That’s why it’s used as an example. People get het up over early access to something they will get for free in a few months, but it could be a lot worse!
You know what? I'm starting to have doubts on whether the current model for ships is all that great, because it appears to be less transparent than it could be. I'd almost prefer them selling ships outright as opposed to the current "when will they release the ship?" will-they-or-won't-they confusion, where they don't make it clear when the ships will be available without Arx (yet another FOMO tactic I was alluring to earlier).
I'd be pretty miffed to spend a chunky amount of money on a ship that will release for free a week later. I did buy the Cobra 5 back in January because I had a feeling they'd drag their heels. But I wouldn't recommend to anyone who hasn't already bought it to get it now because the risk of feeling like a mug increases on a daily basis.
And whether you agree with FDevs ARX policy or not, you don’t actually have to spend any extra money on the game. Which in itself is clearly an evil act.
My disposition towards ARX looks a bit like an inverse bell-shaped curve over the years.
Initially I didn't like it as it did come, of course, with price changes. But they were minor, and Frontier thankfully added the ability to buy items individually, and gave us the weekly Arx. So I got on board. Spent a total of well over 500 Euros (and change) pre- and post-Arx on this game by the way. Just some context, to make you re-evaluate that second sentence in your response to me.
But then came Odyssey, which not only wrecked most of my purchased items (making them either broken or looking considerably different in the new 4.0 engine compared to 3.8 and even the actual thumbnails in the shop), which were either not fixed at all, or only after several years. On top of that, they sold the Odyssey stuff at much inflated prices compared to what we were used to for ships (funnily enough, 6k for a weapon skin sounds like a bargain now, funny how this goes). Both were a big turn off for me to ever spend money on this game again.
The big Arx inflation of 2024 sealed my resolve* so here is a player who was pretty liberal with their credit card in the past and now I'm not anymore due to Frontier's decisions. Bold move Cotton etc.
*The Cobra 5 was the exception, it's a nice enough ship with its own cockpit so no rush job, am happy to pay for that kinda content. I did feel dirty spending 10k Arx on a MNB skin though, because I was (and still am) no fan of the OG paint -- which applies to pretty much all ships though.
Again, you don’t have to buy anything beyond the game.
I think there's a happy medium where customers are happy to spend while not feeling ripped off, and the company making sufficient earnings. Plenty of devs prove that this is achievable. The above line just strikes me as "well don't play it then!" which is also a common bite reflex I see on this forum, and I think it's uncalled for. We should be able to criticise pricing of these items regardless of whether they're optional or not. If nothing else it's free feedback to Frontier if they cared about this stuff.
There is a problem if you need to compare it to one of the biggest scams in the gaming industry in order to prove that it's relatively cheap, all things considered
In a nutshell was what I was trying to say.
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