Greed or Busniess? Why if you truly care about planetside's future you would give a little

This game is falling into a trap you often see with sales. Poor sales managers who think that inflating prices will make better margins. I'd be willing to bet that if they drastically cut the price of goods across the board, more people would feel comfortable sinking money into the game. But right now, $7 for a single digital gun that might be nerfed at any moment is a stupid investment.

I've spent over 10k SC since launch (mostly cosmetic) and have plans to spend a bit more. However there is zero chance of my wallet opening until I get more info on the upcoming universal unlock. I understand it is a complicated feature, but there is no reason for keeping us in the dark w.r.t. the details. This is a major sticking point for many of us and is the highest voted feature. Therefore the ball is in SOE's court. You want my money?... Make with the details!

They are supposed to give us details this month actually, I to have been waiting for this.

+1 for Colt. If SoE want money first and then create a COMPLETE game they need to try a kickstarter. But who is going to put money into a kickstarter from a Billion dollar Corp? No one. Many in this thread have made all the same points I would have made. Why in the **** should I feel sorry for SOE, a Billion dollar corp, c'mon really?

I have posted this before in other threads. How is this business model cost effective. Would not have a upgraded/modernized PS1 with the same subscription pay method be less cost effective then what we have now, a generic FPS with a six month plan to fix everything. IMO Smed should be fired for wasting so much time, effort, and money for going with the latter. IMO SoE could have made more money with less problems by going with and upgraded/modernized PS1. Not this broke @ss generic FPS with no balance, meta-game etc. What company in their right minds alienates their return customers, just to hope to gain new ones. Its like saying I am a Mustang guy, and the new stang is coming out and I am going to get. But when you get it, it turns out to be a effing Yugo with badging. I still can not understand why SOE has done this.

chances are you will never see that person again, but if you did, would you do the right thing and give them the benefit of the doubt that they will thank you?

I have bought stuff from the game in the past, but I'll not be buying more SC or subscribing again until unlocks are account wide or they start making more of an effort with the guns (aka more actually different skins and not just an upgraded or non-nerfed version of a previous weapon)..

Now if that means the company goes belly up or the game does not make enough money to be kept alive or from being put in maintenance mode only; well, then it's because the product is not good enough and not because 'I should keep it alive'.

I'd love to support SOE with my money, but I just cannot do this because my main class is severely crippled:

- Infiltrator armor is glowing in darkness. Light bulbs and neon cords all over it. This is stupid and gamebreaking.
- Infiltrator cloak is perfectly audible at 90-100 meters. It is louder than a jetpack! It is louder than some guns! It is much easier to infiltrate as a light assault these days.
- 'Scout tool' is anti-scout. It discloses my presence to all the enemies with loud shot sound, loud beeps and a giant light bulb.
- Everybody plays on low settings because they can see cloaked infs as if they were not even cloaked.

Seems like developers actively discourage the use of intellect and favor mouse 'skills'. Can't support this with my money, sorry.

I'd have to agree to the passion behind this post. There's just something frustrating for someone who runs up to a vehicle pad in the middle of a battle only to find that it's been hacked, or running up to the ramparts to take care of that pesky Reaver, only to find that the anti-air system is offline. I sacrifice a lot of time (not to say a lot of experience and cert points) running around hacking terminals, blowing up generators, avoiding getting killed by lucky people who run across my position (if you do it right, they might think what they saw on the screen is a glitch), and killing engineers that keep trying to fix said generators. All of this is nothing more than the normal special ops that would normally be done in a war. The armor does need to be fixed. The cloaking sound needs to be fixed as well; WAY too loud! Might as well not even have it (and I've done that occasionally...all it does is give your position away). And it would be nice to have the experience tweaked so that if you've been blowing up stuff for an hour and haven't died yet, perhaps some commensurate experience and cert points might come your way, if for nothing else than giving an attaboy for being a really patient and sneaky bas...uh...stalker.

Few of the posters including OP in this thread act like we are talking about some new small indy company trying to make ends meet.
It's SoE yo, SONY........
So much naivete itt.

SOE would have had more money off me if they hadn't made their prices ridiculous and had concentrated on designing better maps that promoted more fighting across the map and included better XP for playing your role and not just killing things.

I'm excited about PS1 tbh and hope it becomes F2P soon - i'd spend money on it because from what I've seen and read its a far better game.

Spent $30 something so far, with $20 of that on the 3x SC deal.

Woah imagine that, $30 bucks on what I've wanted while still being able to have every update, game content added and improvement in the game and being able to try out and see every thing for the foreseeable future without having had to spend money on things I didn't want. No $60 bucks for the game, plus $15 or $20 for a crapload of DLCs while still having to ******* grind for everything in game anyway. Weird right?

I'm not saying this game doesn't have issues but people are being incredibly entitled, especially when you don't need to spend a CENT.

It's the prices. You either have people that don't spend anything, or people who go balls out with $100+ just because of how bloody expensiver EVERYTHING is! If they lowered prices people would buy in bigger quanities and more profit overall would be had, i'm almost sure.

This! Gun prices are ridiculously expensive. I spend £10 on a expansion pack on a game and I get guns, new player models (with free skins lol), new vehicles, new maps and they think I'll pay what they're asking for one gun that doesn't even fire as good as it's counterparts in other games?

Isn't the Sundy horn the same price? dear oh dear.

I'm not buying anything now. I was going to wait until SC tripled but now I doubt I'll buy it simply because after GU2, the game fundamentally changed in a way for the worse (I'm not alone, I have about 15 mates who play(ed) this and we're all frustrated with it, all after GU2 and with the way SOE implement things (nerf AND buff??? Stealth changes???) Yeah I think I'll keep my money for other things that are priced reasonably.

they need to get their butts working on paid services...

server transfer
faction transfer
character rename
character regender
certification reset

they're really losing out not having these in game already, they should have been launch features.

not only are players overly stuck with their decisions in game right now, but they are losing insane amounts of money every day these features aren't available. they probably could have doubled their profits having these in since launch.

I seriously think you need to evaluate what entitled means.
Sure - it's the insult of the ages when people complain about content quality in - for example - computer games, basically making it a 'no, you' or 'n00b' type insult, void of all factual meaning.

There's absolutely nothing entitled about not wanting to - for example - spend 7$ on gun in a computer game and still expect a working base product. It'd be much more entitlement in reverse.
Many people would properly buy more if
A) Account wide unlocks.
B) Price was adjusted.
C) The quality was better
or any other reasons.
That's called being a consumer - not being entitled.
If the devs wanted a monthly fee, they'd have a monthly fee (which you can buy as well)

And that fact that other products cost more does not excuse absolutely anything. You cannot clean yourself in others filth.


Entitled.... yeah, right Time to make a new meme insult.

See you're not looking at the context of my post and the context of that $7 gun. Do I think $7 bucks for a ******* digital gun makes sense? HELL NO.

But I didn't have to ******* spend $60 bucks for the game, I don't have to every buy $15-$20 DLCS for new content and I can always try and see everything they ever put into the game for FREE. I can comfortaby spend w/e the hell I want. Would you have rather spent the $60 + $20 on the updates they did? like a PS3/XBOX game? and STILL grind for attachments, etc? **** that, I wouldn't have even started playing the game if it wasn't free or even forced some subscription model. Because they don't get upfront money ($60) it forces the devs to continuely improve the game because their focus isn't just new accounts (initial purchase), it's people spending money throughout the life time of the game. They have to try MUCH harder to get a few bucks out of people, much less the $60 plus w/e DLCs plus subscriptions other games do it like. It forces them to pay attention to ALL players not just NEW players. At least as a consumer I have a CHOICE here on what I want for my money and I can also choose not to spend any at all. And because I don't have to spend money I don't have to feel like I need to invest a bunch of time in order to make it worth what I spent.

So yeah, you're entitled.
You know what? Because you didn't have to INVEST any money into the game! There's a ******** of games out there, play something else then!

I never said the game was perfect. I have a BUNCH of posts on this forum about stuff I don't like, even about the weapons. And it doesn't mean things don't need fixing or changing. But I wasn't ******* forced to spend money on the game, especially on what I didn't want.

You can also be smart with your SC and wait for 3X days and then use them only on deals. A gun no longer is $7 bucks then! Wooah didn't realize that did you?

Yep, steam is a pretty good place to see this done well from what I've read.

I will never spend 7$ on a single digital item out of principle, the prices are high enough as to be bordering on offensive. Considering how many weapons have the same skins and in a few cases are nearly identical stat wise to other weapons, it's really a bad joke.

One of the best examples I think is semi-autos. If you compare the 99SV to the KSR-35, they are practically the same exact gun with different scope options. So in this case it seems to be 7$ for scopes that should really just be available to the starter weapon in the first place. Anyone paying attention to this kind of thing I'd think would be put off by this.

Actually - I only buy SC on triple days, but that's a sale, and not the standard price.

However, the cost of the product itself is does not influence whether people are "entitled"because they don't want to buy certain goods.
The fact that you might pay 60$ for another product which is terrible has nothing to do with this situation.
In fact - it is much more in reverse of 'why the heck did you spend 60$ on that other game?''

The developers are producers that wants us to spend money on their product.
If the product does not live up to consumers standard - then money is not spend. It has nothing to do with entitlement. It has to do with consumerism.

It's not up to the consumers to support the game in it's hardship - it's up to the producers to make a product consumers are willing to support. And many people are already playing something else; that does not bring any money to this product. The only ones that can entice a consumer to spend money is the developers. And if they fail, it's their fault, not the consumers.
Would I play this game if they charged subscription? Doubtful. Will I buy more SC in the current state? No. Not even on with a triple offer. Do I still play this game, yes.
And being a consumer of this product, I still have expectations regarding the quality of the product, especially because they've made this forum for us to talk about such things. Especially because that quality is directly related to how much I'm willing to pay further on.
That does not make me entitled. It simply makes me a consumer following the pricing structure SOE have decided.

And your final remarks plus your overall reaction just underlines this is not about 'entitlement' but essentially that 'entitled' is just 'n00b' type insult. So I suspect the actual proper response from me would be ... 'no, you are!!11!!one!!!eleven'.
At least that would be in context with your ranting.

no, you are!!11!!one!!!elevenno, you are!!11!!one!!!elevenno, you are!!11!!one!!!eleven

I understand your point but I don't think you follow what I am saying. I really had no need to spend any money, I chose to. This is one of the best things about the game market now. So many free2play games are out there now, even indie titles and casual game apps. You have to realize they spent a couple million making this game (as most AAA titles do) so they will try to make as much money back as possible. Now, that isn't your issue, it's their issue. But that is why they have such a pricing scheme. Now you as a consumer have to decide what is valuable to you. If you choose to stick with the game, then it's time or time+money. If you don't like the game, you can always leave and come back later because you didn't have to spend a dime so you're not locked in. If you don't like how they run the game at all, you vote with your wallet, as in, you don't give any more and just move on to something else. I can play this game until years from now they close down the servers and everything they ever made for it would still have been available for me (aside from cosmetics). You don't have to follow the pricing structure from SOE at all or even think about doing so because there are literally tons of games out there. You have expectations about the game but if it doesn't meet those, it means you can ditch the game because nothing was forced on you. If you already put in money, then don't spend any more. You can see their Roadmap and then decide if you still want to invest your time and/or time+money.

Do you see how I prefer this model over having to have an initial investment, especially into one where I wouldn't of known the future direction? At least with this model I can really decide, as a consumer, if it has any value to me.

I write entitled because often gamers want AAA quality games but want the experience for free. Who wouldn't? And even if they did get it for free, they'd still take issue with it. Hell I've seen plenty of people, including friends pirate a game but go onto the forums and demand something.

I honestly feel like as a consumer, the overall package of what this game is and the model, is a good deal. If you start to talk about individual items, they aren't good deals. But the whole thing together is a really good deal for a gaming experience, especially for free.

But it is plain troll.
My troll sense tingled, so it must be a troll.

Everything else you said in that post was spot on.

I'd only like to add that its silly to blame the customer for your own failures in marketing. If those customers "are too stupid to play along" the error is to be found with the businessmen and marketing people.