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Eskel Bondfree
DUST University
Ivy League
76
   |
Posted - 2012.09.29 17:07:00 -
[1] - Quote
And why do you think those suits unbalance the game more then any other Aurum item? Each of them has to be bought with real money, and every player will be able to do so when the game launches. The four drop suit BPOs you refer to are just Aurum items, and like all Autrum items, they save their user some ISK at the expense of dropping real money on the game. The BPOs are simply a discount option to the usual Aurum drop suits, meant for people who are dedicated to the game and are willing to spend more then a few cents at once. Dust is free to play, so someone needs to pay for all those who literally play for free. |
Eskel Bondfree
DUST University
Ivy League
76
|
Posted - 2012.09.29 18:06:00 -
[2] - Quote
Raynor Ragna wrote:
After the initial buy, I lose absolutely no money, AUR or ISK when using those suits. Thus, I can save far more isk each time I use those suits giving me an advantage for the whole time I play Dust which could be years. If the suits have a cost per use, then I still get the skin which I purchased but I do not have a permanent financial advantage over everyone who does not own that item.
Well yes, but that permanent advantage is the whole point of getting those BPOs. The cosmetic option you get is just a minor bonus and imo would not be worth the 6Gé¼ you have to pay for it. Remember we're talking about T1 suits here, not T2, T3 or even proto suit BPOs, so the actual advantage in game is still not huge.
Let me explain why I think those BPOs are no big deal in this free to play game: Everybody who truly enjoys this game and is dedicated to it in some form, should also be willing to drop some money on it (like you would with every other game that is not ftp). So you might buy some single Aur drop suits, or the mentioned drop suit BPOs. If someone thinks that they'll be playing this game quite often or for a long time (maybe years, like you said), they'll get the BPOs instead of single Aur items to save money. Everyone else who plays Dust only twice a month will continue to restock some Aur drop suits every once in a while, becaues the BPOs would not be worth it for them. Both types of people get the same advantage in game, because they are paying for it.
Now, everybody who's not willing to drop any money on this game, will indeed have a harder time because they need to generate more ISK by playing the game. But they get to play it completely for free, year after year. Which is why they are in no position to complain that they have a harder time than someone paying money for the game. This is, in my understanding, the point of a free-to-play game: make those who play for free suffer just a little in order to entice them to pay some money every now and then. Note that I'm not talking about the notorious 'pay to win' scenarion here, I'm not saying CCP should make T2 or prototype BPOs available for paying customers.
The fact that CCP offers those 'flat rate discounts' in the form of BPOs simply makes sense, because that way dedicated players who play frequently and over a long period of time are not forced to drop obscene amounts of money for single use Aur items. Which is what seems to happen in other ftp games: in order to stay competitive and fully enjoy the game, you have to pay an amount of money that stands in no relation to the monthly fee of traditional MMO games, "free-to-play" in this case is just a way to rip people off. I hope CCP ist not trying this with Dust. |
Eskel Bondfree
DUST University
Ivy League
76
|
Posted - 2012.09.29 19:20:00 -
[3] - Quote
Nyefari wrote:Raynor Ragna wrote:
What I would like to see happen is that the suits are merely a BPO which you need to build the suits theself to use. The building comes from ISK or ISK based materials. If a tier 1 suit costs 10k to use, the special BPOs may require 9.5k isk... Giving you an advantage but nothing that will mess with the equality of the game.
In specific response to this, that's BS. I'm not going to spend actual money that I work for to save a couple k isk a game, and I hope no one else would either. If 0.5k isk a suit is what's going to take you from losing ISK to gaining ISK each game then you should consider switching up your playing style. I could go for this kind of model if it took the suits from being 10k isk to only being 1k or even 2k, but from 10k to 9.5k is wayyy to little of a change for me to spend actual coin.
Yes, that's not a bad idea at all. But like Nyefari said, the savings in ISK would have to be far more significant, like halfing the usual price of the item, at least. Otherwise, buying such a BPO would require you to commit yourself to the game for the next 6 month on a regular basis in order to get you money's worth, which wouldn't be feasible.
Because you were talking about the equality of the game, I'd like to emphasize: since we're in a free-to-play game, there will always be an inequality of some sort. And by throwing enough money at Dust, you could have an unlimited supply even of prototype drop suits if you wanted to.
Imo the whole discussion boils down to the question: how much Isk should the game allow a player to save for paying X amount of money to CCP? |
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