Tie Advanced pack you're guaranteed an unlock. I could really use the Tie Advanced with my Vader and I might just get one, but not right now. $20 for an unlock, good value. $20 thereafter for 4 blueprints each? NOT a good value. Even with the other stuff in the Krooper pack, it's still not a very good value. Factor in the price of gear and add another vault or two on TOP of what it costs to 7* these two and it becomes an outrageous number (what I spent on Kenobi for just gear is ridiculous).
One more thing, there's not a lot of rewarding those who actually spend like other games out there like VIP stuff. This game just bleeds you dry and this pack is a reminder of that.
Thanks for killing the game for me EA. After spending nearly 20k on this game, I'm done. Bought 5 packs today and got all 5 shards in each. You gotta be pretty money hungry to feel you need to increase the priced and drop rates for the P2P players to advance. Tell ya what... I'm done with you greedy b@$+@rd$! Not spending another dime!
The best thing about the price is that it makes it an easy decision not to spend. After this, I think it's time to starting spending much less on this game. I recall spending a lot on clones in the past and they just didnt live up to my expectations in arena (Cody, Echo). I won't repeat the same mistake twice.
This pretty much sums it up. There will always be a new meta on the horizon.
Indeed.
Because there's always a new meta on the horizon, previous spending tends to count for very little.
You could've spent thousands on the game, but when the new meta comes along it counts for nothing.
If this is the pricing they have in mind for keeping up to date, count me out.
But they should at least have some sort of VIP system whereby you get daily rewards based upon your gross level of spending. Though no doubt if they did introduce something like that the rewards would be more unwanted stuff; training droids or the gear everyone has 1,000 of.
I spent over $500 on Citadel packs this AM. While it wouldn't be fair to say I regret the purchase, I definitely do not feel there is appropriate value for money in these packs. I pulled only 5 shards of each toon in the 30 some packs I bought. Having previously invested in Chromiums and Aurodiums (as well as ship pack), I have finally come to the point where I no longer feel compelled to further invest in this game.
The changes starting with the improvements to Boba Fett and culminating with the recent buffs to the First Order demonstrate that there is continued willingness to upend meta all too often. And, while this may fundamentally be a good thing for the game, it's an indication to me that additional spending is not necessary. Simply, whatever advantage I may gain by spending now will soon be negated by meta shifts.
Still even with this I might feel compelled to continue my efforts to collect different interesting characters, but the price is now prohibitively high.
TL;DR - absolute and relative values have been shifting in very unfavorable ways for players of late. While I was comfortable with the value prop based on Aurodium packs and increased drop-rate Chromiums, I am no longer comfortable with the value prop of today's offerings.
Hey All!
I just posted a video sharing my thoughts on the new Citadel Pack. Check it out and share your thoughts in the comments section. Have a great weekend!!
Can we please stop with the bashing of the devs in this situation? It is getting nobody anywhere and frankly won’t do anything to change their minds. If you are unhappy about the prices post a complaint in a respectful, contrite, professional way or don’t at all. It’s pathetic that as a player base we are expecting free handouts all the time. I understand the frustrations that everyone was looking forward to using these new characters and getting them to seven stars but EA does have to make money. We’ve been begging and begging for these two toons to come since before Rogue One hit the big screen. Of course they’re going to be expensive because our demand for them was through the roof. SWGOH is a free download but is a freemium game, the more you pay the more you will have. They want these toons to be exclusive to the elite players who are paying the bills for the majority of the player base. I look forward to when these toons are farmable and in the meantime I will focus on the toons I am gearing up now.
Go look up price elasticity of demand. This was a major blunder.... Especially when you consider the marginal cost for the shards they are selling is $0.00. Price should be set to maximize profit... that's not what they did here. Perhaps this is merely an experiment to gauge elasticity, and if so we need to swallow being lab rats for a day or two. If EA thinks that radical inflation is a winning strategy... then that sith quote they teased us with on the 1st suddenly takes on new meaning.
Hey All!
I just posted a video sharing my thoughts on the new Citadel Pack. Check it out and share your thoughts in the comments section. Have a great weekend!!
Replies
+1
Rey: 3 hard nodes then eventually moved to guild
Finn: 2 hard nodes and cantina nodes
Poe: 2 hard nodes and cantina shipments
Phasma: gw shipments
Kylo ren: cantina nodes
Other unnamed characters (FO storm trooper/fotp) hard nodes
I think EA needs to realize giving me a free character with no realistic way to get them to 7 stars without spending $1000 is just as bad as not giving me the character at all.
We have to be honest here, this pack is absurdly overpriced. The reason for it is because you are trying to see the spending limits of your player base. This game which has been expensive from the beginning has only continued to become more expensive and you get away with it because it is "Star Wars". Gone are the days when we had the Aurodium packs which where expensive as well but they were tolerable. I bought enough to 7* three toons with those packs and the average that I spent was $150. I think all players can agree $150 to 7* a toon is more than enough. With this new Citadel Pack, we would have to spend 4-8 times that amount which is baffling.
@EA this is a terrible business model, bad press and bad for your company image. I love this game, it's been great but I for one will not be playing anymore of your games after this one. A company which repays years of player loyalty and support doesn't deserve any more respect. It's bordering on exploitation and I seriously wonder if Disney PR dept would allow their image rights to be used to support this ****.
You always bundle in a load of unwanted rubbish with packs to justify an increase in price.
You insist on having a random / gambling element to the packs, though no one is falling for it any more, we know when you say 'chance' of 30 shards it's equivalent to the 'chance' we have of winning the lottery.
At least have the honesty to publish the odds, but of course you don't do that because it would be simply embarrassing, and you know no one would take the gamble if they knew just how much of a gamble it really was.
But even without these gripes the price of this pack is way, way off the scale. At least 3x too high, and that's being generous.
And all this just adds insult to injury to the EU/UK price increases.
A vault now costs £100 GBP in the UK. That's the equivalent of $125 USD, except in the US A vault 'only' costs $100. You are ripping us off by an extra 25%.
I've spent easily £1,200 on this game, which is ridiculous in itself, but not a penny more, there's no point, that level of spending no longer gives you anything worthwhile.
It's now pure, out and out gouging.
They're the hulk, we're Loki, and the blood is our money
I don't expect anything to change or even be addressed any time soon as this is Super Bowl weekend and we all know that is way more important than making your paying customers happy. Bad move guys. Really bad move.
Starting with Baze and now with DT/DK the pricing doesn't feel right. As others have said, maybe the analytics say otherwise but it certainly doesn't feel like a good return on investment. I'm going to spend $1000 only have another character come out in 6 weeks that will change the meta? That's a seriously tough pill to swallow.
I don't think the answer is to have characters cost $1000 and increase the length of the meta. Changing things up makes us keep having to think about our full roster and keeps the game fresh. This just feels like...the way Charlie Brown must feel every time Lucy tees up the football.
1) Like the tie pack where the first purchase guaranteed a higher pay out. This would create more incentive to purchase. I suspect the volume of one time purchase would off set the extra purchase the super whale would have spent anyways. Greater profit?
2) Recoup the pack price by volume. Instead of a pack targeted to the 1% of users. Set the pack price at entry level crystal cost (500). If you sell to all P2P users and also turn some F2P to purchase in the long run to level/gear/mod character would generate more momentum for crystals spend. Greater profits? Greater player engagement?
The current price is beyond my reach and wanted to share my feedback for consideration for future packs.
Thank you
I just posted a video sharing my thoughts on the new Citadel Pack. Check it out and share your thoughts in the comments section. Have a great weekend!!
This pretty much sums it up. There will always be a new meta on the horizon.
I've spent my fair share on vaults, crates, etc. etc. and my renewals of crystal subs. I saw the Tie Advanced / Reaper pack and thought to myself "the Krooper pack better not be priced like this". Welp, it was and and after seeing what it cost to 7* them both, it made my decision SO much easier to not purchase anything this morning after consideration depending on price.
Fact of the matter is this, this is becoming dealer status. First hit (3* toons are free) and then after that you're getting taxed. I should not have to refinance my house to play a mobile game. The "chance" for 30 shards is ridiculously low. I missed out on Aurodiums because I wasn't really spending then. I sort of regret that now with Rex and B2 in the start of that meta, but I digress. At least we knew what it was going to cost to get a max. Now, with the way the game is moving, $600.00 to 1,000.00 is getting ridiculous. Most of your spenders are adults and we can no longer justify digital characters over house and car payments. If this was a litmus test to see where the wall was, I think with what I'm reading, you just found it and I'll even go a step past that and say that a lot of people who spend are going to dial it back even after this. At LEAST in the Tie Advanced pack you're guaranteed an unlock. I could really use the Tie Advanced with my Vader and I might just get one, but not right now. $20 for an unlock, good value. $20 thereafter for 4 blueprints each? NOT a good value. Even with the other stuff in the Krooper pack, it's still not a very good value. Factor in the price of gear and add another vault or two on TOP of what it costs to 7* these two and it becomes an outrageous number (what I spent on Kenobi for just gear is ridiculous).
One more thing, there's not a lot of rewarding those who actually spend like other games out there like VIP stuff. This game just bleeds you dry and this pack is a reminder of that.
Indeed.
Because there's always a new meta on the horizon, previous spending tends to count for very little.
You could've spent thousands on the game, but when the new meta comes along it counts for nothing.
If this is the pricing they have in mind for keeping up to date, count me out.
But they should at least have some sort of VIP system whereby you get daily rewards based upon your gross level of spending. Though no doubt if they did introduce something like that the rewards would be more unwanted stuff; training droids or the gear everyone has 1,000 of.
@Remon_Azab I think it got moved to here instead.
Go look up price elasticity of demand. This was a major blunder.... Especially when you consider the marginal cost for the shards they are selling is $0.00. Price should be set to maximize profit... that's not what they did here. Perhaps this is merely an experiment to gauge elasticity, and if so we need to swallow being lab rats for a day or two. If EA thinks that radical inflation is a winning strategy... then that sith quote they teased us with on the 1st suddenly takes on new meaning.
Thank you!