Would you buy more DDO points if they were always double bonus points?

[Zretch]

Ask yourself this: Why do DDO points (or any other company or game specific currencies) exist?

Why have players buy points with cash to then buy items for points? Doesn't that seem inefficient and unnecessarily cumbersome? It's because they don't want you to know how much things really cost. Double bonus points further confuse the issue and separate your understanding of what 1445 DDO points really means.

1445 DDO points can mean anywhere from $18.64 (if you bought the $19.99 point bundle of 1550 points) to $8.76 (if you bought 33,000 points for $199.99 during a double bonus).

That's a pretty large swing in actual price. It's also very punitive to impulse buyers who only want to spend just enough to afford the item they want at the time and no more until the next time they want something. The difference between someone who buys XP pots as needed vs someone who buys chunks of points during a bonus at the start of the year and then buys XP pots when they're 20% off can be as high as a 266% difference.

The bottom line is that the way points are set up is to incent you to spend as much as you can all at once, in excess of what you currently want to spend so that you have a stockpile of points ready for when the things you want to spend points on (QoL things, content packs, pots, etc) go on sale.

I agree with the previous posters that double bonus points all the time would just establish a "new normal", while also watering down SSG's margins on impulse purchases and purchases by new players who don't yet know whether or not it makes sense to stockpile points given they may not keep playing the game.

[dogsoldier]

If the filigrees are taking up inventory space, I highly recommend spending some of your double bonus points on the Shared Crafting Storage. Augments, Filigrees, and BtA or unbound Collectibles, and Ingredients can all be stored there.

[Chai]

When is a sale not a sale?

When is a discount not a discount?

American's are so conditioned to Capitalism that they believe they are getting a deal when they aren't.

As if the rest of the first world isnt as bludgeoned by it as we are. XD

We just admit it.

But yeah, its a safe assertion that more people buy when the prices are lower, regardless of how they tell you the prices are lower. Water is wet, the sky is blue, etc....

[Bozone]

I don't think I've ever bought points when they weren't on double bonus points (maybe on triple bonus points once?). I consider DBP to be the standard price, and the regular bonus points to be a premium price for those who can afford to not care about a few bucks or for those who are impatient or impulse buyers - kind of like a convenience fee for not having to stock up or plan.

Similarly, I consider 20% off as the standard price for the things I buy in game since everything I buy goes on the weekly sale eventually. Again, the regular price is a premium for getting it right now instead of waiting a few months. 25%, 35%, 75% off - those are good deals on an adventure pack or whatever and that's a sale IMO. At 20% off, I'll buy things if I want them. I've bought a few things at the regular price probably, but can't remember any right now.

But I only buy adventure packs, bank/inventory/shared bank space, character slots, races, classes, etc. I don't buy consumables or cosmetics, etc. I've never run out of quests to run, so it doesn't bother me to wait a few months before I get a new adventure pack (I only have one left and I'll be back to having all of the quests - hopefully it'll be on December Deals). I have races and classes that I've never played, but they were on a good sale and hopefully I'll get around to them eventually. Assuming the Sharn expansion comes out in a few months, I'll probably get it next Thanksgiving on the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale (assuming it's on sale then). But I don't play the game as much as most here do, don't worry about how quickly I can level up and not worried about having the best gear, etc.

To answer your questions: No, I wouldn't buy more points if they were always double bonus points. It would probably affect the timing of my purchases a slight bit.
And yes, probably a couple times over the years I didn't buy points when I would have if they had been DBP. But it would have just moved up the timing of my next purchase. If I missed a sale because I didn't have enough points and they weren't on DBP, I would just wait until it went on sale the next time.

To me, the pricing where you get the points cheaper as you buy more is similar. The points/$ is way different for buying $10 of points compared to $100 of points. If they were constant regardless of how much you buy, I would make smaller purchases more often, but it wouldn't significantly change what I buy or how much I spend. This is a fairly common practice - buying in bulk is cheaper - but no one is upset with it since they're used to it. But IMO it's just as "unfair" or "sneaky". Neither one bothers me and I can see reasons to do both.

[Oxarhamar]

No - I would just wait until there was a triple point sale...

So never buying points again?

[Dread131313]

Personally, I only ever buy DDO points when they are on double bonus points. In the distant past I bought DDO points and the next day they had a double bonus point sale, it was a real slap to the face. Especially since there is no such thing as a sale on DDO points. There's no warehouse where DDO points are piling up and they need to have a sale to clear inventory. They don't have to sell off the remaining stock of this year's DDO points to make room for the next model year. It's an entirely virtual product, therefore rather than double bonus points being a sale, buying DDO points when they aren't having a double bonus point sale is in reality a penalty.

The thing is, I imagine when they look over their revenue at the end of the year they think, "Those double bonus point sales really work! Look at how many more DDO points we sell during double bonus point sales compared to when they aren't on sale." Except I'm sure there are a great many players like myself that solely purchase points during sales, not because they are tricking us into buying them at that time, but because we don't buy them at any other time as we do not want to incur the penalty.

This is especially true with bigger point purchases! The more points you buy when they are not on sale, the bigger the penalty you are assessed.

Even with just the $60 point purchase you are giving up 2550 DDO points when buying it outside of a double bonus point sale. That's more than Mists of Ravenloft costs in the store!! With the $100 point purchase you're being penalized nearly 5000 DDO points for buying outside of a sale! That's a +8 supreme tome! Of course they are going to sell more when they have a sale, who wants to be penalized thousands of DDO points for buying outside of a sale?

I bought enough points on the last sale to buy Ravenloft and a few odds and ends. I actually rather like Ravenloft, except I had no idea how much inventory space those filigrees were going to eat up! That's with just one run through... and I only got one of the ones I want. I can imagine by the time I get the 5 I want I'll have hundreds of the rest. I was playing on a first life toon that I used to run old school epics with, and he doesn't even have the 2 extra inventory slots, so I load up the store to see how much a filigree bag is, which doesn't appear to even exist, and a couple more inv slots... well, I just don't have enough points. Since there was just a double bonus point sale, I know it'll be a minute before there will be another. Now I'm stuck waiting months (if I'm even around by then), which sucks for me, and they aren't getting my money, which sucks for them.

Do you buy points outside of a sale? Would you buy more if they were always on "sale"?

Wait... did they just do double DDO points? I just bought some yesterday so I could buy that **** +8 tome and I am gonna be super ****ed if they enabled a "double bonus points" a day after I friggin spent MORE MONEY on this game.

It seems like they are always doing these "specials" kind of like Wal-Mart, just to get people to become separated from their money, and it friggin works unfortunately.

And about the useless friggin filigrees and scrolls. I feel like they purposely just add junk (stupid worthless gems I am looking at YOU) to take up space in your inventory just to make you always buy more space. Its always, more... we need you to need more space and syberis cakes so you can send US MOAR SHEKELS.

Jeez SSG, can you lay off the commercialization for a little bit and focus on more **** like actually fixing long standing bugs?

[Dread131313]

american's are so conditioned to capitalism that they believe they are getting a deal when they aren't.

this times a freaking thousand!

[Dread131313]

<snip>

Wouldn't you get more satisfaction if you earned that tome?




<snip>

I told my guildies I thought the +8 tome was a trap. Then a day later, I bought the **** thing.
I felt really rotten afterwards too. Kind of like I cheated myself (and probably did), but screw it.

I wonder if this is what drug addiction feels like?

Are you proud of yourselves SSG?

I want 1999 back

[Dread131313]

If the filigrees are taking up inventory space, I highly recommend spending some of your double bonus points on the Shared Crafting Storage. Augments, Filigrees, and BtA or unbound Collectibles, and Ingredients can all be stored there.

They still go into your inventory when youre out running around, and its easy to accumulate a bunch. Now if there was a way IN THE FIELD to break down **** like scrolls, gems, filigrees we don't care about and massively stack them into a collectible or ingredient bag, I wouldnt cry foul and be a conspiracy theorist, but by design the amount of sheer **** we accumulate out while just questing that takes up our bag space and forces us to spend a huge chunk of time just organizing our inventory is just ridiculous.

I mean in WOW they had disenchanting, and almost every single game ive played had some way of salvaging or breaking down stuff out in the field, JUST FOR THIS ISSUE... except this one.

No, WEE MUST SALE MOAR BAGZ FOR TEH SEHKELS!!!!1111

[askrj1]

I only remember triple points going up once - don't remember if it was 10th Anniv or if it was MotU release. With any luck that entire stretch of time was Warner trying to rake in as much as they could get. If DDO lives to 20th anniversary we might get it again... maybe?

[LucidLTS]

Do you buy points outside of a sale? Would you buy more if they were always on "sale"?

It probably wouldn't affect my purchases, my points haven't dipped low enough to even consider an impulse purchase in 5 years.

Sales on individual items do prompt me to make purchases, and frequent deep sales on content and supplies do encourage me to pick up points when they are on sale so I have them on hand in case something I want comes on sale, but the default price of points doesn't really factor in for me. But the discount has to be pretty steep - I picked up Slave Lords and Deep Gnome at 75% off, but passed on Dragonborn, Asimar, and Ravenloft at 50%.

My satisfaction with the game also influences my purchases more than the "regular price" does. Having an enhancement I planned a build on get nerfed, or having a quest fail because of a bug like unresponsive pets or hirelings annoys me to the point that I refuse to spend money for a while on principle. And I refuse on principle to buy something that I feel was a deliberate squeeze, or P2W - purchased enhancement trees that don't have a reasonable favor unlock are an example (and no, a per character unlock doesn't count as reasonable to me, though of course others might consider that acceptable).

The last big influence on my purchasing is my "value to me" rather than "% discount" - nobody else in my guild has Ravenloft, so even at 1200 points it's a waste for me. But character slots at 50% off are useful, because I keep many characters of different classes at different levels to be able to run with guild members when they are on.

[MacRighteous]

So never buying points again?

If double points became the new norm - then triple points will be the new bonus incentive sales for special events - I know it will never happen, why would they?