Loot boxes and paid skins.. Ruining games

Exziled

I understand that the game has to turn a profit and that additional sources of income is a bonus for the company. With that said the gaming companies today have soo many micro transactions it’s disgusting. Profit over product is bad business in the long run.
I honestly think Ashes would stand out more if we didn’t post launch, have paid skins and loot boxes were no longer implemented. Your suppose to look cooler as you get stronger not look cool on day one. It takes away from your feeling of achievement. If they skins have to be implemented please please please make it a requirement to be a certain level or actually achieve something in game before you can even buy said skins for real money.
Especially loot boxes when they first came out it was “ok” novelty not good thing for games though. It is basically gambling for kids and people with too much money. Now it’s creeping into all games and imo ruining them. Smaller gaming companies like this one are what we need to stand against this sort of thing.
Steven you especially seem to care about what the community wants which is so very good because big companies like blizzard for example are so disconnected from the player base. I hope you continue to listen to community even after this game becomes the wow killer it’s meant to be! I’m so excited thanks for reading my rant.

Lfmr

I'm honestly not opposed to AoC monetizing itself with F2P monetization strategies considering there is no box cost on the game, also cosmetics give no advantage and are also not a way to skip end game content that will give similar but not identical skins, players will know who bought a skin and who earned one.

Additionally, player characters do not start out as peasants in the lore, they're considered more wealthy, so it would not be strange or lorebreaking to have an orc / elf in extravagant clothing or armor straight out of the divine gate.

Noaani

Ashes will not have loot boxes.

Beekeeper

Noaani wrote: »

Ashes will not have loot boxes.

One of the main reasons I'm okay with the monetization model is this right here. I'd further prefer it if they would use real money values instead of obscuring it via points, but for now I'm just hoping the point costs won't be set at levels where you can never quite spend it all to entice you to get more points.

NelsonRebel

No loot boxes here

-Cosmetic shop-
The more money Ashes makes, the higher Intrepid can pay employees, keep good coders, pay for quality game updates and hire more people.

The less it makes the less people it can pay at competitive wages.

Less competitive wages=less quality ingame across the board


Unless you figure out a way pay peoples salary/utilties/licensings in countries/taxes/server maintenance/building infrastructure and maintenance with only 15$ sub fees. A cosmetic cash shop is a small price to pay compared to what other companies are doing.

End of the day they have to pay competitive wages and maintain expensive equipment. The games of today are not the simple easy ones to create and code like cartoon wow

Varkun

Loot boxes are just pure filth and a blight on gaming in general. Skins that offer no in game value other than a different look I do not mind so much as I feel the income stream will help the game to prosper. From my perspective I rarely purchase skins from a cash shop much preferring to earn skins etc from achievements in game. When I see a skin I know was purchased I barely give it a second glance yet a skin earned through game content gets my respect and usually a decent looking over.

But most game developers have been taken over by share holders and bean counters with predatory actions to maximise profits at the expense of a fun gaming experience.

nidriks

As Noanni said, there are no loot boxes in Ashes. A cosmetics shop does not equal cash shop.

Atama

The only thing you can buy are skins, and most (if not all) can be earned in the game some way, though it will be a different color variation.

No loot boxes, they never had them and never will. And nothing you buy in the store will boost your stats or give you any kind of in-game advantage. They only give appearance changes.

For example, you may buy a skin that makes a mount look like a flaming horse. But you have to earn a mount in the game to use it, and the skin won’t make it faster or otherwise make it better.

Vhaeyne

It is like there are a group of people out there that watch Jim Sterling rant on Youtube. Download his thoughts go straight into their brain. Then run program "go from game forum to game forum looking for a hint of monetization". It is getting silly.

end_program()

CaptnChuck

They wouldn't need a cosmetic shop if they had a box cost. But since a box cost is a high fee of entry, they chose not to go for it and instead opted for a cosmetic shop. Just a 15$ sub fee won't be enough to run a game and make significant profit. So as long as the in-game cosmetics are on par/better than the cash shop cosmetics, I'm ok with it.

Atiqa

Cash shop is not just some bonus income source for them... It's needed for them to actually keep the game alive and give us updates.

Even if they had a box cost, that wouldn't have made up for cash shop in the longterm.

Gonna say it in this thread too... If you don't like the current monetization system for the game, please don't just complain and actually give us another solution to the problem.

It's like saying a monthly fee is ruining the game because not everyone can afford it, so let's get the game totally free.