The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
I hate that saying the "time is money" because in most cases it is completely untrue. For time you spent on the game to be relevant to this saying, then you would need to be losing out on money that you would otherwise get had you not played the game or if you had used that time for making money (which no one works 24 hours a day).
For example if your sitting at home doing nothing (and you have no job or it's your off say) then NO time is not money as you are not losing any money from other activities to make this saying relevant.
But let's say you called off from work sick to play the game and you don't get paid sick days, then YES that saying is relevant in this unusual decision. Let's say you do get paid sick days then NO, that saying is t relevant.
Maybe not losing money but losing opportunities to make money. If you have no job and need money you probably shouldn't be home playing a game as if you need money on your off day you should probably be out doing side work not playing a game.
The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
That depends. Where ever it is you are putting your time in, is it a place where Kabam can reach in and take some and use it to pay for the game's expenses and payroll?
If the answer is no, then no. You might be "spending" your time, but if Kabam isn't getting that time, you aren't spending it on them.
Time is not money. But even if it is, when I sell things for money I expect to actually receive the cash. If you want to buy those things with time, you have to give me that time. In a form I can then spend myself. Playing the game and calling that "spending time on the game" is like taking a picture of a hundred dollar bill and texting it to Kabam and expecting to get 3100 units for it.
The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
That depends. Where ever it is you are putting your time in, is it a place where Kabam can reach in and take some and use it to pay for the game's expenses and payroll?
If the answer is no, then no. You might be "spending" your time, but if Kabam isn't getting that time, you aren't spending it on them.
Time is not money. But even if it is, when I sell things for money I expect to actually receive the cash. If you want to buy those things with time, you have to give me that time. In a form I can then spend myself. Playing the game and calling that "spending time on the game" is like taking a picture of a hundred dollar bill and texting it to Kabam and expecting to get 3100 units for it.
Kabam still benefits from having ftp players. As long as they're using our numbers to pitch downloads and player counts, they can put the work in to shrink the ftp-ptw gap. Of course we aren't giving them our money, but the game will obviously become unsustainable if they don't put the effort in to appeal to the 95-97% of the playerbase we make up, just as the game would be unsustainable if they didn't put the effort in to appeal to that 3-5% of spenders. But that's mainly just semantics, I think the only obvious truth is that the game obviously wouldn't become unsustainable if they just didn't throw that rank 5 gem in there.
Sure, time isn't money, but it is so crazy to me that I could apply to the shoe store down my street making 8 dollars an hour and buy a 4-5 gem in two days. Two months straight worth of gameplay couldn't get me that.
The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
That depends. Where ever it is you are putting your time in, is it a place where Kabam can reach in and take some and use it to pay for the game's expenses and payroll?
If the answer is no, then no. You might be "spending" your time, but if Kabam isn't getting that time, you aren't spending it on them.
Time is not money. But even if it is, when I sell things for money I expect to actually receive the cash. If you want to buy those things with time, you have to give me that time. In a form I can then spend myself. Playing the game and calling that "spending time on the game" is like taking a picture of a hundred dollar bill and texting it to Kabam and expecting to get 3100 units for it.
Kabam still benefits from having ftp players. As long as they're using our numbers to pitch downloads and player counts, they can put the work in to shrink the ftp-ptw gap. Of course we aren't giving them our money, but the game will obviously become unsustainable if they don't put the effort in to appeal to the 95-97% of the playerbase we make up, just as the game would be unsustainable if they didn't put the effort in to appeal to that 3-5% of spenders. But that's mainly just semantics, I think the only obvious truth is that the game obviously wouldn't become unsustainable if they just didn't throw that rank 5 gem in there.
Sure, time isn't money, but it is so crazy to me that I could apply to the shoe store down my street making 8 dollars an hour and buy a 4-5 gem in two days. Two months straight worth of gameplay couldn't get me that.
So do you think 95-97% of this game is ftp? Also you had to have rank 4s to even buy the deal. Most people who bought these deals were already Paragon and put a lot of time into this game. I bought some of the deals been playing this game since 2016 and I'm not a whale just a casual spender. I already had 20 r4 and 2 r5s and 9 7* were you gonna catch me if I didn't buy these deals? I tend to believe from my experience in this game there's more casual spenders then ftp or whales.
The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
That depends. Where ever it is you are putting your time in, is it a place where Kabam can reach in and take some and use it to pay for the game's expenses and payroll?
If the answer is no, then no. You might be "spending" your time, but if Kabam isn't getting that time, you aren't spending it on them.
Time is not money. But even if it is, when I sell things for money I expect to actually receive the cash. If you want to buy those things with time, you have to give me that time. In a form I can then spend myself. Playing the game and calling that "spending time on the game" is like taking a picture of a hundred dollar bill and texting it to Kabam and expecting to get 3100 units for it.
Kabam still benefits from having ftp players. As long as they're using our numbers to pitch downloads and player counts, they can put the work in to shrink the ftp-ptw gap. Of course we aren't giving them our money, but the game will obviously become unsustainable if they don't put the effort in to appeal to the 95-97% of the playerbase we make up, just as the game would be unsustainable if they didn't put the effort in to appeal to that 3-5% of spenders. But that's mainly just semantics, I think the only obvious truth is that the game obviously wouldn't become unsustainable if they just didn't throw that rank 5 gem in there.
Sure, time isn't money, but it is so crazy to me that I could apply to the shoe store down my street making 8 dollars an hour and buy a 4-5 gem in two days. Two months straight worth of gameplay couldn't get me that.
Netflix benefits from having a large subscriber base when it comes to negotiating contracts, but I still pay them, and they do not pay me for my viewing time.
"Kabam benefits from me being here" is the online gaming equivalent of telling a traffic cop that you pay their salary.
The game does a lot for free to play players. The game is extremely free to play friendly. But not just in terms of long term veteran free to play players. A brand new player can pick up the game *today* and still be a competitive player. They can reach the highest progression tiers without the benefit of years of accumulated resources. They can advance to the higher tiers of the game from a standing start. Sure, they might not be knocking off the eight year veteran whales, but there's very little ceiling on them.
When I look at the big picture, I don't see a game hostile to free to play players. Far from it. I see a game where free to play players can play at whatever pace they want, and progress proportional to their effort. Basically everything in the game is open to them. They can become end game caliber players with just moderate effort, skill, and time, and zero cash.
People keep talking about "shrinking the gap" between spenders and the free to play. But in one sense, that's nonsensical. The game is never going to add stuff only free to play players can get and spenders can't, so the gap between them can only grow, in terms of what offers and content inject into the game.
And yet when you actually stop and look around the game, you don't see wildly accelerating gaps between spenders and free to play. I recently saw DEW's account tour when his hit five million rating. He claims to have spent over $200k on his account in just three years. Its a great account. But when I look at it I do not see $200k more stuff than my account. Moreover, I do not see an account that won't be completely obsolete in a few years.
It is game inflation that in a global sense keeps shrinking the gap between spenders and free to play players. Game inflation doesn't directly target spenders, rather it deflates *everything* over time. That's why spenders are not allowed to compound their advantage over time. A $200k advantage in three years doesn't become a $400k advantage in six years. Rather, that $200k advantage becomes effectively meaningless in six years, and $400k in six years is mostly just another $200 in another three years.
Imagine an account that has $200k poured into it that stops spending. And imagine a brand new account started on the same day the whale stopped spending. What happens if we watch both accounts over time. If both players were reasonably active, and equally active, after a couple years the whale account wouldn't be all that much more powerful. It would still have an advantage to be sure, but that advantage would be highly attenuated. Where did it go? They are still both putting in the same effort into their accounts, so the whale should still have that extra $200k, right? Except they don't. If they don't keep spending, they don't get to keep that advantage. It eventually decays away.
That's what ultimately moderates spending in this game. Game inflation means all spending depreciates over time. And while Free to Play effort also depreciates, in a depreciating world higher value depreciates faster. Gaps become smaller. Everyone gets closer together.
The game allows spenders to spend a lot, because the game also has sufficient inflation to devalue all that spending on time scales of just a couple years. And that's why eight year veteran whales are not a million dollars ahead of eight year veteran free to play players. They are a few tens of thousands of dollars ahead. The other 900 grand plus they put into the game? Basically evaporated.
Yes, but for whatever reason....choice or limitations....not spending is going to yield less progress. The fact that people are bothered by it is something I'll never understand. Actually I do understand where it stems from, but it will never make logical sense to me why people keep comparing, as if it's supposed to mirror. What do you suppose people pay for? Specifically, we're talking about a major sale that takes place every year. They pay for access to what they don't get for free. Whether that's something that saves a little time, or a lot of time, that's what they're paying for. Once again, there is no competition between spenders and non-spenders. I get that game modes pit people against each other, but there is no keeping up with those spending thousands, without spending thousands. That's a reality in the game, and it's also a reality in life. Which is why I don't obsess about what others can afford that I can't in life. People spend more in a day than I make in a year, and yet we both live on the same earth just fine.
The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
That depends. Where ever it is you are putting your time in, is it a place where Kabam can reach in and take some and use it to pay for the game's expenses and payroll?
If the answer is no, then no. You might be "spending" your time, but if Kabam isn't getting that time, you aren't spending it on them.
Time is not money. But even if it is, when I sell things for money I expect to actually receive the cash. If you want to buy those things with time, you have to give me that time. In a form I can then spend myself. Playing the game and calling that "spending time on the game" is like taking a picture of a hundred dollar bill and texting it to Kabam and expecting to get 3100 units for it.
Kabam still benefits from having ftp players. As long as they're using our numbers to pitch downloads and player counts, they can put the work in to shrink the ftp-ptw gap. Of course we aren't giving them our money, but the game will obviously become unsustainable if they don't put the effort in to appeal to the 95-97% of the playerbase we make up, just as the game would be unsustainable if they didn't put the effort in to appeal to that 3-5% of spenders. But that's mainly just semantics, I think the only obvious truth is that the game obviously wouldn't become unsustainable if they just didn't throw that rank 5 gem in there.
Sure, time isn't money, but it is so crazy to me that I could apply to the shoe store down my street making 8 dollars an hour and buy a 4-5 gem in two days. Two months straight worth of gameplay couldn't get me that.
Netflix benefits from having a large subscriber base when it comes to negotiating contracts, but I still pay them, and they do not pay me for my viewing time.
"Kabam benefits from me being here" is the online gaming equivalent of telling a traffic cop that you pay their salary.
True, but that's not what I said. I said that Kabam benefits from having 95-97% of the playerbase just like me being here. If a city lowers the speed limit on a highway to 3 miles per hour and tells everyone to just take the tolls, that'd be a much more comparable analogy.
Netflix also isn't comparable, since their subscriber count is that high despite the mandatory pricing. MCOC's numbers would not be as high as they are if the game was truly pay to play, and they're clearly very aware of that.
It seems like your overall point is that we're all gonna end up in the same place anyways. The game will continuously flood the economy, then dilute it. And yeah, I totally agree. That's why I'm not worried about these 4th of July deals being an issue in two years. I'm worried about these 4th of July deals being an issue today. Right now. I have spent the last three months grinding to establish my roster, as this is the first time in over 7 years that I have felt any sort of motivation to play and find my place in the game. And now, I'm finding players, in my alliance and otherwise, who were below me just last week have skyrocketed above me. Now, I don't expect it to stay that way. They still lack the experience, they're still at a lower progression title, and Kabam could easily make my account skyrocket by just making 20 million gold and a large chunk of ISO available throughout next months content. Kabam knows how the system works and I'm willing to bet they've already got a plan to mostly counteract the 4th of July sales without causing any problems at all.
But again, today, there is a problem. Today, I have to face these mostly inactive accounts that grew their account more in a single day than I possible could've in the past three months. Today, I'm not having fun. And of course I'm not gonna quit, because I know I've got something coming my way in the next couple of months. But why is this how they choose to run their economy? Inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute. Money spent quickly turns to nothing just as fast as time spent quickly turns to nothing. Nobody can claim consistency except the guy who pays 400 dollars a week just to keep his spot.
But of course, ftp players are the ones having their countless hours diluted in the blink of an eye. That's never gonna feel fine, no matter how you choose to word it.
I like playing this game. It's genuinely just so fun for me. So when I get rewards, I choose to earn them by playing the game. I just wouldn't have fun spending. So when I finish all of the content I can possibly complete for the month and then see players who completely avoid some modes absolutely crush my account in a day, it gets tiring. The way Kabam chooses to run their economy is flawed and could be much better, and the constant unhappiness among ftp and ptw players alike makes that pretty clear.
It seems like your overall point is that we're all gonna end up in the same place anyways.
No, that's not the point. The two main economic points are that one: in-game resources do not have permanent value and two: game inflation raises the floor over time.
In terms of the former, there's a difference between what the game economy is doing and "we're all going to end up in the same place." Imagine this was a thousand mile marathon race, and spenders could buy an hour riding in a car. That fifty mile advantage would be a more or less permanent advantage. A spender that got two hundred miles ahead would stay two hundred miles ahead throughout the race, barring you running faster than them. You could attempt to reduce that gap by outrunning them on foot, but that advantage they bought doesn't decrease on its own. Its a permanent advantage you can only try to nullify by building some counter-advantage of your own.
That's not what happens in this game. In this game, not only are we running forward, the entire map is shrinking. The map might be a thousand miles long today, but an hour later what used to be the edge of the map is now only five hundred miles away, and an additional five hundred miles is added to the end. When someone spends to get a two hundred mile advantage, that advantage shrinks constantly. In an hour they will be only a hundred miles ahead of me. In another hour they will only be fifty miles ahead of me. Five hours after the race began that two hundred mile advantage they bought at the start will have reduced to only six miles. Ten hours after the start of the race they will be just 350 yards ahead of me.
In terms of the latter, even if someone joins the race now, ten hours later, we might have been running for ten hours at, say, seven miles an hour, but the 70 miles of distance we've run with our feet has itself shrunk behind us to only a couple of miles. Someone who starts now will still be behind us, but not seventy miles behind, they would only be like three miles behind. To them, the amount they need to run to catch up with us seems a lot smaller than the distance we ran seems to us.
The fact that all leads shrink due to inflation means spending can have temporary benefits, but those benefits aren't allowed to stack up: they shrink over time. And the fact that inflation makes the race itself seem to contract over time means the race allows people to join long after the race starts and feel like they aren't so far behind that it is pointless. Both of these effects make the game much more friendly to F2P players than it might otherwise. And over long timescales, these two factors - resource inflow and game inflation - appear to me to be fairly well balanced. Game economy isn't hyperinflating, and game progress isn't overly deflating to the point of pointlessness. It isn't as easy as it sounds to land in the middle.
And all of this is separate from the fact that this is one of the only F2P games I've ever played or even heard of where F2P players can earn the games premium currency (in this case, units) in very large amounts (hundred of dollars a month) in an unrestricted manner (if you want to grind arena constantly, the game has few limits on how much you can grind it). Virtually none of the game's content is cash-gated. And F2P players that make it to the upper tiers of the game, say the top 5% are not super rare exceptions.
But why is this how they choose to run their economy? Inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute. Money spent quickly turns to nothing just as fast as time spent quickly turns to nothing. Nobody can claim consistency except the guy who pays 400 dollars a week just to keep his spot.
Because everyone does? Because that's the only way it works?
Kabam didn't invent any of this. I've been studying monetization since the literal dawn of the modern F2P microtransaction industry. I was there when MMOs transitioned from subscription to hybrid to F2P as the dominant system. This is just the way the industry learned, by trial and error, that players would most accept.
We vote with our actions. We, the game playing public, chose the winners and losers. F2P microtransaction supported monetization systems won by a landslide, and everyone else mostly died on the vine. The spenders wanted to spend and everyone else wanted the free lunch, and they chose to make this deal. And this is the way the deal worked best. And best was chosen by "which games attracted the most players with the largest revenue base."
Kabam didn't choose to run their game this way, any more than I chose which Gravity to study in college. This is just the way all games like this work, to varying degrees of success.
People give Kabam too much credit, ironically. They keep talking about Kabam like they are the only ones that do the things they do, when they are almost always just doing what everyone else does, changing the details but implementing the same systems as everyone else. The details matter, of course, but for the most part the details tend to generate good results - again, speaking specifically about monetization only.
It seems like your overall point is that we're all gonna end up in the same place anyways.
No, that's not the point. The two main economic points are that one: in-game resources do not have permanent value and two: game inflation raises the floor over time.
In terms of the former, there's a difference between what the game economy is doing and "we're all going to end up in the same place." Imagine this was a thousand mile marathon race, and spenders could buy an hour riding in a car. That fifty mile advantage would be a more or less permanent advantage. A spender that got two hundred miles ahead would stay two hundred miles ahead throughout the race, barring you running faster than them. You could attempt to reduce that gap by outrunning them on foot, but that advantage they bought doesn't decrease on its own. Its a permanent advantage you can only try to nullify by building some counter-advantage of your own.
That's not what happens in this game. In this game, not only are we running forward, the entire map is shrinking. The map might be a thousand miles long today, but an hour later what used to be the edge of the map is now only five hundred miles away, and an additional five hundred miles is added to the end. When someone spends to get a two hundred mile advantage, that advantage shrinks constantly. In an hour they will be only a hundred miles ahead of me. In another hour they will only be fifty miles ahead of me. Five hours after the race began that two hundred mile advantage they bought at the start will have reduced to only six miles. Ten hours after the start of the race they will be just 350 yards ahead of me.
In terms of the latter, even if someone joins the race now, ten hours later, we might have been running for ten hours at, say, seven miles an hour, but the 70 miles of distance we've run with our feet has itself shrunk behind us to only a couple of miles. Someone who starts now will still be behind us, but not seventy miles behind, they would only be like three miles behind. To them, the amount they need to run to catch up with us seems a lot smaller than the distance we ran seems to us.
The fact that all leads shrink due to inflation means spending can have temporary benefits, but those benefits aren't allowed to stack up: they shrink over time. And the fact that inflation makes the race itself seem to contract over time means the race allows people to join long after the race starts and feel like they aren't so far behind that it is pointless. Both of these effects make the game much more friendly to F2P players than it might otherwise. And over long timescales, these two factors - resource inflow and game inflation - appear to me to be fairly well balanced. Game economy isn't hyperinflating, and game progress isn't overly deflating to the point of pointlessness. It isn't as easy as it sounds to land in the middle.
And all of this is separate from the fact that this is one of the only F2P games I've ever played or even heard of where F2P players can earn the games premium currency (in this case, units) in very large amounts (hundred of dollars a month) in an unrestricted manner (if you want to grind arena constantly, the game has few limits on how much you can grind it). Virtually none of the game's content is cash-gated. And F2P players that make it to the upper tiers of the game, say the top 5% are not super rare exceptions.
Again, I get what you're saying, but you're leaving out part of your analogy. The race doesn't just shrink, it gets bigger. And when it does, that's when those car rides become even more efficient. The race goes on forever. When it shrinks, those that paid their way to the front are once again competing with those that didn't. When it grows, those that are willing to pay their way have once again gained a tremendous lead. If you don't care about having the most efficient car ride, you can just never get out and you'll be in the lead at all times.
It would be extremely easy to land in the middle, and I imagine you're aware of that. It just wouldn't be as profitable. Kabam obviously isn't doing these deals in hopes to break even, they're doing it to increase the already pretty damn high profit.
Can anyone join today and catch up pretty quick for no money at all? Hell yeah. But what happens when the map grows? What happens when they see the runner who was just miles behind them suddenly rocket past them? Are they supposed to just take it to the chest, say they knew they were never gonna win anyways and pretend it didn't happen? Obviously not. They'll go to the race organizers and say "hey, if you're gonna let people buy their way to the front, can you at least provide some water?" And that's when they slap a $6 price tag on a water bottle and put it up for sale. And that's when the race becomes a whole lot less friendly.
But why is this how they choose to run their economy? Inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute. Money spent quickly turns to nothing just as fast as time spent quickly turns to nothing. Nobody can claim consistency except the guy who pays 400 dollars a week just to keep his spot.
Because everyone does? Because that's the only way it works?
Kabam didn't invent any of this. I've been studying monetization since the literal dawn of the modern F2P microtransaction industry. I was there when MMOs transitioned from subscription to hybrid to F2P as the dominant system. This is just the way the industry learned, by trial and error, that players would most accept.
We vote with our actions. We, the game playing public, chose the winners and losers. F2P microtransaction supported monetization systems won by a landslide, and everyone else mostly died on the vine. The spenders wanted to spend and everyone else wanted the free lunch, and they chose to make this deal. And this is the way the deal worked best. And best was chosen by "which games attracted the most players with the largest revenue base."
Kabam didn't choose to run their game this way, any more than I chose which Gravity to study in college. This is just the way all games like this work, to varying degrees of success.
People give Kabam too much credit, ironically. They keep talking about Kabam like they are the only ones that do the things they do, when they are almost always just doing what everyone else does, changing the details but implementing the same systems as everyone else. The details matter, of course, but for the most part the details tend to generate good results - again, speaking specifically about monetization only.
Most of the MMOs you're speaking of have much more complicated economies and even gameplay. Games like Diablo, WoW, and RuneScape do have pretty similar tactics, but they work because ftp and ptw literally just do not compete on the same level. They don't have to face players with numbers tied to their rosters and immediately know that they don't stand a chance.
Yes, Kabam does what everyone else does, just not as well.
The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
I hate that saying the "time is money" because in most cases it is completely untrue. For time you spent on the game to be relevant to this saying, then you would need to be losing out on money that you would otherwise get had you not played the game or if you had used that time for making money (which no one works 24 hours a day).
For example if your sitting at home doing nothing (and you have no job or it's your off say) then NO time is not money as you are not losing any money from other activities to make this saying relevant.
But let's say you called off from work sick to play the game and you don't get paid sick days, then YES that saying is relevant in this unusual decision. Let's say you do get paid sick days then NO, that saying is t relevant.
Maybe not losing money but losing opportunities to make money. If you have no job and need money you probably shouldn't be home playing a game as if you need money on your off day you should probably be out doing side work not playing a game.
Do you not sleep since you are losing money in the wasted time?
The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
I hate that saying the "time is money" because in most cases it is completely untrue. For time you spent on the game to be relevant to this saying, then you would need to be losing out on money that you would otherwise get had you not played the game or if you had used that time for making money (which no one works 24 hours a day).
For example if your sitting at home doing nothing (and you have no job or it's your off say) then NO time is not money as you are not losing any money from other activities to make this saying relevant.
But let's say you called off from work sick to play the game and you don't get paid sick days, then YES that saying is relevant in this unusual decision. Let's say you do get paid sick days then NO, that saying is t relevant.
Maybe not losing money but losing opportunities to make money. If you have no job and need money you probably shouldn't be home playing a game as if you need money on your off day you should probably be out doing side work not playing a game.
Do you not sleep since you are losing money in the wasted time?
Yeah I don't sleep at all smh. I also don't grind a moble game for hours on end everyday cause I can't afford to spend a couple hundred dollars. I also don't come on the fourms and cry about I can't compete against the whales when in actuality I was never really competing against the whales.
These sales do feel kind of like a spit in the face to free to play. I've been paragon since like a month after it came out. Been slowly working away getting t6cc to get my first rank 5, still haven't I'm very close, and now you can just buy like 4+ instantly. Those materials are way too scarce outside of high level wars which I just don't have the time to play. There's a measly amount from battlegrounds which I don't enjoy at all. Other than that there's next to nothing. I'm not saying don't put those offers in the game for the payers just make the materials a bit more common so there's actually a slight degree of balance
The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
I hate that saying the "time is money" because in most cases it is completely untrue. For time you spent on the game to be relevant to this saying, then you would need to be losing out on money that you would otherwise get had you not played the game or if you had used that time for making money (which no one works 24 hours a day).
For example if your sitting at home doing nothing (and you have no job or it's your off say) then NO time is not money as you are not losing any money from other activities to make this saying relevant.
But let's say you called off from work sick to play the game and you don't get paid sick days, then YES that saying is relevant in this unusual decision. Let's say you do get paid sick days then NO, that saying is t relevant.
Maybe not losing money but losing opportunities to make money. If you have no job and need money you probably shouldn't be home playing a game as if you need money on your off day you should probably be out doing side work not playing a game.
Do you not sleep since you are losing money in the wasted time?
Yeah I don't sleep at all smh. I also don't grind a moble game for hours on end everyday cause I can't afford to spend a couple hundred dollars. I also don't come on the fourms and cry about I can't compete against the whales when in actuality I was never really competing against the whales.
nobody is competing against the whales... when did I say that? also, i like your assumption that those who dont spend, dont have jobs at all and are sitting at home playing a game.
I bought 5 4-5 gems and haven't used any of them. I've been in GC for a while with 1 EOP 6r5, beating accounts with 7r2 and 6r5s. Kabam has done a fantastic job of making good play much more worthwhile than just nuking champs.
In nuke metas, I cannot compete but in difficult metas, I do just fine.
If you can't beat certain people, you won't beat them with 4 more rank 5s in your deck...
I bought 5 4-5 gems and haven't used any of them. I've been in GC for a while with 1 EOP 6r5, beating accounts with 7r2 and 6r5s. Kabam has done a fantastic job of making good play much more worthwhile than just nuking champs.
In nuke metas, I cannot compete but in difficult metas, I do just fine.
If you can't beat certain people, you won't beat them with 4 more rank 5s in your deck...
The gap between f2p and spending is not something new. We all agree, or at least most of us, that the game must reward the player who supports it with money, and make it continue running etc. But. The problem this time, is that there s a new unreachable gap between level of spending. Before this set of ridiculous offers, people who spend, a nice amount, about 1/3 or half of the old set of offers, were rewarded, could keep up with whales, and be competitive. That's over now. Even if you spend money it s for nothing if not purchasing everything.
Is this still a game?
Playing this game for years. I have never seen FTp showing their appreciation towards people who pay to play. Always same old complaint in very deal that "this time is not the same. It will widen the playing ground".
In fact, Kabam never restricts any player to have access to those deals. If it is so good, why don't FTP starts buying the deal.
Without even considering buying the deal but complaining that the deal is too good for players who pay.
If the deal is not attractive, who is going to buy? Why don't you buy too?
This is such a ridiculous complain.....
Reminds me of the passage in the Bible whereby Jesus rebukes the pharisees and sadduces by saying their hypocrites cause they don't enter the kingdom of heaven and they don't allow anyone to enter also.
So, too, with FTP players. They don't buy these deals (no matter how great kabam makes them) and they don't want anyone to buy them either. These July 4th deals are, in my opinion, great!!
Excellent way of looking at it. What surprises me is how shamelessly they say this stuff.
Meanwhile they revive farmed to get whatever they have and now that it’s gone, they want to still hold the advantage. Freeloaders gonna freeload.
Get back to us when you understand the definition of a freeloader.
Fr lol, a freeloader is some one who as you can probably guess by the word wants rewards for FREE, i never asked for that, money isn’t the only way to “get things” though, time is money. So if I put in the time equivalent of your money shouldn’t I get what you paid for? Thanks for agreeing World Breaker lol
I hate that saying the "time is money" because in most cases it is completely untrue. For time you spent on the game to be relevant to this saying, then you would need to be losing out on money that you would otherwise get had you not played the game or if you had used that time for making money (which no one works 24 hours a day).
For example if your sitting at home doing nothing (and you have no job or it's your off say) then NO time is not money as you are not losing any money from other activities to make this saying relevant.
But let's say you called off from work sick to play the game and you don't get paid sick days, then YES that saying is relevant in this unusual decision. Let's say you do get paid sick days then NO, that saying is t relevant.
Maybe not losing money but losing opportunities to make money. If you have no job and need money you probably shouldn't be home playing a game as if you need money on your off day you should probably be out doing side work not playing a game.
Do you not sleep since you are losing money in the wasted time?
Yeah I don't sleep at all smh. I also don't grind a moble game for hours on end everyday cause I can't afford to spend a couple hundred dollars. I also don't come on the fourms and cry about I can't compete against the whales when in actuality I was never really competing against the whales.
nobody is competing against the whales... when did I say that? also, i like your assumption that those who dont spend, dont have jobs at all and are sitting at home playing a game.
This whole thread is about complaining about deals. When did I say ftp doesn't have jobs and sit at home?
But why is this how they choose to run their economy? Inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute. Money spent quickly turns to nothing just as fast as time spent quickly turns to nothing. Nobody can claim consistency except the guy who pays 400 dollars a week just to keep his spot.
Because everyone does? Because that's the only way it works?
Kabam didn't invent any of this. I've been studying monetization since the literal dawn of the modern F2P microtransaction industry. I was there when MMOs transitioned from subscription to hybrid to F2P as the dominant system. This is just the way the industry learned, by trial and error, that players would most accept.
We vote with our actions. We, the game playing public, chose the winners and losers. F2P microtransaction supported monetization systems won by a landslide, and everyone else mostly died on the vine. The spenders wanted to spend and everyone else wanted the free lunch, and they chose to make this deal. And this is the way the deal worked best. And best was chosen by "which games attracted the most players with the largest revenue base."
Kabam didn't choose to run their game this way, any more than I chose which Gravity to study in college. This is just the way all games like this work, to varying degrees of success.
People give Kabam too much credit, ironically. They keep talking about Kabam like they are the only ones that do the things they do, when they are almost always just doing what everyone else does, changing the details but implementing the same systems as everyone else. The details matter, of course, but for the most part the details tend to generate good results - again, speaking specifically about monetization only.
Most of the MMOs you're speaking of have much more complicated economies and even gameplay. Games like Diablo, WoW, and RuneScape do have pretty similar tactics, but they work because ftp and ptw literally just do not compete on the same level. They don't have to face players with numbers tied to their rosters and immediately know that they don't stand a chance.
Yes, Kabam does what everyone else does, just not as well.
Actually, I would say literally the opposite. It isn't that these monetization strategies only happen to work with MMOs because they have special properties that make them work. I would say if they work in those environments, they will work anywhere. In fact, the monetization systems that existed during the hybrid transition phase were out of necessity much more complex and situationally encompassing than any mobile game I've seen. Details are different, but I would say anyone who went through that period of time will be able to understand any monetization system in any mobile game today as being an evolved subset of those days.
The idea that MMOs did not have to face PvP related monetization issues is, I think, dramatically under-representing that particular game space. There are MMOs that are far more PvP-oriented than MCOC is, or will ever be, or could ever possibly be. MCOC is "PvP-lite" compared to PvP-oriented MMOs, much less games outside the MMO space that are also PvP-focused and also F2P monetized.
Whether Kabam does this better or worse when it comes to monetization has a subjective component to be sure. But what I can say is this: if there was another game out there that did it better, I would most likely be playing it instead. For me, the balance between gameplay progression and monetization is one of the key features by which I measure a game's attractiveness to me, as I would classify myself as a resource management-style player. For players like me, combat is what we do to pass the time in between managing resources in the account. Game economy and game monetization *is* the game. Marvel brought me here, the game's overall resource economy kept me here.
There is an objective component to this as well, but honestly that's the sort of discussion that I think only works in a classroom over blackboards or in a bar over pitchers of beer.
But why is this how they choose to run their economy? Inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute. Money spent quickly turns to nothing just as fast as time spent quickly turns to nothing. Nobody can claim consistency except the guy who pays 400 dollars a week just to keep his spot.
Because everyone does? Because that's the only way it works?
Kabam didn't invent any of this. I've been studying monetization since the literal dawn of the modern F2P microtransaction industry. I was there when MMOs transitioned from subscription to hybrid to F2P as the dominant system. This is just the way the industry learned, by trial and error, that players would most accept.
We vote with our actions. We, the game playing public, chose the winners and losers. F2P microtransaction supported monetization systems won by a landslide, and everyone else mostly died on the vine. The spenders wanted to spend and everyone else wanted the free lunch, and they chose to make this deal. And this is the way the deal worked best. And best was chosen by "which games attracted the most players with the largest revenue base."
Kabam didn't choose to run their game this way, any more than I chose which Gravity to study in college. This is just the way all games like this work, to varying degrees of success.
People give Kabam too much credit, ironically. They keep talking about Kabam like they are the only ones that do the things they do, when they are almost always just doing what everyone else does, changing the details but implementing the same systems as everyone else. The details matter, of course, but for the most part the details tend to generate good results - again, speaking specifically about monetization only.
Most of the MMOs you're speaking of have much more complicated economies and even gameplay. Games like Diablo, WoW, and RuneScape do have pretty similar tactics, but they work because ftp and ptw literally just do not compete on the same level. They don't have to face players with numbers tied to their rosters and immediately know that they don't stand a chance.
Yes, Kabam does what everyone else does, just not as well.
Actually, I would say literally the opposite. It isn't that these monetization strategies only happen to work with MMOs because they have special properties that make them work. I would say if they work in those environments, they will work anywhere. In fact, the monetization systems that existed during the hybrid transition phase were out of necessity much more complex and situationally encompassing than any mobile game I've seen. Details are different, but I would say anyone who went through that period of time will be able to understand any monetization system in any mobile game today as being an evolved subset of those days.
The idea that MMOs did not have to face PvP related monetization issues is, I think, dramatically under-representing that particular game space. There are MMOs that are far more PvP-oriented than MCOC is, or will ever be, or could ever possibly be. MCOC is "PvP-lite" compared to PvP-oriented MMOs, much less games outside the MMO space that are also PvP-focused and also F2P monetized.
Whether Kabam does this better or worse when it comes to monetization has a subjective component to be sure. But what I can say is this: if there was another game out there that did it better, I would most likely be playing it instead. For me, the balance between gameplay progression and monetization is one of the key features by which I measure a game's attractiveness to me, as I would classify myself as a resource management-style player. For players like me, combat is what we do to pass the time in between managing resources in the account. Game economy and game monetization *is* the game. Marvel brought me here, the game's overall resource economy kept me here.
There is an objective component to this as well, but honestly that's the sort of discussion that I think only works in a classroom over blackboards or in a bar over pitchers of beer.
I believe it's an objective fact that the economy built to work in one system will not work in every system. Without any real examples, I can't tell you why they worked in the MMOs you're thinking of, but I can tell you why they don't work here.
In MCOC's economy, the benefits of one player directly equal the disadvantages of another. Because of Battlegrounds, deals like these directly correlate to some players' win rates dropping.
MCOC just isn't complex enough for these deals to not have as big of an impact. In a game like WoW, sure I could buy the shiny new sword that outranks every item under my belt, but it doesn't work well with my class. Or maybe it isn't fast enough for my speed build, or maybe it doesn't provide enough magic damage for my spell build. Maybe I need more crit damage, or this or that, there are a thousand ways the item wouldn't be valuable to me. And even if I end up facing a player with the same build as mine, but better, it won't be the singular reason that I lose. In MCOC, you're facing one player who has objectively similar but better equipment in the form of champions. As long as the gameplay pushes that divide, these deals will continue to directly impact players who choose not to take advantage of them in a negative way. That's why Kabam's economy doesn't work nearly as well as the MMOs you're referring to.
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
I bought 5 4-5 gems and haven't used any of them. I've been in GC for a while with 1 EOP 6r5, beating accounts with 7r2 and 6r5s. Kabam has done a fantastic job of making good play much more worthwhile than just nuking champs.
In nuke metas, I cannot compete but in difficult metas, I do just fine.
If you can't beat certain people, you won't beat them with 4 more rank 5s in your deck...
Ok, then take out your only 6r5 and all your 6r4s from your deck. Put only 6* r3, or even better swift to a a full 5* deck. Because you know, if you can’t beat certain people, you won’t beat them with more higher ranked champions in your deck 😂 What an idiotic logic to try to apply it on a roster based game’s, competitive head to head mode 🤷♂️
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
Well, if we're going there, I'm sure the reason you don't like it is because it isn't customized to your tastes, and discussing it further would be counterproductive when you lack the foundation to discuss it on a sufficiently informed and nuanced level.
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
Well, if we're going there, I'm sure the reason you don't like it is because it isn't customized to your tastes, and discussing it further would be counterproductive when you lack the foundation to discuss it on a sufficiently informed and nuanced level.
We get it DNA, you got a good education. That doesn't mean that the people around you are too dumb (or in your more corporate terms, lacking foundation) to discuss it with you. The fact that you're someone meant to assist the forums and are willing to say things like that, is deeply upsetting. If you don't believe you can discuss it on a nuanced level, then you can find your way out of the conversation without running to insults.
I'm the average ftp. I'm the person suffering from Kabam's failure within the economy. The fact that you believe I lack foundation is not due to my understanding, but rather your own.
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
Well, if we're going there, I'm sure the reason you don't like it is because it isn't customized to your tastes, and discussing it further would be counterproductive when you lack the foundation to discuss it on a sufficiently informed and nuanced level.
We get it DNA, you got a good education. That doesn't mean that the people around you are too dumb (or in your more corporate terms, lacking foundation) to discuss it with you. The fact that you're someone meant to assist the forums and are willing to say things like that, is deeply upsetting. If you don't believe you can discuss it on a nuanced level, then you can find your way out of the conversation without running to insults.
I'm the average ftp. I'm the person suffering from Kabam's failure within the economy. The fact that you believe I lack foundation is not due to my understanding, but rather your own.
You're the one who went the player, not the ball.
Fact is * Without BGs this wouldn't be such an issue. * Without R5/6 or R2/7 rank ups deals would have been worthless to the biggest spenders. * If you want to be on the bleeding edge of the game you need to be a customer. That is the way.
1. F2F are complaining that the deals are too good, but they still didn't buy them despite there is no restriction for them to buy. 2. They want more free stuffs. 3. They are saying that they have no access to the resources. In fact, Kabam has improved BG store and other rewards to help them. (But still not in their satisfaction) 4. They may believe that the game could live on without money to keep the light on and salary to Kabam employee. 5. They don't show any appreciation towards people who buy the deals to keep the light on, but complaining that they have too good deal and the accounts will be too divided.
Then, the game economy BS has been raised. Bottom line is FTP wants more free stuffs, but don't want people who pay get something too good.
FTP still want to enjoy good quality game but believe Kabam or the whales could farm free money (like we farm free units in game) to keep the light on. Probably, they also think that Kabam employee don't need any food for their life. Kabam employee could just breath to survive.
P.S. Most of YouTuber are big whales not only by their own money or earning though YouTube but also members donation. They need to balance their fan base to say something that is politically correct.
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
Well, if we're going there, I'm sure the reason you don't like it is because it isn't customized to your tastes, and discussing it further would be counterproductive when you lack the foundation to discuss it on a sufficiently informed and nuanced level.
We get it DNA, you got a good education. That doesn't mean that the people around you are too dumb (or in your more corporate terms, lacking foundation) to discuss it with you. The fact that you're someone meant to assist the forums and are willing to say things like that, is deeply upsetting. If you don't believe you can discuss it on a nuanced level, then you can find your way out of the conversation without running to insults.
I'm the average ftp. I'm the person suffering from Kabam's failure within the economy. The fact that you believe I lack foundation is not due to my understanding, but rather your own.
You're the one who went the player, not the ball.
Fact is * Without BGs this wouldn't be such an issue. * Without R5/6 or R2/7 rank ups deals would have been worthless to the biggest spenders. * If you want to be on the bleeding edge of the game you need to be a customer. That is the way.
I didn't go for the player, I mentioned player perspectives. Nobody can comment on whether the current state of the economy is at all entertaining or interesting for a group of players they're not at all apart of. Then I'm told that I'm lacking foundation. DNA isn't at all aware of my foundation.
And I completely agree with 2/3 of your points. If BGs didn't exist there'd be no need to change. But now that it exists as a permanent mode, there is an issue. I completely believe that they could solve the issues by simple making more restrictive metas. I wouldn't care if someone ranked up Rintrah during the electric defense meta, because a rank 5 Rintrah would be worse than a rank 3 Red Skull for that meta.
I also agree that I will never be on the bleeding edge. I don't think I should be. My goal is to enjoy the game and earn the rewards purely through content, so I don't spend. But the current state of the economy is not enjoyable for players who don't spend. As long as that's the case, we have every right to discuss it.
I just disagree with the idea that Rank 5's and Rank 2's are the only thing spenders have to gain from spending. It's the only thing that ftp players can't get that spenders can get multiple of, but even rank 3 gems are more than enough to set a wide gap between Thronebreaker spenders and non spenders, especially in BGs. Hell, a large amount of gold is the only thing I'm looking for right now, and spenders have unlimited avenues to obtain that. While I've done every piece of seasonal/monthly content I can get my hands on and am just stuck spending all of my Glory on 200k gold every reset. It's just not fun, but I expect August to be a pretty damn good month for ftp players, so of course I'll be around then.
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
Well, if we're going there, I'm sure the reason you don't like it is because it isn't customized to your tastes, and discussing it further would be counterproductive when you lack the foundation to discuss it on a sufficiently informed and nuanced level.
We get it DNA, you got a good education. That doesn't mean that the people around you are too dumb (or in your more corporate terms, lacking foundation) to discuss it with you. The fact that you're someone meant to assist the forums and are willing to say things like that, is deeply upsetting. If you don't believe you can discuss it on a nuanced level, then you can find your way out of the conversation without running to insults.
I'm the average ftp. I'm the person suffering from Kabam's failure within the economy. The fact that you believe I lack foundation is not due to my understanding, but rather your own.
You're the one who went the player, not the ball.
Fact is * Without BGs this wouldn't be such an issue. * Without R5/6 or R2/7 rank ups deals would have been worthless to the biggest spenders. * If you want to be on the bleeding edge of the game you need to be a customer. That is the way.
Nobody can comment on whether the current state of the economy is at all entertaining or interesting for a group of players they're not at all apart of.
I just disagree with the idea that Rank 5's and Rank 2's are the only thing spenders have to gain from spending.
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
Well, if we're going there, I'm sure the reason you don't like it is because it isn't customized to your tastes, and discussing it further would be counterproductive when you lack the foundation to discuss it on a sufficiently informed and nuanced level.
We get it DNA, you got a good education. That doesn't mean that the people around you are too dumb (or in your more corporate terms, lacking foundation) to discuss it with you. The fact that you're someone meant to assist the forums and are willing to say things like that, is deeply upsetting. If you don't believe you can discuss it on a nuanced level, then you can find your way out of the conversation without running to insults.
I'm the average ftp. I'm the person suffering from Kabam's failure within the economy. The fact that you believe I lack foundation is not due to my understanding, but rather your own.
You're the one who went the player, not the ball.
Fact is * Without BGs this wouldn't be such an issue. * Without R5/6 or R2/7 rank ups deals would have been worthless to the biggest spenders. * If you want to be on the bleeding edge of the game you need to be a customer. That is the way.
Nobody can comment on whether the current state of the economy is at all entertaining or interesting for a group of players they're not at all apart of.
I just disagree with the idea that Rank 5's and Rank 2's are the only thing spenders have to gain from spending.
?
"at all entertaining or interesting" Nobody can comment on the enjoyment of other players, but everybody knows what items are in the deals. Everybody can comment on that.
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
Well, if we're going there, I'm sure the reason you don't like it is because it isn't customized to your tastes, and discussing it further would be counterproductive when you lack the foundation to discuss it on a sufficiently informed and nuanced level.
We get it DNA, you got a good education. That doesn't mean that the people around you are too dumb (or in your more corporate terms, lacking foundation) to discuss it with you. The fact that you're someone meant to assist the forums and are willing to say things like that, is deeply upsetting. If you don't believe you can discuss it on a nuanced level, then you can find your way out of the conversation without running to insults.
I'm the average ftp. I'm the person suffering from Kabam's failure within the economy. The fact that you believe I lack foundation is not due to my understanding, but rather your own.
You're the one who went the player, not the ball.
Fact is * Without BGs this wouldn't be such an issue. * Without R5/6 or R2/7 rank ups deals would have been worthless to the biggest spenders. * If you want to be on the bleeding edge of the game you need to be a customer. That is the way.
Nobody can comment on whether the current state of the economy is at all entertaining or interesting for a group of players they're not at all apart of.
I just disagree with the idea that Rank 5's and Rank 2's are the only thing spenders have to gain from spending.
?
"at all entertaining or interesting" Nobody can comment on the enjoyment of other players, but everybody knows what items are in the deals. Everybody can comment on that.
So you can comment on the deals but not their worth to a group of players that you're not a part of? I'm confused.
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
Well, if we're going there, I'm sure the reason you don't like it is because it isn't customized to your tastes, and discussing it further would be counterproductive when you lack the foundation to discuss it on a sufficiently informed and nuanced level.
We get it DNA, you got a good education. That doesn't mean that the people around you are too dumb (or in your more corporate terms, lacking foundation) to discuss it with you. The fact that you're someone meant to assist the forums and are willing to say things like that, is deeply upsetting. If you don't believe you can discuss it on a nuanced level, then you can find your way out of the conversation without running to insults.
I'm the average ftp. I'm the person suffering from Kabam's failure within the economy. The fact that you believe I lack foundation is not due to my understanding, but rather your own.
You're the one who went the player, not the ball.
Fact is * Without BGs this wouldn't be such an issue. * Without R5/6 or R2/7 rank ups deals would have been worthless to the biggest spenders. * If you want to be on the bleeding edge of the game you need to be a customer. That is the way.
Nobody can comment on whether the current state of the economy is at all entertaining or interesting for a group of players they're not at all apart of.
I just disagree with the idea that Rank 5's and Rank 2's are the only thing spenders have to gain from spending.
?
"at all entertaining or interesting" Nobody can comment on the enjoyment of other players, but everybody knows what items are in the deals. Everybody can comment on that.
So you can comment on the deals but not their worth to a group of players that you're not a part of? I'm confused.
If you're trying to have a discussion, we can do that, but it looks like you're really focused on this one thing. I made multiple other points, comment on those.
I'm saying nobody can comment on the enjoyment of another player. Your point is that rank 5's and rank 2's are the only thing spenders had to gain, which is just objectively not true. Look at the deals, there are other things there. I don't see how your point relates at all to enjoyment, which is the only thing I believe players cannot comment on without being made aware of the scenario.
Comments
If the answer is no, then no. You might be "spending" your time, but if Kabam isn't getting that time, you aren't spending it on them.
Time is not money. But even if it is, when I sell things for money I expect to actually receive the cash. If you want to buy those things with time, you have to give me that time. In a form I can then spend myself. Playing the game and calling that "spending time on the game" is like taking a picture of a hundred dollar bill and texting it to Kabam and expecting to get 3100 units for it.
Sure, time isn't money, but it is so crazy to me that I could apply to the shoe store down my street making 8 dollars an hour and buy a 4-5 gem in two days. Two months straight worth of gameplay couldn't get me that.
"Kabam benefits from me being here" is the online gaming equivalent of telling a traffic cop that you pay their salary.
The game does a lot for free to play players. The game is extremely free to play friendly. But not just in terms of long term veteran free to play players. A brand new player can pick up the game *today* and still be a competitive player. They can reach the highest progression tiers without the benefit of years of accumulated resources. They can advance to the higher tiers of the game from a standing start. Sure, they might not be knocking off the eight year veteran whales, but there's very little ceiling on them.
When I look at the big picture, I don't see a game hostile to free to play players. Far from it. I see a game where free to play players can play at whatever pace they want, and progress proportional to their effort. Basically everything in the game is open to them. They can become end game caliber players with just moderate effort, skill, and time, and zero cash.
People keep talking about "shrinking the gap" between spenders and the free to play. But in one sense, that's nonsensical. The game is never going to add stuff only free to play players can get and spenders can't, so the gap between them can only grow, in terms of what offers and content inject into the game.
And yet when you actually stop and look around the game, you don't see wildly accelerating gaps between spenders and free to play. I recently saw DEW's account tour when his hit five million rating. He claims to have spent over $200k on his account in just three years. Its a great account. But when I look at it I do not see $200k more stuff than my account. Moreover, I do not see an account that won't be completely obsolete in a few years.
It is game inflation that in a global sense keeps shrinking the gap between spenders and free to play players. Game inflation doesn't directly target spenders, rather it deflates *everything* over time. That's why spenders are not allowed to compound their advantage over time. A $200k advantage in three years doesn't become a $400k advantage in six years. Rather, that $200k advantage becomes effectively meaningless in six years, and $400k in six years is mostly just another $200 in another three years.
Imagine an account that has $200k poured into it that stops spending. And imagine a brand new account started on the same day the whale stopped spending. What happens if we watch both accounts over time. If both players were reasonably active, and equally active, after a couple years the whale account wouldn't be all that much more powerful. It would still have an advantage to be sure, but that advantage would be highly attenuated. Where did it go? They are still both putting in the same effort into their accounts, so the whale should still have that extra $200k, right? Except they don't. If they don't keep spending, they don't get to keep that advantage. It eventually decays away.
That's what ultimately moderates spending in this game. Game inflation means all spending depreciates over time. And while Free to Play effort also depreciates, in a depreciating world higher value depreciates faster. Gaps become smaller. Everyone gets closer together.
The game allows spenders to spend a lot, because the game also has sufficient inflation to devalue all that spending on time scales of just a couple years. And that's why eight year veteran whales are not a million dollars ahead of eight year veteran free to play players. They are a few tens of thousands of dollars ahead. The other 900 grand plus they put into the game? Basically evaporated.
What do you suppose people pay for? Specifically, we're talking about a major sale that takes place every year. They pay for access to what they don't get for free. Whether that's something that saves a little time, or a lot of time, that's what they're paying for.
Once again, there is no competition between spenders and non-spenders. I get that game modes pit people against each other, but there is no keeping up with those spending thousands, without spending thousands. That's a reality in the game, and it's also a reality in life. Which is why I don't obsess about what others can afford that I can't in life. People spend more in a day than I make in a year, and yet we both live on the same earth just fine.
Netflix also isn't comparable, since their subscriber count is that high despite the mandatory pricing. MCOC's numbers would not be as high as they are if the game was truly pay to play, and they're clearly very aware of that.
It seems like your overall point is that we're all gonna end up in the same place anyways. The game will continuously flood the economy, then dilute it. And yeah, I totally agree. That's why I'm not worried about these 4th of July deals being an issue in two years. I'm worried about these 4th of July deals being an issue today. Right now. I have spent the last three months grinding to establish my roster, as this is the first time in over 7 years that I have felt any sort of motivation to play and find my place in the game. And now, I'm finding players, in my alliance and otherwise, who were below me just last week have skyrocketed above me. Now, I don't expect it to stay that way. They still lack the experience, they're still at a lower progression title, and Kabam could easily make my account skyrocket by just making 20 million gold and a large chunk of ISO available throughout next months content. Kabam knows how the system works and I'm willing to bet they've already got a plan to mostly counteract the 4th of July sales without causing any problems at all.
But again, today, there is a problem. Today, I have to face these mostly inactive accounts that grew their account more in a single day than I possible could've in the past three months. Today, I'm not having fun. And of course I'm not gonna quit, because I know I've got something coming my way in the next couple of months. But why is this how they choose to run their economy? Inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute, inflate, dilute. Money spent quickly turns to nothing just as fast as time spent quickly turns to nothing. Nobody can claim consistency except the guy who pays 400 dollars a week just to keep his spot.
But of course, ftp players are the ones having their countless hours diluted in the blink of an eye. That's never gonna feel fine, no matter how you choose to word it.
I like playing this game. It's genuinely just so fun for me. So when I get rewards, I choose to earn them by playing the game. I just wouldn't have fun spending. So when I finish all of the content I can possibly complete for the month and then see players who completely avoid some modes absolutely crush my account in a day, it gets tiring. The way Kabam chooses to run their economy is flawed and could be much better, and the constant unhappiness among ftp and ptw players alike makes that pretty clear.
In terms of the former, there's a difference between what the game economy is doing and "we're all going to end up in the same place." Imagine this was a thousand mile marathon race, and spenders could buy an hour riding in a car. That fifty mile advantage would be a more or less permanent advantage. A spender that got two hundred miles ahead would stay two hundred miles ahead throughout the race, barring you running faster than them. You could attempt to reduce that gap by outrunning them on foot, but that advantage they bought doesn't decrease on its own. Its a permanent advantage you can only try to nullify by building some counter-advantage of your own.
That's not what happens in this game. In this game, not only are we running forward, the entire map is shrinking. The map might be a thousand miles long today, but an hour later what used to be the edge of the map is now only five hundred miles away, and an additional five hundred miles is added to the end. When someone spends to get a two hundred mile advantage, that advantage shrinks constantly. In an hour they will be only a hundred miles ahead of me. In another hour they will only be fifty miles ahead of me. Five hours after the race began that two hundred mile advantage they bought at the start will have reduced to only six miles. Ten hours after the start of the race they will be just 350 yards ahead of me.
In terms of the latter, even if someone joins the race now, ten hours later, we might have been running for ten hours at, say, seven miles an hour, but the 70 miles of distance we've run with our feet has itself shrunk behind us to only a couple of miles. Someone who starts now will still be behind us, but not seventy miles behind, they would only be like three miles behind. To them, the amount they need to run to catch up with us seems a lot smaller than the distance we ran seems to us.
The fact that all leads shrink due to inflation means spending can have temporary benefits, but those benefits aren't allowed to stack up: they shrink over time. And the fact that inflation makes the race itself seem to contract over time means the race allows people to join long after the race starts and feel like they aren't so far behind that it is pointless. Both of these effects make the game much more friendly to F2P players than it might otherwise. And over long timescales, these two factors - resource inflow and game inflation - appear to me to be fairly well balanced. Game economy isn't hyperinflating, and game progress isn't overly deflating to the point of pointlessness. It isn't as easy as it sounds to land in the middle.
And all of this is separate from the fact that this is one of the only F2P games I've ever played or even heard of where F2P players can earn the games premium currency (in this case, units) in very large amounts (hundred of dollars a month) in an unrestricted manner (if you want to grind arena constantly, the game has few limits on how much you can grind it). Virtually none of the game's content is cash-gated. And F2P players that make it to the upper tiers of the game, say the top 5% are not super rare exceptions.
Kabam didn't invent any of this. I've been studying monetization since the literal dawn of the modern F2P microtransaction industry. I was there when MMOs transitioned from subscription to hybrid to F2P as the dominant system. This is just the way the industry learned, by trial and error, that players would most accept.
We vote with our actions. We, the game playing public, chose the winners and losers. F2P microtransaction supported monetization systems won by a landslide, and everyone else mostly died on the vine. The spenders wanted to spend and everyone else wanted the free lunch, and they chose to make this deal. And this is the way the deal worked best. And best was chosen by "which games attracted the most players with the largest revenue base."
Kabam didn't choose to run their game this way, any more than I chose which Gravity to study in college. This is just the way all games like this work, to varying degrees of success.
People give Kabam too much credit, ironically. They keep talking about Kabam like they are the only ones that do the things they do, when they are almost always just doing what everyone else does, changing the details but implementing the same systems as everyone else. The details matter, of course, but for the most part the details tend to generate good results - again, speaking specifically about monetization only.
It would be extremely easy to land in the middle, and I imagine you're aware of that. It just wouldn't be as profitable. Kabam obviously isn't doing these deals in hopes to break even, they're doing it to increase the already pretty damn high profit.
Can anyone join today and catch up pretty quick for no money at all? Hell yeah. But what happens when the map grows? What happens when they see the runner who was just miles behind them suddenly rocket past them? Are they supposed to just take it to the chest, say they knew they were never gonna win anyways and pretend it didn't happen? Obviously not. They'll go to the race organizers and say "hey, if you're gonna let people buy their way to the front, can you at least provide some water?" And that's when they slap a $6 price tag on a water bottle and put it up for sale. And that's when the race becomes a whole lot less friendly.
Yes, Kabam does what everyone else does, just not as well.
also, i like your assumption that those who dont spend, dont have jobs at all and are sitting at home playing a game.
In nuke metas, I cannot compete but in difficult metas, I do just fine.
If you can't beat certain people, you won't beat them with 4 more rank 5s in your deck...
The idea that MMOs did not have to face PvP related monetization issues is, I think, dramatically under-representing that particular game space. There are MMOs that are far more PvP-oriented than MCOC is, or will ever be, or could ever possibly be. MCOC is "PvP-lite" compared to PvP-oriented MMOs, much less games outside the MMO space that are also PvP-focused and also F2P monetized.
Whether Kabam does this better or worse when it comes to monetization has a subjective component to be sure. But what I can say is this: if there was another game out there that did it better, I would most likely be playing it instead. For me, the balance between gameplay progression and monetization is one of the key features by which I measure a game's attractiveness to me, as I would classify myself as a resource management-style player. For players like me, combat is what we do to pass the time in between managing resources in the account. Game economy and game monetization *is* the game. Marvel brought me here, the game's overall resource economy kept me here.
There is an objective component to this as well, but honestly that's the sort of discussion that I think only works in a classroom over blackboards or in a bar over pitchers of beer.
In MCOC's economy, the benefits of one player directly equal the disadvantages of another. Because of Battlegrounds, deals like these directly correlate to some players' win rates dropping.
MCOC just isn't complex enough for these deals to not have as big of an impact. In a game like WoW, sure I could buy the shiny new sword that outranks every item under my belt, but it doesn't work well with my class. Or maybe it isn't fast enough for my speed build, or maybe it doesn't provide enough magic damage for my spell build. Maybe I need more crit damage, or this or that, there are a thousand ways the item wouldn't be valuable to me. And even if I end up facing a player with the same build as mine, but better, it won't be the singular reason that I lose. In MCOC, you're facing one player who has objectively similar but better equipment in the form of champions. As long as the gameplay pushes that divide, these deals will continue to directly impact players who choose not to take advantage of them in a negative way. That's why Kabam's economy doesn't work nearly as well as the MMOs you're referring to.
I'm sure you do really enjoy MCOC's resource economy, because it is built to benefit you and directly impact those below you.
Put only 6* r3, or even better swift to a a full 5* deck.
Because you know, if you can’t beat certain people, you won’t beat them with more higher ranked champions in your deck 😂
What an idiotic logic to try to apply it on a roster based game’s, competitive head to head mode 🤷♂️
I'm the average ftp. I'm the person suffering from Kabam's failure within the economy. The fact that you believe I lack foundation is not due to my understanding, but rather your own.
Fact is
* Without BGs this wouldn't be such an issue.
* Without R5/6 or R2/7 rank ups deals would have been worthless to the biggest spenders.
* If you want to be on the bleeding edge of the game you need to be a customer. That is the way.
1. F2F are complaining that the deals are too good, but they still didn't buy them despite there is no restriction for them to buy.
2. They want more free stuffs.
3. They are saying that they have no access to the resources. In fact, Kabam has improved BG store and other rewards to help them. (But still not in their satisfaction)
4. They may believe that the game could live on without money to keep the light on and salary to Kabam employee.
5. They don't show any appreciation towards people who buy the deals to keep the light on, but complaining that they have too good deal and the accounts will be too divided.
Then, the game economy BS has been raised. Bottom line is FTP wants more free stuffs, but don't want people who pay get something too good.
FTP still want to enjoy good quality game but believe Kabam or the whales could farm free money (like we farm free units in game) to keep the light on. Probably, they also think that Kabam employee don't need any food for their life. Kabam employee could just breath to survive.
P.S. Most of YouTuber are big whales not only by their own money or earning though YouTube but also members donation. They need to balance their fan base to say something that is politically correct.
And I completely agree with 2/3 of your points. If BGs didn't exist there'd be no need to change. But now that it exists as a permanent mode, there is an issue. I completely believe that they could solve the issues by simple making more restrictive metas. I wouldn't care if someone ranked up Rintrah during the electric defense meta, because a rank 5 Rintrah would be worse than a rank 3 Red Skull for that meta.
I also agree that I will never be on the bleeding edge. I don't think I should be. My goal is to enjoy the game and earn the rewards purely through content, so I don't spend. But the current state of the economy is not enjoyable for players who don't spend. As long as that's the case, we have every right to discuss it.
I just disagree with the idea that Rank 5's and Rank 2's are the only thing spenders have to gain from spending. It's the only thing that ftp players can't get that spenders can get multiple of, but even rank 3 gems are more than enough to set a wide gap between Thronebreaker spenders and non spenders, especially in BGs. Hell, a large amount of gold is the only thing I'm looking for right now, and spenders have unlimited avenues to obtain that. While I've done every piece of seasonal/monthly content I can get my hands on and am just stuck spending all of my Glory on 200k gold every reset. It's just not fun, but I expect August to be a pretty damn good month for ftp players, so of course I'll be around then.
Nobody can comment on the enjoyment of other players, but everybody knows what items are in the deals. Everybody can comment on that.
I'm saying nobody can comment on the enjoyment of another player. Your point is that rank 5's and rank 2's are the only thing spenders had to gain, which is just objectively not true. Look at the deals, there are other things there. I don't see how your point relates at all to enjoyment, which is the only thing I believe players cannot comment on without being made aware of the scenario.