Open Letter to Mr. Garriott - the pay to play thing

Dear Mr. Garriott,

as i invested in sota first, i was not seeing sota as a "pay to play" game. The limited housing space was something i knew from UO, and yes i payed for my lot. But the new contents of the addon store blew the roof. Yes i know, a game in development needs cash and does not finance itself. But i was never a "pay to play" player and i will never be. I belived in you bringing UO to the next level not turning it into a "pay to play" game. Now you have to pay for extra flowers, trees, house styles etc. This is no evolution, it is a big step back. SOTA was initially not anounced as a "pay to play" (for everything) game. All the Ultimas were complete games where the player could discover and try everything, that was really cool. Now i am badly dissapointed because i see all the stuff in the addon store i will not be able to try and use in the future. And NO - i will not pay another hundreds of dollars for that. I payed allready a view hunderd dollars for one game, i never did that before and i will never do this again! Imagine the mystic armour and the glass swords in the Ultima V addon store for lets say 100$ ?? That realy turns me off. Also it perverted the whole economic system in sota. A loot after a hard fight is now something near to nothing, and trying to earn something became realy hard. I do not enjoy this. Simple things, that are somehow from the addon store can't be crafted and are next to unpayable in gold. If you look at the prices of different things, they are partly extreme unrealistic. I want an enjoyable complete game i thought i allready payed for.

I hope you are open for critics and maybe you understand me.
I think i know why SOTA developed in a way like this, -
but i thought it is time to tell you that i dont like this development.

Thank you for your time,

Helix

(Long Time Ultima Veteran)

 

There is virtually nothing I have "paid for" in SOTA that really befits me in a meaningful way and I have 5 figures in. Ya, I have a bigger house but the only thing I pay end up "paying" is a ton of time farming gold to buy stuff from players to fill it up. There are some really really small benefits such things found on benefactor crafting stations.

My adv lvl 95 has been done 99.999% on my own hard work... farming, grinding, trading.... etc...

You dont need a house, in a few weeks, I would welcome you into one of my inn rooms for free. I have several row lots and such now that I have loaned out to new players to use untill they figure out if they want to buy one of their own.

you may be confusing this with "real money transactions". I have not used real money to buy anything from players in the 1.5 years I have played, I get it all working hard.



some of the best players in this game, the ones we call the 1% players who are lvl 110 are also people who have pretty small pledges in the game and they are also doing it all with their own hard work and time.

 

Add-On Store


***Please note that there are many more items in the game than there are listed in our Stores. There are hundreds of weapons, armor, artifacts, furniture, etc. that can be found and/or crafted in-game (and more are added each month). No purchases beyond the base game access is required to have a full game experience. Additionally in Offline mode all game content will be available in-game for in-game gold including ALL the Add On Store content.***

In addition to items available in the store listed below, Gold Crowns of the Obsidians (COTOs) can be acquired to obtain items, services, and rares in-game. Also, thousands of items are available for crafting by fellow players! Ask around the Player Owned Towns in-game for community vendor locations.


https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=9085

Not pay to play. Pay To DECORATE BIG Difference

Laz

 

Additionally, everything in the Add-On Store will be available in offline mode for in-game gold. So there is nothing you will ever

You might not have it online, but you will have a way to try it.

 

I suggest that the odds of that happening in any organic sense is unlikely to happen.

 

Many items in the store have craft-able versions in-game. This game is definitely not pay to play.

 

It wouldn't really be a true open sandbox if only the combat portion, and only the combat centric crafts are free of paywalls imo. (e.g. to me, decorating IS playing )

But yeah, I've kinda given up on the pay thingy .

I'll just wait and see what the single player off-line will be like when the game launches.

 

I fear that what you see now is what you will get at launch

 

Hoping for the best, but planning for the worst

 

This is a bit misleading as to COTO acquisition in game. I have for example farmed level 5 areas from adv level 75 to 89 continuously for the last 3 months and have recieved exactly "0" COTO in that time. Either the COTO loot is broke or it would take years to accumulate enough COTO to purchase anything at all. In fact, gold COTO are only a fraction of the drop in COTO's, the other metals not being a currency. Please don't take this as super critical of your post, because I generally agree that pay for play is questionable. A player can do quite a lot without ever spending cash and I agree. COTO is broke and in the state it is in it really is not viable. You either buy them from the store or wait for the extremely rare gift from Port. Please correct me if I overlooked somehow that COTO only drop in low level areas as I have not played in them at all.

 

What prevents you from trading in-game with other players that bought stuff you didn't want to buy?

Spoiler: Nothing.

 

You can also buy from other players, for in game gold. I've never bought any coto's from Port and I have used many.

 

I guess pride... Haha.

The thought that the game has been designed, such that I, a master carpenter, have to pay a possible non carpenter gold for a table or cupboard he/she bought from the add on store makes me laugh.

The economy's Topsy turvy.

 

The craftable versions of most in game items that have addon variants are so common that they sell for a fraction of their material costs. Aside from equip

Technically, in the US, once money, or goods with cash value, are involved you need to worry about the tax ramifications of your actions. Not that the IRS seems to care much at the moment, but it still crosses my mind when I glance over the WTB and WTS forums.

 

How do you justify not being able to create artifacts? You can't buy or make those, yet it doesn't seem to upset anyone.

Have you ever considered the amount of time required to be a master carpenter or to grind out artifacts? Yet what if you have limited time?

The reality is that time and money share a common exchange rate in ALL MMO's, SOTA is simply honest about designing the game around that reality. And in return it means players that only spend the bare minimum have access to the same things that the highest backers have. Because time is worth money and vice versa.

 

Ummm... What? I genuinely didn't quite understand what your point was. I don't mean it rudely or sarcastically.

I'm a master carpenter. I craft furniture and spears, bows and wands. Why would I get mad at not being able to craft artifacts?

You don't think it's an odd design feature of the game that the furniture crafting profession in the game has to buy furniture from others?

 

If you're making a profit, yes. However that would require you to convert back into US cash, which is something I have never done. I have never made a profit off anything I have traded and all funds from sales have gone directly back into the game.

Of course there are surely others where that is not the case. Still though, that's a bit off topic for this discussion, as simply trading in-game anything for in-game anything is not subject to taxes.

 

It's like the only cheat code you need is your credit card number

 

It's a kludge that allows the developers to finance the game. Without that kludge there would be no game.

It's also a kludge that players can't make their own artifacts. But that provides incentive for players to fight challenging stuff.

My point is that while not liking that players can buy stuff that you can't make, it serves an important purpose just like artifacts not being craftable.

Look, I get that you dislike the pay gate and inconsistent design. But you can get anything in the game with time or money, and if pride is they only thing stopping you, that's on you.

 

Technically you were the one that said nothing should get in your way of trading with RMT characters. I'm only saying that concerns over a call from the IRS or state revenue board (or worse, if SotA gets large enough to attract money launderers) might get in your way.