Cryptic recently announced Champions Online will have a cash shop on top of a subscription in which you can buy with real money items that can also be earned in game.  Do you have faith that the Star Trek IP is in good hands, and will you play it if they have a cash shop?  

For me this has put Cryptic in the same boat as SOE, and I don't think i'll support this model, but to me RMT destroys games in so many ways.  How does it affect you?

I have hopes for this game as ive been following the series' and movies since the the  origianl series launched, yes im really that old. :) But i will not play a F2P game as i feel cash shops are a scam and certainly will not pay to play a game with cash shops.

Meh... As long as you can earn anything that is in the CS in the actual game by playing it I see this as a non-issue. If people want to be lazy and stupid enough to pay for something that you could get by just playing the game I say let them. By doing this Cryptic is putting the gold farmers out of business before they can even begin. I'd much rather have a CS run by Cryptic than have to deal with...

General Chat: Farmer175> Cheap Plat and items at STOPLAT.com!!!!

... At every planet and Starbase I visit. I say that a CS that sells in game acquirable items is actually a good thing as it takes it right out of the hands(and the wallets) of the farmers.

Bren

It's too bad they made that decision as I will now not being buying Champions Online and it does in fact make me question if I should even bother following STO just to have them do the same.

 in game legal real money for in game money and items transactions hasnt stopped the non english speaking gold farmer spam abuse in eve online either.  you can trade isk for time code cards people pay real money for as per ccp legally, the gold farmers just try and sell you their isk for slightly less, even though ccp has stepped it up from just banning the farmers to putting a -sign on the buyers wallet, hehe people having been crying alot after buying isk to find that their 5,000,000,000 wallet is now at -5,000,000,000.  but i digress, i dont think cash shops help, they just make people lazy and reward those who steal cc numbers.

Originally posted by grandpagamer

I have hopes for this game as ive been following the series' and movies since the the  origianl series launched, yes im really that old. :) But i will not play a F2P game as i feel cash shops are a scam and certainly will not pay to play a game with cash shops.

I don't think I would object if Champions Online was a F2P game with microtransactions. Unfortunately the game is P2P with microtransactions. Yes, exactly, a cash shop on top of the subscription model.

 As I said in the thread in the Champions Online forum here, I'm not bothered by it one bit.

Originally posted by DragonShark

 As I said in the thread in the Champions Online forum here, I'm not bothered by it one bit.

You may not be, but alot of people are.

Unless their Sub fee is lower then the normal... it's just lame.
Now if they are only charging 8 bucks a month, instead of the normal 15, I'd be a little more willing to accept it... but only a little.

I'm not a fan of Micro Transactions myself, but if anyone thinks that its not gonna become the norm then they are Kidding themselves. As long as it does not upset the balance of the game then I'm OK with it. The MMO market is getting more crowded each day and to be able to pay to develop and run a AAA MMO then something has to give. City of Heroes/Villains has the same model that Champions (and most likely STO to an extent) will use, and you do not see it going to hell because of it. It has not unbalanced the game nor caused a mass exodus. SOE, Blizzard, and EA ( not to mention several other smaller Devs)have or is working on implementing some form of MTs into their respective games, and is part of the evolution of MMOs like it or not , I dont, but im not kidding myself thinking its gonna go away. Am I gonna stop playing MMOs or avoid titles which use MTs (which the number is growing)? No of course not, I LOVE MMO's ,and I will base my judgement of the game whether or not I'm gonna play it on ALL the factors of the game, and whether or not the MT's( if any) in the game unbalance it will play a big role. Again I DO NOT like Micro-Transactions, but if done in a manner that does not unbalance the game then It will not bother me at all that its in the game. Just dont count on me to ever use it.
 

I don't know I think the only way to draw in the huge numbers which is a direct way to measure revenue is to have a solid, polished product, and to not be greedy and treat your playerbase like a commodity.  I think a cash shop will never match up with a truly massive and epic MMO.  There are other ways to curb RMT and this is a greedy and lazy way out imo.

Originally posted by Bureyku

 which you can buy with real money items that can also be earned in game

This part i think we need to know, which items are they refering to. If it means an epic set that takes players months to raid to achieve, and other rich kid can just buy off the shop, than its really a total disaster...

<sigh> Two games in one month that I was looking forward to, but now will NOT be playing.  

Originally posted by arctarus

Originally posted by Bureyku

 which you can buy with real money items that can also be earned in game

 

This part i think we need to know, which items are they refering to. If it means an epic set that takes players months to raid to achieve, and other rich kid can just buy off the shop, than its really a total disaster...

 

If you were realy interrested in the game you would already know the information about your epic set.

Originally posted by Bureyku

Cryptic recently announced Champions Online will have a cash shop on top of a subscription in which you can buy with real money items that can also be earned in game.  Do you have faith that the Star Trek IP is in good hands, and will you play it if they have a cash shop?  

For me this has put Cryptic in the same boat as SOE, and I don't think i'll support this model, but to me RMT destroys games in so many ways.  How does it affect you?

This depends entirely on what kind of a "Cash Shop" we are talking about.

In CoX there were numerous ways to spend extra money on the game. They charged for character name changes and server transfers, which I thought was kind of obnoxious but not enough so for it to prevent me from playing the game. They also sold "Bonus Packs" (I believe that was what they were called) that gave extra costume peices and usually worthless powers, nothing that game an advantage over other players. I would never spend money on that sort of thing but as long as nobody gains an unfair advantage then I could give a crap less if other people do it. Guild Wars also had similar systems in place which bothered me a little but not enough to prevent me from playing the game. As long as the items which are bought at this "cash shop" are for aesthetic purposes only then I'm okay (although not happy) with it.

On the other hand if its the traditional asian "Cash Shop" where people buy items, in-game money and other obvious advantages that make them more effecitve than other players who have put the same or more time into the game but no money, then thats pretty much cheating in my opinion and I would NEVER play a game that offers that sort of thing. It doesn't even matter if non-paying players can "eventually" get the same items without paying because its not about the items themselves, its about time invested and player skill. Why would anyone bother learning how to play the game, teaming up with other players, forming guilds or completing quests if they could just BUY a maxed out character with perferct gear on day one? Thats total BS in my opinion.

Whats worse is that many true asian style cash shop games make it next to impossible to even play the game at all without spending money in the cash shop. Just like old fashioned arcade games that ramped up the difficulty to an outrageous level but allowed you to keep playing as long as you kept feeding the machine quarters, cash shop games simply make the game outrageously difficult to play without buying special uber-powered items from the cash shop. And as another poster in this thread pointed out, these sorts of games are pretty much a scam designed to bleed people of their money as rapidly as possible.

I laugh at the people who say they won't play these games if there's a cash shop.  Folks, within a year, almost every game will have a cash shop (even if coupled with a sub) a of one sort or another, even the big ones like SWOTOR.  its the future folks, Dev's are going to maximize their revenue.

And to those who say they'll give up on the genre? No, you won't, you'll be back.

Originally posted by Kyleran

I laugh at the people who say they won't play these games if there's a cash shop.  Folks, within a year, almost every game will have a cash shop (even if coupled with a sub) a of one sort or another, even the big ones like SWOTOR.  its the future folks, Dev's are going to maximize their revenue.

And to those who say they'll give up on the genre? No, you won't, you'll be back.

 

Yes, I will, but thanks for answering for everyone.

I have zero faith in Cryptic now, STO will be a bust.

Anyone willing to pay a monthly subscription for 'almost' the whole game is a fool.

I wonder if SoE learned that, might want to ask the recently fired 41 employees.

There was some MMORPG that someone calculated out that you would have to play for 2 years to get the items you could buy in the CS.  And the items in the CS you had to buy to be competitive, you had to pay something like $300 per character.

It probably won't keep me from playing the game, but this will come back to bite them in the butt.  They should only do it with one game or the other, not both.

I'm still gonna play their games, don't really care about cash shops. 

If people are that desperate for an edge over others then let them blow their cash.  (although i doubt anything you can buy will affect gameplay.)

Originally posted by Kyleran

And to those who say they'll give up on the genre? No, you won't, you'll be back. 

I've pretty much already given up this genre. I'm subscribed to exactly zero MMOs right now and I refuse to play free MMOs anymore. So don't bother trying to predict what everyone is going to do. I'm sure you are already wrong about a great number of people.

Plus everyone complains these days about how every MMO is the same and how they all are trying to copy each other. Games that are willing to be different and stand out from the crowd are going to have an advantage. And if "ALMOST EVERY" game is going to have a cash shop, then what better way to stand apart from the crowd than NOT to have a cash shop?

Ofcourse I still have faith. All their rmt stuff is all materialistic stuff you do not need, its all wants. Anyway, they are making a good mmo that many will like. You can tell from their forums that most of the people are excited about the game and can't wait to play, like me.