Account level unlock money grab

You forgot to add to it the fact that PS2 isn't being improved, it's stagnating while they simply find more ways to milk the remaining loyalists of their money, guns and bugs from patch to patch, free nerfs to the weapons that I've *paid* for, and so on.

And we come to the forums to be told by fellow gamers that we should feel privaleged and indebted to SOE for the table scraps that they've given us. That we are freeloaders and expecting too much if we don't want to pay what they feel is reasonable.

Speak for yourself, I never thought that.

Many of us are not part of this "we" you presumed to use. I assumed they were going to do exactly as they are, which I deem perfectly reasonable.

-Vorthian

its buffling how many people can read but not comprehend...

And yet you misuse the phrase "money grab".

Implementing account-wide unlocks for common items is an added value to an existing product. It may increase cash flow, but not all increases in cash flow are money grabs. A money grab does not add value (for example, those cheesy sequels to movies of questionable quality).

And as a PS1 Veteran who loved it since the launch of the game, I can honestly say that the P2P business model was part of its failing. The game itself was great, but the game needs a high population to stay great. That business model couldn't retain a high enough pop. Most FPS gamers were not used to paying monthly to play a game. Back in 2003, the P2P model was pretty much just an MMORPG thing. You think PS2 would succeed as a 2012 launch with a P2P business model where F2P is becoming so dominant and even most RPG gamers aren't willing to pay per month anymore?

F2P is the only way PS2 was ever going to work in these times. Has the video game industry gotten pretty bad over the past decade? Definitely, but I'd be much less worried about the truly F2P business models that still leaves it up to the player and more concerned about the ridiculous practice of Pre-Orders and publishers and developers making demands of the consumer based on nothing but blind faith and deception, such as Aliens: CM as the most recent and shining example. At least with games like PS2 and LoL, I know exactly what I'm getting before I pay for it, and I could just get it for free if I'm willing to be patient.

well its still an improvement, plus nor every one plays all 3 factions

So SOE is evil for having double and triple SC days, because that's calculated to get people to buy more SC? Daily sales and bundles are also evil then, because that's yet another ploy to get you to spend money. I suppose if they permanently reduce SC price by 90% for everything, you'll say that's a money grab because they're just trying to get you to spend your money instead of certs.

I guess that's the only logical choice. We should demand that all content be free and we just donate as much or as little as we want to the devs.

Yes, because the merging of servers is indicative that this game has a high population.

Oh, and no, I don't think that PS2 would survive as a P2P game, but that isn't because of the model, it's because the game isn't much more than a large scale shooting gallery with no goals and no meta game.

You need quality to survive in the P2P market, you simply need accessibility to survive in the F2P market, it's really not comparable, especially not involving this game.

"We would like items purchased with Station Cash to be unlocked across all characters on the account that can utilize them. This change would be retroactive to prior purchases."

Please explain to me how you thought you would get a free Lasher and Jackhammer if you bought an MCG. You must have read the above from SOE and added your own wishful thinking because they never implied anything of the sort.

While you're at it, please explain how SOE adding value to your purchase with these account level unlocks is a money grab. They are giving you something you didn't have before and asking for nothing in return. If anything, they are removing a potential money source for themselves by doing this.

It amazes me how people can substitute rational thought and reasonable expectations for unjustified rage and narcissism.

Getting faction equivalent items is something I strongly disagree with. That is not what we all payed for when we bought these items.

However, I think it is a scandalous moneygrab when we have near-identical items being released on all sides and labeled "faction specific". Prime examples are the Fully Automatic Shotguns, which all have identical stats, bar that VS have that token slower velocity and no bullet drop, and they should have clearly been an NS weapon. Another prime example is the new Pump Action Shotguns, which are the same thing.
I think in these cases, the weapon should be made an NS weapon. That's my opinion on SOE and their "moneygrabbing" tactics. They have too many weapons that are purely identical but are labelled as "faction specific".
It could be argued that it makes it easier to revamp weapons to be more specific to the faction in future... but you have dozens of weapons which fulfill almost no role and don't sufficiently fill any niche. It's really ridiculous.

PS2 population is fine. Think.

What people need to remember is that this isn't a utopia. What's a money grab from one perspective is income for food to another. My workplace would LOVE to get my work for free, but for me its livelihood.

As I was taught, NOTHING in the world is free when you REALLY break it down. This especially true for the "Free-to-Play" genre.

Annnnd, now I miss the fact that nanite systems didn't put those out. The Sweeper and Punisher were some of my favorite weapons in PS1.

You unappreciative cry babies are unreal. First of all they stated from the very beginning that faction specific weapons would only be accessible to that faction. At no time did they ever insinuate that unlocking a weapon would give you access to other factions weapons.
Why would you even assume that? The Lasher, MCG, and Jackhammer are three different weapons entirely. The developers spent allot of time and money developing each unique weapon.

There are allot of weapons, particularly vehicle weapons (which add up in cost the fastest), which are not faction specific. They could have been greedy and not allowed any weapons to be accessed account wide. I am probably getting 10-12 weapons unlocked for different factions which adds up to allot of money.

At the end of the day it is a free to play MMO with a high development cost, as that development (as well as maintenance) never stops. They make their money from selling in game items. The way they handled account wide unlocks has been more than fair and was handled exactly as they described. If you unlock a weapon, you get that weapon on any character as long as it isn't restricted by factions. Why people thought weapons would be bundled together with different weapons from other factions is beyond me.

If you are let down by this it is your own fault for making dumb assumptions. You remind me of spoiled children. The more SOE gives, the more you ***** and cry that it isn't enough. Why don't you point at yourself next time you want to call some one greedy, instead of pointing it at a business that it doing allot to help out its unappreciative customers.

Agreed. I said it before the details came out, anyone who though they'd unlock anything other than the common pool items, as well as any faction specific items you had unlocked (for that faction) were deluding themselves.

This gives you the option to start fresh on the same faction on another server. Or another faction with the common pool vehicle weapons unlocked. That's still a huge benefit seeing as only the MBT and ESF are faction specific. Cash grab? SOE didn't even have to do this and could just have forced you to fork over cash for server transfers... Think about that for a second.

Hello

I bought Skyrim for PS3 yesterday. Today I walked in to the store and said I'd like to get my free copy of Skyrim on Xbox, since I already bought the same game once, I figured I should be able to get it for free hence forth where ever I see it. The clerk looked at me like I just ran out of a nut house.

Money grab? The term money grab implies that the person "money grabbing" is taking money from you, a.k.a. "stealing". PS2 has not stolen any money from me.

This game needs to make money to continue development. You can play this game for free. You can spend a little bit of $$ and improve your characters if you like as well, but it is not needed to enjoy the game.

Example: $60 for retail game + $14.95 monthly = $239.40 for the first year.

Typically a game using this payment model will release an expansion every year.

Example of second year: $14.95 monthly + $20-$60 expansion = $199.40 - $219.40

Considering the millions of lemmings that played WoW it would seem that many gamers have no issues paying this kind of money for a game. Yet you don't need to spend anywhere near that, and are not forced to spend ANY money in this game.

Would you rather they had WoW's payment model?

Full AA title = $50.

Looks who doesn't know the value of money.

$20 for 1% content, work it out.

Quit ******** or leave the game if you are not happy. Things to keep in mind

- High development and maintenance cost of a free to play MMO

- Double and triple station cash sales making items ridiculously cheep. I pay $0.83 to $2.33 per weapon.

- Sale bundles. Now I pay $0.41 to $1.16 per weapon.

- Did I mention it was a free to play MMO?

- Games cost $60 normally, and an MMO often REQUIRES a sub. For that $60 you can get allot. If you buy triple SC you can get $180 worth of SC for that cost and arn't required to pay any money monthly.

- You don't need every weapon out there. If you are trying to purchase every weapon and complaining about the cost then maybe you should evaluate your line of thinking.

- Most people play one faction primarily. Faction rivalry and loyalty is one of the great things about this game. Sure people have alts but there is no reason to sink a ton of money into them, especially with the non faction specific account unlocks. This really should not be an issue.

- Oh, and it is a free to play MMO with a constant development and maintenance cost.

The ones who are going to complain about this are not putting things into perspective, making dumb assumptions, and are getting greedy.

This I disagree with, PS1 failing was the endless cycle of nerfing and boosting. Weapons went from useless, to godly, back to useless, than to meh. Add in BFRs and the games fate was sealed. People will pay if the value is there. I would rather pay a monthly fee for Planetside 2, if the whole game was there, then what they have here.