This game, while FTP HAS to make a profit somehow,,,, im sure CCP have this covered but I dont see why anyone would be spending too much through the game currently (especially for the -ú85 offer on the psstore!!).

There was a similar situation with DCUO (the other f2p MMO on the ps3),,, since they introduced a ftp model (seeing revs increase by 800% according to some estimates) they very strongly argue that their game is NOT pay to win,,, but advantages can be gained by paying. This includes a monthly membership which makes life much much easier... and various other schemes throughout.


DCUO has a similar restraint to Dust's weekly SP cap.... like most other MMO's you have to play set missions every week to gain the rewards you need to progress (Dust essentially follows this model, but in a less constructed way, meaning the player has more choice). These raids reset every Thursday. This worked really well I thought, and allowed casual gamers to find time every week for their missions,, and allowed hardcore gamers to do a bunch of other stuff too,,, meaning everyone who ensured they played each thing once a week would keep in competetive progression compared to everyone else.

Where it went wrong (in my opinion) is when they introduced replay tokens,,, that allowed you to ignore the weekly wait and play the raids (receiving ALL rewards) as often as you were willing to pay for. This inevitably lead to some people maxing out their top tier suits within a few weeks (and i suppose then having to go back to work to pay for everything they had just done) and disbalanced the strengths of people everywhere (since t4pve gear was stronger than the top level pvp gear during pvp battles lol)

My fear with the introduction of the weekly SP cap is that it puts the game into a perfect position to bring this ability in at some point. IE pay however much money and your SP cap would be reset (keeping everything you had earned so far). In fact, with so few avenues of revenue apparent in the game, I'm certain we'll see new ones being added soon, and i'm fearful of the effect this may cause.....

Simple fact is,,, DCUO is run by Sony, and they have learnt a LOT of lessons about the MMO market through that game. Since i'm sure they're having a lot to do with CCP and the development of Dust, it wouldnt come as a surprise if they started putting some of those lessons into effect here (and I dont necessarily see that as a bad thing, its reassuring Sony are putting so much effort into helping CCP bring a product to a new platform and market)


However, with DCUO the replay tokens were the straw that broke the back in my case, and the day it was released was the last day i ever played the game. I'm not so sure it would bother me as much with Dust, but would definately irk me somewhat....

So i'm asking the community here......

How would you feel if that scenario came into existance.....

And considering they need to make money somewhere, what (if anything) would tempt YOU into buying something (whilst making sure it would be seen as 'fair' by other players)


Jimbo