"Gaaahhhhhh! I'll never play a game with RMT!!" Get over it people. If the game is great, we will play it. Changes/modifications/incorporation of/etc regarding subscriptions and RMT is the future. Whining about it or making empty threats about how you won't play the game is really pointless.
I don't know, but do you take everything so... guileless? I mean seriously, maybe you are born rich, but some people are not. Plus, it is a severe change in the games we like, so why should we not complain over something we think is bad? Do you accpet so easy everthing? It is about paying twice. If that is no reason to complain, I dunno what is?
It is not that companies never listened. Customer decisions can influence companies. It doesn't always work, but we can try, right? If you give up trying thats fine, but thats no reason to make fun of those who try what they can to prevent a rip off. Yes, that may be little, yes just voicing our opinion here may be weak compared to the company power, but we at least try to do something about what we think is wrong. What did you do, beside calling people who complain over a scam than calling them whiners?
Man, it must be cool to be rich, but maybe you understand not everyone is, ok?
No, I don't "take everything so guileless". And no I was not born rich. Not sure what that has to do with anything.
I remember when UO first came out and trying to get homies to join up. "Never they cried! I'm not going to pay a subscription for a computer game! That's absurd! Crazy I tell you! A rip-off! Practically extortion! Unbelievable! What's Next?! When will it stop?! If we give in to this it will never be the same! Now is our chance to take a stand!!"
You're talking about the very early days of MMOs, the pioneers as opposed to the mainstream days of today. UO took a chance, they could have flopped if there was any kind of competition available at the time. There wasn't any. This is hardly the case today. Today we are free to gravitate to whatever game we find fun and makes financial sense at the same time.
P2P model, which implies lengthy subscription circles and item malls, which imply grind obstacles purposely introduced into the game, do not match. Personally, I'd rather pay a higher subscription fee and have all content available than this bastardised model.
And making it so you can buy cosmetic upgrades was realy smart of the Devs, you all know that this game wont be gear based but Power based right? You can look any way you want, so to be Uniqe you will probably have to fork up some extra cash to pimp out your Avatar . I like to dress up my toons, so this game is gona cost me if im gona play it, might not be worth it to be honest.. so I will probably scip this one, to bad to sad.......
I think that this model might be fantastic, or horrible.
Way back in the day, a friend of mine purchased gold so he could buy an Epic mount in World of Warcraft (the 100% ones, and no, this was when 100 gold was actually difficult to come by)
When I asked "are you insane?" or something like that, he deadpanned, looked at me and said "I made a wise purchase. I could have spend ten hours of my time, or $100, or I could spend $30 to some Chinese gold farmer to do it for me."
Maybe think of it like this, when considering microtransactions. How much is your time worth?
I am playing EVE and it's alright... level V skills are a bit much.
Not really. You're talking about the very early days of MMOs, the pioneers as opposed to the mainstream days of today. UO took a chance, they could have flopped if there was any kind of competition available at the time. There wasn't any. This is hardly the case today. Today we are free to gravitate to whatever game we find fun and makes financial sense at the same time. P2P model, which implies lengthy subscription circles and item malls, which imply grind obstacles purposely introduced into the game, do not match. Personally, I'd rather pay a higher subscription fee and have all content available than this bastardised model.
Actually you have no idea how they are going to implement it, so everything your are "doomsdaying" about is pure speculation. I don't even care about this game, but the RMT trolls just sound so tired. It hasn't been done right yet, and at some point it will be, and then it will become second nature for MMOs. If you disagree, you are delusional.
What does UO taking a chance have to do with my point? My point was that at the time, UO and even Everquest, it was completely foreign to pay a "subscription" for a game, just as RMT is at this point. It has only been done in some crap games so far, so it has hardly been implemented in an interesting and well thought out way.
They are selling customisation options and powers (aka gear equivalent). And customisation plays a big part in a game like this, because there are no gear to change your look.
What do you mean we don't know? You don't follow the news? www.champions-online.com/node/92892 They are selling customisation options and powers (aka gear equivalent). And customisation plays a big part in a game like this, because there are no gear to change your look.
This is what it says:
Champions Online will support micro-transactions, but contrary to the concerns of some people, the game is not ‘based’ on them. There are the basic tenets for our micro-transactions:
* The vast majority are aesthetic items, such as costume pieces, action figures, emblems, etc.
* A very few are account-level management tools, such as being able to rename a character
* Micro-transactions should never limit your ability to enjoy the game or reach the level cap
* Any micro-transaction that has a game effect can also be earned in the game through play
Also, it’s important to note that the overwhelming majority of micro-transactions are account-wide. This means if you buy a costume piece or an action figure, every character on your account gets it.
Finally, many of the pre-order programs that we’re finalizing now have cryptic points associated with them. This is a way for us to allow our players to choose their own pre-order reward(s) which falls into our whole customization concept for Champions Online.
And no, you don't know, because you haven't played it yet. You have no idea what that means until you've played it. All reports of this game say the char customization options from jump are staggering, and you are worried that someone can buy a blue cape with Obama's mug on it for $1 that you could earn raiding a dungeon......
LOL.......
Gahhhhh! RMT must have been an idea straight from Satan himself! This is craziness!!!!
What do you mean we don't know? You don't follow the news? www.champions-online.com/node/92892 They are selling customisation options and powers (aka gear equivalent). And customisation plays a big part in a game like this, because there are no gear to change your look.
This is what it says:
Champions Online will support micro-transactions, but contrary to the concerns of some people, the game is not ‘based’ on them. There are the basic tenets for our micro-transactions:
* The vast majority are aesthetic items, such as costume pieces, action figures, emblems, etc.
* A very few are account-level management tools, such as being able to rename a character
* Micro-transactions should never limit your ability to enjoy the game or reach the level cap
* Any micro-transaction that has a game effect can also be earned in the game through play
Also, it’s important to note that the overwhelming majority of micro-transactions are account-wide. This means if you buy a costume piece or an action figure, every character on your account gets it.
Finally, many of the pre-order programs that we’re finalizing now have cryptic points associated with them. This is a way for us to allow our players to choose their own pre-order reward(s) which falls into our whole customization concept for Champions Online.
And no, you don't know, because you haven't played it yet. You have no idea what that means until you've played it. All reports of this game say the char customization options from jump are staggering, and you are worried that someone can buy a blue cape with Obama's mug on it for $1 that you could earn raiding a dungeon......
LOL.......
Gahhhhh! RMT must have been an idea straight from Satan himself! This is craziness!!!!
BOYCOTT THIS GAME!
I just have to Bite on this hehe. I realy dont like that I have to fork up extra money to get everything the game has to offer. Im the kind of person who likes to get my hands on every extra little thing in an MMO. I always buy the Limited additions so I can get all the fluff. Knowing this about myself I will buy everything in that ingame store that I think look cool.
So I have to ask myself is it realy going to be worth it? There are alot of other games out there why should I pay both for a subscription and Microtransactions, when other games offer me just one of the options?
I might be better of playing Aion, EvE, Pirates of the burning sea or Mortal online... Champions online is not the second coming of Christ you know... So I will probably just play something ells, and I think alot of other people will to. Dose this make Champions online a bad game? NO, dose it say that there devs are pawns of Satan? No. But it just might not be the game that many of us will play, and you just have to live with it.......
After reading all these, I will take CO off my list of must buy. I will watch how the gameplay is with all these complications. Maybe hold out for half a year before checking the game again.
Thanks for bringing these details to me. Thank you, sincerely.
It is all fluff cosmetics watever you want to call it. Nothing is being forced upon players to buy from the store. Anything that can be bought from the store can be earned through gameplay for free. So really some just stop the QQing about RMT because this will not be the last time you see developers use fluff items for profit.
It is all fluff cosmetics watever you want to call it. Nothing is being forced upon players to buy from the store. Anything that can be bought from the store can be earned through gameplay for free. So really some just stop the QQing about RMT because this will not be the last time you see developers use fluff items for profit.
Exactly. Its nothing to be concerened about. Let people buy stuff who cares. I m sure some of you whining about it have bought gold for whatever game online. That to me is worse for reasons I won t go into. It s a non factor and silly to even argue about it.
I'm not arguing about it. It's their game and they get to monetize it i whatever way they see fit. I was planning to play the game, mainly due to the one server design. However, I refuse to endorse microtransactions in a subscription based game, hence I'll keep it off my buying list.
Costume items are fluff, anything which makes your toon better than some one else's is not. We are going to see more and more of this as MMO companies put revenue before the high standard of fairplay they have maintained so far.
The idea that you will get more money for development, well the proof of that fallacy will come in a years time. You will see that July 2009 to Jul 2010 will bring no more additional content than July 2008 to July 2009.
Vote with your feet, either now on principle or in a years time if you really think this is not all about making more profit.
I think that this model might be fantastic, or horrible. Way back in the day, a friend of mine purchased gold so he could buy an Epic mount in World of Warcraft (the 100% ones, and no, this was when 100 gold was actually difficult to come by) When I asked "are you insane?" or something like that, he deadpanned, looked at me and said "I made a wise purchase. I could have spend ten hours of my time, or $100, or I could spend $30 to some Chinese gold farmer to do it for me." Maybe think of it like this, when considering microtransactions. How much is your time worth?
whats the point of playing then just play single player games if thats the case. looking at time vs. money doing somthing that is suppossed to be fun is just dumb as hell
I think that this model might be fantastic, or horrible. Way back in the day, a friend of mine purchased gold so he could buy an Epic mount in World of Warcraft (the 100% ones, and no, this was when 100 gold was actually difficult to come by) When I asked "are you insane?" or something like that, he deadpanned, looked at me and said "I made a wise purchase. I could have spend ten hours of my time, or $100, or I could spend $30 to some Chinese gold farmer to do it for me." Maybe think of it like this, when considering microtransactions. How much is your time worth?
See THIS is the reasoning behind the RMT the 'can't be borthered' factor.
Theres LOADS of people illeagally buying gold within MMOs via farmers to gain these such items as they can't be bothered playing the game - they just want to be 'L33T' and show off, as I've joked before give players an option to buy from Blizzard preleveled characters they WOULD make a killing, Sony does it with Everquest kinda,well Everquest has always had RMT in some form, I've seen other F2P games do this too.. With all the name, characer, server change options you already get in many mmos all RMT does is bring it to the forground.
Factor in the 'don't have the time crowd' as well and there IS a market for RMT, why allow the farmers to be the only ones profiting for the mainly lazy gamer (before you linch me I don't class the 'don't have the time' crowd as lazy, but I still don't see it as an excuse to buy gold etc), it's far more profitable to the company involed just to offer 'gold' themselfs, more players would welcome the chance to buy direct without risking their accounts, it's basically paying for the time spent trying to normally get the items in question...
The key factor with the RMT negitivity is the assumption that any company using RMT would force the player to use it or not enjoy the game to it's full level, like many many f2p games, HOWEVER unlike the f2p mmo the RMT isn't a p2p game's only source of income so it's not really required to activitly make profit..
This is all probly going to fall on deaf ears, but the only negitive factor to RMT is the above mentioned forced purchase, which both with CO and also DDO both conpanies behind it have said everything on offer is either fluff or obtinated via normal means, all RMT is doing is giving you the 'fast pass to the ride'.
As long as RMT remains completely optional then I'll happy continue to sub to any game with it in
Perhaps the don’t have the time' crowd, are the same people who use gold sellers? Now they will be able to do their RMT's officially.
Of course it’s the company that wins, not you the player. In fact it is worse for the player, as gold can buy items, but not levels and achievements.
There are plenty of fine MMO’s out there without a cash shop, take your business there. As the $$ and ££ signs fill the eyes of an industry that was founded on player passion, you have to wonder does all that is gold turn to dross?
Originally posted by andmiller And no, you don't know, because you haven't played it yet. You have no idea what that means until you've played it. All reports of this game say the char customization options from jump are staggering, and you are worried that someone can buy a blue cape with Obama's mug on it for $1 that you could earn raiding a dungeon......
We really shouldn't have to play the game to know these things.
It's seven weeks until release, and potential players don't know what type of game this is...
My problem is their last statement, game effecting items. Literially this translates into nearly and almost anything. From EXP boosters and everything else. They must define this further. People who are defending the practice have never played a Free MMO. We put up with it in Free MMOs because they are free you don't have to buy the disc you don't have to pay subscriptions.
To put it in game like this is ridiculous, because you know the only way they are going to make money off of it is by making it difficult to gain in game. By selling it through a cash shop you are belittling what ever effort there is in gaining that item legitamately. If you had a service available to have someone else play the game for you people would do it. Power Leveling.
What about selling veteran awards? Ya you can get it in game if you wait 2-5 years. Saying you can get it in game can mean a wide range of things.
I think that this model might be fantastic, or horrible. Way back in the day, a friend of mine purchased gold so he could buy an Epic mount in World of Warcraft (the 100% ones, and no, this was when 100 gold was actually difficult to come by) When I asked "are you insane?" or something like that, he deadpanned, looked at me and said "I made a wise purchase. I could have spend ten hours of my time, or $100, or I could spend $30 to some Chinese gold farmer to do it for me." Maybe think of it like this, when considering microtransactions. How much is your time worth?
Wise decision. Well I guess it really boils down to this.
Would you rather play a game for 10 hours to do something or would you rather work at your job for 3 hours to do the same thing.
When a game is more enjoyable by working at your place of employement instead of actually playing, something is drastically wrong.
It would be like getting a quest that asks you to log off and go to work for a few hours.
it does this old gamers heart proud to see so many people standing up and saying "no, i wont play" when it comes to lazybitch RMTing.
to all the people saying its just going to be cosmetic: thats how it starts then it snowballs from there.
look at the 3rd point game changing items can be earned...just remember runes of magic said the same thing. now i dont play RoM but didnt somebody figure out that it was 2 YEARS of playing to get what the item mall can get in a day?
DDO is doing this now, i used to like the game back in the day and i beta tested their F2P stuff mostly because i wanted to see favoured souls. yeah max level is 4 for a free player unless you buy an item or find it in a quest....so far last i heard 1 or 2 were found total out of all the testers after a few weeks. oh yeah did i forget to mention that the sigil only ups your max level to like 8 or so.
what im trying to say is, well, i guess its been said already. pointing at the 3rd point of theirs and saying "look there you go anti-rmt crowd" just proves how little experience you probably have with f2p games.
These companies are all about maximizing profits. They WILL do everything in their power to make sure that cash shops are not only profitable, but will bring in substantially more income than plain subscriptions ever could. Focus on fluff items? Do they think we're that stupid? If they want this model to succeed, you HAVE to make it a necessity or make sure it appeals to a person's addictive nature.
Every cash shop in every game out so far has implemented items that change the way the game plays and increases the strength and efficiency of the buyers characters. They make basic game play so boring and odious that you feel compelled to either buy from the cash shops to improve things or you quit. At least in F2P games you can play at least some of the content without paying a dime, but good luck finding that content entertaining unless you're a masochistisc hardcore gamer.
F2P games make a profit, P2P games make a profit. Not only are these business models profitable, they can afford to keep updating their games and producing expansion packs. Combining them IS the epitome of greed. It's uncalled for and I hope these companies fall flat on their asses for trying. I will have no problems what so ever leaving this genre behind if they continue down this path and they are sadly mistaken if they think the West will embrace it like the East. Western MMO gaming is still a niche in the computer gaming industry, good luck appealing to all those potential customers who already view the genre with distatse.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
After the news of the possibility of microtransactions was released several months ago, a lot of people tried in vain to talk common sense to the people with loose wallets and looser mouths who insist that this doesn't matter. The simple fact is, by selling "cool stuff" for real cash, Cryptic has no incentive to produce such content for the main subscriber base. In a game where customization is the main draw, roping off segments of the game for the rabid few who have way too much excess cash on their hands is a fast track to ruin. Cryptic would have to be extremely altruistic not to adopt this posture and with Emmert and Roper in the ranks, we know that that's not the case. In fact, this whole "different tiers of gameplay" marketing method smells an awful lot like Hellgate: London and we know who was the mastermind behind that.
I get the feeling that we are looking at another Age of Conan or WAR or even Tabula Rasa. a game that sells on pure hype and tanks like lead balloon shortly after release. If you don't see the parallel, then how about telling the class when the Xbox version is scheduled for release? Many thanks to the enablers who have sent a signal to Cryptic that double-dipping your customer base, especially in this economy, is okay.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II "People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
Comments
I don't know, but do you take everything so... guileless? I mean seriously, maybe you are born rich, but some people are not. Plus, it is a severe change in the games we like, so why should we not complain over something we think is bad? Do you accpet so easy everthing? It is about paying twice. If that is no reason to complain, I dunno what is?
It is not that companies never listened. Customer decisions can influence companies. It doesn't always work, but we can try, right? If you give up trying thats fine, but thats no reason to make fun of those who try what they can to prevent a rip off. Yes, that may be little, yes just voicing our opinion here may be weak compared to the company power, but we at least try to do something about what we think is wrong. What did you do, beside calling people who complain over a scam than calling them whiners?
Man, it must be cool to be rich, but maybe you understand not everyone is, ok?
No, I don't "take everything so guileless". And no I was not born rich. Not sure what that has to do with anything.
I remember when UO first came out and trying to get homies to join up. "Never they cried! I'm not going to pay a subscription for a computer game! That's absurd! Crazy I tell you! A rip-off! Practically extortion! Unbelievable! What's Next?! When will it stop?! If we give in to this it will never be the same! Now is our chance to take a stand!!"
Sound familiar?
Not really.
You're talking about the very early days of MMOs, the pioneers as opposed to the mainstream days of today. UO took a chance, they could have flopped if there was any kind of competition available at the time. There wasn't any. This is hardly the case today. Today we are free to gravitate to whatever game we find fun and makes financial sense at the same time.
P2P model, which implies lengthy subscription circles and item malls, which imply grind obstacles purposely introduced into the game, do not match. Personally, I'd rather pay a higher subscription fee and have all content available than this bastardised model.
This was just to bad...
And making it so you can buy cosmetic upgrades was realy smart of the Devs, you all know that this game wont be gear based but Power based right? You can look any way you want, so to be Uniqe you will probably have to fork up some extra cash to pimp out your Avatar
. I like to dress up my toons, so this game is gona cost me if im gona play it, might not be worth it to be honest.. so I will probably scip this one, to bad to sad.......
I think that this model might be fantastic, or horrible.
Way back in the day, a friend of mine purchased gold so he could buy an Epic mount in World of Warcraft (the 100% ones, and no, this was when 100 gold was actually difficult to come by)
When I asked "are you insane?" or something like that, he deadpanned, looked at me and said "I made a wise purchase. I could have spend ten hours of my time, or $100, or I could spend $30 to some Chinese gold farmer to do it for me."
Maybe think of it like this, when considering microtransactions. How much is your time worth?
I am playing EVE and it's alright... level V skills are a bit much.
You all need to learn to spell.
Actually you have no idea how they are going to implement it, so everything your are "doomsdaying" about is pure speculation. I don't even care about this game, but the RMT trolls just sound so tired. It hasn't been done right yet, and at some point it will be, and then it will become second nature for MMOs. If you disagree, you are delusional.
What does UO taking a chance have to do with my point? My point was that at the time, UO and even Everquest, it was completely foreign to pay a "subscription" for a game, just as RMT is at this point. It has only been done in some crap games so far, so it has hardly been implemented in an interesting and well thought out way.
What do you mean we don't know? You don't follow the news?
www.champions-online.com/node/92892
They are selling customisation options and powers (aka gear equivalent). And customisation plays a big part in a game like this, because there are no gear to change your look.
This is what it says:
Champions Online will support micro-transactions, but contrary to the concerns of some people, the game is not ‘based’ on them. There are the basic tenets for our micro-transactions:
* The vast majority are aesthetic items, such as costume pieces, action figures, emblems, etc.
* A very few are account-level management tools, such as being able to rename a character
* Micro-transactions should never limit your ability to enjoy the game or reach the level cap
* Any micro-transaction that has a game effect can also be earned in the game through play
Also, it’s important to note that the overwhelming majority of micro-transactions are account-wide. This means if you buy a costume piece or an action figure, every character on your account gets it.
Finally, many of the pre-order programs that we’re finalizing now have cryptic points associated with them. This is a way for us to allow our players to choose their own pre-order reward(s) which falls into our whole customization concept for Champions Online.
And no, you don't know, because you haven't played it yet. You have no idea what that means until you've played it. All reports of this game say the char customization options from jump are staggering, and you are worried that someone can buy a blue cape with Obama's mug on it for $1 that you could earn raiding a dungeon......
LOL.......
Gahhhhh! RMT must have been an idea straight from Satan himself! This is craziness!!!!
BOYCOTT THIS GAME!
This is what it says:
Champions Online will support micro-transactions, but contrary to the concerns of some people, the game is not ‘based’ on them. There are the basic tenets for our micro-transactions:
* The vast majority are aesthetic items, such as costume pieces, action figures, emblems, etc.
* A very few are account-level management tools, such as being able to rename a character
* Micro-transactions should never limit your ability to enjoy the game or reach the level cap
* Any micro-transaction that has a game effect can also be earned in the game through play
Also, it’s important to note that the overwhelming majority of micro-transactions are account-wide. This means if you buy a costume piece or an action figure, every character on your account gets it.
Finally, many of the pre-order programs that we’re finalizing now have cryptic points associated with them. This is a way for us to allow our players to choose their own pre-order reward(s) which falls into our whole customization concept for Champions Online.
And no, you don't know, because you haven't played it yet. You have no idea what that means until you've played it. All reports of this game say the char customization options from jump are staggering, and you are worried that someone can buy a blue cape with Obama's mug on it for $1 that you could earn raiding a dungeon......
LOL.......
Gahhhhh! RMT must have been an idea straight from Satan himself! This is craziness!!!!
BOYCOTT THIS GAME!
I just have to Bite on this hehe. I realy dont like that I have to fork up extra money to get everything the game has to offer. Im the kind of person who likes to get my hands on every extra little thing in an MMO. I always buy the Limited additions so I can get all the fluff. Knowing this about myself I will buy everything in that ingame store
that I think look cool.
So I have to ask myself is it realy going to be worth it? There are alot of other games out there why should I pay both for a subscription and Microtransactions, when other games offer me just one of the options?
I might be better of playing Aion, EvE, Pirates of the burning sea or Mortal online... Champions online is not the second coming of Christ you know... So I will probably just play something ells, and I think alot of other people will to. Dose this make Champions online a bad game? NO, dose it say that there devs are pawns of Satan? No. But it just might not be the game that many of us will play, and you just have to live with it.......
Sigh ... what can I say.
After reading all these, I will take CO off my list of must buy. I will watch how the gameplay is with all these complications. Maybe hold out for half a year before checking the game again.
Thanks for bringing these details to me. Thank you, sincerely.
It is all fluff cosmetics watever you want to call it. Nothing is being forced upon players to buy from the store. Anything that can be bought from the store can be earned through gameplay for free. So really some just stop the QQing about RMT because this will not be the last time you see developers use fluff items for profit.
Exactly. Its nothing to be concerened about. Let people buy stuff who cares. I m sure some of you whining about it have bought gold for whatever game online. That to me is worse for reasons I won t go into. It s a non factor and silly to even argue about it.
I'm not arguing about it. It's their game and they get to monetize it i whatever way they see fit. I was planning to play the game, mainly due to the one server design. However, I refuse to endorse microtransactions in a subscription based game, hence I'll keep it off my buying list.
Costume items are fluff, anything which makes your toon better than some one else's is not. We are going to see more and more of this as MMO companies put revenue before the high standard of fairplay they have maintained so far.
The idea that you will get more money for development, well the proof of that fallacy will come in a years time. You will see that July 2009 to Jul 2010 will bring no more additional content than July 2008 to July 2009.
Vote with your feet, either now on principle or in a years time if you really think this is not all about making more profit.
man this game was a for sure buy until this mt crap. whats the point of a mmo if you can just buy anything if this is the future of mmo's im out
whats the point of playing then just play single player games if thats the case. looking at time vs. money doing somthing that is suppossed to be fun is just dumb as hell
See THIS is the reasoning behind the RMT the 'can't be borthered' factor.
Theres LOADS of people illeagally buying gold within MMOs via farmers to gain these such items as they can't be bothered playing the game - they just want to be 'L33T' and show off, as I've joked before give players an option to buy from Blizzard preleveled characters they WOULD make a killing, Sony does it with Everquest kinda,well Everquest has always had RMT in some form, I've seen other F2P games do this too.. With all the name, characer, server change options you already get in many mmos all RMT does is bring it to the forground.
Factor in the 'don't have the time crowd' as well and there IS a market for RMT, why allow the farmers to be the only ones profiting for the mainly lazy gamer (before you linch me I don't class the 'don't have the time' crowd as lazy, but I still don't see it as an excuse to buy gold etc), it's far more profitable to the company involed just to offer 'gold' themselfs, more players would welcome the chance to buy direct without risking their accounts, it's basically paying for the time spent trying to normally get the items in question...
The key factor with the RMT negitivity is the assumption that any company using RMT would force the player to use it or not enjoy the game to it's full level, like many many f2p games, HOWEVER unlike the f2p mmo the RMT isn't a p2p game's only source of income so it's not really required to activitly make profit..
This is all probly going to fall on deaf ears, but the only negitive factor to RMT is the above mentioned forced purchase, which both with CO and also DDO both conpanies behind it have said everything on offer is either fluff or obtinated via normal means, all RMT is doing is giving you the 'fast pass to the ride'.
As long as RMT remains completely optional then I'll happy continue to sub to any game with it in
Bring on the WARRRRGGHH!
Perhaps the don’t have the time' crowd, are the same people who use gold sellers? Now they will be able to do their RMT's officially.
Of course it’s the company that wins, not you the player. In fact it is worse for the player, as gold can buy items, but not levels and achievements.
There are plenty of fine MMO’s out there without a cash shop, take your business there. As the $$ and ££ signs fill the eyes of an industry that was founded on player passion, you have to wonder does all that is gold turn to dross?
We really shouldn't have to play the game to know these things.
It's seven weeks until release, and potential players don't know what type of game this is...
Well my interest is Champions Online is totally gone. Scratch another off the upcoming list for me.
My problem is their last statement, game effecting items. Literially this translates into nearly and almost anything. From EXP boosters and everything else. They must define this further. People who are defending the practice have never played a Free MMO. We put up with it in Free MMOs because they are free you don't have to buy the disc you don't have to pay subscriptions.
To put it in game like this is ridiculous, because you know the only way they are going to make money off of it is by making it difficult to gain in game. By selling it through a cash shop you are belittling what ever effort there is in gaining that item legitamately. If you had a service available to have someone else play the game for you people would do it. Power Leveling.
What about selling veteran awards? Ya you can get it in game if you wait 2-5 years. Saying you can get it in game can mean a wide range of things.
Wise decision. Well I guess it really boils down to this.
Would you rather play a game for 10 hours to do something or would you rather work at your job for 3 hours to do the same thing.
When a game is more enjoyable by working at your place of employement instead of actually playing, something is drastically wrong.
It would be like getting a quest that asks you to log off and go to work for a few hours.
it does this old gamers heart proud to see so many people standing up and saying "no, i wont play" when it comes to lazybitch RMTing.
to all the people saying its just going to be cosmetic: thats how it starts then it snowballs from there.
look at the 3rd point game changing items can be earned...just remember runes of magic said the same thing. now i dont play RoM but didnt somebody figure out that it was 2 YEARS of playing to get what the item mall can get in a day?
DDO is doing this now, i used to like the game back in the day and i beta tested their F2P stuff mostly because i wanted to see favoured souls. yeah max level is 4 for a free player unless you buy an item or find it in a quest....so far last i heard 1 or 2 were found total out of all the testers after a few weeks. oh yeah did i forget to mention that the sigil only ups your max level to like 8 or so.
what im trying to say is, well, i guess its been said already. pointing at the 3rd point of theirs and saying "look there you go anti-rmt crowd" just proves how little experience you probably have with f2p games.
These companies are all about maximizing profits. They WILL do everything in their power to make sure that cash shops are not only profitable, but will bring in substantially more income than plain subscriptions ever could. Focus on fluff items? Do they think we're that stupid? If they want this model to succeed, you HAVE to make it a necessity or make sure it appeals to a person's addictive nature.
Every cash shop in every game out so far has implemented items that change the way the game plays and increases the strength and efficiency of the buyers characters. They make basic game play so boring and odious that you feel compelled to either buy from the cash shops to improve things or you quit. At least in F2P games you can play at least some of the content without paying a dime, but good luck finding that content entertaining unless you're a masochistisc hardcore gamer.
F2P games make a profit, P2P games make a profit. Not only are these business models profitable, they can afford to keep updating their games and producing expansion packs. Combining them IS the epitome of greed. It's uncalled for and I hope these companies fall flat on their asses for trying. I will have no problems what so ever leaving this genre behind if they continue down this path and they are sadly mistaken if they think the West will embrace it like the East. Western MMO gaming is still a niche in the computer gaming industry, good luck appealing to all those potential customers who already view the genre with distatse.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
After the news of the possibility of microtransactions was released several months ago, a lot of people tried in vain to talk common sense to the people with loose wallets and looser mouths who insist that this doesn't matter. The simple fact is, by selling "cool stuff" for real cash, Cryptic has no incentive to produce such content for the main subscriber base. In a game where customization is the main draw, roping off segments of the game for the rabid few who have way too much excess cash on their hands is a fast track to ruin. Cryptic would have to be extremely altruistic not to adopt this posture and with Emmert and Roper in the ranks, we know that that's not the case. In fact, this whole "different tiers of gameplay" marketing method smells an awful lot like Hellgate: London and we know who was the mastermind behind that.
I get the feeling that we are looking at another Age of Conan or WAR or even Tabula Rasa. a game that sells on pure hype and tanks like lead balloon shortly after release. If you don't see the parallel, then how about telling the class when the Xbox version is scheduled for release? Many thanks to the enablers who have sent a signal to Cryptic that double-dipping your customer base, especially in this economy, is okay.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
Add me to the list of people who will no longer be looking at this game.
MTs are a deal breaker for me, to the point where I would rather not play MMOs than play with MTs.
I'm done making arguments for my positions. I'll let me money to the talking from here on out.