Payment systems, information inside

[Scorpy]

Originally Posted by WesMatte

What i would like to see is a type of "pre-paid" creditcard
that you use only one time, and that have the amount of money
on it you want to spend(for example 20 dollars/euro for 18k of Xim).

That means i'll go to the store/bank and tell them that i'm gonna
buy something(whatever it might be) on the internet for 20 dollars/Euros
and then i get a temporary Visa/Mastercard loaded with that amount
of money. I'll then go to the hompage that has the product i what
and type in the info like i would normaly do with a normal
creditcard and the money is on its way!(and i get 18k of Xim!).

This means you dont have to get a creditcard, and if something would
happend to the pre-paid creditcard the only amount of money you would
loose is the amount thats "loaded" in it(20 dollars/euros in this example).
You don't loose your life-savings so to speak, or the amount of money
you might have on the account other than the 20 dollars/euro you
intended to spend.

How does this sound to you guys?

http://www.splashplastic.com/ (UK only though), that's if NGD supports this or will?

Splash Plastic is a prepaid Maestro® card. It works in the same way as a pay as you go phone; you can top it up with cash at over 34,000 locations nationwide, have your wages paid directly from your employer or transfer money from a bank account to your card. Spend without fear of debt or fraud at millions of retailers online or on the high street, you can even use it to withdraw cash from ATMs*.

Splash Plastic is powered by 360money, the UK’s biggest prepaid network. Your Splash Plastic card is Chip and PIN enabled and gives you complete safety and control.

* No risk of debt - spend only what you have
* No credit check or bank account required
* Shop anywhere in the world where Maestro® is accepted - on the Internet and the high street
* Shop securely with Chip and PIN
* 24/7 balance enquiry phone line and online account management
* Top Up at any Post Office® branch or PayPoint outlet, over 34,000 locations across the UK
* Top Up online with a credit or debit card
* Have your wages paid directly to your card by your employer for FREE!
* Transfer money from any bank account to your card for FREE!
* For your protection a maximum £3,500 card balance is allowed at any one time

[impp]

Originally Posted by chilko

In terms of nominal value it is more expensive but the relative value is the same...
We tried to come up with a pricing scheme that will not only take into account the exchange rates but the purchasing power.

an example of other products:
An xbox 360 game system costs 300 USD in the States, and 300 Euro in Europe
PC GAMES that cost 50 USD in America usually cost 50 Euro in Europe
Same thing with mass market stuff like MacDonalds, etc

regards,

Chilko

This argument is complete nonsense, i am in the UK i have therefore to pay for everything i buy in GBP sterling. Due to my location I have to buy Xim in EUR the exchange rate i 1.26 therefore for 10EUR i pay 8GBP. If i could buy in dollars I would pay the exchange rate of 1.94 and therefore 10USD would cost me 5.15GBP.
This buys the same amount of xim irrespective of the currency which means NGD are pocketing (from UK nationals at least) an extra £3GBP for every $10USD of Xim purchased.

This effects everyone paying in EUR who are effectively paying more for their xim. With the current exchange rate at 1.5 USD per EUR players buying in EUR should be receiving 50% extra Xim to be getting the same value for money as those paying in USDollar.

When NGD look in their bank account (which is obviously in held in US dollars) they must see a much larger contribution to their balance coming from EUR payers, maybe we should receive some benefit for our extra contribution to NGD's balance sheet?

Impp

[Boukarou]

Originally Posted by chilko

In terms of nominal value it is more expensive but the relative value is the same...
We tried to come up with a pricing scheme that will not only take into account the exchange rates but the purchasing power.

an example of other products:
An xbox 360 game system costs 300 USD in the States, and 300 Euro in Europe
PC GAMES that cost 50 USD in America usually cost 50 Euro in Europe
Same thing with mass market stuff like MacDonalds, etc

regards,

Chilko

Regarding this, i have to give some precision:
-How do you evaluate the purchasing power of countries or continents ??
I'd love to see details about how you're evaluationg this. Specially that you have to come up with something that justify 50% diff between europe and US
-For Hardware; there is a law in europe that imposes 2 years of full warranty on electronics, im not sure it's the same in US, these off-course makes prices higher.
-Video games that are fully localised will cost more than the US version, that is due to the facts that they are localised and are delivered in your local country language, this include, content (texts, voices etc) and also the manual and most often the support aswell; this is why EA and others have to charge more for these versions. Now than this has been said, there's nothing that won't allow me to get the US version of the game for the same price as it is in the US as I always did (just get a decent distributor, they're all over the place)
-Mass market products are produced and/or sold by european ppl, who asks for european contracts and salaries. MacDonald don't pay theyr european worker the same than in some other countries. Plus McDonalds use local products as much as possible, making the production price higher here than say in the US.

All your arguments are very very poor.

There's is nothing i can find to agree with you, and i tried really really hard!

FYI: A few years ago, we had an issue in europe concerning DVD's pricing, indeed, all zone 2 dvd were twice more expensive than zone 1 , and it was not possible to legaly import zone 1 DVD according to theyr consortium. EU suited them and made this practice illegal in europe.

I love Regnum, I'd like to support this project with cash. But that's just not fair, i really wished i knew that before i created my account, now i'm screwed and i can change it, off-course ...

[chilko]

Regnum's pricing strategy has been defined according to several factors.

Purchasing power, exchange rate, market demand, the competition and overall fairness have been our parameters.

we are confident in the current pricing scheme is positive and have no reason to believe that it is unfair by any means.

Best regards,

-Chilko

[Mikan]

Originally Posted by chilko

we are confident in the current pricing scheme is positive and have no reason to believe that it is unfair by any means.

chilko,

I wish to remain neutral here, however I would like to state that it is ultimately not NGD's decision whether the pricing is fair or not. Even if you conceive it as fair, those who do not are paying customers who are lost.

There is a saying here in America that the customer is always right, and company policies often require employees to abide by this at most costs. First and foremost, the primary objective of any market is to make a sell.

In my opinion, this is something NGD often seems to forget (or ignore entirely), in many aspects of Regnum.

There is too much "This is how we are going to do it" mentality these days and all it does is drive good, paying players away and slowly replace them with the same lemming cruft that other MMORPGs suffer from.

I know you good folks don't want to hear this, but when more than a few people speak up (and many have over this issue especially), there is a problem and NGD ultimately does not decide if it is a problem or not.

But they do pay for it, as do the customers. It is a blade that cuts both ways and does no good.

Regards.

[Boukarou]

First of all,
Why aren't any of the points I made in my previous post answered neither discussed? These are valid reasons to why this is seen as unfair by customers.

Originally Posted by chilko

Purchasing power, exchange rate, market demand, the competition and overall fairness have been our parameters.

we are confident in the current pricing scheme is positive and have no reason to believe that it is unfair by any means.
-Chilko

-Purchasing power ain't better in Europe than in the USA, you can easily find info and facts about that; just compare taxes rates, from salary to VAT.

-Market demand and competition concerns should make you consider to lower the price; there are a lot of products out there who does not suffer for years from some basic stuff like: approximative translations, broken spells, position bugs, lags, random reset of fatigue, wrong prices at the markets, ... Some won't even advertise fake prices on their websites for an entire year!

Now i'm having troubles understanding what the exchange rates have anything to do with the pricing, maybe exhange costs would, but since most traders use fixed costs to exchange currencies, you should have that same factor applying for everyone not using your currency.

Fairness in-game ain't affected by your pricing policies in my opinion, so as a gamer I don't have any concerns about this. But as a customer, I'd really like to know how you can justify such differences between regions.

Please NGD, help me to understand your position, disclose the process you used to make it 'fair'. I also invite you to read my previous post on this thread and tell me where i'm wrong.

Waiting to read you soon on this, i wish all the best for NGD and the community.

Regards,