Doddler's RO Journal
- R e i n a - wrote on December 10, 2007
Gotta say I'm not a fan of the Kafra Shop, but the pricing on iRO should indeed be changed. As far as I know, euRO isn't planning to inplement the Kafra Shop stuff at all, but I would like to see those new hairstyles(and clothing dyes plz!1q_q), they look pretty cool.
I like the fact you compare iRO with kRO and jRO, I hope you'll do that in the future too, it's always interesting to read that.
Navy wrote on December 10, 2007
It seems to me that the they should just change the pet system into mercenary, maybe less powerfull but permanent version. Or maybe it something they will do in the future.
I agree on pricing for buff scrolls. Bought them, tried them, will never buy them again, because it simply less expensive to pay for a buff slave account.
Jess wrote on December 10, 2007
Your math is a little off. The value of each item and subscription is the same in each country -it's the price of money that differs. Comparing the prices from kRO, jRO and iRO doesn't really say much until you calculate the inflation for each currency.
Doddler wrote on December 10, 2007
The influence from each market is very different though. For example, the average PC game in japan costs 7800 yen to 9200 yen, which is $70 to $82. If market prices for Japanese games are so much more, almost double what they are here, what do you think about RO costing almost the same monthly fee, and them paying less for kafra shop items?
Low Rider Jr. wrote on December 10, 2007
OMGAR UNCLE NAVY!!!!
Jess wrote on December 10, 2007
That's the point I'm trying to get at. How do you know they are paying more or less than you do? If all you're doing is a simple exchange rate conversion, than you may be right about one thing: yes, you would pay as much in USD to acquire a monthly subscription in the USA and Japan. But that's all that it really says -it says nothing about how much japanese people are paying for their goods. I'll give an example: the iRO fee is currently 12 USD, right? Now, the current fee on the server I play in (bRO) costs 15 BRL. The USD-BRL exchange is roughly 1:2, which means a monthly fee at bRO would cost you about 7 USD. That is, IF you were to pay for that from where you're sitting - wherever in USA that is. It doesn't mean necessarily that the bRO fee is cheaper. The discrepancy should become clear if you consider these prices in absolute terms: 1 USD buys almost as much of an iRO subscription than 1 BRL buys of a bRO subscription. It may be just nitpicking, but then a large portion of your rant was based on this little mistake.
.metatron. wrote on December 10, 2007
I love the package deals, I really wish that they would come to RO. Even though $2 an hour is a little steep(not to mention the ones that cost more)if it was simply a dollar an hour I wouldn't mind buying a few of them for some of those hardcore leveling days. I always thought they should add hairstyles to the Kafra shop, along with more non-useful headgear. As you said it does not ruin the game for anyone but it gives RO easy money since people will pay out the wazoo for "cool yet useless" headgear. Thanks for this wonderful article, I really appreciate it :-)
Doddler wrote on December 10, 2007
Jess: I don't really look at it that way. What would be a better way to do it then? Maybe I should compare the price of kafra shop to the price of subscription. A battle manual on kRO costs 2% of a monthly subscription, on jRO a battle manual costs 5% of a monthly subscription, where as a battle manual on iRO costs 8% on iRO. No matter how you look at it, the iRO shop system is considerably more expensive than other RO's.
Doddler wrote on December 10, 2007
I just realized I botched up the numbers for the stat food, they are 20 cents per hour. I'll update the article.
Jess wrote on December 11, 2007
Putting the price of a product against the price of a product is a better way to do it, I agree. It means that koreans are paying less for their Kafra Shop itens than you americans do, compared to what they and you pay for the monthly subscription. However, that still doesn't say anything about the Kafra Shop points being nominally cheaper at Korea than at US. If you're interested and want to learn more about this, you can search Wikipedia or Google for Purchasing Power Parity. I mean, if you still care about standing up to your beginning statement that playing at iRO is more expensive than playing at kRO. Also, please excuse me, my workplace's proxy is acting weird and I'll probably triple-post again.
maple wrote on December 14, 2007
Hey, I've visited your site a few times within the past months, but this is the first time I've stumbled upon your journal. I've been wondering-- how come you understand Japanese and Korean??