Just a future concern for players and game. You are adding dungeons, Epic CN and lower leveling dungeons. Since the "economy" and botters are such a concern, why add lower lvl dungeons that may be exploited? It wont be hard for a party of 3 bots to be queued and then run to the quickest loot nodes, probably even complete dungeons for rewards... I dont get it. We kept asking for our epic dungeons. Yes CN, was the ultimate; but 1 dungeon for endgame?
This, removing wards, was the most extreme version of what most would of predicted from watching previous "economy" fixing. So not unforeseen, but extremely disappointing. With all the new games coming out this year, I wouldnt be surprised if this turns into a small community niche game, with a similar history pattern as Allods Online.
Go going Cryptic, after Mod 6 i lost my guild+alt guild, after it had to be in 2 terrible guilds for a short duration until i found my guild now, which is pretty much dead now also. 2-3 people online during prime time on Friday night. Tried to do some skirmishes, but nearly all failed, cause only 2 kinds of players left: 1. brainless BiS , who payed or exploited their way to BiS, but have zero brains, they killed all the hulks, who would smash the gates lol, 2. under geared players, who sadly lack the DPS and by the new standards will never be able to gear up.
Logged off early out of disgustion.
But i am not chasing dreams, you guys have won, there are still a lot of mindless people around, who just stare at PE and ask, why the place is so empty.lol
The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.
Robert E. Lee
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.
Winston Churchill
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.
David Icke
0
ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
My eyes hurt from wall of rage. This just shows the dismay for the game's refinement and upgrade system. Upgrade items should have never been a part of the cash shop. All the coals and preservation wards you need for mains and alts has driven the population into a mouth trothing frenzy of insanity.
Back in mod 2 I just slapped in some rank 5s and got some epic gear and weapons and that was it. No pain or agony to involve myself with. People bought a pack or w/e. The world was calm.
Just a future concern for players and game. You are adding dungeons, Epic CN and lower leveling dungeons. Since the "economy" and botters are such a concern, why add lower lvl dungeons that may be exploited? It wont be hard for a party of 3 bots to be queued and then run to the quickest loot nodes, probably even complete dungeons for rewards... I dont get it. We kept asking for our epic dungeons. Yes CN, was the ultimate; but 1 dungeon for endgame?
This, removing wards, was the most extreme version of what most would of predicted from watching previous "economy" fixing. So not unforeseen, but extremely disappointing. With all the new games coming out this year, I wouldnt be surprised if this turns into a small community niche game, with a similar history pattern as Allods Online.
Sure, but the previous economy fix before this one was beneficial for non-botting players who actively played the game. Adding AD rewards to campaign weeklies was a blessing. So too was reducing costs in tarmalune trade bar store in addition to adding more items of value. These were beneficial economic changes that added value to actually participating in the game instead of exploiting it. Actual players whose motivation to play had been crushed by the game economy prior to those changes were given relief. Finally their goals seemed somewhat obtainable without having to resort to dishonest means. Reducing the cost of the coal wards made progress slow but possible and there was a REAL reason to invest in VIP. If we got lucky we could afford a coal ward a week from our daily keys which became the overwhelming driving motivation for the investment (because face it, most lockbox rewards hold less in game economic value than the real world value of the prizes at the bottom of a crackerjax box).
The point being, the changes that were being made were starting to cut out the dishonest third party sites and rewarding the active player base. I, being a relatively new player, had hope for a future in this game from the moment they removed the main sources of botting exploits. My hopes grew when they introduced more and better rewards for weekly missions and daily dungeons/pvp. They soared when they reduced Tarm and AD costs and downright inspired me to purchase 12 whole months of VIP because they had finally earned my confidence that this was a game that rewarded participation and a player base that invested back in them (in the form of VIP).
So in all honesty, up to this point "we the loyal/participating players" were being given a fair shake and our ACTUAL needs and concerns were being addressed in a fair and balanced manner that benefitted both business and customer.
And then they took a HAMSTER on all the good will and trust they had us invest in as a short term money grab without concern or loyalty shown to their newest customers (and greatest future source of revenue). Not only was this short sighted and vicious, but also gravely miscalculated. Their false advertisement and predatory marketing practices actually harmed them as a company in refunds furnished by Microsoft to their console player base. Furthermore I can't imagine they haven't strained their business relationship with Microsoft (their most incredibly important investor) over this decision. However, since us PC users can't cry to anyone but Cryptic and PWE, well, unless we band together and pool resources to take legal action..., the money we spent to purchase false promises is permanently lost.
That's the real issue. The truth of the matter is I did not expect this. I did not see it coming. And I was marketed lies. And for most of the newer players that paid in because we were promised results and started seeing them, we were the ones that got screwed the worst.
Ive been here since release on the PC. I used to spend $$$ here. Anyone that has been here since release, hasn't just seen one "economic" fix. Anyone that has been here since release, hasn't just seen just one "dishonest and misleading" communication from PWE or they would say "miscommunication".
So in short, I agree with you. But coming from a perspective that has witnessed this from beginning to this point, it shouldnt of been of been a surprise and wasn't to me. To you, who only mentions that one "economy" fix, sure it was.
My concern with the lower lvl dungeons is, dev team better make sure they are bot proof OR the playerbase will suffer again to "fix the economy".
On Friday, February 19, Coalescent Wards, Preservation Wards and Blood Rubies will be removed from the Tarmalune Trade Bar Store after maintenance. Please keep discussions respectful and on-topic; we all love this game and want it to thrive.
I Call BULL****!! You do not love this game or want it to thrive. You DEVS hate your fan base and are destroying the game chunks at a time!! Glad you guys are all for supporting BOTs and Spammers, i have a feeling there are going to be a lot of bans going around and your profits plummeting.
The more I think about what has happened previously with Xbox and the wards, and the investigation from Microsoft. The more I think this is their last ditch attempt at avoiding a lawsuit from Microsoft. This is the proverbial getting your hand caught in the cookie jar, so you say "I was getting the cookie for you!"
Hopefully Microsoft will not be fooled and will take legal action against Cryptic and PWE for this. Actions should have consequences. And while I don't like to see people hurt financially or lose their job. It's warranted in this case.
The best thing that could happen to Neverwinter would be to have it taken away from Cryptic and PWE.
Congratulations on shooting yourselves in the foot. This was the only viable way for players to get endgame enchants and artifacts without paying a small fortune to do so. Deleted my characters so that I won't ever be tempted to spend a dime with your horrible company again.
And not one word from anyone from Cryptic.. Surprise Surprise
Well.. it IS the weekend. I'm sure they are praying that the furor will have died down somewhat by Monday. But foolish of them to underestimate the true darkest depths of what primal nerdrage is capable of. They should have known better.
I feel bad for the mods, actually. It's not their fault that this happened, but they get to deal with the first brunt of the inevitable outrage. I bet half the dev team calls in sick for monday and tuesday.
Blatantly says that "Coalescent Wards will not be leaving the stores and pricing will not increase". Although in their defence it says "stores". Technically CWs are still in a store and pricing has not increased.....
@l0th4ri0, Yes it is the weekend.. I bet they know what's coming though 8)
We are all very upset with the removal of coals. Prices are already going up everywhere, and coals will eventually go up to around 380,000. Which is not that bad in the long run. If i am a new player, and played at 70 of course, i can get a coal in 10 days at that price doing dailies.
That being said there is a void in the trade bar store, a void that can be easily replaced with the coveted resonance stones. I've been playing for almost a year, and i am still no where close to getting my Artifact gear up to orange. Thus, myself and hopefully many other players, would love the RP from resonance stones to be added to the store. I'd imagine a 5 pack of minor stones can go for 5 bars, a pack lesser at 10, a blue 20, and finally a purple at 40. This would be fair and would make the horror of vanishing Coals go away, because hey at a point you don't really need them anymore.
Guys it's true that the DEVS and operators have no say to what their superiors tell them to do. They're employees and no matter what information or forum feedback they convey to their superiors the decision making is made elsewhere....but by a team of people ABSOLUTELY OUT OF THEIR MIND.
My only concern is this: I can never EVER trust a PWE in game product again since I am now Convinced that they will/can offer long term "goods" or "services" (VIP) and later on COMPLETELY DEVALUE THEM.
And it's not the first time (BoA item changes, bags the works) everybody knows these things have happened before, but this one was just too bad to go forward with.
Yes many people (I farmed to get my VIP ranks) BOUGHT VIP WITH REAL MONEY for a specific reason and the VIP service and money people payed for getting specific goods out of, has been somewhat rendered just useless and to put it in simple terms they got screwed over for their money's worth! / Jesus Christ this is insane.
PWE/CRYPTIC - PLEASE. You can see which people BOUGHT VIP with REAL MONEY.
PLEASE GIVE THEM AN OPTION TO REFUND or in-game goods CORRESPONDING TO what they would have gotten through their purchase/value as if this change had not been pushed forward and the abilty to cancel their LONG TERM VIP SUBSCRIPTION with SOME COMPENSATION.
Do the frikking math. it is : this many Days of VIP x this number of keys x this average tarm bars per key DIVIDED by : 75 = This number of COAL WARDS or DIVIDED By : 5 = this number of PRES WARDS
Or combine an average of both and give a corresponding number of COALS and PRES to THOSE people AT LEAST!
IT's NOT A GIVEAWAY I'm suggesting. It's giving back the value of people's money worth and the ability to cancel a long term "goods" purchase which has no longer the initial value for which it was purchased for.
I remember a post on russian NWO forum at the time of vip being announced ,guy was saying that whole this vip program is just a scam from PWE and they practice this kind of stunt in every game they run.to bad i didnt took it seriously and bought a year subscription.
So let me get this straight, you now expect every player who wants a Coalescent Ward to pay you $10 US per Coalescent Ward???
Wasn't it enough that you remove AD from Leadership Rewards in professions, that basically you stated "HAMSTER you" to all those who farmed Leadership to make some small amount of AD so they could buy some better things from the AH. Your actions again have clearly dictated you don't like fact that the players have taken control of the in game economy and are setting the rules of how the economy runs. You are basically crying poor, which is a lie, and you have given no proof, you have show no transparency to your claims that Coalescent Wards were having a negative affect to the in game economy.
It doesn't take much to read between the lines to see the only failing fact here was that you did not take into account of the loss of real hard cold cash and the affect it had on your own profits because your customer base was spending a little less on Zen that what you would like.
Your VIP Option is a joke, there is no incentive to subscribe to it now, in fact because of your emotional immaturity (greed) you have again punished the player instead of rewarding them for loyalty.
So I will suggest this again but it will most likely fall on deaf ears, and again most likely not even read by anyone developer, support staff or even founder that can make decisions.
You need to add a monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription plans just like every other MMORPG out there, and offer a free to play option for the game, which will give players a heavy incentive to pay for ongoing subscriptions, this is where these companies are making 90% of their profits, yes there are also some in game currency purchase options separate from subscription base, but even that has a large draw to purchase and this where there other 10% of their profits are made from.
You have your marketing and business model all backwards and you are focusing on the wrong leverage to make money for your company.
Please research what your competitors are doing and why the are so successful when it comes to subscription based profits. (SWTOR) Star Wars The Old Republic, would be one of the best models you could look at for this type of business model giving you far greater profits, which will also give you the edge you need for customer (gamer) loyalty.
If you continue to alienate your customer base with bad business decisions one after another you will ultimately end up broke and having to close the down your servers and game.
I want to write something about this update so here i am... ı am a normal player, i am trying to build my charachter with my hands not with money and ı was close to finish. Done with refine artifact and artifact equipment, my only need is enchantments now, i have rank 9 enchanments. But after this update you guys put a huge wall infront of me. now ı need like 4 maybe 5 extra million AD for enchantments, and i have to admit ı am not wanna play after this patch. This is second or third day after patch and i force to play myself because of my exertion... İ don't know you guys what kind a economy you want in this game but ask yourself this "İs this worth to lose our players ?" sorry for my bad english thank you anyone who ever read this
Problem is bot sites are probably owned by publisher, but as a subsidiary, so if you buy gold from there only the corps get money but not the designers. e.g. You still give your money to cryptic.
Please fix Zhentarim Warlock companion's skill "Arcane Warping" to the originally intended "Arcane Boost" zhentarim-warlock-companion
I know and prob not fair for them but this situation that the dev/likely management or marketing created this mess based on profitability is not our fault either. Again I'm mostly angry at them telling things would be cheap when on the day, without notice they removed them from their list. It's like you go and buy an iPhone that supposed to have x function at a lower price with credits you have with them (hypothetically) but when you turn up in the shop they are selling you without the function or the cheaper price!
This "fix" to the economy will not balance it out. If you check the AD zen exchange is still down in the 380-390 range but it has been stable at that range. What has occured is Coalescent wards have roughly trippled in price and weapon and armor enchants have jumped more than four times. Effectivlly this has priced the majority of players out of building or buying these items especially the new to game or multi character players. Reasonabbly adjusting the trade bar prices of these items would have been far more effective and logical then what you have done. Dropping in another 2xAD would have done more to level out the economy again then this. Did you actually consider the knock-on effects of this to your customers (VIP, zen purchasers) and the free to play gamers?
0
khimera906Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 898Arc User
Oh no! Outrage and staff! Grrrr! ... Really? Who are you people and what game have you been playing till now? They just keep doing what they've always done. Why are you surprised?
I hate dancing with Lady Luck. She always steps on my toes.
0
dademon1982Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 21Arc User
Blatantly says that "Coalescent Wards will not be leaving the stores and pricing will not increase". Although in their defence it says "stores". Technically CWs are still in a store and pricing has not increased.....
@l0th4ri0, Yes it is the weekend.. I bet they know what's coming though 8)
Well, duh.... of course they know what's coming What other reason can you think of to hold the weekly patch at Friday instead of the usual thursday?? I guess they think their clientele has memory issues. "Let them rage for a few days, the anger will be gone monday".... Yeah right...
They said that selling wards cheaply ruined the in game economy, but how exactly? they didn't mention at all. All I saw was that with cheap prices on wards, ppl could easily get better enchants with out grinding as hell.
They said that selling wards cheaply ruined the in game economy, but how exactly? they didn't mention at all.
It's called "lying". This is not the first time they have done this, but it is "normal" for MMO devs to not be forthright with correct information for a multitude of reasons. Some of those reasons are not morally reprehensible and are, in fact, necessary. Note that I just said "SOME" of those reasons. That doesn't mean this time is one of those times... I couldn't rightly say. And the reason no one here can rightly say is because we don't have any actual information, just lies.
The good news for Cryptic is that they are not obligated to explain themselves to anyone, and if they do they certainly are not required to tell the truth. They can say and do with this game (and this forum) whatever they want -- read the TOS. The only power or authority you have is at the point of sale, meaning you can choose to give them money or not. After that, you are in their world where they make the rules, and those are subject to change without notice. See the TOS -- clearly says that. And we all agreed to it.
Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a world where people could create, but not have to worry about making money? Then we wouldn't have any need for the people who are making these decisions; only the ones who want to build a good game.
You know what? Doesn't feel all that bad, now I've quit. On the contrary.
Okay, friday was a little sad, because there are some nice and funny folks in my ex guild who I'm not likely to ever meet again (certainly not on another game by this company), but apart from that - what's really to miss?
Okay, the basic game looks nice and the mechanics are ok. Both things that other games offer as well. Other than that?
- utterly broken pvp matchmaking that puts all the overgeared, overpowered characters into one team 90% of the time. Winning or losing such a match has got nothing to do at all with skills or even being lucky. You get permastunned by permanently invulnerable and/or invisible toons before they one-hit-kill you. If you're *lucky* the enemy team lets you at least gain enough points so you can earn your diamonds - *if* they're "merciful" and don't just camp your team's spawn... Sure, you don't *have* to play it, but if you want the AD - bad luck.
- the lack of content. Oh, it's kinda okay when you play it for the first time I guess, I liked it. lvl 1-60 at least. But when I then started my second character in a totally different class (fighter - spellcaster) the fact that you simply play exactly the same storyline once again... While joining the watch as an officer actually was pretty spot on for the fighter now doing the same with the wizard felt ... wrong. *poof* - Immersion gone. You could at least have given them other NPCs who then give the same quests, but with a slightly different background story. So since there was nothing new to be experienced with my 2nd char I stopped playing him and instead decided to go back upgrading my main. And - oh boy... The campaigns... You know something is off when the game pretty much tells you upfront: "Okay, to reach the next stage please play this handful of quests again and again and again once a day for a month or so". Why do they do this? Well, obviously they have to make you really *appreciate* the little they have. The same goes for the party runs: Your reward for levelling up far enough is a few new dungeons and a bunch of the same old ones only more difficult. Lllllaaaaaaazy. And the same goes for the upcoming "new" dungeons that, apparently, were in the game before but then taken out for whatever reason.
You might see it different, but that's my point of view. After one playthrough lvl 1-70 one of the most important things PERIOD for me in a roleplaying game became basically nonexistennt: The feeling that, out there, there's a whole world to explore and new stuff to find out.
There's other stuff too (like the absolute shame the foundry isn't a glowing centerpiece of Neverwinter, but a buggy mess), but my two main points for me turned the game into as much fun as having to work on a HAMSTER job - you do stuff you don't enjoy again and again, because you *have* to, in order to "earn your wage" (-> get better gear).
And you know what? Right now I feel just as if I had quit a HAMSTER job at a lousy company and closed the office door behind me for the last time. Aaaaaaah. Taking a deep breath.
... a HAMSTER job I *paid* money to work. XD
*bleep* this - games are meant to be enjoyed and to remove me from my boring daily life, not mirror it, only with swords.
Well, if you do indeed quit the game, i hope you gave all your goodies away to your friends/guild mates still playing the game... that way, they won't be tempted to buy anything from the ZEN shop soon.
> @commanderkruge said: > You know what? Doesn't feel all that bad, now I've quit. On the contrary. > > Okay, friday was a little sad,
Have to admit… I'm a bit sad this afternoon. I hadn't yet bought VIP, so I was just going to hang out and see if they fixed their issues at some point, or do as much free as I could…. But then I got censored, unsurprisingly, for pointing out that the forums are censored (as this message no doubt will be)… and it turns out that, more than anything, makes me want to disengage from anything to do with this company….
I'm also very worried about the stories I've heard about bans of legitimate accounts (even as they completely fail to deal with the spammers), and then refusing to fix them…. that's the sort problem that can hit you out of the blue, even if you're otherwise enjoying the game…
Comments
This, removing wards, was the most extreme version of what most would of predicted from watching previous "economy" fixing. So not unforeseen, but extremely disappointing. With all the new games coming out this year, I wouldnt be surprised if this turns into a small community niche game, with a similar history pattern as Allods Online.
Fox Stevenson - Sandblast
Oh Wonder - Without You
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
- Dylan Thomas
Logged off early out of disgustion.
But i am not chasing dreams, you guys have won, there are still a lot of mindless people around, who just stare at PE and ask, why the place is so empty.lol
Robert E. Lee
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.
Winston Churchill
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.
David Icke
Back in mod 2 I just slapped in some rank 5s and got some epic gear and weapons and that was it. No pain or agony to involve myself with. People bought a pack or w/e. The world was calm.
The point being, the changes that were being made were starting to cut out the dishonest third party sites and rewarding the active player base. I, being a relatively new player, had hope for a future in this game from the moment they removed the main sources of botting exploits. My hopes grew when they introduced more and better rewards for weekly missions and daily dungeons/pvp. They soared when they reduced Tarm and AD costs and downright inspired me to purchase 12 whole months of VIP because they had finally earned my confidence that this was a game that rewarded participation and a player base that invested back in them (in the form of VIP).
So in all honesty, up to this point "we the loyal/participating players" were being given a fair shake and our ACTUAL needs and concerns were being addressed in a fair and balanced manner that benefitted both business and customer.
And then they took a HAMSTER on all the good will and trust they had us invest in as a short term money grab without concern or loyalty shown to their newest customers (and greatest future source of revenue). Not only was this short sighted and vicious, but also gravely miscalculated. Their false advertisement and predatory marketing practices actually harmed them as a company in refunds furnished by Microsoft to their console player base. Furthermore I can't imagine they haven't strained their business relationship with Microsoft (their most incredibly important investor) over this decision. However, since us PC users can't cry to anyone but Cryptic and PWE, well, unless we band together and pool resources to take legal action..., the money we spent to purchase false promises is permanently lost.
That's the real issue. The truth of the matter is I did not expect this. I did not see it coming. And I was marketed lies. And for most of the newer players that paid in because we were promised results and started seeing them, we were the ones that got screwed the worst.
So in short, I agree with you. But coming from a perspective that has witnessed this from beginning to this point, it shouldnt of been of been a surprise and wasn't to me. To you, who only mentions that one "economy" fix, sure it was.
My concern with the lower lvl dungeons is, dev team better make sure they are bot proof OR the playerbase will suffer again to "fix the economy".
Fox Stevenson - Sandblast
Oh Wonder - Without You
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
- Dylan Thomas
Hopefully Microsoft will not be fooled and will take legal action against Cryptic and PWE for this. Actions should have consequences. And while I don't like to see people hurt financially or lose their job. It's warranted in this case.
The best thing that could happen to Neverwinter would be to have it taken away from Cryptic and PWE.
I feel bad for the mods, actually. It's not their fault that this happened, but they get to deal with the first brunt of the inevitable outrage. I bet half the dev team calls in sick for monday and tuesday.
Blatantly says that "Coalescent Wards will not be leaving the stores and pricing will not increase". Although in their defence it says "stores". Technically CWs are still in a store and pricing has not increased.....
@l0th4ri0, Yes it is the weekend.. I bet they know what's coming though 8)
That being said there is a void in the trade bar store, a void that can be easily replaced with the coveted resonance stones. I've been playing for almost a year, and i am still no where close to getting my Artifact gear up to orange. Thus, myself and hopefully many other players, would love the RP from resonance stones to be added to the store. I'd imagine a 5 pack of minor stones can go for 5 bars, a pack lesser at 10, a blue 20, and finally a purple at 40. This would be fair and would make the horror of vanishing Coals go away, because hey at a point you don't really need them anymore.
Hope something like this gets implemented.
They're employees and no matter what information or forum feedback they convey to their superiors the decision making is made elsewhere....but by a team of people ABSOLUTELY OUT OF THEIR MIND.
My only concern is this:
I can never EVER trust a PWE in game product again since I am now Convinced that they will/can offer long term "goods" or "services" (VIP) and later on COMPLETELY DEVALUE THEM.
And it's not the first time (BoA item changes, bags the works) everybody knows these things have happened before, but this one was just too bad to go forward with.
Yes many people (I farmed to get my VIP ranks) BOUGHT VIP WITH REAL MONEY for a specific reason and the VIP service and money people payed for getting specific goods out of, has been somewhat rendered just useless and to put it in simple terms they got screwed over for their money's worth! /
Jesus Christ this is insane.
PWE/CRYPTIC - PLEASE.
You can see which people BOUGHT VIP with REAL MONEY.
PLEASE GIVE THEM AN OPTION TO REFUND or in-game goods CORRESPONDING TO what they would have gotten through their purchase/value as if this change had not been pushed forward and the abilty to cancel their LONG TERM VIP SUBSCRIPTION with SOME COMPENSATION.
Do the frikking math. it is : this many Days of VIP x this number of keys x this average tarm bars per key
DIVIDED by : 75 = This number of COAL WARDS or
DIVIDED By : 5 = this number of PRES WARDS
Or combine an average of both and give a corresponding number of COALS and PRES to THOSE people AT LEAST!
IT's NOT A GIVEAWAY I'm suggesting. It's giving back the value of people's money worth and the ability to cancel a long term "goods" purchase which has no longer the initial value for which it was purchased for.
This is just Shameful.
a scam from PWE and they practice this kind of stunt in every game they run.to bad i didnt took it seriously and bought a year subscription.
Wasn't it enough that you remove AD from Leadership Rewards in professions, that basically you stated "HAMSTER you" to all those who farmed Leadership to make some small amount of AD so they could buy some better things from the AH.
Your actions again have clearly dictated you don't like fact that the players have taken control of the in game economy and are setting the rules of how the economy runs. You are basically crying poor, which is a lie, and you have given no proof, you have show no transparency to your claims that Coalescent Wards were having a negative affect to the in game economy.
It doesn't take much to read between the lines to see the only failing fact here was that you did not take into account of the loss of real hard cold cash and the affect it had on your own profits because your customer base was spending a little less on Zen that what you would like.
Your VIP Option is a joke, there is no incentive to subscribe to it now, in fact because of your emotional immaturity (greed) you have again punished the player instead of rewarding them for loyalty.
So I will suggest this again but it will most likely fall on deaf ears, and again most likely not even read by anyone developer, support staff or even founder that can make decisions.
You need to add a monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription plans just like every other MMORPG out there, and offer a free to play option for the game, which will give players a heavy incentive to pay for ongoing subscriptions, this is where these companies are making 90% of their profits, yes there are also some in game currency purchase options separate from subscription base, but even that has a large draw to purchase and this where there other 10% of their profits are made from.
You have your marketing and business model all backwards and you are focusing on the wrong leverage to make money for your company.
Please research what your competitors are doing and why the are so successful when it comes to subscription based profits.
(SWTOR) Star Wars The Old Republic, would be one of the best models you could look at for this type of business model giving you far greater profits, which will also give you the edge you need for customer (gamer) loyalty.
If you continue to alienate your customer base with bad business decisions one after another you will ultimately end up broke and having to close the down your servers and game.
e.g. You still give your money to cryptic.
zhentarim-warlock-companion
Pure -> Transcendent Plague Fire weapon enchantment giving 80damge/20 seconds for 500k+ AD is a joke.
plague-fire-weapon-enchant-r11-vs-r12
Again I'm mostly angry at them telling things would be cheap when on the day, without notice they removed them from their list. It's like you go and buy an iPhone that supposed to have x function at a lower price with credits you have with them (hypothetically) but when you turn up in the shop they are selling you without the function or the cheaper price!
... Really?
Who are you people and what game have you been playing till now? They just keep doing what they've always done. Why are you surprised?
What other reason can you think of to hold the weekly patch at Friday instead of the usual thursday??
I guess they think their clientele has memory issues. "Let them rage for a few days, the anger will be gone monday".... Yeah right...
FateSpinners Guild Leader We are RECRUITING!!
This is Spartan bae.
The good news for Cryptic is that they are not obligated to explain themselves to anyone, and if they do they certainly are not required to tell the truth. They can say and do with this game (and this forum) whatever they want -- read the TOS. The only power or authority you have is at the point of sale, meaning you can choose to give them money or not. After that, you are in their world where they make the rules, and those are subject to change without notice. See the TOS -- clearly says that. And we all agreed to it.
Okay, friday was a little sad, because there are some nice and funny folks in my ex guild who I'm not likely to ever meet again (certainly not on another game by this company), but apart from that - what's really to miss?
Okay, the basic game looks nice and the mechanics are ok. Both things that other games offer as well. Other than that?
- utterly broken pvp matchmaking that puts all the overgeared, overpowered characters into one team 90% of the time. Winning or losing such a match has got nothing to do at all with skills or even being lucky. You get permastunned by permanently invulnerable and/or invisible toons before they one-hit-kill you. If you're *lucky* the enemy team lets you at least gain enough points so you can earn your diamonds - *if* they're "merciful" and don't just camp your team's spawn... Sure, you don't *have* to play it, but if you want the AD - bad luck.
- the lack of content. Oh, it's kinda okay when you play it for the first time I guess, I liked it. lvl 1-60 at least. But when I then started my second character in a totally different class (fighter - spellcaster) the fact that you simply play exactly the same storyline once again... While joining the watch as an officer actually was pretty spot on for the fighter now doing the same with the wizard felt ... wrong. *poof* - Immersion gone. You could at least have given them other NPCs who then give the same quests, but with a slightly different background story. So since there was nothing new to be experienced with my 2nd char I stopped playing him and instead decided to go back upgrading my main. And - oh boy... The campaigns... You know something is off when the game pretty much tells you upfront: "Okay, to reach the next stage please play this handful of quests again and again and again once a day for a month or so". Why do they do this? Well, obviously they have to make you really *appreciate* the little they have. The same goes for the party runs: Your reward for levelling up far enough is a few new dungeons and a bunch of the same old ones only more difficult. Lllllaaaaaaazy. And the same goes for the upcoming "new" dungeons that, apparently, were in the game before but then taken out for whatever reason.
You might see it different, but that's my point of view. After one playthrough lvl 1-70 one of the most important things PERIOD for me in a roleplaying game became basically nonexistennt: The feeling that, out there, there's a whole world to explore and new stuff to find out.
There's other stuff too (like the absolute shame the foundry isn't a glowing centerpiece of Neverwinter, but a buggy mess), but my two main points for me turned the game into as much fun as having to work on a HAMSTER job - you do stuff you don't enjoy again and again, because you *have* to, in order to "earn your wage" (-> get better gear).
And you know what? Right now I feel just as if I had quit a HAMSTER job at a lousy company and closed the office door behind me for the last time. Aaaaaaah. Taking a deep breath.
... a HAMSTER job I *paid* money to work. XD
*bleep* this - games are meant to be enjoyed and to remove me from my boring daily life, not mirror it, only with swords.
> You know what? Doesn't feel all that bad, now I've quit. On the contrary.
>
> Okay, friday was a little sad,
Have to admit… I'm a bit sad this afternoon. I hadn't yet bought VIP, so I was just going to hang out and see if they fixed their issues at some point, or do as much free as I could…. But then I got censored, unsurprisingly, for pointing out that the forums are censored (as this message no doubt will be)… and it turns out that, more than anything, makes me want to disengage from anything to do with this company….