IMO, hastent EXP income via a premium consumable is fine, because not all of us Wh40k fans have the spare time to grind through the game every day. As for the premium wargear I would stress that a lot of fans have their favorite Loyalist Cahpters and Traitor Legions they would like to see presented here within Eternal Crusade MMO. However this is just too much to bear even, if it would be possible to implement ALL of the Fluff we would like, it would still take considerable time and Emperor knows how many dark secrets are still out there. The point is, if a player wishes to show off a particualr Loyalist or a Traitor distinguishable wargear that wouldn't give overbuff stats then it would be understandable that one player of certain taste for the lore will be most delighted to procure that piece. Also, if a warband needs extra resources in order to fortify their stronghold or a strategic position, but lacks enough resources (achieved through regular grind) in order to do so, well, good old credits shot via credit card purchase is MOST welcome to us all.
EXP Boosts would be P2W in Eternal Crusade because the game is going to have class progression which unlocks better gear and weapons. You want those new more powerful abilities? You can spend time grinding for it. Or you can pay money and get to it quicker than all those losers who didn't pay for it. You have to look at it from a perspective of "what if". Having EXP boost in a PvP oriented progression based shooter is akin to selling a PvP currency booster in a typical themepark MMO. If two people reached level 80 at the same time, but one had the booster, they would acquire the PvP gear faster than the other, and therefore be better than the one who did not get the booster.
I agree with you about the xp boost, the unlocks are supossed to give us options not power so i don't think is p2w, but this part in the quote is literally the definition of p2w, paying to get and advantage.
I love the idea of buy-once play-forever, but at the same time we are asking not only for a game to be developed but also maintained.. servers, new content, etc. So I am fine with free trial (orks), buy in to unlock the other races, and then a subscription fee (low, maybe $10/mo) I prefer subscription over in-game purchases because.. well, in-game purchases always start out with good intentions. 'Just decorative'. But then not enough people buy stuff. And then they start getting bonuses, or buy-in areas, and more of the more of the game starts getting twisted into 'how do we convince players to buy stuff', which eventually makes money trump gameplay. In-game purchases just turn a game into annoyance-wear, where it is too hard to progress otherwise. I have no problem with *some* one-time unlocks in a game, like 'if you want to be Alpha Legion pay $5', or 'if you want to enter this new areas we've spent four months developing pay $5 once'. But what actually happens is 'if you want an artillery strike pay $1. want another one? pay another $1. and look, we're going to throw more nids at you now...' I'd rather know upfront what I'm paying each month (so I can budget it), and let the developers focus on 'what feature can we add that would be Fun' rather than worrying about their own budgets One workable tradeoff though would be buy the game once, but monthly subscription to have access to advanced ranks / units. So you can try orks for free as long as you like (grunts) or even play tyranids (like LotR did, like LARPs allow 'monster play'), buy the game and get to be a trooper (grunt), pay a subscription to be able to be a librarian, terminator, drive vehicles, advance to 'sergeant' rank, etc. This would me a nice middle-ground that was true to the world (more regular tactical marines than veteran marines), still let everyone play together (so if my best friend is poor and can't afford a regular subscription I can buy him the game and he can fight along-side me just fine), and still provide an ongoing revenue stream for future development, no micro-transactions. (But yea, $15/mo is a bit much these days, too many free-to-play games out there and the economy is not fully recovered)
To make it short: I think Eternal Crusade has the best model so far. its pay 2 play (since you pay to unlock other factions, etc.) but you can start out F2P as an Ork to see if the game in general is something for you and to see if the game runs well on your computer, etc. etc. It's like an extended Trial where you have no time limit and still can compete with others if you are good enough and stick long enough around and perhaps its even so fun you can stay perma F2P without EVER spending a penny. But if you want to be more specialized then you unlock your faction or even all of them and play another class. *As long as there is no micro transactions for weapons & equipment (except cosmetics) it will be really awesome and a successful model ; Perhaps it will deliver even such a good success that something like this will be part of a new next generation standard MMO model*
Guild wars 2 has it down, I don't know if you've ever played. They add like, entire regions, and additional content every month, and make fantastic money off of it. It's not short, meaningless content, it's full blown (and free, mind you) expansions. Personally, I could see EC doing a similar model and not having to worry about any financial troubles.
