This topic is specifically about the Battle Pass and subsequent cash shop feature, there are threads dedicated to the other additions to the game, so those are where discussions for them should take place.
As for the “why is it such a big deal to miss out on stuff” argument, I ask this.
Why does an item need to be limited in the first place?
Unlike the other poster’s mention of the Death of Superman comic cover fiasco (which was also an awful marketing move which helped lead to the crash of the Comic market as a whole), the items in Conan are digital. Once they’re designed and coded, it costs Funcom absolutely nothing to release them. The item is already developed and released, Funcom does not need to invest any more time or effort into it. Hell, since all the assets for these items will have to be loaded into my hard drive whether I buy them or not, I have more negative repercussions from these items being made then Funcom does after they get released.
The ONLY reason a game like this has limited release items is to encourage people to buy them. It is a straight up abusive marketing ploy and nothing more, it adds no value to the player that the item is limited. There is no after market value, and the only “bragging rights” one can attain from purchasing these items is that they happened to play at the right time.
This game already has some time limited items. Conan’s Armor, the Watcher gear, the old furniture and animal statues, that one Rhino skin, there’s plenty of time limited items already in the game, and I’m not complaining about any of them. The main reason being they weren’t specifically limited time sales events. Some where pre-order bonuses, other in game rewards for special events, but none of them had a specific window of time for you to buy them outright. Hell, I think that since it’s been so long since they’ve been released, these items should get released as Paid DLC sets. The people who were around at there initial launch get the benefit of obtaining them for free, while late comers can still obtain them buy giving Funcom money. In my mind, that would be a win for everyone. But I get that Funcom wants these items to remain rare, and that’s fine, they came out from special events so I can see why they’d want them to remain “special”.
But timed Battle Passes and limited Cash Shop items are not special events. They’re a marketing ploy to get players to spend more money on items that they really shouldn’t be paying for. They create an artificial scarcity on items that have no limit on production, and that’s a manipulative marketing scheme. It’s a predatory practice that takes advantage of players while providing no positive change for the player base as a whole.
This game has been out for four years, and in that time has released twelve paid DLCs of various price points. It’s released on average three DLCs a year since it’s launched, that should be more then enough to keep funding the game. With straight DLC packs, there’s no hoops to jump through, no timed limited items, no nickel and dime purchases or log in requirements. You buy the DLC, Funcom gets your money, you get your additional items and everyone is happy.
A Cash Shop and Battle Pass are convoluted marketing schemes designed to derive maximum profits for minimum effort. They’re additions no one asked for. They’re well known and common methods of manipulative marketing, and give the players less content while charging them far more on average per item. Propriety currency specifically is one of the most vile ways to siphon money from fans of a game, and are often priced specifically to make it so you have to spend more then the minimum of an item to purchase the things you actually want. This change is not good for the players nor is it good for the long term health of the game itself.
I have no problem with giving Funcom money. Again, I’ve purchased all their DLCs, multiple times. I’ve spent more money on this one game then all my other game purchases in the past five years combined. But when their paid system goes from quarterly DLC packs you can buy directly to cash shop, proprietary coins and battle passes, all of which are known abusive monetization systems, it does not bode well for the future of the game.
I honestly feel this isn’t even something Funcom themselves wanted to do, as prior to 2020 they seemed very adamant about being against such practices. But with their buyout, they seem to have to fall in line to keep the game running and that’s bad for everyone in the long run.