ARX and the end of my financial support.

WolfgarVT

WolfgarVT
I tend to spend my money in the store on cosmetics. I have always been a fan of cash shops in most games as long as it doesn't give the player an edge beyond a morale boost!
With the change over to ARX I will no longer spend my money on Frontier's products. It is a needless change. These schemes are always unbalanced. You buy ARX in a predefined amount. Then you buy a product in the store and you are left with a few ARX in your account. Not enough to buy anything but enough to prompt you to buy another bundle to get just those few ARX you need to get that other paint job.. or other "thing" but you are always left with those few credits/token/ARX that you don't want to waste.
It is a business, I get it. This however is a scheme designed to entice people with OCD or poor impulse control to spend more, a kind of "polite extortion".
There was no need to remove dollars as an option which could be spent in exact quantities. So you have in effect removed the few hundred dollars I would have spent over time on two accounts since I won't purchase ARX.
It seems as though the trickle of "free ARX" you have added are enough to put most players on the side of this change as well.
 

GodBlock

G
I am a little concerned about this ARX stuff, I've been absent from the scene for a year, maybe more.

I am always on the doubting/cynical side when I see mobile game mechanics creeping into my PC gaming hobby :(

I am unsure what course of action I will take having previously bought two copies of elite + horizons, anaconda skins, asp-ex skins and body kits, cobra skins, another copy of elite + horizons for my brother, which is of no use as we still can't wing up properly.

I do find this new currency quite jarring. I will wait and see how it plays out (pays out?) before really going full ham on these forums lol.


Addition..

I never minded how the original store worked / works.. I like that if I choose to I can buy a cosmetic item that I want with a couple of quid (£), not a loot box type setup.. if that ever happens I can guarantee I will never buy anything from the store again.
 

GodBlock

G
I think you should care, if it's a straight transaction for a fixed price item by all means I'm all for it.

When we head towards that deceptive mobile game style transaction, as mentioned by the first post, you buy 999 credits (as an example), the thing you want is 750 credits, well that's just silly, predatory and quite manipulative.

Each to their own, and I will not attack you for this, because you are not me. I wish we thought more similarly, then my hobby wouldn't be screwed over quite as fast. (gaming in general)
 

Acropolis

A
It's a fine balance really between supporting the game and being told by how much you have to buy in to support the game.

A well established principle; that paying the exact amount for something is preferable to buying a more expensive pot of credit which you can then use to buy the thing you want, leaving some of that credit for use later on. Especially if you only want to buy one thing.

Sure the argument can be made for budgeting or you may just be a "Whale" and not care about money or your are Ok with chucking a few hot dollars at a game each week for a life boost in Candy Crush. You load up you account with ARX and there you know how much you have to spend later on, but this is a game not my food shopping or Candy Crush.

Look at how many other business models for this kind of financing have had to change to meet the consumer preferences. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo all changed their stores over the years to allow for exact amount purchases, especially where minors are concerned. Fornite hits the news how many times a month because of huge expenditure for cosmetic items? - Perhaps this is where the inspiration has come from, it certainly has increased Epic's profit margin and that's from cosmetic items no less.

Supporting the game through regular purchases is fine, I think so too would buying pre-set amounts if you are a person who like this kind of budgeting, as long as there is a choice and no discernible benefit to buying in bulk.

e.g

£4.99 = 500ARX
£9.99 = 1200
£19.99= 4000ARX < wow best value ¬_¬
- similar to Pokemon Go business models. I personally don't like buying in bulk and will always prefer to buy the exact individual cost.

If they do push buying into the fun bucks too hard then I agree it will kill a larger proportion of the consumer market - purely based on as a mentioned before how the larger games market has responded to thing like PSN credit, Microsoft points or Nintendo pretty fair idea of coin rewards/discounts over time. Fortnite is largely funded by kids (parents), and art style alone doesnt compare to Elite Dangerous.

The business model doesnt have to be a mobile style cash grab to be profitable.

I guess Frontier need to play with their ethics sliders between Profit Margin ,Consumer Value and Game Development.

I haven't even moaned about exchange rates being hidden by this sort of thing either.

But for now, I accept the change but hope there is some serious considerations for those sliders in the favour of the later two ;)
 

Cmdr Nemo LXXI

Cmdr Nemo LXXI
I don't know what the big deal is, console's have had to endure this process since the game became available on consoles. Now pc's have to do it. The only difference now is, where as before, one never got anything for free, now receive up to 400 arx which are basically the same as frontier points which is what consoles refereed to them as, FREE!
 

Abysinth

Abysinth
being a numbers nerd [ one man's p*rn is another man's spreadsheet :D ] and wanting to support the game, I shall buy points for the ship cosmetics I would have bought and use the free points for stuff I would never have bought, like some of the ship paint jobs for ships I don't use anymore [Cobra IV is one good example]
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
WolfgarVT said:
I tend to spend my money in the store on cosmetics. I have always been a fan of cash shops in most games as long as it doesn't give the player an edge beyond a morale boost!
With the change over to ARX I will no longer spend my money on Frontier's products. It is a needless change. These schemes are always unbalanced. You buy ARX in a predefined amount. Then you buy a product in the store and you are left with a few ARX in your account. Not enough to buy anything but enough to prompt you to buy another bundle to get just those few ARX you need to get that other paint job.. or other "thing" but you are always left with those few credits/token/ARX that you don't want to waste.
It is a business, I get it. This however is a scheme designed to entice people with OCD or poor impulse control to spend more, a kind of "polite extortion".
There was no need to remove dollars as an option which could be spent in exact quantities. So you have in effect removed the few hundred dollars I would have spent over time on two accounts since I won't purchase ARX.
It seems as though the trickle of "free ARX" you have added are enough to put most players on the side of this change as well.
Click to expand...

I will wait for the final implementation of the new Arx system, but I think you are right.
I have never bought secondary currencies for any game precisely because of the drawbacks you mention. I do not like such systems.

I play a lot of UBI games and UBI uses a similar system. I absolutely love the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry series for example. I own all AC and FC games, but I have never once been seduced into buying currency packs for their cosmetics. For me it is a barrier that I am not prepared to overcome. I only redeem the points I earn in the games and that's it.

I have a great love for Elite, and over time I have acquired a rather large collection of extras for my ships. I seriously expect that Arx will be the end of my purchases. I do not think this is what FDev intended, but perhaps you and I are only a tiny minority.
 
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wakajawaffle

wakajawaffle
This move is to entice impulse buyers. Grabbing skins or what ever in game, in the moment, will be irresistible to many.
The exchange from real money to "Funny Money" lowers the threshold even more.
Even the wary may take the bait over time.

On the other hand.

Put a way to switch between and manage all accounts in game under one email address.
THAT would be some bait.
Possibly THE best bait ever.

Think big FD, think big...
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
wakajawaffle said:
This move is to entice impulse buyers. Grabbing skins or what ever in game, in the moment, will be irresistible to many.
The exchange from real money to "Funny Money" lowers the threshold even more.
Even the wary may take the bait over time.
Click to expand...

For me it is exactly the opposite. The "funny money" (great moniker) will completely arrest my impulse buying.
Now I will first have to buy packs of funny money before I can actually buy what I want to buy. I have never done that for any game, and I never will.
 

Cmdr Nemo LXXI

Cmdr Nemo LXXI
Iskariot said:
For me it is exactly the opposite. The "funny money" (great moniker) will completely arrest my impulse buying.
Now I will first have to buy packs of funny money before I can actually buy what I want to buy. I have never done that for any game, and I never will.
Click to expand...
You do realize how long "NEVER" is, right.
 

The Lawful

The Lawful
I'm just glad they didn't introduce loot boxes, premium accounts (like in WoT) or monthly fees. ARX is basically quite ok with me, and in the past, they cut the hefty PJ prices to half. Even FD have to monetarize their stuff in some way, and the proposed system is not unfair IMHO. Cosmetic items are nothing critical and have never been. The only reason I don't spend a lot these days is that I already have about anything I want and only new shop content could cure that ;)

O7,
🙃
 
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