In the newest WoM Season 2 Beta survey, there is a question regarding the possibility of shillings being purchasable with money.
Since there is no way for us to know the outcome of this survey, I though it would be a good idea to make this poll in order to find out - publicly - how people feel about it. I doubt that this poll will get as many votes as the survey, but if you can, please share this with others.
The poll is anonymous.
Question from the survey: Would you like to have an option to purchase Shillings and spend it on items in the store?
I’ll be open with my thoughts here. I voted no, but it’s not quite as simple as that.
I don’t especially like the option, as (like others’ concerns here in the forums) it can be a slippery slope, because that kind of thing may be a start down a very greedy path; if you can purchase in-game currency with real-life one, there is incentive for the game company to make it a more lucrative option to purchase the currency both through making it a chore to earn in-game and through introducing extra things to purchase with it - specifically, items with unique in-game effects (aka pay-to-win mechanics).
That said, as long as they stay off that slippery slope, keeping the Shillings earnable in-game (and the relative prices of the items) under reasonable effort and pace and limiting the things purchased to cosmetics only, I don’t mind the option being there. I won’t be using the option myself, and the shadow of doubt will be there as long as the game is being developed actively, but it’s acceptable.
In my mind, the risk of this turning into the nastier side of game monetization and the fact I won’t use the option far outweighs the “not minding the option” part, thus the No vote.
I voted no. Shillings should only ever be earnable through gameplay imo. Allowing players to buy them may undermine the system and encourage others to catch up, especially because some cosmetics are on a rotation. Another issue with selling shillings is Fatshark are introducing the “problem” of grind where you are heavily encouraged to pay for the “solution” and over time Fatshark could gradually push those prices up to encourage purchase of shillings even more, if there are not enough players purchasing them. Like Yzneftamz has said, it can turn into a slippery slope.
I don’t expect to get everything for free though and I get that Fatshark deserve to make money off good quality cosmetics, so I will gladly pay for premium only (good quality, unique and not recolours) cosmetics with real money - or - pay for a second premium only currency where I can only buy premium only cosmetics with it, where the prices for the cosmetics don’t fluctuate, they stay the same for the lifetime of the game.
A second premium only currency may sound like a terrible idea, but it is my experience with other games that a premium only currency gives a game a lot more freedom later down the line if they ever decide to do a battlepass system and/or want to introduce event only cosmetics where they can give some away during the event and sell the rest on later as premium only. It just gives them more options as a developer while keeping the integrity of the free currency.
I’m the third post, and the two guys above me have already summed up everything wrong with paying for an in-game currency.
The mention of a battlepass system made me recoil.
Stick with what was first mentioned; Shillings in game and some premium skins paid for by cold-hard-cash. This is a simple way.
WHY would FS be considering allowing players to buy in-game shillings other than… pay to skip the content they’ve spent ages developing to put into the game to encourage repeat visits by players> i.e the weeklies and Lohner’s Emporium? What next? Oleysha’s Brothel where you get to pay some shillings to hang out the back of the old lady?
As a side note, there’s still mountains of the game to fix and this whole Lohner’s thing is beginning to feel like a snatch-the-cash before the game dies.
Well for one thing this is in the fatshark lounge rather than either the beta or the VT2 feedback section so this is probably gonna be the least visited section. Also its in the beta survey so Fatshark can collect data from that one as well and do as they please with the information.
Sure, however feedback section really isn’t a good place for this poll, since as I said, I am not doing it for fatshark - as you said yourself they have their own survey. The point of this poll is to show us the general opinion of the community, since FS survey is not public.
Keeping shillings and dollars separate is essential, in my opinion. For several reasons. One of the clearest ones is PR. As the polls show, most don’t agree with the idea and I can guarantee you that a huge percentage of the playerbase are hostilely against the idea, and for good reason. It will not look good if you can buy shillings. And part of why it won’t look good is linked to another important aspect about it:
Balance. It is imperative that shillings are balanced in a healthy way to make playing the game and earning cosmetics from the emporium feel rewarding and not grindy. At the same time, it’s important that cosmetics feel valuable, that people do work to earn them. This balance is already hard to get to as is, if you could PURCHASE shillings it’d be even more nightmarish and impossible to balance, not to mention it would devalue the uniqueness of the cosmetics.
Lohner’s Emporium should be shillings. Shillings should be game time, not money.
The exclusive, real money cosmetics should be real money cosmetics. Completely separate, for transparency and health of the game and the community.
I voted “Maybe Later”, because there was no “Don’t Care” option which pretty much sums up how I feel.
Being able to purchase them (or not) are both viable options, either one could be screwed up with improper implementation… kind of like the current beta status, you can’t buy them with real money, the amount you can get every week is capped because it’s based on weekly quests with the more expensive items costing more than two weeks of doing EVERY weekly, and weekly quests vary in the amount of work required by RNG and some of them just kinda suck. This causes multiple problems and is frustrating for both hardcore players who want other ways to earn, as well as casual players who may see their quests reset before they can get them completed with progress not carrying over to the next week. A shillings-for-real-money system would be preferable to this for many people if it was done right.
TL;DR it depends on the implementation, I don’t care a whole lot either way.
Shillings being buyable with real money would be the first time I’d be actually deeply disappointed with FS. Sure, they made mistakes sometimes, but nothing as bad, and especially as malignant, as selling Shillings.
On the other hand, if they officially announce that Shillings will NEVER be buyable, I’d be so happy I’d buy some real money cosmetics just for the principal of it.
I voted “No” even if i’m not against the idea of purchasing shillings with real money.
I can’t stand for a monetisation with this context:
A/ Limited earn shillings per weeks meaning you can’t farm them
B/ Cosmetics shop rotation meaning you can miss items
C/ No transparency from Fatshark
For A, given the forced scarcity of shillings, buying will break the balance and the kind of economy they want to make (“We don’t want you to have all the cosmetics”, i won’t discuss the stupidity of said politics, but if they want to go that way they better not do it just to force us to pay).
Considering A, with B, you are sure to miss comestics as you will never be able to get enough shillings. Even the rotation isn’t clear: Will they come back? When? That put even more emphasize on the fear of customer to miss something important. That is a well know predatorial mechanic use to abuse human psychology and force customers to spend money. That is the thing i have to more problems with. They didn’t even introduce the shop completely and it already stinks.
With two previous points come C. No transparency. No clear telling if it was their plan since the beginning or not.
Why did they design it that way? Are they are completely aware of all the gray area it touch? Sure it’s not illegal, but on the morality side it is much more controversial.
If they just stole that design without even trying to understand what it involve, i’m gravely worried about their decision makings that would be made without second though. But if know what they are doing, they better admit it and be clear from the start.
TLDR: I have no problem spending money on cosmetics, but using frustration to milk player instead of making real good contents to praise the player and incencitize them to spend money i nothing i can stand for.
Fatshark, be clear, put everything on the table, and after we could talk about it. But for now, we just work around hypothesis and sadly, we have to think of the worst to be prepared.
I basically agree with everything in your post wholehartedly, except for your point about buying Shillings ever being theoretically buyable is possibly okay. I think it would never be okay, because it will always introduce problems of the sort you just laid out, even if they weren’t around already before that…
FS really needs to introduce a better, more consistent way of gaining shillings. If they don’t, then we really should ask why.
The way I see it is:
a) They want to keep the amount of shillings a player gets limited in order to control how fast we can obtain new cosmetics.
-(Which is just absurd. It is up to the players to decide how fast they want to get something. If we want to grind for a month to unlock every cosmetic in the shop and then just wait for new cosmetics, so be it. It is our time and our decision to make, not Fatshark’s.)
b) They want to artificially limit the shilling-gain in order to encourage players to buy them instead (if they introduce this option)
-(This would be just disgusting, and it will alienate a crap load of people, possibly sinking this game entirely.)
I have no problem with Fatshark giving players more options, whether that be letting them purchase shillings or cosmetics with direct cash. Allowing other people to interact with the game how they want doesn’t affect me, and if it makes things better for them then why not?
It does when shillings are earned at a miserable rate to encourage buying them instead, which is pretty much guaranteed to happen (if they decide to sell them).
Selling some extra fancy premium skins outside of the emporium is great. Selling shillings will never end well.
That is making assumptions that were not asked in the OP. The rate of Shilling Acquisition through Gameplay is a separate issue than the principle of allowing people to buy shillings.
I also voted no.
I’m okay with unique cosmetics buyable as a dlc. I’m okay with shillings given as part of dlc (even cosmetics).
I’m not okay with an in-game money that is directly buyable outside the game. It devalues the money you earn in game. And it also a not so consumer friendly practice that is pretty close to the loot boxes.
Knowing that the rate will somewhat be slowed by the need for them to sell some shilling outside it doesn’t work for me.