This might sound strange, but the reason I don't buy ARX has nothing to do with a lack of money to spend on it, or a lack of desire to support FDev. Honestly, I have considered buying ARX many times over the years, but one thing has always kept me from doing it.
The achievement factor.
Here's the thing; I have earned enough ARX to buy myself a crazy amount of things. I've bought dozens of skins. I've bought weapon and engine colors. I've bought a fleet carrier layout, even.
And having done that without buying any ARX is a pretty significant achievement. When I tell people that, I get amusing reactions that always make me laugh. Is it healthy to have earned tens of thousands of ARX playing the same game? Sane? I fired my therapist for asking such questions.
But anyway, if I ever buy ARX, I lose that. Just BUYING a skin or ship kit isn't particularly interesting, and it's pretty rare for anyone to stop and look at your ship, and even if they do, they really aren't going to care, because again, there's nothing behind it. Almost anyone can afford to spend a few bucks to get enough to afford pretty much any singular skin or whatever they want.
Basically, who cares?
Compare and contrast to a game like Runescape. In Runescape, a Party Hat has no statistical benefit. It's purely an aesthetic option, but ingame it's worth BILLIONS of gold, because it's rare and therefore valuable. You see someone wearing a party hat, you know they've really played the game and struggled to get it. But if you sold party hats in the store for 3 dollars apiece, they'd be completely worthless and nobody would care.
Similar things occur in almost any game with rare or difficult-to-acquire gear. All of that gear instantly loses value if you can outright buy it, unless the individual in question DIDN'T buy it. Ironically, the one thing that saves Elite from FEELING pay to win with the ability to buy the prebuilt ships is the fact that credits are so easily acquired, the ability to own a Python Mk2/etc is already functionally valueless. Having one is roughly equivalent to having a skin or ship kit; it really doesn't matter.
I don't know what the answer is, or even if there is one. If you COULDN'T earn ARX, I still wouldn't care about skins and kits. The only thing that would make me care is if you could only earn things, and the challenge involved would need to be hard enough to be worth respecting.
But anyway, that's why I don't buy ARX. Hopefully that helps.
The achievement factor.
Here's the thing; I have earned enough ARX to buy myself a crazy amount of things. I've bought dozens of skins. I've bought weapon and engine colors. I've bought a fleet carrier layout, even.
And having done that without buying any ARX is a pretty significant achievement. When I tell people that, I get amusing reactions that always make me laugh. Is it healthy to have earned tens of thousands of ARX playing the same game? Sane? I fired my therapist for asking such questions.
But anyway, if I ever buy ARX, I lose that. Just BUYING a skin or ship kit isn't particularly interesting, and it's pretty rare for anyone to stop and look at your ship, and even if they do, they really aren't going to care, because again, there's nothing behind it. Almost anyone can afford to spend a few bucks to get enough to afford pretty much any singular skin or whatever they want.
Basically, who cares?
Compare and contrast to a game like Runescape. In Runescape, a Party Hat has no statistical benefit. It's purely an aesthetic option, but ingame it's worth BILLIONS of gold, because it's rare and therefore valuable. You see someone wearing a party hat, you know they've really played the game and struggled to get it. But if you sold party hats in the store for 3 dollars apiece, they'd be completely worthless and nobody would care.
Similar things occur in almost any game with rare or difficult-to-acquire gear. All of that gear instantly loses value if you can outright buy it, unless the individual in question DIDN'T buy it. Ironically, the one thing that saves Elite from FEELING pay to win with the ability to buy the prebuilt ships is the fact that credits are so easily acquired, the ability to own a Python Mk2/etc is already functionally valueless. Having one is roughly equivalent to having a skin or ship kit; it really doesn't matter.
I don't know what the answer is, or even if there is one. If you COULDN'T earn ARX, I still wouldn't care about skins and kits. The only thing that would make me care is if you could only earn things, and the challenge involved would need to be hard enough to be worth respecting.
But anyway, that's why I don't buy ARX. Hopefully that helps.
