Price tag on alteil cards...justified?

[Tenkai]

Now let's compare prices. I'll go ahead and break the laws of reality, and pretend these cards are actually real. So I go to the store. I can buy a pack of Magic, 15 cards for $4. Or YuGiOh, 9 cards for $4. Or Alteil, 5 cards for $4. Not horrible. But what really makes it so bad is the rarity issue. Those other sets give you a rare in every pack, Alteil doesn't. So if you want to make a deck that can compete with those Level 10 plus bruisers, you either have to pray that they're dumb enough to fall for the same tricks they've seen thousands of times before (because using the starter decks are predictable. Why is it against the rules to show someone else's card file if everyone knows what it is anyways?!) And if they're already Level 10, I really doubt they're that dumb. So you, once again, have to depend on luck to have a chance of success. So being a good player is unimportant, what matters is being lucky.

The prices for the cards seems to be even more ridiclous if you think about the point, that magic and yugioh cards have an actual trade value, they have to be really printed and distributed and every pack will contain at least 1 rare, whereas alteil is online distribution only, no trade value and the normal booster packs can give you 5x 1star cards in a pack if you are unlucky...

Can someone tell me, what justifies these high prices on alteil cards???

[EvilGenius]

For the same reason as Item Malls in MMORPGs. They have no real world value, but keep the game running because there are players that actually spend real money on it.

[Tenkai]

For the same reason as Item Malls in MMORPGs. They have no real world value, but keep the game running because there are players that actually spend real money on it.

Well I dont agree with that, as most item-mall items in popular mmorpgs can be sold ingame too with the ingame currency, and the ingame currency can be bought with RMT (real money trading): even if that's a violation on the ToS of most games, the companies arent doing/can't do anything or just let it be. So yes they have real world value.
In WoW and L2 you can even buy whole items directly from other users with RMT or even whole accounts.
The whole mmorpg discussion aside: alteil just cost to much compared to the other TGCs (see first post).

[ANIMEniac]

Comparing this to MMORPG Item Malls is comparing their stuff (generally) to the stuff in the avatar section and the elixirs that boost exp and treasure battles. OK, I can consider the EX as part of that group too.

The big difference is that the boosters are also BUY only. That is similar to making people pay for "normal" gear in an MMORPG. People need the armor and weapons to progress in the game. Sure we can play and enjoy the game with just our newb gear. I'm sure many of you will understand what that would be like...

Oh right, we can't forget about the monthly fee on some of these...thats a whole other thing altogether.

Any who, as far as price goes, like many others I feel it is too high. How things will change down the line depends on how well these things do. It is their first try at it after all. If the price is too high, the numbers will tell down the line. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU WHO BOUGHT OUT!! hehe j/k

In the end, the only thing that justifies buying 13 pieces of cardboard or 3 digital images are the buyers. If the mass is willing to buy, then it is justified. Look at it this way, if Blizzard can get people to pay monthly to suck their life away playing a game, all is fair game!

[EvilGenius]

Comparing this to MMORPG Item Malls is comparing their stuff (generally) to the stuff in the avatar section and the elixirs that boost exp and treasure battles. OK, I can consider the EX as part of that group too.

The big difference is that the boosters are also BUY only. That is similar to making people pay for "normal" gear in an MMORPG. People need the armor and weapons to progress in the game. Sure we can play and enjoy the game with just our newb gear. I'm sure many of you will understand what that would be like...

Oh right, we can't forget about the monthly fee on some of these...thats a whole other thing altogether.

Any who, as far as price goes, like many others I feel it is too high. How things will change down the line depends on how well these things do. It is their first try at it after all. If the price is too high, the numbers will tell down the line. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU WHO BOUGHT OUT!! hehe j/k

In the end, the only thing that justifies buying 13 pieces of cardboard or 3 digital images are the buyers. If the mass is willing to buy, then it is justified. Look at it this way, if Blizzard can get people to pay monthly to suck their life away playing a game, all is fair game!

The only problem with that is, if down the line they see their mistake, it will be too late as this was a 2 month only deal, so these card will never be available again. So if you want 'em, you have to fork over the dough now.

[Justice]

What if the cards end up being included in a bigger expansion? Maybe with different art? Or would that be seen as being mean/etc.

Didn't WotC do this with Magic? Have future cards show up...Futureshock?

[radishlaw]

actually RIGHT NOW the Japanese version is reselling some EX cards of past packs...but I think we won't have anything
like it in the US version (because they have been up for 4 years and I fear the US version will not last 1/10 as long)

[EvilGenius]

If these EX cards appear in a later expansion, maybe 2 or 3 years from now, I might feel a little better about the game. At least then I'll know that I have a chance at obtaining them someday.

But from the way the GMs have worded this promotion, I doubt we'll see these cards in a future expansion.

[Detrian]

actually RIGHT NOW the Japanese version is reselling some EX cards of past packs...but I think we won't have anything
like it in the US version (because they have been up for 4 years and I fear the US version will not last 1/10 as long)

Ironically they are reselling them in celebration of Alteil America's first EX pack.

And no, the cards are not worth it (which is a sad but firsthand revelation since I already dropped a 20 on this). They are more expensive and random than even real life alternatives and you never know when this ship is going to crash and burn or the cards totally rebalanced. Perhaps with a couple more months things will straighten up or maybe PAX will help boost the game, but as it is right now it's not worth it.

[ramongoroth]

For one, real world card games require more cards per deck than Alteil. Most formats are like Magic and are minimum 60 card decks and max 4 copies of any particular card. Alteil is 30 and 3 so one could argue that since you need fewer cards both in total and individual copies it is only logical that you would pay more per card.