Why storage panes micro-transactions are an epic fail

prism2525

prism2525

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Among dead bodies.

The Republic of Sky Pirates

E/

I was just twiddling my thumbs lately about whether to buy or not a couple of storage panes but, as I did my math, it got increasingly hilarious (or not).

storage panes: €8.99 - 20 slots
max 4: €35.96
€0.45 per slot

character slot: €8.99 - 45 slots mule (1.2k for bags)
max 28
€0.20 per slot (Less than half the cost of storage panes)

new trilogy mule account: ~€30
gives 8x character slots: 8x45 + 80slots + Material storage (36)
total of 440 (+36)
~€0.07 per slot (not counting the material storage) (almost 3 times cheaper than character slots and more than 6 times cheaper than storage panes)

It's true that an extra account requires a different e-mail address and some software like GWx2 and such, but even if these discourage you, character slots are always more worth it.

PS: For simplicity's sake I have not included the equipment pack slots are these are restrictive to weapons/armor only and not as easily acquired, but should one account for them, the value of additional storage panes really goes rock bottom.

Marty Silverblade

Marty Silverblade

Administrator

Join Date: Jun 2006

No offense, but this is very old news. It is useful for people that are unaware of it though, and there's only a small mention of it on a very large discussion page on the Official Wiki (for 'Vault Box'). Nothing on the non-official. Perhaps someone should edit those pages.

Iuris

Iuris

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

Crazy ducks from the Forest

W/

The only one to judge is Anet's accounting department...

Although I WOULD like to hear some numbers about just how well microtransactions have worked out...

Femmefatal

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by prism2525 View Post
I was just twiddling my thumbs lately about whether to buy or not a couple of storage panes but, as I did my math, it got increasingly hilarious (or not).

storage panes: €8.99 - 20 slots
max 4: €35.96
€0.45 per slot

character slot: €8.99 - 45 slots mule (1.2k for bags)
max 28
€0.20 per slot (Less than half the cost of storage panes)

new trilogy mule account: ~€30
gives 8x character slots: 8x45 + 80slots + Material storage (36)
total of 440 (+36)
~€0.07 per slot (not counting the material storage) (almost 3 times cheaper than character slots and more than 6 times cheaper than storage panes)

It's true that an extra account requires a different e-mail address and some software like GWx2 and such, but even if these discourage you, character slots are always more worth it.

PS: For simplicity's sake I have not included the equipment pack slots are these are restrictive to weapons/armor only and not as easily acquired, but should one account for them, the value of additional storage panes really goes rock bottom.
The problem I've always run into is trying to remember which character has what and in which bag on what account. It got ridiculous so buying the storage panes made it effortless. I still have to deal with which character has what and their heroes just on one account.

It would be nice if EVERYTHING STACKED so I could put all my green items of the same type into one box at least.

SpyderArachnid

SpyderArachnid

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2008

United States

Lords Of Noh [LoN]

Me/

Basically what Femmefatal said. With Storage Panes, you are paying for convenience. All your toons can access it in one place without having to jump from character to character, duel box accounts, or having to remember who has what and where.

It may seem cheaper to get new slots and a new account, but in the end, do you really just want more characters or another account to sift through when you need to make an important sell and you know you have an item, but you have no idea which mule/account has it? It is more difficult to go from character to character then from account to account, just to find one item. With a Storage Pane, it is right there where anyone can see it and it is a simple task of "One sec, let me check the bank".

Quote:
Originally Posted by Iuris View Post
Although I WOULD like to hear some numbers about just how well microtransactions have worked out...
I've bought all storage panes, character slots, costumes, makeovers, name changes, etc etc. It has worked out great for me. Even bought my friend's stuff on their accounts as well. I personally enjoy Micro-transactions. It's a way to support a F2P game and help the company, and gives me no advantage over others, but things that I like that are useful to me.

Luminarus

Luminarus

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Aug 2007

Sydney, Australia

Haze of Light [pure]

R/

TBH, you dont need so many storage accounts etc. Ive got the 4 basic panes + the free bonus one, and I rarely use my storage characters. This is because I dont hoarde crap.

If its sellable, I keep it (and by sellable I mean easy sell at about 10-15k or higher). If its something im gonna use (dyes/tomes) I use one pane for them, if its weapon mods i either sell em (good ones only), or use on heroes/merch. Runes use or merch. Minis, one per character toss/sell the rest.

Ive known lots of people that hoarde, and they waste so much time and effort to sell or find the one thing that I dont think its worth it. In the time it takes them to find the 500g item, I could have farmed taht much easily.

Hyperventilate

Hyperventilate

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2007

Somewhere in California

I Gots A Crayon [Blue]

Me/Mo

This is old, old, old old news. I remember all the rage threads on Guru when they first announced the storage panes.


I bought the panes. I much prefer being able to conveniently access all my stuff without being forced to switch and swap.

thelessa

thelessa

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2005

Texas

Purple Puzycats

R/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hyperventilate View Post
This is old, old, old old news. I remember all the rage threads on Guru when they first announced the storage panes.


I bought the panes. I much prefer being able to conveniently access all my stuff without being forced to switch and swap.
I Totally agree, I bought them too, I put what I use most in them and still store stuff on mules. Wish there were a few more panes lol

Deviant Angel

Deviant Angel

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2006

On a boat!

Homeless.

Mo/

Anyone with an IQ above room temperature should be able to figure out that the storage panes aren't the most economical (or logical) way to gain more space. I'm a packrat with a touch of OCD, but I was able to resist the urge. It's just not worth it to me.

I may cave in and buy them if Anet runs a massive sale, but I'm not holding my breath!

Anon-e-mouse

Anon-e-mouse

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

@ Home

League Of Friends [LOF]

R/Mo

A-net, does NOT believe in MICRO transactions, as the amounts they charge testify, $10 is NOT now and never has been a micro transaction... end of..

Calling them micro transactions is an insult to other games who are doing it properly.

Riot Narita

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

*Sigh*. Some people STILL don't get it.

Storage panes are for extra convenience. Character slots and accounts are for raw storage space.

Nobody bought panes for raw storage space. Because everybody was ALREADY buying accounts and char slots for storage, long before panes became available... and they all knew the deal.

If you want convenience, and are prepared to pay for it, you can have panes.
If you want raw storage space, but don't need the convenience, you can have accounts or char slots.

Panes are not fail. They do what they're meant to, distinct from char slots or accounts. The only valid gripe I see is with the price of their convenience. I'm sure they'd sell a lot more if the price was lower. Long overdue for a "sale" IMO.

FengShuiDove

FengShuiDove

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2007

Trinity of the Ascended [ToA]

A/

I bought 'em. I like 'em. Some others do to. Some don't. That's literally the entire argument.

Lillium

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2009

REIN

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anon-e-mouse View Post
$10 is NOT now and never has been a micro transaction... end of..

Calling them micro transactions is an insult to other games who are doing it properly.
Depends where you're getting your definition.
Quote:
micropayment is a financial transaction involving a very small sum of money. PayPal defines a micropayment as a transaction of less than 12 USD,
Wikipedia
vs.
Dictionary
Quote:
An electronic commerce transaction of very low value. It may refer to charging just a few cents or even a fraction of a cent for a transaction such as an information lookup.
Personally, I'd kinna side with PayPal's definition, as theirs is more practical for use.

On topic, I have hording tendencies and only have two extra character slots (which were to fill out a collection of all 10 classes, not primarily for storage). Having more space only delays a purge of junk, and as we all know most stuff you get is crap not worth selling. So huge storage cleanings just feel more disappointing with more space since you throw a higher number of items out (that you should have tossed right after ID'ing).
If the storage panes ever went on sale for about $6 or less I'd grab a few for convenience, but otherwise more storage space is overrated.

TheodenKing

TheodenKing

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2008

DoA

Dark Order of Retarded Knights (doRk)

N/Me

Cost per slot is only one consideration in your economic research. Others have already mentioned convenience. I will also add that (purging, selling, merching, condensing, salvaging, allocating to heroes, etc) will allow you to spend less real money, and ultimately spend more time playing.

Pack rats have a hard time being willing to let go of the ten cool r9 swords they have sitting on their mule, even though their warrior already has 6, and their warrior heroes on all their characters already have good ones. For these players, getting organized and a little more "spartan" would save them some real cash.

Darcy

Darcy

Never Too Old

Join Date: Jul 2006

Rhode Island where there are no GW contests

Order of First

W/R

Some of us (cough, cough) bought all the panes for the convenience and wish more were allowed.

LifeInfusion

LifeInfusion

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

in the midline

E/Mo

Well I would definitely get a character slot sooner than a Storage Pane. I have 3 characters for those monster trophies, and it makes sorting by campaign easy. A character slot allows you to make more PvP characters, and if you don't reroll the main profession it means more birthday presents.

I have a second account with a collector's edition of nightfall (it was on sale at the time) for the sake of selling stuff while I play and also to hold all the gold items I collect on the main account. (The main reason why I even have it, but also to hold more than 1mil gold since I don't deal with things >100K.) In Guild Wars 2 there will be no such incentive since there is an auction house.

At the very least I encourage people with 3 campaigns + EOTN to buy one slot (two if you need to have a rerolling character), since it allows you to have every profession without rerolling.

Skyy High

Skyy High

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: May 2006

R/

You need another player (or GWx2) to transfer items from one account to another. Storing stuff on extra characters requires you to log in and out and move stuff around between storage and your mule(s), plus if you don't know exactly where it is it's a pain in the ass to find. If you buy a storage pane, you just need to walk up to storage and, hey, there are your extra slots. Is that so hard to understand?

Also, old argument is ooooooooooooooooooooooold.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anon-e-mouse
A-net, does NOT believe in MICRO transactions, as the amounts they charge testify, $10 is NOT now and never has been a micro transaction... end of..
Games that have smaller transactions generally require you to buy "e-gold" or whatever first, because charging $1 on a credit card is just not profitable. ANet decided against that system, for whatever reason, but it does mean that they aren't constantly nickel and dime-ing us on tiny cosmetic things.

Verene

Verene

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jan 2009

[SOTA]

D/

Wasn't this hashed to death back when they released them?

If you don't like it, don't buy it. Some people like the convenience they offer and are willing to pay a bit more for that.

Me, I have two accounts, eleven characters on one (none are mules, though, just one of each profession and one in pre-sear), and 6 on the other (half of which are mules), and have bought an extra pane on my main account. Why? because it's a hell of a lot more convenient than loading up Gwx2 or sifting through a dozen characters every time I'm looking for something.

Quaker

Quaker

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Aug 2005

Canada

Brothers Disgruntled

As has been said, this is old news.
Many of the people who talk about this forget that not everyone has all 4 storage panes already. No matter how many character slots you have, it is always nice to have extra storage panes in Xunlai storage for the reasons that people have given here. If you only have one campaign (or even if you have all campaigns), buying extra panes is the best way to increase your "readily available" storage.
For storage that doesn't need to be accessed readily - like to store your collection of bows - character slots are the way to go.

For the purposes of on-line gaming, micro-transactions can be thought of as "buying the game a piece at a time" rather than trying to affix some arbitrary real-money value to it.

gremlin

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2006

GWAR

Me/Mo

I went for the extra characters for storage, not as convenient as extra storage panes but the extra space, ability to do more zaishen missions not to mention the birthday mini makes then worthwhile.

I originally had 3 extra mules that did nothing but store stuff now they play just enough to be able to farm and do zaishens.

That in turn lets me store far more weapons and armour than I could ever reasonably need, I started with small weapon packs and am gradually replacing them with large ones.

As for forgetting who carries what that gets easy with a little organisation and a note pad.
Halloween items on one, Wintersday bits on another and so on

Weapons are stored by class though I do have far to many and should salvage or sell them.

Frequently used items are kept in main storage for convenience,I admit to being a pack rat but I am an organised one.

Chrisworld

Chrisworld

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2010

Gameamp Guides [AMP]

W/

I bought all the panes and I even have a second account, as well as a lot of extra character slots on my main accounts. It's convenience. If it dosent appeal to you or fit your budget no need to say it fails.

Playing Is Srs Bsns

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2010

Finland-land

Rage Like A Panda [?????????]

anet is trying to make money

Cuilan

Cuilan

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2008

Me/

I love micro-transactions. That's one really nice thing about Guild Wars. Hopefully Anet will add more to their store. It's so wonderful Anet has a way to make money to keep the game running and for whatever future plans to become better developers.

lemming

lemming

The Hotshot

Join Date: May 2006

Honolulu

International District [id???]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuilan View Post
I love micro-transactions. That's one really nice thing about Guild Wars. Hopefully Anet will add more to their store. It's so wonderful Anet has a way to make money to keep the game running and for whatever future plans to become better developers.
As opposed to... Blizzard being evil for offering microtransactions because they have an income stream already?

Sirius Bsns

Banned

Join Date: May 2010

PonG

W/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by lemming View Post
As opposed to... Blizzard being evil for offering microtransactions because they have an income stream already?
LOL this gave me a chuckle. Pay to... PAY to play!

Wracks

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2009

A/

What I really don't understand is how Anet don't consider paying 9.99$ for a 1 freaking storage pane a rip off/scam scheme

So for 4 panes, i.e, 9.99x4 = 39.96, I can practically buy a different game and play that game instead of GW

I've never seen a sky high rip off scheme in any other games in terms of convenience and micro transaction, even in terms of playing free games that don't require any purchase to play the game whatsoever

headlesshobbs

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2006

We've been through this enough to conclude buying another account is a more worthy investment. I'm just wondering when are they ever going to consider an "all-for-one" $9.99 special?

shoesbags

shoesbags

Academy Page

Join Date: Mar 2009

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Iuris View Post
Although I WOULD like to hear some numbers about just how well microtransactions have worked out...
It's a very successful system if priced fairly for those who do and do not partake in the system. Successful enough for ANet that GW2 will seem to follow the same philosophy. There's been a steady rise in F2P games over the last few years, and I wouldn't be surprised if it became the new standard MMO pricing model over the monthly fee within the next 5-10 years really. I've heard that only around 10-15% of customers use the micro-transaction system, but they spend enough money to keep the game profitable and online.

I love micro-transaction systems, personally. I really hope it takes off. I've bought all storage panes; I felt it was worth the money.

Blizzard must be making a lot of money on the items they release on their store for World of Warcraft. It seemed everywhere I looked someone either had one of the micro-transacted mounts or non-combat pets. Those were $25 and $15 respectively.

headlesshobbs

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2006

People just have too much to spend don't they?

Cuilan

Cuilan

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2008

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by lemming View Post
As opposed to... Blizzard being evil for offering microtransactions because they have an income stream already?
Nope. I don't think I've ever said having multiple ways of producing profit was bad.

jazilla

jazilla

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2006

Guernsey Milking Coalition[MiLk]

E/Me

the other end of the spectrum for people that think storage panes are better because of convenience are missing the argument that i can use the extra character slot as PvP only and play it as a dedicated class in PvP and get new minis and PvP armor and weapons for it etc. Or I can roll a new PvE character and still use the leftover slots for storage. No one is wrong here, it just boils down to opinion.

gremlin

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2006

GWAR

Me/Mo

Anets marketing strategy is probably similar to many other companies.
You work out what you think you can reasonably get away with over and above your production costs.

Price too high and no one buys, price too low and thousands buy maybe so many that it overloads the server, just guessing here I don't know how such things work.

Point is there are many players who have enough spare cash that shelling out $10 $20 or maybe $50 or more is an unimportant sum, I wouldn't do it but many will.

Rehnahvah Gahro

Rehnahvah Gahro

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2005

Underground

Rt/R

*speaks in grumbly grandpa-voice*

Well kids, I remember a time where we had to cope with just one storage pane (20 slots) and no equipment packs.
On the other hand *painful coughing followed by painful sneezing* on the other hand there were no 217bazillion types of consumables, so I guess we didn't have much to store. Unless you were a crap-hoarder like 'ol billy was. He had every unique weapon in the game, but he overmuled. Last time we saw him was when he furiously searched his chars mumbling something like "where's my bow, where's my bow".



Long story short: Get your f***ing sh*t together and delete or sell your junk! It takes time, but you will feel refreshed and born anew

Anon-e-mouse

Anon-e-mouse

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

@ Home

League Of Friends [LOF]

R/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyy High View Post
Games that have smaller transactions generally require you to buy "e-gold" or whatever first, because charging $1 on a credit card is just not profitable. ANet decided against that system, for whatever reason, but it does mean that they aren't constantly nickel and dime-ing us on tiny cosmetic things.
Whilst that may be true, I wish people would stop calling $10 a micro payment, IT ISN'T.

Iuris

Iuris

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

Crazy ducks from the Forest

W/

It is, you're just complaining about the prices.

Grav

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2010

New Zealand

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Iuris View Post
It is, you're just complaining about the prices.
Exactly.

I picked up a couple of panes the last time there was a deal doing for them, and had been hanging out for several months for another opportunity to pick up another two on the cheap. In the end I just gave up waiting and paid for them at the normal price.

Sure it works out cheaper per pane to add characters instead or whatever, but as somebody else already said, there is the price of convenience to consider. Constantly switching characters for the sake of saving a couple of dollars? Yeah, nah.

Besides, from Anet's perspective, I can imagine that if they had these deals often enough, more players would simply wait until the next one came around, as I tried to do; the flow-on effect being nobody ever buying them at the full price anymore at all. So for them, having deals as an exception rather than the rule is just good business sense.

OP just needs to harden up.

Yawgmoth

Yawgmoth

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2005

The main problem with the storage panes is that they give such a miserable, almost negligible value for the money spent. The only 'micro' thing about those 'microtransactions' is the size of the storage received.

They clearly went wrong way with them, making them attractive only to clueless players who think they can "support Anet" by buying them - those players who would buy almost anything thrown at them.

If they instead worked just a little harder and instead of what we got provided something like one single Massive Storage Upgrade, including at least 4 panes and a big bunch of specialized storage solutions (for Minipets, Dyes, Tomes, Consumables, maybe something else too, as specialized storage can likely be at least 30x lightier on server resources than general slots) and sell it for a reasonable price of $20-25 or even $30 if it was really huge, I bet they would make more money, possibly much more. I would buy that for sure! (back when I was still actively playing the game, if value received per $ spent would be good, and last year, obviously not now, too late to invest in a dying game). I think most people with a brain want to feel a real difference when they pay money for something, and so many who now completely ignore the pitiful $10 panes would buy them instead of another discount account at a supermarket.

But Anet's a bi*ch, instead of making a good high value product - a storage upgrade really worth buying - they instead chose to continuously generate heavy pressure on players' inventories by making lots and lots of new items "worth keeping". Just look at how many things are being added every year, look at how many of the crap that fills our storage didn't even exist before the 4th Anniversary update. Look at lots of new minipets that they keep adding and adding, or for example at the WiK stuff - those War Supplies, Confessor's Orders, Royal Gifts, Medals of Honor can eat a lot of slots, and if you want to play the WiK content you should always have slots for them available, and god forbid if you try to open some of those Gifts...

Darcy

Darcy

Never Too Old

Join Date: Jul 2006

Rhode Island where there are no GW contests

Order of First

W/R

Yup, there it is - mean, nasty ArenaNet. After all, they only started putting things in the store after years of begging and screaming from players. WE WANT STORAGE! WE WANT TO CHANGE THE HAIR! WE WANT TO CHANGE THE NAME! WE WANT COSTUMES!

It was constantly clogging up the forums and drove the rest of us crazy. They wanted everything they could get in other online games. So ArenaNet started giving us additional stuff little by little. I think the Material Storage pane was first (a freebie). But that just increased the screaming. Then they gave us more stuff and waited to see how it was accepted. It was loved, proven by the number of people who bought as much as they could.

So now that we have everything which the players were demanding, here come the threads full of resentment for getting it. No one is ever happy.

Riot Narita

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yawgmoth View Post
The main problem with the storage panes is that they give such a miserable, almost negligible value for the money spent. The only 'micro' thing about those 'microtransactions' is the size of the storage received.

They clearly went wrong way with them, making them attractive only to clueless players who think they can "support Anet" by buying them - those players who would buy almost anything thrown at them.
Your real gripe is the price, and you could have just said that much...

...without the "clearly" bit where you try to make your opinion appear "right" without giving any justification... and without trying to make out that the only people who bought them were morons who thought they were supporting A-net - which simply isn't true. eg. I bought them because I wanted that extra convenience, and I was prepared to pay for that luxury.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yawgmoth View Post
If they instead worked just a little harder and instead
Yeah, they could have. But they didn't - deliberately, I'd say. Because even if you bought all the storage panes, they still want pack-rats to buy character slots. They have some business sense.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darcy View Post
Yup, there it is - mean, nasty ArenaNet. After all, they only started putting things in the store after years of begging and screaming from players. WE WANT STORAGE! WE WANT TO CHANGE THE HAIR! WE WANT TO CHANGE THE NAME! WE WANT COSTUMES!

It was constantly clogging up the forums and drove the rest of us crazy. They wanted everything they could get in other online games. So ArenaNet started giving us additional stuff little by little. I think the Material Storage pane was first (a freebie). But that just increased the screaming. Then they gave us more stuff and waited to see how it was accepted. It was loved, proven by the number of people who bought as much as they could.

So now that we have everything which the players were demanding, here come the threads full of resentment for getting it. No one is ever happy.
So true.

Aleta

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2006

California

TTP

R/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrisworld View Post
I bought all the panes and I even have a second account, as well as a lot of extra character slots on my main accounts. It's convenience. If it dosent appeal to you or fit your budget no need to say it fails.
Exactly.

I have 3 accounts and I've purchased extra panes for all of them and now I need more. I save a lot of stuff lol

It's a good idea and very convenient.