I think the majority of hatred that stems from P2P is from WoW's model. WoW offers no account services, no free content (excluding small patches that add in another dungeon or quest line), and pretty much nothing else except just being able to play the game. EVE Online's payment model is fucking perfect. You can either pay monthly and enjoy the game like everyone else, or you can spend time farming ISK and pay for your own game time using in-game currency. On top of that, every single one of their expansions has been free. Their universe is constantly evolving (wormhole exploration and colonization) and each new expansion adds a unique feature to the game. If Eternal Crusade adopted a P2P model, I would hope that the game is entirely free, meaning no cash-shop or money up front. Just 15 (or whatever the price) per month, with any subsequent expansions free, excluding races.
The concept of a "true gamer" or "real gamer" is BS. And, frankly, if given equal characters, one that someone plays 18 hours a day and one that plays 2 hours a day, the person playing 18 hours a day had better wipe teh floor with the guy that plays 2 hours a day, but not because the CHARACTER is any better, but because the PLAYER is better at the game. Again, Time=Money. Someone spending actual money in a B2P is helping the game stay alive, whether they are spending it on xp boosts or a fancy new dress, while the "true gamer" who is playing more (there-by "spending" his time) to acquire the same xp/dress, is actually hurting the game as they aren't paying anything and there-fore are only a leech. To re-iterate, the only point in a grind is to keep you paying a monthly subscription. If it's B2P then there is no subscription, so no need to grind. Lets use LoL for an example. they are probably the absolute best example of a free-2-play game that no one can accuse of being a pay-2-win. And yet, in the cash shop you can buy both xp and the in-game currency boosts. So, the blanket statement that xp/currency boosts are pay-2-win is bull, it all depends on the implementation.
Honestly I don't like the idea of "forced to subscribe" only. It's not the $15 a month people have an issue with, it's the $15 a month to be able to play their character and the game. It's a forced locked in contract. You end up paying out a Collector's Edition of a game every year. $180 a year, just for the right to play a game. Stop paying, sorry you can't play the game you put hours and hours of your time and life into. I still like the option to subscribe, but a subscription should be rewarded with having access to things which you can buy in the cash shop. Because Subscription games don't need a cash shop, so why should people who optionally decide to subscribe be treated like a Free to Play player? Personally I like the idea of Buy 2 Play then choose to purchase things. Buy to Play, then Subscribe to get rewarded things which you can choose to purchase separately. Example: Someone buys a subscription for 6 months, each month they get cash shop currency equal to $15 worth of cash shop currency. This would also reward long term commitment to a game. Because say they have a Deal where you Pay $75 for 6 months of Subscription and you save $15, it means you get an extra $15 worth of cash shop currency for free. Then said players can have access to any cash shop item they wish to purchase. This is similar to a system used in Star Trek Online and some other games, it's not the perfect example, they didn't get it entirely right, but I kind of think it's the right direction. Personally I don't like the idea of seeing all the cool stuff in a cash shop I want to get, but it costing me too much money to get it all. I feel players who consistently contribute to the game should have access to a larger range of cosmetic items than people who decide to make a couple of purchases. One player wants to play for free, their entailed to it. They make an ork, they get to experience everything the game offers and over time they unlock all the content and can get cosmetic rewards. Another player wants to make the one time purchase, they unlock all the other races and then play on in the same manner as the first. They may like the look of that awesome golden paintjob skin in the cash shop for their space marine tech marine class's mechadendrite. They purchase it, their happy. Another player may do what the previous player did, but this time wants to instead get all the skins, but doesn't want to have to pay all that money for them. They are a subscriber, who paid a set amount for half a year, so as a result of being one they have access to pick up all those items. Once their subscription ends, they can no longer get cash shop items they want to without paying for them first, but they get to keep their old cash shop items. Of course this is all just ideas generating, but just putting it down on the table. Personally I like the idea of everyone can eventually get that cool cosmetic item they want to get in some way as a reward in game for free.
I sat down and started thinking, why cant we introduce rested xp boosts. Rested xp is a method of when you are not online some of the current xp gets converted into 2 times the normal xp gain, so for an example for me and for all, yes numbers are a bit high but only for the sake of example. Let us say i am lvl 50, and max is lvl 100, usually i would play the game and earn xp here and there, when i am sleeping i get a 5% rested xp every idk hour so it adds up and this is for everyone, this 5% is the rested xp of the current xp needed in order to get to the next lvl which is lvl 51, which means only 5% xp is added out of let us say 100,000xp, so every hour i gain 5000xp as rested which when i play the game i can gain in twice as fast ratio, but after i gain that amount of xp i return to normal gain, so in essence with this i would gain 40,000xp at twice the speed and at that point when i am lvl 50 with 40% xp gained my xp gain becomes normal again, until i logout. Now for the one who plays the game a lot daily who has the time, they can buy the boost and gain faster xp on the current lvl to a certain point, which means the boost only works to a certain point, so if you have lvl 50 and you got the xp rested boost which is 15% or whatever it might be and you wake up the next day, you only get to utilize a certain amount of the boost so you can not just blow through the levelling grid, in essence you can only be able to get from lvl 50 to lvl 50 and 40% xp gained on it on a 2 times the xp gain, after that it goes back to normal. So with time as you lvl up higher the demands also become higher, so the xp you have rested each day will only be negligible at best and the impact of the rested xp boost one can regulate it and make sure it gives less the higher up you go the impact of it is less severe. The most beneficial use of it is for people who do not have time but wishes to catch up, with the rested xp bonus one could let us say gather loads of xp bonus and gain a few lvls at 2x the xp ratio, but then you would have had to have waited for quite some time to gain that amount. The numbers can be adjusted of course until it is well balanced but the point is why not introduce a method like this where you can buy boosts for the rested xp. I disagree again. Really tired of having these arguments/discussions there is nothing constructive, you dont like my views i get it thank you for the input enough is enough.
exactly--play can be very sporadic. i dont want to have to keep cancelling and renewing a subscription...
Buy to play with microtransactions no in game powers (i don't consider a xp boost a ingame power, a resource boost probably). I'm not the biggest fan of f2p games but i think the ork boyz fit very well as f2p characters, the more people into 40k the better. As other people said, i'm out if the game need a monthly subscription, i will probably spend the same ammount of money or more in cosmetic stuff... but because i want, i dislike the idea of being forced to pay.
According to me a game like Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade deserves subscription, because even players who dislike to pay for something, dislike f2p games even more. Seems like Guild Wars style works for the long run. But a subscription can make a longed-for game like EC get a good kickstart, but how they manage to keep the game steady from that kickstart is up to the company. SWTOR is a great example of a beautiful start but in the middle of something, players dropped alot. My order for an longed-for game sub>b2p-fp2>fp2
Pay to win is anything that effectively gives you an edge on the battlefield. If you can but anything that gives you an advantage over your opponent, that is pay to win. I'd prefer paying for things like cosmetics, finishing animations, etc. These have no effect on gameplay. As it stands I fully intend to buy the game and have characters in each faction.
Anything that you can purchase that gives you an advantage over someone who plays the game is P2W for me. This includes buying weapons the second you start that are better than the default starting equipment.
