Vanity Items - RS Prepaid cards and Ornate Katana

[3PointMan]

Ehhhh no, that feels really awkward. Like I imagine buying condoms could be.

 

That's why God invented Self Checkout Lanes.

Sweet jesus it was awk buying condoms the first time :3 not that bad the second time though, Just an irrational fear I guess.

[Mike_Ike111]

Ehhhh no, that feels really awkward. Like I imagine buying condoms could be.

 

That's why God invented Self Checkout Lanes.

Sweet jesus it was awk buying condoms the first time :3 not that bad the second time though, Just an irrational fear I guess.

 

Oh god! People will know I'm getting laid!

[Sir_Squab]

Imo, it shouldn't have any stats whatsoever. Then it's a vanity item. We have an item that's a tier or two up from other items with a similar requirement that you can only get by buying pre-paid Jagex cards. The fact that it's a lvl 1 weapon is irrelevant to me.

 

What really gets me is it only works for the pre-paid cards. Really? Why?

 

The only post that kinda made sense was the one about Jagex trying to attract attention to the cards. Wait, where does it mention this in the newposts? (And by mention this in the newspost, I mean the cards or loyalty reward program or something. You know, something to attract attention to the cards or vanity items.)

 

I wonder if they're irrationally trying to introduce controversial new content by hiding it, which kinda defeats the point of it coming out if no one even knows about it.

 

I also love how they're making a bigger deal out of RuneFest then this new update. The RuneFest one is the top featured update thing, the piece of new content? Nope.

[Kimberly]

Yes by all means focus on the condom issue when I was talking about the game cards...>_>

[Kaida23]

Now that I think more on it, I think the real issue here isn't just that they've offered an item to people who pay more for a month of members but that they've offered that item to a limited group of their customers.

 

RuneScape has always had items that were available to everyone (with the obvious exceptions of the holiday items, but even they were available to everyone who had an account at the time), and now they're offering these, arguably, cosmetic items only to those who: a) live in a country that sells game cards, and b) actually live near a store that sells them.

 

I think they're going to upset a lot more people than they expect with this.

[Cheefoo]

Oh, some limited time decorative item I might not be able to get? I don't give two [bleep]s.

[Helm_Lardar]

Look, I don't know about you but I want a Katana! I'd be willing to pay an extra pound fifty for one month. What I'm not willing to do is go to a shop and have an awkward conversation with the guy on the checkout after failing to find RS cards for 30 minutes, asking if they sell them.

 

Grrrrr...

[Kimberly]

Look, I don't know about you but I want a Katana! I'd be willing to pay an extra pound fifty for one month. What I'm not willing to do is go to a shop and have an awkward conversation with the guy on the checkout after failing to find RS cards for 30 minutes, asking if they sell them.

 

Grrrrr...

 

Call the store in advance maybe? It's not like they're obsessively looking at the caller ID to write down any goon's number who asks strange questions to report them to the OMGIDONTUNDERSTAND police.

[Kaida23]

Look, I don't know about you but I want a Katana! I'd be willing to pay an extra pound fifty for one month. What I'm not willing to do is go to a shop and have an awkward conversation with the guy on the checkout after failing to find RS cards for 30 minutes, asking if they sell them.

 

Grrrrr...

 

Call the store in advance maybe? It's not like they're obsessively looking at the caller ID to write down any goon's number who asks strange questions to report them to the OMGIDONTUNDERSTAND police.

I don't think the problem is being embarrassed to buy the card, but rather that, in my experience anyway, the clerks in most retail stores (at least here in Canada, not sure about anywhere else) can barely operate their registers let alone know if they sell a particular card out of the 3 dozen or so on the rack. If they don't even have a rack to put them on, then Saradomin help you while they scrounge though a box under the counter.

 

If you do feel embarrassed to buy a RS card, don't. Never be ashamed of who you are. :)

(oh Gary Oldman, you have so much to teach us <3: )

[GamesDomainCastle]

Whats interesting is that if this continues it will only worsen real world trading. I can already see an emerging secondary market for the cards. People buying them in the store and selling them to locations without them for a highly inflated price. I don't think anyone at Jagex has ever studied business, marketing, or economics.

[timmmmm83]

Great, another item to buy with real cash. <_<

 

We already pay membership fees, isn't it enough?

If they're so desperate for money, they should imo increase membership fees a tiny bit for everyone.

Don't ruin the entire game for it. :unsure:

[Dire_Wolf]

Why not allow people to buy bunny ears and Scythe while your at it through these methods.

[UserOnRS]

'The RuneScape Game Card is a pre-paid method for adding membership to your RuneScape account. Occasionally we will offer vanity items or in-game benefits with these cards.'

 

It sounds to me like you are likely to have to purchase several of these cards to have a chance to obtain the item. :S

 

Also, I'm concerned about the items having stat bonuses - what's to say they won't release items requiring higher stats and giving higher bonuses? From what I've seen I don't agree with this concept at all, and if these items are supposed to be for loyal customers why should people have to pay more after earning a discount of membership using conventional methods?

[Dire_Wolf]

There is loyal, more loyal and....THE loyalest

 

Also Coming soon:

Elite Loyal Guard

[jjjon123]

Rune Fortress 2 :thumbup:

[RU_Insane]

As if anyone subscribes to RS just to get a low level vanity item that's clearly targeted at new players. It's just a crudely implemented marketing ploy. Interesting how Jagex says only people who pay with prepaid cards will be able to rack up points for these items, considering that only a week or two ago, the prices for the two types of prepaid cards that were already out changed so that you pay a higher price for the one month card. I pay with prepaid card, I admit, but I'm not too excited over this. I'm just going to wait for cosmetic auras, but I won't continue to subscribe for them. I disagree with how Jagex handled this so far. Honestly, I wish they scrapped this entire idea (save for the auras). If they release the auras as some part of a quest or a mini-game where you'd have to earn points to get them, then sure, go ahead. But not this way. >.< It's favoritism on a new level. I understand why Jagex would cater to members more over free players, but now Jagex is actually trying to put its hands deeper into their subscriber's pockets. Pathetic.

[Stev]

New items for people who use a more expensive way of purchasing membership (compared to credit cards) :roll: :wink:

How much a month are those cards?

I pay by sms and that's €9.50 a month.

 

Also isn't this RWT?

Shall I bring up the pixel art contest which went against their RWT rule, but they allowed it "that one time only"?

 

Might as well just scratch RWT off their rules list. While you're at it, white-out botting as being illegal as well, as they clearly don't give a [bleep].

[jijilentosmi]

This is a bit ridiculous but as long as nothing that gives anyone an edge is added, I won't mind. I would quit the instant they started microtransactions though.

 

OT: I've always wanted to buy a cheese grater and condoms at the same time. The clerks response would be interesting.

[Jaded]

Whats interesting is that if this continues it will only worsen real world trading. I can already see an emerging secondary market for the cards. People buying them in the store and selling them to locations without them for a highly inflated price. I don't think anyone at Jagex has ever studied business, marketing, or economics.

 

Yep, just like those vanity pets you get in Blizzcon lootbags/WOW cards. I made a pretty penny selling and flipping them on ebay :) Even though it's just for looks, people will pay crazy amounts for virtual items if they're enticing enough. *cough* phat black market *cough*.

[Soupy17]

This is the loyalty reward? Or am I missing something?

Nah

[Heisenberg]

I find it disgusting...

 

That rs players will whine about any and everything. I can only assume most of them have no experience with any mmorpg other than runescape. Sorry you've been living under a proverbial mmo rock but this is how this industry operates. Suck it up.

[Grimy_Bunyip]

From what I know, supermarkets like Target bully game companies into raising the price of their products, such that the price @ the supermarket is competitive with the price from online sources like steam.

Logic would argue that a copy of a game on steam, that lacks a case, an instruction manual, a cd, should be cheaper, but Pachter says it's because of pressure from supermarkets that it's the same price.

 

I'm not saying this is necessarily the logic at hand.

But retailers may have put pressure on jagex to either lower the price of membership cards down to $5-6 or raise the credit card price up to $7-9 so target could be competitive.

If this is true, the vanity items could have been introduced as a way to relieve pressure from retailers trying to get them to raise the price of runescape membership purchased through all channels.

 

Obviously I have no idea if this is the case or not, but it is possible.

[Tim]

People that pay with other methods should surely be able to access these items as well... :???:

Better. I always use PBP Because its easiest method and there are no RS Cards in Aus.

[Haaa_Haaa0]

I think the issue is the idea of exclusion, and lost opporunity. The idea that you can NEVER get that item ever again...that's the issue. I remember when a friend told me I had missed a holiday event (it was B.S.). Even though it was a really small thing, the idea that I had missed out on something was not a good feeling.

 

Jagex really is bum(mining) us with this.

[Blutters]

I find it disgusting...

 

That rs players will whine about any and everything. I can only assume most of them have no experience with any mmorpg other than runescape. Sorry you've been living under a proverbial mmo rock but this is how this industry operates. Suck it up.

Or maybe they play RS because [RS] didn't used to do those things. There was a nice peace of mind to knowing that one monthly payment was all there was for everyone to be on an equal playing field.