Hm lets talk about Plots in the Cash Shop.
I can only provide my observations. I am pulling from my knowledge in this game, and my time being a moderator on a vanilla minecraft server that uses Golden Shovel.
If you aren’t aware, the golden shovel mod allows you to claim area’s in Minecraft so that other players can’t use them (just like the claims in Boundless). The claims can be setup in a variety of ways, but on server the longer you played the more area you could claim.
When you started on the server you could only claim a small area (about one chunk) and it would expand from there as you played. Before the updates around $$ in minecraft, people could donate to the server and get more plots assigned to them.
I share all this because I was a part of that community in Minecraft for 4 years. I met many new players, organized feedback to the server, and put myself in a neutral position to collect feedback to improve the server.
Over the 4 years, I did get feedback that people wanted more access to plots and didn’t want to pay $ for it. The feedback was a small sample of players, I would say about 3 - 4.
What is interesting is I thought the solution would be to give those players plots for free (just to keep them playing, we needed a community after all!) and they left anyway, usually 1/2 through a big build that overwhelmed them.
I understand the feedback around Plots. I understand that concern that a large Plot amount can be viewed as a person being ‘ahead’ or that having only a few plots could be viewed as ‘limiting’.
However, in practice, people that want a lot of space quickly…even in a game where gathering materials is easier (Minecraft), get burned out quickly as they get overwhelmed. Especially when they are new to the game.
The limitations on Plots is a helpful guide to keep players builds small/reasonable. Especially in a game where skills/levels have a high amount of influence on what blocks you can obtain and the time it takes to gather them. (unlike Minecraft)
I think Plots in the cash shop are fine. The amount of time you need to invest in collecting resources to make a big build already support you getting plots. Also, you need to be online consistently to keep your plots alive. There are other factors that are in the game which make the system balanced and fair.
Again, this is my opinion. I respectfully disagree, but am not trying to silence discussion. I hope my observations and information is helpful and presented in a way that helps show how I came to this conclusion.
Thanks for taking the time to make the thread ! The passion to make the game as great as possible is one we all share and can relate to.