Cash shop? wait what?

General
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meh, if anyone here is actually angry i urge them to not be. Everyone here is entitled to their opinions and feelings. It’s just hard sometimes because i know we often times cant understand the point of view of others without their experiences.

I more just fear for the games future with this model. I would be very sad to see the game bloat with development in the cash shop and despritly want the limited time items that i cannot have without real money being spent… Before you know it, you spend 100$ of dollars in a game that should have only cost you 40$

I can attest to this with Rift, I think I spent over 1,000$ in the first year it went free to play.

I watched people spend 100s on lock boxes. The game is just an ugly shell of waht it used to be… and the developers are despite to make the game better but they cant afford to, they can barely afford to keep the game around and are forced to squeeze people of pennies from the cash shop, just to keep the servers running.

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i fear as well… i was one who was heavy against the Micro trans until devs said its ok no pay to win at all you can still do everything for free and then all of us said oh… ok then now look at things…

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I just never really looked at this game as a real MMO, it’s not. It has sharded servers that are connected. This is no different than Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty, Rust, etc… They all ahve dedicated servers run by a host ( the company ) but until recent years, they didn’t have cash shops with micro transactions to keep them going.

This game ot me is minecraft on company owned dedicated servers. The cost would be minimal. I can never see this game having more than 10,000 players on a server at any given time… and if it does, if the game is THAT popular, i would much rather pay monthly for it.

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onot to mention when we have private servers to rent coming soon :tm:

now im going to let others comment i said my peice… i am unhappy as well but accept it more because i dont work… so i’m bowing out untill needed :slight_smile:

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The dev team is right about this. They just tell you to spend more time if you choose to save ur money.
Also the funny thing is this is the only game i know u need to “spend more time to earn the plots to build”.
This should be the basic function for player who very enjoy at creating.

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66

that was another gripe i have that i was just going to bite my tongue about. I want to play multiplayer on a private server with my son. So if it’s set up line minecraft where i cannot run a dedicated server from my pc or spare pc, then that is a whole nother issue.

Besides, they could jsut mark up the cost for renting servers as a premium thing and use the extra to fund the public server…

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Yeah, I think you are wanting something other than I gave. I gave what is possible with a fresh 50 using an iron hammer on a low level world. I don’t see the need to run a new character again to see how the cubits from leveling go since someone already did that. I already know what I need to do to quickly get to the point where I can one shot stuff on a t1 planet to quickly level as a miner.

Edit: In addition, the lack of resources is a temporary thing that only happens at the very beginning of the game.

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OP is a matter of perspective. It gives an advantage no matter what and no one can really argue that. The game is not an fully equal game. (honestly how can almost any game be). Whether the advantage is enough to matter, that is really related to the context of the person and how they play the game and what they want to see from the game.

For some it isn’t an issue. For others it is a very big issue. Ultimately it isn’t a black and white thing with scientific backing. So I tried my views in a big post about it and gave up trying to sway those that weren’t willing to change their opinions. Either way it still doesn’t matter because people will play and some people won’t. And I do agree P2W means different things to different people and has changed over time.

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As i mention at other post i don’t mind they sell their “art” (wearable / skin paints )
If they choose to do this i have nothing to against.
But today they are selling the function of the games. (and some of those are suppose to be the basic function)

The “art” they sell won’t affect anything to the game but the outfit only.
In this case, I am willing to spend my money to support them.

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Yeah the hardest things is I just don’t know what it will be like until I go through it. I hope it will be balanced if it is a bit too low. I’m sure we will have some good data by everyone once we all get the wipe… you all did great trying to give data at the level it was so it was helpful from that perspective.

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73

Goodbye and have fun.

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So I logged in game again, took a look at the shop again, and realized I had rewards to collect…

The lovely animations of the boxes was nice to look at. however, very worrysome. I am very certain Loot boxes are on their way. After looking at the effort and time that went into these boxes and their animations and the pure satisfying animations of it opening and the items coming out of it. This much effort would not be made for a purely in game earned reward.

sigh.

I suppose I will give this game a chance, but not without a serious amount of skepticism…

I have no gripes with walking away if the game does in fact have loot boxes. And I am very sure it will…

On a completely separate note, how does one restart their character now… because the only character i have available is a moderately high level toon I don’t want to play right now.

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It’s all getting reset on the 13th, so it’ll auto reset in 5 days for you, not sure how to do it right now though.

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you could try to go to the testing realm and see if you have a new character you can start there… some people had to start theirs from scratch.

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Oh boy these threads.

The exchange is not p2w.
The exchange provides solely small quality of life things and vanity items.
The currency you spend in the exchange is earned while leveling and while we’ll need to thoroughly test it once the new universe opens up soon, it appears on paper to be plenty to get everything you need.

Look, I’m getting a bit tired of these kinds of posts from the same 3-5 people but I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt if you’ll just listen for a moment and reason with me.

Many games are games that are “finished” products at launch. You buy the game. You play the game. You are done with the game. An expansion or some DLC is released for the game. You buy the expansion or DLC. You play the expansion or DLC. You are done with the game again.

Boundless is not that kind of game.

Boundless is a game where the devs want to continue updating the game, FOR FREE, for a looooooooooong time after launch. They want to add guilds, PvP, titans, tons of new creatures. New planet types. Tons of new building materials. Etc. They are also a business that has to be profitable to continue or they have to close up shop. There are many different “tools” that game devs have at their disposal in order to try and make money:

  1. Game has a price tag
  2. Subscription model
  3. Cash shop
  4. Regular DLCs and/or expansions with price tags

As far as MMOs, which is what Boundless aspires to be:

  1. Final Fantasy XIV costs money, has a mandatory subscription model required to play aside from rare special events, has a cash shop and all expansions cost money as well. What FFXIV doesn’t do is charge you for essentially what is “DLC” in their feature patches they release every 3-4 months.
  2. Elder Scrolls: Online costs money, has an optional subscription model, has a massive cash shop and almost all feature updates are DLCs and expansions that cost money. They do provide a decent amount of “free” content with each DLC or expansion.
  3. Rift is free, has an optional subscription model, has a massive cash shop and all DLC/expansions cost money (through the cash shop).

Boundless is doing the following:

  1. Game has a price tag (albeit a bit more than half that of larger MMOs like FFXIV or ES:O.
  2. Game has an optional, modest subscription model ($4.99) that is purely QoL and/or cosmetic.
  3. Game has a tiny cash shop that provides solely QoL and/or cosmetic things
  4. DLC/expansions come (at least for now) by way of regular, free patches.

Seems pretty reasonable to me.

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78

I won’t be playing 20 hours per week. I’m simply in no hurry and the game has no winning or even end game. You can make rules for yourself that say you have to do this or that. Me? I just do my thing and relax. I don’t go setting goals in the game. I don’t worry about ever reaching level 50 and probably never will with any character. I just play and relax when feel like it. Some games I put more effort in but Boundless is an easy game that doesn’t require a bunch of thought and doesn’t require goals. So, I relax here when things get hectic in real life or need to unwind from other games. I’m never in any hurry in games. That would defeat the whole purpose of playing as it becomes work if I’m in a hurry. If I make it to level 50 it probably won’t be for a few years with three characters. I figure more than likely, by the time I’m level 40 with one I’ll be bored and start a second and then a third character. Someday I’ll be bored and leave for something that is new and likely still won’t have a level 50.

As for their business model? I don’t care what their business model is. If someday they make it where need to pay more money to do anything then I leave. I already have far more value for the money I have paid already. A very few games I have spent over ten times as much money on than I have on Boundless. I doubt I’ll ever see a reason to spend more on Boundless as it’s simply not necessary and I can’t see what would make it worth it with one exception. I might possibly rent a world if I find things too crowded for my taste.

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79

again, i will stay this, specifically for you this time. I am not against the company making money. I am against inevitable fall to predatory practices on customers to maintain development.

I merely gave my skepticism based on personal experience. So oh boy, replies like these…

I’m getting a bit tried of these kinds of shallow responses telling me my opinion is wrong, misguided, ignorant, or that i don’t understand how these things work, and have someone break it down to me as though I have never played an MMO before. p.s. this game is not an mmo, I don’t think i’ve ever seen more than 20 people online on a planet at once. (hopefully this is changed at launch)

I am aware a game needs money to survive, I am aware of their dreams and goals, but I am also aware of reality and that there is a possibility that a lot of these features never come to light. I am also skeptical that they can resist the temptation to implement tools, loot boxes with various items, xp boosts, gathering speed boosts, etc.

Sure these ARE all convenience items. But, this creates for a scenario where those with money will spend money giving raw advantage whether that is in the form of items, or time. Not to mention some people have very addictive personalities and this is a game that i would consider geared more towards kids than adults. Gambling loot boxes have no place in games, they are intentionally garbage and I have watched people waste 100$ of dollars for something that should have just been for sale in the cash shop for 25$.

Plus, if there is a large enough % of people who do not need to buy things to be successful, this hurts their profits, thus hurting development. In turn companies start cutting corners, skimping on some of the developments QA first, then cutting costs elsewhere. They will further insentivise the purchases from the cash shop to meet the monetary demands of the game. I know this, I have seen this numerous times.

I am also going to college for game design, and programming. I am taking psychology classes and economics classes and we have talked about these types of practices in games and the different business models and how they operate.

Companies need to make money, no one is against that, no one ever said they shouldn’t make money and I am not saying they are unreasonable right now. I am saying that i am skeptical they will stay on the straight path. There is so much temptation to diverge, especially when you have publishers breathing down your neck.

I am 100% ok with their gleam club, I fully intend to support through this route, assuming i enjoy the game after launch. However, I do find the gleam club very lacking in persuasion to support this way. This merely gives me some emojis, colored chat, extra tints to my character, and auto fueling your base. This doesn’t give extra character slots, it does not give discounts in the online shop even. This is just purely giving you some color and allowing you to forget to log in for a prolonged period of time.

Typically games with this model offer a leg up on non subscribers with a discount in the store, or some extremely minor permanent buff to ex or speed. Which yes, is a convenience paid for item, but it is the closest thing to a sub in a free to play model you will probably see. Because even free to play games see the stability in a semi reliable paycheck.

Paying a box price, then a modest sub will always be the best route. This game will not escape loot box lottery, if it does I will eat my words but I bet within a year of launch we see loot boxes.

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Wadu bananas am i reading here… this mumbochambo… :thinking:

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You’re just wasting your time trying to sway these hard core fans… anyone that pushes the agenda and message that the exchange is just fine don’t care about the perspective that P2W people care about… you will just run circles trying to get people to listen.

It is better to just enjoy the game before the exchange turns into a huge list of coffers you can buy at various levels with real world money. Hopefully the influence of the community will keep that from happening… but we can only see what happens.

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@Dhusk that was a well written explainer on the exchange, and how minor it is. Props for having the patience to write that out. I just wasn’t in the right state of mind to get it out as clearly, so well done on that

Pay to Win is in so many games these days, its infuriating, and I understand that.

But the exchange in this game is not anywhere near as awful as these big games that EA and Activision and the big name dudes have been throwing out left and right!

I get why many of you are worried, but there are NO loot boxes right now, and no having to buy access to high tier worlds, and nothing forcing you to buy anything at all.

The dev’s are forseeing additional costs for server maintenance, and they don’t know if enough people will buy into the game at release to make enough money to keep this thing going. We have to help them with POSITIVITY and get the word out that this game can be great if people will stick through some of the slightly confusing parts to ride off into the golden days hopefully to come

Let’s put our differences aside and just focus on the game and enjoying it and being good community members, and being the kind of community that you would want to be apart of, because I think we can be. There’s a lot of great folks here already

Will we always agree? Heck no. But let’s keep it positive and constructive and I think that will put us all in a better mindset going forward

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