I was rummaging around the VIP shop today, renewing my monthly subscription and contemplating the pros and cons of the purchasing the expiring Campaign Pass, when I inadvertently made an unusual observation about the shop.
The monthly VIP pass subscription is $10 USD, and rewards 50 VIP points. Normal and expected, as 5 VIP points / $1 USD is the standard rate in GoW.
However, the Campaign Pass must be purchased in Crowns. The cost of the Campaign Pass is $10 in Crowns, which matches the cost of the base Campaign Pass in GoW. Ok, so far, so normal.
Except that the game reports that when I will purchase the $10 package of Crowns, I will receive 30 VIP points. Wait, what?
Shouldn’t I receive 50 VIP points for a $10 purchase?
My first thought was to file a bug report on that. However, I stopped for a few minutes and tried to gain a better grasp of the larger picture here. After some reflection, I realized that the game is offering scaling rates of VIP points on Crown purchases, and reaches the 5 VIP points / $1 USD at the $50 Crown bundle. So, this behavior may be working as intended/designed.
If that is the case, there are some odd potential interactions among the Crown pricing Tiers currently.
In terms of VIP points,
Crowns Tier 1 (10 VIP Points / $5 USD ) = 0.5 VIP Points / $1 USD
Crowns Tier 2 (30 VIP Points / $10 USD ) = 3.0 VIP Points / $1 USD
Crowns Tier 3 (50 VIP Points / $20 USD ) = 2.5 VIP Points / $1 USD
Crowns Tier 4 (100 VIP Points / $30 USD ) = 3.3 VIP Points / $1 USD
Crowns Tier 5 (250 VIP Points / $50 USD ) = 5.0 VIP Points / $1 USD
Crowns Tier 6 (500 VIP Points / $100 USD ) = 5.0 VIP Points / $1 USD
While a player would purchase more Crowns in a Tier 3 bundle, a player would obtain more VIP Points (60 vs. 50) if they purchased 2x Tier 2 bundles, at the expense of Crowns (1070 vs. 1120).
This behavior (if intended) also opens the door to players filing all sorts of support tickets about “lost/missing” VIP points.
So…
- Is this behavior working as intended/designed?
- If so, is Tier 2 offering more VIP points per $1 USD than Tier 3 working as intended?
- If so, may I suggest a help article be written about this subject before the game hard launches to place information about varying VIP Experience Point earning rates per unit of currency out in front of players to head off support tickets on “lost/missing” VIP points and act as formal disclosure to players on this topic?