Is this a bad idea?

Discussion
21

I’m no expert in this stuff, but in the past there was often a delay before BPs would be available on console. From what I do understand, it seems like both Sony and Microsoft make it hard to add things to their stores, and can take a while to approve stuff.
I think the introduction of crosscrowns was supposed to be a way of more quickly offering stuff for sale, since the items themselves wouldn’t need to be approved.

I don’t really know what it’s all about, but I do know that some countries have been cracking down on some game monetization stuff, because in some cases criminals use it to launder money. I don’t think that was happening with Crossout, but they may have been caught in the crossfire.

I think this is just them trying to add things to the game to make it more attractive, but then abandoning it when the players don’t respond positively.

22

I think it looks more like employees quitting and taking their talent and the remnants of the projects they were working on with them when they leave. Then they hire a new guy and he starts over with new crap. I don’t think it’s related to player usage or popularity, because I see too many contradictions, or at least a gross lack of correlation, between what players want, what this game needs, and what they ultimately do too often…not always. Sometimes it does seem clear that some new feature is exactly what we asked for

There’s plenty of complete garbage they ignore our protests over and install anyway, or just invent out of thin air and inflict on us, having no apparent consumer demand for at all. Like, what’s up with the co-drivers? This entire concept never should have made it out the door in the first place, but since it’s here, there is a demand for it, yet they just move on to the next catastrophic overhaul?

These new menus suck too. While I do think the sound effects were a nice touch to the build menu and process, it’s not functionally an improvement, and nobody asked for that.

I think it’s more related to what they are able to do with what they have, who they have working for them currently, and mistakes they have made. They have, and do make mistakes, just like everybody else. No big deal, in and of itself. Nobody’s perfect, but I’d like them to work on their previous mistakes before moving on to the next batch.

They won’t though, and this, IMO, is what underpins the lack of popularity this game struggles with, and results in difficulty with marketing, bad reviews and a lack of repeat or enlarged purchases. It certainly colors my attitude towards making purchases, or the lack therof.

My past purchases have been nerfed to crap making that seem like a rip-off, and also I’ve bought battle passes only to find they update the game in the middle of it making the game miserable to play and broken, thus holding my purchase in sort of a ransom like grip. In order to get my full value, I would then have to grind it out under new incredibly miserable parameters. I’d rather not make that mistake again.

Point is, I think they need to stop fucking around and go ask a grown-up for advice. They have a good thing here, but they are making things hard for themselves unnecessarily.

23

That is correct, google also has a similar policy in place for micro-managing games storefronts on their platform. PC generally was unaffected by it because they use their own checkout processes.

I know one of the platforms had it xbox or sony though I’m not sure which one off the top of my head.

As long as your not returning the crosscoins but rather what you bought with the crosscoins it makes a big difference.

Have you not noticed that they update the store faster now? They still lack a lot of content for customization but I even notice it changes faster. It’s supposedly in sync with all the other platforms now which is good on their too.

Use to be a week to a two week delay while the store front changes went through each platforms moderation policies.

It’s a bit more fair to have it all come out at the same time. I don’t know if you remember how many times PC people would bug out when an event recipe would get leaked. If PC stuff came out first it was no different than a leak for the other platforms.

I don’t really care if you believe it or not but there are a lot of hoops to be avoided if you don’t have to deal with extra parties in a transactions. They can do that when its just crosscrowns for a person just from the backend. It’s not hard to understand the fees involved: https://merchantcostconsulting.com/lower-credit-card-processing-fees/how-refunds-impact-credit-card-processing-fees/ The chargeback fee is one of those reasons they get really pissed with players that just reverse the charges without contacting them first.

1 Like
24

Hey yo Vladimir, stop fucking around: Ask a grownup for advice.

Thats what grown-ups do dawg, we give and receive advice :facepunch:

25

I wish I was qualified to solve their issues, because I really like this game and would like to see it achieve better results.

I ogled the software their firm is uses, and it looks fun to me. I wish I had the experience and software needed to do that gig. Whoever gets the job will be the member of a very odd cult of angry gamers. A scar in the history of online entertainment.

26

As far as I remember, microsoft and sony needded to manually approve any new real-money transaction, which is why it took ages to release shit on consoles. Additionally, at the first sign of shady activities, I’m pretty sure Microsoft and Sony would have legally nuked Gaijin.

With crosscrowns, adding packs is just a matter of patching a new button in the shop.

But ofc obfuscating the irl money price of things is ALSO a factor. The world isn’t all black and white, and both can be true.

1 Like
27

Without adding in bonus crosscrowns a single $1 is roughly 10 cross crowns. The shift between packages of them is in the hundredth to thousandth.

It would be very poorly obfuscated if that was the case.

1 Like
28

im not sure what this means but what i do know is that virtual currency that can be purchased with real money is used to abstract from the real life price of buying things in game since youre not buying ingame money or items with real money but instead virtual coins.
and this strategy exists for one and only one reason, to exploit players mentality

i dont know whether there is a separate reason for having this intermediate currency, but im sure targem doesnt mind the side effects of it

2 Likes
29

Can you see how the second half of this quote contradicts the first?

You can’t say it exists for only one reason, and then in the next sentence admit that there might be other reasons.

30

It means you just divide the crosscrown amount by 10 and you have the cost in USD. So a pack selling for 509 crosscrowns is around $50.90 in USD.

31

i didnt admit anything, im just saying if there is any other reason, then i dont know about it.
there is a single reason of which i am aware, and thats the one i described.

32

its still a digital currency though. plus these conversions arent even valid since the amount youre buying always gets some “bonus” amount.

the only thing that shows the real (except not real) value of these coins is the 30 coins for 2.99 eur pack.

33

30 coin pack is 2.99 USD too… Sorry you are really just making excuses with out checking stuff at this point.

Already took that into account when I did the math.

34

what are you on about, checking stuff…?

yea good job i guess. does it matter whatsoever?

i dont see what point youre making

35

That’s the value there isn’t anything really obfuscated.

36

i dont think you understand how human mentality works.
when youre buying some item in game, youre not using real life money but instead virtual coins

this isnt about some “encryption or obfuscation” of the real price of these coins.
when you look at the price of something and it isnt in euro or dollars but instead a fake currency, the real price isnt immediately obvious and as i already said multiple times before, this is widely used to exploit people (especially children) to increase spending

37

I think you’re getting ahead of yourself like you often do.

It doesn’t really matter you’ve purchased the virtual coins with real money. What you do with them after is up to you the fact of having to do an extra step in selecting the virtual goods is of no real consequence.

1 Like
38

  1. fake money abstracts the value of ingame things they bought therefore makes the player more comfortable spending more money

  2. when you buy crosscrowns to buy packs, packs are never the exact amount of crosscrowns. when you buy a pack, you get some money leftover which incentivizes more spending

39

There’s nothing abstract about it. You simply move a decimal place.

This generally only matters when you quit playing as there is no way of transferring the virtual currency out.

1 Like
40

Mission accomplished.

I’m not sure at this point that I can blame Targem. It’s such low hanging fruit that I reckon if Targem didn’t take their money some other cheap fraud would. “A fool and his money are soon parted.” That’s just not going to change, so why not take it yourself, I guess? Waste not, want not? IDK. That’s not my MO.

They do offer good deals, like with the Battle Passes, and various packs, but Crosscrowns are the fools isle for suckers, and I’m not sure I can blame them for trolling the pond, considering how determined they are to be duped. And, I do think you need to be determined to be duped by their shell game there, because their shenanigans aren’t very new, unusual, or particularly well cloaked, so they sort of have a Darwinian safety feature built in. Normal people ought not easily fall for these tricks.

Just don’t let your children have access to your credit cards…that’s also a no-brainer, though.