What is your view on microtransactions for credits?

[Flyinpiranha]

To quote Michael Brookes on the subject



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I do for oneB

Interesting, had no idea. Buy away then. I personally am still against it as I feel it diminishes the game and will drive people away in the long run. Most games that offer these options also offer a lot of content to "keep you paying". I have a feeling that a majority of people, if they bought the best ships would probably stop playing shortly thereafter. Credits IS the carrot, how you get there is the stick.

While players like myself may use it if a catastrophe with insurance happens (and that is questionable), I think the people that would use it, would soon tire of the game and stop playing. You'd be able to buy all your ammo, best weapons, best ships, and then what? Do what you're doing now? All games have a progression curve, you're taking that away with being able to buy money outright.

With less players I think the game would suffer. At least, that's just my take on it. If you don't enjoy bounty hunting in a Viper, why would you enjoy it in a Python? If you don't enjoy trading in a Cobra, why would you in a T9? Paying 2 Win just seems like a quick way for people to get bored with the game and lower the player count. Which in itself only indirectly affects me with the development plans. But it still would affect me. (if that's how it would play out, who knows?)

 

[Tubit]

Competitive multiplayer is already completely broken/non-existent by FD's poor design choices; hence, I don't see how in-game credits for RL cash could cause any kind of fairness problems.

So what you're saying is that you think the game is so broken that you don't see the problem of putting in another game-breaking feature. I disagree but, ok...

 

[Dabba]

.... Seriously.... Who thinks this is a good idea besides the people who will be using it to provide themselves entertainment at everyone else's expense?

That would be me. Id never buy credits, and I dont do the pvp thing or spend much time on the Open server, but Im all for Frontier taking in as much capital as they can put their hands on to continue to improve the game.

Can't wait to see all of the new Anaconda and Type 9 pilots on the forums screaming that griefers just cost them $40 real cash by hunting them down when they couldn't afford the insurance.

I view this as an added bonus, not an argument against.

 

[Zed]

I'm against pay to win in general but as long as the credits cost at least £1.00 per 100 then I don't mind if some people want to buy them.
I'd even be prepared to sell some if they ever allow us to transfer credits between players.

 

[Tubit]

I seriously believe that revenue-wise, FD would be doing themselves a disservice by implementing credits-for-real-money microtransactions. A lot of people would shun the game simply because of this, especially considering what type of game this is. I know I would. It's not Candy Crush. They would ruin the integrity and reputation of the game and subsequently their long term income.

 

[Dabba]

Well we're going to have to agree to disagree on that point. It seems to be working out ok for Star Citizens coffers.

 

[Kitiara]

Competitive multiplayer is already completely broken/non-existent by FD's poor design choices; hence, I don't see how in-game credits for RL cash could cause any kind of fairness problems.

Really?

Menen and I would tend to disagree that it's completely broken or nonexistant. Sure it has a LOT of scope for improvement, but....

[video=youtube;LCy1W37t1qM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCy1W37t1qM[/video]

 

[rupok]

Well we're going to have to agree to disagree on that point. It seems to be working out ok for Star Citizens coffers.

If they do something similar to star citizen and limit the max amount players can buy I wouldn't mind it that much. Lets say they max to 5 million and maybe 500k or so per day buying?

This would allow people to get medium end ships like cobra or vipers or get some investment money but it wouldn't be too over the top.

 

[Windscreen Smudge]

Well we're going to have to agree to disagree on that point. It seems to be working out ok for Star Citizens coffers.

Working out well for Star Citizen's bottom line. No one said it was working out well for Star Citizen's development.
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Something you'll learn after playing a couple dozen games with microtransactions is that the moment they decide to allow you to buy currency is the moment the game loses all integrity in scope of design.

 

[Kitiara]

If they do something similar to star citizen and limit the max amount players can buy I wouldn't mind it that much. Lets say they max to 5 million and maybe 500k or so per day buying?

This would allow people to get medium end ships like cobra or vipers or get some investment money but it wouldn't be too over the top.

I think your figures are a little off

The cobra I'm sat in is worth rather more than that.

 

[Dabba]

If they do something similar to star citizen and limit the max amount players can buy I wouldn't mind it that much. Lets say they max to 5 million and maybe 500k or so per day buying?

This would allow people to get medium end ships like cobra or vipers or get some investment money but it wouldn't be too over the top.

Theyd have to make the maxes a lot higher than 5 million/500k, I can make that in a few hours and I havent really put in an inordinate amount of time "grinding", but something like that wouldnt bother me. As Ive said while I will buy cosmetic stuff, Id never buy credits or ships, but I dont have a problem with other people doing so.

 

[Blast Hardcheese]

suddenly pythons and anacondas everywhere

 

[rupok]

I think your figures are a little off

The cobra I'm sat in is worth rather more than that.

Should not be enough to buy and fully upgrade a cobra. As I said it should be a small boost. It is enough to get a medium end ship and do some upgrades or get some small boost money if you spent it all on a new ship so you don't have enough for trading.

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Theyd have to make the maxes a lot higher than 5 million/500k, I can make that in a few hours and I havent really put in an inordinate amount of time "grinding", but something like that wouldnt bother me. As Ive said while I will buy cosmetic stuff, Id never buy credits or ships, but I dont have a problem with other people doing so.

Lot higher I do not agree with. That would make it pay to win. And please don't use the argument that getting better ships doesn't give u an advantage, it most certainly does. Bigger ships give u bigger profits and its a ride from there. If someone can just afford a python or other ship from nothing, they can instantly start making 1millionCR from normal trade runs in 2 or less round trips.

 

[Windscreen Smudge]

This is great.
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"I won't be the nutjob buying it so I don't care."
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Yeah... You'll care when suddenly every game design decision is focused around how to maximize the profits from those microtransactions. DB's just one man, FD is a corporation interested in growth. Wait and see who wins that fight.

 

[Sandwich247]

First of all pay to win doesn't mean that you pay money and complete the game. In games like Eve online people may argure that it's not pay to win because of skill and all of that but I say it is pay to win.

If I had just gotten paid a pretty large sum of money from an imaginary job that I don't have, I could then buy a bunch of credits in game. I would then buy the best ship available, all the best weapons available a bunch of cargo space and all teh counter measures I could ever desire. I would then be blasting noobs to kingdom come because they would all be in sidewinders with the starting weapons and I'd be in an anaconda with more than enough missiles to restart the cold war. And then end it again.

Several big Youtubers agree that if a developer brings in a monetary way to get in-game cash (and as such, end game gear), the devs then are able to make the prospect of making money far, far harder than it is now so it would mean that more people will spend more money buying credits that are more useless.

I think it's a bad idea in my opinion.

 

[philux]

So what you're saying is that you think the game is so broken that you don't see the problem of putting in another game-breaking feature. I disagree but, ok...

Yeah, fairness in multiplayer is intentionally broken by FD, i.e., they designed multiplayer such that it violates several aspects of competitive gaming (e.g. instancing w/ other players based on user-preferences).
At least CR for RL cash (hopefully) helps to fund more (single-player) content for better longevity. So FD should allow everyone to buy as much in-game credits, ships, upgrades, etc. as they want.

 

[StephenB]

I don't like micro-transactions in general, they have their uses but it's very limited. In a game like Elite where so much is economy based, allowing players to buy money and anything they desire from the get go is a bad idea in my opinion.

If the main reason for people wanting micro-transactions is to help keep FD funded then maybe Micro-transactions should be added but made specifically for those who are doing it for FD's benefit; For instance if someone wants to buy 100Million Credits it should cost around £300. This way players get the money they want and FD receive a nice lump sum of cash for improvements.

I only support micro-transactions that do not have any affect on other players or the economy of the game.

 

[Dabba]

This is great.
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"I won't be the nutjob buying it so I don't care."
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Yeah... You'll care when suddenly every game design decision is focused around how to maximize the profits from those microtransactions. DB's just one man, FD is a corporation interested in growth. Wait and see who wins that fight.

Yawn. Slippery slope arguments like that are lazy. FD is not going to turn into EA overnight because they let some people that don't have time to play the game 8 hours a day pay to fly the ship they want.

Make it extraordinarily expensive so that its not commonplace and it only benefits everyone.

 

[Bigcheese]

Once a game starts whaling, it goes downhill fast. It starts being designed around it and mechanics that encourage purchases become more and more prevalent.

This game isn't free, it would be incredibly greedy to sell a P2W game at normal price.

Yawn. Slippery slope arguments like that are lazy. FD is not going to turn into EA overnight because they let some people that don't have time to play the game 8 hours a day pay to fly the ship they want.

It's inevitable and multiple developers have come out and said it's impossible to support those kind of mechanics without compromising the game. When you do this, you are literally undermining your own design.

Elite is based entirely on credits, if you flood the game with them, other things end up getting adjusted. And on and on it goes.

Common sense.

 

[Alpha087]

Coming from someone who has 0 interest in PvP and will likely never play Open Play for anything other than messing around once in a while; Part of me absolutely despises the idea of paying real money for credits. The other part of me want some way to be able to give the developers money and support this game so that we could a walking in ships/stations/on planets expansion in the future, other than skins for ships that I don't use or t-shirts that I don't want.

Though there is also so much to even buy with credits at the moment. Buying everything you wanted could kill a lot of the driving force for playing for a lot of people.