A lot of the hysteria in the forums and wild rumors flying around are so overblown that I don’t know what to believe — are the future patches REALLY as game-killing as people are saying, or is it just more nerdrage? I’m waiting until I get to the endgame myself to see how all those ‘nerfs’ play out before making any final judgements. Right now I’m enjoying the game, and I’m not paying a thing, so it’s a great value for me. =P

Also, it is my opinion that players, for whatever reason, are generally timid when it come to voting with their wallets. I’d guess that a large number of those complaining right now on the various blogs or forums are still playing Allods regularly. I don’t get that.

I guess to that I’d go back to what I said above, that bag space and being able to play the game after death are necessary to enjoying Allods, whereas your jet is just a luxury item in… what’s the equivalent to Allods in your analogy? Life?

I think a more appropriate analogy would be something like a city’s public transportation. If it was so expensive that most people couldn’t afford it, they’d be pretty pissed. Even though they could technically walk wherever they need to go, that’d be a major inconvenience. And then they’d move.

@sid

I don’t get the “rightfully” part of this.

If private jets were priced at $100 apiece, I could afford one. As it is, rich people have them and I don’t. Should I be “rightfully” angry about that?

I was right with you in your arguments about purposefully putting obstacles in a player’s way, and then putting items in the cash shop to get around those obstacles.

But you lost me with that last comment. Games are businesses, and exist to make money. Nobody has a right to play them. If the price point of playing is higher than you’re willing to pay, then so be it. You can be disappointed the price isn’t lower, but you don’t get to be “rightfully” angry about it. That implies there is some entitlement to play the game. There isn’t.

Seriously, let’s all take a small break and recognize what an awesome game Allods is, right?

I like the bare necessities example. Hopefully after they “fix” things you will be into it again.

@beau: I often think “oh I wonder what Beau’s take on this is” when MMO news breaks, so you my boy. But I’m just not feeling your argument on this one.

Here’s my take as simply as I can put it. The game of Allods with the bare necessities (bag space, being able to play after dying, etc, as defined by me for me) is a game I want to play. The game of Allods without those things is not. And the first game is too expensive for me. Currently anyway. I’m still very positive about it and I look forward to watching the next couple weeks.

Good points, but it is my guess that they would have had changes coming anyway. Think about it: the beta will be “over” around then, they would have a release with new items and a more complete cash shop. I am not saying that they set these prices high only because of the testing status, but changes were due anyhow.

It’ll be interesting to see, but from my experience even much less advertised/buzzed FTP’s do really well. Many people here have never even heard of Mabinogi or Maplestory, yet the games are huge. We’ll see, though, it is interesting to growing pains in action.

You are correct, they can set their prices any how they please and some loony bird or ten will pony up…which means it was a decent value to someone. If their are enough rich loony birds to make the game economically viable to keep running at the current prices, then they will have succeeded as a business (and MMOs are primarily businesses). However, I seriously doubt the current prices will do that for them, and waiting a solid month to even consider lowering them seems like a pretty foolish decision to me. By then they hype for the game will have died down a lot and they will likely have sacrificed a lot of momentum in the marketplace.

I didn’t say that boycotts don’t work, and I never suggested that you should not voice your opinion. And my issue has never been about discussing anything about anything. I don’t want to re-write everything I have already said. Either you get my point or not, and either you are the type to think that using certain language makes any some kind of difference or not.

I am basing everything I am saying off of the proof of years of playing these games. If you think this situation is unique or will play itself out uniquely, then I think that you are wrong. No offense, of course!

Being highly vocal works. Boycotts work. There is a precedent for both. Whether or not it will have any impact on this situation remains to be seen. We don’t know if it will and you certainly don’t know that it won’t.

It’s just that you personally, don’t feel this is a big deal. And that is your opinion, while bloggers who do think this is a deal are voicing theirs. It’s sort of how the whole blogging thing works.

We know we can simply not play. That is obvious. It’s like saying why complain or discuss anything you don’t like about any game?

That way, gPotato can have a 20$ bag, people who’ve bought the bag can feel like they got a great deal, and folks who want cheaper bags get that too.

And it’s the XP potion, and all other things that impact MMO progression, that I’m talking about when I say they only exist because of the roadblocks the dev is putting up.

If what you are buying is NOT cosmetic, but has some function in the game, then that’s where we start to enter the danger zone of the dev possibly exploiting you.

Which brings me back to my key point that all you are really doing here with Allods is negotiating the price at which you willingly allow yourself to be exploited.

I’m just not interested in negotiating that at any cost.

And along these lines, here is another reason to not like the MT model. The best price for the Dev is not the price the price most people can afford, but the price that nets them the most profit.

For example, if 1000 people can afford $1, the dev nets $1000. But if 500 people can afford $5, the dev nets $2500. Sound great?

What about the 500 people who were willing to pay $1?

Don’t kid yourself. That’s what is happening with Allods Online right now. They are trying to see how many people are willing to pay the higher price. And everyone not at that threshold is (rightfully) pissed off about it.

While the story doesn’t say how many of these accounts are active, MapleStory NA does have around 10 servers for the game so that says a lot. Definitively a success for the F2P market.

I am not sure what that has to do with the discussion. I have always said that this cash shop is a choice, and you have made your choice. If you feel that being forced to pay 15 dollars a month (not saying that “forced” is good or bad, but just is) is somehow better than avoiding paying the same or more for optional items, then so be it.

Just remember that when you pay that 15 dollars a month, you really need to make sure you get your money’s worth. Maybe you will, maybe you won’t. Again, you make the decision and that decision has no bearing whatsoever on what I feel is “worth it.”

…and how many players (or accounts at least) does Maplestory have? If you google it, look at the very first thing that comes up: “Join the Online Adventure with over 50 million players worldwide! Free-to-Play, Free-to-Download! Latest News and more!”

Either someone on here will say “but they are lying!” or will try to dismiss that number. Take away however many of those players you want and say that they are “just free players.” Still, you will be left with probably millions more that pay something than most PTP games have as players.

There is no denying that you make a very strong argument for MT practices in MMOs and most of what you are saying is based on logical and very well worded information. However, I, as gamer, do not always feel logical when it comes to money and I believe that many share this sentiment as well. So I can tell you that what Allods is doing doesn’t stand well with me, so they can take their MT prices and stick them where the sun doesn’t shine. I will not be playing Allods now or in the future, because there are plenty of other games like that on the market and for much better price and that do not require “arm and a leg” to compete either.

I would rather sub to Dark Fall, and I do not have a good opinion about that game either for different reasons, than invest any time into Allods and its cesspit of MT “goodness”.