Meursault wrote on Feb 27
th, 2014 at 1:46pm:
[...]
The "will I enjoy this movie" analogy does hold up for some DDO purchases - SP pots, XP pots, and event keys come to mind. But it breaks down when applied to reusable purchases like adventure packs, tomes (especially now that they persist through TR), and character slots. Those items do require an expectation of game longevity and activity to be worthwhile.
I've got enough TP to cover my purchases of the former, and I'm holding off on the latter because I'm unsure of the future of DDO. So 2014 could be the first year since I started playing that I might actually pay nothing.
[...]
The movie analogy doesn't fit because it's more a DVD,blue-ray analogy there. You pay around 5-15$ for an adventure pack, right?
Each adventure pack has a story and quests to entertain you. If you really try to enjoy and explore an adventure pack the most packs lead you through a story for at least one hour.
It's like an interactive movie or book you could buy. I don't see why you think they wouldn't hold the movie/dvd/book analogy.
If you have fun and enjoy the story the first playthrough of the adventure is well worth the money compared to other entertainment offers in the real world. At least it returned enough 'profit' to be a good investment.
And on top, whenever you want to read/play the story again you can do so, like with a DVD/blue-ray or video.
Longevity of the game for adventure packs is only needed if you are aiming for the items they offer. But the items are more like bonus content, even if the items are often the main reason to decide which adv pack to buy next.
But especially VoN... this is one of the few raids which are still run regularly, at least on Orien. And in my opinion VoN is by far the best raid in DDO, I really like the velah raid mechanic.
It's even more fun with a raid group which is not able to beat it down with pure dps and needs to use some kind of tactic to beat her (not standing in the fire breath and killing eggs for several rounds).
And stat tomes... they have an immediate impact on your build increasing the fun you can have with your toon. One life from 1-20 or even 28 should be enough to justify the investment.
So longevity is only needed if you have to buy that many packs and stuff that you would have to pay 100$ or more and don't want a net investment of more than 10$ a month. Because otherwise it would have been better to go VIP.
But especially the adventure packs can be seen as buying a story and entertainment for at least one hour. It's practically the same as going to a movie or buying a video/book. And after that time they offer a lot of bonus content(items, replaying).