Store Bought Bound Items - Suggestion

[Phaeton_Seraph]

I'm afraid that the more I shop the DDO Store, the less value I feel I see.


Too many of the items purchasable seem to be either bound to character or to account. The latter seems not too unreasonable, but the former simply makes me not buy things.

When I convert DDO Points to their actual dollar value, I'm seeing a very poor investment. Today, e.g., there is a great sale on bags, but even at 50% off we're looking at a little over $3 for an item which I will only ever be able to use with one character, unless I spend more points (i.e. cash) to reincarnate (which is never cheap at any time). At normal prices, this BTC item does not seem to be a very good investment. Especially as I'm already Pay to Play.

I've read that there are justifications for making such items BTC and, while I'm not sure I fully believe those justifications, I can accept the reality that DDO needs to cover its overhead and earn its projected revenues. In this we can compare the DDO Store to any other business, in this case I like to think of a used car salesman.

However, the used car lot does something that the DDO Store doesn't; it allows customers to feel like they can get some return on their property when they no longer need it. When it comes time to upgrade or retire the old car, you can trade in your old car.
Do you see what I just did? I compared DDO to a used car salesman/lot and showed how the used car lot/salesman (something synonymous with sleazy) is a lesser evil.




So here's my suggestion (finally, I know):


Why not have a trade in program?


Maybe not all the time, but perhaps quarterly, where we can trade in these items for DDO Points. Of course not their original value worth of DDO Points, but something...


Perhaps for specific featured sale items. Like at the game stores where you trade in 3 used games to get a new one of whatever the newest release happens to be. It could be a reward for customer loyalty... Like a spring cleaning deal.

e.g.
Take this time to clear out your banks and inventory of unused items (that people stubbornly hang onto because they paid good money for it), a tiered "giveaway" for this many DDO Points of recyclables get cool-new-to-the-DDO-Store object A before anyone else; for this many more recycled DDO points get item B, for this nearly impossible number of recycled DDO Points worth of goods, receive this über leet piece of hardware that will only ever be available through this program.
Or maybe allow for an exchange towards Druidic Hearts...


Better yet, find a way to make more things BTA than BTC, at least for Pay to Play customers (which would be a great incentive to get people subscribing). Nothing stinks more than having an expensive item bound to a character that's going to be abandoned, because of creation mistakes and an unwillingness to pay $10-$20 worth of points to reincarnate. Particularly because people used to shareware and similar computer products may subscribe with the intent support your product just as much as to gain access to the P2P quests.


I don't know what you can do, but there's got to be a better way to make us pay through the nose. Store-bought BTC items make me feel ripped off.





One Final Thought:
I've seen items with incomplete product descriptions. Weirdly truncated. Yesterday, it was a quiver. I was careful, this time, to read other DDO Store quivers' descriptions to see if they were BTA or BTC - because I already felt burnt on other items. I was almost ready to buy multiples with the one toon until I found out that I wouldn't be able to give them to the others. Laziness to log each toon in/out to make separate purchases and an annoyance with BTC products stopped that idea cold. (Read: You lost potential revenues.)

Please find a way to show whether an item is BTA or BTC that won't get omitted when there's a typo in the description... Items that aren't bound should also explicitly state that they aren't bound; just so we know this isn't another possible typo.

Points only disguise the fact that this is real money so much. You have a responsibility to your customers. Had I purchased the item and discovered that it was BTC the hard way, how do you think the customer service contact would have gone when I called for a refund?

[Dysmetria]

Today, e.g., there is a great sale on bags, but even at 50% off we're looking at a little over $3 for an item which I will only ever be able to use with one character, unless I spend more points (i.e. cash) to reincarnate (which is never cheap at any time).

I thought you could get a true heart of wood for epic tokens. Free seems pretty cheap to me.

[aGorilla]

I have 2 VIP accounts, and I've spent an insane amount of cash on this game in the past 3 months.

I almost don't care what they do to loosen up the restrictions on store bought goods, but they have to do something. The BTC/BTA on practically everything is just about enough to make me want to cancel both accounts.

If I spend cash on it, why do you care what I do with it? If I give it to a friend, have you lost money? As it stands, I can't even give stuff from one account to another.

How about this, let me transfer my stuff to any other VIP. No loss to you, they're also paying. If you continue to keep things this tight, you will lose more sales than you gain.

[sirgog]

I thought you could get a true heart of wood for epic tokens. Free seems pretty cheap to me.

You can, for twenty epic dungeon tokens.

20 is quite challenging to achieve on toons that need the TR the most (although they are bound to account now).

[Amethandra]

For me, as someone who goes through quite a few characters (redo-ing builds, etc.) there's no way I will buy BTC items. I only buy BTA items, features, etc. (or account-wide options, such as classes, etc.) BTC items in "cash shops" need to GO AWAY from this game and all others. It's REAL MONEY that the PLAYER is paying, and the PLAYER is associated with an ACCOUNT. It shouldn't matter if I then use that item on one character, or ten; in either case, I can only play ONE character AT A TIME. BTC favors those whose playstyle is to roll a single character and play just that one; for those of us who roll lots of alts (remember - can still only PLAY one at a time, and extra SLOTS are already PAID for, so database space is a non-issue) we get royally screwed. Or... we just don't even CONSIDER buying anything BTC.

If the bags, items, etc. were more BTA, they'd make even more money from me than they already have.

In short, BTC = DON'T BUY IT for me. Period.

Opinion: BTA is the future, and better model long-term. BTC = greed, and counterproductive in the long run.