Let me start by stating that I am aware the game was not financially sustainable with the DLC pack prices before. I bought all of them (with the exception of the most recent one, since I haven’t been playing for a while). But however much a change in monetization strategy may have been necessary, I did not expect (though should have) to find an item shop and battle pass system upon returning to the game. I’m very disappointed in this decision, and would’ve happily paid more for the amazing DLC packs we have gotten to support this game further, but I cannot condone these practices being pushed onto a game I paid for, and supported, for the longest time.
For one, the battle pass. It banks on a predatory FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) model of monetization. Being rushed to achieve certain goals in a limited time just to enforce player traffic is also not something I will support in any way.
If a system such as this has to be implemented, to remedy the predatory FOMO element, make the battle pass exclusive items permanently available in the in-game store as an account-wide purchase, maybe after the season pass’ duration ends.
Then, the ingame currency conversion. The currency and it’s conversion rate are purpusely designed to detach the microtransactions from real-world currency, to obfuscate how much real-world currency any given item in the shop costs. While I understand this increases income, it seems malicious, misleading and opaque to me, so I can’t support that either.
If the currency and conversion instead of real world currency pricing for individual items is necessary, prices and conversion rates should be more easily translateable into real-world value.
And the FOMO in-game shop timer stuff, I don’t even want to point out the obvious again, it’s anti-consumer practice. All things considered, this entire thing is a terrible monetization system overall from a customer’s perspective, designed to obfuscate the value of what you’re about to purchase, taking advantage of people with poor impulse control, and just about as opaque, greedy and the opposite of customer friendly you can get away with.
Unfortunately, even though there would be lots of opportunity to make this system fair and transparent, I don’t actually believe that you have much control over what you started here, Tencent is known for doing this to whatever they buy. But if you can do something about it, please do. I really don’t enjoy being “that guy”, but until something changes, I won’t spend a single cent on any of this (apart from the final DLC pack I’m missing, maybe, to show that I’m willing to support the future of the game and not just trying to vent my frustration into deaf ears). Now I know you couldn’t care less about losing a single person’s future business, I just hope that I’m not the only one.
Sorry if this comes across as harsh to anyone, I don’t mean to set fires, I’m just very disappointed.
, I need the damn plates only! Sorry for the damn, but this is how I felt when I witnessed this item in the bazzar!
This is something I should master: I will study my post to help me figure out why it sounded sarcastic. I’ve done this inadvertently on what used to be Twitter, once by paying a compliment to a public figure and I got ratioed into Neverland. It was epic.
. Some people thought that they will boycott the game until these issues will be fixed. They made me feel guilty of buying things when we were chatting, especially when I was trying to explain them that this decision is respectful but will lead to nowhere, because the employees must be paid somehow, so I don’t find boycott as solution…