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Two most discussed topics we've seen been about Skill Systems and Marketplace. We'll address Skill Trees in our next post, and for right now lets discuss how Marketplace works. 

While we understand that idea of having Marketplace in a survival game may looks like evil thing, we've designed it to make sure that it's presence won't introduce unfair advantage to some players. Here's some facts that will help you to understand how Marketplace works :

1) Lets start with fact that none of powerful balance changing items are available in Marketplace - ie you can't buy for example bigger backpacks or guns. 

2) Most of the items that are sold in Marketplace are sold for in game currency, that can't be bought using real world money. Ie - before you'll be able to purchase most of the items in Marketplace, you'll have to FIND "dollars" in a game world. so when you start game, you just can't buy anything from Marketplace. 

3) Items that are available for Gold Coins ( only currency that you can both obtain by playing game or by buying using real world money ) are mostly cosmetic items like Hats, character appearance customizations, things like chem lights, flares, etc - ie something that can enhance your visual game experience, but will not give you advantage in a game world. There're very few items that sold for GC that are equivalent to items that can be found in a game world, but they are not adding any disbalance to the game ( yes, yes we've checked  ). 

4) Marketplace doesn't offer some rare items, that can only be found in a game world.

Except that currently, food, water, ammo, melee weapons and weapon attachments are sold in the marketplace.  Which, is obviously pay to win.  Food, water, ammo, guns, armor, backpacks or attachments should not be sold in the marketplace.  Selling those items immediately introduces a play to win model.  All of those things give players an advantage over another.

Plus, some actually cost real money.  Which makes no sense to me because those items can be lost.  You would have to be a glutton for punishment if you were willing to spend real life money on digital items that you could lose forever within five minutes of game play.

The marketplace feature, as it currently stands, will break the balance of the game.  Not that it is balanced to begin with or anything.

The War Z's cash shop is not even close to a pay to win scenario.  Its quite effectual and yeilds convienence not an unfair advantage.

The true definition of a pay to win gamebreaker seems lost on some people so I'll just point out that paying for uber gear or exclusive items really defines a problematic cash shop.  The fact that someone can buy health for real money constitutes that: yes, the player with more resources will win.  In a battle; if a person willingingly pays the price for something you too might have already obtained by ingame or other means like in TWZ, all is fair.  

TMZ is not a pay-to-win scenario; preparation or grinding ingame can achieve the same effect that a good cash shop does, save a few treats here and there like cosmetics or other truely "extra" bits.  So much in TWZ is about being at the right time and place anyway that bitching about a pure resource cash shop is akin to claiming  being shot from behind is "no fair".

Originally posted by DAS1337

Except that currently, food, water, ammo, melee weapons and weapon attachments are sold in the marketplace.  Which, is obviously pay to win.  Food, water, ammo, guns, armor, backpacks or attachments should not be sold in the marketplace.  Selling those items immediately introduces a play to win model.  All of those things give players an advantage over another.

While I do not like it there there and hope they will not be when released it's hardly pay to win. These items are easily enough obtained in the game itself and even (excluding armor) have some stored already in my global inventory.

Also when do you win this game? If someone brough a gun, has he won? If he killed you with the gun, did he win the game? He is going to get killed at one point and lose his items. What if you killed him and you take his weapon and ammo. Would it then not be called "P2MMW" Pay 2 make me win? 

You know what. That is how I am going to call it P2MMW, because at one point I will get a gun someone else payed for (if you could buy them at all ;)) and make me "win"...well till someone kills me and goes around "winning" himself..untill he dies...and then someone else will "win".

The only real problem I forsee in these cases is the influx of sniper rifles and other high end items that should be rare. 

You can easily find 99% of the stuff in the marketplace in game. If any of the people here have actually played the game, you find pain killers, anti biotics and bandages like mad. Shotguns are the most frequent encounters, then hand guns, then rifles and the most rare gun is the sniper types. Ammos so far just from my own experience is harder to find than guns.

You can also find food and beverages everywhere - even backpacks. You don't exactly need to rely on the marketplace at all.

I may be mistaken, but wasn't there a post that states ammo for guns will be rare and hard to come by in game? If that is true then wouldn't buying your ammo in the cash shop make that statement moot?

Also I cannot imagine spending any real money for a CS item no matter if it gives me an advantage or not when a hacker can kill me the moment I log in if he pleases and take my stuff. What can be done to compensate players who do spend real $$ in the CS and then killed by a hacker? Nother can be done. (assuming hacking will remain an issue, which it very well could)

Just my opinion and an observation that just sounds logical to me.

There are minimal ammos in the marketplace and none of them affect anything. You find most of them in-game as I said however they are a rarer encounter than the actual guns themself. It isn't easy to counter client-side hackers (all FPS games are client-side) rather than server-side hackers.

It is a pretty long explanation on the big difference between those two. Just to sum it up, server-side goes straight to the server itself which makes it easy to track faults, hacks, etc. However if it's a client side game, information that goes to the client and if it is accepted, then the server will accept it. It goes through the client first then the server.

Hope that made sense xD