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Buying Into the Hypeboria
By Cameron Sorden | April 2, 2008
I spent a ridiculous amount of money on Age of Conan this week. I didn’t technically spend it yet, but I made a commitment to an online retailer that I would spend it when the time comes, and thus secured my place in line for an Age of Conan special collector’s edition limited-run box with a hand-finished metal-embossed cover and individually numbered holographic sticker. If that wasn’t good enough, my purchase also includes a unique bonus DVD, the Age of Conan official soundtrack, a 128-page artbook, a world of Hyboria faux-leather map, and five free guest passes. All this cost me a total of $108.58 (a full $50 over the basic game), and guess what? I don’t want any of it.
Does anyone actually use this stuff? I expect that the DVD will never get watched– I have enough things to do that I don’t want to spend my free time watching a movie about a game when I could be playing said game. The soundtrack might get ripped to iTunes but I doubt I’ll spend much time listening to it. I can hear the in-game music while I’m playing, and when I’m not playing I don’t have a whole lot of reason to listen to game music. The map will be left in the box after a cursory examination since these maps are almost never all that useful, the art book will get tossed under my coffee table by my Song of Ice and Fire fantasy art book, and the guest passes won’t do me much good beyond turning me into a marketing tool for Funcom. The metallic hand-embossed box? Oh, I’m sure it’s pretty, but it’s not going to fit on my game shelf, so it will probably end up under my bed or in the trash. Given all that, you’re likely wondering, “Why in the heck would he bother spending that extra $50?”
Simple. Here are two more things pre-orders come with:
- Ring of Acheronia (Exclusive In-Game Item) - The ring offers special XP and stamina enhancements for players
- The Drinking Cape (Bonus In-game Item) - the Drinking Cape gives you access to free drinks in all the taverns of Hyboria
But wait, there’s more! Various online stores will give you various pre-order items. For example, if you order off of Amazon.com you get a beautiful, hand-crafted, in-game Amazon Curved Bow. It’s sturdy, it’s wooden, and it shoots arrows (one would assume). Order off GameStop, on the other hand, and you get a rideable War Mammoth and eight-slot saddlebags. Hang on a sec… are you kidding me? So my choice is between a crappy bow, which is probably easily replaced, or a freaking rideable war mammoth? I’m sorry, but whoever does the negotiations for in-game marketing at Amazon got royally screwed there. Given that GameStop was the only site offering the Mammoth, I reluctantly ordered with them.
Why reluctantly? Well, online retailers have a decidedly hit and miss record with handling pre-orders well. Here’s a recent example for Warhammer:
The situation with EBStop is a bit more complicated. Apparently nobody told their higher-ups about the details of this promotion, or some wires were crossed along the way, because their customer service has been reporting that they haven’t heard word one about distributing codes online. Their solution, and this was actually suggested in a customer service email, is that if players want to be sure they’ll receive the promo codes, they should pre-order the CE in-store. Our philosophy: if a retailer tells you not use to purchase a product there, don’t!
Doesn’t exactly leave you brimming with confidence, does it? My big fear with online retailers is that I’m going to get an e-mail a few days before game launch that tells me they “accidentally” oversold the collector’s edition, counting on cancellations, and don’t have enough to go around, or that I might have to spend three hours in customer service phone hell just to get my pre-order codes. On the other hand, driving to a local retailer when I should just be able to order online is such a hassle. The privileged consumer in me gets all frothy at anything less than tip-top customer service.
So, yes. I’m putting up with all of this uncertainty and hassle, spending an extra $50, and sweating it out until May just for the privilege of getting an xp and stamina-boosting ring, a drinking cape, and a woolly mammoth. If these items don’t start on every newbie I make for the duration of the game’s life, and are one-time claimable like EQ2’s items, I may have to kill someone. I’ll probably also be ponying up the extra $5 it costs for the 3-day headstart:
With your pre-order Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, you will be able to participate in the 3-day Early Access Program. Early access period starts on May 17, 3 days before the commercial release on May 20, 2008. You may begin downloading the game client files and installing as early as May 14. With early access, there is a nominal fee of $5, which covers the cost of the download and includes 10 days of additional game time.
Here’s the interesting part: You know all of these things I just talked about? They’re microtransactions in fancy clothing. Chew on that one for a while. You could easily break it down:
- $10 for a drinking cape
- $20 for an XP/stamina ring
- $20 for a rideable mammoth
- $5 for a 3-day headstart
We’re getting suckered into the whole mindset, bit by bit– but surprisingly, it’s not so bad. I’m willing to pay for fancy and and nifty items for my character. Honestly, I think I’d rather see a straight-up item store that let me pick and choose my items (implemented tastefully) than having to get them in $50 chunks in the CE box (and have to rely on GameStop not sucking to get them). The point is that customers are clearly willing to pay more for silly little in-game trinkets. Why not let them?
I can do without a metallic box and faux-leather map, but I need a mammoth. Need it. I’m just sure of it. Listen up, game developers. This is your consumer talking.
Topics: Age of Conan, business, customer service, mmorpg |
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Hmm. It occurs to me that I can get the mammoth with a regular pre-order. So really, I’m paying $25 for the cape and ring each. Maybe I should cancel and pre-order the normal one.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:18 pm
You win the Daily Hooray for Microtransactions award!
I love these pre-orders. They get you so invested in playing the game that you almost HAVE to to get your money’s worth. Though if it turns out to be a bad game, then the old saying “throwing good money after bad” takes on an unnerving relevance… having to pay more money to try and get back some return on your investment
Like Bear Sterns!
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Ah the joy of living in the middle of Europe! Just the thought of paying like 15 or 20$ more just for the shipping assures me that it’s not worth it
Not like i would order it anyway, WoW and TF2 keep me busy enough as it is.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 am
The mammoth mount truly is inspired marketing! More MMO’s should pay attention to stuff like this. I ordered the LOTRO CE, which gives a couple items that are actually very useful for new characters, then around level 15-18 they become out-dated. But a full-on mount! Unless it’s gimped, like LOTRO’s Bree-horse which is available 10 levels before a normal mount would be but runs slower… but still… you’re riding a friggin’ mammoth!
It’s too bad that *so far* AoC isn’t interesting me whatsoever, otherwise I’d be tempted by the large fuzzy mount as well.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:44 am
I’ll admit the mammoth is cool.
I’ll be taking a wait and see like I did with Vanguard and LotRO. I hope for the best.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
The CE is only $89 here… hmm
I’m also going with the normal version. I can’t pay the extra $$$ for a ridiculous ring.
Have you by chance received your headstart code or your mammoth code yet, Cameron? I’m not pre-ordering until I know the stores have them.
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Neither. I understand why they wouldn’t issue them yet, but yeesh.
I’d much prefer a microtransactions store than having to deal with a company as sketchy as gamestop.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I’m buying the normal version. You still should get a mount (depending on where you preorder from) and you can also get the drinking cape if you signup for their newsletter (”Clan of Conan”).
April 4th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Dealing with Gestapo… err… Gamestop is a bit of a risk from a service standpoint. While I’m all for the devs pulling out the stops and making these CE’s actually *worth* the extra cash, I’m not fond of providing different benefits to different retailers. I’d much rather be able to pre-order directly from Funcom and the CE has *all* the perks not have to pick-and-choose from retailers. Hell, I might be stuck shopping at Walmart, which I refuse to do on principle.
Cam brought up a good idea — what if Funcom had their own MT shop? Say, the CE costs a base price, $89 or whatever. You automatically get the DVD’s and the map. But they provide you a list of “optionals” to choose from. Don’t want the art book? Fine, leave that blank which gives you an extra slot to choose the mammoth. And so on…
I’m actually hoping Turbine will offer a CE for their LOTRO expansion. I don’t think a CE expansion has ever been done before, but I may be mistaken…
April 5th, 2008 at 4:45 am
WoW’s Burning Crusade had a CE