Had they kept it at monthly paid subscription, I'd be okay with that. The prices are affordable and realistic for an iDevice game. But, with the fact that there's IAP's (other than pets/vanity items), then the game has failed in my eyes. Rich players get to profit much more than people who choose not or aren't able to spend additional money on IAPs. So much for making a fair/balanced experience. Can't you already see the favoritism scenarios? General chat: "Looking for Tank for XXX Monster": Player Tank (A) with all IAP's "I'm ready pick me!" Player Tank (B) with no IAP's "I'm ready pick me!" Gee I wonder which one will get a group faster or be chosen. How fair/balanced will PVP be for a fully powered up IAP players vs. a non-IAP players?
Sounds just like every MMO out there. WoW and it's ilk all have thriving markets for gold and character selling. It's not official or encouraged but it's there. If someone wants to cheat their way to level 70 they can, and it'd likely give them the edge over a lower level character. There's nothing new about this game doing it other than the fact it seems to be encouraged. The problem with non-IAP gameplay being slow is valid, but this one not so much unless you're referring to MMOs as a whole, and that's not something an iOS developer is likely to try and fix.
Couldn't agree more. Really disappointed by this. And yes, there are gold sellers in wow, and but people who buy gold are in a little minority, they often banned, and account selling has almost been made impossible since battle.net account merging.
Alright, so let's assume they weren't banned... it affects you how? Whether they did it over the course of 60 seconds or 60 days, there are always going to be people who are a higher level than you. The end result is the same.
What are you talking about? You are acting as if owning a game is a divine right. If they don't want to pay for the game, they don't have to. But to act as if they deserve the game at a lower price is ridiculous. They deserve absolutely nothing. AT ALL. It doesn't matter how much they love the game, they don't DESERVE the game. Such a claim is greedy in itself. WAA I WANT THE GAME, BUT I DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR IT. IT SHOULD BE CHEAPER BECAUSE I CAN'T AFFORD IT BUT I 'DESERVE IT'/I CAN AFFORD IT BUT I WANT OTHER GAMES/I'VE ABITRARILY DECIDED THAT THE DEVELOPER OWES ME IN SOME RIDICULOUS WAY......etc. Pathetic.
No if they have earned they gear/pvp ranking of whatever, that's completely fine. It just kills ingame competition to have an item-shop, it makes it unfair.
Wait..what? There's a base price of $6.99 a subscription price after that (When the 3 months are up) PLUS in app purchases? I sure as hell hope those in app purchases are only for bonus/vanity items like weapons & clothes & such. I feel if I buy an app AND pay a subscription fee on top of that, I should be entitled to play the game to it's fullest without having to pay for in app purchases to upgrade my character's stats.
Hey guys, wanted to chime in here - I'm developing a f2p mmo, and one of the things my partner and I are struggling with is how to make a profitable operation out of an f2p game. The themes I see emerging from your discussion are: Paying a monthly fee is reasonable Vanity / pets (cosmetic) is grudgingly accepted Paying for any in-game competitive advantage (e.g. loot) is totally unacceptable Paying for an XP bonus is bad if it takes away an opportunity from a legit XP-earner What are your thoughts on the following? (some are in O&C, some aren't): Paying for expanded inventory slots (personal enhancements that other players don't see) Paying for team-based abilities like creating a guild Paying for "lottery tickets" for loot that can also be earned in-game Paying for time-saving unrelated to XP; like fast travel for example The struggle we have is that charging high subscription fees presents a huge _marketing_ problem; it's hard to get people to even try your game. That's why everyone aims for f2p, and then uses IAP (which is more heavily used by players with disposable income) to fund the entire game for everyone. Definitely interested to get any feedback you guys have. -K
So I guess you ARE one of those IDIOTS!!!! Gee, I thought these companies spent money and time making these games so you all CHEAP SKATES can get them for free. It's like buyingt a BMW for $60,000 and then complain about the price of the car and wish it's the same as a Camry. WHAT I DO UNDERSTAND is if I like the game enough and think the price is fair, then I will buy it. So get a clue next time when you try to teach someone who is older than you about life. Maybe finish HS first will be nice. And son, in the USA, "us" is plural. You are not "us". Maybe in North Korea where they teach you English might be
Another commenter answered much better than I, about this topic, above. Suffice it to say that if you don't like how capitalism works, with its notions of supply/demand and letting the market set the price, you are more than welcome to go to countries where there are pricing controls -- like North Korea. As for me, $16.99 is too rich for my blood; and that's why I await a fire sale. That, too, is a part of capitalism.
What are you on about? Divine right? Deserve? What are you thinking? Are you saying that you believe that game companies get to decide what we buy? You're right, we don't have to pay if we don't want to buy it, but that's not my point now is it? My point is, and this goes to any industry (i.e movie), people come up with ideas, put their creativity and passion into it, but there are corporate people who decide how much they want to charge for it regardless of the quality of the end product. And to the bloke who compares my point with communism and North Korea, well I say that you need to educate yourself more instead of generalising and going to the extreme. Centralized governmentship is bad, everyone knows that, but how is that related to my personal hatred towards capitalism? I'm a humanist and people like you is the reason why I feel ashamed to consider myself a human being. Because people like you think that poverty is good because 99% of money owned by 1% of the population is good (which is brought about by capitalism). Have you ever worked? Or do you live with your mommy and daddy's money? Bottom line is, there are thousands of apps out there, mostly games, but would you buy two of the same at different price? To what end would you say that devs should not make their games universal? At the end of the day, the platform is one and the same, iOS. Would you like it if I were to suggest to Apple to make iPod Touch and iPhone games as separate platforms? Would you want all games to be iPod Touch only, iPhone only, and iPad only through and through? If you still don't get my point then forget it.
I'm a woman, you irredeemably narrow-minded little person. All you do is come to this thread just to call others fools for their economic philosophies, and throw puerile insults in defense of your notions. I wish moderators would delete all these comments, including mine. It has NOTHING to do with this game.
I agree to be honest. The $1 per hour rule is highly unacceptable to me, it is a little bit egotistic to think your game deserves that value of rating while many other great games are cheaper and would at least match the quality of GOF2 and it's play hours. I brought GOF2, it's expansion, as well as another space trader game called Wrapgate, they all fall into the same format, and at certain point the game you dominate the galaxy with little left to explore, you get extremely rich by repeating a certain trade route. Nor any of them actually have a good storyline. You could name this a clone and in time players who have experienced these games already would likely not buy another clone at such price in the future.
Going with your analogy , why do people buy first class / business class tickets when they can get the economy class ones when it still brings you from one place to another ? Why buy a $3,000 watch when a $10 one will do exactly the same thing ? Go tell that to the different brands . If $1 per hour is highly unacceptable then why is the movie industry so big then ? There're both there to provide you with entertainment . Generally, how long is a movie ? And how much does it cost ? Now which is more expensive ? Deal with it . That's life and humans are like that . Oh and , GOF2 doesn't have a good storyline ? I'm guessing a lot of us don't know how to differentiate a good storyline from a bad one then .
Oh boy here we go again about prices. Are average TA members 13 year old teenagers? $10 is not a lot of money for a game like this. It's less than one meal eating out, or a couple of cups of coffee. If you can afford an iPod touch/iPhone/iPad, you can afford $10. It's like someone buying a BMW and complaining about gas. Or someone buying a PS3 and complaining how expensive the games are.