Fatshark, can we talk?
First off, the core gameplay loop is incredible. The impacts are satisfying and meaty, the enemies have excellent variety, and the game feels consistently good to play. Your gameplay team absolutely nailed their job. I adore the minute to minute gameplay and I’m having a great time with it.
I’m not going to talk about stability or optimization, because that’s something I have faith you’ll fix because it is in your best monetary interest to do so. Obviously they need work. You’ve acknowledged as much in your press releases.
What I do want to address is the shop scheme. It is unacceptable. Not the paid shop, but the base weapons shop.
It is manipulative and horrible gacha gambling nonsense and implementing it was cynical, exploitative, and immoral.
I know what you’re doing. We all know what you’re doing. You’re using the gacha game model of motivating people to constantly log in, to constantly think about the game, to constantly interact, to always be thinking about the game, vastly increasing the chances they’ll spend money on it. You’re deliberately breeding obsession and exploiting FOMO to keep people continuously interacting with the game. People twigged onto the FOMO exploitation in the premium shop, but it’s even more relevant and insidious here.
I admit, this makes sense from a capitalist standpoint. Games cost money. However, it’s a horrible experience for the player to have your item progression tied to random nonsense instead of interacting with the core gameplay loop. I know that plasteel and diamantine are going to become more relevant as you roll out the crafting system in full which keeps actualy playing the game relevant, but base stats are still king and you’ve locked them behind an immoral obsession scheme. Players are already complaining about the fact that the end game is checking a shop every hour rather than actually playing the actual game they bought.
Tie high level items to actually playing the game instead of this cynical nonsense.
Further, the siloing of resources is ridiculous. At the least, implement a “cache” system where we can share guns between characters. Currency and crafting supplies being shared would be ideal, as well, but getting a perfect lasgun on my psyker instead of my veteran is a tragedy, not a motivator. If you insist on this ridiculous hourly rolling system, (which you shouldn’t!), players need some kind of motivation to interact. Multiple level 30 characters are functionally a slew of reroll chances and we deserve some kind of experience that isn’t checking 5 characters’ shops every hour on the hour. What about that is fun or engaging?!
We saw your “Our designers are taking this feedback seriously and are discussing how to best implement a solution that meets our players’ desires and gameplay goals while also striking a balance with the game’s design intent.” We know that this means, “We’re trying to figure out the barest minimum we can get away with to preserve as much of the psychological manipulation of our shop model as we can.” Frankly, that’s insulting to us, our reading comprehension, our general intelligence, and our time.
This shop model would have been an absolute dealbreaker for me if I hadn’t received the game as a gift. As it is, it’s a dealbreaker for my wife (who I normally game with) and I warn anyone who’s asked me away from this predatory model because it’s actively unfun in addition to being manipulative. I have no intention of spending a single cent until this nonsense is resolved.
Monetization crew: Have some respect for your consumers and their time. Make better, more exciting cosmetics and let us actually be rewarded for playing the damn game, not hourly menu-checking. If you have a good game people are excited to play, they’re happy to spend money. Bitterness and resentment don’t breed consumer satisfaction or enthusiasm. Just look at your Steam rating getting bombed.
Combat and level teams: Keep up the great work. Looking forward to more.