I recently posted in a thread on this and decided to bring it up again in the hope to clarify the confusion on certain items in the marketplace giving an advantage over others, such as the boosters. The boosters give an advantage to get ahead, not to become powerful or pwn others. Therefore, it SHOULD be called P2A (Pay to Advance.) It really all comes down to how you play, not become invincible. CCP never meant for it to be a P2W game.

With the weekly sp cap being higher with boosters, it is pay to win not pay to save time. you cannot gain as much sp with more time...

Until we see someone die to SP on the kill feed, Dust 514 will never be pay to win.

With the weekly sp cap being higher with boosters, it is pay to win not pay to save time. you cannot gain as much sp with more time...

P2W is such a tricky subject for most people. It's a balancing act.

Most people consider the worst p2w to be selling things that provide an in match advantage that aren't otherwise achievable without paying money.

M2 Contact Grenades say you're wrong.

M2 Contact Grenades say you're wrong.

It's not P2W by gaining skill points faster.

P2W is defined by spending real money to get an advantage people who don't spend real money, can't achieve.

Pay to earn skill points at a faster rate.

Pay to get AUR so that you can get better suits and weapons with less pre req's than someone who doesn't.

Sounds like pay to win to me IMO...

If you skill up faster but then can also turn around and get proto gear while only skilling as high as advanced stuff that says pay to win.

The announcer says it better! "Aurum do more faster"

Take two players who are equally skilled let one use aurum and the other isk the aurum player will win 9 out of 10 because he was able to get to the better stuff faster

Until we see someone die to SP on the kill feed, Dust 514 will never be pay to win.

This. I'd say about 7 outta 10 times I get killed, it's by something 'named' that someone spent money on. It's almost parity, but it's still a higher rate of 'death-by-wallet' as opposed to 'death-by-game'. But that's okay, I'm not complaining, I don't particularly care because I kill them more often than they kill me. I'm just saying, buying this stuff definitely gives a player an advantage. I know CCP was trying not to let it happen that way, but it did.

It's not P2W by gaining skill points faster.

P2W is defined by spending real money to get an advantage people who don't spend real money, can't achieve.

No. Active boosters don't lift your weekly cap. The skill points you earn with the bokster are not counted tkwards your weekly cap.

Pay to earn skill points at a faster rate.

Pay to get AUR so that you can get better suits and weapons with less pre req's than someone who doesn't.

Sounds like pay to win to me IMO...

If you skill up faster but then can also turn around and get proto gear while only skilling as high as advanced stuff that says pay to win.

The announcer says it better! "Aurum do more faster"

Take two players who are equally skilled let one use aurum and the other isk the aurum player will win 9 out of 10 because he was able to get to the better stuff faster

It's not P2W by gaining skill points faster.

P2W is defined by spending real money to get an advantage people who don't spend real money, can't achieve.

Good thing we don't have infinite free use gear then!

Oh wait... BPOs...

Oops :ccp:

BPOs are crap,Free sure but useless all the same. All BPOs have a in gamematch for the most part anyhow.Uesing Aur gear gives you no real advantage because the matchmakeing in game will toss players with 1mill sp and 10 mill sp into the same pub matchs.Dust is just a brutal game for new players no amount of real money helps that and Vets dont use BPOs or Aur stuff to stomp when all the top gear costs ISK.

1. "No game should be more complex than it absolutely needs to be to meet its goals."
2. "A good feature can be based on positive or negative interaction, neither is inherently more valuable."
3. "Other players will always be more interesting, for longer, than designed experiences. Give players tools to maximize the variety and impact of their decisions."
4. "Every system should affect, and be affected by, the wider world."
5. "Here are the tools, do something cool with them."
6. "The social experience is more important than the practical system balance; the interaction between winners and losers is more interesting than mechanical equality."
7. "Interactions should be reaching out and touching, more than reading numbers."
8. "Things in the world need to make sense."
9. "Players are not entitled to success. The most aspirational goals are coveted by many but reached by few."

More Skill points does not equal a better player.

nope, it just equals a better gun...with better dps....ability for more sheilds....larger blast radius.....more armor....bigger clip....etc.

More Skill points does not equal a better player.

And none of that matters if you are using a Starter Fit combined with good comms, coordinated teamwork and situational awareness.

lol its p2w, Aur modules and gear require less skill points and less strain so yeah its p2w, in that exact definition. Whos gonna play the game when you can go buy stuff that you can spec into a million levels lower.

~Closed Beta veteran. ~

unless they also use good comms, coordinated teamwork and situational awareness.



The omega active booster will be p2w, because it goes beyond the cap.

Active boosters will become less meaningful as the game gets older. People will reach the point where they maximize chosen specializations and as such having more SP won't benefit specific fits as it causes them to diversify for lack of upward progress.

And that's why I'm concerned about Omega booster and the slippery slope towards P2W: as SP becomes less important as the playerbase gains more SP, CCP will need to find other ways to monetize Dust. They have already shown willingness to go towards P2W, and I'm afraid the push will only get more aggressive in the future.