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The Founder's Packs, Cash, and Balance
ghrys
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 20 Arc User
I've noticed there are a lot of negative feelings regarding the pricing of the Neverwinter Founder's Packs, most people stating that the prices are extremely high for what you get. I, like many others do not have the expendable income to purchase any of the founder's packs at this time, but so far what I've seen gives me hope; let me explain.
First consider the following:
1) We all are aware that a free to play game needs to make money, and to make a decent amount of profit to be maintained an updated like we desire.
2) Before we were made aware of the founder's packs, the buzz was over concern that Neverwinter would be another "pay-to-win" game.
Now generally the idea of "pay-to-win" includes these two concerns: 1) The availability of significant advantages only to paying players that cannot be gained by playing the game, 2) The ability for paying players to essentially completely circumvent playing the game to gain the greatest levels of power, essentially cheapening that achievement.
The best way to accomplish generating revenue without destroying game balance (and creating a pay-to-win game) would be to offer for cash small advantages, and possibly some minor unique perks that don't undermine what is available for free, but offer something different at an equivalent level of power. And the best way to price these things would be on the higher end of the scale, so that there will still be enough people interested to purchase the perks, but not so much that these purchases saturate the world (for instance, if the hero of the north pack was cheaper, then the world could easily be saturated by Drizzt clones, where as now there will be some, but the pack will be out of the price range for most). If prices are on the upper end of what people are willing to pay, enough revenue will be generated without compromising game balance, and those that do spend their money will have perks that are worth more because only a few people will have them; the cost of perks should be measured against the time required to actually earn whatever they are, ideally making both options feasible and worth while.
I'm still not certain the cash store will not upset game balance, or that the game will be fun and rewarding without investing a lot of my hard-earned dollars, however what I've seen so far is encouraging.
First consider the following:
1) We all are aware that a free to play game needs to make money, and to make a decent amount of profit to be maintained an updated like we desire.
2) Before we were made aware of the founder's packs, the buzz was over concern that Neverwinter would be another "pay-to-win" game.
Now generally the idea of "pay-to-win" includes these two concerns: 1) The availability of significant advantages only to paying players that cannot be gained by playing the game, 2) The ability for paying players to essentially completely circumvent playing the game to gain the greatest levels of power, essentially cheapening that achievement.
The best way to accomplish generating revenue without destroying game balance (and creating a pay-to-win game) would be to offer for cash small advantages, and possibly some minor unique perks that don't undermine what is available for free, but offer something different at an equivalent level of power. And the best way to price these things would be on the higher end of the scale, so that there will still be enough people interested to purchase the perks, but not so much that these purchases saturate the world (for instance, if the hero of the north pack was cheaper, then the world could easily be saturated by Drizzt clones, where as now there will be some, but the pack will be out of the price range for most). If prices are on the upper end of what people are willing to pay, enough revenue will be generated without compromising game balance, and those that do spend their money will have perks that are worth more because only a few people will have them; the cost of perks should be measured against the time required to actually earn whatever they are, ideally making both options feasible and worth while.
I'm still not certain the cash store will not upset game balance, or that the game will be fun and rewarding without investing a lot of my hard-earned dollars, however what I've seen so far is encouraging.
Post edited by ghrys on
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