Welcome to the forumDisclaimers:
Ahem! So, I've never posted on this forum before, but I've been around since the week Elite: Dangerous was released. I paid the full, AAA-game MSRP price tag for it. And I'm ok with that. It was a very pretty game, with a very enjoyable flight mechanic, one whole galaxy wide, even if it was only an inch deep. It seemed a little lacking in mechanics at the time, but it had promise, and there was plenty a promise made about the good things to come. And hey, there's some pretty paint jobs in the webstore! But let's hang around a while and see what this game grows into...
- This is a rant. If you aren't interested in hearing a rant, feel free to click the back button on your browser now.
- This rant is kind of long winded and loaded with sarcasm. If you're still reading, you should go and get a drink, and maybe lean your chair back.
- I am not an industry professional. I don't know the inner workings of Frontier or the details of their accounting and business models.
- I am, however, a gainfully employed adult. I can afford things, I just find some of them to be not worth the price tag.
- This is an account of my personal experiences and the resulting perspective of such. Also, I'm kind of a jerk.
Oh, I see. It's grown a DLC. A DLC that costs near as much as the game itself. A DLC that "unlocks" all the neat, exciting features one would expect to be a part of the core mechanics of the game. A DLC that is required to access engineers, irrefutably a huge advantage over any CMDR with stock parts for just about any play type. And Multi-Crew, which is a cute gimmick, if a little buggy still, but nobody really uses it because it's just a disadvantage all around. There's no real point in doing it.
Well, interesting. Guess it's time to shell out some more cash for all of this new content that is definitely above and beyond the expectations of the base, AAA-priced game. Personally, I took a break from Elite and waited for it to go on sale. And this is fine. I, myself, am not going to shell out more money still for aesthetics at this point. For it's credit, Elite has grown quite a bit in its depth of gameplay over the years. Fighting aliens is cool, even though I think most of us are still at a big net Cr loss there. Still no sign of these "space legs" I keep hearing about-
Oh, they might be in the next paid DLC? I mean, ok. I guess Frontier has to make some fresh income somehow-hey-wait-a-second. What's this ARX thing now? A new way to earn pew pew colors and bobble heads in the game!? Oh happy day! I'm so excited! Let's go! How long will it take me, at the weekly cap of 400, to slap some of those pointy spikes and a mean looking piratey paint job on my ship? About... nine months? Wow uh.... ok I guess. Well, um, I guess I'll go grind out that weekly cap then.
Off to the asteroid ring I go. Still no word on how much these upcoming fleet carriers will cost, so I guess I'll blow up some big, gray space rocks for little, shiny space rocks. That pays well, and it's genuinely enjoyable to do, being one of the newer mechanics and all. A few hours one day, a few hours the next, and what a haul! Let's just find a nice, high-demand station and cash out... 210 Million Cr! Nice! Now for that cherry on top, let's log out and see how many ARX all this lucrative mining earns. Wait for it... Yeah buddy! A whole... wait, six?
SIX?
...
...
...
What the @#$%?
* It's at this point that I expect the white knights among you to be panting heavily over your keyboards, fingers flying in a flurry of Cheetos dust: "Well! But! Actually! Frontier doesn't have to give you any ARX for free! You should be grateful! If you're so upset about not having a paint job like mine, why don't you open your wallet-"
Ok ok, that's enough. I've gotten that part out of the way for you, so you don't need to.
See, I'm ok with the pretty aesthetics being in the webstore. I'm not personally inclined to shell out for them myself, but if that's what you want to do, more power to you. But Frontier has chosen to dangle the prospect of "earning your aesthetics in game," while structuring it such that making actual, tangible use of it requires several hours of grindy play per day, several days a week, every week for months.
Or! You could spend a few bucks to supplement your pitiful in-game earnings! There, look at that pretty paint job you've totally earned with your hard work! Want another one? Just loosen those purse strings a little more!
"Free ARX" is a gateway drug.
"Free ARX" is a distraction from the real purpose of ARX: obscuring the real world price of in-game purchases.
"Free ARX" is Frontier jumping the bandwagon of manipulative, predatory game industry practices, and it is intended entirely to exploit you.
Keep an eye out for special lootboxes on alien homeworlds in the next season! Keys purchasable in the ARX store!
Anyway, back to blowing up rocks.
Fly safe, cmdrs o7,
Erro
An Open Rant in the title would have been even more appropriate in this current vogue of open letters What I don't understand about your post is, since you were in the game so early, were you not effectively an early backer, or did you not purchase the LEP? No matter if you didn't, but you would have received lots of "free" stuff along the way, including the Horizons update.
Anyway, you really really don't have to purchase paint jobs, even less so now if you can afford to wait and save a few Arx. But yes, the whole Arx thing rankles and smells of "give us your money." But what can you expect when so many players say "Shut up, and take my money!"
