Friday with Means - November 12th, 2010 - Changes large and small

[Mesa]

lol this patch is just.. wtf ?
buyable achievements in an MMORPG make them meaningless to me.
I ll better start playing shooters again..


Good job once again Funcom.. Oo

[Siyra]

Everyones acting like they'll be forced to buy into this store stuff.

Don't like it, don't touch it. It's that simple. If you want to level the "old fashion way" then don't buy level packs. If you feel put out because someone else does buy a level pack then there's no helping you. You've obviously reached the point where you view this as a competition; a race to be won, rather then a game.

People already rush to 220 in no time flat, paying their way up the ladder to NTs and other methods for the least time, least effort way to get to where they wanna go.

So what's changing if Funcom sells level packs? Speed of leveling isn't really a factor if people can hit 220 in a couple days. So what's left to get mad at Funcom for?

[Xephonics]

Everyones acting like they'll be forced to buy into this store stuff.

Don't like it, don't touch it. It's that simple. If you want to level the "old fashion way" then don't buy level packs. If you feel put out because someone else does buy a level pack then there's no helping you. You've obviously reached the point where you view this as a competition; a race to be won, rather then a game.

People already rush to 220 in no time flat, paying their way up the ladder to NTs and other methods for the least time, least effort way to get to where they wanna go.

So what's changing if Funcom sells level packs? Speed of leveling isn't really a factor if people can hit 220 in a couple days. So what's left to get mad at Funcom for?

The only thing i don't like is the new diredct way to basically buy creds with RL cash (buy VP, purchase ofab, sell yes-drop ofab to players, buy endgame loot). That makes the whole game just feel cheap. I would be fine with the entire shop if ofab were not yes-drop OR if you could not buy VP. Having both is just them selling ingame creds for usd/euro.

[Mesa]

Maybe I am a little bit old fashioned, but to me, obtaining level is sth. that you have to fight for..

You are definitely right by saying that leveling in AO became to easy in the last years.. however Funcom should make leveling interesting again and dont include a mechanism to skip it..

[Gora]

The only thing i don't like is the new diredct way to basically buy creds with RL cash (buy VP, purchase ofab, sell yes-drop ofab to players, buy endgame loot).

If I had a desire to equip some OFAB I doubt that I would buy it from another player, especially if I could buy the VP on my own with so little effort. If I did happen to go shopping for another player's yesdrop OFAB I highly doubt that I would pay more than 1M per piece. I have a feeling that selling OFAB won't be as profitable as folks predict.

[Xephonics]

If I had a desire to equip some OFAB I doubt that I would buy it from another player, especially if I could buy the VP on my own with so little effort. If I did happen to go shopping for another player's yesdrop OFAB I highly doubt that I would pay more than 1M per piece. I have a feeling that selling OFAB won't be as profitable as folks predict.

I really hope you are right, as I've seen stuff like this ruin game economies (Perfect
World as an example of a cash shop gone wrong)

[Chrys]

If I had a desire to equip some OFAB I doubt that I would buy it from another player, especially if I could buy the VP on my own with so little effort. If I did happen to go shopping for another player's yesdrop OFAB I highly doubt that I would pay more than 1M per piece. I have a feeling that selling OFAB won't be as profitable as folks predict.

Actually the going rate of Ofab to creds will essentially be the rate of PP to creds in this game as of next patch. After that, arbitrage will see to it that cred sellers and PP/Ofab come into line with each other.

Basically if when the patch is first released it costs 100 PP to buy one piece of Ofab that sells for, say 1m creds, that is essentially saying 1USD/euro (lol) = 1m creds. Now cred sellers go for something like $100 = 1billion creds or something, which means that $1USD buys 10 million creds in the black market. To make a long story short, arbitrage will eventually bring the prices of these two markets together, perhaps Ofab selling for more in-game (after all, people aren't going to buy the Ofab if they can't profit from it) and cred sellers charging more for creds online. Obviously along the way people who PVP for real VPs will get some side benefits but the main change is that there is now a mechanism for a real exchange rate for creds to real money in-game.

The Polyanna's who blind themselves to how significant this in-game change actually is are deluding themselves. FC must make cash-bought VPs only able to buy no-drops to prevent a real exchange rate of creds to $ developing, if they are to maintain their promise.

[Siyra]

The only thing i don't like is the new diredct way to basically buy creds with RL cash (buy VP, purchase ofab, sell yes-drop ofab to players, buy endgame loot). That makes the whole game just feel cheap. I would be fine with the entire shop if ofab were not yes-drop OR if you could not buy VP. Having both is just them selling ingame creds for usd/euro.

I was more focusing on level selling.

While I agree with what you're saying the sad truth is that credit selling for USD/Euro is already a reality, and it will continue regardless of Funcoms efforts. Yes the spam has diminished, maybe one day they'll eliminate it for good, but that's one big maybe.

In the end I'd rather Funcom have my, or any others, money if I ever decide to buy credits rather then someone who has no lasting interest in the game.

[Trexremacy]

AO-bay

[Silq]

I'll start on a postive - I really like the changes for engineers, looking forward to those.

The in-store game though makes me very uneasy. I can't agree that it's not selling more 'power' for money, indirectly or directly everything for sale in the shop will give the richer player an advantage of power. The most obvious ones are the 1k token board (still a great item for tl4+), and the ability to buy VPs to get ofab armour and those great HUD3 items. Less tangible are lvl boosted characters - I could buy all my favorite buffing profs, an s10 twink - or being able to buy VPs, swap them for ofab and sell for IG creds, an indirect way of buying creds for real cash as some have already pointed out.

As for people who already buy thier way to an end game toon, with kiting or e-bay, these aren't the sort of players I would have thought should be encouraged or condoned, they rarely stick around for long as they don't engage with AO and have little personal attachment to thier characters. The services available in this store seem to be supporting those that buy their toons and markets AO at a very different kind of gamer than AO has traditionally boasted, imho.

The vet booth got it right I reckon, the warps, SL map, vet leets, low ql yalm - all great ideas that didn't increase the power of your toon (this could be debated ofc, if we wanna get pedantic ), but are well worth having. I thought the store would follow this line - stuff like a tool to boost cluster ql, clean jobe implants, a teleport to tower shops, and I'm sure there are tons of ideas that would cut some time-sinks without affecting character progression and social interaction.

It's generally agreed that the level grinds are boring and most people will take the fastest route (which is also the least fun), but this appears to be selling a fix rather than addressing the issues - the dailies were a great idea that went in the right direction and gave the impression those issues were understood, but selling level boosts/VPs/tokens for real cash goes in the opposite direction. It sets a rather nasty precedent of offering short-cuts to underlying issues in character progression for cash.

We've been reassured that AO is financially viable, which is always great to hear, but changes like these would be easier to accept if there was a need to create extra revenue to keep the game going tbh. Then I'd welcome it and applaud the ingenuity of the team for finding ways of keeping the game running. As it stands though, it feels like selling the long term future of AO for short term profits.

I'd like to think the FC board would regret it if they pushed AO into the ground by putting too much revenue pressure on the AO team, but people don't get to that level by holding up thier hands and admitting to bad decisions! ><

[Ixal]

I don't find myself disagreeing with any of the item shop stuff. I'll probably give a shot at insta-leveling an alt to 199 once I resub my main account. It seems like a very welcome thing for someone who has zero extra time for the long leveling process but still loves the game itself.

I also really hope this will be the first step toward lowering AO's monthly sub cost. At 15eur/month, it ranks at the top range of cost in comparison to most other MMOs, which usually fall between 10 and 13 eur per month. This really hurts AO's competitiveness when newer, shinier and fancier MMOs make a considerably smaller dent in your wallet, especially when you multiply it by however many months or years you end up playing it for. I'm absolutely certain more players would join/return if the pricetag was less of a slap in the face for such an aged game - right now I'm actively subscribing to a good quality MMO from 2007 for 12,99/month and while I really long for AO, I just can't bring myself to pay more for something that doesn't even run well on modern computers.
Lowering the price point will also help bring in new players on the engine launch.

[kenbutsu]

I've only read up to page 7's worth of arguments, but I find myself agreeing with Deaconfrost. These changes represent renewed hope in the game for those who don't pvp, who have less time to sink in-game due to life changes/ work, who had to grind harder than usual (the old-fashioned way) to raise a couple of tl7s because they live in the "dead timezones" and who prefer exploring RK and SL. They play AO in a different way, yes, but what's great about this game is there's something for everybody. I say good job on the forthcoming store options. I doubt it's game-breaking. Take me, for instance. Very few know my toons because I don't do BS or duels. I doubt extra VP would suddenly morph my play-style into pvp'er/ killer and give me unfair advantage over players who've spent years ruling BS. People will still likely run into me as I go exploring... or not run into me at all (dead timezone, I tells ya!). So let's have that store by all means, especially if it gets players interested into popping in-game more often.

[Djiax]

VP selling for RL cash is over the top, makin OFAB armor yesdrop is a nice statu quo beetween PvPer and PvMer allrdy i d say since the PvMers that wanna bypass PvP content will probably do so by giving their cash they got via PvM way to PvPer and buy OFAB that way. So that in the end PvPer bypassed PvM credit grind, and PvPer bypassed the PvP OFAB grind.

Tokens selling sounds vaguely useless for most players except in a few specific cases so that could be fine. If you level a toon by yourself mixing old ways + dailies, including AI, PvP one, regular one, you should end up with more token then you d expect. If you bought tokens in that scenario you just have been scammed and ll end up with 1K more token then needed.
Ofc if you buy some of these level boost, ends up at lvl 150 with 0 token, that ll be usefull to you. If you are neut and finally pick a side. If you switch clan to omni to clan for a specific twinking purpose and lose all your tokens.

Level boost ... well it's isnt more time or less time gained for the player then VP or tokens... Even for the 199 one ; lvling to 199 is couple days ; gettin the 150K VP needed in average per 220 toon is a lot more then that. It of course doesn't go in the right direction but isn't game breaking for now.

Ofc it's all about price and about how many player will use these kind of service in the end ...

I personnally think gettin the full service should be very expensive (lvl 199 toon with 2.5 tokens and the 150K VP needed for his 220 days), like 300 euros+.

[Keldros]

Get a grip on reality please. This isnt going to change YOUR game.

only if you never team.

[fakiiri]

I can see pattern on people who likes changes having join date 2009-2010.
Not a supprise..

[Hulk]

The only thing i don't like is the new diredct way to basically buy creds with RL cash (buy VP, purchase ofab, sell yes-drop ofab to players, buy endgame loot). That makes the whole game just feel cheap. I would be fine with the entire shop if ofab were not yes-drop OR if you could not buy VP. Having both is just them selling ingame creds for usd/euro.

ummm newsflash, people already buy in game creds with real life cash like every single day.

[Windguaerd]

I think this must be called the Chicken Little Pandemic of 2010...

I'll go with that.

[Alternity]

ummm newsflash, people already buy in game creds with real life cash like every single day.

Don't try and justify a stupid idea by FunCom, with a breach of the EULA.


Two wrongs don't make a right

[Windguaerd]

I can see pattern on people who likes changes having join date 2009-2010.
Not a supprise..

I've been here even before the game was out in June 2001, I just didn't bother to register at the forums 'til later 'cause I was too busy playing AO.

[Alternity]

I've been here even before the game was out in June 2001, I just didn't bother to register at the forums 'til later 'cause I was too busy playing AO.

Fakiiri has a point, and fyi I started playing in 2001. I was not even aware of forums til 2004. To lazy to register, and busy IRL