ArcheAge Pay2Win (Warning/Review)

LuciousVictis

ArcheAge is a game that i was hyped for few years ago when they first released trailers and then i forgot about it.

I got hyped again around the alpha opening by a few streamers/youtubers, so i went in, 150$ in.

This is what i think of the game, of Trion and XL Games after having played for one month and having watched all their livestreams/Q&A. Excuse my english, this isnt my native language and i am very tired at the moment.

 

Let's get to the P2W aspect right away : XL Games made this game with free to play model in mind and the whole entire game reeks of it. The only reason why anyone would be interested in this game would be either, open world pvp or the few sandbox elements that is hiding behind this labor point system... Almost anything you will do at endgame will require you to use labor point that will regen much much much slower than what you can spend within an hour or two in any given day, even if you are a "Subscriber". They confirmed that they will sell labor potion in their store, no one can deny that this is pure and simple, pay to win. You aquire something that no one can aquire in game, no matter how hard they can work for it. At the end of the day, your labor regen will cap at 2160 while they will be making way more, giving anyone a clear advantage on crafting, the best gear in the game and then having a clear advantage on the econnomy and pvp. Now in a game like this, yes skills matters but econnomy and pvp advantages are a great deal to a lot of people.

Not only that but XL Games have at this very moment many P2W items in their store, items that trion claim wont make it to our stores but have you ever watched one of their livestream? You can find them on youtube, watch how they avoid so many important question about the store and the future of this game, the changes and all. They make a lot of political promesses and play with words like no others, they repeated the same thing in every single streams, no lie, go watch.

Now they admitted that they will sell gears, they strongly dictate on what you can and cannot do by holding labor points. This is a sandbox kind of game, crafting is the whole point of this game, econnomy and pvp, thats the only decent things in this game and they are ruining it. Just look at the alpha price and tell me they wont try to milk that ingame store with p2w items. 

 

The review part : Yeah the crafting is nice, the farming, housing, boats, scuba diving, treasure hunting. All nice things that are pretty much locked down to a very small part of your day since you will max out your labor extremely fast. The class system is very nice, skill synergy is good as well, the combat felt responsive too.

While the environments are sometimes really awsome, there is a clear lack of atmosphere almost everywhere and the characters look terrible, character customisation is just awfull for 2014. Some animation are well done, others like walks/runs looks weird and the combat in general is very boring, not only is it tab targetting but there is not one bit of innovation like, think aion tab targetting combos system where it was much more action/reaction.

The pvp is good but with absolutely no incentive and very very few war region status where you finaly earn some reputations that allow you to buy very few items that wont serve very much. About 1/5 of the time, you cant attack people. its peace, then 3/5 you can kill anyone but wont earn anything from it, then finally war times comes around and you have a point to pvp. Now yeah you can mess around pvp for fun but at some point, it gets boring with no goals to thrive for.

The pve, so while you try to regen some labor point which you will be doing most of your time, you may want to farm some npc to get some gold... Even in lvl 50 zones mobs doesnt drop anything worth it, most money you will earn in pve you will earn it thru questing, a very boring questing, quick tho as you can lvl to 50 in just a few days. Mobs have no purpose, they wait there for you to kill them, low aggro system, very boring fights, bad loot. NO challenge what so ever, 1-50, nothing will even tickle you.

They delayed the game, will release with new patch but they are holding lvl 55 away from you guys..

Anyway just my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

Ask for a refund if you pre ordered for beta, wait for the game to come free to play, try it and you will see what i mean.

I left after one month, i am not hating on the game, they did a good job on some aspect but they lock down the only good things about this game. They dictate what you can and cannot do.... And Trion is shady as **** 

Get to lvl 50 before spending any money in this game or you will regret it.

150$ for a free game, people still hope that the game be good.... Eso special race/horse 20$ and its the end of the world?? I am confused....

Crusades

Thanks for the heads up, let's spread the news and torch this game , burn it down!

TheDarkrayne

Trion ain't done it with Rift.. any stat items can all be obtained, easily and through normal gameplay, in game..

They have the benefit of the doubt until they show otherwise.

flizzer

You do realize the hate will soon be incoming.  Your opinion, if it contradicts my opinion, means I must personally attack you.  On top of that you have lots of other schmucks, ur customers, who paid 150 to alpha test a mostly finished game.

sanshi44

Originally posted by LuciousVictis

ArcheAge is a game that i was hyped for few years ago when they first released trailers and then i forgot about it.

I got hyped again around the alpha opening by a few streamers/youtubers, so i went in, 150$ in.

This is what i think of the game, of Trion and XL Games after having played for one month and having watched all their livestreams/Q&A. Excuse my english, this isnt my native language and i am very tired at the moment.

 

Let's get to the P2W aspect right away : XL Games made this game with free to play model in mind and the whole entire game reeks of it. The only reason why anyone would be interested in this game would be either, open world pvp or the few sandbox elements that is hiding behind this labor point system... Almost anything you will do at endgame will require you to use labor point that will regen much much much slower than what you can spend within an hour or two in any given day, even if you are a "Subscriber". They confirmed that they will sell labor potion in their store, no one can deny that this is pure and simple, pay to win. You aquire something that no one can aquire in game, no matter how hard they can work for it. At the end of the day, your labor regen will cap at 2160 while they will be making way more, giving anyone a clear advantage on crafting, the best gear in the game and then having a clear advantage on the econnomy and pvp. Now in a game like this, yes skills matters but econnomy and pvp advantages are a great deal to a lot of people.

Not only that but XL Games have at this very moment many P2W items in their store, items that trion claim wont make it to our stores but have you ever watched one of their livestream? You can find them on youtube, watch how they avoid so many important question about the store and the future of this game, the changes and all. They make a lot of political promesses and play with words like no others, they repeated the same thing in every single streams, no lie, go watch.

Now they admitted that they will sell gears, they strongly dictate on what you can and cannot do by holding labor points. This is a sandbox kind of game, crafting is the whole point of this game, econnomy and pvp, thats the only decent things in this game and they are ruining it. Just look at the alpha price and tell me they wont try to milk that ingame store with p2w items. 

 

The review part : Yeah the crafting is nice, the farming, housing, boats, scuba diving, treasure hunting. All nice things that are pretty much locked down to a very small part of your day since you will max out your labor extremely fast. The class system is very nice, skill synergy is good as well, the combat felt responsive too.

While the environments are sometimes really awsome, there is a clear lack of atmosphere almost everywhere and the characters look terrible, character customisation is just awfull for 2014. Some animation are well done, others like walks/runs looks weird and the combat in general is very boring, not only is it tab targetting but there is not one bit of innovation like, think aion tab targetting combos system where it was much more action/reaction.

The pvp is good but with absolutely no incentive and very very few war region status where you finaly earn some reputations that allow you to buy very few items that wont serve very much. About 1/5 of the time, you cant attack people. its peace, then 3/5 you can kill anyone but wont earn anything from it, then finally war times comes around and you have a point to pvp. Now yeah you can mess around pvp for fun but at some point, it gets boring with no goals to thrive for.

The pve, so while you try to regen some labor point which you will be doing most of your time, you may want to farm some npc to get some gold... Even in lvl 50 zones mobs doesnt drop anything worth it, most money you will earn in pve you will earn it thru questing, a very boring questing, quick tho as you can lvl to 50 in just a few days. Mobs have no purpose, they wait there for you to kill them, low aggro system, very boring fights, bad loot. NO challenge what so ever, 1-50, nothing will even tickle you.

They delayed the game, will release with new patch but they are holding lvl 55 away from you guys..

Anyway just my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

Ask for a refund if you pre ordered for beta, wait for the game to come free to play, try it and you will see what i mean.

I left after one month, i am not hating on the game, they did a good job on some aspect but they lock down the only good things about this game. They dictate what you can and cannot do.... And Trion is shady as **** 

Get to lvl 50 before spending any money in this game or you will regret it.

150$ for a free game, people still hope that the game be good.... Eso special race/horse 20$ and its the end of the world?? I am confused....

You havant been to auroria have you yet to kill lvl 50 mobs u can make 1-2gold every minute up there if your doing it right + drops required for higher end crafting.

Jupsto

do you really need labour points to enjoy the game tho?

I find it hard to imagine (pherhaps because i'm pretty used to full loot mmos) why I would care long term that I dont have enough labour points to craft something.

I mean once I get good gear thats it - I can pvp forever and not lose the gear. why do I need labour points to craft and make money, since I don't need more gear.

yeah I don't understand how a crafting based ecconomy works without full loot or item decay. eventually amount of items in game will become oversaturated and best gear will cost nothing.

mcrippins

Saying that players cannot obtain things like labor potions in game is simply false. You will be able to buy cash shop credits with in-game gold. This has been stated a number of times, both on stream and in forums. You can even buy 'patron' status with in-game gold. So people should really disregard that whole section of your 'review'.

LuciousVictis

I dont care for the hate, everyone has their opinion and they can take it personnal or not i dont care.

Hey i paid this turd 150 and one month after i am done with it, i wont even try 1.2.

The game simply isnt worth it, in fact i waited what, 1 month to write this so much i didnt care? But seeying people defending this game on this forum made me sick to watch....

Go define p2w....with an entry fee of 150 for a free to play game... bunch of....ah. Game is bad guys, its that bad.

sanshi44

Originally posted by LuciousVictis

I dont care for the hate, everyone has their opinion and they can take it personnal or not i dont care.

Hey i paid this turd 150 and one month after i am done with it, i wont even try 1.2.

The game simply isnt worth it, in fact i waited what, 1 month to write this so much i didnt care? But seeying people defending this game on this forum made me sick to watch....

Go define p2w....with an entry fee of 150 for a free to play game... bunch of....ah. Game is bad guys, its that bad.

150 dollars for alpha cant p2w alpha, as for cash shop its not even in game yet, yes they said there will be labor potions but they also said it will be on a cooldown not to mention u will be able to get everything off the marketplace with gold if u choose.

Evelknievel

Well as the old saying goes... One mans trash is another mans treasure.

Crusades

Originally posted by LuciousVictis

I dont care for the hate, everyone has their opinion and they can take it personnal or not i dont care.Hey i paid this turd 150 and one month after i am done with it, i wont even try 1.2.The game simply isnt worth it, in fact i waited what, 1 month to write this so much i didnt care? But seeying people defending this game on this forum made me sick to watch....Go define p2w....with an entry fee of 150 for a free to play game... bunch of....ah. Game is bad guys, its that bad.

 

Why did you even pay for the alpha? Early access and paid alpha are bad for consumers. I would recommend you never do that again, and furthermore never pre order a game either.

LuciousVictis

Low lvl items are recycled by using them to craft higher tier items, that is if it procs and you bet that every try make you waste labor points. Just imagine, cap crafting point is 50 000 but to craft you need labor point that slows you greatly everyday. Now money sink and labor sink. You craft every tier of gear until it procs to a rarer items, every tier must procs up until the last tier lvl 50 and it must have the right set of bonus mind you. So even to get one item to the rarest at lvl 50 and being the right bonus set is extremely lucky, but imagine doing this for ur whole set and imagine that you will do this during weeks until you may even get one piece done......

Not because its costly because it is, because the game stops you from doing so. It tells you, no you cant gather today, no you cant get ur damn trees on ur land today because u did enough today.... really.....

Seriously, i work 12 hours a day, work out and part time school..... Even then i would cap my labor point easily...Its THAT bad im telling you.

kertin

Hmm, so he made new account to post this! :-D What a hater he has to be! ^_^

Mighty_Platypus

It seems to me people still don't know what the definition of P2W is. I find it hilarious when reading these posts, and seeing what some people claim is P2W. You can do anything in the game, but it takes you longer if you don't pay... This is not P2W. You cannot own a house in this game if you do not pay, so your ability to grow crops goes away, so you can't craft. So buy your gear, don't play the economic part of the game, do something else, or better yet, pay for the work someone else put into a product meant for your entertainment.

LuciousVictis

I actualy liked the game guys, i dont like to be dictated on what i can and cannot do by some free to play model. I hate free play to start with and free loaders so that doesnt help. They lock down the only great things about this game, hey i even said, wait till it release to try it for free.

Vapors

Labor points= crafting and building? How is that making you win in a pvp battle.

sanshi44

Originally posted by LuciousVictis

Low lvl items are recycled by using them to craft higher tier items, that is if it procs and you bet that every try make you waste labor points. Just imagine, cap crafting point is 50 000 but to craft you need labor point that slows you greatly everyday. Now money sink and labor sink. You craft every tier of gear until it procs to a rarer items, every tier must procs up until the last tier lvl 50 and it must have the right set of bonus mind you. So even to get one item to the rarest at lvl 50 and being the right bonus set is extremely lucky, but imagine doing this for ur whole set and imagine that you will do this during weeks until you may even get one piece done......

Not because its costly because it is, because the game stops you from doing so. It tells you, no you cant gather today, no you cant get ur damn trees on ur land today because u did enough today.... really.....

Seriously, i work 12 hours a day, work out and part time school..... Even then i would cap my labor point easily...Its THAT bad im telling you.

Your can regrade and restat items so if you dont get what u want you can regrade it using an item to either increase the rareity or change the stats on the gear, you never have to remake a piece from scratch because you can use this regrading and restating equipment. You havant even got all the facts yet and ur just making assumptions which isnt good when it comes to these things.

sanshi44

Originally posted by LuciousVictis
lol ok let me rephrase this sir, an alpha of a free to play game has an entry fee of 150$.... Is that any better ? Because saying an entry fee of 150$ of a free to play didnt made it obivious? FREE TO PLAY ? Your picking up on words kid.

If you cant figure out why alpha access cost money to get into its not worth the time explaining it too you.

LuciousVictis

I think you are trolling me now buddy.

What part of free to play and paying for an acces dont you understand ?

Ok i ommited to say alpha but it was a given since i said ITS FREE TO PLAY. I mean, read ?

Yeah they give special items and cash shop money, to buy maybe some backpack spaces ? More character slot? Maybe access to the bokers and all that, you know that convieniance stuff that even someone that paid 150$ isnt getting ?

lol....

I mean the whole thing screams milk dude cant you even see it ? Someone who is paying monthly for a game should never have to buy stupid backpack space or anything so basic....sigh

What do i care anyway, stay blind, i been out this game for while now. Andddddddd no you cant have my account.

borghive49

This is the first MMO in years that has come along that I actually enjoyed. Maybe the OP should go back to WoW  where there is no P2W. :P

LuciousVictis

Sanshi, are you brain washed?

Tons and tons and tons and tons of other much more succesfull, popular and awaited have released and never asked anything in return to get into a freaking alpha or beta. Let alone asking for a ridiculous 150.... Now really its disgusting to see people accepting this and i really hope game compagnies wont carry on with this but i fear it will only get worst... Just look at star citizen with their ships..... eh.

deniter

Pardon me, but wasn't the whole purpose of LP's that no character could build / craft stuff 24/7, and you could hire people to work for you by buying some or all of their LP's?

I'm strictly against the idea that players buy LP's from Cash Shop, but otherwise it sounds a good way to limit freeloaders and bots and encourage people to subscribe, and also add some realism to crafting.

LuciousVictis

DMKano where the hell you from? They used to pay people to get in their alpha. ITS CALLED GAME TESTERS BRO. Thats right, they used to pay people to report bugs and all that. Now, we pay a FUTURE FREE TO PLAY GAME 150$ to get in the alpha. While the reality is, the hardware limitation that you speak of is nothing, they couldve bought more servers to fullfill demands that anyway would be here at release, so why not open the servers sooner than later..... TO create demands.

Oh we have only one server quick grab your entry, they did said it was limited right ?? Right ? on every single stream, yes guys only one server so its first come first served...lol. Good god. Oh wait, closed beta is here, we open one server more....

LuciousVictis

Originally posted by deniter

Pardon me, but wasn't the whole purpose of LP's that no character could build / craft stuff 24/7, and you could hire people to work for you by buying some or all of their LP's?

I'm strictly against the idea that players buy LP's from Cash Shop, but otherwise it sounds a good way to limit freeloaders and bots and encourage people to subscribe, and also add some realism to crafting.

Problem is that even if you are sub, paying montly for this game, you wont even be able to craft/gather for about 1-2 hour maximum everyday. Now i am not even a crafter or housing kind of guy mind you, but it bothered me so bad to be restricted from what i could and couldnt do.... Nah cant cut that tree on ur land, gotta wait tomorow or another 10 minutes... Its straight ridiculous. You gain about 2200 LP a day subscribed and some item go up to 1500lp to make if not more, so from what ive seen so far.

Mothanos

Waagh Waaaaaaagh Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh !!!! pay to win !!! Waaaagh waaaaaagh Waaaaagh

Subscribe and get the best of both worlds.
For only 12 euro a month.
Cant afford it ? get a job at Wallmart / Mcdonnalds.

An4thor

Originally posted by LuciousVictis

Sanshi, are you brain washed?

Tons and tons and tons and tons of other much more succesfull, popular and awaited have released and never asked anything in return to get into a freaking alpha or beta. Let alone asking for a ridiculous 150.... Now really its disgusting to see people accepting this and i really hope game compagnies wont carry on with this but i fear it will only get worst... Just look at star citizen with their ships..... eh.

Is brain whased your catch phrase? I think you could come up with something smarter :P

Trion never asked you to buy their alpha/beta access. Plenty of people got a free invite. You got hyped and bought a free game. Now you are venting your frustration on the game because "self entitlement" is nowadays kids attitude.

It was a bad investment, for YOU, now let others enjoy the game.

Originally posted by deniter

Pardon me, but wasn't the whole purpose of LP's that no character could build / craft stuff 24/7, and you could hire people to work for you by buying some or all of their LP's?

I'm strictly against the idea that players buy LP's from Cash Shop, but otherwise it sounds a good way to limit freeloaders and bots and encourage people to subscribe, and also add some realism to crafting.

Yes deniter. It's to avoid having the auction house filled with garbage and not having to sell your hard earned crops and gear for 1 copper each.

The LP potions will have a cooldown and they will be account bound, to avoid abuse. Source is from their livestreams which op is oblivious to.