[Ubi Official] New Shop Items

[Pegomine]

This controversy came at an unfortunate time. There are problems with log-ins, server crashes and chat not working.
Now you ask this kind of money for in game items? How long would I need to play to get my moneys worth out of the copper mine? I am willing to buy gems from time to time because I believe in supporting the developers and all their people. I prefer games that give a choice about about payment so I don't play those that have a monthly charge. Items should have a reasonable price tag and your argument that we do not have to buy these items is not persuasive. Everyone playing should have a chance to have any in game item, even if they have to save their gems for it or perhaps earn them thru adventures.
I hope this is not a sign of the way things will be in the future. This is a good game. please don't wreck it.

Pegomine

[EpsilonSilver]

Your math is incorrect.
One gem pit will net you 20,000 gems over 6 months.
They cannot be buffed.

So I think everyone neglects to see that a single purchase of the gem pit can be used to buy the other 4 gems pits... so the 20000 gem purchase ends up making 200000 gems at the cost of 100000 gems in structure, basically... you get 100000 gems over a long period of time, im not sure if you can omni seed the gem pit... but if you can... well... you figure it out...

[EpsilonSilver]

Hey All,

Just to follow up and reiterate, you do NOT and NEVER will need to purchase these items to progress in the game. We will NEVER force anyone to buy an item to move forward in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. We do, however, want to offer a variety of items in our in-game item shop to give our players a number of different ways to play and enjoy our game.

That being said, I will most definitely be relaying your feedback and concerns.

I wish I could be more help,

Kate

This is essentially saying that if we bought gems it was our own stupidity.
You never 'forced' us to buy gems.
You certainly do not 'need' gems to progress. Yet as anyone who has bought gems can tell you, it certainly helps speed things up.
As anyone playing without gems can tell you, it takes you forever to get anywhere.
So please do "pass along" our concerns, as if that's going to make a bit of difference.
I think Jigsaw called it above, this is the beginning of the end for this game. Now we know how empty the promises were and are.
BB has created a cash cow based on undelivered promises of PVP and cool new features that operates on the ignorance of new players.
You should be able to milk the unsuspecting noobs for quite a while to come.
For those of us who bought gems, and lots of them, oh well, we learned a valuable lesson about corporate greed.
Thanks for nothing much, BlueByte.
Now I see why this type of business model is called unethical.
It plays upon the weaknesses in human nature and peoples desire for instant gratification.
Of course, no one is 'forcing' anyone to play or buy gems.

[Oabol]

Hey All,

Just to follow up and reiterate, you do NOT and NEVER will need to purchase these items to progress in the game. We will NEVER force anyone to buy an item to move forward in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. We do, however, want to offer a variety of items in our in-game item shop to give our players a number of different ways to play and enjoy our game.

That being said, I will most definitely be relaying your feedback and concerns.

I wish I could be more help,

Kate

That's the same as what you said above and addresses none of our complaints - so pathetic!

[Bordoc]

What bothers me the most about the new buildings is that when the announcement was made for the new buildings, it was kind of exciting. It made you feel excited that you could put up some cool new structures to improve your island. There was never a mention that they would be so costly. My actual thought was, I may have to dish out some gems to the tune of what other gem buildings cost and that anyone would be able to reasonably acquire these items.

I feel that if you are going to announce something like this you need to give us all the details, like who is this content really directed to? Obviously not 99% of the community. What is it going to cost? An arm and a leg and then maybe your family jewels. Is this virtual content really worth more than any other PC game/console game you can purchase for $50-60? Absolutely not.

I felt betrayed and let down. Not able to participate in new content that was advertised to all.

[Hobknocker]

Your math is incorrect.
One gem pit will net you 20,000 gems over 6 months.
They cannot be buffed.

The math was correct, SirRoy. Buy one gem pit, and in 6 months, it'll give you 20k gems. Use those to buy another gem pit, and in 6 months, you'll have 40k gems, (20k from the first pit and 20k from the 2nd). Use those to buy 2 more gem pits, and in 6 months, you'll have 60k gems. You can then use 20k of those to buy the 5th and final pit. So from the one purchase of $100, you'll get 200k gems, over 30 months.

As I mentioned in another post, if this deal was offered through a real-life investment opportunity, it'd be an amazing deal; much better than anything else available today. For a game, however, it probably doesn't translate quite so well.

[EpsilonSilver]

Kind of like a Ponzi scheme?

The math was correct, SirRoy. Buy one gem pit, and in 6 months, it'll give you 20k gems. Use those to buy another gem pit, and in 6 months, you'll have 40k gems, (20k from the first pit and 20k from the 2nd). Use those to buy 2 more gem pits, and in 6 months, you'll have 60k gems. You can then use 20k of those to buy the 5th and final pit. So from the one purchase of $100, you'll get 200k gems, over 30 months.

As I mentioned in another post, if this deal was offered through a real-life investment opportunity, it'd be an amazing deal; much better than anything else available today. For a game, however, it probably doesn't translate quite so well.

[Jethro702]

This is essentially saying that if we bought gems it was our own stupidity.
You never 'forced' us to buy gems.
You certainly do not 'need' gems to progress. Yet as anyone who has bought gems can tell you, it certainly helps speed things up.
As anyone playing without gems can tell you, it takes you forever to get anywhere.
So please do "pass along" our concerns, as if that's going to make a bit of difference.
I think Jigsaw called it above, this is the beginning of the end for this game. Now we know how empty the promises were and are.
BB has created a cash cow based on undelivered promises of PVP and cool new features that operates on the ignorance of new players.
You should be able to milk the unsuspecting noobs for quite a while to come.
For those of us who bought gems, and lots of them, oh well, we learned a valuable lesson about corporate greed.
Thanks for nothing much, BlueByte.
Now I see why this type of business model is called unethical.
It plays upon the weaknesses in human nature and peoples desire for instant gratification.
Of course, no one is 'forcing' anyone to play or buy gems.

This is the best thing that has been said on this thread yet.

[Metalace]

i just started playing this game and i can say im extremely disappointed with it... Extremely slow and modeled for u to pay.

I`ve have played and loved the real settlers games. But this shouldn`t even have the settlers name attached to, they put shame to the settlers series. The buildings are so missed up its not funny. You should be able to build hunters, farms, etc in basic buildings since those are BASIC BUILDINGS THAT YOU NEED TO START OFF WITH! But i dont see this game hanging around much longer.

[Ver-cheww]

Check it out !! Hot off the press !! Most assuredly NOT purchased by me, I could NEVER afford one. But I just thought you might like to see what all the controversy is about( See the little man down there, heeheehee ?? )

I honestly dont see what the big deal is guys. If you dont think its right, dont buy it, lol. However, that being said...it IS ridiculously overpriced and I definitely agree with the overall idea behind all the posts, just sans the aggression. Also, BB, you WOULD sell many many more if you did like it was posted earlier:

.....Cut the price/quantity by 10x and they would probably sell 50x more of them......Break it up, let us buy 2k mines for 5$ or 4k mines for 10$ It's the same ratio, same deal, but 75% more of the gem buying public can afford to do that 10 times throughout the year than dumping 100$ in one instance. Freemium games run on the nickel and dime purchases that the thousands/millions of users purchase. Throw out a 100$ item and people just laugh at you. Sure some guy with more money than brains will buy it...but all they succeed in doing is upsetting 90% of their gaming population and pushing the dedicated players away.

As usual, very well said Jigsaw.