I’m getting close to 1k hours play time in steam. It is my second most played game. Yet, I’m reluctant to spend any money on this. Why is that?
I play Last Epoch, which has the best community engagement I have seen. Whereas Fatshark seems to be very often in disconnect with players despite the efforts from the community managers. Major issues are often unaddressed for a long time.
I feel I am not the target audience, because the shop uses predatory tactics to manipulate people with low impulse control and I don’t want to support that kind of monetization.
I think it’s mind-blowing that a 40k game utterly disregards the notion of replicating and painting your figurines.
Reverse Fomo: if I actually consider buying something like an armor, I don’t do it, because I’m currently focused on another class, I don’t like the color, the pricing is off, I don’t have a matching helmet, something better might come along.
To summarize, I think the devs deserve to get paid, but I’m reluctant to spend money if I have the feeling I am manipulated to do so.
On a different note: I often read that fomo is the best pricing method. There are probably general studies on that, but are there are so many variables to consider such as the target audience, game type, that it is impossible to say for sure. Why did SM2 end up with very different pricing and cosmetics? Why is the game riddled with bugs, but the pricing and cosmetic shop is flawless? And even if targeting whales is the best method, is this how you want to earn your livelihood?
Helldivers 2 - a game with objectively better content cadence - community interaction.
Has an VERY FAST in game option to farm its currency, we are talking ~ 70 min for 2 people to farm out enough credits for a warbond:
Which has:
Weapons, stratagems, armor sets, capes, helmets
I’m on the fence. Seriously considering uninstalling and taking a long break. (re-)play some backlog games and maybe come back in the future.
What is supposed to be an exciting content release for the game is instead putting more emphasis on the many failings of FS.
Edit: Thinking about this some more, I’m going to wait it out.
What is the Arbites class going to give us? Lobbies full of people leveling up their Arbites, then taking it into Mortis Trials and see how it stands up in Havoc.
Personally I don’t even bother with Havoc. Auric Damnation is the right amount of intensity and fun for me.
So I’d level my Arbites to 30. Play it a few more rounds, then land on “the build” everyone will be using with minor tweaks and go back to playing Ogryn, hungry for actual game content such as new maps.
Strictly speaking, it’s not that they’re considering it, I recall they simply said they’re open to discussion. So there are no nerfs planned,and we don’t even know if it’s being discussed internally or within the team. We’re not being told anything.
Basically, the Community Manager is just a puppet of Fatshark, so I don’t think communication will improve no matter who takes on the CM role going forward.
slow release of new content (and slow is a kind word)
no balance at all. What was a balance problem, cannot be qualified as this when you let the game unchanged for more than 6 months with broken weapons
teamplay that was here at beginning changed to a try to complete as fast as possible any mission
unwanted game mode and no update for regular game
I know how I will react. I will buy the DLC, that’s sure. Not sure I will play it a lot, but sure I will buy it (but I think I won’t take the Arbites cosmetics, except if price difference is very small).
New cosmetics, not sure. I don’t play Darktide enough now to justify to spend so much money in cosmetics. If it was micro transactions, I would. But we face MACRO transactions.
After a year or so break from the game, I was delighted to see a lot of positive changes…
#BreakTheLocks: The locks be broken, ye kindred - Emperor be Praised! No more being stuck with a crappy perk or blessing!
No More Hunting for Blessings: No more pokey mans! We don’t gotta catch 'em all! Just level up the weapon and get access to everything!
Swappable Marks: We don’t have to carry 16 different variants of the same weapon anymore!
No More Browser Plug-in to Hunt for 380 Weapons: With the rework, everything is a 380 weapon, and if you wanna a specific stat distribution, you just hit up brunt and buy some grays til you find the one you want (for me, it’s been within 2-6 purchases)
Discarding Purple/Gold Weapons Gives You Resources: Now we can earn even more plasteel and diamondine by sacking the weapons we don’t need!
More Weapons to Play With: Ogryn Pickaxes, Greatswords, Super Shotgun, Bolt Pistol, and they all feel good and are fun to play with!
The RNG and crafting have been my most significant grievances (the other being the absence of double-tap dodge, although I use a mod for that), so now that those have been addressed, I’m very happy with where the game is at…
All that said, I 100% agree that the FOMO store was, is, and always will be stupid…
It’s over-priced - I think it’s about double what they charged in Vermintide 2.
You have to buy things with monopoly money - This would only make sense if it could be earned in-game, as they initially promised but later redacted.
The chunks of monopoly money don’t align with the pricing - You always have too much or too little, and you invariably end up spending more real money than what an item might be worth…
Reksins - A lot of what’s for sale is just slightly different coloration of the same thing they had for sale two weeks ago…
As to the new class, I’ll be buying it for myself and a couple of friends who play with me, just because I think it’ll be fun to run around as space police, beating up heretics while screaming, “I am da laaaaaaw” while my doggo pounces and goes “Sir. Sir! Stop resisting!”
Many hundred of hours on Steam and I can say that I’d like to support Fatshark for giving me so much fun gameplay.. but I despise the in-game shop and refuse to use that monopoly money driven, fomo-induced mess.
Isn’t it the 2nd best after literal gambling with gachas and loot boxes? Which are now illegal depending on implementation.
Edit: I mean, I remember that some gambling addicts sold their cars and maxed out credit cards buying premium currency to gamble on the Fate Grand Order Gacha. I haven’t heard the same about FOMO Shops (though, they’re still awful and scummy)
I only want to annoy people with more voice lines I haven’t heard 40k times each. I have almost no hype for the kit or weapons, considering the state of mauls and shotguns. The ults also put me to sleep but I thought dashes were overdone in VT2 where only just over half the classes feature them in some way. I thought Warrior Priest was dull but at least worth it for the larp and drip. Here I have only my faith…
Exactly this. I’d like to reward them for the game I’ve spent the most time playing during the last 2.5 years, but Im afraid that buying sends the wrong message.
People criticize the prices, the quality or the general design of the cosmetics. I’m not happy with some aspects either, but to me, that one issue that dwarfs everything else is not being able to buy whatever I want, whenever I want. As if the damn textures were out of stock. They’re actually on my drive but I can’t use them, no matter how many aquilas I buy (a currency also used to obfuscate the real price btw).
This ties into that lack of agency we had since the release of the game: no crafting, no map selection… These issues have been addressed (map selection to follow to a degree with the patch) , now this cosmetics issue remains. It will probably persist until they can be convinced that a straight, no bs shop works better than a fomo circus.
I think that the people running the show don’t care. People buy this dreck regardless. Hell, I’ve put in money in the shop despite all my complaints, even if I’m nowhere near the whales that pay for every single rotation.
Precisely. I’m very miserly as an old school gamer. But when I love a game enough to drop this amount of time into it, even I like to loosen my wallet and show the devs appreciation. But my only option is positive reinforcement of a FOMO and fake money system that is antithetical to what I love about gaming.
And, even in the face of that, I love this game enough that I bought the imperial upgrade, only on discount as it’s not worth even close to $25 USD. And only because, at the $10 I bought it, it came with skins for all classes and several weapons, all that I like and use on various builds. The aquilas were not a factor.
And the lesson likely learned is that I bought it for the aquilas or whatever the worst takeaway possible could be.
Sometimes I really wish I like Deep Rock Galactic because their monetization and dev practices are the pinnacle of what you can expect in modern gaming.