I just started playing this game, it has some nice features but so far little to none group involvement and it's pretty boring. Anyway I'm sure the game becomes more interesting and group involvement as you play but the issue that bothers me is the combination of an item-mall and a pay to play subscription.
Not only is the game about 15 dollars a month but many of the appearance changes, titles, pets, wardrobe and even a haircut cost extra real life cash. That to me is ridiculous and unethical capitalism. This game is definitely not worth it when it cost you over a dollar USD just to change your toons lipstick.
Shame on Funcom.
I understand why you don't like the double-dipping, I don't really like it either, but there really aren't many mmos that don't do this anymore. Really, only the indy mmos don't do this, I can't think of one of the more popular games that doesn't have some form of cash shop. Rift has a cash shop but I think currently it doesn't have anything in it (at least that was the last I read on it way back), though they do have that bit where after a couple of months at release they started to allow people do buy "upgrades" to their account from the CE. Am I missing a major monthly pay mmo that doesn't do this in some way?
I just started playing this game, it has some nice features but so far little to none group involvement and it's pretty boring. Anyway I'm sure the game becomes more interesting and group involvement as you play but the issue that bothers me is the combination of an item-mall and a pay to play subscription.
Not only is the game about 15 dollars a month but many of the appearance changes, titles, pets, wardrobe and even a haircut cost extra real life cash. That to me is ridiculous and unethical capitalism. This game is definitely not worth it when it cost you over a dollar USD just to change your toons lipstick.
Shame on Funcom.
I do not care not even minimally for group play. I love SOLO leveling. Not because asocial, because have other things to do in life then spend days and days planning for group play. When leveling is done of course one need group play and I'm fine with that. If I will not will simply move to another game to level alts there. Simple as that.
Great soludion had SWTOR. You could solo up to end or doing only flashpoints or in general group content.
So I've looked through the actual Cash Shop in TSW and I can't find anything - not one thing - that says 'You must buy this in order to play the game better'. I'm seeing some nice cosmetic items, some pets... but nothing that I *must* have. Actually, this is the first time in months that I've even looked into the Cash Shop - I had to hunt around to actually figure out how to open the UI since I've forgotten all about it, honestly.
Now, I take a trip to Pangea in London and look at the cosmetic items - there are a LOT of cosmetic items - that are all available via in-game currency... not one real-world penny required. Deck my character out in some killer threads - and once again, not one real-world penny was spent. Damn, I look pretty good... why don't I look this good in real life?
If the OP doesn't want to play TSW, then they don't have to - but let's be clear here... the Cash Shop is OPTIONAL. There's not one thing in it that gives you an unfair advantage over other players - hell, some of the outfits at Pangea are actually better than what I see in the Cash Shop, and again, no real-world money is required at Pangea.
do you REALLY care about the stuff in the cash shop? This cash shop specifically, because the sub+cash shop ship already set sail years ago with sparklepony in WoW, tens, if not hundreds of thousands bought the that and other $25 unique mounts since then.
I was able to put together a few outfits from the in game shops that I liked just fine. the game is 100% fully playable without buying anything.
I will wait until they offer a free trial again and level up enough to determine if the game is a rip-off or not.
First 30 days into the game I quit because of the lag the game had that might have improved though.
I however do feel that their FC points shop is a Rip-Off because they only allow trading currency one way right its not like GuildWars trade in game cash, or sell in game items for FC points which is dumb I never found out if it was like this or not.
I just started playing this game, it has some nice features but so far little to none group involvement and it's pretty boring. Anyway I'm sure the game becomes more interesting and group involvement as you play but the issue that bothers me is the combination of an item-mall and a pay to play subscription.
Not only is the game about 15 dollars a month but many of the appearance changes, titles, pets, wardrobe and even a haircut cost extra real life cash. That to me is ridiculous and unethical capitalism. This game is definitely not worth it when it cost you over a dollar USD just to change your toons lipstick.
Shame on Funcom.
As other posters have said, you don't need anything from the shop, its all appearance, and to be honest you can get better looking stuff by actually playing. After you do 30 missions they even give you 1200 points for free which is enough to buy an outfit.
No grouping at low levels? Yep, not sure what else you expected. You cant even get low level groups in WoW anymore except immediately after a new race / class release. Most themeparks have the same issue, once you have leveled up there is no incentive to do old dungeons to help new players out. GW2 fixes that to an extent, except people would prefer to run them with level 80s.
So yeah, like most games its grind to cap, then grouping. Or take a pre-made group of friends for the leveling experience, thats pretty much your options.
I'm personallym with it being called a rip off. You have a sub model for a reason. When your charging for stuff AND have a box cost AND a sub, theres a big problem. I have no problem charging for cosmetics, but you better not have the game costing a monthly fee if your going to do such.
Do we need more people complaining about prices and such? The 15 dollars haven't risen with inflation like everything else so its an understandable way of doing things. Maybe not wise or w/e but the shop is cosmetic so its not a huge issue anyways.
The game had great story and I like the skill wheel but it really is just a straight grind at later levels unfortunately when you start running HM dungeons.
It rose quite enough when it went from $9.95 to $12.95 and then $14.95 back with Ultimata Online, FFXI and WoW respectfully.
I've always been against Box Price + Monthly Fee + In game cash shop and personally think it's a rip off. But I also don't subscribe and understand that many do think it is worth it and are okay with being asked for month left and right for a game that they genuinely enjoy.
I've bought more than my fair share of collector's editions because I enjoy a game.
Hope it gets many more expansions and patches to keep it entetaining to those who like the game.
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Also, I thoroughly enjoy debates and have accounts on over a dozen sites for this. If you wish to engage in such, please put effort in a post and provide sources -- I will then do the same with what I already wrote (if I didn't) as well as with my responses to your own. Expanding my information on a subject makes my stance either change or strengthen the next time I speak of it or write a thesis. Allow me to thank you sincerely for your time.
Like AOC - not much of an MMO by any stretch, but the content that is there is worth playing through at least once.
I'm okay with my purchase of TSW and had enough fun doing all the quests, seeing the world to justify the cost. Two weeks of solid 8h+ a day play is a fair price for $39 or whatever it was.
I got bent over paying for the box + sub. $150. I feel like I felt when I bought Vanguard for the full original price. Got my MMORPG shirt there for nothing though. Guess if you want to pay more to look how you want than do so but yeah it's a rip off pretty much.
it's a rip off, but it's the only thing they can do to keep afloat. I just hope that the other companies, that will still be alive in 2013, start to realize how many people are not buying because of the costs and don't adopt this ludicrus revenue model.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
Playing TSW since headstart and so far it's the only released MMO currently worth playing for me. It has it's faults of course but which game doesn't. Speaking of cash shop - one day I noticed that FC has given me some bonus points to spend and there wasn't nothing in CS I actually wanted. Bought a dog, some cloths and spent the rest on chinese fireworks. You don't have to buy bag or bank slots from CS, actually there's nothing even remotedly important in it.
It's not a rip-off, but a subscription should allow access to everything the game has to offer, restricting this and making loyal subscribers pay extra for things is poor. They tried to copy WoW's formula in this respect but WoW has been established for years, TSW has not and this is where they failed.
Couple this with the fact you still have to buy the original game and the significant lack of long-term content and decent pvp and it's just too steep for most people.
As others have said, TSW's storyline is great, the world they have sculpted is great and the atmosphere and lore is also great, but the game has limited appeal, very limited appeal. For a box price + high-end sub + cash shop I expect a LOT more.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
The way it should work is simple, everything should be available to a paying subscriber within the game. A shop should allow you to buy in-game items as a shortcut to gathering, crafting etc. If you have anything in the shop that is not available to the subscriber, even fluff, then you shouldn't be charging a sub. What it boils down to is you are paying a sub but not getting the whole game which just isn't fair. If the shop allows you to shortcut something, then that's a choice you can decide to make.
Who cares about the crappy clothes in the cash shop?
Got serious issues if you'd rather dress up an avatar in normal true-to-life clothing when you could be dressing yourself in them instead.
I played this all the way through and probably had over a hundred clothing items from the missions, ingame currency stores and such... didn't cost anything extra.
If you can't say no to a shiny in a cash shop, get help.. If for some reason you have to have everything on offer, get help.. don't blame the game.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Depends on the intent of the developer. If they are doing it to enrich your gaming experience then fair enough. In this instance I doubt that is the intent of Funcom. I would term it more cash grabbing and it tends to comes in two forms. The greedy... EA for example, and the needy... such as THQ. Funcom I think is a mixture of both, needy and greedy.
Comments
I understand why you don't like the double-dipping, I don't really like it either, but there really aren't many mmos that don't do this anymore. Really, only the indy mmos don't do this, I can't think of one of the more popular games that doesn't have some form of cash shop. Rift has a cash shop but I think currently it doesn't have anything in it (at least that was the last I read on it way back), though they do have that bit where after a couple of months at release they started to allow people do buy "upgrades" to their account from the CE. Am I missing a major monthly pay mmo that doesn't do this in some way?
I do not care not even minimally for group play. I love SOLO leveling. Not because asocial, because have other things to do in life then spend days and days planning for group play. When leveling is done of course one need group play and I'm fine with that. If I will not will simply move to another game to level alts there. Simple as that.
Great soludion had SWTOR. You could solo up to end or doing only flashpoints or in general group content.
Ooookay...
So I've looked through the actual Cash Shop in TSW and I can't find anything - not one thing - that says 'You must buy this in order to play the game better'. I'm seeing some nice cosmetic items, some pets... but nothing that I *must* have. Actually, this is the first time in months that I've even looked into the Cash Shop - I had to hunt around to actually figure out how to open the UI since I've forgotten all about it, honestly.
Now, I take a trip to Pangea in London and look at the cosmetic items - there are a LOT of cosmetic items - that are all available via in-game currency... not one real-world penny required. Deck my character out in some killer threads - and once again, not one real-world penny was spent. Damn, I look pretty good... why don't I look this good in real life?
If the OP doesn't want to play TSW, then they don't have to - but let's be clear here... the Cash Shop is OPTIONAL. There's not one thing in it that gives you an unfair advantage over other players - hell, some of the outfits at Pangea are actually better than what I see in the Cash Shop, and again, no real-world money is required at Pangea.
do you REALLY care about the stuff in the cash shop? This cash shop specifically, because the sub+cash shop ship already set sail years ago with sparklepony in WoW, tens, if not hundreds of thousands bought the that and other $25 unique mounts since then.
I was able to put together a few outfits from the in game shops that I liked just fine. the game is 100% fully playable without buying anything.
I will wait until they offer a free trial again and level up enough to determine if the game is a rip-off or not.
First 30 days into the game I quit because of the lag the game had that might have improved though.
I however do feel that their FC points shop is a Rip-Off because they only allow trading currency one way right its not like GuildWars trade in game cash, or sell in game items for FC points which is dumb I never found out if it was like this or not.
As other posters have said, you don't need anything from the shop, its all appearance, and to be honest you can get better looking stuff by actually playing. After you do 30 missions they even give you 1200 points for free which is enough to buy an outfit.
No grouping at low levels? Yep, not sure what else you expected. You cant even get low level groups in WoW anymore except immediately after a new race / class release. Most themeparks have the same issue, once you have leveled up there is no incentive to do old dungeons to help new players out. GW2 fixes that to an extent, except people would prefer to run them with level 80s.
So yeah, like most games its grind to cap, then grouping. Or take a pre-made group of friends for the leveling experience, thats pretty much your options.
It rose quite enough when it went from $9.95 to $12.95 and then $14.95 back with Ultimata Online, FFXI and WoW respectfully.
I've always been against Box Price + Monthly Fee + In game cash shop and personally think it's a rip off. But I also don't subscribe and understand that many do think it is worth it and are okay with being asked for month left and right for a game that they genuinely enjoy.
I've bought more than my fair share of collector's editions because I enjoy a game.
Hope it gets many more expansions and patches to keep it entetaining to those who like the game.
Like AOC - not much of an MMO by any stretch, but the content that is there is worth playing through at least once.
I'm okay with my purchase of TSW and had enough fun doing all the quests, seeing the world to justify the cost. Two weeks of solid 8h+ a day play is a fair price for $39 or whatever it was.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
It's not a rip-off, but a subscription should allow access to everything the game has to offer, restricting this and making loyal subscribers pay extra for things is poor. They tried to copy WoW's formula in this respect but WoW has been established for years, TSW has not and this is where they failed.
Couple this with the fact you still have to buy the original game and the significant lack of long-term content and decent pvp and it's just too steep for most people.
As others have said, TSW's storyline is great, the world they have sculpted is great and the atmosphere and lore is also great, but the game has limited appeal, very limited appeal. For a box price + high-end sub + cash shop I expect a LOT more.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
Who cares about the crappy clothes in the cash shop?
Got serious issues if you'd rather dress up an avatar in normal true-to-life clothing when you could be dressing yourself in them instead.
I played this all the way through and probably had over a hundred clothing items from the missions, ingame currency stores and such... didn't cost anything extra.
If you can't say no to a shiny in a cash shop, get help.. If for some reason you have to have everything on offer, get help.. don't blame the game.