I am one of the game's developers. Our business model has been developed in close collaboration with our community and is largely inspired by Eve Online, which is a game that most people would not consider to be pay 2 win.
The key difference used to be that in Albion, compared to Eve, you could also play the game without a subscription (aka premium) with some disadvantages. After Eve's recent changes of allowing play without subscription, the business models are now extremely similar, though one could even say that Albion is less pay2win as Eve does allow trading of skill points, which we don't.
Here is a summary of our business model:
Albion Online's Business Model
Albion Online's business model is buy to play.
There is a premium status that can be bought for in-game currency, silver
The premium status allows players to progress faster. It does not give any benefits to combat power
There is a premium currency, gold, that can be used to buy vanity-only items or as an alternative to buy the premium status
Player Driven Gold/Silver Market
Players can trade gold with each other in return for silver
There is no direct way to convert gold to silver apart from player to player trading.
The gold/silver exchange rate depends purely on the player driven market. In particular, if too much gold is bought by players, the in-game value of gold will drop.
Gear System
All items in Albion Online are player crafted.
There are no “cash shop” items with the exception of vanity items.
If you kill somebody in full PvP zones, you can loot their items
The gear power curve is very flat, and the risk/reward ratio becomes worse for using higher end gear, as it is very hard to replace when lost. This significantly reduces the power gap between normal and harcore players.
Is Albion Online p2w?
This question gets asked often, and is especially hard to answer as different people use different definitions of the term pay to win.
Our view is that Albion is not p2w. Here is why:
There are no cash shop items apart from vanity
The premium status can be bought with in-game currency,
The premium status is akin to soft subscription that you are essentially expected to have if you want to play the game regularly, so it’s like a normal subscription that still let’s you play if you do not have it, albeit with slower progress.
The gold/silver market is purely player to player, there is no direct way to convert gold into silver, and even if you could, all items that you could buy with it would be fully player made
And if you buy gear from other players, the fact that the gear power curve is flat and that gear can be looted when you die in full PvP zones means that if you are not careful, other players might see you as a walking loot bag as opposed to a feared enemy.
All in all, our business model is inspired by Eve Online’s Plex system, which has been working well for years and is generally not considered to be p2w.
I am one of the game's developers. Our business model has been developed in close collaboration with our community and is largely inspired by Eve Online, which is a game that most people would not consider to be pay 2 win.
The key difference used to be that in Albion, compared to Eve, you could also play the game without a subscription (aka premium) with some disadvantages. After Eve's recent changes of allowing play without subscription, the business models are now extremely similar, though one could even say that Albion is less pay2win as Eve does allow trading of skill points, which we don't.
Here is a summary of our business model:
Albion Online's Business Model
Albion Online's business model is buy to play.
There is a premium status that can be bought for in-game currency, silver
The premium status allows players to progress faster. It does not give any benefits to combat power
There is a premium currency, gold, that can be used to buy vanity-only items or as an alternative to buy the premium status
Player Driven Gold/Silver Market
Players can trade gold with each other in return for silver
There is no direct way to convert gold to silver apart from player to player trading.
The gold/silver exchange rate depends purely on the player driven market. In particular, if too much gold is bought by players, the in-game value of gold will drop.
Gear System
All items in Albion Online are player crafted.
There are no “cash shop” items with the exception of vanity items.
If you kill somebody in full PvP zones, you can loot their items
The gear power curve is very flat, and the risk/reward ratio becomes worse for using higher end gear, as it is very hard to replace when lost. This significantly reduces the power gap between normal and harcore players.
Is Albion Online p2w?
This question gets asked often, and is especially hard to answer as different people use different definitions of the term pay to win.
Our view is that Albion is not p2w. Here is why:
There are no cash shop items apart from vanity
The premium status can be bought with in-game currency,
The premium status is akin to soft subscription that you are essentially expected to have if you want to play the game regularly, so it’s like a normal subscription that still let’s you play if you do not have it, albeit with slower progress.
The gold/silver market is purely player to player, there is no direct way to convert gold into silver, and even if you could, all items that you could buy with it would be fully player made
And if you buy gear from other players, the fact that the gear power curve is flat and that gear can be looted when you die in full PvP zones means that if you are not careful, other players might see you as a walking loot bag as opposed to a feared enemy.
All in all, our business model is inspired by Eve Online’s Plex system, which has been working well for years and is generally not considered to be p2w.
Insightful read, and I knew there must have been some reason AO was the only other MMORPG I've played outside of EVE in almost 2.5 years.
While I'm a total carebear I enjoy trying to thrive and prosper in spite of the more challenging environment where everyone tries to kill me.
I'll be back playing after the final wipe, but one thing you should know, a great number of people who really don't understand how EVE works think it is "P2W."
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Subscriptions are common place and premium status for buying them is also. There is absolutely, nothing to see here. As far as the statement you're showing, if you followed the game, you would know that they do a lot of tongue and cheek type statements. People are so ready to be butt hurt, they look for any excuse to complain.
Game is totally P2W if you can make real money turns in game currency. So you can't buy an overpowered item from the cash shop, but you can turn your real money in game currency and buy the best gear available.
Also , this "premium" status in Albion Online is just overpower. LP is a very bad system and it is ridiculous right now, everyone in Albion makes 2 alts in order to exploit the LP system.
Some people are arguing that game is not P2W because it is a full loot MMO, people die and lose everything, but that logic is just absurd. The fact that the game have a full loot system is the very first reason of why it should never sell power, in any possible way. How people is defending a P2W system (where you turn your money in game currency) in a full loot MMORPG is beyond me to understand.
So while a normal players are farming to get the so needed "premium status", the paying players already have the best gear (because he just turn real money in game currency), and also he progress 60% faster due to LP system, with 3 characters. Now lets make a 1x1, the normal player against the paying player, what will be the result? The normal player will die and lose everything.
Albion Online turn in to a joke, a very bad joke. I regreat my founder.
I am one of the game's developers. Our business model has been developed in close collaboration with our community and is largely inspired by Eve Online, which is a game that most people would not consider to be pay 2 win.
The key difference used to be that in Albion, compared to Eve, you could also play the game without a subscription (aka premium) with some disadvantages. After Eve's recent changes of allowing play without subscription, the business models are now extremely similar, though one could even say that Albion is less pay2win as Eve does allow trading of skill points, which we don't.
Here is a summary of our business model:
Albion Online's Business Model
Albion Online's business model is buy to play.
There is a premium status that can be bought for in-game currency, silver
The premium status allows players to progress faster. It does not give any benefits to combat power
There is a premium currency, gold, that can be used to buy vanity-only items or as an alternative to buy the premium status
Player Driven Gold/Silver Market
Players can trade gold with each other in return for silver
There is no direct way to convert gold to silver apart from player to player trading.
The gold/silver exchange rate depends purely on the player driven market. In particular, if too much gold is bought by players, the in-game value of gold will drop.
Gear System
All items in Albion Online are player crafted.
There are no “cash shop” items with the exception of vanity items.
If you kill somebody in full PvP zones, you can loot their items
The gear power curve is very flat, and the risk/reward ratio becomes worse for using higher end gear, as it is very hard to replace when lost. This significantly reduces the power gap between normal and harcore players.
Is Albion Online p2w?
This question gets asked often, and is especially hard to answer as different people use different definitions of the term pay to win.
Our view is that Albion is not p2w. Here is why:
There are no cash shop items apart from vanity
The premium status can be bought with in-game currency,
The premium status is akin to soft subscription that you are essentially expected to have if you want to play the game regularly, so it’s like a normal subscription that still let’s you play if you do not have it, albeit with slower progress.
The gold/silver market is purely player to player, there is no direct way to convert gold into silver, and even if you could, all items that you could buy with it would be fully player made
And if you buy gear from other players, the fact that the gear power curve is flat and that gear can be looted when you die in full PvP zones means that if you are not careful, other players might see you as a walking loot bag as opposed to a feared enemy.
All in all, our business model is inspired by Eve Online’s Plex system, which has been working well for years and is generally not considered to be p2w.
Hey, thanks for contributing, by the way. I love to see developers hang out here, when they do.
In my opinion, it's a great model and it's something that may be necessary in order to make subscriptions "work" again. However, it also allows me to do stuff like play with my kids, since they can play for free because they're just little blood-sucking leeches, but they are blood-sucking leeches I love playing games with.
I fear that unless your game is free and you sell nothing, that there will be complaints about your model. However, even if you did that I'm sure people would find something to complain about, like a lack of content or paid updates, etc., etc.
Ok so from no one no should dare to imply that Archeage is p2w. Atleast they provide the game itself for free. These people create a game and give it a buying price, which is cool. However if you don't stop there and add even a P2W system that quite literally makes you able to not only progress faster but buy ingame gold aswell, you are quite literally saying hey guys if you want to stomp everyone just spend 5000 dollars and make sure your guild will be able to camp everyone who dares to stick his head outside the safezone.
@Ceironx I say this respectfully, but the way that you are generalizing how the scenario of someone buying $5000 worth of in game gold simply does not hold true. Please, take a moment to play the actual game before spreading misinformation. Those of us who play the game are not camped by people wearing 8.4 maximum tier gear. It just doesn't happen.
I am one of the game's developers. Our business model has been developed in close collaboration with our community and is largely inspired by Eve Online, which is a game that most people would not consider to be pay 2 win.
The key difference used to be that in Albion, compared to Eve, you could also play the game without a subscription (aka premium) with some disadvantages. After Eve's recent changes of allowing play without subscription, the business models are now extremely similar, though one could even say that Albion is less pay2win as Eve does allow trading of skill points, which we don't.
Here is a summary of our business model:
Albion Online's Business Model
Albion Online's business model is buy to play.
There is a premium status that can be bought for in-game currency, silver
The premium status allows players to progress faster. It does not give any benefits to combat power
There is a premium currency, gold, that can be used to buy vanity-only items or as an alternative to buy the premium status
Player Driven Gold/Silver Market
Players can trade gold with each other in return for silver
There is no direct way to convert gold to silver apart from player to player trading.
The gold/silver exchange rate depends purely on the player driven market. In particular, if too much gold is bought by players, the in-game value of gold will drop.
Gear System
All items in Albion Online are player crafted.
There are no “cash shop” items with the exception of vanity items.
If you kill somebody in full PvP zones, you can loot their items
The gear power curve is very flat, and the risk/reward ratio becomes worse for using higher end gear, as it is very hard to replace when lost. This significantly reduces the power gap between normal and harcore players.
Is Albion Online p2w?
This question gets asked often, and is especially hard to answer as different people use different definitions of the term pay to win.
Our view is that Albion is not p2w. Here is why:
There are no cash shop items apart from vanity
The premium status can be bought with in-game currency,
The premium status is akin to soft subscription that you are essentially expected to have if you want to play the game regularly, so it’s like a normal subscription that still let’s you play if you do not have it, albeit with slower progress.
The gold/silver market is purely player to player, there is no direct way to convert gold into silver, and even if you could, all items that you could buy with it would be fully player made
And if you buy gear from other players, the fact that the gear power curve is flat and that gear can be looted when you die in full PvP zones means that if you are not careful, other players might see you as a walking loot bag as opposed to a feared enemy.
All in all, our business model is inspired by Eve Online’s Plex system, which has been working well for years and is generally not considered to be p2w.
You can't win with this topic. Short of paying them to play, you'll be accused of being P2W. Even if you did pay them, they would just complain that you aren't paying them enough.
I've bowed out for the moment, but when you guys.... finally..... finally release, I'll be there.
The gold/silver market is purely player to player, there is no direct way to convert gold into silver, and even if you could, all items that you could buy with it would be fully player made
Just want to point out an inaccuracy here. You can directly upgrade materials to a higher rarity to craft better gear by paying silver. So there is indeed a system in the game that let's you convert silver (and thus gold) into item power.
@Phifas thanks for shedding light on the transmutation process. Here is some additional information as well to further clarify the process and why it is generally not worth the high cost of doing transmutations (taken from an Albion Dev Response):
1. We recently changed transmutation. It is now no longer based on silver, but on resources. I.e. if you want to create a T6 resource, you'd need X T5 resources instead of 1 T5 resources and lots of silver
2. The only exception is if you want to turn a X.1 resource into an X.2 resource and so on. That is still based on silver. But we did price it very highly, so it is generally not worth it. I.e. the time you would need to silver grind to transmute a resource is far longer than just gathering the resource.
3. The reason we need a mechanic like this somewhere is that we need to have a silver sink at the top of the food chain that can eat up surplus silver. Otherwise, there is a huge risk that we get problems with silver inflation later on.
4. If you wanted to use the gold/silver market to buy gold, trade in for silver and then use that for transmutation, you would have to spend tons of real money for a very limited result - a strong PvP set can easily cost you $100 or so. Anything higher up gets crazy, for a very limited stats gain. If somebody, say a rich business person, did that, chances are that the players as a whole would be quite happy about it, as it is essentially extra loot for them
5. The gold / silver market is player driven. If somebody would buy tons of gold and trade it in for silver, they would crash the gold price. If they crash the gold price, it means that free players would need to spend less silver to renew their premium. So a "whale" like that would essentially support other players in getting premium for free. We as a company would not earn more money because of this, as the extra gold a "whale" is buying will be off-set by less gold being bought by other players, as they can use the "whale's" gold to get their premium.
You can't win with this topic. Short of paying them to play, you'll be accused of being P2W. Even if you did pay them, they would just complain that you aren't paying them enough.
I've bowed out for the moment, but when you guys.... finally..... finally release, I'll be there.
You just have to ask yourself one thing, what happened to all those game in the past 10 years that said "we do not think this system is P2W". All these games died out like a candle once people understood the game was a tragic money grab and after that the devs decided to turn it into one very last cash grab and end make it a complete garbage game.
Have you played the game ? Because it sounds like you haven't. While I agree that the premium status is quite mandatory to actually enjoy the game, what you keep saying about item power and real world cash is simply a lie.
You have to unlock the different tier of armor and weapons by actually killing enemies with that type of armor.
Example: To unlock Tier 2 of Fire staff, I have to kill X enemies (it's a system called Fame, basically it's XP) while using a Fire staff Tier 1. I can automatically unlock Tier 2 with Learning Points, which are passively accumulated (600 per month I THINK ??) and automatically unlocking tiers gets ridiculously expensive in Learning Points really fast (Costs something like hundreds of points simply for Tier 5 or 6, which isn't that good as gear goes. So yes, I guess you could buy premium for 6 months, not play and come back and buy everything with learning points, but at that point it's a catch up mechanic, not P2W...)
So you see, everything you are saying is absolutely false. Yes, go ahead and buy 5000$ worth of silver and buy Tier 8 armor..... Good luck EQUIPPING it now...
Basically, people saying you can buy (and USE) the best equipment with real world cash are people that never played the game...
Now don't go and label me as a ''fanboi'' because I honestly think the game won't survive for long, but that's because NO ''hardcore PvP'' game EVER does. (with the exception of EvE, which is kind of a miracle in the genre)
@deveilblad
Sorry for responding so late, I don't frequent these forums.
To answer your question: Yes, I have played the game. A lot. Also, what I stated in that comment is descriptive of the systems that are in the game right now. I don't understand what you mean by 'what you keep saying about item power and real world cash is simply a lie' as I have only ever made 1 comment on these forums (2 now). As a disclaimer: I don't think the game is horribly pay-to-win right now. I've competed in the game at the highest level and I did not once find myself to be beaten by someone that paid his way to victory. I'm just in favor of being open and honest about what kind of mechanics are present in the game.
Below are two small examples to show you why LP and fame progressions to be able to equip items don't stop the transmutating from being a pay-to-win mechanic:
Let's compare player A and player B. They both play the same amount of hours with the same efficiency. Both players grind 20 hours to reach tier 6. Cool. Now they want to get some tier 6 gear. They both grind 20 hours of gathering to reach tier 6 gathering. Player A crafts some a nice set of 6.2 armor and even manages to find some 6.3 materials to make a 6.3 weapon. Player B draws his credit card and transmutes a bunch of tier 6.2 materials to 6.3 and even some to 6.4 to get a 6.3 armor set and a 6.4 weapon. As a bonus he even has a few hours of free time to do some extra PvE and get another mastery level. In that scenario player A and player B spend the same amount of time on the game but player B now has an advantage over player A because he paid money. LP is irrelevant here since both players require the same unlocks on the destiny board.
Again, I personally don't feel that this scenario is very prevalent in the game for a number of reasons but that doesn't mean it can't happen.
I'd also like the point out that the transmutating mechanic could potentially be more problematic on a guild level. Say two top guilds are fighting over a very important piece of land. They both send out their GvG team daily in 7.3 gear. They are evenly matched and the war is going back and forth. Then one of the two guilds decide to pump some money into their team and transmutes a few sets to 7.4. They now have a distinct advantage over their enemy by paying money. Because the extra bonus you get from having one or two tiers over your enemy is relatively small we've haven't really seen this yet (I might be wrong, it might very well have happened this beta), but when the game has been released I can totally see this being the kind of edge that you need over your enemies to be at the top.
Those who think this game is not p2w are simply naive. Iev been playing AO for over a year, and I personally know tons of people who buy gold with real money even tho ITS STILL BETA (cant imagine the shit show when the game releases, if it ever does). SBI created a "3rd party" website pretending others are selling gold, now they are simply raking in the money (hence slow as fuck development, just buying time to make cake). You'd have to be a real sheep not to understand this.
oh and also the amount of hackers (zoom hackers specifically) makes this game nearly unplayable.
It will all depend on the progression system. This premium service simply looks like p2p. What P2P game does not require you to first purchase the game? There is very few and far between. The difference is they allow you to play the game without paying the sub.
@Korn42 You shouldn't be calling it b2p if you are going to require that subscription for people to enjoy the game. Several have said the game cannot really be enjoyed without that premium membership.
Ok so from no one no should dare to imply that Archeage is p2w. Atleast they provide the game itself for free. These people create a game and give it a buying price, which is cool. However if you don't stop there and add even a P2W system that quite literally makes you able to not only progress faster but buy ingame gold aswell, you are quite literally saying hey guys if you want to stomp everyone just spend 5000 dollars and make sure your guild will be able to camp everyone who dares to stick his head outside the safezone.
Wrong! AA sells gear enhancing items in their cash shop.
I dont have any problem with "premium subscriptions" or real money to game money conversions like Plex. I do have an issue with cash shops selling charms and regrade scrolls that allow people to improve their gear without using the auction house or any in-game currencies.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
A Supreme Intellect will be arriving to set you back on the path infidel..
Too bad these supreme intellectuel people tend to fall prey to these money grab games. Their IQ must have surpassed the level of humanity which made them ignorant of how greedy humans are.
Ouch, where did they touch you?
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
A Supreme Intellect will be arriving to set you back on the path infidel..
Too bad these supreme intellectuel people tend to fall prey to these money grab games. Their IQ must have surpassed the level of humanity which made them ignorant of how greedy humans are.
Only AAA devs are greedy scum, all indie devs are out to maintain the purity of gaming.....
Anyways I don't really see the problem here. I mean I think the game looks terrible, but were I actually interested a premium service would hardly be a deal breaker.
So basically, you're not a fan of game subscriptions? What do you think they should sell, then?
Well if it was F2P there would no problem whatsoever, a Subscription and a decent Cash Shop will do. But if I am not mistaken, this game is B2P, which means that it should not have a Subscription
BDO is B2P and do not have a Subscription, only a Cash Shop that sell Cosmetics. Albion has B2P+Subscription+CS. If you want to use a Subscription as an incentive, the game should be Free to Play.
So basically, you're not a fan of game subscriptions? What do you think they should sell, then?
Well if it was F2P there would no problem whatsoever, a Subscription and a decent Cash Shop will do. But if I am not mistaken, this game is B2P, which means that it should not have a Subscription
BDO is B2P and do not have a Subscription, only a Cash Shop that sell Cosmetics. Albion has B2P+Subscription+CS. If you want to use a Subscription as an incentive, the game should be Free to Play.
But WOW, FF14 both require you to purchase the game before you can start the subscription process. So this game is very similar when it comes to this.
But WOW, FF14 both require you to purchase the game before you can start the subscription process. So this game is very similar when it comes to this.
Good point, though WoW and FF14 are P2P, not B2P, which mean they don't rely much on CS, but mainly on the Subscription. Albion is built around its CS, which should make it a F2P game, but they went B2P for extra income.....now they added the Subscription. Don't get me wrong there is nothing really wrong with it, it just that personally I won't play a game that is built on the CS but also want you to buy the game and strongly recommends to Subscribe. If people thinks the game is worth it, I am fine with it.
@ste2000 Albion Online at this point is definitely NOT built around a cash shop. The cash shop is super under-developed and only contains a few cosmetic placeable items and small things like fireworks. The main thing to do with gold bought with real money is to sell it for silver (the in-game currency).
Comments
I am one of the game's developers. Our business model has been developed in close collaboration with our community and is largely inspired by Eve Online, which is a game that most people would not consider to be pay 2 win.
The key difference used to be that in Albion, compared to Eve, you could also play the game without a subscription (aka premium) with some disadvantages. After Eve's recent changes of allowing play without subscription, the business models are now extremely similar, though one could even say that Albion is less pay2win as Eve does allow trading of skill points, which we don't.
Here is a summary of our business model:
Albion Online's Business Model
Player Driven Gold/Silver Market
Gear System
Is Albion Online p2w?
This question gets asked often, and is especially hard to answer as different people use different definitions of the term pay to win.
Our view is that Albion is not p2w. Here is why:
While I'm a total carebear I enjoy trying to thrive and prosper in spite of the more challenging environment where everyone tries to kill me.
I'll be back playing after the final wipe, but one thing you should know, a great number of people who really don't understand how EVE works think it is "P2W."
They'll feel the same way about AO.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I self identify as a monkey.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Also , this "premium" status in Albion Online is just overpower. LP is a very bad system and it is ridiculous right now, everyone in Albion makes 2 alts in order to exploit the LP system.
Some people are arguing that game is not P2W because it is a full loot MMO, people die and lose everything, but that logic is just absurd. The fact that the game have a full loot system is the very first reason of why it should never sell power, in any possible way. How people is defending a P2W system (where you turn your money in game currency) in a full loot MMORPG is beyond me to understand.
So while a normal players are farming to get the so needed "premium status", the paying players already have the best gear (because he just turn real money in game currency), and also he progress 60% faster due to LP system, with 3 characters. Now lets make a 1x1, the normal player against the paying player, what will be the result? The normal player will die and lose everything.
Albion Online turn in to a joke, a very bad joke. I regreat my founder.
Hey, thanks for contributing, by the way. I love to see developers hang out here, when they do.
In my opinion, it's a great model and it's something that may be necessary in order to make subscriptions "work" again. However, it also allows me to do stuff like play with my kids, since they can play for free because they're just little blood-sucking leeches, but they are blood-sucking leeches I love playing games with.
I fear that unless your game is free and you sell nothing, that there will be complaints about your model. However, even if you did that I'm sure people would find something to complain about, like a lack of content or paid updates, etc., etc.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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I've bowed out for the moment, but when you guys.... finally..... finally
I self identify as a monkey.
1. We recently changed transmutation. It is now no longer based on silver, but on resources. I.e. if you want to create a T6 resource, you'd need X T5 resources instead of 1 T5 resources and lots of silver
2. The only exception is if you want to turn a X.1 resource into an X.2 resource and so on. That is still based on silver. But we did price it very highly, so it is generally not worth it. I.e. the time you would need to silver grind to transmute a resource is far longer than just gathering the resource.
3. The reason we need a mechanic like this somewhere is that we need to have a silver sink at the top of the food chain that can eat up surplus silver. Otherwise, there is a huge risk that we get problems with silver inflation later on.
4. If you wanted to use the gold/silver market to buy gold, trade in for silver and then use that for transmutation, you would have to spend tons of real money for a very limited result - a strong PvP set can easily cost you $100 or so. Anything higher up gets crazy, for a very limited stats gain. If somebody, say a rich business person, did that, chances are that the players as a whole would be quite happy about it, as it is essentially extra loot for them
5. The gold / silver market is player driven. If somebody would buy tons of gold and trade it in for silver, they would crash the gold price. If they crash the gold price, it means that free players would need to spend less silver to renew their premium. So a "whale" like that would essentially support other players in getting premium for free. We as a company would not earn more money because of this, as the extra gold a "whale" is buying will be off-set by less gold being bought by other players, as they can use the "whale's" gold to get their premium.
Have you played the game ? Because it sounds like you haven't. While I agree that the premium status is quite mandatory to actually enjoy the game, what you keep saying about item power and real world cash is simply a lie.
You have to unlock the different tier of armor and weapons by actually killing enemies with that type of armor.
Example: To unlock Tier 2 of Fire staff, I have to kill X enemies (it's a system called Fame, basically it's XP) while using a Fire staff Tier 1. I can automatically unlock Tier 2 with Learning Points, which are passively accumulated (600 per month I THINK ??) and automatically unlocking tiers gets ridiculously expensive in Learning Points really fast (Costs something like hundreds of points simply for Tier 5 or 6, which isn't that good as gear goes. So yes, I guess you could buy premium for 6 months, not play and come back and buy everything with learning points, but at that point it's a catch up mechanic, not P2W...)
So you see, everything you are saying is absolutely false. Yes, go ahead and buy 5000$ worth of silver and buy Tier 8 armor..... Good luck EQUIPPING it now...
Basically, people saying you can buy (and USE) the best equipment with real world cash are people that never played the game...
Now don't go and label me as a ''fanboi'' because I honestly think the game won't survive for long, but that's because NO ''hardcore PvP'' game EVER does. (with the exception of EvE, which is kind of a miracle in the genre)
oh and also the amount of hackers (zoom hackers specifically) makes this game nearly unplayable.
@Korn42 You shouldn't be calling it b2p if you are going to require that subscription for people to enjoy the game. Several have said the game cannot really be enjoyed without that premium membership.
Freeloaders have rights too.
I dont have any problem with "premium subscriptions" or real money to game money conversions like Plex. I do have an issue with cash shops selling charms and regrade scrolls that allow people to improve their gear without using the auction house or any in-game currencies.
Anyways I don't really see the problem here. I mean I think the game looks terrible, but were I actually interested a premium service would hardly be a deal breaker.
But if I am not mistaken, this game is B2P, which means that it should not have a Subscription
BDO is B2P and do not have a Subscription, only a Cash Shop that sell Cosmetics.
Albion has B2P+Subscription+CS.
If you want to use a Subscription as an incentive, the game should be Free to Play.
Albion is built around its CS, which should make it a F2P game, but they went B2P for extra income.....now they added the Subscription.
Don't get me wrong there is nothing really wrong with it, it just that personally I won't play a game that is built on the CS but also want you to buy the game and strongly recommends to Subscribe.
If people thinks the game is worth it, I am fine with it.
Redsalt... the other salt.