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Most and Least Fair Cash Shop Publisher?
Dhaeman
Member Posts: 531
Which publisher in your opinion provides the most fair cash shop? We all have different definitions of fair so let's leave that up your own interpretation. This is a big component of our long term enjoyment for a chosen free to play, free to download MMO but it never really gets talked up.
On the flip side - who is the biggest rip off, cash grabbing publisher?
Comments
most fair: those who dont have cash shop
least fair: those who do
Well now we're really down to splitting hairs lol
Vindictus Cash Shop is the MOST fair I've seen in a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGG time
Plus I'd say DDO:Us Cash shop is right up there with Vindictus
LEAST Fair
gPotato/Astrum Nival's Allods Online I hope they burn in you know where for the crap they've pulled.
it's ONE thing to Lead or guide you towards the CS for better gameplay or more storage it's another entirely to 100% FORCE you to purchase from the CS in order to play w/o wanting to quit or spend 30 hours trying to kill a bandit
DDO has a good and fair cash shop setup. The majority of the rest are a absolute hive of scum and villainy where purchases are absolutely required.
Most Fair: Gravity
Least Fair: Nexon
Only fair: DDO
rest: Not viable for my play style.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
Out of all F2P games I've played, I like all of gpotato's games:
Rappelz, Allods, Flyff, Luna. All are standard F2P games that has CS with gear upgrades, exp scrolls, fashion items, etc.
They keep items fairly priced for your average f2P MMO and I've played some games from other publsihing companies where mounts cost like 30+ dollars. Mounts cool cool but 30+ dollars for a mount - wow!
Most fair: Turbine(DDO,LotRO)
Least fair: Gpotato(Allods)
I am ok with buying a $30 mount if it is a permanent item, rather than a 30 day item, and I think I'll be playing for a couple of months. Likewise, I am willing to pay for more permanent bag slots, but not to "rent" those bag slots for 30 days.
Now, on to my reply:
Turbine's shops for DDO and LoTRO seem pretty good to me. Fair, with good stuff available.
I bought some items from PWE for Jade Dynasty, and it was ok. I dislike all the lotto boxes they sell, though. If they are going to sell something, they should just sell it, IMO, not sell chances to win it. But I guess they make a boat load of money off of people who think that they'll win yet if they just keep buying.
I take it other people have had some problems with PWE, but it all went smoothly for me. I was happy with what I got, and I was able to keep my spending comparable to a subscription game (or less!) when I was playing heavily.
Does anyone have an opinion about Aeria games' cash shops? I have dabbled a bit in a few of their titles, and I am thinking about playing them a bit more, but I haven't really checked out their cash shops or their reputation in that area.
That seems to be a naive response. Clearly free to play games need some way to generate revenue and I'm OK with cash shops over advertisements. It would be funny to to find a "Sword of Mountain Dewm" but I'd probably die a little. Of course I've been OK in principle with RMT since the days of UO - it's just the botters and farmers that I dislike.
My experience playing free MMOs that I've enjoyed enough to consider item mall purchases is limited. BUt out of my personal experience purchasing or considering purchasing items...
Least fair: I have found ndoor's gambling item mall system to be lame in Atlantica Online.
Most fair: Kingdom Heroes (Aeria Games) is on of my active MMOs and the item mall is pretty good except for the uber healing items with way too low of a cooldown.
I could see Turbine's being well received because their biggest selling points are content - so for those that dislike RMT this isn't as obvious an advantage over other players. Other cash shops either prize power and/or ease of leveling.
Most unfair cash shop design ever created: Phantasy Star Universe.
Guardians Cash was about the worse system ever created. Not only did they make that a cash shop while dealing with a monthly fee, Sega put its own team in the servers to try to turn the jealousy and greed of gamers into the system. They portrayed top level characters wielding top cash shop weapons...and the thing is that YOU DONT GET ANYTHING YOU BUY...
You go through some dungeon that costs $1 - $2.50 each run and your chance of the item dropping are around 1 in 10. In order for you to even get the top things, you have to spent money to accumulate 1/20th of what you spent in another series of points so players are willing to spend money to reach those points rather than buying a PSP + the expansion which has ALL THE ITEMS sold at the cash shop and 50 - 60% more items and levels without having to be subjected to a cash shop or a monthly fee.
As for the best, I can't really make a claim. I've only dealt with four cash shops so far playing MMORPGs. A lot of games I played before the advent of cash shops becoming mainstream. I do like the GW cash shop because it doesn't give advantages to players who buy items within.
I haven't played many cash shop games, but I think SOE is very overpriced. Its 10 dollars to buy a xp potion that last just 3 hours for a small amount of xp. Considering how slow battles are in that game its ridiculous.
I was really happy with DDOs cash shop. They always had deals, unlike SOE, and the xp potion lasted 6 hours. I think it was far cheaper than 10 dollars, too. It did some bad deals, though. Generally, I thought it was very fair.
Most fair, Guild Wars. Expansions, costumes, skill unlocks, character services. Nothing even close to game breaking, nothing overpriced.
Most fair? Guild Wars. Least fair? STO
He who keeps his cool best wins.