I went on the depo page to check something and I saw this. Get rid of that. The last thing you should tell a new player is "Oh you don't know what you are doing? Ok, here give us $40 and we will give you more stuff that you have no idea what to do with. You will still be lost but at least you will have stuff." If anything you should make it a link to a guide of some kind to help get players through. Not give someone an initial impression that the game is just out to squeeze every cent it can out of you.
Ya you aren't going to be able to change how a company makes money and its a money ploy that works. Money keeps the world going and this is a good way to make money. Its between in your face and subtlety which is perfect. I support SOE doing this since it garauntees them the ability to make money and keep the game up. If the game doesn't make enough money, it gets shut down and we don't want that do we?
Yeah but it is just predatory in nature. At least have it link to a guide and then have the packages. Don't just try to trick clueless people or give people the idea that the only way to play the game is to pay. With that you just cause more problems and can gain a sleazy reputation.
EA doesn't care about its reputation but heck they earn a lot of money and those guys who hate, they'll buy their product anyway. As soon as that customer makes the decision to buy the product, you win since unless you gave permissions of refunds to customers. You keep the money he/she spent. A clean, non cheating business model generates you revenue, but a cheating business model with lots of strings attached give you even more money. The more the better in the eyes of corporations. Your nothing but the vessel that contains the money, and they want you to keep giving them money. It is predatory but thats business, its harsh but its smart. Survival of the fittest.
Doesn't work when you have a dying game that has several bugs and server side issues. At that point you need the good reputation and on PC where consumers tend to be more informed on average you have to be very careful even more so in the F2P market where people get a feel for the game and if they don't get a good first impression they will go find a different F2P game. SOE doesn't have the reputation of EA who can get away with the stuff they do because they advertise like crazy to people who buy games off hype. All that message does for new players is tell them. "Buy this or go **** yourself" and they will just uninstall the game and go play Team Fortress which the only thing there is to buy is hats and you can get them off the market to 40 cents a pop and look fancy and have fun.
Wait I forget to mention one point that debunks everything you just said sadly. Sony owns SOE. Basically meaning if Sony wants to, they can disband SOE deeming the investment unworthy and move remaining resources to a place where it actually does something, which is the PS4 and there is their biggest cash cow. PS2 will either get killed or sold to another company but if they stick to the game plan then PS2 will be killed on PC and ported onto the PS4. Even if SOE just fails tomorrow, Sony doesn't care since they have a stockpile of cash. They invested into SOE to see how they would do on the PC market and show everyone that Sony can make PC games and support them. Game dies, SOE is shocked but Sony is like meh, we'll try out something else or go back to the old Playstation 4.
Doesn't really debunk it. Honestly it just explains the situation. If they want to kill their game then so be it. Hell if they sell off the rights and Valve gets hold of them then we would have an amazing Planetside. It would be Planetside 2 episode 1. It would take forever to come out but once it is out it will be amazing and loved by everyone and I will buy a fancy hat. Also you seem to be justifying a predatory tactic by saying "They hold the power. Thou shall not question the lords!" When that is what you should do with every company. Call them out when they are doing something that is a problem. I'm not saying to get rid of the starter packs. I am just saying don't advertise them as if they will make a player any less lost. At least put a sodding guide if you are willing to admit the game is confusing as hell to new players.
I think its a hilariously awesome marketing strategy tbh but this game needs to better deliver information to new players on making decisions on what to do and what to unlock instead of making it a painful trial and error process that is what we have now,a COACHING program is so needed in this game right now, basically noobie outfits a player can opt to join automatically upon leaving the tutorial or character creation that are especially designed to teach new players about the game so that they could later stay in the outfit or leave it to find a new one once they get the flow of the game.
