If the game allowed me to buy the Mythics I’m missing (e.g. at 10USD each), it would instantly get around 200USD from me (on top of whatever my VIP10 already represents)…
…by becoming more grindy, it effectively guarantees it will get zero USD from now on.
Price point aside, this could also be extended to other rarities.
Considering what they think the “value” of the current shop prices are. Mythics would probably run you like 100 USD each.
In my case, that would mean the zero USD option again… maybe other players would be more receptive of that price tag?
Surely they would prefer the > 0 USD option either way…
Given the ludicrous prices of stuff in the GoW shop, the publisher does prefer the 0 USD option from most players. Like any other F2P, I’m sure they focus on whales for the bulk of their income.
I’ve played a variety of F2P games over the last 5 years, and maybe it’s just a luck factor on the ones I’ve chosen to play, but GoW’s shop prices are among the craziest, and while they have added the flash sales (at actual REASONABLE price points in many cases, after players begged for that for years) that hasn’t changed the cost of stuff in the shop at all.
Every week we see two $50 “discounted” bundles for a single copy of a Legendary troop + some other stuff.
Every time we pull a new Mythic troop we get a pop-up ad offering us the resources to fully trait it for $35 (I think).
The base value of Gems in the shop is $5 for 50, so 10 Gems for $1. The first tier of the weekly events costs 30 Gems. This studio actually thinks the entry tier for events is worth $3. Rewards are designed around a roughly T4-T5 purchase (500-850 Gems total respectively) so on average they think players should spend $50-85 worth of Gems per event if they want to contribute their “fair share” towards Guild progress.
$10 for a Mythic troop is actually in the realm of what I consider an appropriate price, but sadly, it’ll never happen.
Yea, no way they will sell a Mythic for $10 when they value a legendary pack at $50. (Of course, that mythic will come with overvalued extras as part of a pack.)
The current price of a random mythic is what, $49.99?
No way you’re getting “A $300 Value!” for less than $80 per.
That said, at this point, sure. 2 years ago I’d have been adamantly against buying mythics for $10, but with the direction the game’s going it fits the character. I’d have spent $50 on that instead of Deathknight Armor and been happier with the transaction. I’d rather spend 5x $10 than $50 outright.
Lowest lowly price is $5 for 225 gems. Mythics on average are 0.1% from gem keys which may roughly equal to 10K gems, which is a more or less fare long-term estimate. Approximately, with some unfair rounding, 10K/250=40 and 40*$5=$200. The number is on the absurd side for a f2p game and may get a lot of flak if this type of pack goes to the shop. So, IMHO, this is extremely unlikely to happen. Developers, apart from trying to make some money, which is obvious, are also trying their best for people to play the game and have fun. While acquisition of cards and other goods may be a goal on its own, it should not be the main goal. If you acquire everything, there is no point in playing unless you enjoy the game. And you can enjoy it without having a single mythic. So, again, there is no point.
IMHO, all the packs and sales are there if people want to support the developers and not because this is the only easy means to acquire goodies. This is how it should be and hopefully remains that way, more or less.
I hear you, but also think about this.
When I was green and would have considered buying mythics, all of the game was accessible if you just had one good mythic team. The hardest challenge was the 3rd level dungeon or Warlord IV Explore.
Now there’s more game content you can’t finish without some kind of tricky team than accessible things. Can you even do a faction event if you haven’t unlocked Underworld yet? What’s a bounty like if you don’t already have every hunter at mythic? It seems like we’re accelerating towards a world where there’s more things people without heavyweight teams can’t do than can.
That’s a different world, and I can’t apply the feelings I had 2 years ago to it. I don’t know what it’s like to be a GoW newbie now, but when I survey the landscape it feels like one where purchaseable mythics is more attractive than I once thought it was.
We have quite a few new players in the guild. We are very casual and open to players of any level and have low requirements. We also have an active discord where these and similar issues are quite frequently being asked and considered. We also have some higher level (1000+) players who never got a single mythic from a chest, only crafted. IDK about the majority, but for these players, it kind of works, more or less.
You are thinking about how you can finish a bounty to the final stage or beat a delve to level 500 all the way with a faction team, or some other extreme stuff. Well, TBH, these are not needed to enjoy the game. Quite a lot of casual players simply enjoy the process without having any extreme goals. I don’t remember last time I finished all tiers in a bounty (probably never) and I personally never got to level 500 Raid or even level 144 Invasion. I do get to floor 25 in ToD occasionally, every 3rd time, provided that some kind guild mates post their scouting results. What I want to say that your current status may enhance your aspirations and exacerbate the needs that an advanced/veteran perceives. While for some new players, who like to be challenged but are not overly ambitious, the goal is to find a sneaky way to progress entirely for free. Which is certainly doable and possible even without considerable time investment. None of the mythic are real game changers for these people. With some creativity, almost anything works reasonably well to a certain level.
Initially, I was thinking that expanding the number of cards is a bad thing that will dilute the pool of useful cards to an absurd level. However, developers somehow managed to keep the balance here. You don’t have Ishbaala? Well, there is Infernal king. You don’t have either? There is Sekhma, Forest quradian and 15 other alternative skull converters, etc. etc. Most of the general utility cards are very accessible (rare or ultrarare) still. So, there is nothing that cannot be overcome without some creativity. There are multiple ways to handle even relatively extreme challenges. We got most of the means for free just by playing the game at a reasonable pace, it is rather the issue of correctly applying these free means. I see mythics, some of them, as a simplifying shortcut to certain extreme goals which are completely achievable in an alternative manner and are not even considered by a majority of players.
Finally, IMHO, monetization is the tricky aspect. A lot of people simply don’t have the extra money, which is a reasonable assumption for those who pick up GoW as a f2p title from the store.
Sure, but the reason F2P is so lucrative for the companies that release it is that it has unlimited earnings potential and in a lot of cases brings in far more money from the bigger spenders than it would have earned with a set “box price” per user.
F2P is touted as “friendly to players” because there is no cost to start a game, but in reality for publishers it’s all about the uncapped earnings potential. (Wait a second, isn’t ungated resource gain a bad thing according to the devs? 
)
Unfortunately that would effectively make the game pay to win. Plus where’s the fun in unlocking rare troops if you can just buy them? I still remember that warm feeling when I finally unlocked Famine, good old days.
I’ve been saying for years they would catch more flies if they sweeten the pot. Last time I bought anything in the store was 2017. I play this game a ton, and I certainly don’t mind supporting the devs, but holy shit are the store prices insane.
I think my post from 2017 still stands:
I’m not going to discuss the entire store, I’ll just look at the subscriptions since those are supposedly the best value.
Daily Gold:
$20 for 40,000 gold/day for 15 days. That’s like 10 pvp games.
Updated for 2019, that’s like 8ish explores. So it costs $20 to save maybe 5 minutes of playing. $240/hr…no thanks. If you want me to pony up to save time that price better be well below minimum wage, not lawyer level prices
Daily Gems:
$5 for 15 Gems/day for 15 days. My expected return on gems from logging in is 5.6 (lowballing it), so this is like bonus 3 logins a day.
I’m not going to bother calculating my new expected return, but between new kingdoms, increased kingdom levels, and daily tasks, this price holds up even less
Daily Souls:
$5 for 700 souls/day. A fast pvp team will only get me 9 souls, so thats 78 fights, but wait my dragons team makes 90 souls (8 fights) and my souls grinding team makes 350 (2 fights).
Only change here is I no longer need souls
Daily Maps:
LOLI think you will make more money if you are more generous. I’m willing to pay, I WANT to pay, but you gotta make it worthwhile.
There won’t ever be a way that isn’t time gated to buy a specific mythic, and most of us want it that way. If you want to Target a specific mythic you do your dungeons (3 little battles) a day and save up. 90 percent of mythics are barely used anyway so targeting the best ones shouldn’t be a huge issue. I also recommend buying the 10 event keys for glory every week to Target specific mythic troops when it’s kingdom is that week, I know it still takes your time but it’s very little time for the 3 dungeons, plus what you get from guild tasks. Otherwise if you just want to throw money at it, you can buy the path and hope you get one you need.