Smells like Archeage 2.0

Benjola · January 2016

Which means, starts with only cosmetic stuff in the cash shop until people are hooked, then gradually apply the P2W.

I guess over the years MMO developers learned the most efficient ways to skin their customers alive and at this particular time in the MMO development history, for korean developers this is it: F2P or B2P games with both (optional) sub and a massive cash shop to micro-transaction their players to broke.
Terrible system, because the cash shop not only dictates the game economy but the game development as a whole in a way that every type of player is forced to spend real money almost weekly on the game.

It's a recipe that goes something like:
Make every item in game tradeable and the ingame currency not only a fluff and 'nice to have' as it used to be but really essential in order to play the game.
Make the currency very hard to aquire in game and very easy to aquire in the cash shop.
Then, develop your skinning tool (the cash shop) in a way that skins every group:

- PVP crowd is traditionally easiest group to skin alive because game companies know by now that the 'competitive PVP player' will spend as much as he has on any edge devs or RMT dealers are willing to sell him and these 'PVP-ers' have a lot of money to spend ( think student loans) so it's probably the most lucrative group for devs.
This also explains the "Endgame is PVP" concept which is win-win for devs because there's no more funding needed for dungeons and raids development.
The RMT issue is solved by selling the currency in the cash shop desquised as popular cosmetic items or essential utility items which are in high demand (by design) and easy sell for in game currency on the auction house.

- Second most lucrative group are the players that are in it to play dress up for the most part.
Only two words need to be said: Cosmetic items.

- Crafters
It probably took awhile to come up with an efficent way to crack this group because they are traditionaly hard workers and don't shy away from endless grinding, in fact many welcome it but hey, game developers are inovative people you know... so.. here is their genius solution:
Tie the working stations to housing and make housing very expensive through taxing while at the same time make all but the high end crafted items worthless in order to force the crafters to get game currency from the cash shop in order to stay in business..
Also, put heavy restrictions on the ammount of items that can be crafted daily so that the hardcore crafters can't beat your system and get rich too fast, they must stay poor and willing to buy currency in order to chase the end-game gear AND THEN... when majority of the crafters reach their goal... introduce new more powerfull gear and the chase starts again...
Voila!

- PVE crowd (dungeoneers and raiders)
This is probably the least lucrative group for game companies because in order to skin this particular group alive you need frequent content development which costs a lot and the only income you get from this group (apart from a sub) is from big expansions which is what, 30 bucks every 6 months?
On top of that, raid items need to be of highest quality so that is in direct conflict with the Crafter crowd which is more lucrative group now with this new system.
As you can imagine,PVE crowd is getting more and more obsolete and that's why we don't see many if at all dungeons and raids in these new MMOs.

Welcome to the true 3rd generation MMOs...

blutigfaust · January 2016

yep, exactly why I'm not going to play it

jmcdermottuk · January 2016

And people still complain about sub based games. I'd rather pay my £8.99 a month than deal with the P2W BS.

This does seem to be the way a lot of "free" games are going these days.

stayontarget · January 2016

lolz clueless peeps.

Benjola · January 2016

stayontarget said:

lolz clueless peeps.

Enlighten us Bubba.

Kyleran · January 2016

If it walks like a duck....

Scorchien · January 2016

yup avoidin this one , dont need to step in this Dogpie to know its gonna stink

Valentina · January 2016

I how love condescending you were about players who enjoy cosmetic items. As if everyone who does (which is most) just sits there all day playing with outfits for months on end and nothing else. I fail to see what's wrong with making our toons look how we want them to in a game lol.

Sulaa · January 2016

This is standard deviation of Far East Asian P2W PVP MMORPG that exists since dawn of MMORPG that revolve around enchanting your weapons in tier based uppgrade system.

Bigger tier give you significant advantages over players with lower tiered weapons in PVP.
Pay $$$ to get higher in tier weapon/armor system. (either directly or indirectly via buying cosmetic or crating CS stuff, selling in-game for gold -> getting stuff for uppgrade your tiers)

Tada. 101 to Asian Cash Shop PVP P2W MMO grinders. Going strong since late 1990s.

Kyleran · January 2016

Valentina said:

I how love condescending you were about players who enjoy cosmetic items. As if everyone who does (which is most) just sits there all day playing with outfits for months on end and nothing else. I fail to see what's wrong with making our toons look how we want them to in a game lol.

Well it's just odd that you would pay extra money to improve a character's looks. Maybe for items of power or extra efficiency or convenience, all very logical.

But looks? Just no.

Benjola · January 2016

Valentina said:

I how love condescending you were about players who enjoy cosmetic items. As if everyone who does (which is most) just sits there all day playing with outfits for months on end and nothing else. I fail to see what's wrong with making our toons look how we want them to in a game lol.

Didn't mean to sound condenscending sorry about that.
It's just a known category of player's style that's all.
It doesn't mean that's all they do, it just represents the main interest for that type of a player.
I'm sure many of us gamers enjoy every aspect of our MMOs ( I know I do) but there's always a main interest for most of us.
The point I try to make is that while I do enjoy playing dress up in MMOs from time to time I think I should be doing it for much less of a real money investment then I'm forced to do it now.

Benjola · January 2016

Sulaa said:

This is standard deviation of Far East Asian P2W PVP MMORPG that exists since dawn of MMORPG that revolve around enchanting your weapons in tier based uppgrade system.

Bigger tier give you significant advantages over players with lower tiered weapons in PVP.
Pay $$$ to get higher in tier weapon/armor system. (either directly or indirectly via buying cosmetic or crating CS stuff, selling in-game for gold -> getting stuff for uppgrade your tiers)

Tada. 101 to Asian Cash Shop PVP P2W MMO grinders. Going strong since late 1990s.

Yep, you explained it perfectly with much less words then me.
In my defence, I'll just blame it on a language barrier heh.

FlyByKnight · January 2016

I agree about Black Desert being Archeage 2.0 but OP is baiting. Equating people who play PVP to college students who use their student loans to P2W. Sounds like a bitter loser (gameplay wise) to me.

Pepeq · January 2016

LOL, like any of this matters when the majority of the population won't be playing it beyond cap... just like in every other MMO release as of late.

For $30 bucks, it's worth 30 days of your time... and that's about as long as most people play new games anyways.

Benjola · January 2016

FlyByKnight said:

I agree about Black Desert being Archeage 2.0 but OP is baiting. Equating people who play PVP to college students who use their student loans to P2W. Sounds like a bitter loser (gameplay wise) to me.

I mentioned one segment (however small or big it might be) of the PVP crowd to give an example.
Maybe you aren't a student who spends student loan on gaming or you don't know any, that doesn't mean they don't exist.
Or maybe i struck a nerv I dunno, I don't know you, you tell me.

Benjola · January 2016

Pepeq said:

LOL, like any of this matters when the majority of the population won't be playing it beyond cap... just like in every other MMO release as of late.

For $30 bucks, it's worth 30 days of your time... and that's about as long as most people play new games anyways.

I agree and that's the sad part really.
MMOs, a massive time and money investment in order to make a game with years and sometimes decades of longevity through frequent game and content upgrades with a resonable payment plan (monthly sub) which guarantees you hard work from the devs in order to get their ROI, turned into a quick money-grab single player experience that in many cases doesn't even last a month.

The genre is in a sorry state indeed.

LisaFlexy22 · January 2016

An entire post based in assumption and slilppery slope fallacy. Well done OP. It's B2P right now for 30 bucks, WHAT IF it gets crappy down the line? Then stop playing it. There are numerous 60 dollar games you can buy on the market that will net you less than 10 hours of gameplay right now.

Benjola · January 2016

LisaFlexy22 said:

An entire post based in assumption and slilppery slope fallacy. Well done OP. It's B2P right now for 30 bucks, WHAT IF it gets crappy down the line? Then stop playing it. There are numerous 60 dollar games you can buy on the market that will net you less than 10 hours of gameplay right now.

When I want a single player weeks long gaming experience I look at what a single player offline games have to offer.
At this moment though, I'm looking at the MMORPG scene and sadly I dont see a lot of difference.
Did you forget what MMORPGs were all about?

Valentina · January 2016

Kyleran said:

Valentina said:

I how love condescending you were about players who enjoy cosmetic items. As if everyone who does (which is most) just sits there all day playing with outfits for months on end and nothing else. I fail to see what's wrong with making our toons look how we want them to in a game lol.

Well it's just odd that you would pay extra money to improve a character's looks. Maybe for items of power or extra efficiency or convenience, all very logical.

But looks? Just no.

To you it's illogical for people to spend money on things they get enjoyment out of or improves and enhances their gaming experience. Ok then. lol. O.o to me what you are saying is illogical and I don't even spend much money when it comes to those things unless I really, really like them. I'm a very visually driven gamer, a lot of people are, if I am not happy with how my character looks and there's a means for me to change that to suit my preferences then I'm going to do it and so are most other players I've ever met. Especially when it comes to an MMO. I would definitely prefer that outfit/armor/weap skins etc were attainable through in-game means that are relatively reasonable but they're easy to monetize, and a game has to generate revenue, and most players obviously care about that sort of thing, or it wouldn't be nearly as lucrative as it is. So..

Benjola said:

Valentina said:

I how love condescending you were about players who enjoy cosmetic items. As if everyone who does (which is most) just sits there all day playing with outfits for months on end and nothing else. I fail to see what's wrong with making our toons look how we want them to in a game lol.

Didn't mean to sound condenscending sorry about that.
It's just a known category of player's style that's all.
It doesn't mean that's all they do, it just represents the main interest for that type of a player.
I'm sure many of us gamers enjoy every aspect of our MMOs ( I know I do) but there's always a main interest for most of us.
The point I try to make is that while I do enjoy playing dress up in MMOs from time to time I think I should be doing it for much less of a real money investment then I'm forced to do it now.

I understand what you're saying now, and I agree to a point. As I said above, I am a very visually driven player, so what my character looks like matters to me, even if the next person doesn't care at all about that sort of thing, but it enhances my enjoyment of the game when I can totally customize the character I'm going to be investing a lot of time into. To that end, I am actually a very competitive player when it comes to leader-board content, as well as large-scale competition like RvR/WvW style content, and those matter more to me in the end, but I definitely do enjoy it more when I'm happy with what toon I am playing both cosmetically as well as functionally.

zaberfangx · January 2016

jmcdermottuk said:

And people still complain about sub based games. I'd rather pay my £8.99 a month than deal with the P2W BS.

This does seem to be the way a lot of "free" games are going these days.

Then even I pay my $15 a month as I don't end up not getting to the point of the game as I don't play more it should have just to make my $15 worth it. As I look at it is all the same free to play, buy to play, even sub grind harder not worth the money to keep paying.

So I look at game play this days if I enjoy it keep me playing I'll play it even if I'm gated to due to what ever model it's under.

But the long run BDO not so gated as arche age labor system didn't feel I was on BDO KR but did try out trion arche age labor alot people right when they say the labor in arche age sucks when start to play for free if like the game or not.

fodell54 · January 2016

Kyleran said:

Valentina said:

I how love condescending you were about players who enjoy cosmetic items. As if everyone who does (which is most) just sits there all day playing with outfits for months on end and nothing else. I fail to see what's wrong with making our toons look how we want them to in a game lol.

Well it's just odd that you would pay extra money to improve a character's looks. Maybe for items of power or extra efficiency or convenience, all very logical.

But looks? Just no.

Have you bought your monocle yet?

Maybe we should take a look at your precious Eve Online. Want to talk about a shitty game you can look no further then that one. You're a fucking spacecraft with an excel background. But hey, that's all very logical.

GeezerGamer · January 2016

It's an Asian game.
WTF do you expect?

mlacen · January 2016

Expect an Asian Grind from an Asian Game I guess..Its such a shame because the combat in the game feels really nice. I hear theres also some pay to win aspects in regards to the enchantment system to +20 so ill probably have to skip this game.

nationalcity · January 2016

That's what I don't understand.... Why People are hyping it so much it's Archeage just in a prettier package..........

I guess because Trion made so many mistakes with that game that this is gonna be the new sandbox savior now????

Not to be rude but this is gonna have the same fate......... People say they want sandbox but in all reality they never do well.......

wormed · January 2016

It won't be P2W like AA not because I have some magical belief that publishers don't want money but more so based on what changes have occurred in KR/RU, specifically. Sounds like the publisher, based on closed betas, is very willing to modify to the needs of the community.

Trion straight up ignored everyone. But I guess we'll see in the end.

Benjola · January 2016

GeezerGamer said:

It's an Asian game.
WTF do you expect?

You seem to think that this revenue (read skinning players alive) model will never creep in to a western made MMO.
Well, I don't follow financial statements of korean gaming companies but I'm sure all western devs do.
It probably only takes a single eastern game to make mad cash in the west for some people to go:
"Well shiiiit, look at these koreans skinning 'our' guys alive, lets get in on it guys, lets incorporate this labor nonesense and real money gambling for upgrades in our games guys!"
And with the increasing number of korean MMOs getting published in EU/NA in the last 6-7 years, sooner or later one wil strike gold.

How many 'WoW clones" have you seen since WoW hit the jackpot?
Exactly.
game companies will copy/paste financally successful ideas and systems no mater where they come from.
So, pray for BDO to flop in EU/NA or it's at least a decade of 'labor and gambling for upgrades"western made MMOs to follow, IMO of course.

Howdy, Stranger!

Smells like Archeage 2.0

Comments

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Smells like Archeage 2.0

Comments

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV