| Mail |

You might also like: WoW Insider, Joystiq, and more

More Sites You Might Like

Allods opens cash shop, prices drive players insane

by Kyle Horner on Feb 19th 2010 3:30PM

Business Models, News Items, Free-to-Play, Allods Online

The Allods Online's community isn't happy with the game's cash shop prices. Currently, the cost of increasing your bag slots from 18 to 24 is $20, which is considerably higher than pretty much every other free-to-play game on the market. It's not entirely clear whether this is some kind of back-end mistake on gPotato's part or an actual pricing change.

And looking at the general section of Allods Online's official forums reveals that, in fact, a lot of players are pretty upset over the whole fiasco. Some are proclaiming rage-quits while others are considering boycotts but nobody is happy about the news. Of course, some more level-headed community members are attempting to communicate with gPotato in order to get the prices changed to more reasonable prices -- something which is apparently true of the Russian version of the game. We'll keep you updated as the story progresses.

Source

Tags: allods, allods-online, cash-shop, f2p, free-to-play, gpotato, item-shop, microtransactions

Reader Comments (55)

I find nothing funnier than nerdraging F2P gamers. I really do love listening to them whine about the service they are owed for a game they play nothing for.

Ah the threats of the game becomming a ghost town because "me and my 15 buddies from another game will never move to your game now!". Or "the item which I can earn in game, costs too much at the cash shop".

Seriously?

The overwhelming majority of these people threatening boycotts are never going to spend a cent on it. If they were, they would just pony up the 15 bucks a month for a AAA title.

I haven't seen this level of ridiculous entitlement since this same group of people were trying to leverage Cryptic's PR issues to turn Champions into F2P.

@rainmaker
What you are calling "nerdraging", I would call consumer feedback.
Something that not many products can benefit from in today's competitive and recession reduced marketplace. If Allods Online product wants to compete with Runes of Magic then they better make it more attractive for today's consumers, because raising the prices just because of "good word of the mouth" during beta is not going to work. Cryptic got this message and Gpotato will get this message soon enough.

@rainmaker
We get it. You like to bend over and take it.

No need to flaunt it, sugar.

While I don't necessarily share your vehemence, there is one thing that continually frustrates me about the gaming community - nerds have no perspective. Everything is 100% serious, 100% of the time.

As the god himself, Rainmaker, speaks to us all from his throne high above.............

God, please let this be a mistake. This is horrible. It looks like they went down the line and added an extra zero to each item from the Russian version. So, an item that was $2 in Russia is now $20 in NA.

Seems like it would be an easy mistake to make while coding the Cash Shop but if that is the case why have they not addressed the issue on the forums? The longer it takes them to reply increases the likelihood that this is not a mistake and is intentional.

I posted the rest of my thoughts on this on Corpse Run. A few of the gPotato folks read my blog, so if you are a fan of the game and want them to read what you think then head over there and comment. The more noise made about this the better, in my opinion.

Post located here: http://corpserun.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/gpotato-drops-the-ball-badly/

If it's 6 bag slots for all of your characters on that account in perpetuity, then $20 would be an incredible deal. I don't know if that is the case, though.

It is not.

I am sincerely hoping that this is a mistake and that gPotato Europe doesn't commits the same mistake. But the cash shop seems to have been taken down from the website.

This game is great, even with FoD and Perfumes i can see myself playing it if by paying 15 to 20 dollars/euros per month i can get the number of perfumes to play 1 to 2 hours daily and one or two cosmetic/functional items.
If the prices are those then i will only say farewell and regret not having played more in the CB to enjoy most of the game as new when the soft launch came.

If the item shop stays like this, and considering that this game was generating such a great amount of positive buzz i can see this as another step to further alienate the western MMO audiences of the f2p model.

Luk, I don't see how it's consumer feedback when it's a hyperbolic reaction.

Consumer Feedback is "I find these prices too high". REAL consumer feedback is not buying the overpriced item.

"Your item store is a ripoff and now your game is fail because I won't bring my 15 pals over from my other game" is nerdrage. "This was the first f2p game I was ever going to spent money on and now I won't because you're greedy" is nerdrage (particularly because we know people who say this were never going to spend a cent).

Posting to complain about the prices on Massively?
gpotato won't be reading these comments, that makes it .... well, you know.

Posting this on Massively is actually more effective and public than doing it on the AO forums which can be heavily moderated and controlled. Then there is always BBB, but that is going to the next level. You should look up Cryptic's rating there, just to see how bad it can get.

You are the biggest imbecile on Massively :)

So you're nerdraging about ...nerdraging?

Funny i thought all this was posting a reply to an article thread started by massively not post a new thread on a gaming forum to complain about pricing complaints.So maybe your jerkrage about other peoples nerdrage should be put in a personal letter to Massively and not the disappointed fans that wanted to enjoy the game.

Thank you, rainmaker. Every complaint or criticism post, needs to have that one stupid, ignorant, hypocrite, consumer whore fanboy- show up to defend a heartless corporation's honor.

The person crying the hardest, is you. With your thesis on why everyone needs to stop picking on a poor, defenseless, foreign free to play game publisher.

This isn't about a desire to improve costumer interaction. You're some Gpotato/ftp Korean mmo fanboy, who feels hurt, when the company that publishes a game he really likes gets ragged on.

Keep up the good work, Champion of greed!

they did get some pretty good feedback, although some of the actually written comments may not be the nicest ways or the best ways of offering that feedback, it stays to place that on the forum poll 95% of people who voted (which is now over 300 people) have chosen that the prices are unreasonable. That is no tiny percent.

Honestly I think this is going to turn out to be a mistake that they will rectify in the not too distant future. I don't think that They intended the prices to be as high as they were.

I'm also not one to let people slide on the "Its only CB" band wagon but if they get something out there soon that lets people know that these were not the intended prices and they get them fixed then its all gravy....

However if it turns out that these are the intended prices ....... well lets just put it this way .... I can get a 6 slot bag increase in allods ...... or for ~$7 more I can get infinite space for my DS...... Sorry Gpotato but DS Trumps OP CS every time.

Hey. It a market based economy. If its over-priced... Don't Pay for it! Is it a rediculous charge? Sure. But they won't get the hint unless nobody buys it and they don't make money on it.

I'm just happy to see that this will thin the herd of the freeloaders who would be whining if the price were $5 for 6 slots. The worst thing about F2P are those who complain endlessly and have no concept of what it takes to keep these MMO's running.

It will also thin the herd of people who have tons of disposable income AND are too stupid to figure out that they're being ripped-the fuck-off.
Stupid people like you are, sadly, what companies like Gpotato bank on.

Because complaining about a price being too high is stating that these people won't pay anything at all.

Go back to OnRPG, where moron ftp players can fanshield their favorite price gouging azn mmo publishers with full biased support.

Previous 20 Comments | 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

Allods opens cash shop, prices drive players insane

Reader Comments (55)

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:28PM Luk said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:39PM sandwiches said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 5:04PM mode7overworld said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 7:37PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:20PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:22PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:49PM Gaugamela said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:51PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:58PM Luk said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:59PM Tizmah said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 4:59PM motorun said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 6:47PM alucard3000 said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2010 1:07AM Metatron said

Posted: Feb 20th 2010 8:13AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 5:57PM Scuffles said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 6:17PM Ocho said

Posted: Feb 19th 2010 6:33PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2010 12:42AM Metatron said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Massively surveys WildStar's Scientist and Settler paths, the Esper class, and the crazy things Jeremy Gaffney says

Featured Stories

Betawatch: May 18 - 24, 2013

MMObility: Why a tablet version of RuneScape is so important

Tamriel Infinium: Elder Scrolls elves are supposed to be ugly

Engadget

Joystiq

WoW

TUAW