A Serious Question

Hey if you want to think of it as an advantage for you.. you're more than welcome. It doesn't really matter one way or another.. but calling SotA pay to win over something so superficial is, to my mind at least a stretch. But it can all be a matter of perspective.

To me, "winning" isn't about having a bigger house or an indestructible fishing pole. It's finishing quests and beating the bad guys or for some.. combat superiority in PvP and PvE. Nothing we can buy gives us an advantage in these areas.

 

Crowns ... 3/3 with 0 fizzle .. paypal

Elven armor .. better than Epic Plate .. some pieces currently have 0 fizzle ... paypal

Sad to see it

 

Pre-alpha.. armor and weapon stats haven't been balanced. Current stats mean absolutely squat. Crafted armor (once fully implemented) better than elven. Epic plate will likely end up being crafted as likely there will also be crafted variations of elven.

All best items will be craftable.

 

Let me put it another way, yes you paid for an advantage, but the advantage your received was not only available to you because you paid for it in real cash. Theresfore not an absolute advantage over other players. As far as the game mechanics go I can't speak to what will be done in the future. The situation you described is possible, but based on the developers history and the games that have been put our before I do not believe this will be the case.

Most fishing tournaments look for the largest fish, not the total number.

 

From my prior experience being a beta tester, items first get created then balanced in beta. You need a large sample size to see if things are working out as you expected. Even once initially balanced they get tweaked as the beta/game moves on. There is ALWAYS something minor that gets overlooked and it only shows up when there is a large amount of data.

 

I only read the first 10 or so posts, not every post, so please forgive me if I say something someone else has (and if I do, I hope it just goes to prove the point a little more)

I have played many games that were monthly sub when I was younger. First MMO I played was Meridian 59 (UO devs will prob remember the name as both games were pioneers in the field, and being made at the same time), Ultima Online, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft (like millions of others, I have played WoW, and I still cannot get the bad stench off of me! QQ).

First Free to Play MMO I played was Guild Wars 2. I started playing it the last 3 days of beta, before it went live. I played it for about 9-10 months. For it to be free to play, they have to make their money somehow. You paid $$ to get gems, and you bought stuff in the gem store (You could even trade gems for gold in an open market setting). The things you could buy in the gem store, were not game changers. It was all vanity, toys, or something that saved you some hassle (example, instead of having 2-3 stacks of pickaxes(200 per stack, 1 was used up for every time you mined ore), you could buy an unlimited use pickaxe .. or, exp potions to help you get to max level a little bit faster). NONE of the things from the gem store, made it a game changer.

If you want examples of pay to win games, pull out your phone and look at the games in the iPhone app store, or google play store. In the Google play store. Go to Games and then Top Grossing. The first 25 that show up (top 50 really, but lets stick with 25) are FREE apps. You don't have to buy the app. The game I play a lot is #19 in the Google play store, Castle Clash. You spend $$ for gems, and with the gems, you roll for heroes, talents, or can instantly finish building upgrades, and more. You get exclusive heroes after you buy X amount of gems. They just added a new one today, at the 300,000 gem mark. $99.99 (or $100 for people who aren't fooled by it being 1 cent less than $100) gets you 16,800 gems. That means, you basically have to spend close to $1,800 to "buy" this new hero.

So there are the monthly sub games that want to dangle the carrot infront of you for as long as possible, to keep you paying every month. There are free to play that you play because you enjoy the game. Then you have free to play with a pay to win option. And as it is very clear already, this game won't have a sub fee, and I have no doubt in my mind, that this game will not be pay to win.
That just leaves, free to play .. Add-0n store will no doubt change a lot between now and launch, but it'll likely have a lot of changes the last month or so of beta as they get it setup for Live.

So I ask, get your panties out of a bunch, play the game, and have some fun!

 

So if I enter a race with a car that knowingly slower than the cars everyone else is using. I am counting on everyone not being prepared for maintenance issues?

If you win a fishing tournament with a sub par fishing pole. 1, the people that showed up expecting to win didn't come prepared. or 2, the devs failed at math.

There COULD be an advantage to having an item that does not take a durability loss. There, just as well, could be zero added value to this pole if it's never used. Now why would you never use it? Because the devs created a strong enough value on using the next higher item that does take durability loss.

We can all imagine ways that store bought items could be over powered. We are all watching for it. So how long do you think it will last before some in game items is more valuable to the point that the store item becomes a casual item and not a competitive item?

 

I don't know how we will call the game but the guys with the broken poles have probably problems with micro management. On the other hand I am shure that unbreakable stuff will only be good as a backup for broken, better stuff, which will be way more powerful.

To be honest, I don't know how all the mechanics and systems will work in detail when the core game is called "finished". I only can tell you that I pursue SotA for a really long time, grow up with Garriot Games and have the feeling that all will be good at the end because SotA is some kind of prestige project for Garriot and his crew which must succeed and they know about the problems with the P2W clichee. And what I see now is more P2C (Pay to customize, casualize...)

But I have to agree. Its a good thing to bring those things to question. We all hate doping