Should BioWare put subs on the Cartel Market?

So, you have never used currency converter ever?
Even Google has one built-in. Try this in Google search:
10 usd to gbp

Or if you prefer rubles:
10 usd to rur

I'm trying to understand the point you are trying to make and failing. I've used currency converters... when converting real life currency to other real life currency. as there's no way to actualy exchange in game credits for actual currency (other than credit sellers breaking EULA - something that exists in pretty much any functioning MMO and I'm not seeing why tradable subscription block would affect them in any way other than negative, by giving people another legitimate way to buy credits), I fail to understand in what way is this even relevant.

or in what way is this different from what we already are doing when we buy cartel coins, buy unlocks, weekly passes, etc in cartel shop with aforementioned coins and then resell them for in game credits on GTN. seriously? how is this different and why would it break an economy, where pretty much every other cartel good seems to be keeping economy in ok shape?

People already farm gold to pay for market items instead of buying them with CC. Not exactly a change in game dynamic there.

So without breaking the EULA, how would I convert my 100,000,000 credits into US Dollars on any conversion scale you wish to use?

The bold part is what is flat out wrong. There is no way (legally) for anyone in game to use the credits they earn in game and exchange it for real world currency like US dollars. One can argue that because $20ish = 1 PLEX and 1 PLEX = 800 million ish ISK that $20 also = 800 million ISK but since you cannot trade one for the other that is also false.

totally agree with you.

Ha Ha Ha! I honestly don't know. I would be VERY interested to see what a month's subscription would go on the Cartel Market.

Couldn't we theoretically calculate a poor guestimate based on the number of cartel coins one could buy with a a monthly subscription, and match that up to items of equivalent coinage and what they go for on the GTN?

I'm lazy so I'm not going to do it or check if someone else has done it already. But kudos to whoever does / did

- Arcada

they could make something like:

- NPC sells subs, digital expansions for an amount of x badges. (f.e 6 or 12 badges for an sub)
- badges can be bought in the Cartell Market for X CC. (6 (12) Badges a 250 (125) CC = 1500 CC = ~ 13€)
- ppl could sell the Badges in the GTM for idk 350k (so at least a preferred player can buy the badges and can farm for the sub and expansions)


the only problem are the free CC's for subs. ppl can buy them without spending money,. With an workaround they could add a 2nd currency only for the badges and BW would not lose any money.

Nice idea. It's true that sub reward cc is problem that is why the CM/vendor sub option should not come with monthly cc reward. If there is no CC reward, those of us who sub for bonus cc reward won't bother buying sub with cc but can still buy those badges and sell them for creds.

Hopefully they dont do that. Price is not that much if count like 14euros or so for 30days(about average per days in a month or so). and that is something like between a 40-50cents per day. So you dont lose that much per a day(dont buy that cup of coffee from a restaurant, candy bar, one beer..or so), and anyway i presume you have a time sit front of a game hours..two hours..or even more front of a game

I won't try to link it back to credits on the GTN because there is simply too much fluctuation in the market, but here is the break down as I see it for this idea.

I would expect a one month game card to be around 1500 CC.

$4.99 will get you 450 CC currently, so I think it stands to reason that a $14.95 sub for 1 month would cost 3 x 450 CC or 1350 CC. If they get greedy, which is probably more likely, it would be a cost of 1500 CC since you could instead buy 1050 CC for $9.99 and another 450 for $4.99.

Lets assume I have $20 to spend on the game each month. Currently I can buy a 1 month recurring sub and have enough left over to buy an additional 450 CC each month, which leaves me with a month of subscriber status and 950 CC. After 12 consecutive months I will have a full year of subscriber status and 11,400 CC for a total cost of $240.

If the CM sold a one month sub for 1500 CC, I could spend my monthly budget on 2400 CC for $19.99 and end up with one month of subscriber status and 900 CC. If saved those CC each month though and pooled them until I had enough for another month of subscriber status, after 12 consecutive months I will have 1 full year of subscriber status and 1,200 CC for a total cost of $160.

If the CM sold a one month sub for 1350 CC, it would yield 12 months of subscriber status and 800 CC for a total cost of $140.

At 1350 CC I think BioWare would lose money compared to the projected revenues of there current system. At 1500 CC I think they could come very close to breaking even because even though the model I suggested above is $80 less per year, the subscription model they currently use has a difference of almost 10k CC at over 12 months, which could be bought for ~$80. As a business I would have some worries with the model I suggested though because it does favor the CM over a recurring sub ever so slightly, and those recurring subs would provide more predictable revenue for more accurate budget forecasting. The differences don't seem detrimental though, so maybe bumping the CM price up to 1750 CC would work better to ensure there are hedging their bets well enough to accurately forecast a budget for the coming year.

That's my napkin math analysis of this idea though. It could work I think, but shareholders may be defecating in their pants over the course of the year though because their annual earnings reports will be all over the map in the month to month reports sent to investors.