Smedly comments on Implant changes: "sorry but we are actually trying to make money"

Don't Panic ....

Theres a members sale on chargers today

So basically they have (now) gone P2W with them, beginning of the end tbh.

I'd have some respect if they'd actually been honest about it and not tried to slip it in, the whole T4/T5 thing makes more sense now though.

Implants are now (at the current drop rate) P2W, they only way most people can run them now is to buy chargers constantly.

I'm constantly out of charge now, since the change.

This is exactly where it is now, I have a boost, but no membership, spend plenty on the game, and I am constantly out of charge since the nerf to drop rate (basically a charger drops I have charge for a little while, then another chargers doesn't drop for ages - this might be being made worse by having to save for T4 implants initally, but even so (they could have changed to drop rate less initally). Just to be clear I could live with occasionally running out of charge if it were possible to turn them off, but anything more than 50% of the time out of charge - and it is way over that now - and always on is just P2W).

That is P2W, quite simply, you pay you get the benefits, you don't pay you don't. Insideous and downright cancerous to the game.

Basically this is what people feared Implants would be at their worst.

The bottom feeder end of the gaming market - F2P and Early Access.

Both deliver unfinished games that the developers expect the money up front before they deliver anything, then proceed to deliver very little over a very long timescale.

Same old same old, all this title has ever focussed on is the irrelevant and pointless.

Implants that were from day one of inception a load of old wank and now even more so as they have been turned into a 'premium' product.

Instead of making a game that people want and would happily spend money on because of the quality and content all they have is some empty husk of a gaming concept with gewgaws, shiny costume jewellery and paste gems stuck to it to tempt the magpies.

The successor of chess made with sequins, glitter, aluminium foil and used toilet roll centres.

3 months since I have bothered logging in I return only to see what is going on, and I am quite amazed that people still put time into this title despite the fustercluck that all the threads on this board indicate of it being so very, very, very fundamentally broken.

I really can't see ever bothering again, update after update of absolutely nothing.

Exactly, that is IMO P2W.

However, of course, some people (ridculously) define P2W as "you pay you cannot lose" (which is something no game ever has been or ever will be - meaning P2W is largely an impossible concept - which is plain silly).

So the debate on what is or isn't P2W quickly becomes pointless.

But it is certainly "pay for a significant advantage" now, seemingly.





If they can't make money without going down this road then they cannot make money with F2P/microtransations (people aren't stupid as more and more people get stung by the ripoff end of F2P the fewer and fewer people will fall for it, in 10 years F2P may well be as dead as subscription play currently is) and seriously need to rethink their business models.

That's my biggest gripe ..

The patch note wording was very ambiguous

And a Twitter reply got me to

1. RadarX ‏@RadarX 16h16 hours ago
   @DVSKevinNash @j_smedley @planetside2 It's challenging to word something specifically when there aren't numbers to it.

No it's not " Challenging " at all ..

" We have lowered / decreased charger drop rates " ... Rocket science right ?

Precisely, this:
|
V

Is about as ambigous as it is possible to get, it certainly in no way suggests "Charger drops have been nerfed the point you now have to buy them to run implants in a remotely reliable way".

There's nothing challenging about that wording, IMO, it is just purposefully vague (understandably so in some ways, but that is no excuse, if they must/need to do this then they should be honest and take the flak with the decision).

After reading the first couple of pages to this thread, I find myself longing for a dream utopian solution:

If enough people would pledge to subscribe/re-subscribe, the goal an influx of profit to PS2 development, in return we are provided significant Game Growth (Bug Fixes, Performance enhancement and the return to good content release afterwards), then we have "struck a deal".

Like a Kickstarter, if they can achieve at least 1000 pledges of 3 or 6 month subscription plans; then bring back in some more of the Dev team and turn this game around.

I would love to pay for a subscription, I do like to pay for the products I use and love. I have done so via SC thus far (and the amount spent basically equates to the subscription model costs for the time I've played). It's just hard to commit to a long term financial plan when the horizon doesn't look good. SC gives me immediate reward of in-game toys (I do spend the stuff, it doesn't linger for too long), but a sub is a different kettle of fish.

Maybe I should just Sub in hope :/ Or is that them successfully milking me as the ship goes down? /SuperDramatic

They could have, I don't know, given us the numbers? Crazy talk, I know.

Cant they make all implants free for members already? Why beat around the bush.

Twitter reply when someone asked about lowered drop rates:

Patch notes:

And twitter reply when called out on the vague misleading patch notes:

How about "drop rates have been lowered"? How is "adjusted" any better.
Also what does lowered drop rates have to do with "accommodate the inclusion of new Tier 4 implants"?
I suppose if they had replaced the word adjusted with lowered, then it would have been too obvious what they were trying to do.

I dont mind a company trying to make money, but i dont like it when they think they can trick people for even more money.
Why do they keep thinking people dont see through their "super secret genious marketing schemes".
Its blatant milking. It makes people feel like you are trying to take advantage of them.
It doesent work in the long run because eventually people get pissed off and leave. It certainly doesent create loyal customers.

Would have been x100 time more respectable if they had just said "Drop rates have been lowered. PS2 isnt bringing in as much money as it has to and we have to try something".
I wouldnt have like it, but i would have understood that.
Or after getting called out on trying to suck people dry, reply with "Sorry" instead of "I dont know what you're talking about. We didnt do anything"

"Depends on how you define P2W. If implants are P2W, then yes you may not like everything in the future."

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/...mplant_changes_sorry_but_we/cnbcazi?context=1

Oh that I agree with. I was speaking specifically though of this indian-giving intellectual dishonesty they've been caught in now. I wasn't talking one bit about the actual game design stuff. All that's their ship to sink. But whenever it comes to some president saying something stupid / completely backwards, it's usually the Market talking through them.

There are cheaters, I've only ran into two obvious ones in the past 2 weeks, one guy who was phasing through walls probably with aim assist set on bodyshots, shooting people through walls and another guy that negatively padded his KDR by suiciding from time to time while having overall 70% or something HSR with a 100% HSR Pulsar VS1 killstreak over 20+ kills. I'm sure there are much more people who use more subtle cheats like small aim assists and ESP but you can't really do anything about those and I don't really care. Cheating is an issue in every FPS game, just because you don't notice them doesn't mean they don't exist.

To be honest i really don't care i already have all the implants i need and i have around 200 chargers, plus i really don't know anyone who buys implant pack, and one more thing people forget SOE is a company and the goal of ANY company is to make money so you really can't blame them.

The idea that a game isn't P2W as long as there is some way for a free user to get something another player can pay for is ridiculous. "(after all you are paying for a better gaming experience) but this does not translate into pay to win". It doesn't matter how long someone has to grind for it! It doesn't matter if it is an obvious upgrade and not cosmetic. It's an excuse, a technicality.

We could sit here and debate semantics all day, and the hardcore player or as it is quickly becoming the hardcore tax base for SOE, will do. You've got to ask yourself how many new free players will want to join the game where everyone has payed or played for years by this point. You'll have to grind for years and spend the whole time getting stomped too. They should have just implemented a sub if this is the way they were going to do it. I could go on about prices too, hell i could write an essay on SOE's absolute garbage pricing but i won't.

When ps2 came out it was questionable with the payment model but now it is pretty obvious they are going for the free model everyone hates and gives gaming in general a bad name. There are plenty of free to play games that do it right and PS2 isn't one of them. I see lots of people defending SOE, like they are some poor lowly dirty and famished game maker without any money looking up from the gutter while we selfishly enjoy their game. I'm willing to bet most people spent money on the game, i'm willing to bet the game HAS made money, but it didn't meet the bottom line that might be a bit unrealistic for the game as it is now with the amount of people that play and so the investors are pushing for more money and it is hurting the game. I myself spent upwards of 200 since beta, only to watch the road-map disappear and nothing but lies, broken promises and pipe dreams come out of SOE.

You guys can keep playing in denial but it will only become more obvious as time goes on and they keep trying to nickel and dime you for everything possible, pushing new players away from the game while getting as much money as they can out of the existing ones. I've about had it with the game, first with the road-map and now this continuation of the pay to win model that's been happening since launch. I've kept on this long because i thought it would get better but at this point it is better to cut my losses. I'm not wasting any more time or money on it unless i see some changes.

A bloke in a dirty flasher mac selling dubious videos out of a seedy back alley looks more honest ..


If that wasn't their intent then they seriously ****** up ..

TBH I have zero issues with them changing drop rates or wanting to make money ... It's the seemingly shady way they go about it ..

I run a t2 regen implant and I didnt notice any drop rate change, I certed a repair sundy tho, getting mad exp right now.
If the drop rates are lower, then you need to gain more exp in order to keep the old drop rate. I'm pretty sure that if you do a lot of things in order to gain experience (like rolling a repair/ammo sundy, or concentrate on the objective for example) you won't have any energy management issue.
In this game I see tons of farmers (infantry in the spawnroom or vehicles outside enemy bases) maybe they want ppl to actually do stuff and they are encouraging them in this way, while trying to make money too.
I don't think SOE can be called greedy, since this is a F2P game.

Man, reading through the Twitter and Reddit responses from this... there are some really toxic elements of the PS2 community.

I'm really looking forward to SOE downgrading the default EQNext experience, and then selling me implants to improve it.

Long live our benevolent and wise Overlord Smedly!

If they at least would add a crafting recipe for T4 implants to create chargers. maybe T4+T1->Ultimate charger