Enough is enough!

[Cariadast]

HOW much more can you SCREW this game up?

Selling items now? And saying it WONT contribute to end game??? So a 150 completely updates his toon with all the buyable items and and someone who decides to get the items the RIGHT way takes 3x as long. So.. the items buying person hits 220 faster, having made more money with the help of the items they bought and made it easier for them to farm. So now at 220 they are 10x more decked out than they would be had they done it the right way... WHY not just sell creds ????

WHY bother balancing things if you're just going to play games with us that unbalance our experience? Are these items going to earnable or do i have to pull more cash out of my pocket to get them? I shouldnt have to!

When did this game turn into that OTHER "You want an item.. here you can buy it" game???

And while Im at it... why bother balancing the play field if those of us that see this as unethical and level our toons, getting the items the old way, can't keep up with those of our own level?

If we are going the way of the "other" game.. I might as well go play THAT game... at least I know I what to expect there!

WHY don't you spend your time NOT so much on listening to 12 years olds rant how unhappy they are because they aren't uber killers BECAUSE they actually have to take TIME and EARN their stripes in this game, but those of us asking for MUCH older updates.

Most of us that havent left, are still waiting!

[Cariadast]

NOT to mention if you are going to continue to offer Free to Play players these items, WHY am I continuing to pay to for this game monthly? At this rate if I go froob, and wait a year you'll be giving away or allowing free to play players more than the paid players are getting!!

Why not just go "free to play, but all items must be purchased"!! Clearly you'd make more money as everyone wants to be uber so Im sure you'd get everyone wanting to buy items as apposed to pay to play and ACTUALLY earn them over time!

Lets just let everyone play for free! Open up AI, SL, XAN, and get rid of ALL teh instances where we actually have to things and FC can CHARGE per item and that way the RICHESTS ppl can PWN in the game!!!

In case you can't tell.. thats sarcasm.

[Hellrule]

HOW much more can you SCREW this game up?

Selling items now? And saying it WONT contribute to end game??? So a 150 completely updates his toon with all the buyable items and and someone who decides to get the items the RIGHT way takes 3x as long. So.. the items buying person hits 220 faster, having made more money with the help of the items they bought and made it easier for them to farm. So now at 220 they are 10x more decked out than they would be had they done it the right way... WHY not just sell creds ????

What? Ofab armor? The stuff that will be yes drop next patch? or you mean tokens? The stuff people buy bags of already? O right, you must of meant the boost to 199? I hit 160 on about 12 hours of game time, so if you have the cash to burn be my guess.

How does this help a toon make more money? If they are lazy enough to buy items they are to lazy to farm credits? You need to calm down, quit game, and go for a long walk.

[Berinda]

NOT to mention if you are going to continue to offer Free to Play players these items, WHY am I continuing to pay to for this game monthly?

Because they can't use expansion locked items. And the free to play players are paying for things in the shop.

[If6was9]

What? Ofab armor? The stuff that will be yes drop next patch? or you mean tokens? The stuff people buy bags of already? O right, you must of meant the boost to 199? I hit 160 on about 12 hours of game time, so if you have the cash to burn be my guess.

How does this help a toon make more money? If they are lazy enough to buy items they are to lazy to farm credits? You need to calm down, quit game, and go for a long walk.

Actually, he has a point. The higher you are the more money you can make on your toon - in general.

The froob stuff I don't have an issue with - and I'm not even sure that I have an issue with selling stuff in the AO shop. It seems like a desperate financial move and it might be necessary for the survival of the game - as opposed to merely questionable taste. I don't know.

[Hellrule]

If your lazy enough to buy VP/Tokens/Levels from an ingame shop, do you think your dedicated enough to farm city raids/do raid services/DB infusers/etc?

Anyways tokens is a pure novelty now. A dedicated player can farm 1k tokens @tl5 with virtually no effort.

daily/elite/axp/bs/doja is 10 mission tokens right there.
PVP daily is another +50
more than 100 tokens a day.

VP takes longer, but still not so bad with it being yes-drop next patch.

[Butsut3kkai]

The problem of VP selling is that for me : they will sold VP because PVMers complain they can t earn good amount of VP without doing BS. It s true ! I farmed the ofab for my lvl 200 sold in the 175-214 BS and it was a real PUNITION ! i don t like PVP but i hate even more, 214 twinks that can t kill ppl of the same lvl and then they camp grey ppl at spawn too be able to have solo kills. After each BS, did you see the train of people that rush to th agency for the 1K VP and never come back ?
So in fact, to avoid this kind of epeen farmer we ll need to PAY ??????? no way !!
Put VP reward from samples in LE mish X10. 1 LE mish will give 1k ish VP or around it, just an example. Pvper will b happy cause BS will only run with PVPer that want to be here and PVMers will be happy to make VP in an other way.

[Jerusha]

No it won't stop then Butsut. I am one of those Agency BS Farmers. Why? It gives me 100k SK. Thats a considerable amount. I try to be useful at least in camping A with APT. But I can't kill **** there. I welcome that OFAB is gonna be yesdrop, IF I can help my alts with it. Is anything known about? Can we buy the OFAB of other profs then when the update hits live?
regards

[Nihtilah]

Those who have a problem with the shop should stfu. Period. This is about financial issues too u know, not just making a pvp maniac happy. VP's buyable? Thank you very much in the name of those that hate pvp (me too). Tokens buyable? Pff big deal. ''Omg i cant play anymore *cryes like a lil girl*(sarcasm )You still have the choice of doing it the OLD WAY. No problems with that. FC deserves more money making from this game, since it is pretty cheap to play in the first place. Who doesn't like these changes then he doesn't really like the game too much, but if ur a true player, the changes will be just another step into the life of the best mmo there is.....Relax with all these flaming threads, and take a moment to actually think about it.

[Jerusha]

You still have the choice of doing it the OLD WAY. No problems with that. FC deserves more money making from this game, since it is pretty cheap to play in the first place. Who doesn't like these changes then he doesn't really like the game too much, but if ur a true player, the changes will be just another step into the life of the best mmo there is.....Relax with all these flaming threads, and take a moment to actually think about it.

You have this choice maybe. But do you have it really? What if a big part of the players decide to throw their money into the shop and start to buy their toons at lvl 199? Who will I play with when rolling an alt? Alone in ToTW? Alone in Ely? You know this is a mmorpg. It relies on the fact that you have other players to play with.
And how is a "true" player defined? In my World a true player does not need an itemshop.
Or is everyone gonna have tsmonkeys now for 50$ so they need not to ask other people?
I am not totally against this concept but when you can buy abilities of other professions or even whole toons, then I say they overshot their goal.
regards

[Le-Quack]

bump for this, they are just a greedy game company now. i problabe quit if they sell free lev for cash, the game is ruind then. funcom just wanna push some last creds out of us before the game dies. never tried wow, but it seems like i will end upp in that game soon.

[Krattonomic]

if you have a problem with it dont use it.... Funcom is not ruining their game.... there will always be more people where you left,

[trollingstones]

Those who have a problem with the shop should stfu. Period. This is about financial issues too u know.............

now sit for a while and think why anarchy online is now in so huge problems

-the downhill started when *put your name here* took control of anarchy online-
and he/she just changed to gear 4 from 3

[crude4gone]

I still fail to see what all this downhill talk is about.

Gotta love doomsayers.

All these trolls need to have that fancy hat of theirs exchanged for a "The world is ending" sign.

[Omutb]

bump for this, they are just a greedy game company now. i problabe quit if they sell free lev for cash, the game is ruind then. funcom just wanna push some last creds out of us before the game dies. never tried wow, but it seems like i will end upp in that game soon.

Sweet, dont forget you promised me your stuff!

[somenamehere]

Those who have a problem with the shop should stfu. Period. This is about financial issues too u know, not just making a pvp maniac happy.

Do you actually think that money from AO shop will go towards AO development? I bet you it will be used for other FC games who have priority now.
Do you think FC will hire more people to work on AO so we can see content delivered faster? I don't.
Even if that was the case i would much rather pay 5 more euros per month - provided extra money goes to AO and not other games than have an item shop. I never played games with xp/items/levels for sale and i don't plan to ever.

[Ashes2Ashes]

Do you actually think that money from AO shop will go towards AO development? I bet you it will be used for other FC games who have priority now.
Do you think FC will hire more people to work on AO so we can see content delivered faster? I don't.
Even if that was the case i would much rather pay 5 more euros per month - provided extra money goes to AO and not other games than have an item shop. I never played games with xp/items/levels for sale and i don't plan to ever.

?

AO has people from Conan working on our engine atm. 5 people if I remember correctly.

[Malosar]

Do you actually think that money from AO shop will go towards AO development? I bet you it will be used for other FC games who have priority now.
Do you think FC will hire more people to work on AO so we can see content delivered faster? I don't.
Even if that was the case i would much rather pay 5 more euros per month - provided extra money goes to AO and not other games than have an item shop. I never played games with xp/items/levels for sale and i don't plan to ever.

Aside from the possibility that indeed all money will go towards AO...

If you had the choice of an item shop where at least some of the funds go towards AO or no item shop where AO isn't gaining anything at all, which is the better result for the players?

[Lusos101]

Aside from the possibility that indeed all money will go towards AO...

If you had the choice of an item shop where at least some of the funds go towards AO or no item shop where AO isn't gaining anything at all, which is the better result for the players?

If you had the choice for a game that has fun and interesting gameplay from start to end, capable of retaining a resonable percentage of people who try the game or an itemshop that will squeeze a few more bucks out of a few of the remaining playerbase, which is the better result for the players and FC?

The problem is that FCs management, instead of trying to keep the game what it is, a niche game capable of retaining a small but dedicated playerbase, and reasonably profitable for a long time, is following the FOTM in game management, make a superficial, fast and easy game that squeezes as many bucks as possible out of the playerbase and then drop it as soon as it begins to go out of fashion and make a new one. We live in a time of consumerism, buy, use, buy more.

[If6was9]

If you had the choice for a game that has fun and interesting gameplay from start to end, capable of retaining a resonable percentage of people who try the game or an itemshop that will squeeze a few more bucks out of a few of the remaining playerbase, which is the better result for the players and FC?

The problem is that FCs management, instead of trying to keep the game what it is, a niche game capable of retaining a small but dedicated playerbase, and reasonably profitable for a long time, is following the FOTM in game management, make a superficial, fast and easy game that squeezes as many bucks as possible out of the playerbase and then drop it as soon as it begins to go out of fashion and make a new one. We live in a time of consumerism, buy, use, buy more.

You make a good argument but I think part of your equation is flawed: AO has probably not been profitable for years. Our numbers have been too small. Round about the time of AI's release or shortly before you could see the results of extreme lack of resources in the game. Remember the solution to the broken elevators in the city towers? They just dropped the observation bulb halfway down the tower and opened the windows. The AI graphics didn't work, in contrast to SL's (another expansion with major changes released several years prior), the cities didn't work, no one could get the aliens to spawn for days/weeks. In addition the forum staff had been cranky for years, holiday releases were briefer and sparser... etc. I figure around about that time AO's revenue went negative.

AO's revenue doesn't need to be positive for it to be a financial asset to Funcom, however. In the whatsit voodoo of market strategy a Grand Old Dame like AO has real benefits to the company's business as a whole.

The new shop can be an evolution of the game without violating it... or be such crass commercialism that it would seem like chaining the Dame to a streetpost, naked and greased {5 bucks for 5 minutes of whatever you want}... I think the key is: will the core motivations of the game (leveling, equipping) be violated? If so then it would be like knocking down the 4th wall in a movie or story, it's a violation of a compact between creators and audience. If our reason for struggling in the virtual world can be bypassed with small purchases in the real world then the virtual no longer becomes an intriguing/motivating diversion.

When I got the Bobafett trainer and could therefore instantly level and equip my Diablo II toons I lost all interest in the game.