Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
I would rather see players have to search the world via quests / exploration / combat for the different cosmetics. The possibilities would be endless. Not to mention the additional content, mystery and fun that could be had.
Some ideas that come to mind right away:
Regional exploration- You are exploring / checking out a node near your home node and notice that you are seeing a lot of players running around wearing a three corner hat and an eye patch. You have not seen anyone from your own node with these cosmetics so you start asking around town and find out that if you bring a wagon load of booze down to the beach and befriend the pirates there .........
Socializing- Your guild has joined up with a temporary coalition to protect a nearby node that has become the main trading profit source for your guild over the last few months. The organizing guild leading the defense, assigns groups to follow each of the 5 players wearing capes that each give off a different colored particle effect. Using those 5 different colored capes to visually help keep a couple hundred people organized and following their group leaders ended up being such a success that all the attending guild leaders ask for the location to obtain these capes for their own guilds. The leading guild is reluctant to give this information as it might lessen or damage their power and control in organizing future defense of the node......
Combat- You have hunted in this dank, foggy, dying forest for days collecting bottles of grey dye from the spiders you have slain. Just as you apply the last of the grey dye that matches the surrounding fog to your gear, you see a player approaching in the distance. Knowing that there has been a notable bounty preying on people around the nearby node you take no chances and crouch down in the fog blending in with the surrounding fog, all but invisible except to the most aware eyes. The foreign player approaches and you just know that you have been seen. It is indeed the bounty that has been preying on your fellow citizens. Adrenaline pumping, hands shaking slightly you stay crouched as the bounty runs right past you, close enough to reach out and touch you had be wanted to.......
This is a game I would like to play. These hypothetical experiences would not likely have happened if I had simply been sitting around one day and thought to myself that I was tired of my character wearing brown, lets jaz things up a bit, and open up the cash shop and buy some (xxxx).
It won't be pay to win (in a common sense. Some people see nearly everything as p2e
It will make no difference if the game eventually shines if the cash shop is crap and drags the game down. My memory is a bit hazy but I am pretty sure I remember reading plenty of posts like the quote above on the Archeage forums in response to concerned posters just before the patch that took the cash shop from cosmetics to P2W. Could be wrong as I have tried to scrub that garbage of a game from my brain.
There will be no buffs etc in shop as that is P2W.
There will be no "DLC" either, just cosmetics from what they've said.
If I buy a costume, I'd like to be able to use it on multiple characters and not have it just for a specific class or even worse, have it bound on a specific character.
Now I'm all for cosmetics being available in a cash store is for two reasons, the first is that because I have pledged for a lifetime sub, I can still then choose to support and hence build / improve the ongoing game.
But the other is that as a roleplayer, I will sometimes have a need to create an alt character just to fulfil an rp purpose in an in game event I'd be running, and costumes maketh the man.
Spending weeks to level a character so they can handle a tricky location just so I can make them look the part for two days before deleting them is a waste of my life... so I'd rather they were both available in a convenience shop, but also in game.
To be honest, I'd actually rather that the costumes once found (in game) could also be 'learnt' by tailors, so that anyone can take a costume, and if their skill is high enough, they could take it apart and learn how to make it themselves, so that actually... you'd then have the cosmetics available, through questing, through in game economy, but also through the convenience shop
I understand the continued financial support* stance one might have and that the Cash Shop* facilitates a secondary source of income.
But I have put 3years/subscription funding upfront, Intrepid/Ashes gets a consistent server population base. So I already impart value being a persistent entity online which attracts other non lifetime sub players.
My ongoing financial support does not come out of my wallet it comes from attracting more players to subscribe and keep the world active.
However the facts is a subscription* is devalued by a cash shop*
When I subscribe I expect access to all* content. So the only compromise is allowing all cash shop content accessible via in game play. and that the cash shop merely circumvents time* not content separation, But we can already see a direction towards cash shop specific game content.
So the solution is that cash shop items can be purchased via in game currency but cannot be traded in-game to subvert gold farming/selling.
My lifetime Sub is irrelevant if the game does not deliver on it's premise and dies or goes f2p.
Microtransactions like loot crates and boosters must never ever happen.
Already addressed. I too have a lifetime sub, but am not adverse to a cosmetic only cash shop with unique items. Once again, cosmetic only. They have stated a couple different times that you will have a range of customization available through the regular game. If they keep the "only available through the cash shop" skins to a minimum I personally have no problem with it. You get what you pay for. Am I going to pitch a fit at @Megs who is in the PI when she has access to cosmetics I don't have because she decided to pay a couple thousand more than me during the KS? No.
If I was ensured that the Cash Shop content was accessible via in game currency, then the Subscription still retains all its value, it appears as of now that is not the case.
hypothetically is the cash shop profitable when you factor shop users/potential subscribers lost or gained.
I know Steven suggests 'Balance' and i applaud the no p2w philosophy. The Cosmetic only stance does not refrain the fact that the separation and segregation of content for the potential income gain can for some feel like subscription extortion.
Also stated that boosters won't happen as they are P2W
You won't be able to get everything in game either.
Some content will be locked out because the "wrong" nodes are built.
Some items are rare and will only be able to be had by one or a few players.
(For those who are against the Cash Shop because they cannot get everything in game)
Also, " development resources funneled away from core game values for the sake of Casual financial support."
You know character/NPC artists are different from enviromental artists and those that plan out and create new content?
So how is it funneling away resources from core game values exactly?
There is an element of resource funneling when the primary* funding model is Subscription based with a cosmetic only* secondary side business.
If you were a subscriber only* and knew that a portion of you subscription went to fund the resources involved to market cash shop cosmetics of which you have no interest in purchasing separately then the funneling* of your subscription input towards assets you will never obtain(though may be interested in) do affect your core game values...no?
So does my subscription fund/pay for character NPC artists specific to the cash shop content* whether they are specific artists does not matter, they are human resources aka staff. and with limited staff resources will the cash shop siphon development allocations away from the core* game. (will we have less balance patches for the sake of a new outfit scenario occur) because of easy whale profits.
The point is @Ziltch will I as a subscription only player be able to obtain cash shop items though core game mechanics and currency? if the answer is no, then the value of the subscription is degraded and less desirable and as a result deter potential consumers away from subscribing.
And no, doesn't do so for me. I pay for a subsciption for a service, I do not expect to get extras besdies the service just because I pay for the service.
What kind of staff matters, a developer that makes game mechanics cannot suddenly just start creating enviroments as they are separate branches, so what kind of staff matters. (You'd not send a plumber to do an electrician's work)
So if NPC/Character artists have some time left over after doing their main job, why should we prevent them from making skins etc? Please elaborate.
If you are detered from subscribing because some people chose to pay for extras in addition to the original service, well that is your choice. I cannot make sense of it myself, but it's your choice.
I expect and appreciate all* content resources and services for my subscription/fee. So expressing cash shop exclusivity* for me devalues the primary value of the subscription.
I am sorry but I came from a time before cash shops/dlc existed and apparently became industry standard. So I knew of a golden age where all content created was available in the core game by design in it complete and utter entirety and maintained without detraction of services.
I tolerate cash shops but i don't respect them, If i can't purchase all cash shop* content with in game currency then I personally have utter disdain for its existence in anything other than a f2p game.
Sad fact is that welfare gaming is here to stay. I applaud IS for taking a stance of no p2win/f2p bullshit. Others have tried to buck the trend and have failed miserably. If it takes a purely cosmetic cash shop to give them the extra scratch they need to make it over the hump, I am fine with it. Since they have stated that no content or DLC will require payments beyond the core subscription they meet my standards quite nicely. If I decide to spend my hard earned shinies to buy a pretty pink bow to put in my hair as I play Barbie dress up with my toon that is between me and my bank balance. Perhaps it can be a video in the Community Challenge where someone with mad CGI skills shows someone playing Ashes, then some ethereal hands reach out from the monitor, reach into his/her wallet, and remove their credit card information "forcing" them to buy that pretty pink bow to educate us all on the evils of cash shops. Or maybe an old projector style movie from my youth, where everyone is learning to "duck and cover", instead once they go under the desks it is "pull out and spend."
How awesome it would be if IS dropped the micro transactions and became a bastion or refuge, free of the constant cash grabs for players to escape to?
Want to support the devs outside of the subscription? Start collecting T shirts, buttons etc or how about recommending Ashes to others. Word of mouth marketing is one of the most cost effective tools out there.
How many additional players would be gained VS lost if Ashes was a subscription model only? Consider that we are even seeing micro transactions in single player games nowadays for gods sake. $4 for a single gun mod in fallout 4.... $8 for a survival mod in Skyrim.... get the duck outta here with that BS.
I will concede that it is an improvement to go from a P2W cash shop to a cosmetics only. That does not change the fact that micro transactions are anti consumer. That does not remove the resentment from players for micro transactions.
If you're a player that is more concerned with substance than style, then you will have the choice to ignore the store and go about your business.
If you fall into the other category, then you can shop to your hearts content.
To make all players really happy, make sure EVERYTHING is obtainable in game. Then everyone can get everything and only the ones with either deep pockets or lack of patience...or both(!) will use the store.
MY only concern is that if there are microtransactions, we have flashing adverts telling us about the newest thingamabobbie for sale in the store every time we blink. That #### gets annoying really fast. Simple icon to click on at any time we choose is more than sufficient.
I've seen it too many times in a cash-store model that the publisher relies on for income on a game - The more they rely on it, the more they annoy the player with it, and then you feel like your inundated with adverts. No game is so good that I want to deal with it. Its why I stopped playing GW2.
ffs, Some Kickstarter Backers get Mounts at Launch - that alone is questionable. But that should be enough. In fact, I'm planning to not use my Mounts at Start of the Game , until I played the game long enough.
I don't think Steven got your memo, I'll let you not debate it with him.
I know that a cosmetic only shop wont have a huge impact on the game experience unless we are having to click off cash shop adverts after every quest as @Athalius was saying (excellent point of topic BTW). However, as I see it, every cash shop purchase and every "I don't have a problem with it (micro transaction)," perpetuates this plague and has brought us to the state of things as they are today. Behold... its 2017 and now have craptastic games such as this served to us
Not to be preaching, but really....don't want cash shops, stop buying from them.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”