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Was fun, turned into typical cash grab. I guess that's Trion for you.
I played this starting around the end of the closed beta. It held my attention for about 3 months, which is a LONG time in the modern MMO market. That said, within the last month, every patch has pushed players a little harder towards the cash shop. The point I quite playing was when they released Chaos Boxes. These are gambling boxes that have no posted odds and no posted prizes (the excuse being they change them every week). I have seen the results of several large amounts of boxes being opened and if you do the math, I think you'd be lucky to "earn" $.50 per hour worth of loot of farming compared to just buying and opening these boxes. I guess as long as there are suckers with more money than sense, Trion is there to help relieve them of such a burden.
If you're looking at this game, it's fun for a while, but the development is moving more and more towards pushing you into the cash shop. Just a friendly warning. 
Comments
Yes, I understand that. I don't mind putting money towards a game I enjoy. I don't like the majority of development driving me towards the cash shop. In fact, I was happy putting $20 per month towards the game, but when it gets to a point that I can't purchase everything + extra fun stuff with $20 monthly, I'm out.
Makes me miss the days of $15 monthly subs that included the whole game and all content being developed for it.
Yup, that's the cash shop backslash. It's too easy to make them smell of ill and rotten if you let the inner greed loose.
I already uninstalled Glyph a while ago.
I personally think Trove's method of F2P is something that gamers should appreciate. I don't see any locked content or required payments here. Perhaps when servers can be bought, maintained and run for fairy dust, and developers/IT/marketing/sales/HR/etc get paid with "good will" then these complaints may have some legitimacy.
ummmmm yea ... i did say quality content... i see none there ...
I logged in for the first time the other day after playing in the closed beta months ago and have to agree OP.
The gap between paying money to get things vs playing to earn things has shrunk so much that it was very shocking. The cash shop grew so much between closed beta and now that it's giving off a LOTRO vibe that I can't ignore.
@DMKano - Why must you come to Trion's defense every time someone has an opinion about how they run their games/business? It's only tainted my view of them b/c they need some guy on some forum defending their every move. You are obviously trying to help them but you might actually be doing more harm than good - that's just my opinion though.
OR
I was happy putting my $20 into the game monthly to buy a new item here and there and some fun stuff I could share with people I liked in the game (ala pinatas). There were some P2W shortcuts, but you needed to spend time finding buyers, then spend time finding the items you needed to buy. Now you can accomplish most of the advancement by swiping your credit card. When people can buy accomplishments, they lose any meaning to me.
How would you feel about doctorate degrees if you got them by simply paying money, no effort involved? How long do you think people would place value on them? I have a feeling they would become meaningless to employers pretty quickly. This just highlights the idea that effort into accomplishments makes them feel like actual accomplishments. Buying them doesn't really make them much of an accomplishment.
The only thing you can't buy is levels. Everything else can be had for flux, which can be obtained from Chaos Chests or by buying store items and selling. So, you do have to level each class to 20, but there are even ways to buy that if you let someone power level you while you stand outside dungeons/lairs. Mastery level 100 can be obtained through LOTS of farming and grinding or minimal effort and a credit card swipe. Due to this, mastery level 100 is an "achievement" that is worthless. It's not satisfying to bust your ass to get something and see someone next to you buy it. It no longer feels like an accomplishment, but more a waste of time.
You gain mastery experience for unlocking things like mounts, pets, costumes, etc. Mastery experience gives you mastery ranks. Mastery ranks provide in-game advantage that becomes pretty significant. Those +3% damage and +3% max health start to add up. In a PvE focused game, min/maxing your character is a way to "win" in my opinion. Under that definition, pretty much everything you can buy in the cash shop is P2W.
IMO AA was a mess but giving up on all games a company makes because of one bad one would mean no one would play any game. A good game is a good game. I hate EA but I am still going to play their sports games.
Me as well.
First PC Game: Pool of Radiance July 10th, 1990. First MMO: Everquest April 23, 1999
How hard is mastery exp to come by? What is the chances you get mastery exp in the cash shop, every time you do a transaction or random mount you may win on a roll?
100 mastery experience per mastery rank. You get 1 mastery experience for finding a new style (pretty easy at the start) and 2 for a new recipe. You get 50 for a mount, 10 for pets, 25 for costumes (I think). You can directly buy pets, mounts and costumes from the cash shop. Some can be obtained from logging in and completing the daily enough days, others can only be obtained by someone purchasing them (either you directly or someone else who then sells it to you for in game currency/items). Costumes can ONLY be obtained in the cash shop for cash. There is no random to it. You can buy a lot of mastery ranks with a credit card.
Edit: You can also buy style unlock items that randomly unlock a style you have not yet found. You can also buy Chaos Boxes that provide you with minimally crafting material that you would need to gather otherwise, maximally with very rare items that can not be obtained any other way (such as mounts and wings). Even if you don't get what you want through Chaos Boxes, you can sell what you do get and buy what you want. All by swiping the CC!
Edit 2: You can even buy special keys that allow you to eliminate the random from RNG boxes you obtain in the game. Using the key guarantees you the "grand prize" from the RNG box, which may be like a 1% or less chance otherwise.
Ya I would call that P2W unless there is something I am missing.
Oh, please! The only people who can call anything in Trove P2W, have clearly never played the game. Combat is so simple I can probably train my cat to level for me. It's a cute game, but that's about it.
So what is there to win?
When I look at their cash shop, I have no idea how they intend to make any money. Everything that is somewhat interesting (classes, crafting recipes, building blocks) is unlocked or collected just by playing the game.
People never happy, I have to say, that trove came a long way, yes it's a free to play see the name you can play for free, but they can't run thing the way people think,. The dev for trove put in a lot of hard work and they did a good job with tons of stuff can get for free with out not much work needed to start off.
And they keep dropping quality content, if people don't agree then I'm sorry not a game for you, I think people need to just move on enjoy something they think whats ever quality content is in there mind is never the same as other.
But if people think this game it's pay to win, then every game out there it's pay to win in there eyes or there just being picky and putting things fit there side of class of idea what a game should be, but never look at it outside the box.
Reason i quit as well, I'm a collector and like to collect as many of the game things that i can, even if they're pointless, It's just what i find fun to do.
When a lot of that is stuffed behind a paywall, i quickly lose interest, i still prefer subscription fees.
Even if trove was a sub game, as sub games out there are now still tons of grind walls and RNG loot system noting new there. Then if people think that trove is cash grab, and then I think wow it's cash grab why? cuz I have to pay to get there xpack and keep playing $15 a month, oh wait ff14 too, just to play need to take my money, thats the mine set I see people in general. Just to point it out none the games I named wow, ff14 or trove are not cash grab just making a point, in how people mind set miss place thinking I must get all of it free with no work.
Distinguishing wants from needs is always a tough lesson.