New Oblivion Addons Will Be Cheaper

[Intruder]

Pete over at the official forums posted today that the new mods comming out soon would be priced cheaper than the horse armor.

We hope to have The Orrery available for purchase next week. This plugin will cost 150pts on Xbox, and $1.89 on the PC. The Horse Armor Pack has been very popular, and exceeded what we thought it would sell. Despite that, we’re still trying to find the right spot, so we’re putting a much larger plugin out for less than the last one and we'll see what happens.
Read about it here (http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=348450)

[NoName]

The Wizards Tower
Located high in the Jeral Mountains of Cyrodiil away from prying eyes, this Wizard's Tower, Frostcrag Spire, will become available. Packed with numerous useful enhancements, this structure will prove invaluable to magic-oriented characters.

Features

* A fully detailed tower for you to explore
* A breathtaking view of Cyrodiil from the highest point in the land
* Simple furnishings including a bed for leveling up
* An indoor botanical garden with over 130 specimens... including Oblivion-native herbs!
* Summon Atronach Familiars that obey your commands
* Instant teleports to every Mages Guild in Cyrodiil
* New Spell and Recharge vendor in the Imperial City
* Fully upgrade the furnishings in your lair to suit your needs
* Upgrade to a fully functional Enchanting and Spellmaking station with no need to join Mages Guild
* Upgrade to a laboratory that buffs your Alchemy skill
My mage wants.

[laggerific]

this to me validates even more that this stuff already existed and they just pulled it to make a quick buck.

Thank you oh so kind Bethesda for your benevolence in lowering the price...thank you.

I'm sorry, I'm just cynical about this sort of thing...I mean, come on!

Again, I guess it really doesn't matter as I need more substance in the game, not more content...as the contrarians always say, they gave us 200+ hours of content...well, where is the substance? I guess we'll let the modders sort that one out.

[eatme]

Interesting. I'm playing a second char, and have no desire to go through the Arcane University quests again. I need the stations, though-- maybe this is just what the doctor ordered.

BTW, when they say a "fully detailed tower for you to explore", do they mean there's a quest to do in here, and it's like a dungeon? Or just that you can walk around in a few rooms? :)

[Nichols]

Oh man, that orrery is so fucking lame. Beth could at least try to put some effort into making these mods interesting :rolleyes:

[Mortis]

At least they are listening and dropped the price a bit, very cool.

[NoName]

this to me validates even more that this stuff already existed and they just pulled it to make a quick buck.
FTFA:
We have been working on downloadable content since we finished the game in February, and we continue to feel this is a great avenue for us to continue to add to the Oblivion experience.
They have to eventually say enough is enough and send the game to the publisher, else the game would be in development forever. So they're not allowed to make content and sell it afterwords? There's nothing forcing you to buy it, you can always download the user made mods.
Your feedback as we move forward in this is invaluable. Tell us what you want to see, how much of it, and what it might be worth to you. No, don’t say you want it free, because these plugins take a surprising amount of time to create, polish, and test.
Seems like a perfectly valid reason to me. It also sounds like they're trying to work with the consumers, and not just screw them over.

[phantomhitman]

or they could have said fuck you and released nothing? i understand the principle though

[sardonic_wrath]

At least they are listening and dropped the price a bit, very cool.

$.10 isn't much.

[laggerific]

I'm just bitter that this is supposedly considered the pinnacle of RPG goodness...I would probably love extra content if I felt it was going to really add anything of value to the game, but the game itself lacks so much. I want to love it, because these guys are in charge of one of the finest licenses ever, Fallout.

[Liquidize105]

Mercy, 10c cheaper.

But yeah, some of this stuff is already integraded better than the 2 tacky horse armors. When Bethesda gets enough of these out and bundles them at a marked down price, that's when to get it.

[aversion2k]

I'd consider paying for a big pack, but its a hassle to pay for tiny bits at a time.
Its quite sad to look at their website and see all the free morrowind stuff like this they released.

[DoubleUranium]

You have to give them credit to being responsive and having a dialog with their fans. I know many people are still unhappy, but compare Bethesda's response to how EA would handle this and be grateful they're at least listening.

[Zurik]

That tower sounds like one of those cheapass mods people put in to make the game easier, Like the bank in Morrowind that just built up money rapidly for you. I'm totally against this because i don't want developers to think its okay to just nickel and diming you for little things. Sure, its not so big now, but what about when they charge you extra for important things. We're totally heading that direction, and people will buy into it so I guess its inevitable that we'll be seeing this everywhere.

[UnderHero5]

I honestly think all these little addons should be priced at about 50 cents a piece. Not because I'm cheap, but because that's about all they seem worth to me.
2 horse armors? Yeah, maybe 50 cents.
A single tower in game? Worth 50 cents. More? Hell no.

Lowering the price by TEN CENTS is like a slap in the face! Come on! That's rediculous.

Luckily it's all optional, so I don't really care that much, but for me to actually purchase this stuff they would have to price it MUCH cheaper than it is now.

Think about it. They say there isn't going to be a traditional expansion pack for Oblivion and they will expand it through these small optional mods... okay. Well if they plan on matching the content of a traditional expansion through these mods then they will have to release... what... at least 100 of these little things by the end?
Does any one else plan on paying 190 bucks for what used to cost 20?
(obviously assuming they keep every pack at $1.89 and release enough to match the content in the Morrowind expansions)

Hell, even 50 cents would be pushing it if they release enough to equal a traditional expansion... but it's better than $1.89

[Nichols]

HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE MIGHTY BETH! :rolleyes:

[netcraazzy]

I honestly don't think the price was the problem with the first downloadable content they released. I mean, $2.50 is not a lot of money. What WAS wrong was how much you got for that $2.50. Even if they released those horse skins for $1.00 people would be pissed because changing the skin on a horse is so trivial. This is what got everybody mad and Bethesda would be wise to learn from it.

[WastelandDan]

these add-ons are sort of tempting me to put more effort into developing my thief's magic skills

[[Jez]]

This (http://www.3ddownloads.com/RPG/The%20Elder%20Scrolls%20IV:%20Oblivion/Mods/WeatherWizard.rar) is what the fans have made so far by quest standards:
[--- FEATURES ---]

* Whole new quest-arc surrounding a mystical "mage" tower with powerful abilities!
* New player-ownable house designed with mages in mind (a mage tower!)
* The power to control the weather of Skingrad using the tower's magical power.
* A dangerous battle between you and a powerful wizard with only a few metres to move!
* 10 minutes of beautifully performed voice acting!
* Detailed quest with quest journal entries, dialogue choices and much more!
* Couple of new items (nothing spectacular, the main reward is the tower!)


If they cant top that then there screwed.

[UglyPimp]

']This (http://www.3ddownloads.com/RPG/The%20Elder%20Scrolls%20IV:%20Oblivion/Mods/WeatherWizard.rar) is what the fans have made so far by quest standards:
[--- FEATURES ---]

* Whole new quest-arc surrounding a mystical "mage" tower with powerful abilities!
* New player-ownable house designed with mages in mind (a mage tower!)
* The power to control the weather of Skingrad using the tower's magical power.
* A dangerous battle between you and a powerful wizard with only a few metres to move!
* 10 minutes of beautifully performed voice acting!
* Detailed quest with quest journal entries, dialogue choices and much more!
* Couple of new items (nothing spectacular, the main reward is the tower!)


If they cant top that then there screwed.

Not to play Devi's Advocate, but most user mods are 100% unadulterated crap. There are *definitely* some gems out there that are as amazing as the original game itself, but those are so few and far between it hardly makes sense to waste time downloading them and trying them out.

I don't know, the mage tower seems worth $2.50 for me. Same with the other expansion. I love the idea of developers furthering the experience with this system, and I think they deserve a reward.

And yes, I'm a hardcore old school PC gamer with a 360. I just don't mind supporting developers when they've put out a great product and want to expand on it. Call me stupid, blind, or irrational.

*waiting for people to quote my last sentence*

[[Jez]]

Yeah I know a lots of mods can be bad and most of them will be for another month or so, the point I was trying to make is that this is what some unpaied people did within a week while still learning the CS and releasted for free and that if Beth wants more of my money then they REALLY have to impress me... oh and your stupid, blind, and irrational :p

[Achilles]

They lowered the Live price by 25%, good deal. I’ll pick up both of these on day 1. Though I’m more interested in the Mage Tower. I'll probably mess around with the new lunar magic, but I'm primarily an archer summoner rather than a mage. And my next character is going to be a thief, so, no magic there.

[Reanimated]

I bought the horse armor and I will buy these. I feel like this game was more than complete when it shipped (being as huge as it is), and I'm happy to have these little add-ons to keep the game fresh.

Plus, here's the way I look at it - Elder Scrolls are some of my all time favorite games, so if me kicking these guys 2 or 3 or 10 extra dollars is going to help them fund ES5 development, I can't really say it's a bad thing.

And, you know, you guys on the PC side can just skip this stuff and use free mods if you want, so I don't really see any reason for you guys to be bitching.

[Major Scud]

Man, this sure is a hot button issue. The horse armor thing really peeved me off. I'm really torn now. On one side, I sort of want the mage tower and orrery. On the other, these things probably were ready to go when the game shiped, and we're being nickled and dimed. Then again, if the horse armor sells as well as these new lower price/higher content mods, then they'll have learned they can charge as much as they want for as little work as they want, and still turn a big profit. I guess I'll have to wait for user feed back if its worth the purchase or not.

[Borys]

And yes, I'm a hardcore old school PC gamer with a 360.

Ask yourself then if you didn't have a 360 and have to play Oblivion on the PC, would you still buy the added content?

The fact that user made mods aren't available on the Xbox does not make Bethesda's mini-mods any more worth one's money.

On the console front you really don't have a choice: either you buy them or not. There's no substitute in the form of user made content.

[Rafer]

I don't like the nickel and diming of players, but I wouldn't mind some more substantial upgrades. Last gen we saw a lot of games rereleased a year or so later with extra content, (VF4, Fable, DMC3, upcoming MGS3:Subsistence) and it would be nice if in the future content like that could be sold as a downloadable "upgrade" for those that have already bought the game. But horse armor? Kinda cheap.

[KarmaGhost]

When I read about the horse armor mod, I was annoyed, angry even, that a developer would charge so much for so little. But then it started to settle in; I didn't want the mod in the first place. I had no desire to pimp my horse (I don't even own a horse!!) so that NPCs could marvel at my choice between two different "skins." If there was a free mod available on the internet that gave me unlimited choices in horse armor, I probably wouldn't bother to download it.

There came a point where I just didn't care anymore. The existance of this mod didn't cause me any harm and didn't hold any (immediate) personal consequences.

So I say "right on!" to anyone who wishes to pay the price to pimp their medieval rides or to spend an extra 15 minutes or so in a new playable area. Your money will (hopefully) go to good use by the developer.

[Wyrm]

The fact isnt that they are charging for it. It's that they are going one step further and charging 2.50 for something that probably took a few hours to make, or something that may have even been in the game in the first place. A dollar? Maybe. 2.50 for something so incredibly trivial? It makes me angry that anyone bought it all. You are getting ripped for every dollar, and you dont care, because it seems like such a small amount of money. Content wise, it isnt.

How much did you pay for Morrowind? If you own a PC, you payed 50 bucks for it. How many times does 2.50 go into 50? With that price range in mind, the game should have cost so much more, because there are hundreds of sets of armor, weapons, enemies, npcs, locations, plants, items, etc... The fact that you're willing to pay for something that, had it been part of the game, would have been worth a fraction of a cent, is absolutely ludicris.

[dead]

as long as future patches are free i'm happy

[Fyd]

I dont like the design of WoW, and dont like this design too, DAoC have the best graphics, design of towns, characters....

[Parsifal]

I dont like the design of WoW, and dont like this design too, DAoC have the best graphics, design of towns, characters....

Ehh... Kind of off-topic?

[Borys]

Great post Wyrm.

Expansion packs for PC games (I could name countless titles here) usually cost $20 or $30 and they pack in 1000x times the content that costs $2.

Remember Morrowind's Tribunal and Bloodmoon? Following the apologists logic they shoud cost $25000 JUST BECAUSE developers made them! And they need to get paid for that!

It is really sickening how the 360 owners swallow ("horse mod a success!") and *will* swallow all this $2 minicrap.

It's time to dumb down moral standards after dumbing down gameplay?

[mixuk]

I don't know the history of this, but this whole thing seems just so bizarre. To me it looks like this: Devs makes new content and asks money for it -> Fans get pissed.

Sure, it's expensive considering what you get, but as in any consumer market, you vote with your wallet. The prices will go down if no one buys it. It's as simple as that.

If the devs can get more money for less, then as any business in the world would do, they'd go for it.

And no, they did NOT do that in a couple of hours. Unlike with most mods, professional game devs spend considerable time with testing and polishing.

[Beelzebud]

Remember Epic and their FREE bonus packs that added vehicles, character models and new maps?

Remember that they were FREE?

Bethesda could do this for free if they wanted. I think the comment about making more money off of it than they thought they would, was a little revealing.

[Ravenlock]

Remember Epic and their FREE bonus packs that added vehicles, character models and new maps?

Remember that they were FREE?

Bethesda could do this for free if they wanted.Of course they could do it for free, if they wanted. Obviously, they don't want to.

My question is, how does anyone get off thinking they deserve this extra content for free? Or for $0.10 or $0.50 or whatever pittance they would prefer to the current price?

Oblivion is an awesome game and I don't see anybody debating that it's worth the purchasing price. Given how dedicated they were to Morrowind after release, I'm pretty sure they'll patch out the problems it still has. If they want to develop and release additional content above and beyond that, of course they have the right to charge for it. They were already good enough to their customers to release their game without Starforce or Securom or [insert annoying "copy protection" - in quotes because it doesn't really protect anything - here], and that's a heck of a measure to take on a major release.

People like to collect things. That's why so many Korean MMO's are "free to play" with buyable loot, and why collectable card games can rake in oodles of money by selling you a pack of 20 cards, 18 of which you probably already have. If Bethesda can successfully make money by selling horse armor or uber swords or whatever they decide to create, I say more power to them. If you don't want it, don't buy it. Someone else will make a free mod that does the same thing later.

[bapenguin]

I think the Horse Armor thing was a rip off as much as the next guy, and I didn't purchase it. But I"m going to try to think outside the box for a minute and look at it from Bethesda's perspective.

All along they said official mods would cost money, it was worked into their business model for the game. Maybe...just maybe they went a little further during actual production, spent a little more money than they should have and could have because they were counting on people purchasing these mods to subsidize that cost. Maybe that's why we have such a great game right now? They went above and beyond their usual budget and abilities because they knew they wouldn't have to rely soley on game sales, but also on sales of mods.

Just a thought....

[MosBen]

It has always boggled my mind the way people act like they're owed extra content, particularly the arguments that "We're used to it." or "It's been like this on the PC for a long time." You bought the game that was in the box and that's as true now as it always is. Is the game good? Fantastic, good purchase then. I'm not interested in new horse armors, and I'm probably not interested in an extra tower either, so I'm not going to buy them. Done and done. And if I decide that I really do want all this stuff that they're going to release, I'll just buy the "Game of the Year" version that will almost surely be out a year or so from now, just like they did with Morrowind, and I'm sure it will be packed with plenty of content.

[CapnAJ]

I sure hope the extra revenue from after game addons (where no one is obliged to purchase to enjoy the game) allows for Bethesda to remain independent and to continue creating excellent gaming experiences.

[Yeti2005]

This discussion has been done on this site several times already. Let me recap, there are the following groups:

Whiners - The adds on should be free or near free. The logic behind they're reasoning is they got mods in the past for free and that should always be the case FOREVER... OR they don't see the value in the mods so rather than not buy them and be done with it, they whine.

Conspiracy Theorists - The developers are out to get us. Their logic is the developers will try and nickle and dime us for every penny we have making the game cost some insane amount by the time we're done (eleventee billion dollars!). The developers clearly have had this content for years and have been holding out on us.

Realists - Developers need to make money to continue making games. Mods are one way for developers to do that. If the mods are priced too high then the market will force them to adjust just like any other commodity.

Please note: Some people cross into multiple groups. Did I forget any? :)

[MosBen]

Oh Yeti, I wish I knew how to quit you. So much logic and reason!

[torrefaction]

Just a thought....

Which is apparently more than most people are willing to give on this topic.

[CapnAJ]

One more for you Yeti;

The Recapers - This group of people stand back, look at what they can offer to the discussion and decide that a recap of events and an identification of the types of people taking part is what is essentially missing and needed.

[Worldcrafter]

The Recapers - This group of people stand back, look at what they can offer to the discussion and decide that a recap of events and an identification of the types of people taking part is what is essentially missing and needed.

Ah, so that bring us one more, the Recapping Ironist. :rolleyes:

I agree with people who have said Bethesda's mods don't feel that impressive. At this point, I just don't care enough about them to give them a try. Maybe if they were free I would check them out, but I doubt I would use any of them long term. I'll wait for an expansion (or really killer mod) before plopping my money down.

That said, I do play Oblivion on the PC, and already have a number of free mods in use (the fixes to the faroff land shadows and textures are amazing). If I were playing on a 360, then these 3 mods would be my only option, and would probably be more enticing. I don't think any less of people if they buy the mods, and I would love to give Bethesda more of my money. This just isn't the way they're going to get it from me.

[Stormwatcher]

IT's really funny how the Beth haters are unable to read and understand...
They are really intellectually chalenged.

[PacerDawn]

Couple things:

It's only a 10 cent differenceAcutally, it's a 60 cent difference. XBox owners pay $2.50.

* Simple furnishings including a bed for leveling upIt's about time they implemented some REAL adult content.

This is quickly turning into Naughty Tamriel: The Game (http://www.naughtyamericathegame.com/)!