Explanations on monetization thinking on SotA

They tried to remove TAB targeting but people got upset so they reintroduced it on the G key. Personally I think SHIFT/Click does just as good a job without being bot friendly but, well, it is what it is. Not bad, could have been worse.

On the P2W subject, it is all relative. Every game has to extract money from the players in order to survive, and finding ways to do it without upsetting them requires a degree in Psychology.

 

Alot of arguments against P2W assume that it is easier to make real money than doing in-game activities.

Let's look at the previous example. A player spends 5 hours to obtain the gear. Oh yes, it mist be very hard to sit on an ergonomic chair at the comfort of his home pressing keys and clicking mouse buttons while soaking in AC and take a break whenever he wants.

The other guy who paid by cash to obtain the same gear on the other hand could be working graveyard shift at Walmart wage moving stuff in some warehouse with crappy AC, so he had to soak in sweat and humidity at 100F to make that the required amount of money.

Which of these spend more effort to obtain the same items?

There still need to be some balance to ensure that it is worthwhile to spend more time in the game than just pay cash to obtain things. So that players couldn't just get the legendary gear with cash and then run out of things to do in game.

 

The majority of game hours are spent by players with more time than money. The majority of dollars are spent by people with more money than time. It is inevitable that the latter will end up subsidising the former, in fact were that not the case there would most likely be no game. It is unrealistic to expect this subsidy to occur without some kind of incentive for those doing the subsidising. The trick is in finding something that is just enticing enough to extract money from the subsidisers without causing the subsidised to leave.

 

Or maybe is an ice cream tester. Or perform street scams. Or move stocks through the internet. Or works as a robot designer. Or hunts protected animals and sell them in the black market. Or is a CEO of a major company. Or sells matches on winter.

I kind of share your point but lets not forget that there are lots of sides for money. That's why it's hard to make Time = Money a reality, and tends to be more Time < Money because then people won't spend that money.

Either way i'm ok with money making it up for time, allowing working fellas to catch up with hardcore gamers. It is implying money directly into a high end game mechanic what i'm not particulary fond of.

 

~I Very Much Understand Where You're Coming From There~

Even with the more robust equipment, I suck at most PvP but find it enjoyable. The troubles I see within being so Macro Friendly, is something I think any game can't avoid being, because there's just not more favored gaming mechanics that have shown themselves as better than the "whack a mole" system that most all games use. There's just no better appealing solutions I see.

The milking money from players... games aren't charities, so I can forgive them for attempting to make a living doing the work they do
I don't think I've ever seen a "Newman's Own Salad Dressing" corporate gaming designed funding model, but even Paul Newman's Salad Dressing costs real money

With the COTO and the way Portalarium's handling it, I don't see any reasons to panic, even if I did jump on board the "I hate to pay to win" band wagon witch hunt...
But I do remain vigil to being against weaponizing such P2W ever creeping in here...
Yet I'd still suck at PvP even with that big P2W stick in my hands...
~Time Lord~

 

Does anyone else hear Stephen Fry in their head when they read this...

 

The standup corner from yesterday.

Brandon Cotton: Crown purchase orders & Masterwork crafting

 

Unless they dial down durability degredation so far that COTO'S don't make them any money specific to repair and at that point, why have it?

I'll agree that the playerbase is pretty outspoken and passionate but I can't agree that this is difficult to figure out.

Anyone who has been strictly a gatherer and merchant of raw materials is all too familiar with how... prioritized... players are. Most players use gold they make from fighting/salvaging to buy raw materials rather than harvest them themselves. It's all a matter of how you want to spend your time and Portalarium knows that with the exception of the crafter type players, we don't want to spend it focused on harvesting.

Portalarium intentionally tied COTO'S to repair because it's the one thing no player can avoid if they don't want to replace their gear over and over. I mean, if this coupled with the equipment affinity system doesn't make that fact crystal clear to everyone, I don't know what will.

The reality is that even though they are fully aware of the alternatives, they chose to tie it into a mechanic that permanently stuck the cash option of COTOs in the players face for all time. Its an unavoidable game mechanic and a constant temptation now, implemented the exact same way mobile apps do it. Im now waiting for a flashing cash shop icon on the game UI that actively reminds you to spend your money. Yeah you can argue that all a player needs to do is not buy them, but portalarium knows it's a temptation most players will choose not to avoid.


This is my harsh critique on the topic and I know I won't be popular for it.

I stand by my original inclination that the way this was done is far too intrusive on gameplay. Up until now, MMOS traditionally made cash shop items convienence items and even with the example Chris provided, the expensive 50% xp bonus GW2 provided didn't really make that big of an impact on the game. If you ran through the story even with that buff running constantly you still didn't hit max level before the story completed, so what difference does it really make? Not much of one. Plus, they didn't mention that the availability of lesser xp bonuses from in-game sources in GW2 are a heck of a lot higher than the drop rate of COTO'S in shroud.

I've still never seen a COTO drop.

The dust has settled for me at this point and I truely hope the durability degredation is reduced to a point where players wont feel like COTO'S are an ointment for a continuous unavoidable wound in their gameplay.

It takes a level of faith to implement cash shop items as fully optional convienences. Faith in your product, faith in your art. Maybe I was nieve to think that the faith in the game was high enough for portalarium to dismiss the possibility completely...


...but that's what I hoped to see.

 

Good catch!

 

I've never seen a COTO drop either... but I do have a pop-up advertisement ... er, I mean shield icon... warning me to repair my gear. I'm hoping the threshold for degraded gear warnings is something that makes sense... because that shield icon is annoying!

 

The other thing that scares me about this system is that Chris or another dev has said in the past hangouts if I'm remembering correctly that they will give ways of reducing skill decay. This COTO is going to be used in that system. The skill decay they say isn't a big deal but I haven't been playing this like a normal MMO in that I check back every day to see how my sales are doing restock if needed on market boards. The system rewards players for not logging out as then no skill decay happens.

Chris also used the 50% XP bonus example as we didn't give that much, no you gave more for less. The 50% XP Bonus in GW2 is for 2 hours and costs about $1.25 for 2 hours. Your giving people 10% for 7 full days. We take an avg of 20 hours a week that is about 100% XP bonus for 2 hours for $1. How is that greatly reduced amount of bonus? Just because its spread out over time doesn't mean that its less of a bonus.

As @Grave GodsHammer has said this shows that making the crowns tied to repair is an attempt to make money because its easy to get people to not want to have to go get new gear or hassle finding someone who can make the gear that won't cost an arm and leg.

 

Notice, that if your shield needs repair, the shield icon won't show up -- the sword icon will. :/ :/ :/

 

@Chris and @DarkStarr This is important. I'm not sure you'd ever actually tie skill decay to real world money. But this is what you've created. You've created the perception that Portalarium can't be trusted that that the devs will pull the rug out from underneath the players. That perception is toxic.

I'm not saying Portalarium isn't trustworthy. Quite the opposite, I've long defended the devs as good and honest people. In every situation Portalarium has been called out, I'm first in line to defend the company's record for transparency, honesty, accountability, etc. I know that integrity matters to many of the people in the company.

That is why it is so critical to understand how this undermines the perception of your transparency, integrity, etc. Other people will latch on to this and say "they already started selling power items and changed a key system to depend on real world money after saying for years they won't. So it is reasonable to expect they will do this again with other systems."

Certain doors shouldn't be opened. You've reverted other decisions when re-evaluating them. I'm worried that this decision will harm the company and honestly I care more about the sustainability of the company and your livelihoods more than a game.

Monetization is important. I know you need revenue. I'm just really hoping it isn't too late to consider other models. I think this is a great opportunity for an anonymous survey sent to all paid backers for feedback on what potential models they might back or fund.

 

~P2W is a Witch Hunt, "with a catchy slogan"~
"I can't get ahead because of other's paid bonuses?"

When I play 10% more than you each day, I get a 10% bonus over you that I didn't even have to pay extra for...
We are selling entire cities, crafting tools, houses and hot tubs in our Add-On Store offers...
We sell light weapons, armor and crafting stations through only pledge rewards...
If my hands are slow while playing the game, you have an advantage over me...
Whether or not I pay more for the game than you, makes little difference...
If I choose to fight higher monsters than you, I will gain more...
If I choose to fight lesser monsters I will gain less than you...
If I bought a new multi function mouse, am I P2W?
If I buy a better computer than you, am I P2W?
If I buy better internet than you, am I P2W?
I don't believe in giving in to witch hunts...
Or the catchy slogans of others...
~Time Lord~

 

Could not agree more.

 

I'd support COTO'S if they could be used to pay for housing taxes instead of being tied to durability repair.

 

They already can... So I'm not sure that adding a direct functionality makes a big difference.

 

The direct functionality provides convienence and consistency for people to use COTO'S for that specific purpose instead of having to barter them for a moving target market value.

Convienence is what monetization in an MMO is all about.

 

But it creates the same inflationary concerns that song directly to NPCs had...

 

In this case it would be a crown turn-in for a set value and credit would be applied to your outstanding housing taxes, so there wouldn't be any impact to the player market, because there is no gold involved.

If youre talking about the possibility of an increase in taxes due to incoming revenue, the player would still have ingame options to pay with if he/she chose to discontinue cash payments.