I do wonder what is the marketing department, or the guys in suits doing these days.

First off I want to thank the developers for the great work that's been done, I'm still as excited as ever about the game, although disheartened about the nonsensical marketing decisions.

After the cash shop was announced, after the 'pay to win' Rings of Mara were announced, after the 'exclusive loot for pre-orders' and as an icing to the cake 'the pay $20 more for the right to play Imperial.' I started to feel disappointed with the direction it was all taking.

I am disappointed, the amount of money gained from those who decide to buy these extra features will never compensate the potential amount of money gained from all this disheartened potential players that decided to abandon the game due to the way the extra content is handled.

I am disappointed, because I'm afraid that through all this, the game will never attain big enough of a crowd with a subscription model, when people don't feel like they are getting what they are paying for. I am afraid ESO will relegate into another 'free-to-play' - 'pay-to-win' game with two tiers of players.

I love the game, I love the community, I love the Elder Scrolls world and I've been a fan forever. The game looks like a great product to me, I just fail to see how these methods of making money are ever going to make money, when they are alienating 50% of everyone I knew wanted to play this game in the first instance.

Just want to comment on one thing. We have a huge difference in view of what pay to win is hehe. I don't like cash shops at all, but I don't really consider exp bonuses to be pay to win. Someone leveling faster doesn't really harm you in any way. Pay to win for me is when people can buy things that really affect others such as being able to just buy top weapons and armor and things like that without actually having to play the game and earning them. Technically even with the rings of mara you still have to go about playing the game to get what you want.

Maybe you don't quite get my point. Whether you agree or not with whether getting experience faster than others is pay to win or not, that's not really the issue here. I personally don't mind the Rings of Mara that much.

My issue is with the fact that all these bad decisions. (From a marketing perspective) Are alienating potential customers at a rate I've not seen before, and that scares me. I don't want to see another story like LotR Online or KotR happening here.

These marketing decisions are industry standard for MMOs. I think the problem lies with players who are not MMO players coming to this game with a history of single-player or small map lobby based multiplayer games, not MMOs.

They are becoming a standard. A standard that has been proven to fail as a launch strategy in multiple occassions.

I mean, yes, you can see this strategy today in WoW, as a prime example, but it didn't launch with it, it acquired a large player base before introducing any 'cash bonuses'

In a time where many MMORPG's end up having to go to free to play business model after failing to attract enough interest, the companies need to take a different approach. I know ESO is too late for a change like this, but it's simply an observation I've made. People will gravitate toward free to play games when they feel like they are going to have to splash in their cash whether they are paying a subscription or not.

the rings of mara are in the game without the CE.

I wish people would research before they say "pay to win"

Not that I agree with the obvious money grabbing choices made, but I wouldn't call it a failed strategy either. It works and brings in extra profits, which is why it has become a standard.

Some people actually using their brains BEFORE they post? Does something like that exist? Please show me!!!

The game is TERA all over again, which makes me sad. TERA's cash shop started off small with a version upgrade and a mount or two. Before we knew it all vanity items were in there, the introduced endgame content into gambling boxes and then finally it went f2p.

I give ESO a year, maybe more simply because of the IP, before it's f2p

Wrong. It states on the official site that "One copy of the Imperial Edition is required."

Also, on the product description it says it is 'exclusive' which means 'not available by other means' These are official sources.

I wish people would do their research before accusing others of not having done theirs.

Yes, some people do. Some people should extend the same courtesy to those that do, rather than deciding to insult them.

The issue I have is that it doesn't in fact generate more revenue. Making the cash shop later on would be the sensible choice, when you already have a player base. Otherwise you're just going to alienate people, and end up with lesser profits.

People also gravitate to F2P games because of time constraints. I'm a long time Gamer and MMO player. I'm 53 years old. I love this game so far, but unfortunately, even though I prefer subscription models, I won't be buying this because of the sub, at least not yet. I currently subscribe to 2 other MMO's, and am about to end those due to time constraints. I just don't have the time to game like I used to, and to pay 15 buck s a month for something I may get on once a week, well..

You can't play an MMO and keep up with your guild that way.. and playing an MMO to stricktly solo kind of goes agains the grain.

But to the topic, I think cash shops are the model the mmo's are going to be sticking with. The only one I'm aware of yet that doesn't have one is EVE, an mmo I played and paid for 6 years. The companies that produce these games make quite an investment, and I'm not surprised that they would play around with payment idea's to find that which works best. Cash shops seem to appeal to more people than do the subs, and I'd bet, some people spend considerably more per year on the cash shop, than thier subscription would bring in.

Agreed, I don't see anything remotely close to pay-to-win.

I don't necessarily view it as such myself, but some people do view it as such, and that is among the things that alienate people from the game.

First off the Rings of Mara are not pay to win items.

A sword that leveled up with you and was more powerful than any found in the game is a pay to win item.

A potion bottle that never runs out and will heal your character for 5000 points of health every 30 seconds is a pay to win item.

Two rings that When BOTH are Worn by TWO people will grant a 3% bonus to exp is not a pay to win item. It is a boost item, and will only work WHEN YOU ARE IN THE SAME GROUP.

Taken from the web site that sells the game which is ZOS own web page for the ESO.

I honestly think there is a small group of people who are going around this forum trying to post miss information about the game to try and deter potential players who are looking at buying this game. It happens in other MMO's but so far ESO has had a really bad run of these trolls more so than other games I have followed in the past.

Remember, ESO and many other mmos like it were influenced by WoW's stupendous growth spurt during 2006-2009. Call those three years the Age of Unrealistic MMORPG Expectations Back then, video game companies dreamed of making huge profits on mmos.

None lived up to expectations. Some went f2p (SWToR, LoTRO, Rift), some even bankrupted their company trying (Kingdoms of Amalur online, would they have called it KOAO if they had survived). I'm thinking that ZOS stuck with what they originally proposed. They can always fallback to f2p like the other mmos if things don't pan out as expected. Its just a matter of how low their parent company set the threshhold for monthly subscribers. I'm guessing aound 750k-800k at minimum.