New Weapon Cert Prices are an insult.

Were are thouse micro tansaction?
I can't find them, all i see is overpriced to the point were it looks like a ripoff...

Sadly I have to agree with most people who are complaining about the cert prices. I've been on PS2 since launch and all I can say is P2W is more and more obvious with Planetside 2. Prices use to coincide with the population, which from a revenue standpoint semi makes sense. But the bulk of players in this game that have already established and makeup a huge part of your player base have most if not all unlocks in the game and aren't effected. But basically forcing a free or fresh player to Sub or spend ridiculous amounts of time to get different weapons is crazy.

Most of us should have guessed when they altered an already implemented implant and resource system to more or less revolved around being a Sub to get the best benefits. Nothing wrong with subbing for a game, but if you're going to advertise this is a Free to play, please don't make every aspect about money. Go ask EA how that model works, they're notorious for changing their "Gaming Experience" to money based. And look how well their reputation is with the gaming community.

Why do they continue to use the F2P model? Because, this is a business, and share holders--read: investors--want scalable opportunity. A fixed subscription price is not scalable. In other words, if each player pays a fixed fee each month to play, then the game's profit margin is fixed.

With the F2P model using micro transactions, profit margins can be set and adjusted on individual items that players may buy, and players may spend as much money as they care to spend, as opposed to a fixed subscription fee. It is a risk/reward scenario. F2P is risky, because you're putting your game out there for free, but it gives you an opportunity to put those players into a market place where they can buy as much stuff as they want, which means more profit potential for share holders.

The F2P model is therefore the easiest way to get a title to market, but it requires the development company to satisfy share holders by developing more F2P games, because F2P games generally have a very short life cycle. They age very quickly, and players come and go very quickly. The company needs to make up for it in volume: more titles.

Cryptic, the company that developed Star Trek Online, is a master at this. This is why Perfect World Entertainment bought them when Atari jumped ship. Cryptic has developed an entire software suite to building F2P games. They won the rights from Wizards of The Coast to develop Neverwinter Nights for this reason, and the game uses canned crap from Cryptic's other titles. Players who play multiple Cryptic titles recognize them immediately.

The subscription model is by far the most stable way to run a game. All of the most long playing MMOs in history are subscription based. World of Warcraft and EVE stand out in particular, both games had moments like this in PlanetSide, where doom sayers insisted the game was dying. What has sustained them is their loyal communities who continue to support the game despite mistakes made by the development team.

well, 650 certs for lock-on that requires more than 2 hits to kill ESF... and NS Annihilator that has no dumb fire for 1000 certs..

The micro transactions are the Daybreak Cash prices. A 650 DBC item actually costs $6.50 at the base rate, with 100 DBC for $1. The more DBC you buy at a time, the cheaper it is.

The DBC $1 for 100 purchase denominations are:

• 500
• 1000
• 2000
• 2500

Now, when you buy 5,000 DBC you get about 111 DBC for a $1; you get more value. When you buy 10,000 DBC you're getting it at about 117 per $1. Rounding down.

These higher value options slightly affect the value of the in-game items, depending on how you buy your DBC.

What's important is that Daybreak has recognized their micro transactions were too expensive for the market, so they've come down in price. The cert cost increase is a little extra incentive to capitalize on those lower prices.

Now, as a supporter the DBC value is--for ease--calculated at the base rate (100 DBC for $1), but a part of that value is shunted into other perks. A supporter accrues certs much faster than a F2P player, and that stacks with boosts that you can get with your monthly DBC stipend. This helps--but doesn't completely--offset the cert cost increase for long time supporters like myself. So, I am being expected to spend more money on the game.

However, for new supporters (less than 6 months old) Daybreak has eliminated the support ranks. It used to be to get the 50% resource and cert bonus you had to buy a 6 month or 1 year subscription outright, or maintain a monthly subscription for 6 months. Not anymore. Now, if you were to buy a subscription today, you'd immediately get a benefit I've enjoyed since 2012 that took me 6 months to get. If I were a capitalist I'd be infuriated. Good thing I'm not.

Find a better pretense if you going to do it, League of legend is a good example for free to play model; are you going to say it's short life cycle ? What's they need to do is make people say shut up and take my money, not push a rope on their neck and say pay or die.

Do you ever think that not any game company to as you write ? many of them do and you know what, people push them into their blacklist, so they have a huge profit from that but they will not get a second chance to do it with the same group of people that learn their dirty model; new player come and leave then boycott them, they shut down that game and brought a new one and cycle continue like, 1. brought a game, 2. suck new player money, 3. shut down that game with maximum profit, 4. go back to step 1. Do you want to play a game from a company like that ? most of a game they brought never last long then 2 years no matter what genre of those game, shortest is around 6 months.

It's hardly a scam. I just outlined for you the business model. There's nothing hidden or shady about it.

I'm proud to support this game and always will be. Every time you login just make sure you understand that the game is free for you because supporters like me do what we do.

Yes, League of Legends has a very short life cycle. It's not even an original idea. It's based on a Warcraft III mod called Defense of the Ancients. I'm sure the players who play it have great fun, but it's not an FPS, and the game world is tiny. If you like lobby games where everything is matched up perfectly, then by all means go play it.

But, PlanetSide will always be a bigger game. It has a bigger world, and bigger fights, and rewards the skillful player, not necessarily the player who knows how to build a character and tweak stats.

Thank you master... can i take of the chains now? I have to pee...

That might be slightly biased because you aren't actually including staff/content ratios. Even limiting the revenue to Subscriptions alone, Planetside 2 has plenty of revenue to keep running and them some. It's the money they are trying to raise for pipeline games other than PS2. So no you aren't contributing to the game you're contributing to the company.

It's a money grab model and you can't argue otherwise.

Of course its a money grab. Nowhere have I said it wasn't a money grab, but investors don't just want steady profits, they want increasing profits. Basically, a company is expected to grow and expand, if it isn't growing and expanding then it is considered to be losing money.

Sure, Daybreak has plenty of operating capital, but they need to show their investors (Columbus Nova) that they are growing, and the best way to demonstrate that is to show increased profits. This is especially true since now Columbus Nova is expecting a return on its investment, not simply to own a profitable company.

Think of it as a loan. Columbus Nova has invested capital into Daybreak. In exchange, Columbus Nova gets a controlling share of the company. Daybreak must now boost profits enough to justify that investment. If they don't, then Columbus Nova will pull their money out, and Daybreak must find another buyer. If they can't, then they file Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and the servers get unplugged.

Having revenue isn't enough.

Seriously, this game no need to know how to build a character !? and do you ever play LoL ?
Well, g8 b8 m8.

Ohhhhhh poor DBG, i feel so sorry for them, i hope they don't starve because they can't buy enough caviar...

You don't understand business at all, if they go bankrupt it is because they ****** it up, not because people don't throw $$$ at them for doing nothing... but a loyal lapdog like you can't understand things like that.

No, you don't need to know how to build a character. You need to know how to aim well, how to overcome recoil, and now to play tactically. This isn't an MMORPG where the rookie starting equipment sucks. Quite the contrary. The rookie weapons in this game are extremely effective, some are even considered over powered (Orion, anyone?).

The certifications are nothing more than a way for you to specialize your game play. The core "stats" of your "character" remain unchanged. A Heavy Assault has the same hit points at BR1 as they do at BR100. Sure, they wear nanoweave effectively giving them a few more hitpoints, but this isn't like an RPG where you get more and more and more hitpoints with each level.

An Orion LMG hits the same at BR1 as it does at BR100. The only difference is that a certed player might have some extra optics and attachments for the weapon, which incidentally aren't that expensive cert wise.

Being a higher battle rank doesn't make you faster, or stronger. It means you have invested more cert points into more specialized equipment, allowing you fulfill a greater variety of roles. Yet, even at BR100 a rookie can still kill your a$$ with a beamer.

No, LoL doesn't play like that. At all. Rookies and higher level players are completely stratified, because in LoL higher level confers higher stats.

I dare say I've supplied far more information on the business side of things than you have. You're entitled to your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own facts.

And that's hilarious, you see? Because I'm a socialist.

Oh, and League of Legends isn't an MMO anymore than Diablo III is. It's a lobby battle arena. Big difference. An MMO is an open ended world that players can move through. LoL isn't that.

Think of LoL as an RPG version of Counter Strike, or World of Tanks. Those are lobby shooters, not MMOs.

No, you just spew neocon garbage, but i don't wont to get political here that's the wrong forum for that.

You are desperate that this game would cease to exist and that makes you spend money, i don't even know what to say to that it sounds stupid beyond believe. Especially after all the failures that this Company has done, it looks delusional to get to the point.

Money doesn't make games people make them, there are not many left even though i agree that the figure heads needed to go because of incompetence the CEO is still there, the biggest failure is still working and there wont be any positive change with said person in charge.

And we're done here, gentlemen. If BloodyG even knew what a neocon was he'd be a dangerous person. Now watch him go Google it.

Have a nice day.

fair enough. Its quite possible you dont like the ES stock weapomry, fir example you may hate the GAUSS saw but love the NS15 and anchor, so youd use the ns15 until you got the gun you wanted. thats why i buy ns guns