When Star Trek Online went from Atari to Perfect World Entertainment and switched to a F2P-model, a lot of people proclaimed the end of the world in that typical, internet-based end of the world kind of fashion. But when you filter out all the crap and exaggeration, people basically believed that the new business model was simply too good to be true. Too fair, too cheap, too little reason to actually spend real money on anything in the cash shop.
I have seen and recommended games with similar models, DC Universe Online being the most recent one of them, which also puts very little to no pressure on you with their cash shop and is highly enjoyable without ever spending anything at all. And when STO appeared to do the same thing, I dragged friends, family and possibly a few magazine readers into it. Yes, I did write a very positive review about it a little while ago, emphasizing how there is no need to spend any actual money on anything other than fluff. You know, a new uniform here, a cooler-looking ship there, nothing to give you any serious advantage over anybody else, but something to satisfy your cravings as a true Trekkie. I strongly believe that this is a good way to handle F2P - give people the opportuniy to support the game they like by spending a little bit here and there, reward them with something they like, but don't penalize people who can't or don't want to spend any cash.
And it worked just like that. Until last night. Until the 'Cardassian Lockboxes'. These boxes drop out of the sky right now - baddies drop them, you get them for doing missions, you may even buy them in the dilithium shop, using currency, which is obtained by doing pvp and special missions. And they're nice to have, too, seeing as they contain rare pets, uniforms, power-ups and a brand-spanking new, insanely rare ship, which you may *only* obtain by opening one of these lockboxes. In fact, this ship is the most agile and powerful one of its kind and comes with unique, really powerful weapons, which cannot be obtained by any other means in the game.
Now here's the fun part: In order to receive the precious items contained within, you need to buy a key from the cash shop (1 Euro a pop). Sure, some people also sell them on the exchange (auction house) for 1.5 to 2 million credits a piece, which is just about as expensive as it sounds. To make things a little more interesting, you don't actually *know* what's inside the box until you use a super expensive key on it, which will instantly disappear afterwards. According to the forums, people receive one of those rare and sought-after ships every 250 lockboxes. That's 250 Euros or 375 MILLION Energy Credits - and you don't have to actually play STO to know that 375 million credits is a metric shitload of money, much more than any average gamer is ever going to collect in their life.
Being the capitalist pig that I am, I haven't bothered with the actual boxes and made about 50 million credits just by selling them. When I logged on again this morning, the trading price for lockboxes has plummeted so massively, most people simply throw them away. I made some hefty profit there, right on time. And since everything one can find in these boxes can be traded, I have managed to buy pretty much all of these items on the exchange for a fragment of their original value - except for that insanely rare ship, of course.
And that's the problem right there. People are wasting huge amounts of money right now, hoping to get their hands on that ship. And the game is being a right dick about it: Whenever a lucky player finds the ship in their lockbox, every other player will be notified by an on-screen popup message, which cannot be removed or disabled. "PLAYER XYZ HAS JUST UNLOCKED THE GALOR CLASS CRUISER!" Phsychological warfare.
What they're pulling off right now is a massive kick in the crotch and I regret how they're doing it just a few days after I wrote my article. I don't like praising a game, recommending it to people, getting them into it for it's oh-so fair F2P and the complete lack of pressure coming from the cash shop, when one week later the game mocks players, highlighting the names of every single user who obtained that rare and powerful ship for real cash. This is some really nasty bullshit.
And yes, it's pay2win. Sure - you don't *need* that new cruiser. In fact, you might not even like it. I sure as hell don't. But now you can spend the odd extra Euro or two here and there (or Pound or whatever the fuck you wanna spend), buy a key and sell it for a ton of credits, which you can use to kit out your ship and crew with the most expensive crap on the exchange. Real money now buys currency, items and power - and unlike certain dubious Chinese websites, this method is fully legit.
Sure - pvp and elite "raid" content aside, gear doesn't mean shit on STO, anyway. You could beat pretty much all the content using only a shuttle with standard issue ('white') weapons. But when you start releasing essential, sought-after new content such as brand new star ships and only make it available to users, who can actually afford playing a frustrating, unfair virtual lottery, then you're ripping them off worse than forcing them to just pay a fucking monthly fee. We're not talking about a fancy costume, a mount or a pet here. We're not talking about fluff. We're talking about a fucking ship - that's like having a super powerful set of armor on WoW, which you may only get by actually buying something at the Blizzard Store, with no guarantee of actually receiving the item the first 250 times you try.
Your chance at getting this item increases with the amount of money you're willing to spend. Real money. Back when they asked people the same damn monthly fee, at least everybody was equal and had the same access to the same damn items. What you're doing right now is beyond ripoff, it's wrong, it's shameless and it's the reason why F2P games will forever have such a shitty reputation, no matter how good some of them are. Fuck that.
-Cat
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen