Sad that most people are concerned with disproving a minor point anyone says rather than considering the actual discussion. Yay forum quest!
They are literally a convenience fee... you are paying a fee to save time for yourself. There is absolutely nothing "mandatory" about heroic characters and that you couldn't gain for yourself with time invested. Just because it was described as such doesn't mean it isn't the truth. That's like arguing that the pipe with residue on it is your "tobacco" pipe when the cop questions what he found.
Personally I love the idea of a krono. Have been someone who use to actually designate a significant amount of my time aside just for farming so I could buy krono's and play off of them I realized EQ was becoming more like a job and I was farming just to play the game and not actually playing the game for enjoyment. Now that I just play and let the plat fall where it does it is nice to get a krono here and there for just doing something I enjoy. Krono's also help out new and returning players so they can afford to buy gear without having to go through the mindless farming process at lower levels just to enjoy the game. Sure there are the negatives that come with it such as the RMT crowd that is ok with setting up scripted bot groups to try and make money but they are the minority or at least I hope and honestly they were around long before the krono because they knew they could make money just on plat alone. At least the krono supports DBG so we can all continue to play and enjoy this game.
Kronos would be fine if player characters couldn't trade them. Then they would be a great implementation. The issue is that they allow real world money to be traded in game via kronos.
Fair point. I guess I cannot imagine an implementation of kronos that doesn't do drastically more damage to the game than good.
It seems to me like Kronos are exclusively a TLP problem though. On Xegony at least they are never in the Bazaar because their value exceeds the maximum asking price in trader mode. I don't really see people asking Krono for things or looking to sell them. Of course other Live servers may be different though.
They just monetized that trade for themselves, it was inevitably going to happen so they may as well take a cut. Whether they want to openly admit that doesn't matter, in the long run I'd be willing those sales go a long way towards keeping the game up.
Are you saying krono's do more harm than good for the game itself? If this is the case I could argue that they do significantly more good than bad. For starters RMT people have been around long before the krono. What the krono does is gives all players the ability to turn their in game playing time into real world gains. Now for most these gains are simply a month here and there of free playing time by exchanging any extra plat they accumulate into a krono via a trade. Before this those who had zero interest in the RMT world but had an extra plat stash would simply just have a bunch of pixilated coins that really held little value to them. Also krono's provide financial support for the game so further development can occur and it helps to keep the lights on for everyone. Before this the RMT crowd would simply just take all their plat to 3rd party sites and sell it for real world money. The average joe with extra plat but does not want to risk getting disciplined loses out and the company loses out with the old system. The krono at least provides a measure of financial success in game for those who are not here for profit but don't mind turning their EQ funds into something more tangible.
None of that addresses how kronos rule/destroy TLP economies. I Agree with you, krono do have their good aspects. However, the current implementation of the krono can be quite destructive to tlp economies (fortunately kronos are only involved in chase loot sales on live servers).
Kronos totally took a shady product like buying plat on potential scam sites and brought it in house and in game. Regarding pay to win in the cash shop, there isn't many items that you MUST buy or else you can't be good. The sub fee would be considered pay to win in the strictest interpretations of the term. My opinion? Kronos and the cash shop are fine. Content and customer support are what's wrong with the game.
Aren't you the person that wants to nerf rogue's ability to pick up ground collects because they were going to throw the market into chaos by charging tons for them? As for Kronos, I hardly ever mess with them, unless there is something I really want and the person is selling them for kronos. Then I will buy kronos in game with plat and then buy that item I want. However, it has been quite a while since I have wanted anything that I haven't used them in a while. I also sub my account for a year at a time. If I wanted to get serious about it, I could buy up a years worth of krono in game and use that to sub, but I prefer that DBG, even with all their faults, gets my money so they can keep paying people to do stuff.
Anything that speeds up the time investment.. is a pay to win.. indirect.. please tell anyway a way to invent or create more time. I really want to know? So if said item mods my rate of return with a time mod.. is a win. Did I pay for the mod?
Kronos has been nice for a person like me who has returned to EQ with his wife after 15 years away. Yes we're on a TLP. We were starting with nothing and we dropped some cash on a few Krono and sold them to get some basic gear for our characters. It's been a huge help, especially since as these TLP go on there isn't a lot of people to level with.
The harsh reality is a lot of those RMT people would still be there even without the krono. Unless there was a TLP server with the reverse of FV rules where everything was no trade those guys would just sell actual in game items for real world money or for strait up plat and then sell the plat online. This is what they were doing back in the good ol' days which is why the krono came into existence imo. Sure some people would still just sell loot rights but their window for a sale would be pretty short and if they are not able to get sales within that window you would see a lot of these people just pack up and move onto another MMO to try and make a living or what ever it is they are attempting to do.
What if kronos were server bound? That would fix alot of issues with them. You could still trade them to other players, and you wouldn't have the case of people farming on one server to bring the kronos to another, ect.
I don't know that even this would stop anything. There are people that jump over from one server to another (not just live to a TLP server but from one TLP server to another) to mass farm from the start to make krono's. The ones that do it simply to fund EQ could just burn them there and their objective is still accomplished in terms of "free" playing time. The RMT sites that sell krono's online would just make sections for each server. Servers with less sales might see some benefit as the bots might move to other servers with more demand but this will probably result in the servers that have a higher demand ending up with more bots. You might also start to see more in game items listed for sale (I have not looked at those sites since LON closure because that was one method I used to help determine the value of my loot cards) if this is not a thing currently. In all honesty as long as there are any items of value in a game like this that can be traded there will be people looking to make real world money off said items.
I really think it would slow it down. Crossing servers allows value from one server to move to another. If kronos earned on tlp servers couldn't be spent on live servers, the krono value of items would decrease (Since a krono would have less utility). Likewise, chase loot prices on live servers would drop since the krono mines on tlp servers no longer effect live servers. This would decrease the overall demand for mining kronos since they lose some utility, and one server wouldn't influence the economy of another.
