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  1. #1

    Cartel Market Survey by Darth Hater

    The fan-site Darth Hater conducted a survey of 2,500 respondents regarding their interaction with the Cartel Market. It seems subscribers have been spending real money in addition to their sub fee. Many of them spending $50+ in the store. The number one purchase has been the Cartel Packs that contain random items followed by legacy unlocks. Less than half of the respondents have sold their Cartel Market purchases on the GTN.

    http://www.darthhater.com/articles/f...survey-results

    Of course these results could be skewed since it was taken from a fan-site. Also, I don't know if I should be surprised by how much money subscribers are spending. Obviously the more people like a game the more money they are likely to spend on it. One just needs to look at the success of WoW's cash shop. I think the bigger question here is; What does the success of the Cartel Market mean for the future of SWTOR?
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  2. #2
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    Would never have expected this. 13% of people spent more than 100$ and 43% sold Cartel Market items on the GTN are the two most surprising numbers for me.

    If we assume that these 13% spend 200$ on average - and that's a somewhat conservative guess - for EA that's the cashflow equivalent of tripling their subscriber base. And almost half of their customers are willing to trade something which might be considered a "RL money equivalent" for ingame credits.

    Staggering. Completely mindblowing. I doubt it can be sustained but I would never have believed the numbers from the Darthater survey to be possible in the first place.

    Disclaimers: I am aware that the people taking part in the survey are not representative for the playerbase, I am aware some people taking part in the survey lied.

  3. #3
    Wow, those numbers are disturbing.

    I really do hope they are severely skewed because it is a fansite. That it is only the Diwhard fans that happen to be around those polls that make those surprising and disturbing numbers.

    I wish the numbers said different. I don't want bioware/swtor to continue down this path, I really don't want numbers like this to encourage them to continue the job they are doing lately....

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Argroth View Post
    Wow, those numbers are disturbing.

    I really do hope they are severely skewed because it is a fansite. That it is only the Diwhard fans that happen to be around those polls that make those surprising and disturbing numbers.

    I wish the numbers said different. I don't want bioware/swtor to continue down this path, I really don't want numbers like this to encourage them to continue the job they are doing lately....
    On the contrary, this may lead them to tweak their freemium model to move away from nickel and diming everyone for everything to a true FTP game for 90% of players while profiting from the "whales" - players who are only too happy to spend real money money for conveniences and vanity items.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Frenegade42 View Post
    On the contrary, this may lead them to tweak their freemium model to move away from nickel and diming everyone for everything to a true FTP game for 90% of players while profiting from the "whales" - players who are only too happy to spend real money money for conveniences and vanity items.
    Thats what I'm hoping for, but I'm not banking on EA/BioWare being that smart. After playing D3 and watching people pay $250 for one single weapon, I'm not surprised someone would be willing to blow $500-$800 a year on a single game. I just hope that the largest bulk of those paying that much are people that can afford to do so, but it wouldn't surprise me at all that a large chunk of them are just people filling up a CC with no way to pay for it.

  6. #6
    I am somewhat inclined to believe the numbers myself.

    I sub, but I've only spent maybe ~$40 on Cartel Coins. However, there are quite a few people in my guild who have spent a considerable amount. I know one person has spent around $240, another has spent around $200, and there is a guy on my server who has spent right around $1000 on Cartel Coins.

    So these numbers don't really surprise me at all.

  7. #7
    Deleted
    The numbers don't suprise me but I very much doubt the cartel pack sales will ever be so high again. Once bitten etc. I ended up spending well over $200 on packs but I very much doubt I'll ever buy them again. I'll still splash out every now and then on Cartel goodies but not close to the amount I did those first few days. I wouldn't be surprised if others who also spent a lot on packs feel the same.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Jamos77 View Post
    The numbers don't suprise me but I very much doubt the cartel pack sales will ever be so high again. Once bitten etc. I ended up spending well over $200 on packs but I very much doubt I'll ever buy them again. I'll still splash out every now and then on Cartel goodies but not close to the amount I did those first few days. I wouldn't be surprised if others who also spent a lot on packs feel the same.
    I do agree with this, but I also think that's why they will keep coming out with "new" and "different" Cartel Packs.

  9. #9
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Morros View Post
    I do agree with this, but I also think that's why they will keep coming out with "new" and "different" Cartel Packs.
    I'm 100% sure they will keep adding new packs. However unless they change the incredibly low % rate of looting the rare goodies or increase the number of possible items in a pack I can't see how they will return to the sales of the very first packs. I've been buying my cartel items directly off the GTN for a while now so I'm not involved anymore in the pack buying aspect.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Frenegade42 View Post
    On the contrary, this may lead them to tweak their freemium model to move away from nickel and diming everyone for everything to a true FTP game for 90% of players while profiting from the "whales" - players who are only too happy to spend real money money for conveniences and vanity items.
    I doubt it, they will just see $$, and continue getting money from the whales who spend to much and still restrict all the free and preferred players.

    Just look at the "expansion", you would think with these numbers of people pouring silly amounts into cartel market items they could afford to keep the update free as they originally intended. Instead they just slapped a pricetag on it to get even more money.

    Bioware wouldn't be nice enough to make a fair model for everyday players while profiting off the optional things a few people spend way too much on.

  11. #11
    The Unstoppable Force Kelimbror's Avatar
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    This data is literally sickening and ensures that you will never be delivered a solid and bug free game when more cartel packs can be created on a lunch break.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Kittyvicious View Post
    This data is literally sickening and ensures that you will never be delivered a solid and bug free game when more cartel packs can be created on a lunch break.
    That is the sad future I see. When people go ahead and buy crap, that's what the game will focus on....

  13. #13
    The number I'd be interested in seeing (however unlikely), is the number of players who left the game early on, complaining about paying the monthly-sub fee, but are now spending more than $14.99 a month on shit from the Cartel Market.

  14. #14
    The Lightbringer WarpedAcorn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kittyvicious View Post
    This data is literally sickening and ensures that you will never be delivered a solid and bug free game when more cartel packs can be created on a lunch break.
    This data just confirms what the people in charge refuse to see...people will pay for cosmetics. Its so friggin simple. If you have a solid game (like SWTOR), you don't need to restrict gameplay aspects one bit. All you have to do is create a *fun* environment where the player is in a euphoric state. Then you offer some unique cosmetic gear and they WILL drop the money on it. League of Legends proved this model with astounding success. People like myself have fun in that game, and eventually find a favorite champ, then think "well hell, that red color scheme looks cool". And the cycle continues with all characters that people end up playing. That's all SWTOR needed to do to win big and restrict the hate. Cosmetics...

  15. #15
    For me I havent sold most of my cartel items because 90% of them end up being crap that no one wants.

    I probally made 6-7 million from about 100$ or more :/

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Kittyvicious View Post
    This data is literally sickening and ensures that you will never be delivered a solid and bug free game when more cartel packs can be created on a lunch break.
    Show me a single MMO that can claim to offer a bug-free environment. SWTOR offers plenty of solid content, if you aren't interested in the content that is there, that isn't necessarily their fault. Operations 'are' fun. PvP is pretty good as far as MMO's go, and I've never played an MMO with a better 'sub max level' PVP system. I love being able to do Warzones with my guild to level characters instead of side quests and bonus series'.

    I agree that there could be some useful additions, more mini games, more things to do at level 50, they could really expand what end game is all about, but so could anyone else, and of all the other options available to me, SWTOR makes me the happiest.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Morros View Post
    Show me a single MMO that can claim to offer a bug-free environment. SWTOR offers plenty of solid content, if you aren't interested in the content that is there, that isn't necessarily their fault. Operations 'are' fun. PvP is pretty good as far as MMO's go, and I've never played an MMO with a better 'sub max level' PVP system. I love being able to do Warzones with my guild to level characters instead of side quests and bonus series'.

    I agree that there could be some useful additions, more mini games, more things to do at level 50, they could really expand what end game is all about, but so could anyone else, and of all the other options available to me, SWTOR makes me the happiest.
    What mmo's did you play? wow?

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Crispin View Post
    What mmo's did you play? wow?
    WoW, Aion, Rift, Eve Online, GW2, SWTOR.

    To a lesser extent I don't count these as MMO's but they have a lot of the same elements: PSO, PSU.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Crispin View Post
    What mmo's did you play? wow?
    I agree with his analysis, and I've played EQ2, lineage2, wow, cabal online, perfect world and am familiar with, although I have not played a lot, age of conan, lord of the rings online, city of heroes, aion, guild wars, warhammer online.

    It's not a question of not having the knowledge of how other games are. It's a matter that this here particular game, swtor, is far better than people claim it is, and actually has the best pre-endgame experience of any other, and that means beating some very hard ones to beat.

  20. #20
    The Unstoppable Force Kelimbror's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WarpedAcorn View Post
    This data just confirms what the people in charge refuse to see...people will pay for cosmetics.
    I wish that's what they would get out of it. I don't have any hope for that. What it will tell them is that their system of restrictions and work they only put into the Cartel Market is giving them loads of cash and so they will continue to do that. The game won't get fixed, or advanced, it's just Cartel Market autopilot.

    Quote Originally Posted by Morros View Post
    Show me a single MMO that can claim to offer a bug-free environment. SWTOR offers plenty of solid content, if you aren't interested in the content that is there, that isn't necessarily their fault. Operations 'are' fun. PvP is pretty good as far as MMO's go, and I've never played an MMO with a better 'sub max level' PVP system. I love being able to do Warzones with my guild to level characters instead of side quests and bonus series'.
    1) Bug free is nowhere close on the spectrum of bug riddled. I can list 20 games that don't have game breaking bugs every patch, likewise bugs that return from being 'fixed' 6 months ago. These games have active QA teams, stellar in game reporting, and actually provide their free players with a solid way to contact support.

    2) I agree about the PvP, but I don't play MMO's for a solitary avenue of character progression. Also, other games with PvP allow you to level that way. That's nothing special.

    Quote Originally Posted by Morros View Post
    I agree that there could be some useful additions, more mini games, more things to do at level 50, they could really expand what end game is all about, but so could anyone else, and of all the other options available to me, SWTOR makes me the happiest.
    This is evidence that they aren't going to deliver a seriously competitive MMO compared to other mainstream titles out there, especially not when they have data showing how much people will spend on nothing.

    This game didn't look quite so bad in the Cata era of MMOs, but two big titles have developed a much more engaging way to progress your characters via currency integration, numerous new and different activities, and player inclusion. The features list could go on for those games though.

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