Well since CCP stole the player founded CPM (under bonus rewards second paragraph) name I guess I cannot use that anymore.

This week's topic of discussion is how much are you willing to pay for Dust 514?

This is all going to be hypothetical scenarios so to shape up the conversation up a bit Ill lay some grounds.

The current content (as in pertaining to quality of the game not items) of Dust 514 shouldn't be a factor in this discussion there is more emphasis on the long term plans so current content detracts from the discussion.

Hypothetical payer, even if you don't pay a dime for this game in reality fancy us with the notion if you where given the option to spend money on this game what if when where you can use that money for.

Now that the ground is set a bit, time for some discussion topics. Feel free to bring your own topics or free form the following.

1. What items do you feel is absolutely need or want to spend Aurum on? Give reasons on current, or even new options if you need to.

2. Do you think there is a Dust 514 equivalent to a 'subscription?' Explain why you must purchase these items regularly. Explain so explain what purchases are 'subscription like' or part of that subscription then the price point you would like to pay for it.

3. What items you consider extra purchases? Things outside the 'subscription' and would buy on a whim of need or wants? How long do you see paying for these items? What price factors would they be in order for you to continue to pay them?

4. Would a fair price for consumable based on average user loss of similar items per week be a good base point?
For example a full drop suit fitting made of Aurum costs $5 dollars a week in losses. Give your examples and pricing and time frames.

5. Are you more willing to pay for more expensive permanent items or enhancements over a much cheaper consumable items? Items like a market licence which can double the amount of items you can sell? Or with current examples the BPOs of militia items?

6. Would you feel okay if dust 514 had a 'membership' subscription program? What items would make it worth it at the prices you imagine? Should all items int he membership pack be buy able by non members? Should membership be discounted vs the normal aur store?

The only perk I could see really would be built in active and passive boosters for between $15 and $20 dollars.

Merc pack does that with 19000 Aurum and some goodies to spare.

With each new update I would like it if they offered respecing I think that people would buy into that pretty easily. Even if there is no new content I would love to respect from time to time to fight the...I am only an assault boredom that is bound to attack anyone who would play for an extended amount of time.

I always like these kind of discussions. Don't think many people from the office will have a chance to respond due to Uprising and Fanfest but I know I am watching. :D

I always like these kind of discussions. Don't think many people from the office will have a chance to respond due to Uprising and Fanfest but I know I am watching. :D

1. What items do you feel is absolutely need or want to spend Aurum on? Give reasons on current, or even new options if you need to.

2. Do you think there is a Dust 514 equivalent to a 'subscription?' Explain why you must purchase these items regularly. Explain so explain what purchases are 'subscription like' or part of that subscription then the price point you would like to pay for it.

3. What items you consider extra purchases? Things outside the 'subscription' and would buy on a whim of need or wants? How long do you see paying for these items? What price factors would they be in order for you to continue to pay them?

5. Are you more willing to pay for more expensive permanent items or enhancements over a much cheaper consumable items? Items like a market licence which can double the amount of items you can sell? Or with current examples the BPOs of militia items?

6. Would you feel okay if dust 514 had a 'membership' subscription program? What items would make it worth it at the prices you imagine? Should all items int he membership pack be buy able by non members? Should membership be discounted vs the normal aur store?

No.

1. What items do you feel is absolutely need or want to spend Aurum on? Give reasons on current, or even new options if you need to.

2. Do you think there is a Dust 514 equivalent to a 'subscription?' Explain why you must purchase these items regularly. Explain so explain what purchases are 'subscription like' or part of that subscription then the price point you would like to pay for it.

3. What items you consider extra purchases? Things outside the 'subscription' and would buy on a whim of need or wants? How long do you see paying for these items? What price factors would they be in order for you to continue to pay them?

4. Would a fair price for consumable based on average user loss of similar items per week be a good base point? For example a full drop suit fitting made of Aurum costs $5 dollars a week in losses. Give your examples and pricing and time frames.

5. Are you more willing to pay for more expensive permanent items or enhancements over a much cheaper consumable items? Items like a market licence which can double the amount of items you can sell? Or with current examples the BPOs of militia items?

6. Would you feel okay if dust 514 had a 'membership' subscription program? What items would make it worth it at the prices you imagine? Should all items int he membership pack be buy able by non members? Should membership be discounted vs the normal aur store?

7. Cosmetic Items - Would you prefeer it in the form of an item or in form of a paint 'bucket' to paint gear in? If a paint bucket how cheap should each Copy be? should there be bpo versions?

10. THE RED LINE - What product, if sold, would upset you the most should it be for sale via arum, (not buy but litterally want to make you quit the game)

BPO items.

60$ like for a normal game .
P2W is not that popular on consoles and it will never be because people play on console to enjoy and spend some time in a video game not time and money on a regular basis.
P2W is a PC trend sustained by desperate nerds who have time and money to spend in order to win in a video game, im sorry but its the hard cold truth.
Make the game standard price and remove AURUM items making all equals in equipment and separated only by skill.
Game supposed to have "cosmetics" ala skins but alll i see is better items for $$$.

NPC Storyline Packs with exclusive BPOs and exclusive PvP Maps

$20 - $30 each, 1 or 2 a year

I'm in.

Unfourtunately 'Microtrending' is popularized by EA on consoles, Other developers are following suit including Activision, and even 343. You're 5 years behind the curve and if you are not developing a microtrending game you're not going to stay competitive. 60 usd a game is no longer cutting it and console players want MOAR for their game experiences.

Full year of call of duty was like 120 USD give or take.

Thats one of the many the reason why EA sucks.

Stop using excuses for lazy devs that want easy money.

Gaming has become an INDUSTRY where developers don't care to make innovative unique games to be remembered for years to come but to fill their pockets with YOUR money in short time with stuff that should be in the game in the first place without EXTRA payment.

All you guys crying about Dust being P2W haven't seen P2W. Look at some of the games on the droid market or apple store just to get an idea. If you think it's not an issue because they're mobile games, then look at what's going on with GW2. Arenanet literally nerfed the already grind like farming in game currency upon release just to force their players to buy gold from a market that they control. Now, the majority of their servers are empty and if I were a betting man, I would say 3/4 of the players logged in are probably farm bots. If that's not enough, just look at anything "Freemium" by EA, Nexon, or SOE, or any ported Korean MMO just to get an idea.

Oh, so because dust is less P2W than some other games we should be happy?

I can only imagine what this type of logic does for you in the real world.

You would raw dog a woman with herpes just because she doesn't have AIDS.

Everything available for AUR is available for ISK with the exception of UVT, Boosters, and Fused Locus grenades, which are probably the only thing I would consider P2W in this game, but that's still a stretch. My point was P2W gets thrown around so much about this game by people who just don't know, don't care enough to look, or are just trolling that others are starting to believe it. Last I checked, AUR dropsuits die the same as ISK versions and AUR tanks blow up just as easy as their ISK cousins, if not easier since player skill and SP skill tend to run askew on those things. If getting the ability to use something without a few hundred-thousand SP invested is P2W on a F2P game, then you haven't seen anything...

You don't know what you are talking about. Thanks for trying though. There are numerous items for sale for Aurum that are better than anything you can buy with ISK. These items do NOT grant you early acess, but only lower fitting requirements. They are without a doubt supremacy goods, hence P2W.

Here is a post I made on the subject with examples

So go ahead and tell yourself the game is not P2W, and that everything is level.

You are wrong though.

Stop making excuses for developers who do not have enough money to make their next game or to operate their studio for one more day. There are plenty of games that where never to be and sequels to great games I would love to see but the sad fact that some of the best games are the games nobody buys. You truly cannot run a business on desire alone. I would love to see an Okami sequel, Homeworld, Tie Fighter vs X-Wing and myrads of other games yet those will likely never happen as just about every studio I want a sequel from has been evaporated of every dime they don't have. I truly hate seeing Capcom trash Megaman franchise entirely but the fact is, it is a losing investment, Capcom literally blamed the fans for the company hate against the blue bomber because of the general lack of support has been dying in the generations the blue bomber has gone though. Zelda I fear is going to be the next big classic franchise we may see get killed off by its own success of earlier iterations, or the dreadnought that built Final Fantasy, these studios are 1 or 2 flops away from evaporating. There is a reason why there is a HD remake of FFX and not one of FFVII. FFVII was really ****** in retrospect and a remake is going to **** all of you off and that's a bet SE is not going to waste.

CCP has a business to run and services to provide, my hopes is that even on a low budget they can continue to develop building content that stacks and stacks and a Dust 514 II never becomes nessecary and it becomes the shooter to talk about for a decade becuase 10 years from now we may be on Halo X, CoD Future Warfare 5, CoD Civil War II, Battlefield 1812, Planet-side 3 but hopefully we will have Dust 514 still. If you feel that 60$ a year is fair which is the bare minimum cost of CoD subscription (60$+ more if you PSN or XBOX gold)

The internet is not free, model artist is not free, netcode is not free, server hardware is not free, bandwidth is not free, community managers is not free, content designers is not free, map designers is not free, project directors is not free, system designers is not free, sound engineers is not free, economist and quality assurance is not free, customer services are not free.

One awful fact you're going have to face is this, Cost of your so called AAA games are making Hollywood blush in terms of budgets. The rise of el'cheapo phone nickel and dime apps is going to be a major shift in the market failure to be on this bandwagon today will spell certain doom for many many many studios that fail to consider that platform a viable source of income.

One more note micro-transactions are here to stay. Even the venerable Minecraft has em and is going to expand on it. Notch's team don't work for free either someone has to buy their pizza and deliver it to their garage.

Another trend I guess that is showing up I would like to term Games in progress. Games have budgetary deadlines and seas-saws to meet. So when enough content is good enough for the 60$ they will ship and finish the rest of the game later as it typically is less time consuming, less man power intensive and frees up quite a bit of the team for the next major sequel.

The days of paying just 70 (nex gen) quid for a game is mostly over. I truly fear the generation after will be 100% cloud based meaning used game stores are going to be extinct very quickly.

Even with the over-the-top advantage you're claiming people have with AUR gear, they're still not immune to gunfire and tactics. I can see where you're going with the fitting requirements, but did you consider that this was as a way to compensate for lack of combat engineering and circuitry skills to fit modules?

Again, there are similar variants to the AUR equipment available for in game currency

and even with more lenient fitting requirements, it doesn't compensate for player skill. If anything, it should be extra incentive to kill these players if you meet them on the battlefield, instead of crying about them having the ability to equip more stuff.

I can see where you're going with the fitting requirements, but did you consider that this was as a way to compensate for lack of combat engineering and circuitry skills to fit modules?

Definitely not on exclusive maps

Yeah the lower fitting specialist weapons (isk) allows me to stack full complex mods even on suits that SHOULDN'T be able to with the same weapon. There is the other side of the coin however that what about when I get a fit that isn't pucker tight? As long as the AUR versions are consistent and don't offer both cpu and grid (they should stuck to cpu only) it may get to the point that a full aur fit would have spare cpu while a maxi skilled character in isk equivalent is cpu tight by 0.1 cpu.

Overall it needs to be looked at from a bigger picture and needs comprehensive look into to see if its clear cut pay.

Also @Big Mama, all the little quips in the world isn't going to change the fact you have no idea on the subject at all.

Spot on - that will break up the player base quickly.

Long list of questions here so not going to answer all specifically.

I have so far spent about 140.00 on dust. I was in closed beta about 2 weeks after it first began, even before eve players were given automatic invites. If not for all the aur refunds and resets we have had I am sure I would have spent more by now.

I plan to spend about 20 per month on average and use it for many different things not just boosters. I hope we get the corp uvt soon and will buy that every month for my corp. I also have had an eve sub for around 7 years and want to keep my expenditure no more than aroung 40 per month total for both games.

I love this game and buy mercs packs and aur as much for the benefit of myself as I buy them to support dust with the hope of a long future. I haven't played any other game (other than eve) since starting dust (i was addicted to Bf3 before dust)and hope to play dust for years to come.

There is really nothing I can think of that I would object to specifically being sold for aur since once the player market opens there really won't be anything in game that couldn't be bought for isk, as well as aur, effectively nullifying pay to win for any item CCP adds after that player market opens.