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The Monetization Timebomb


FlatTax

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We're less than 60 days out from the end of GS Season 1, and EA is hoping it'll spur a rash of cash purchases, as items from a grind we were never intended to complete threaten to disappear.

 

This thread has two purposes. The first is to encourage everyone not to pay this timebomb's ransom; it'll only encourage the further devaluation of our subscriptions with more monetized mechanics, on top the $155.88 we pay, year over year.

 

The second, to serve as a place to express dissent over the ugliness of this kind of monetization.

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In general i find it ridiculous that the game recieves less actual content than ever yet sub price remains the same on top of more monetization sinks added constantly everywhere within the game than ever before. I guess it must look good though on the EA's balance sheet that the developement cost of creating real new content is close to zero nowadays while the real cash from the players still pours in thx constant effort that goes into adding CC button literally everywhere it's possible, along with developing entire cheap grind systems with CC spending in mind... Edited by Pietrastor
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We're less than 60 days out from the end of GS Season 1, and EA is hoping it'll spur a rash of cash purchases, as items from a grind we were never intended to complete threaten to disappear.

 

This thread has two purposes. The first is to encourage everyone not to pay this timebomb's ransom; it'll only encourage the further devaluation of our subscriptions with more monetized mechanics, on top the $155.88 we pay, year over year.

 

The second, to serve as a place to express dissent over the ugliness of this kind of monetization.

Wow, there's a lot to unpack here...

 

First off, let's get a little perspective:

  • From the Player's perspective, this game exists to entertain us.
  • From the Developer's perspective, this game exists to put dinner on the table each night and keep a roof over their heads. No matter how much they like/enjoy the game personally, the moment it is clear that it will no longer be profitable, the game is doomed.

Now, it was clear just a few months after launch that the subscribers would not keep the game profitable (the 'break-even' point was claimed to be around 500,000 subscribers at the time), so they changed to the 'free to play' model and kept the game financially viable.

 

In short, without the 'ugly monetization' you decry so loudly, the game would have been shut down years ago...

 

As for Galactic Seasons, it's probably one of the best monetizations from the subscriber's perspective:

  • If you don't want to pay anything, you have a lot of time to just play though the content and 'earn' the rewards (including a good amount of cartel coins).
  • If you have tons of credits, you can spend them instead.
  • If you really want the rewards but can't/won't spend the time to play though the season, you can just spend cartel coins (I think it's about 4,000 coins to purchase for the entire season once you take the CC rewards into consideration, and you get 6,000+ coins 'free' each year as a subscriber)
  • Finally, if you don't want to do any of the above options, you can always ignore the whole thing and basically lose nothing of mechanical importance (if you really want a specific item, you can use one of the above options to grind just enough GS Tokens to buy it from the vendor).

Simply put, this is one of the few monetizations that you can get without actually paying anything at all: In fact, you 'make money' playing through it when you consider the CC rewards.

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Wow, there's a lot to unpack here...

 

First off, let's get a little perspective:

  • From the Player's perspective, this game exists to entertain us.
  • From the Developer's perspective, this game exists to put dinner on the table each night and keep a roof over their heads. No matter how much they like/enjoy the game personally, the moment it is clear that it will no longer be profitable, the game is doomed.

Now, it was clear just a few months after launch that the subscribers would not keep the game profitable (the 'break-even' point was claimed to be around 500,000 subscribers at the time), so they changed to the 'free to play' model and kept the game financially viable.

 

In short, without the 'ugly monetization' you decry so loudly, the game would have been shut down years ago...

 

As for Galactic Seasons, it's probably one of the best monetizations from the subscriber's perspective:

  • If you don't want to pay anything, you have a lot of time to just play though the content and 'earn' the rewards (including a good amount of cartel coins).
  • If you have tons of credits, you can spend them instead.
  • If you really want the rewards but can't/won't spend the time to play though the season, you can just spend cartel coins (I think it's about 4,000 coins to purchase for the entire season once you take the CC rewards into consideration, and you get 6,000+ coins 'free' each year as a subscriber)
  • Finally, if you don't want to do any of the above options, you can always ignore the whole thing and basically lose nothing of mechanical importance (if you really want a specific item, you can use one of the above options to grind just enough GS Tokens to buy it from the vendor).

Simply put, this is one of the few monetizations that you can get without actually paying anything at all: In fact, you 'make money' playing through it when you consider the CC rewards.

 

Monetized mechanics should be for people playing for free.

 

Subscribers pay $155.88, year over year, for a 'PREMUIM' experience (all-Caps theirs, not mine). Asking for our game mechanics to be de-monetized for that sum is a pretty low bar for BW to clear.

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I haven't spent anything on Galactic season, and will not in the future. It isn't hard to get to the 800 points you need just for playing the game. I finished on Star Forge weeks ago and haven't touched it since, and am less then 70 points from finishing on Satele Shan (and I hadn't started there for like 3-4 weeks after season's started).
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I never did the "refer a friend" spamming people used to do to get extra free CCs. I really appreciate GS and the ability to earn CCs pretty quickly through playing the game.

 

It's comical that people still try to spin this like the OP is attempting to do.

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Monetized mechanics should be for people playing for free.

 

Subscribers pay $155.88, year over year, for a 'PREMUIM' experience (all-Caps theirs, not mine). Asking for our game mechanics to be de-monetized for that sum is a pretty low bar for BW to clear.

 

You don’t have to pay. Play the content and get it for free. SIMPLE!!

 

No one is twisting your arm to use CC or credits. If you can’t play the content those are options for you. But if someone is too lazy to play the content and doesn’t want to pay for the short cut or catch up, that’s on them.

 

I really don’t understand the purpose of this thread. I’ve finished my GS by playing the content. I didn’t pay for anything.. There is still 1 and 1/2 months to go and that till get you half way through.

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I’ve finished on Star Forge without having to pay a cent and I’m 3/4 along on DM and SS because I started late.

 

No one has to pay anything and no one is making you. The season has been more than long enough to complete without spending CC or credits.

 

The monetization of Galactic Seasons isn't for people who play the game on a daily basis. It's geared toward people who don't play the game on a regular basis.

 

Fair enough right? Until you realize the greater implications of why they'd monetize a system like that in the first place, and what that means for future "content".

 

SWTOR is shifting to a game that's only meant to be played casually, at best.

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The monetization of Galactic Seasons isn't for people who play the game on a daily basis. It's geared toward people who don't play the game on a regular basis.

 

Fair enough right? Until you realize the greater implications of why they'd monetize a system like that in the first place, and what that means for future "content".

 

SWTOR is shifting to a game that's only meant to be played casually, at best.

 

I still don’t get it. I’ve not played the live game for 4 weeks and I’ve finished with 60 days to go. Even a casual player can easily finish GS by logging in a few times a week.

 

And of course I’m not in favour of monetisation of things that subscribers should get for free. I am in favour of more credit sinks like the GS catch up. I actually think it should have been an option at the start where you could start spending credits if instead of CCs.

Edited by TrixxieTriss
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The monetization of Galactic Seasons isn't for people who play the game on a daily basis. It's geared toward people who don't play the game on a regular basis.

 

Fair enough right? Until you realize the greater implications of why they'd monetize a system like that in the first place, and what that means for future "content".

 

SWTOR is shifting to a game that's only meant to be played casually, at best.

I'm not so sure. I've seen posts by quite a few players that have been posting regularly for years that have used the CC feature so they could spend their game time doing what they enjoy.

 

I believe that feature was for all types of players.

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I’ve finished on Star Forge without having to pay a cent and I’m 3/4 along on DM and SS because I started late.

 

No one has to pay anything and no one is making you. The season has been more than long enough to complete without spending CC or credits.

 

I haven't finished at all on SF. The last two weeks I have at least 4 days where 3 out of 4 PO's were group and usually PvP (GSF / Unranked PvP of some combination) . So I didn't run them. (yes I did the re-roll thing every day and STILL had the same results. Usually 90% of the time GSF was substituted with unranked PvP of some sort).

 

Even with that sort of odds stacked against me I did manage to get 8 tokens and (of course) the Republic penthouse. That was the only real goal I had. GOT it at NO extra cost !! Heck I've picked up several hundred CC's along the way ! (free of charge) :D:D:D

 

Heck ... I may be retired but I still know a good deal when I see one !!

 

OH ... even after decorating the new SH at 100% I still have more CC than what I started with BEFORE the new GS started !!

 

Hmmmm ... ya know that still comes out to profit for the old man. And NO ... I'm not related to ANY Ferengi ... (that I'm aware of)

 

:D

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The OP's doom and gloom predictions about needing to spend real money on XP boosts AND renown boosts to get BiS gear turned out to be entirely incorrect. As Trixxie and others, including myself, have experienced, you don't need to spend a single cartel coin to enjoy the fruits of the Galactic Seasons labor.

 

There are so many things that deserve criticism, but this is not one of them.

 

These aren't the droids you are looking for. Move along.

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Monetized mechanics should be for people playing for free.

 

Subscribers pay $155.88, year over year, for a 'PREMUIM' experience (all-Caps theirs, not mine). Asking for our game mechanics to be de-monetized for that sum is a pretty low bar for BW to clear.

 

The caps are theirs, but I assume the spelling is yours...

 

As for the topic. I really don't like the seasonal "content". Just like log-ins that has a + version for subs, this is the + version for conquest. However, you do have to do something for this and it's just regurgitating the same old content, just like conquest.

 

Now, it's easy enough but I feel like it's just more of the same stuff to do and the rewards, such as they are, aren't really exciting to me. I do it for the SHs and nothing else.

 

Here's a novel thought...let the seasonal stuff be about NEW things that they would add to the game. But no, it's the same **** again. So for me it's not so much a monetization issue as a boredom issue.

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The OP's doom and gloom predictions about needing to spend real money on XP boosts AND renown boosts to get BiS gear turned out to be entirely incorrect. As Trixxie and others, including myself, have experienced, you don't need to spend a single cartel coin to enjoy the fruits of the Galactic Seasons labor.

 

There are so many things that deserve criticism, but this is not one of them.

 

These aren't the droids you are looking for. Move along.

 

You're actually making my point for me. It remains true that 6.0 created the need for two simultaneous, compounding, monetized consumables to un-nerf progression. Even though it isn't aggressively tuned, structurally, it's as problematic as it gets.

 

A metaphor to help you see the problem:

 

EA: [points a gun at us]

Me: EA's pointing a gun at us; they should stop.

You: But they're not shooting us!

Me: It doesn't matter; they shouldn't be doing that.

You: Just ignore it!

Me: ...

Endstate: EA's behavior is normalized, and they've improved their position for future offensive acts.

 

Galactic Seasons is no different; for subscribers, it's normalizing structures that shouldn't exist. Once the structures are normalized, they'll move on to aggressive tuning. It's why these structures exist.

 

We should oppose the structure.

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I still don’t get it. I’ve not played the live game for 4 weeks and I’ve finished with 60 days to go. Even a casual player can easily finish GS by logging in a few times a week.

 

And of course I’m not in favour of monetisation of things that subscribers should get for free. I am in favour of more credit sinks like the GS catch up. I actually think it should have been an option at the start where you could start spending credits if instead of CCs.

 

So someone who posts everyday on the forums for the past 4 years or more says that casuals should have no problems getting galactic seasons done because she got it done a few weeks ago. It's not just you, probably anyone who bothers to post on the forum is a bad example when talking about "casual" play.

 

We're all on the opposite end of the spectrum from casuals, on the "time spent on the game" metric. But I'm waiting for the next gold saucer event, so lets break it down.

 

The average adult gamer spends 6 and 1/2 to 7 and 1/2 hours per week gaming. That's it, between all their games.

 

Casual #1: Only plays SWTOR, is subscribed, and plays 1 hour per day. Probably getting GS done.

Casual #2: Only plays SWTOR, is subscribed, but only has time on their 2 days off a week. Might not get GS done.

Casual #3: Plays 2 games, one is SWTOR. Games 1 hour per day. Probably not, but might barely get GS done unless they get distracted by a new game.

Casual #4: Plays 3+ games, one in SWTOR. Only plays for "fun", doesn't grind. Not getting GS done without CC.

Casual #5 Plays 2+ games, Hates pvp in all forms, and won't ever do it. Probably not getting GS done without CC.

Casual #6 Plays 2+ games, hates pve because it's lame/boring in SWTOR. Probably not getting GS done without CC.

 

And blah blah blah, it devolves from there. The only casuals who are likely to get it done are the ones who don't really play any other games, and spready their gaming time more evenly through the week, and don't mind both ops and pvp. That's probably not even 25% of casual gamers who play SWTOR.

 

Galactic Seasons requires a certain amount of consistency. It's not difficult, it's not unfair. Most casuals are not going to have that level of consistency to get it done naturally, however.

 

I like the idea of credit sinks as well, especially since the removal of refer a friend has skyrocketed prices. However, the target of purchasable levels (aka casuals) are more likely to have money for CC rather than billions of credits to burn in game.

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I'm not so sure. I've seen posts by quite a few players that have been posting regularly for years that have used the CC feature so they could spend their game time doing what they enjoy.

 

I believe that feature was for all types of players.

 

As long as they spend less CC than they earn via GS, then it's really not monetized is it?

 

For veteran players, who want to skip a few days of GS here or there, they'll be looking at the credit vs Cartel coins, and noticing that it's always 100 cartel coins to buy a level but a variable amount of credits, depending on the reward. So yeah, it makes sense to "spend" CC to skip the more credit heavy GS levels. That being said, veteran, non casual players are more apt to spend either time or credits to get through GS, not CC like an actual casual player would.

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I know this is a crazy suggestion... How about they put loot on mobs in their content instead of on menus and in stores... You know so that people have incentive to actually play the game... It's not like RPG's are about adventuring and discovering cool environments and treasures I know...but it could just work...
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It’s those lobes as you get older that give it away 😉

 

[/begins to reply to TrixxieTriss] .....

 

Severe static and interference begin

 

Unfounded speculation is irrelevant.

Speculation based on incomplete data is irrelevant.

Objections outside of established parameters for compliance is irrelevant.

We are one voice and of one mind: disharmony is invalid and irrelevant.

Individuality is irrelevant.

Prepare to receive the new additions to the collective as written.

Your distinctiveness will adapt to this game.

 

Resistance is futile

 

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You're actually making my point for me. It remains true that 6.0 created the need for two simultaneous, compounding, monetized consumables to un-nerf progression. Even though it isn't aggressively tuned, structurally, it's as problematic as it gets.

 

A metaphor to help you see the problem:

 

EA: [points a gun at us]

Me: EA's pointing a gun at us; they should stop.

You: But they're not shooting us!

Me: It doesn't matter; they shouldn't be doing that.

You: Just ignore it!

Me: ...

Endstate: EA's behavior is normalized, and they've improved their position for future offensive acts.

 

Galactic Seasons is no different; for subscribers, it's normalizing structures that shouldn't exist. Once the structures are normalized, they'll move on to aggressive tuning. It's why these structures exist.

 

We should oppose the structure.

 

No he's not making your point for you, he is demolishing your argument.

 

Your argument is faulty from the start, as you say "EA pointing a gun at us" your logic flops down on it's face right there. No one is saying you must complete the season and as others have said and you've ignored, you can easily complete the season for totally free without a single CC spent. I personally came back to the game recently, so was late to the party and even I as a very casual player just playing the game and taking my time have got to level 67. And I have free cartel coins for my very little effort.

 

It's not a "timebomb" to just have the option for players to speed it up with CC or some evil plot to exploit the players, do EA hope people will spend real money to get it done fast? Sure they do, any company would. But they have given everyone a fair number of options to do the season as they see fit.

Edited by Neo_Psy
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No he's not making your point for you, he is demolishing your argument.

 

Your argument is faulty from the start, as you say "EA pointing a gun at us" your logic flops down on it's face right there. No one is saying you must complete the season and as others have said and you've ignored, you can easily complete the season for totally free without a single CC spent. I personally came back to the game recently, so was late to the party and even I as a very casual player just playing the game and taking my time have got to level 67. And I have free cartel coins for my very little effort.

 

It's not a "timebomb" to just have the option for players to speed it up with CC or some evil plot to exploit the players, do EA hope people will spend real money to get it done fast? Sure they do, any company would. But they have given everyone a fair number of options to do the season as they see fit.

 

Oh boy. I'll help:

 

Monetization schemes have two primary components:

 

1. Structure: The mechanics cash transactions are able to impact, either directly or indirectly

 

2. Tuning: The pressure applied to players to produce those impacts with cash

 

In my metaphor, 'pointing' is implementing offensive Structure, and 'shooting' would be aggressive Tuning.

 

You, and many others, aren't recognizing offensive Structure because you're unaffected by mild Tuning. Thus peoples' fixation with the fact we don't 'have to' pay our way through these mechanics. That simply doesn't matter.

 

That's just Tuning, which gets more aggressive over time.

 

We should worry about Structure.

Edited by FlatTax
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We should worry about Structure.

This structure has been in place since 2012. I have expression many opinions on this topic throughout the years. Nothing has changed however.

 

At some point you realise that it's not worth fighting for. I hope that laws get passed in more countries against loot boxes and such, but in SWTOR I've gotten plenty over time and spend thousands on this game in CM purchases alone. I'm not proud of it, but there it is. I've pretty much stopped doing that though. I just use what I get with the sub and that's it. I'm done with the CM beyond that.

 

And the ONLY reason I still play SWTOR is because it's SW.

 

Maybe it's my age but I really don't play many new games anymore. I find them generally devoid of a soul because of things like this. My hope is set on these new studios from people that have left Blizzard and BioWare for example.

 

Next to SWTOR I tend to play GW2, and Mass Effect which just came out with a remastered edition. All old games in other words but I play them more than SWTOR because they have much more content (GW2) and better stories (ME). Maybe it's my age but maybe it's just that there aren't any games coming out in the genres I enjoy that are as good as the old games. And for me these monetization schemes are a big part of the reason but it's also that EA never did and also BW no longer take pride in their creations. It's all about the mulah now. Not the devs mind you, but the management.

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Oh boy. I'll help:

 

Monetization schemes have two primary components:

 

1. Structure: The mechanics cash transactions are able to impact, either directly or indirectly

 

2. Tuning: The pressure applied to players to produce those impacts with cash

 

In my metaphor, 'pointing' is implementing offensive structure, and 'shooting' would be aggressive tuning.

 

You, and many others, aren't recognizing offensive Structure because you're unaffected by mild Tuning. Thus peoples' fixation with the fact we don't 'have to' pay our way through these mechanics. That simply doesn't matter.

 

That's just Tuning, which gets more aggressive over time.

 

We should worry about Structure.

 

That was a total non sequitur, word salad my friend. But you keep worrying about it, the rest of us will be having fun in game.

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[/begins to reply to TrixxieTriss] .....

 

Severe static and interference begin

 

Unfounded speculation is irrelevant.

Speculation based on incomplete data is irrelevant.

Objections outside of established parameters for compliance is irrelevant.

We are one voice and of one mind: disharmony is invalid and irrelevant.

Individuality is irrelevant.

Prepare to receive the new additions to the collective as written.

Your distinctiveness will adapt to this game.

 

Resistance is futile

 

 

LMAO, I knew you’d get it you big nerd 😆

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