Forum Discussion

f08tu11fl8mp's avatar
f08tu11fl8mp
Seasoned Novice
15 days ago

As Regards the new Quest structure

I have been playing GOH for almost the entirety of its release, 8+ years now. I was drawn to the game by its strategy aspects that rely more on planning and less on just stats: a well-designed squad can hit well above its weight. I was never really drawn to buying photons, but have, from time to time. I acknowledge that if you allow “free play” that the company is entitled to sell stuff for profit. Gaming is not an altruistic business. That said:

Heretofore the game has allowed heavy payers to advance orders of magnitude more quickly than non-payers. That is fair. Sooner or later, any “free player” is going to wind up buying stuff. The game encourages this by providing low-cost (relatively) purchases that help without giving one the advantage that a player who forks out a couple hundred dollars a month gets. Also fair (-ish).

Over the last couple of years, however, not only have “free-ish players” been increasingly disadvantaged, but the prices to play have become increasingly onerous, apparently catering to Oligarch-level or Saudi Prince level players. The latest build, however, has gone outright darkside. Players not prepared to fork out $20 a pop are not allowed to advance in game events beyond the lowest levels. Galactic Chalenge, for example, focused on certain squads, awarding max prizes only to specific teams, but a player could possibly go through all levels getting minimal prizes, at least something. The current build allows one to fight through the levels, but awards no prizes whatsoever beyond Tier 4 unless one pays $20 to $40 for the privilege, with no guarantees of being able to do any better. This is ludicrous.

All of the major events currently are tracked by how much someone is willing to pay to get the “best” prizes. In one respect, that’s okay, but the prices charged are absolutely absurd. I routinely pay probably $10 to $20 roughly a month, which I consider fair enough to play the game. Characters and events designed to cost several hundred dollars, however, are totally absurd, and I could afford to pay it.

Clearly, the spreadsheet managers of GOH are trying to force anyone who is not willing to pay a few hundred dollars a month out of the game. Since almost everyone pays to some extent, this seems a questionable business model at best.

Ultimately, however, it will be successful: long-time players like myself will start to leave the game, and once that starts, support for GOH will erode rapidly. Your current business model is not illegal, but it is worse. A pricing policy that drives customers away is stupid..

  • I can totally agree. As a player who buys monthly some packages, this update is a slap in the face, because for the same player experience, it is at least 20 Euro more. 

    As a user, i am not interested in any completed quests or quest progress which I cannot reach at all because I did not spend money for a specific item in the shop. This popup are literally annoying and cuts off the motivation. 

    I really like the game, I see the positiv changes out of the update and also see the clear message that without paying 20-30 Euro a month, you will loose a lot of pace. It is not pay to win, which is in a certain way ok for a free game. It has become a loose if no payment.

    • Archonurm2's avatar
      Archonurm2
      New Rookie

      To make my comment more precise: Even if the rewards for F2P stays all in all the same or is even slightly better, the experience of this update is really bad. 

      From a short term business perspective, the update could lead into the right direction. From a long term perspective, I would expect a lot of bad ratings in the play store which leads on a long run to less new players (who will invest money in the future).

  • They are moving more towards a pay to win than ever before with this update. Some of it I like, while other aspects I don't. I don't mind the episode pass thing, as they basically just copied MSF's Battle/Strike pass.

    Where I really don't like is I already didn't like doing GCs and now they want to put it behind a paywall? That's dirty. Then they also are going to make all the character quests behind a paywall too as you need to get them to certain star levels within a time frame. I do tend to spend a decent amount of money on this game. I am no where near F2P as I would consider myself between F2P and a whale. But this new trend and how they have things set up, makes me not want to spend any money on this game.

  • TheRobConnolly's avatar
    TheRobConnolly
    Seasoned Traveler

    This is exceedingly well put. I started a polling thread for everyone to comment with what they think works and what they don’t think works. My hope is with enough feedback concentrated into one post, EA moderators will have better chance at seeing the sheer number of players they’re alienating and ticking off. There’s another thread pushing for a December-long boycott of no purchases, which I’ll be participating in. I hope we’re able to have them reconsider this path which you so aptly described as “outright darkside.”