Why are you charging me for the privilege of a less clunky UI?

I've been meaning to post this for a while, today's update has spurred me into doing so. I really wish I could find the quote, but I'm sure I remember Mr Higby talking about how they understood that a lot of free to play games go wrong when they attempt to encourage players to buy items from their cash shop by making the game irritating and then try to sell ways to remove the irritations.

Today's update saw another addition which shows he really didn't understand as well as he thought he did. So in an attempt to help, here is a handy list of what it is and isn't ok to sell me and please, before you dismiss this as one of those "I want everything for free" posts, check my account and see how much I've spent on this game. I don't mind paying for a bit of extra fluff in a game I enjoy, I do mind being taken for a chump.

Things that it is ok to try and sell to me -

• XP Boosts
• Cosmetic items
• Fun seasonal stuff (like the flare gun)
• Item unlocks

Things that it is not OK to try and sell to me -

Additional character slots.

If a player is looking to make a new character, the most likely reason is that for some reason or another they are bored of their old character. Now, given that's the case, why do you think it's a good idea pick that moment to stop them and say "Hey, you're bored of our game? Why don't you give us some cash to see if a new character can change your mind...doesn't matter if it doesn't, we've already got your cash."

Additional loadout slots.

The UI in Planetside 2 varies from passable to downright obtuse, one of the least enjoyable aspects of the game for me is how clunky and awkward it is to change class in the middle of a fire fight. You've spawned at a Sunderer, it's smoking, rockets are flying towards it, but you're a medic. QUICK CHANGE CLASS!...but first, wait for that couple of seconds weird lock out thing that stops you from using the terminal after you've spawned, now press E, but make sure it's the E that makes you use the terminal and not the E that makes you enter the vehicle or you'll have to wait for that weird timer again in order to get back out...done that? Now wait for the really unnecessary class selection screen with all it's drop down menus, nested table layouts and inconstant logic.

This is not an enjoyable experience (you can see the thread in my signature for a massive list of gripes about the UI in general) and having the game now constantly remind me that I can give you cash to make this process less of a chore is rubbing salt in the wound. It does not leave me with the desire to give you more money, it leaves me with the desire to play something else, something that isn't going to charge me to use their menus.

Server Transfers

Like the additional character slot, there is one reason that is consistently going to be why a player looks at changing server. They aren't having fun on the server they are on, and like additional character slots, this is precisely the wrong time to try and stiff them for cash. Now I have no doubt server transfers for real money will go ahead and I bet you'll even sell a bunch of them and all this will be ignored because hey, people bought them so you must be right, right?

I've run into this stumbling block with game devs a few times. Most recently with APB, a game I used to play quite a bit and our clan played host to a couple of the devs. Now there was a patch a while back that added these infuriating adverts for the games premium subscription that popped up after every mission you completed, stopping you from continuing to play the game until you clicked OK each time. When we asked the devs how they could think this wouldn't annoy people they responded by saying "Well sales of premium are up by 20%", but what they still to this day refuse to acknowledge is that those crappy adverts were the straw that broke the camels back for so many players.

It may have given them a short term sales boost, but it also gave them a reputation as the kind of F2P devs that do that kind of thing...and that's what you've got to ask yourself. Is selling a server transfers to the people not yet bored enough to not bother trying to get back into the game really worth it when you are alienating people who otherwise might be convinced to try the game again?

The same item with a different name

This, is not different from this, no matter what you say. Trying to sell it to me twice by making changing the colour of two small rings is not making me want to sink more money into your game, it's making me question future purchases and wonder why I bought the thing in the first place. Please believe me, being stingy with your cross faction unlocks is not making you more money.

Ways to remove prompts reminding me I can give you money

So far this hasn't been too bad in PS2, but other free to play games do it with gusto, and recent changes with the way premium is advertised, the boost slots, the cosmetic selector showing everything you haven'y unlocked whether you want it to or not and now the new locked loadout slots have been slowly creeping in a very bad direction. You have so many ways of advertising what's new in the game. You've got the forums, you've got twitter, reddit, the launcher, the news panel on the in game home screen, the in game shop...you've got my email, send me spam. All of that is preferable to cluttering my UI with reminders of things I can purchase that I don't want.

And for about the 10th time...if you really want to sell me new items, for god sake put a new items filter on the shop.

Additional character slots, server transfers, and loadout options are often store-bought items in most MMOs these days, as are advertisements to purchase items from those said stores. The game has been free-to-play since day 1, so you really can't blame them for trying to pick up a profit with their in-game store.

I do agree with you on your fourth point, though, because for something as simple as a cosmetic, it really should unlock across the board.

The only item they could sell me that would remove this games irritations would be one that uninstalls the game and sets my computer on fire so I can't reinstall the game...

Yea, more load out slots to buy is ******* BS.

Some might argue that you shouldn't need more than three slots. Why level multiple characters when you can have one super-mega-awesome decked out character? Sure, you might want a TR, NC and VS but again, that's only three slots.

I'm going to drop the 'it's a F2P model' bomb here. You get a couple for free, charging for the others keeps the game ticking over. (Who really uses loadout slots anyway?)

One free transfer every few months and then paying for the rest would be an idea model. If you made it entirely free, you'd have people swapping between servers every few days/hours, tying up valuable server resources that could be spent transferring someone else for legitimate reasons.

I wholeheartedly agree. I succumbed to paying for lumifiber (granted a non-essential item) for my Galaxy on both Vanu and TR (which I changed to) just because it looked nice. SOE argues that because the colour is different, it's a different. Totally uncool, $7 is stupidly expensive for a cosmetic that only applies once per faction.

Personally haven't received and spam from them, only info on coming game updates. If you don't like the mail, you can disable it. As for the launcher and loading screens... Free to play game.

You know, instead of having more loadout slots, you could just change the loadout. It's not really that big of a deal. Don't expect much for free in an F2P game, the game itself is already free.

I'm fine with the new loadout slots. 3 are enough for a basic player. Same for char slots, though i would prefer being able to get them via ingame stuff. Checking out someone else on a different server can get complicated atm. But that also intersects the server transfer... what should be somehow free or at least have some kind of "visit" function.

Also i am not fine with boosts. Currently you can get like twice as much xp via cash as well as +50% resources. That the max i can live with... barely.

Despite our disputes inhale Anti Skub, I find myself having to agree with you more and more.

I was a little disappointed that character loadouts was under a pay wall. Seems like a very basic thing that would improve quality of life for many. Maybe I might avail myself of it for the individual purchase, if it isn't a "per character" thing or is absurdly cheap.

oh close this pos thread down...

**** and cry more OP... seriously.

You get plenty for free but it's not enough? go away

He's got a point .. It's bad only having 3 char slots ... What if he wanted to make something totally different like a Wizard .... Oh wait a minute

They are actually different items in their database and files... unlike say... the Liberators Dalton which is the exact same item used in all 3 factions.

That's the difference.

The reason that, say, the Walker secondary on MBT's isn't X-Faction unlocked? Well, because they have different mount points... and so each MBT walker is actually a different item in their DB and files because it has different properties.


Color is another variant the requires an item to be entered in multiple times for the different variants.

When you buy something with SC, you get that ONE ITEM unlocked on your account, so if that specific item is not the exact one used by another faction, then it won't be unlocked for that faction.



Just a PSA so people know WHY there is a difference in X-Faction unlocks.

ROFL!

oh wait.

you were... serious?

YAH!

There's only 3 character slots and 3 whole factions to.......

...

waaaaaiit a minute.... WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?!?

It's a free game, so you can create another account (or ten!) and create more characters on those. There is nothing stopping you from creating more characters. You are simply paying for the convenience of having them on your paid account (with your subscription bonus): win-win. Additionally, those extra character slots are still available if you cancel your subscription.

You get 3 to start with, which is sufficient until you really start getting to higher levels and have many, many things unlocked. You can also buy up to 4 more permanent loadout slots in the depot. You can now have 7 loadouts without a subscription, and having a subscription gives you access to up to 10 loadouts as an added bonus if you really need that many.

This is more of a prohibitive thing. Without a cost for server transfers, people would just be constantly switching to the "winning" servers and give another avenue for "the fourth faction" to ruin everyone else's experience.

You have a point here. When I unlock lumifiber trim for my Harasser, I expected it to be there when I created a character on another faction, but no I have to buy that one separately...

I've spent around £100 on the game, how about you? I have no qualms with spending money on a free to play title, what I don't like is money being demanded of me to remove annoyances that shouldn't be there in the first place. Yes, there's not a huge amount of reason to make a 4th character, maybe you just want to play on a different server and not lose all the stuff you've bought, or maybe you want to see what it's like to be BR1 again...frivolous things, so why exactly does it cost 10 bucks? When I'm trying to do things to keep myself interested, so that I keep playing their game, why are they asking me for money for the privilege.

What I'm trying to get across here is that paying money to get something that makes the game more fun is great, paying money to get rid of something that stops you having fun is not. See the difference?

Yes, I've seen this argument from RadarX before, and it's ludicrous. It's the kind of argument a mechanic would use to try and over charge you. I couldn't give a **** what it is on their database...it's the same item. There is one reason, and one reason only that it doesn't unlock across all empires...so they can sell it to you twice.

I was considering getting one of the new flash bumper things until I saw they were faction specific. Want to play another game of spot the difference?

See, I don't think there should be a default of 3 character slots per account for free players. I believe that it should be two for a free player.

Where classes are character specific in other games, selling additional character slots does give the player incentive to spend money if they want to play a different way. In this game, it's three factions in which you can be any class you want. The only incentive to have more than one character is to be on a different server or just to play as a different faction. The reason I say two as a default and you can buy more character slots is that it forces a player to decide if they want to keep their characters and buy a character slot, or delete one of their two characters. In most games that small dilemma does drive sales.

Like with character slots, I'm fine with a default of two and you having to buy additional ones. I normally only have two loadouts for most classes anyway (one long distance, one close quarters) and at most generally need to change out only one or two guns if the case may be. If players need more, this again gives incentive to buy additional slots though I think loadout slots should be dirt cheap compared to the rest of SC purchases.

This does need a price tag on it. I'd be fine with a "One Free Transfer" policy, or a reduced price on the first transfer, but having it as free could easily cause a situation where entire populations of one faction leave one server to join another. There's also the problem of the people who have to do the transfers. Sure "copy and paste" sounds easy enough, but multiply that by 1000+ all happening at different times. As dumb as it sounds, it would actually increase the cost on SOE's behalf to have free transfers as more hours for employees= less profits for them...

I agree with this here. To easily combat this, I think SC should be character specific, not account specific. Or, simply have global unlocks. I thought SC was character specific like some games have it but that was proven wrong rather quickly to me. The fact that SC is account specific also screws over players who delete a character who spent money on them. I don't like it.

My biggest problem will always be, though that SC is account specific. I'd be fine with it if servers had better population balance or just in general a better faction player intelligence balance but that's impossible it seems. As it stands you deck out your character spending lots of money and find that your kills greatly increase. But that in the end doesn't matter as the other factions always win due to population imbalances.

And I'm going to drop the "being F2P doesn't mean they need to be terrible value for money" bomb. Pricing people out of your F2P model and making things seem poor value is exactly how you get no one to spend anything. I think SOE have been doing ok, not great, in that respect, they are definitely leaning towards the too expensive side of the line, but I guarantee you, these money for nothing slot unlocks will be tipping a lot of the people over to the "well I'm just not going to spend anything on this" way of thinking.

I tend to only post about the stuff most people don't care about, little things that put people off, because the big stuff like balance and population has a million 50 page long threads already. What bothers me is that stuff like this isn't the kind of thing people complain about, it's stuff like this that just makes them go "Ah screw it" and leave without a word. I know a BR100 guy who was previously dropping 10-20 bucks a month on the game that went that way, and do you know what pushed him over the edge? It wasn't gameplay issues or balance or server pop, it was 2000 SC for a different coloured pistol.

I played Guild Wars 2 WAY longer than I would have otherwise because of it's free server transfers allowing me to move to servers that were higher population, or to move off of servers that started to become predominantly German or Russian (I've got nothing against Germans or Russians, just kinda hard to play an MMO when you don't speak the language everyone else does), or to switch to more even or more challenging WvW servers.

Conversely, I stopped playing SWTOR a lot sooner than I otherwise would have because they absolutely refused to let people transfer or merge servers leaving people like myself stranded on dead servers with a character they'd put hundreds of hours into.

I've never understood why so few developers seem to understand that one of the biggest reasons people ditch competitive MMOs is when they feel like they are stuck on the losing server and as Guild Wars 2 proved, allowing people to transfer at will doesn't ruin the population balance, it improves it. Giving an strong reward for playing on the underdog side and allowing frequent free transfers would even out the servers.

Yeah, you rather misread what I said there man, I was asking for spam if it will stop them from bloating their UI with a million things I have no intention of ever unlocking. I don't want any hockey masks, they look goofy, no amount of showing me then everytime I change my helmet is going to make me change my mind, all it does is make using the loadout selector less streamlined.

Even as a member I was miffed that additional loadouts were a membership feature.

They kinda arbitrarily changed the MBT unlocks, and regardless of the line of data, it's not unheard of to have a general classification for each line that allows items to be grouped for some purpose. And really $7 is tremendously expensive for purely cosmetic things. I have a feeling the prices are picked with the belief that most people are going to buy SC when there is a x2 or x3 sale, and then buy the item when it is on sale. Under those circumstances, I imagine that the price of a $7 item becomes much closer to a more realistic $1 price. However I can't help but wonder what would happen if things were a bit cheaper to begin with.