As a gamer, I've played hundreds of games, only three of those games being MMOs. These threes games are Path of Exile, Warframe and the Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). I've purchased Warframe's premium currency so far, but haven't had the chance to do it with ESO, There are two reasons I haven't purchased, one because well, I can't afford it, and also because the prices are just insane.
First, in ESO, it costs $9 for a single use item that costs 250 gold pieces in-game (crown lessons). Second, it costs around $4-$17 (400 - 2500 crowns) for a single use instant research (I believe this lowers the amount of time required for research). Now granted, this is useful if the hours required for researching are long, but still, imagine paying $4-$17 for single use items. One time use only items. That's expensive.
One thing I admired about Warframe was the platinum currency which had 75 for $5 (on sale it was $2.50). ESO's crowns are 750 for $7.99 (never has a sale for the lowest tier). In fact, 750 crowns can barely buy anything relevant in the Crown Store, while 75 platinum can buy you several warframe slots and weapon slots. Want to try that in ESO? It's going to at least cost you $15 for one slot only.
Since I've been practicing my UI skills, I've created my own twist on how pricing for ESO would be done for players looking to pay without spending hundreds of dollars on an AAA game:
I've created these prices based on research from the incomes, thoughts, and feelings of users from low to middle income players. It seems that most MMOs tend to cater to people willing to spend their money (middle to high income earners), not people who want to spend some money but don't have enough to keep up with the prices (low income earners). To make a game more usable, I recommend the marketing team look at edge case players and low income players, not only the people who will spend the most money. That said, ESO is a fine game that I believe only needs some restructuring on the prices. The Crown Store, Endeavors, and gold currencies are a solid design choice that shouldn't be abolished. Zenimax has created a great MMO that deserves the credit for being a great MMO. My biggest complaint is the price of crowns and subscription fee long-term. The world is going to subscriptions. If ESO cannot provide what Netflix, Amazon, or Walmart can, then the subscription fees shouldn't be any higher. Better to lower the fees and allow for ESO+ to stay affordable than to try out pricing Amazon, when ESO+ isn't worth Amazon tier fees.
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