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AoC will currently be 100% pay to win, but how do we stop it?
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The head start in Ashes will have no node progression which means the potential to have unfair advantage is basically nil. The headstart is there to make sure the game has no last-minute launch issues.
When you can use real money to gain knowledge in a game, for personal profit, you're paying to win. The comment earlier I made about headstart still stands, and unfortunately there is no way around it. It's just how it's going to be.
Arguing that life ain't fair, has no relevancy to a video game. No matter how rich or poor you are.
While I agree, this horse has been beaten to a pulp now, and the smallest thing that's barely an issue is labeled as pay to win. If it involves real money, it's still pay to win.
With that said, only way you can stop pay to win headstart is.. to well. Cancel headstart. Could always dodge the headstart server, like I will probably do. Maybe
1. You cannot buy gold, items, boosts or pvp boosts from the shop. It is cosmetic only. Buying it from players I assume would be a breach of the ToS and cheating, therefor actionable.
2. That's cheating. I assume they will be banned for cheating.
3. You can't put systems in place to stop anyone from doing that, but again it would be cheating so hopefully they would be banned if it can be proven.
4. Use their credit card for what? You're making powerful assumptions here.
5. I have. It was stopped by moderation/game masters.
6. Using fake statistics really undermines the legitimacy of your post. 99.9% of every single message in trade chat is not boosts in some form, and offering in-game help for in-game currency is valid. WoW is instanced content and we were promised none of that, so if you hear of someone shouting about wanting to 'carry' someone through a 'dungeon' .. Just follow them and kill them? Everyone will know where they are, because they just told everyone.
7. Do something about what? I agree with you, that those things are awful and I'm afraid they'll show up too! But so far what reason do you have for thinking they exist/will exist in AoC? The developers have been very vocal about their strong opposition to these practices.
Literally can't be stopped. Unless you cut out trading and make it a single player progression experience. That kills the meaning behind a massively online role playing game doesn't it?
In practice I've run 40 man raids with 30 people. I've ran 24 man raids with 12 and I've solo'd 24 man raids (Tier 1) with tier 6 armour. It is impossible to plan for slackers and eventually armour and weapons outstrip the earlier content. This will probably become common place due to the planned expansions where armour and weapons will increase in potency with the new challenges.
The dungeon mechanics can prevent this but we know very little about the dungeon mechanics or the raids. We've only seen a Lizard-like boss, a Dragon and a Brood Queen so far.
Looking at ESO one of the main peices of content that you can buy a carry for is called Veteran Dragonstar Arena. This content drops one of the best healing items in the gane. One of the mechanics in this arena involves a boss fight where the healer needs to slot a taunt and to tank the boss while still healing the party. Having to learn this teaches healers alot about how to be more survivable.
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.
Well I think AoC innately does a good job in countering this. Think about it - the value of Gold will vary between nodes, meaning Boosters would have a hard time in creating a "market". You cant really pay ING currency as 100g in one node/server would yield differently in another. This leaves only IRL money. But realistically if the estimations of "4-6hrs a day across 45 days" of gameplay to max, the boosters will likely either be caught or out of business as it wouldn't be viable model as you still need to pay $15 for sub.
Ofc, theres no way to completely eradicate this. Only mitigate and I think innately AoC does a good job.
+1 for the WS reference lol.
We are getting new ppl in, and seing such a false post in first page is bad.
One issue with this is that in Ashes, everything will be able to be traded, so gold does buy the best stuff.
100% agree. This should be modded even @Alluring @Punthulhu @Zii
Virtue is the only good.
And if needed for more support they can add in shop AoC collectibles (scaled statues of world bosses and so on), merchandise, accessories, etc... which doesnt affect gameplay at all.
Mr Sharif and Dev team have played lots of mmo's and they know that p2w can do more harm to the game than good.
I have played a lot of mmo's since 2007 and I have seen how p2w destroys mmo games.
AoC team wont gonna do that.
Well if everything can be traded and never binds then you are right it will be 100% who has the most cash.
If there is no BOP why raid when you can just trade for the item as organzing a 40 man raid is a headache. Having nothing bind would be a terrible mistake
please action this!
In order to buy, you have to first have someone willing to sell.
With item degredation being a thing in Ashes, raid guilds will likely be unwilling to part with materials they likely will need down the road.
The game will have a real economy, something WoW hasn't had in over a decade.
Even if guilds started to sell runs it would not be p2w unless they add a coin like WoW does, that allows players to pay real money to then sell for gold, to then take that gold to buy runs for gear. That's when its p2w in my opinion. So for me WoWs token is p2w, since it can allow players to buy dungeon runs to get gear.
So I'm okay if people buy dungeon runs in ashes, mainly if they had to grind for that gold in order to buy said run. I know people will buy gold but every MMO has that and it's very difficult to stop it. But listening to what Steven Sharif said about gold sellers during Asmongolds stream gave me hope that they will work hard on slowing down or even stopping the gold sellers. Botters in WoW run rampant, mainly because Activblizzard does nothing to ban them.