@erjoh
First time back to the forums in ages. (Bought the game in early access)
Saw the Age of Sorcery and was ‘wowed’ by the logo and what I saw in the trailer.
Then I saw the bit about Battle pass,
(my friend and I had our immediate opinion - from, ‘coming back’ - to ‘not worth the time’)
So, watched a bit more on the 2hr stream and came here to see ‘what the vibe was’
Low and behold, your title caught me… “Battle pass feedback”
But, it was more like click-bait.
- Seemed you had some feedback to give Funcom about the Battle pass
(Instead you rant on people who don’t like it)
Let’s see if I can help you with some of your queries/comments.
01: “Funcom is a business and needs to make revenue goals”
Yeah, heard Andy say, “gotta keep the lights on”
QUESTION:
You are aware that Elden Ring made more, in approx. 2 weeks, then the highest earning ‘games as a service game’ did over a span of years? (Look it up)
So - about that ‘needing to keep the lights on’ - seems Elden Ring/Witcher 3 disagree with who can keep it on longer.
02: “I fail to see how battle passes and shops are any different than dlcs.”
Simple:
Time/‘false’ scarcity
I am GenX and absolutely love gaming.
(Mainly single player as MMO and any other game is tarnished with games as a service)
Went from Skyrim to ESO, and what do I get?
Another friend and I, who play together, spend most the time in inventory management.
(As they want you to pay monthly for that crafting bag - and fill up your bag quickly with useless junk)
- On top of that - log in daily to get that on reward stuck in there that is ‘kinda ok’
Then go and play some more games…
MTG-Online, HearthStone, etc - automatically things you have to do that day to ‘claim this and that’,
to ‘get this and that’… ‘now’.
(MTG- Online had a pet racoon that was time limited, but only offer 1-2 pets in the store) lol!
Go to WoW - I mean, it is designed around users coming in monthly.
So yeah, while its a well hidden ‘grind’ - best out there.
- Now I have Diablo Immortal that I play with 3 of my friends… and while fun,
the interface is screaming ‘cheap’ - ‘Im a grind fest’ lol!
So… you still dont see the difference in DLCs?
Enjoy - seriously (many peeps love the game within a game of time management and false scarcity)
It affects role-playing, my friend - there are those of us that play games, because… they are games.
A world, a story rich in its tale - immersive - an ‘interactive movie’ (Death Stranding)
- of which, anyone calling it a walking simulator seriously didnt play the game… mainly driving and zip-lining around… barely walking.
03: Tencent
Whether you like it or not - artist are always going to do what suits tell them.
And most of the time, suits have no idea what makes a game good, and ignore success from games like Elden Ring and Witcher 3 as being ‘the exception’
Rarely do you have management that ‘gets it’
Took AMD some time, some failure, to wise up and hire the lady they now have as CEO of AMD, who went to MIT.
(Think of it - Bobby K. was just put back on Blizzards board after all the kurfuffle by 80% of the share holders… as they are certain he is making good money, not wondering what would happen if somone tried an Elden Ring with Blizzard.)
04: Not buying DLCs
Listen, I bought essentially every DLC except the last couple.
Got tired of seeing cool concepts, but - what felt like - minimum effort put into making the pack holistic.
I get it… they want to have a yearly release/expansion now (“Age of this” and “Age of that”)
And every 3 months have a new chapter (They looked at ESO, I guess…)
Funny Eso looked at GW2 and left out some of the key things that made it work.
So… you ranted, and you said “flame away”
Dont have any flames… the fact is, you either are down with it, or not.
For me - I want to get in the world, and get lost in it…
forget about the outside world at that time, and enjoy the narrative, building, etc.
Not be stuck in a ‘grind’ for the day - or ‘not have access’ to something that is there - but, heh, we aint gonna give it to you. Maybe if it was not in the game itself, fine.
Like ignoring expansion. But having it in the interface - dear lord… my main gripe with Diablo Immortal
Take care