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Selling In-Game Advantages Destroys Games
cantankerousmage
Member UncommonPosts: 992
This topic has most likely been addressed before multiple times. However, I'm just so personally appalled at the idea, that I feel the need to adamantly express my disapproval and disdain. And contempt. I will never, ever play a game again that sells in-game advantages for monetary contributions*. Ever. I want to compete against other players. I don't want to compete against other player's paychecks, wallets, or bank accounts. I can do that all day long in the real world if I like. In-game advantages for founders or development/start-up contributors, free-to-play and cash shops (even if just for cosmetic items) are the bane of anyone who ever wants to play a decent MMORPG.
*Beyond the price of initial purchase and subscription.
*Beyond the price of initial purchase and subscription.
Comments
1. Play more
2. Pay more
I find both equally offensive which is why in a MMO industry dominated by play-to-win, I don't see the big deal with play-to-win.
If your "content" is so boring that people will pay extra money to not have to do it, then that there is the primary problem of your game.
Play to win just enables people with jobs to compete to people living in their parent's basement. Of course being a full time college student atm I'm screwed on both ends but such is life.
Yes, a person being able to dominate in a game because he or she has no life and spends most of his or her time playing it is equally stupid.
If a game can't earn enough money from monthly subscription fees alone, that just means it is not a good game.
there is a lot of wisdom in that statement right there.
although..I did like Fallen Earth which is now F2P
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I hear you can still buy Monopoly and Life over at Toys R Us.
A new, modern MMORPG that doesn't offer to sell any advantages including cosmetics? That ship sailed long ago so I guess you're moving on to another genre?
We'll leave the light on.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Many, many, many, many times.
I understand that. But I know from experience that free-to-play is horrible. One of the worst ideas ever. Usually, the game is designed to incentivize paying (and paying more) to grind less. Grinding doesn't and never did belong in a game that calls itself a role-playing game in
my opinion. The vast majority of MMORPGs nowadays are actually Monstrously Monotonous Online Repeat-Pay Grinds rather than Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games. Role-playing called and said to stop slandering its name. These games have little to no role-playing involved or required. They are mostly just solider/mercenary simulators. Players are tourists in a theme park, deluded prisoners that don't understand they're living in a gilded cage.
Back to free-to-play. The other big part of this payment model is that you're asking the haves and the wills to pay for the have-nots and the will-nots. Socialism in action.
"Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future." - Yoda
But maybe if more players stopped putting up with, playing and paying for the nonsense we keep getting shoved at us, the current course of MMORPGs could be changed for the better. You can't sell garbage if no one buys it.
That said, the thought that subscriptions are a profitable model for well-done games is probably misleading. Even in early 2000s, when there was relatively little competition, most games were not doing that great. With the exception of WoW, MMOs managed to barely stay afloat through regular expansions on top of the subscription, combined with backing by big publishers. In many cases, even this was not enough.
It's got to be a lot more difficult today. The market is oversaturated, so building up any sort of large community is tricky. You can't count on capturing a large chunk of the pie - and most importantly, can't count on maintaining it over a long period of time. Any model that allows a single person to spend without a cap needs a much smaller pie to begin with.
On top of that, from what I've read on these forums, cosmetic cash shops don't tend to sell that well. Selling items that give some sort of a gameplay benefit make several times more.
I'm not saying I am a fan of the free-to-play model. Just saying it's possible that even if a game is great, it might not survive on a subscription model alone.
I see this argument often.
I think it begs the question of SHOULD someone that's living the good life, has a really well paying job, has a family, goes out often or any combination thereof be able to compete, or expect to, with someone that gives all that up to live in his parent's basement?
Kinda seems like some people want everything to bend to their will so they can have it all NOW and eat their cake too...so to speak.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Luckily i am able to avoid those games and that type of community.I am also a very knowledgeable gamer that i can spot such black marks in games and very quickly.Sadly things can go wrong AFTER we are entrenched with hours/days /weeks/months of gaming so we can do nothing but complain and hope to see the developer get rid of it.
I actually quit FFXI and came back after i saw some effort was being done,most developers show NO EFFORT or need to make an announcement when they make a small effort for good publicity.
I see what is going on out there,the industry is sliding downhill and badly,gaming passion tossed out the window,everything is about exploiting people for money now.Maybe it was always like this but we were too young and naive to see it in the early years.
At least we got to see gaming evolve and quickly,NOW it seems extremely stagnant to getting worse.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I am with you until you say cosmetic items. As those do not in any way shape of form change anything in the game other than the way a person looks. I believe that is a perfect way to reward people that have contributed to the games success by funding, etc...
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
The genre cannibalized itself which is why only a few games remain healthy and only a small number of non-Asian big companies are interested in the genre.
MMOs are mostly just sad online casinos filled with slot machine addicts. The genres that have actually embraced legit competition (MOBAs, FPS, RTS, Fighting, Survival) have exploded in popularity and are thriving.
Bottom line, as long as I can CHOOSE and have equal chance at winning (and not against the best of the best, but against those who have less skill as well as put less effort/dedication than me) then its even ground and the game is worth playing. I'm all fine people to be able to buy things from others via ingame $ to win in that game. I would totally like that option to choose if I want to win more in-game or in real life. The future of gaming and MMORPG's is about allowing players to make big $ out of investing their precious time in them, something today is rarely available due to greedy companies, bots, hacks, etc, etc. which is why January 11th, 2011 was the last time a new game took my $.
Which MMORPG has ever truly been great? I can't think of one.
I don't know of any well done MMORPGs.