The problem with people crying 'CHEATING!' is that only holds true if you throw out every single way to advance except the one you chose to hold as the correct one.
I don't particularly care what people put in a cash shop except in games where pvp is the goal and the cash shop contains items that give a player an edge by spending more money. From a business standpoint I understand them wanting to exploit many players' desire to be the best at all costs, but in the end, not enough people are willing to spend 100 bucks a month to get to that level and in the end it will cause you to lose more subs/money than you would with a level playing field.
Everything else, in PVE, I'm ok with. It seems like people don't seem to understand that many gamers do not have the desire to spend every waking moment of their time dedicated to a particular game any more. I'm definitely one of those players who has more money than time. The devs of many games understand that there are people like me who would love to experience their game but don't have the time so they offer me a way out. So what if you decided to spend a week questing to get some special, faster mount and I paid 15 bucks for it? The choice was there for you to forgo the time sink as well and you chose to expend your time rather than your money.
there is a small mistake in the article - GW2 devs didn't confirm item shop dungeons, this is only a PC Gamer speculation
I'm not quite referring directly to dungeons being purchasable, but rather the fact that ANet has said they'll be having "some" form of Cash Shop. But I can see where it reads a little more confusing. My apologies.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
The best use for cashshops should be for meta-game services, such as character renames, character transfers, etc.
Selling ingame items or anything that gives advantages, "aesthetic only" or not, destroys immersion by cheapening the concept that said MMO is a virtual world in of itself.
I understand this point of view wholeheartedly, but I personally believe that in an ever-crowded market developers are trying to find some way to make sure their games can compete and right now... F2P with optional subscriptions and cash shops seems to be the growing trend. And while there's PLENTY of room for improvement, I do think a few stand-out companies are doing an exemplary job in adopting a flexible revenue model.
I think, and I fear, that the days of true "world immersion" are going the way of the dodo.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Bah. So many good things you can write about cash shops in p2p games. I wonder how bias you guys are now that most of your ad banners are from f2p companys...Oh well. Its "only" a opinion. You (mmorpg) have nothing to do about it..
Bah. So many good things you can write about cash shops in p2p games. I wonder how bias you guys are now that most of your ad banners are from f2p companys...Oh well. Its "only" a opinion. You (mmorpg) have nothing to do about it..
No wonder Im not visiting this site so often.
To be fair, the above attitude I expressed towards Cash Shops is more of a "well, if we're going to have them, which it appears we are, we might as well discuss how we want them used" as opposed to a "zomg! Cash shops are the bestest thing evar!"
-Bill
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Bah. So many good things you can write about cash shops in p2p games. I wonder how bias you guys are now that most of your ad banners are from f2p companys...Oh well. Its "only" a opinion. You (mmorpg) have nothing to do about it..
No wonder Im not visiting this site so often.
To be fair, the above attitude I expressed towards Cash Shops is more of a "well, if we're going to have them, which it appears we are, we might as well discuss how we want them used" as opposed to a "zomg! Cash shops are the bestest thing evar!"
-Bill
Woha. Thanks for answering my post
And I do understand that you are just expressing your attitude, but thats a attitude that Im to familiar with from the mmorpg staff. Cash shops will stay becuse it brings easy cash to the companys. Only if we gamers are accepting it ofc.
And I do understand that you are just expressing your attitude, but thats a attitude that Im to familiar with from the mmorpg staff. Cash shops will stay becuse it brings easy cash to the companys. Only if we gamers are accepting it ofc.
No worries. I will gladly go on record saying that I don't think the idea of Cash Shops is bad. I just think that as gamer's we're used to them being used in a certain way and that companies are only now beginning to adjust their methods towards how we prefer to have them presented to us.
But rest assured that at least for a while, Item Shops/Cash Shops/Micro-transactions/Whatever You Wanna Call-ems... well, they're not going anywhere.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Honestly I don't think anyone who posted here with complaints actually read anything the writer mentioned, most of the BEST USES they offered had nothing to do with unbalancing PVP or mount usage. L2fuckingread.
5. I find that when a game sells Experience boosts they also include a huge XP grind so that leveling becomes very painful if you do not use the eperience boosters.
4. Again I find that games that have these make them required. You discover that without the potions that your down time is far higher then in a normal P2P game so in order to get the same level of down time you must buy these consumables.
3. I only have minor misgivings about Aeshetic Gear. None of us want to look lame, but as long as they do not over do making normal gear ugly I don't see a problem here.
2. As long as this is really just aesthetic I don't care. But if it is a matter of the only mounts you can get in game are +50% speed and the store mounts are +200%... yeah that stops being a choice and becomes required.
1. The extra content one is hard. You will always be left wondering if they had not put in the cash shop if you would have seen the content as part of your base price. While this one sounds good I think in practice it would not be well recived.
Long story short, if a game I am playing adds numbers 1, 4 or 5 I will cancle and move on. I like knowing how much my game is going to cost me each month.
as long as there is nothing buyable in the shop, which gives an advantage in gaming over the VIP, who signed a subscription, i am fine with this. if the VIPs have to use stuff from the shop in order to stay equal, i will quit.
of course we will see that even the VIP has to buy his expansions in the shop. and the trend will go to very small expansions like the DLCs in offline games.
also you cant generalize here. whats ok in one game ist pay-to win in the other. it depends on the game-mechanics.
Just to put in my two cents.... I would like to refer to League of Legends a fun MOBA style game (thats right not MMO but the point is the same) where a player doesn't have to spend a cent on any of the game content (with the exception of fun alternative skins for the champions that are completely unneeded.... there just for fun), but if they like the game and want to support them can buy new champions, xp and other bonuses, skins, and all sorts of other goodies. Then there are things that League of Legends could have for sale, but they dont. Runes (permanent stat boosters if you will) is one example of something an item mall cant buy you in this game. I am not saying that a company can't run an item mall anyway they want to. I am simply stating a game that doesn't require you to buy into the item mall to play it (realistically many games don't do this very well) and still makes a good deal of profit from the item mall, is a game that is at least worth a try.
so this s the type of colunist we have in mmorpg ? lol
one that says its right to sell XP and mounts for items, aswell as special content ?
if it was my company that dude would be fired for sure..........
its a shame....
You might not realize it but a columnist usually creates pieces, editorials, that are based on opinion. There could be columnists that encompass two diverse view points in an organization or someone who just has a particular take on a subject, states that opinion and then invites discussion.
well i dont think this s turned to invite for discussion based that such discusion were made already many times and cash shop aint new in mmo world..and i ll tell u why i think this with an exemple nothing to do with MMO lol.. :
in the CONTRY A has WEATHER A and with this weather they can grow a lot of APPLE and then the population from this country loves to eat APPLE...but at some year the weather changed to WEATHER B and the apple production was very low coz of this new weather BUT the orange production was VERY HIGH ...... but in this country people doesnt like much of orange and all the orange started to ROT in the shelves of the supermarket..... and the developers started to loose a little of their big cash....and that s no good so in the next day they announced in TV a new research that proofed that the WEATHER B s no good for ur breathing system and so on the population has to eat MORE ORANGE coz orange helps to prevent such problems... in the following week the stock of orange got to dust and all the big owners of farmers could feel reliefed that their budge wont go down a little....
you got it you got it ?
and everytime the CASH SHOP is linked with the WORD MMORPG more they are fooling us to acept such attitude... and what we ll see s a future that ALL MMORPG will have a darn CASH SHOP...the MMORPG scene s not so bright nowadays but it s still fun.... RPGs progression s based on TIME not on MONEY........doenst matter if its PVP or not...the day CASH SHOP become common and acepted by 100 % of the players in MMORPGS it means R-ole P-laying G-ames doesnt exist anymore...
Ahhh, the grass is always greener in the next pasture isn't it.
People who complain about cash shops often seem not to be playing for their own enjoyment.
Aside from pvp what does it matter what someone else has? It doesn't affect you or your playstyle unless you spend far to much time comparing the distant 'greener' pastures.
Oh, fyi, a Lexus is more than a Toyota with an L on it...drive one and the difference becomes apparent. ( no, I don't own one )
An interesting article. I think the OP shares the same opinion as the majority of MMORPG gamers, if I was to speculate. I fall into the crowd that really despises the recent trend toward cash shops and downloadable content. It depresses me how many people are so willing to accept them. But at the same time, I am hardly surprised.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I just HATE only to have a cool mount at endgame when my char is almost done levelling and making all the adventures only. Or having a 200+ members guild to support you for the endless uber grind. I want a cool mount early. I'd prefer ingame, but if they want dollars, so be it.
I just loathe the idea to make mounts some end game reward for unemployed people or students with plenty of time. Flying mounts for EVERYONE!
Anything else is of no interest to me in a cash shop. Maybe some fancy dress when I am bored looking the same at all levels, like my AoC Barbarian who wore sack cloth looking pieces ALL THE DAMN levels. Ugh.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Mind if I make a rebuttal, your style, but leaning towards F2P? If not, continue reading. If so, avoid the big wall of text.
5: Experience Boosts: I see what you've got going down there. However, when the developer assumes their audience is smart and will adhere to gameplay morals, they're in for a lot of a helluatastic ride straddling the lines of "teary-inducing amazing ideas that jump through the loopholes" and "my god this is stupid how can humans be so stupid". Also, power-leveling. Don't worry, the cash's raking itself in on this one.
4: Cash Shop Consumables: This one should not exist. For example, I'll add a wholly real instance I encountered once: 100mp spammable mp pots (but weighs like mad), while the cash shop ones goes up to +500mp/hp, 0 weight. Oh, and... mages have lower MAX weight because it's based on STR. They're the ones that need MP the most, too.
See what they did there? SEE? This is why premium consumables are never a good idea. Bonus points of 100 if they allow it in PvP. The entire concept takes away from the gameplay and affects it drastically, making it either easier/harder for the respective cash-shop-love/on-a-tight-budget players. Worst idea of the list in execution, to be honest.
Also, nice graphics are a reason? I hope the article's trolling on that point, because graphics are the last thing people think about when they go "no, no premium consumables, NO".
3: Purely Aesthetic Gear: Approved. However, when the situation is either "default" graphics based on class/sex/etc, and premium clothes... crap just hit the fan.
2: Special Mounts: I'll just say this: special events, limited-time "special" mounts, sure. However, "special mounts" that most often degenerates into "OH HAI 50x BETTER IN STATS MOUNT THAN THE INGAME ONE" are a whole package of do-not-want.
1: Real Extra Content: No, especially if we've already bought the game and are paying subscription. Expansion packs that take gameplay to a different level are acceptable, but a handful of measly features (such as an extra dungeon) for a price? I believe I'm not the only one when I stick my middle finger up.
Forums: The best real-time interactive MMORPG you'll ever be in.
Its the "End Game" that everyone cares about anyway so who cares if you can get there faster.
4. Consumables
Who cares if you pay real cash or in game gold or even crafted. A pot is a pot.
3. Asthetic Gear.
Why not it sure beats all the same gear people get in all the same old dungons
2. Special mounts
As long as they are no faster then the fastest game gold bought or quested mounts.
1. Real extra content
Sure ill shell out $5- maybe $10 for some extra zones, quests, and just more content itself instead of shelling out $30-$40 or more for a full expansion.
And as far as "Pay to Win" I have never really seen it in any MMO really. And most Item Mall items really are not worth the money to me. I dont see paying real money for a mount when I could get one for no real money with a bit of effort. But like I said I will pay money for game content like LoTR does. And like it or hate it the Item Mall is here to stay, because game companies have alot of hungry mouths to feed, and those and game Devs jobs simply demand the best wages they can give them for putting up with all of our whiney complainy arses.
Woah, cannot disagree more with pretty much everything in this article. It feels like the gaming media is trying to sell players on cash shops all the time, and this is no exception.
They have been tying to sell us on cash shops for years; they see it as the solution to poor revenue in the industry. The only successful P2P conversion is a hybrid (DDO) which did not lose its P2P. The fact that DDO is designed to make you end up thinking you might as well register for a sub seems to escape them.
Fluff is fine in a cash shop, anything else takes you on the slippery slope to P2W (pay to win). Even DDO has issues here, in two years time we may look back at DDO and wonder how a decent cash shop became a cash cow. But that's what always seems to happen, PW has a whore of a cash shop, but I am told when the game launched it was quite decent.
What happens is they make a lot of revenue selling fluff. Then the sales of fluff decline and they need to sell something else, eventfully they end up selling levels and access to top gear.
In all my years in mmorpgs, I just wanted to say that the " Pay to win " option sadly still is there... Atlantica did it very well... till a few months ago where you have to pay for good mercs in pvp... now the game is slowly dieing...
For the peeps that wanna casual game... F2P is the way to go... but if ya wanna be with the best... you dont wanna spend 1000 ( I know friends who spend 2000 a week ) dollars just to keep up...
Give me P2P any time ^^ Hope TERA will once again give P2P a decent name
I like being able to pay for extra content when I need it or am able to play it level wise, extra content is a good thing to pay for in a f2p title.
I don't like paying for consumables, I want to be able to craft all my potions or buy them with in-game currency.
You shouldn't have to pay to be able to progress at a decent rate in the game.
I am ok with paying for cosmetic items aslong as I can get similar items by questing in-game or they can be bought with in-game currency aswell (make them a different color just so people can see if it was earned or bought).
Mounts... I don't want to have to pay for this, mounts should be easily available (slow shabby ones atleast).
If someone wants to pay for their mount then by all means make them a really cool mount, but don't make that mount better than normally aqquired mounts, same speed, same stat boost, just more bling for your buck.
Storage space everyone needs and I am ok with paying for extra storage but cash shops need to stop with the ridicilous prizing on these items.
If a 15 slot bag costs 2$ then I would gladly buy 10 of them, but when the bag costs 10-20$ then I wouldn't pay for one of them.
I have no problem with supporting a game, I would gladly spend 30-40$ in the first month and then 10-15$ every month after that provided I was getting my money's worth.
If the game pushes me to buy something to enjoy the game then I will just move on to another title.
If the game is great fun without spending a dime on it then I will gladly throw the game some money on fluff items and niceties like Armor Dyes, Cosmetic Items, Town Portal Scrolls or Instant Travel.
And as I level up I will pay to open up extra content.
Conclusion: I will pay for stuff that I don't need, but I will not pay for stuff that I do need.
Woah, cannot disagree more with pretty much everything in this article. It feels like the gaming media is trying to sell players on cash shops all the time, and this is no exception.
I agree it seams a lot of site want to sell us on free to play and cash shops. Every time I turn around you got the writing staff here pushing it, and when it happens they give that game the oh great look what they done. All you do is have to look at articles when lotro, and ddo went free to play. I have to wonder what happened with soe doing that, not so many articles on that.
I don't mind fluff, however the way lotro, ddo, and yes sto are going items you can not get in game, thats when it becomes pay to win.
so this s the type of colunist we have in mmorpg ? lol
one that says its right to sell XP and mounts for items, aswell as special content ?
if it was my company that dude would be fired for sure..........
its a shame....
So we should fire someone for having opinions, which he clearly and planily puts forward?
Just because you believe something, doesn't make it the only viable opinion. You don't have to agree, but maybe practice a little bit of respect for someone who thinks differently than you do?
Of course you should. Any person who can state their opinions in a calm, logical, and rational manner, has no business being on the internet. This kind of discussion is best left to those who spew hateful and rabid vitriol from their foam flecked lips, or worse, their foam flecked brains.
/SARCASM OFF
That said I do disagree with just about every point Mr. Murphy made. I personally find cash shops in a game a reason for developers to work less for the player and not more. Every item sold in the cash shop means one less boss mob, quest, dungeon, raid, what have you, that could have been created in game for the player to enjoy and gain said cash shop reward that way.
I know it can be argued that this extra income from these cash shop items will lead the company to create bigger and better content, but honestly, why should they. They have now learned they can get people to pay them twice (at least in the case of P2P games with a cash shop) for working half as hard to bring them new game content. In other words, why put in the man power to create an adventure to gain an award that would have kept you busy for hours when you are willing to pay them more money to gain said reward in seconds with the swipe of a credit card.
Is that what these games have become? Nothing more than the digital equivalent of a comic book collectors convention?
A few months back I made a post about this very topic. I think it makes my point better than anything more I could type here so I'll just post the link to it instead.
Comments
The problem with people crying 'CHEATING!' is that only holds true if you throw out every single way to advance except the one you chose to hold as the correct one.
I don't particularly care what people put in a cash shop except in games where pvp is the goal and the cash shop contains items that give a player an edge by spending more money. From a business standpoint I understand them wanting to exploit many players' desire to be the best at all costs, but in the end, not enough people are willing to spend 100 bucks a month to get to that level and in the end it will cause you to lose more subs/money than you would with a level playing field.
Everything else, in PVE, I'm ok with. It seems like people don't seem to understand that many gamers do not have the desire to spend every waking moment of their time dedicated to a particular game any more. I'm definitely one of those players who has more money than time. The devs of many games understand that there are people like me who would love to experience their game but don't have the time so they offer me a way out. So what if you decided to spend a week questing to get some special, faster mount and I paid 15 bucks for it? The choice was there for you to forgo the time sink as well and you chose to expend your time rather than your money.
I'm not quite referring directly to dungeons being purchasable, but rather the fact that ANet has said they'll be having "some" form of Cash Shop. But I can see where it reads a little more confusing. My apologies.
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I understand this point of view wholeheartedly, but I personally believe that in an ever-crowded market developers are trying to find some way to make sure their games can compete and right now... F2P with optional subscriptions and cash shops seems to be the growing trend. And while there's PLENTY of room for improvement, I do think a few stand-out companies are doing an exemplary job in adopting a flexible revenue model.
I think, and I fear, that the days of true "world immersion" are going the way of the dodo.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
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Bah. So many good things you can write about cash shops in p2p games. I wonder how bias you guys are now that most of your ad banners are from f2p companys...Oh well. Its "only" a opinion. You (mmorpg) have nothing to do about it..
No wonder Im not visiting this site so often.
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To be fair, the above attitude I expressed towards Cash Shops is more of a "well, if we're going to have them, which it appears we are, we might as well discuss how we want them used" as opposed to a "zomg! Cash shops are the bestest thing evar!"
-Bill
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
Woha. Thanks for answering my post
And I do understand that you are just expressing your attitude, but thats a attitude that Im to familiar with from the mmorpg staff. Cash shops will stay becuse it brings easy cash to the companys. Only if we gamers are accepting it ofc.
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No worries. I will gladly go on record saying that I don't think the idea of Cash Shops is bad. I just think that as gamer's we're used to them being used in a certain way and that companies are only now beginning to adjust their methods towards how we prefer to have them presented to us.
But rest assured that at least for a while, Item Shops/Cash Shops/Micro-transactions/Whatever You Wanna Call-ems... well, they're not going anywhere.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
Honestly I don't think anyone who posted here with complaints actually read anything the writer mentioned, most of the BEST USES they offered had nothing to do with unbalancing PVP or mount usage. L2fuckingread.
5. I find that when a game sells Experience boosts they also include a huge XP grind so that leveling becomes very painful if you do not use the eperience boosters.
4. Again I find that games that have these make them required. You discover that without the potions that your down time is far higher then in a normal P2P game so in order to get the same level of down time you must buy these consumables.
3. I only have minor misgivings about Aeshetic Gear. None of us want to look lame, but as long as they do not over do making normal gear ugly I don't see a problem here.
2. As long as this is really just aesthetic I don't care. But if it is a matter of the only mounts you can get in game are +50% speed and the store mounts are +200%... yeah that stops being a choice and becomes required.
1. The extra content one is hard. You will always be left wondering if they had not put in the cash shop if you would have seen the content as part of your base price. While this one sounds good I think in practice it would not be well recived.
Long story short, if a game I am playing adds numbers 1, 4 or 5 I will cancle and move on. I like knowing how much my game is going to cost me each month.
as long as there is nothing buyable in the shop, which gives an advantage in gaming over the VIP, who signed a subscription, i am fine with this. if the VIPs have to use stuff from the shop in order to stay equal, i will quit.
of course we will see that even the VIP has to buy his expansions in the shop. and the trend will go to very small expansions like the DLCs in offline games.
also you cant generalize here. whats ok in one game ist pay-to win in the other. it depends on the game-mechanics.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
Just to put in my two cents.... I would like to refer to League of Legends a fun MOBA style game (thats right not MMO but the point is the same) where a player doesn't have to spend a cent on any of the game content (with the exception of fun alternative skins for the champions that are completely unneeded.... there just for fun), but if they like the game and want to support them can buy new champions, xp and other bonuses, skins, and all sorts of other goodies. Then there are things that League of Legends could have for sale, but they dont. Runes (permanent stat boosters if you will) is one example of something an item mall cant buy you in this game. I am not saying that a company can't run an item mall anyway they want to. I am simply stating a game that doesn't require you to buy into the item mall to play it (realistically many games don't do this very well) and still makes a good deal of profit from the item mall, is a game that is at least worth a try.
well i dont think this s turned to invite for discussion based that such discusion were made already many times and cash shop aint new in mmo world..and i ll tell u why i think this with an exemple nothing to do with MMO lol.. :
in the CONTRY A has WEATHER A and with this weather they can grow a lot of APPLE and then the population from this country loves to eat APPLE...but at some year the weather changed to WEATHER B and the apple production was very low coz of this new weather BUT the orange production was VERY HIGH ...... but in this country people doesnt like much of orange and all the orange started to ROT in the shelves of the supermarket..... and the developers started to loose a little of their big cash....and that s no good so in the next day they announced in TV a new research that proofed that the WEATHER B s no good for ur breathing system and so on the population has to eat MORE ORANGE coz orange helps to prevent such problems... in the following week the stock of orange got to dust and all the big owners of farmers could feel reliefed that their budge wont go down a little....
you got it you got it ?
and everytime the CASH SHOP is linked with the WORD MMORPG more they are fooling us to acept such attitude... and what we ll see s a future that ALL MMORPG will have a darn CASH SHOP...the MMORPG scene s not so bright nowadays but it s still fun.... RPGs progression s based on TIME not on MONEY........doenst matter if its PVP or not...the day CASH SHOP become common and acepted by 100 % of the players in MMORPGS it means R-ole P-laying G-ames doesnt exist anymore...
Ahhh, the grass is always greener in the next pasture isn't it.
People who complain about cash shops often seem not to be playing for their own enjoyment.
Aside from pvp what does it matter what someone else has? It doesn't affect you or your playstyle unless you spend far to much time comparing the distant 'greener' pastures.
Oh, fyi, a Lexus is more than a Toyota with an L on it...drive one and the difference becomes apparent. ( no, I don't own one )
An interesting article. I think the OP shares the same opinion as the majority of MMORPG gamers, if I was to speculate. I fall into the crowd that really despises the recent trend toward cash shops and downloadable content. It depresses me how many people are so willing to accept them. But at the same time, I am hardly surprised.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I agree with you, except on number 4... Everything that changes someone's chance to succeed in something should be a nogo in item shops.
I Agree with your number 1 only for games that have no monthly subscription..
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Best uses: MOUNTS.
I just HATE only to have a cool mount at endgame when my char is almost done levelling and making all the adventures only. Or having a 200+ members guild to support you for the endless uber grind. I want a cool mount early. I'd prefer ingame, but if they want dollars, so be it.
I just loathe the idea to make mounts some end game reward for unemployed people or students with plenty of time. Flying mounts for EVERYONE!
Anything else is of no interest to me in a cash shop. Maybe some fancy dress when I am bored looking the same at all levels, like my AoC Barbarian who wore sack cloth looking pieces ALL THE DAMN levels. Ugh.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Mind if I make a rebuttal, your style, but leaning towards F2P? If not, continue reading. If so, avoid the big wall of text.
5: Experience Boosts: I see what you've got going down there. However, when the developer assumes their audience is smart and will adhere to gameplay morals, they're in for a lot of a helluatastic ride straddling the lines of "teary-inducing amazing ideas that jump through the loopholes" and "my god this is stupid how can humans be so stupid". Also, power-leveling. Don't worry, the cash's raking itself in on this one.
4: Cash Shop Consumables: This one should not exist. For example, I'll add a wholly real instance I encountered once: 100mp spammable mp pots (but weighs like mad), while the cash shop ones goes up to +500mp/hp, 0 weight. Oh, and... mages have lower MAX weight because it's based on STR. They're the ones that need MP the most, too.
See what they did there? SEE? This is why premium consumables are never a good idea. Bonus points of 100 if they allow it in PvP. The entire concept takes away from the gameplay and affects it drastically, making it either easier/harder for the respective cash-shop-love/on-a-tight-budget players. Worst idea of the list in execution, to be honest.
Also, nice graphics are a reason? I hope the article's trolling on that point, because graphics are the last thing people think about when they go "no, no premium consumables, NO".
3: Purely Aesthetic Gear: Approved. However, when the situation is either "default" graphics based on class/sex/etc, and premium clothes... crap just hit the fan.
2: Special Mounts: I'll just say this: special events, limited-time "special" mounts, sure. However, "special mounts" that most often degenerates into "OH HAI 50x BETTER IN STATS MOUNT THAN THE INGAME ONE" are a whole package of do-not-want.
1: Real Extra Content: No, especially if we've already bought the game and are paying subscription. Expansion packs that take gameplay to a different level are acceptable, but a handful of measly features (such as an extra dungeon) for a price? I believe I'm not the only one when I stick my middle finger up.
Forums: The best real-time interactive MMORPG you'll ever be in.
100% Agree with this column.
5. XP boosts
Its the "End Game" that everyone cares about anyway so who cares if you can get there faster.
4. Consumables
Who cares if you pay real cash or in game gold or even crafted. A pot is a pot.
3. Asthetic Gear.
Why not it sure beats all the same gear people get in all the same old dungons
2. Special mounts
As long as they are no faster then the fastest game gold bought or quested mounts.
1. Real extra content
Sure ill shell out $5- maybe $10 for some extra zones, quests, and just more content itself instead of shelling out $30-$40 or more for a full expansion.
And as far as "Pay to Win" I have never really seen it in any MMO really. And most Item Mall items really are not worth the money to me. I dont see paying real money for a mount when I could get one for no real money with a bit of effort. But like I said I will pay money for game content like LoTR does. And like it or hate it the Item Mall is here to stay, because game companies have alot of hungry mouths to feed, and those and game Devs jobs simply demand the best wages they can give them for putting up with all of our whiney complainy arses.
Woah, cannot disagree more with pretty much everything in this article. It feels like the gaming media is trying to sell players on cash shops all the time, and this is no exception.
They have been tying to sell us on cash shops for years; they see it as the solution to poor revenue in the industry. The only successful P2P conversion is a hybrid (DDO) which did not lose its P2P. The fact that DDO is designed to make you end up thinking you might as well register for a sub seems to escape them.
Fluff is fine in a cash shop, anything else takes you on the slippery slope to P2W (pay to win). Even DDO has issues here, in two years time we may look back at DDO and wonder how a decent cash shop became a cash cow. But that's what always seems to happen, PW has a whore of a cash shop, but I am told when the game launched it was quite decent.
What happens is they make a lot of revenue selling fluff. Then the sales of fluff decline and they need to sell something else, eventfully they end up selling levels and access to top gear.
In all my years in mmorpgs, I just wanted to say that the " Pay to win " option sadly still is there... Atlantica did it very well... till a few months ago where you have to pay for good mercs in pvp... now the game is slowly dieing...
For the peeps that wanna casual game... F2P is the way to go... but if ya wanna be with the best... you dont wanna spend 1000 ( I know friends who spend 2000 a week ) dollars just to keep up...
Give me P2P any time ^^ Hope TERA will once again give P2P a decent name
I like being able to pay for extra content when I need it or am able to play it level wise, extra content is a good thing to pay for in a f2p title.
I don't like paying for consumables, I want to be able to craft all my potions or buy them with in-game currency.
You shouldn't have to pay to be able to progress at a decent rate in the game.
I am ok with paying for cosmetic items aslong as I can get similar items by questing in-game or they can be bought with in-game currency aswell (make them a different color just so people can see if it was earned or bought).
Mounts... I don't want to have to pay for this, mounts should be easily available (slow shabby ones atleast).
If someone wants to pay for their mount then by all means make them a really cool mount, but don't make that mount better than normally aqquired mounts, same speed, same stat boost, just more bling for your buck.
Storage space everyone needs and I am ok with paying for extra storage but cash shops need to stop with the ridicilous prizing on these items.
If a 15 slot bag costs 2$ then I would gladly buy 10 of them, but when the bag costs 10-20$ then I wouldn't pay for one of them.
I have no problem with supporting a game, I would gladly spend 30-40$ in the first month and then 10-15$ every month after that provided I was getting my money's worth.
If the game pushes me to buy something to enjoy the game then I will just move on to another title.
If the game is great fun without spending a dime on it then I will gladly throw the game some money on fluff items and niceties like Armor Dyes, Cosmetic Items, Town Portal Scrolls or Instant Travel.
And as I level up I will pay to open up extra content.
Conclusion: I will pay for stuff that I don't need, but I will not pay for stuff that I do need.
I agree it seams a lot of site want to sell us on free to play and cash shops. Every time I turn around you got the writing staff here pushing it, and when it happens they give that game the oh great look what they done. All you do is have to look at articles when lotro, and ddo went free to play. I have to wonder what happened with soe doing that, not so many articles on that.
I don't mind fluff, however the way lotro, ddo, and yes sto are going items you can not get in game, thats when it becomes pay to win.
Of course you should. Any person who can state their opinions in a calm, logical, and rational manner, has no business being on the internet. This kind of discussion is best left to those who spew hateful and rabid vitriol from their foam flecked lips, or worse, their foam flecked brains.
/SARCASM OFF
That said I do disagree with just about every point Mr. Murphy made. I personally find cash shops in a game a reason for developers to work less for the player and not more. Every item sold in the cash shop means one less boss mob, quest, dungeon, raid, what have you, that could have been created in game for the player to enjoy and gain said cash shop reward that way.
I know it can be argued that this extra income from these cash shop items will lead the company to create bigger and better content, but honestly, why should they. They have now learned they can get people to pay them twice (at least in the case of P2P games with a cash shop) for working half as hard to bring them new game content. In other words, why put in the man power to create an adventure to gain an award that would have kept you busy for hours when you are willing to pay them more money to gain said reward in seconds with the swipe of a credit card.
Is that what these games have become? Nothing more than the digital equivalent of a comic book collectors convention?
A few months back I made a post about this very topic. I think it makes my point better than anything more I could type here so I'll just post the link to it instead.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287677/page/1
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