In a non competitive game like Boundless there is no such thing in the literal sense, but we can all agree that throwing money at something to be able to do better in a game is generally now considered p2w. If coloured signs attract more people than you could by that definition call it that.
What I always find rather funny is that of all the things people complain about it’s these simple things even tho there is a rather huge thing with the skillsets that to me is way, way, way more p2w label worthy than this!
It’s the silliness of some of the Epic skills, you want to Brew and make high tier foods? Either level another character just for the other one, do your best to get to level 100 (or 150) and unlock another skillset OR simply buy some cubits and keep changing it back and forth.
There have been times I actually spent more cubits in a week changing skills than buying plots! And I only now mentioned food/brew, but you need to change one to be able to make gem weapons/tools/tech as well AND early game it even helps a lot to turn on/off certain skills to do things more efficiently.
Why has no one ever mentioned this as being p2w???
As an aside, am ok if they keep it mostly like it is, but for love of everything oortian, drop the OR/OR epic skills. It’s basically impossible to have a Crafter character that can do everything, not even with 3 skillsets…
“Pay for convenience” and “pay to win” aren’t the same thing. You’re not winning anything, as there’s no win state. It’s all very trivial, I don’t mean to nit-pic. I would agree that they are both in the realm of micro transactions.
But that IS nitpicking tho
We all know what people mean when they say p2w and there’s absolutely zero need for 2 different acronyms that in it’s basis means the same: to be better and/or make things easier…
Ok… now I AM going disagree. P2W means you can’t beat another player without spending money. You are forced to pay if you want the ability to beat another player and win. Pay for convenience means speeding things up, saving time. Big difference.
Edit: same way it bothers me how MMO has come to mean simply multiplayer no matter how few people there are. 6 people doesn’t make an M-MO.
If someone told me Boundless was P2W, I wouldn’t buy it. Many mobile games are P2W.
Edit 2: to simplify— micro transactions don’t always equal pay to win.
Yes, a very pedantic view on things, I get it, love to do such things as well, BUT why make things more difficult to understand and have 2 (or more) acronyms which essentially both mean something very similar: that you pay money on top of the normal game price to get some sort of advantage in game, be it just for yourself to speed things up or to more easily beat another player does not really matter.
I agree with you pay-to-win doesn’t really apply in a non-competitive game like Boundless, but I think calling it pay-for-convenience is too soft. Instead I think it would be more accurately described as pay-to-achieve. A large part of the enjoyment we get from our activities in the game is the sense of progression and accomplishment. I think that satisfaction would be diminished if we knew someone else could come in and just buy their way past all the hard work we put in.
But I don’t really mind calling it pay-to-win because in a sense progression and achievement is how you win in a sandbox game, and if it can be bought then yes, the system is P2W
I seriously doubt some skanky shop will sell more for their colored signs.
I never even see shop signs as i go through HUBs and i always check all surrounding shops for good prices, regardless of how they look.
Youre all hugely exaggerating a non-issue
Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but you can unlock skill sets at level 1 and you can craft everything in the game by the mid 30s on a single character
take my money boundless!