Wargaming Price Gouging

[MementoMori_6030]

Vor 3 Stunden, Panocek sagte:

given their "ripoff" prices for "western" customers

Well, they can't rip off the white and red Russians, because those are already ripped off by their kleptocratic tyrants. You can't expect them to spend money on worthless pixels if they are trying to survive in a country that hovers somewhere between 2nd and 3rd world economic standards.

[ColonelPete]

9 minutes ago, Ronchabale said:

State of the "world" u are buying these "goods" into has changed a lot (not to the better) and for me this makes said "goods" way more expensive

 

Be glad that they did not consider inflation too. Money has less value than three years, not more value. That is the "state" of the world.

[159Hunter]

12 hours ago, The_Chiv said:

Now what is funny is I went and looked up a ton of cost of living stats for St. Pete and well frankly the arguments about cost of living while yes a noticeable difference still did not equate to 86%. On average it was about 33% difference for goods and services.

St Petersburg is as representative to the avg cost of living in Russia as London is for the UK. In other words: it isn't.

11 hours ago, The_Chiv said:

I really hate this Digital goods at a loss concept. Realistically it took them less then 30 days to make the ship stat it and then test it. As a majority of the testing is done by FREE LABOR, there is no cost in this. 

Because the game is F2P these digital goods need to cover ALL expences. Not the ship development itself ( campaigns, maps, servers, forum, live events, CC program, MrConway's wodka allotment ... )

 

WG also does internal testing.

Supertester and all others producd data and feedback that needs to be reviewed. So there is certainly a cost to this 'free' testing as well ( albeight lower than doing all testing internally, but is that something we'd want? I mean really? )

11 hours ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

If you are a construction company and you will build a road in an EU country, the offer you give would be higher than the same project in Russia let's say, but why? Because due to all costs. In WG's case, what is their cost of designing a ship? Let's say 100 ruble. I made the number up. 

Keep in mind that they have international staff members who will not work for Russian salaries ( not payed in rubles, not working in Russia, not payed to russian standards). Even their Russian staff members need a market competitive salary ( as in, above Russian avg ) to avoid losing them to competitors. 

 

So looking at WG as a russian company with russian costs is wrong. Hence if they set prices based on russian income they might not even break even because their costs aren't russian market based but based on an international market.

[MannequinSkywalker]

1 minute ago, 159Hunter said:

Keep in mind that they have international staff members who will not work for Russian salaries ( not payed in rubles, not working in Russia, not payed to russian standards). Even their Russian staff members need a market competitive salary ( as in, above Russian avg ) to avoid losing them to competitors. 

 

So looking at WG as a russian company with russian costs is wrong. Hence if they set prices based on russian income they might not even break even because their costs aren't russian market based but based on an international market.

That is called operating costs. Operating costs of head office of a company are generally higher than the operating costs of its branches in other locations. Only the staff salaries do not determine the price of a product in international market. Especially not when we are talking about a digital product.

 

By using your logic, it is also possible to say EU has 450 million population while NA has 330 million and 145 million. The amount of sales will naturally be much higher in EU and NA than RU which will cover the regional costs by far margin even if the product had standardized price. By selling the same digi product for almost double the price WG is not only trying to rip off but also shooting themselves on the foot. If they had similar prices say, only 15% more in EU or NA, they could have sold more of what they want to sell. 

[Karasu_Browarszky]

1 minute ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

That is called operating costs. Operating costs of head office of a company are generally higher than the operating costs of its branches in other locations. Only the staff salaries do not determine the price of a product in international market. Especially not when we are talking about a digital product.

 

By using your logic, it is also possible to say EU has 450 million population while NA has 330 million and 145 million. The amount of sales will naturally be much higher in EU and NA than RU which will cover the regional costs by far margin even if the product had standardized price. By selling the same digi product for almost double the price WG is not only trying to rip off but also shooting themselves on the foot. If they had similar prices say, only 15% more in EU or NA, they could have sold more of what they want to sell. 

 

I assume they have a spreadsheet that says differently.

[MannequinSkywalker]

Just now, Karasu_Hidesuke said:

 

I assume they have a spreadsheet that says differently.

Making up spread sheets is not rocket science. Or maybe it is, since they have problem with a money laundering issue?

[MannequinSkywalker]

13 hours ago, Ocsimano18 said:

Me not getting a Swiss level of salary, is also a discrimination.

Blame your forefathers for that.

[MementoMori_6030]

Vor 56 Minuten, 159Hunter sagte:

Even their Russian staff members need a market competitive salary ( as in, above Russian avg ) to avoid losing them to competitors. 

Why would potential competitors hire them? To ruin their games, too? 

[Pandafaust]

48 minutes ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

That is called operating costs. Operating costs of head office of a company are generally higher than the operating costs of its branches in other locations. Only the staff salaries do not determine the price of a product in international market. Especially not when we are talking about a digital product.

 

By using your logic, it is also possible to say EU has 450 million population while NA has 330 million and 145 million. The amount of sales will naturally be much higher in EU and NA than RU which will cover the regional costs by far margin even if the product had standardized price. By selling the same digi product for almost double the price WG is not only trying to rip off but also shooting themselves on the foot. If they had similar prices say, only 15% more in EU or NA, they could have sold more of what they want to sell. 

Is it genuinely your belief that WG doesn't have a sales and marketing team that runs various simulations of total anticipated income at different pricing points, or that they've run those scenarios and then arbitrarily chosen one where by your own admission they're making less money than in their other scenarios?  How on earth does that stack with the constant references we see to WG being "greedy"? If they were genuinely greedy (which I believe they legitimately are, as are basically all commercial entities) then why would they choose to make less money, purely to spite Europeans and US customers?

[MannequinSkywalker]

1 minute ago, Pandafaust said:

Is it genuinely your belief that WG doesn't have a sales and marketing team that runs various simulations of total anticipated income at different pricing points, or that they've run those scenarios and then arbitrarily chosen one where by your own admission they're making less money than in their other scenarios?

I don't have any belief when it comes to WG but yes, they may very well have an incompetent COO or such.

 

5 minutes ago, Pandafaust said:

How on earth does that stack with the constant references we see to WG being "greedy"? If they were genuinely greedy (which I believe they legitimately are, as are basically all commercial entities) then why would they choose to make less money, purely to spite Europeans and US customers?

It is just a gaming company, not Samsung, IBM, etc. Expecting the same professionalism would be highly unrealistic and even if they had run such scenarios it wouldn't justify the rip off prices.

[ColonelPete]

51 minutes ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

Blame your forefathers for that.

Do you not think that an answer 14 hours later exeeds you self-set time limit a bit?

[MannequinSkywalker]

1 minute ago, ColonelPete said:

Do you not think that an answer 14 hours later exeeds you self-set time limit a bit?

Yes it does

[Ocsimano18]

1 hour ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

Blame your forefathers for that.

Actually, my forefathers might have been Swiss.

[159Hunter]

1 hour ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

That is called operating costs. Operating costs of head office of a company are generally higher than the operating costs of its branches in other locations. Only the staff salaries do not determine the price of a product in international market. Especially not when we are talking about a digital product.

WG only sells digital products. Ofcourse the salaries partially determine the price of their digital products. How else will they pay their employees?

And keep in mind, their HQ in in Cyprus (for obvious reasons) so you rubles comparison is already wrong there.

1 hour ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

By using your logic, it is also possible to say EU has 450 million population while NA has 330 million and 145 million. The amount of sales will naturally be much higher in EU and NA than RU

Says who?

1 hour ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

which will cover the regional costs by far margin even if the product had standardized price.

But standardized prices are not being used. Nobody uses them. Heck even within the EU the prices for similar products differ between countries. 

Sometimes by a large margin.

1 hour ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

By selling the same digi product for almost double the price WG is not only trying to rip off but also shooting themselves on the foot. If they had similar prices say, only 15% more in EU or NA, they could have sold more of what they want to sell. 

Why are they ripping us off? They offer a product, if people buy it then they make the choice to give WG money. Buying a good for leisure indicates that you feel the good it's worth that amount of money.

If you don't feel that way: don't buy it.

WG has a dedicated marketing team that sets the prices, clearly their research indicates that they make a bigger profit with this setting. So you can think all you want. 

[Pandafaust]

33 minutes ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

I don't have any belief when it comes to WG but yes, they may very well have an incompetent COO or such.

 

It is just a gaming company, not Samsung, IBM, etc. Expecting the same professionalism would be highly unrealistic and even if they had run such scenarios it wouldn't justify the rip off prices.

 So, their financial team's incompetent, but your competent solution would be to run scenarios and then choose the one where they make less money...definitely worth sending in your job application if one of those roles becomes available, that's some impeccable logic.

[MannequinSkywalker]

2 minutes ago, 159Hunter said:

WG only sells digital products. Ofcourse the salaries partially determine the price of their digital products. How else will they pay their employees?

There you confirm it is not the deciding factor.

2 minutes ago, 159Hunter said:

And keep in mind, their HQ in in Cyprus (for obvious reasons) so you rubles comparison is already wrong there.

I wrote there, let's say 100 rubles. Yours is a straw man argument.

2 minutes ago, 159Hunter said:

Says who?

Anyone that can add 2+2.

2 minutes ago, 159Hunter said:

But standardized prices are not being used. Nobody uses them. Heck even within the EU the prices for similar products differ between countries. 

Sometimes by a large margin.

Another straw man argument as i wrote "even if", not that they do.

 

2 minutes ago, 159Hunter said:

Why are they ripping us off? They offer a product, if people buy it then they make the choice to give WG money. Buying a good for leisure indicates that you feel the good it's worth that amount of money.

If you don't feel that way: don't buy it.

WG has a dedicated marketing team that sets the prices, clearly their research indicates that they make a bigger profit with this setting. So you can think all you want. 

They offer the same product to some others for half of what they offer to you. And you can think all you want too (including Stockholm syndrome).

[MannequinSkywalker]

6 minutes ago, Pandafaust said:

 So, their financial team's incompetent, but your competent solution would be to run scenarios and then choose the one where they make less money...definitely worth sending in your job application if one of those roles becomes available, that's some impeccable logic.

Another straw man argument. I never said they are incompetent. I said, they may very well be incompetent which includes the opposite possibility and also i never said i have a competent solution whether it is really competent or not. It would be none of your business where i send my job application, let alone you don't have any idea who i am, what i do or what i know. All you do is trying to personalize things in a passive aggressive manner on a gaming forum by creating straw man arguments.

[159Hunter]

2 minutes ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

There you confirm it is not the deciding factor.

What is their main cost you think?

2 minutes ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

I wrote there, let's say 100 rubles. Yours is a straw man argument.

And you are just contradicting everyone for the sense of contradicting.

2 minutes ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

Anyone that can add 2+2.

Since when is their a causal link between population and players and sales?

2 minutes ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

Another straw man argument as i wrote "even if", not that they do.

SO another line you just drop in their to contradict as it means nothing.

2 minutes ago, MannequinSkywalker said:

They offer the same product to some others for half of what they offer to you. And you can think all you want too (including Stockholm syndrome).

Dude, you have two options:

- move to Russia

- don't buy a product you feel is too expensive.

 

But yeah, you followed a course in college once upon a time, so surely you know better then WG's marketing profesionnals. (delusional much)

[MannequinSkywalker]

8 minutes ago, 159Hunter said:

What is their main cost you think?

Only the owner and certain people on his team would know that.

Quote

And you are just contradicting everyone for the sense of contradicting.

Try something else.

 

Quote

But yeah, you followed a course in college once upon a time, so surely you know better then WG's marketing profesionnals. (delusional much)

You can only assume.

[pra3y]

Meh iEarlGrey is slow by a year man. I've said that last year way before he did 

 

 

[Nibenay78]

19 hours ago, Karasu_Hidesuke said:

 

Let me put it this way. Napoli special offer is 114.97 euros in the EU shop. Are you tempted?

Living in one of the countries with the highest price levels (and wages) in EU, I would rather burn my money than buy Napoli for this price.

[Yedwy]

41 minutes ago, Nibenay78 said:

Living in one of the countries with the highest price levels (and wages) in EU, I would rather burn my money than buy Napoli for this price.

Ditto, tommorow I am heading off to the seaside for couple of weeks of RnR and the 100+ € will go towards a nice dinner with my waifu and several pieces of a Don Tomaso Robusto cigars... 

[Pandafaust]

11 minutes ago, Yedwy said:

Ditto, tommorow I am heading off to the seaside for couple of weeks of RnR and the 100+ € will go towards a nice dinner with my waifu and several pieces of a Don Tomaso Robusto cigars... 

Does the restaurant accept coal, too?

Enjoy your break :-)  I've been landlocked for the past two years, I'm desperately missing the sea now!

[BLUB__BLUB]

21 hours ago, The_Chiv said:

For a physical good this economic practice holds up due to the cost of shipping, customs, fees, etc. However... Digital goods do not suffer this sort of thing to such an extent. Sure there is the occasional thing with Blizzard charging a bit more for EU stuff but that amount is never more then 15%. In wargamings case their is a 86% increase between CIS and NA, and between CIS and EU it is 57% increase. 

Best way to calculate "fun goodies" is to calculate related to the price of BOOZE AND WOMEN. 

For example 140 euros is about 100 beers. I dunno about the US - or Russia. 

Also in the supermarket the average beer price would be 1.50 Euro or so. 

And no way I'll spend 100 beers on a premium ship. Ten beers or so is the max. 

I can save ten beers, but can't save 100.... 

 

 

[Camperdown]

31 minutes ago, BLUB__BLUB said:

Best way to calculate "fun goodies" is to calculate related to the price of BOOZE AND WOMEN. 

For example 140 euros is about 100 beers. I dunno about the US - or Russia. 

Also in the supermarket the average beer price would be 1.50 Euro or so. 

And no way I'll spend 100 beers on a premium ship. Ten beers or so is the max. 

I can save ten beers, but can't save 100.... 

 

 

You are getting it quite wrong (in the opinion of WG and whales (gay or straight before I get in trouble  ) that is). 

You can only drink 10 beers a day, so the rest of the money you can spend on obscenely priced russian paper ships