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*prepares flamethrower* ... *pauses* ... *does a quick reality check*
Doh. My bad. I'm embarassed to admit that I got you mixed up with someone else who has been more aggressively pushing cash shop games.
( I feel buyer's remorse is a telling symptom of scammy business models and don't agree with the sort of "let the buyer beware" view of the world, but I read your posts in the wrong context and so I think I read a nastier tone than you intended; sorry )
Honestly, my tone does occasionaly get... uncivilized. So I wouldn't feel too bad about that.
I do understand the sympathetic sentiment when faced with these stories about how someone spent thousands of dollars on one of these P2W games and they didn't make rent or lost their car or something. That is a really unfortunate situation. You can only hope that people learn from their mistakes like the OP did.
I think... see, there is another view that I think should be considered about these P2W games. People don't tend to sympathise with the customers that can afford paying large sums of money to these P2W games and have fun doing it. That is their form of entertainment. No matter how silly it seems to me, there are people that can afford it and find it enjoyable. I don't think there is anything wrong with games being designed around and played by these people.
I guess it comes down to how they are advertised vs what they are. I know they are made with big spenders in mind, but that's only because I'm pretty well versed in MMORPG. I can definitely see how the advertising doesn't match the product in the case of games like RoM. F2P this, F2P that. In the end, they are designed from the ground up as Palot2W. I can definitely see how that seems scammy. On the other hand, in my opinion the choice is still in the hands of the consumer.
A little story about Runes Of Magic.
A while ago there was a thread on the forum moaning that the new dungeon content was too easy and certain players wanted it made harder. These players were in the "F2P Whales" (some had spent in excess of $3000, over a few years I might add) category of spenders and what they had done was upgrade their gear so much that even the high end PvE content was made irrelevant to them but was still a challenge to many of the non high purchasers who were obviuosly against making the raids harder. These players had actually "gimped" themselves by spending too much money on the game, how ironic, don't you think?
Of course the argument can be made that the game shouldn't allow such high upgrades to gear but thats like saying that Bugati's and Maclaren's shouldn't exist when they can cut travel times down and ruin the "journey", some players love the feeling of hosing down a whole highend raid but it'll cost ya! people are their own worst enemy at times and thats the core of the argument here though for the rest of us its makes playing cheaply more viable, So thanks all the Whales out there much appreciated.
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
OoooOOo tough call but I would say its probably a close run Between Allods Online and Runes of Magic.
Allods maybe more only due to the fact the they continually patched to trap gamers. Example: at start every cash shop item was obtainable in game with time and OR proper knowledge of how to obtain them easily. They also had a free sale auction house where anything and everything was sellable-every cash shop item-gold-pretty much everything in game with no restrictions. Then they slowy added restrictions to what could be bought on auction house ending up in only afew cash shop items could be on ah and those had an expire date. Example astral dusts needed to run instances or allods would expire after 7 days whether they were used or not the cash spent on item would be lost along with the item. Then they terminated any way to gain cash shop item in the world so the only source was real money. and from there they got even more gangster. Examples mobs that could not be engaged with out death and penalties with out cash shop items, Looted items that could not be used with out a cash shop item that only gave u a chance to use the looted item, cash shop items needed to keep your gear from breaking upon death, cursed item that would jack up your toon when equipped and be unable to be unequiped with out a 5$ cash hsop item. I could go on and on FRUAD seems like a class action lawsuite that should have been filed agianst this title as real cash was being grifted.
Runes of magic was an insanely fun game absolutely amazing game play that I would have paid a premium sub for and would still probably be playing gladly paying my 15$ a month. but sadly greed won out in this title too at end game to be able to pvp or pve you had to spend close to 100$ a month or spend 15 hours a day for 3 months to achieve the same goal. Which I would not have a problem with spending the time playing to eventually get there.....BUT they made it so that the game was changing approximately every 3 months in some fashion to require the time or money which seemed to double every update or expansion. Example at first 100$ or 3 motnhs would do it then it took about 200$ and 6 months to get to the next phase then more instances would be introduced on a tri monthly basis in a way that to do the new set would req 100$ or 3months BUT that was the first set of new instances so another 100$ a week after you do the first set for second set then 100$ the second week for third set then another 100$ to finish off a final set of gear. 2 months to enjoy you progress then BAM new expansion or content that you could no longer play with out the expnses agian. I tried and with friends and a good guild that put out money and shared expanses to make it cost about 20$ month ofr all of us to hand off gear and mod sets for two or three to carry the rest of us but it eventually got to the point that all of us had to put in the crazy time every day +25$ a month game rocked but wasn't 25$ a month good + 40-50 hours a week of unfun farm time. We did gank noobs alot and jus take their gear but you start to feel bad when you look at your new ilgotten shiny gear and know you just ganked 100-200$ of real money from some one hehe
Comments
Its a loyalty rewards system never seen one of those before *slaps head*
http://www.nectar.com/eshops/index.rnectar
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/
https://www.shellsmart.com/smart/index.html?site=en-en
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
A little story about Runes Of Magic.
A while ago there was a thread on the forum moaning that the new dungeon content was too easy and certain players wanted it made harder. These players were in the "F2P Whales" (some had spent in excess of $3000, over a few years I might add) category of spenders and what they had done was upgrade their gear so much that even the high end PvE content was made irrelevant to them but was still a challenge to many of the non high purchasers who were obviuosly against making the raids harder. These players had actually "gimped" themselves by spending too much money on the game, how ironic, don't you think?
Of course the argument can be made that the game shouldn't allow such high upgrades to gear but thats like saying that Bugati's and Maclaren's shouldn't exist when they can cut travel times down and ruin the "journey", some players love the feeling of hosing down a whole highend raid but it'll cost ya! people are their own worst enemy at times and thats the core of the argument here though for the rest of us its makes playing cheaply more viable, So thanks all the Whales out there
much appreciated.
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
OoooOOo tough call but I would say its probably a close run Between Allods Online and Runes of Magic.
Allods maybe more only due to the fact the they continually patched to trap gamers. Example: at start every cash shop item was obtainable in game with time and OR proper knowledge of how to obtain them easily. They also had a free sale auction house where anything and everything was sellable-every cash shop item-gold-pretty much everything in game with no restrictions. Then they slowy added restrictions to what could be bought on auction house ending up in only afew cash shop items could be on ah and those had an expire date. Example astral dusts needed to run instances or allods would expire after 7 days whether they were used or not the cash spent on item would be lost along with the item. Then they terminated any way to gain cash shop item in the world so the only source was real money. and from there they got even more gangster. Examples mobs that could not be engaged with out death and penalties with out cash shop items, Looted items that could not be used with out a cash shop item that only gave u a chance to use the looted item, cash shop items needed to keep your gear from breaking upon death, cursed item that would jack up your toon when equipped and be unable to be unequiped with out a 5$ cash hsop item. I could go on and on FRUAD seems like a class action lawsuite that should have been filed agianst this title as real cash was being grifted.
Runes of magic was an insanely fun game absolutely amazing game play that I would have paid a premium sub for and would still probably be playing gladly paying my 15$ a month. but sadly greed won out in this title too at end game to be able to pvp or pve you had to spend close to 100$ a month or spend 15 hours a day for 3 months to achieve the same goal. Which I would not have a problem with spending the time playing to eventually get there.....BUT they made it so that the game was changing approximately every 3 months in some fashion to require the time or money which seemed to double every update or expansion. Example at first 100$ or 3 motnhs would do it then it took about 200$ and 6 months to get to the next phase then more instances would be introduced on a tri monthly basis in a way that to do the new set would req 100$ or 3months BUT that was the first set of new instances so another 100$ a week after you do the first set for second set then 100$ the second week for third set then another 100$ to finish off a final set of gear. 2 months to enjoy you progress then BAM new expansion or content that you could no longer play with out the expnses agian. I tried and with friends and a good guild that put out money and shared expanses to make it cost about 20$ month ofr all of us to hand off gear and mod sets for two or three to carry the rest of us but it eventually got to the point that all of us had to put in the crazy time every day +25$ a month game rocked but wasn't 25$ a month good + 40-50 hours a week of unfun farm time. We did gank noobs alot and jus take their gear but you start to feel bad when you look at your new ilgotten shiny gear and know you just ganked 100-200$ of real money from some one hehe