Hopefully you can stay and play. However, you might have to do what I did a while back. Take a short break then see it if the game is moving in a direction that you are comfortable with. If it is not then you have not wasted anytime. If you are good with how it is going then you come back, we welcome you back and we all go on from there.
I feel as though for people that value their time, to debate something about the game on the forums, instead of simply loading up the game (a game they own, mind you) and finding the answers in much less time than the forum browsing… seems pretty hypocritical.
I wouldn’t say that is completely true. They managed to move the release from December as originally planned to September. If the loan is not repaid Turbulenz loses the intellectual property rights to the game. If you couple that with introduction of the microtrans. They might not have complete control yet, but the bought a lot of influence and appear to be exerting it, and not to the benefit of the backers.
I’m a little confused about what you mean. Can you rephrase it maybe?
Sorry, that wasn’t supposed to be directed at you. Hit the wrong reply button.
I was just saying it takes longer to read misinformation than it does to verify information.
My concern is that by boycotting Sony, you’re actually hurting the people who work on Boundless, NOT Sony.
They wouldn’t have gotten a publisher unless they needed one.
In the beginning the game was crowdfunded. About two years in they made the deal with Sony. Now 4 years on Square Enix Collective is doing publishing work.
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Just putting this out there: I think Subscriptions will kill this game. I know I will stop playing, though I LOVE this game. A non-P2W cash shop is basically like a donation box for all the wonderful work the devs do. You never have to donate, but you can if you want. No subs, pretty please with a cherry on top!
@james I would like you and all the devs to know that I think you guys have acted with incredible integrity designing the Exchange the way you did. I greatly appreciate all the work you do, and how hard you guys work to solve problems as they come up. I know you get a lot flack and support for what you do, but from this little peon who loves the game you have created, I appreciate all of you 
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@Anichka93 Couldnt have said it better. 
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Exactly my thoughts.
Devs have three ways of sustaining this game when sales finally drops down. Subscription, micro transactions, payed DLCs.
I also think subscriptions will result in dwindling player base - and history of other mmos seems to agree with me. Paid (and pay walled) DLCs will fracture community. Micro transactions will turn off no micro-transaction crowed from the get go but won’t affect people who started playing.
So micro transactions for me are the best way.
Technically there is a fourth by I don’t know any MMO which has development officially supported by voluntary donations. Private servers are not included in this because all those cases I know staff is working for free.
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I don’t want to defend Sony, but lately they have had a couple of nice moves towards letting developers do their thing, so I think it’s not necessarily a bad thing that Sony is in the mix. (I’m PC player, just to be clear)
I think it’s important to clear up a few misconceptions.
Sony invested into the game some time ago; Square Enix Collective (that I run) invested money this year. Wonderstruck is self-publishing on PlayStation 4, SEC is publishing on PC. Neither Sony nor Square Enix Collective has any rights over decisions taken on how the game is made, nor anything to do with microtransactions. We even have to get all marketing approved by the developer, because they are (and have always been) the IP owner of Boundless.
Given the historic perceptions of publisher, I totally get why these assumptions are made, but where people want to see the murky hand of publishers in anything, I just want to go on record to categorically state that’s not the case.
As to the reasoning behind microtransactions, it’s something that was already planned before SEC was involved, but I understand and agree with the intentions that rather than force a subscription on everybody to play the game, it’s instead something that’s (a) entirely optional and (b) means only those who want to spend extra are supporting the ongoing cost of servers.
In terms of how far sales go towards funding the developers’ costs, obviously I can’t go into details about contracts, but just to be clear about the real income vs gross income:
Using @Kal-El’s example - let’s say the game sells 4,000 units at $40. Gross revenue here is $160,000, but after Steam cut and tax (and refunds, and fraudulent payments, etc etc) the actual income from the game is more like $85,000.
The average burn rate (ie monthly salary) for a studio of around 30 people (and to be clear, this is just an example, not Wonderstruck’s actual numbers) might be anything between around $100,000-$200,000 assuming a team based in North America or Western Europe, depending on the experience of its employees.
So even an inexperienced team on this scale would find that a challenge - and this totally excludes ongoing running costs, QA, localisation, anything to do with marketing, and some form of repayment of the money invested into the game.
We all - and this includes me, without the publisher hat on, since I’m personally now with over 1100 hours of gametime in the past 18 months - want this game to thrive and flourish for a long time to come. But the reality is, game development for this kind of project is expensive.
I’m glad that there are strong feelings on either side of the divide here, and I hope that continues, because I’m sure that improvements to the way it’s communicated can and will be made. The game is nothing without the community, but it’s not just those amazing folks who saw the potential in the vision 3-4 years ago and put money and trust in early on, it’s also the new people coming in with different perceptions and understandings and desires for the gameplay experience.
We need to hear all the opinions, at times thrash it out, but consider it all - and together we improve.
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Except the arguments that this game is P2W are objectively wrong. There’s nothing to win. There’s no win condition in the game. It’s a sandbox.
I like this post thank you for sharing.
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I think if they had been up front and honest about the intent to microtran down the road, and to not remain independent, like said that in the pitch video, they would not be receiving as much negative feedback from backers. Several I have talked to feel like they were sold out. Many of these people spent their time and money to help promote the game and make it a reality when the devs were holding nothing but an idea, and a thin prototype in their hands. There was a time when decisions for the game were actually voted on by us, and there was serious buy in from the community. Now things do not operate like that since Sony bought in. They may not have the final say yet the but their money changed the entire way things operated. People were pretty pissed then. To see micro on top of that is pretty painful for some.
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The problem really boils down to this. Does the game survive on subs, or micro. The decision was made micro, but cosmetics were clearly not enough in the estimation of the decision maker. So in game advantages in exchange for cash was implemented. In my estimation a large part of revenue the stream now depends on these advantages. Yeah it a sub free game alright, but it came at a terrible price, and the games reputation will pay that price for the rest of its life. Consequently, vastly shrinking the size of the potential player base. They claimed sub is not viable in the current market, but don’t buy that. Most major MMO’s that have been around for 10-15 years survived on sub. In fact the introduction of micro is usually a sign the game is going down hill in many of these.
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People assign winning to a variety of things… we see this in life and through out all of society. There is no objectivity in this discussion because it is contextual and subjective in nature - winning or not winning is subjective.
Using the simple excuse of “Sandbox” really doesn’t address the point I and others were making about respecting others views.
I give money, you give me an in game advantage. That is the definition of P2W.
Plots for cash meets that criteria.
Auto refuel meets that criteria.
Pay to be lazy or Pay for Convenience is a bit more accurate than Pay to Win, but as mentioned it depends on your own personal perception of what “winning” is.
Technically, being viceroy is arguably a win condition.
Okay, here’s a solution: remove plot buying with real money.
Keep Gleam Club and dedicate the artists time to create cosmetics that Gleam Club members can use to support the game. Fully cosmetic, nothing more. Dedicate the artists time there because they do need a sustainable business model since they are that: a business. Servers, salary, etc are all expensive.
There you go. We’re Path of Exile now (minus storage slots)
ok lets talk about plots. . early backers get additional plots for paying in additional money. Was this p2w? I honestly do not remember that being raise when everyone was trying to get the packages. Is this not the same thing?