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

People are just saying what they think about it openly there - as they cannot do so here, because the forum police will get you if you did.

Who knows - SOE might change their minds. Remember when Smed tried to take away monthly SC from membership? That sure was fun to watch... the might of their entire player base across all their titles revolted in unison!

Make the games art assets not butt ugly, among other problems, then I'll consider spending money again.

I love the way the implant change was implemented perfectly, but fixing the alerts is too much. We've now been without them the ENTIRE holiday period - just when people actually wanted to enjoy them the most.

FIX THE ALERTS. How hard can it be?

That doesn't bode well, implants like this are pretty horrible.

Instant reloads for 1SC is the inevitable end-game of this though, EA "we're not gouging" Games-style.

If they honestly believe people are daft enough to fall for this supposed "business model", SOE will be long gone by 2025.

To be honest introducing P2W (or whatever you wish to call it) is never going to be bed of roses.......... and I think that is a good thing! (because it is a horribly bad idea).


Look at this fellas quite reasoned response:

They want to make some money on implants = fine.

Making it so you've basically GOT to spend SC to run implants = not fine (I'd go so far as to say self-destructive, as I suspect it will end up with them making less money on the game over all).

They got to make people want to play, trying to make then feel they need to pay to play like this won't work. It simply won't.
It will just:
1) drive some people away instantly
2) eventually honk off even those that do spend lots of money on it to begin with.

They are just trying to make subscription-model by the backdoor...... but if subscriptions don't make enough money, why do they think this method will?

Even games that have a "release, play, release next version" business model don't really get away with P2W/rentable extras models, a game like PS2 designed around people playing for YEARS simply never will.



They need better, smarter business models, because trying to carrot and stick-milk customers is not and never will be a sustainable business model, not unless you're selling something physiologically addictive anyway.

I watched the gameplay trailer for Overwatch.

My god. Are the people that want to play that actually influencing SOE development?

"Free to play" just plain sucks

I only play medic and infiltrator most of the time and they are both fully certed.

Much easier to fully cert infantry - vehicle certs get ridiculously expensive... you spend like 300-400 certs or so tops for an infantry weapon's attachments, you can easily spend 3000-4000 certs for a single vehicle weapon.

For this game I prefer to call it "Pay 2 Versatile" ... but in general. experts like ExtraCredits have taken to calling it "Buying Power"

Hahaha, you guys are still playing Planet**** 2. Geez. Hows that butt of yours feel?

Like I said in an earlier post a free player's experience with this game is allowed because of memberships and people buying items that is what keeps PS 2 going.

Free players who complain about PTW or any other construct really shouldn't because it (the money generated by these options) is what ENABLES them to play for free.

So if a boosted member for the past two years that has already purchased over 300 euros worth of cosmetics complains about nickel and diming is acceptable?

The main reason I pay that membership is so I don't get nickel pinched, not to avoid the non existent queues.

But - I'm not a free player. I still have issues with adding more P2W type constructs.

Payment should get me the look nice stuff, and shortcut the grinding a BIT stuff, nothing more than that. I already think even allowing heroic boosters + membership XP bonus + member only double XP weekend stacking is getting to be too much of a good thing.

There will always be some level of P2W in a F2P game - its just a question of how far down the path of P2W a game goes. Taking PS2 down the path of more and more P2W is a lose-lose proposition... as it will drive away more of the free players and with pop losses, the game loses its appeal. There's only so much they can do with server merges before the already bad lag issues become totally unacceptable.

Make stuff cheaper, more accessible, expand the pay for player base, and SOE will make more money, not less, retain more players, not less, and its just a win-win situation. With virtual goods, you have almost no added cost to sell extra copies (maybe a few cents to process each transaction), so lower priced stuff generating more sales is a better business model than cadillac pricing.

All Access actually finally made sense in the end - because they went with a cheaper pricing structure, greater access to all their titles, and still retained the monthly SC carrot. But when they first were thinking about it - it was going to take away stuff people were already getting, and did they ever get raked over the coals for it.

F2P is a tough business model to run, SOE clearly aren't having an easy time with it. I buy their other not-online games though, I refuse to buy consoles and hope they release more of their games on the PC.

As for nickeling and diming, I have sooo many implants and chargers and a dozen mega chargers, I don't use them. They're not that much of an advantage, no more so than not having the best weapon for every situation unlocked. Think of chargers and implants the same way, you get to use it part of the time not all of the time if you're playing for free. You ARE at a disadvantage, but not much so, same as before implants.

who cares.... who uses them anyway? not worth the bother, nevermind the money part

If they are worthless, as you seem to imply, then SOE is luring unsuspecting buyers into a trap. Not to mention wasting players time by making them use a RNG crafting system that could be used to actually play the game.

I disagree that implants are worthless btw... I've always defended the free-to-play system against others who say it is pay-to-win. I no longer can do that due the way the implant system is implemented. They've lost a subscription from me as well...

people dont seem to understand its HOW they try and make money thats the problem - not that they are trying to make money

i have had membership from day 1 (nov 2012) i regularly buy SC and i can afford implants and chargers if i want but im not going to touch them with a 10 foot pole to hopefully send a message to SOE that its NOT the way to do things

blatant P2W schemes like this doesnt belong in PS2

i will buy the S#!T out of cosmetics but im not going ever spend money on consumable items like ultra chargers just so i can have an advantage over F2P players who cant keep their implants charged
i want the free players to be equal to us paying players

so as someone who spends a fk load of money on the game i think what happened is a P2W scheme and doesnt belong in PS2 and they will get less money from me because of it - not more

People who regularly say their "meh" to SOE but keep giving ANY money to SOE, got very special way to vote with their wallet.

SOE has actually done a pretty good job of monetizing things in the game without making it too p2w.

But when are they going to realize the best way to make money off a game is to make a good game? Fix the bugs. Optimize. Improve level design and lattice connections. People will come and spend their money on a good game.

Instead they try to get money by adding content that just introduces new bugs and reduces performance without really making the game better.

Bad business model is bad.