Is there an MMO cash shop that goes ALL in?

TheScavenger

MMO cash shops, many are obvious pay to win cash making schemes.

Yet, I am not aware of one (is there one?), that lets you buy max level character AND best items in the game. I mean, just straight up buy the best item (weapon+armor outfit) in the game. Is there one? I assume there would be.

Many MMO cash shops are pay to win...yet do NOT go all in. They already make a lot of people mad, making endgame buyable items won't change that at all. Yet, the "a lot" isn't so accurate either. Its mostly the vocal majority that hate pay to win cash shops. Most people either don't care or actually like it because it saves a lot of time. They can then focus 100% on PvP or endgame raiding.

Imagine a PvP MMO. Instead of always being outgunned by someone who plays more than you...buy best items and suddenly its no longer ganking, but actual real pure PvP. The MMO company wins by making money, the player wins by not getting ganked 24/7 by someone who has a better guild or whatever that can do raiding. 

If an MMO is already going the pay to win route, might as well go all in. And if the MMO is already pay to win anyway, it won't actually change anyones opinion. The haters will still hate, and the people who don't care or like it will appreciate or...just not care. Won't make the situation worse at all, and instead benefit the players of that game who don't care about cash shops or like them.

dreadlordnaf

Yes, its called any game where you can just buy someone's maxed out account....

TheScavenger

dreadlordnaf said:

Yes, its called any game where you can just buy someone's maxed out account....

The problem with this, is often doing this is against the TOS. Easy to get banned for it if you are unlucky and get found out. Since the MMO company owns the account, not the actual player. At least that is how most MMOs I've played work.

Like in WoW. I've heard many stories of someone being banned after the GMs/Mods found out (either because the guy told a friend or whatever) the account was bought. That is because Blizzard owns the WoW account, not the player themselves. Which is very common in many MMOs.

Malathoos

You can buy max character and raid gear in RIFT cant you ?

Wizardry

Not max level as that is almost always another part of the grind to get you to pay in the CS with xp scrolls etc etc.
Asian games have been doing the BEST of for a long time now,i am sure everyone has seen those games where they have FAKE crafting?Designed so you keep spending to get that +1..+2..+3  etc etc eventually hitting a wall whereby doing the math tells you it will likely take 500-1500 dollars to get that +15 .

Another game that did it was a game i actually played a lot and enjoyed but the CS was too much...Runes of Magic.Their system involved Runes and adding stats from one item to another via various systems.Bottom line is that to get the very best item and fully imbue it meant a LOT of money spent,some said they spent 1500-3000 in one month.

Another misleading way of doing it is like in Blizzard's or ANY TCG game.EVERY single competitive player has EVERY single card they need immediately so they do not miss a beat.You look at all the winning players and they are using all the rares that would take around 500-1500 per set to get all those rares to build the top of the line decks.IDK about right this very minute but Blizzard was  making 20 million a month from a so called "free to play game",you do the math,20 mil/mnth says people are spending and NOT playing for free.

Talonsin

TheScavenger said:

If an MMO is already going the pay to win route, might as well go all in. And if the MMO is already pay to win anyway, it won't actually change anyones opinion.

This is where your logic is flawed.  Take Archeage for instance, they sell charms and regrade scrolls that allow you to max out your gear, yet some people here refuse to call this "pay-2-win".  Now I agree there really is no way to WIN an MMO, but there certainly is a way to WIN the vast majority of your fights in a PvP based game.  When I show them videos of KoonCoon two shotting people, they call it skill and again fail to acknowledge any extra performance he gets from putting thousands of dollars into the game. 

On the same token, if Trion actually put the best gear in the cash shop, then there would be no way to deny it and that would bust many of the reality bubbles that some of the current playerbase lives in.  So "going all in" would be a terrible idea for any MMO and it is also a reason why no one really does it.  Towing the line allows you plausible deniability and is enough to keep many players in the game.

4507

I don't think there has ever been an "all in" cash shop, but I strongly disagree that

TheScavenger said:

Most people either don't care or actually like it because it saves a lot of time.

Based on my own personal experience, the VAST majority of MMO players are against cash shops. They may tolerate them to play a game whose quality overcomes the cash shop's toxicity, but they are still against them.

Tiamat64

It's all about obfusucation.  By hiding the "best" gear behind RNG crafting and RNG pets and such, companies encourage people to spend more because people don't realize the true costs involved.

That would go out the window if they just sold maxed out characters and equipment straight out of the box.

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1016417/-100-000-Whales-An

Kyleran

Nyctelios said:

EvE online allows selling accounts. So you can buy your game in the game.

But about Cash shop... The company would be incredible stupid if would slap in your face that it can sell the best stuff - The whole point of fu**ing around the consumer is to trick him that is a good (and fair) deal (environment). So most toxic cash shop games actually hide behind key words to mask the advantage the said item would give to someone fighting you when you don't have it. They use some soft words here and there, start to slowly nerfing the f2p players experience as you progress on the game so when you notice it you spent hours on it and now you can't keep up without spending (or quitting it entirely).

That's the deal most companies do.

Actually CCP does not permit the selling of accounts, they allow other players to sell their characters to you for in game ISK only.  

The purchased character has to then be transferred to an account (new one I believe) the buyer owns. CCP only provides the service to safely transfer the character from buyer to seller.

All part of the elaborate shell game I realise, just as they sell PLEX in the store so buyers can trade them for ISK other players have in game, no direct selling of ISK by CCP.

Same with skills, they only sell empty extractors in the store, which have to be filled from a players in game character.

The large diminishing returns on skill points returned puts a big damper on them being used on high level characters trying to complete the high level skills.  Usually cheaper to buy a character with skills you want rather than try to get there with injectors.