Skyforge's community manager Maeron has taken to the official forums with a strong statement about the ongoing discussion of the game's monetization strategy. The statement was penned in response to players "pasting" the P2W accusation on Skyforge. According to Maeron, such allegations damage a game's reputation before it has a chance to launch and that players must place some level of trust in the developers creating the game.
Maeron's response is part of the "Will NA/EU Have the Same Cash Shop System as RU?" thread.
Monetization in free to play is often a source of endless debate involving different parties, ranging from the “core freeplayers" to the “compulsive buyers".
One of the challenges of developing a "free to play" is addressing the demands of each party. Once you've formalized and implemented a plan, however, you're still not done.
You often have to communicate with your members and explain the underlying mechanisms of your design – and doing so usually dissipates most concerns and leads to better feedback from players. Over time, both the developers and players grow a better understanding of sustainable commercial practices.
However, these days it's no longer possible since too many people are prone to pasting the term P2W onto pretty much every situation. This behavior is extremely harmful, in the sense that it damages the image of a game before it has even had a chance to reach to its community. One must trust the developers' vision.
It also weakens the dialog between the community and the developers of the game they play.
For these reasons, we will strive to provide answers to our members in need of details regarding our monetization - but in turn, we won't tolerate the word P2W as of today, nor tolerate oversimplification of monetization in topics.
Members participating in the forum this early in the game project ought to allow its community to grow with a sense of responsibility and communication practices that don't undermine their relationship with the skyforge team.
We'll still ask you to respect our rules out of respect for the community that will establish here and align with the developers' views. Once OBT opens in our territories, everyone will have a chance to check the monetization aspects of Skyforge for themselves.
Please note that repeated failure to comply shall result in the removal of your forum rights and beta access.
Check out the rest of the thread at the link above.
What do you think of Maeron's statement? Is it a fair response? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.