12 replies to this topic

[Scarlett Avignon]

Dear PRI,

I REALLY REALLY hope a dev reads this and sees the wisdom of the words I'm about to type.

One of the most annoying things in the other F2P game I play, World of Tanks, is their Gold-for-Credits system. It's pointless and never, ever used, except by people with too much money and not enough brains. They have a horrifically low exchange rate, coupled with the fact that you sell your gold right back to the server. It's the biggest waste of real-currency in the game, and adds nothing. Really, it doesn't even need to be a market. It can work if you you even want to just set a fixed conversion rate. It's just very important that it's player-to-player.

Please, do the smart thing and implement a Player-to-Player currency exchange system. Many F2P games do this, the most successful in mind being Eve Online's PLEX system. Let me outline a few reasons you should do this.

1. Has the potential to make you even more money: Players are more willing to buy real-currency to sell to another player than they are to a server, provided it's at a decent exchange rate.

2. Enables your players without a lot of discretionary spending to have wider access to the game: Plus, if you get to try the goods, you're more likely to buy them yourself, later. Real-Currency can be addictive

3. Promotes a sense of community: I can name several times I've purchased Real-Currency specifically to help a friend. Everyone wins.

4. Makes the Real-Currency to In-game Currency system usable: As I said, if it's poorly done, no one will use it, and you end up making less money.

Those are just a few points. I'm sure others can add more.

Love,
Frank

P.S.- Fellow players, please post a comment to keep this thread visible for a while. I'd rather important the devs see this. I know it may sound like a small idea, but it can actually be really important for the game in the long run.

[VxSaAgE]

+1, when I play LoL, I see 5 RP (Riot Points, the Real Currency) sitting in my account and that buys absolutely nothing. NOTHING in the game costs 5 RP and there isn't anything you can buy that ends in a 5 either, so it's always be 5 extra.

[Deracial]

Yeah the PLEX system in eve worked out amazingly well.

[Rugarou]

This would easily enable the "gold farmers" to make money off the game.. Hell no.

Think before you post. Money exchange between players isn't needed as there is NO FREAKING PLAYER TRADING IN GAME!

Oh and about the PLEX system, It actually put an artificial control mechanism on EvE's economy and is controlled by a few people. Yea That was a good idea.

Edited by Geaux Tiger, 08 August 2012 - 12:11 AM.

[Scarlett Avignon]

Geaux Tiger, on 08 August 2012 - 12:09 AM, said:

This would easily enable the "gold farmers" to make money off the game.. Hell no.

Think before you post. Money exchange between players isn't needed as there is NO FREAKING PLAYER TRADING IN GAME!

Oh and about the PLEX system, It actually put an artificial control mechanism on EvE's economy and is controlled by a few people. Yea That was a good idea.

Ummm, how exactly could you gold farm? There is no exchange for the same currencies in the system I outlined. The PLEX system does not impose an artificial control over the economy, as all input into the economy is still controlled by the players. You should read more about the economics of Eve Online. Why don't you think before you have a screaming knee-jerk reaction while you're at it?

[Rugarou]

Franklen I played EvE-O for 4 years as both a pirate and a trader on separate accounts. If you do not think that the Plex system added in a control over the economy then you need to look deeper than just the surface yourself. I never stated the economy wasn't controlled by players. Read again.

For your system to work you would need to have player-player trading/exchange. Which means that you would need to have c-bill/ M-credits exchangable between players as you yourself stated. This then leads to in game currency being sold on third party sites (gold sellers/ farmers in parlance). And yes they would have bots then running in pub games to earn the in game currency to then sell. If you do not think so then you are delusional. This is why I'm against it. See what I'm saying?

[4braxas]

Although I like the idea of having Economics in MWO be like in EVE, Geaux Tiger is right.
EVE is an MMO, MWO is just Multiplayer.
Eve is continuous, one one server, no "Join Battle" or whatever. It's one giant area where players can interact in insane amount of ways.
MWO is just a bunch of rounds like in CoD, Battlefield, Counter-Strike, World of Tanks.

[Veive]

Star Trek Online and Guild Wars 2 both have currency exchanges and they manage to keep their sites relitively free of gold farmers.

It actually reduced the spam in STO since players could just buy credits directly from the exchange without having to grind or go to a third party to get what they wanted.

Basically if someone wants to pay real money for cbills they will find a way to do so.
The question is whether or not PGI will profit from the endeavor; I think they should since it would allow players who cannot afford to pay real cash for the game access to premium only items like Hero mechs and extra mech bays.

In the long run this would save PGI a lot of complaints, since if anyone starts up with 'OMG! a free player can't get X!' the rest of the community would shut them down pretty fast.

TL;DR: Use the currency exchange system from Star Trek Online and Guild Wars 2; it will solve a lot of problems.

Cheers,
Veive.

[Elizander]

I'm not for or against it in particular as long as it doesn't cause any trouble. We are still not sure what other use C-bills will have in the future, especially when Community Warfare rolls around. It might be that Merc groups that win some planets need to invest C-bills for planetary defense or if attackers are required to 'bid' for the right to attack that planet (like what most Korean games do for their scheduled PvP events). Having C-bill trades would allow top groups to get as much C-bills as needed to use other groups to counter-bid block and outbid whoever they don't want to fight. This is all just an example, of course. We'll have to wait and see what CW is all about first.

[Melthir]

Franklen Avignon, on 07 August 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

Dear PRI,

I REALLY REALLY hope a dev reads this and sees the wisdom of the words I'm about to type.

One of the most annoying things in the other F2P game I play, World of Tanks, is their Gold-for-Credits system. It's pointless and never, ever used, except by people with too much money and not enough brains. They have a horrifically low exchange rate, coupled with the fact that you sell your gold right back to the server. It's the biggest waste of real-currency in the game, and adds nothing. Really, it doesn't even need to be a market. It can work if you you even want to just set a fixed conversion rate. It's just very important that it's player-to-player.

Please, do the smart thing and implement a Player-to-Player currency exchange system. Many F2P games do this, the most successful in mind being Eve Online's PLEX system. Let me outline a few reasons you should do this.

1. Has the potential to make you even more money: Players are more willing to buy real-currency to sell to another player than they are to a server, provided it's at a decent exchange rate.

2. Enables your players without a lot of discretionary spending to have wider access to the game: Plus, if you get to try the goods, you're more likely to buy them yourself, later. Real-Currency can be addictive

3. Promotes a sense of community: I can name several times I've purchased Real-Currency specifically to help a friend. Everyone wins.

4. Makes the Real-Currency to In-game Currency system usable: As I said, if it's poorly done, no one will use it, and you end up making less money.

Those are just a few points. I'm sure others can add more.

Love,
Frank

P.S.- Fellow players, please post a comment to keep this thread visible for a while. I'd rather important the devs see this. I know it may sound like a small idea, but it can actually be really important for the game in the long run.

First off your post is amazingly arrogant in that it implies that you as a person who does not develop video games some how has more wisdom than the collective team at PGI
Second as posted by other people it invites gold farmers to come and play.
Third this is a free to play game what you just implied about no one buying the MC is crap. Look at how many people are chomping at the bit to throw up clan colors and camo. And god forbid if the camo plus ECM actually makes camouflage effective.(Can you imagine the horror of an atlas that you cannot target and have a hard time making out.) People shilled out money for the founders program before they even new if the game would even be playable for more than 30 min at a time.

And for some of the other post Star trek online is a ghost game Eve has gold farmers and sellers, Guild Wars 2 has them as well if your on a even halfway decent size server. Starwars will be free to play soon and has gold farmers. And god look at Diablo 3. Pretty much as soon as you open currency exchange you have hacked accounts and gold farmers. If you like logging in and having all your **** gone keep campaigning for it.

[Ozzalin]

Franklen Avignon, on 07 August 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

Dear PRI,

I REALLY REALLY hope a dev reads this and sees the wisdom of the words I'm about to type.

One of the most annoying things in the other F2P game I play, World of Tanks, is their Gold-for-Credits system. It's pointless and never, ever used, except by people with too much money and not enough brains. They have a horrifically low exchange rate, coupled with the fact that you sell your gold right back to the server. It's the biggest waste of real-currency in the game, and adds nothing. Really, it doesn't even need to be a market. It can work if you you even want to just set a fixed conversion rate. It's just very important that it's player-to-player.

Please, do the smart thing and implement a Player-to-Player currency exchange system. Many F2P games do this, the most successful in mind being Eve Online's PLEX system. Let me outline a few reasons you should do this.

1. Has the potential to make you even more money: Players are more willing to buy real-currency to sell to another player than they are to a server, provided it's at a decent exchange rate.

2. Enables your players without a lot of discretionary spending to have wider access to the game: Plus, if you get to try the goods, you're more likely to buy them yourself, later. Real-Currency can be addictive

3. Promotes a sense of community: I can name several times I've purchased Real-Currency specifically to help a friend. Everyone wins.

4. Makes the Real-Currency to In-game Currency system usable: As I said, if it's poorly done, no one will use it, and you end up making less money.

Those are just a few points. I'm sure others can add more.

Love,
Frank

P.S.- Fellow players, please post a comment to keep this thread visible for a while. I'd rather important the devs see this. I know it may sound like a small idea, but it can actually be really important for the game in the long run.

Well my dear friend...
I am sorry to bust your bubble, but there IS already a gold to in-game currency system.
Its really simple: Buy any mechs of your choice with MC points/Credit Cards, and then open your mechlab, and sell them back for in game currency. You can also select to sell all the items in them for more C-bill.
The more expensive mechs you buy, the more C-bills you'll get.

[Stoicblitzer]

VxSaAgE, on 07 August 2012 - 05:10 PM, said:

+1, when I play LoL, I see 5 RP (Riot Points, the Real Currency) sitting in my account and that buys absolutely nothing. NOTHING in the game costs 5 RP and there isn't anything you can buy that ends in a 5 either, so it's always be 5 extra.

I never played LoL but how could you only have 5 if nothing costs 5 or ends in 5. Or did you buy 5 RP one time?

[SpiralRazor]

PLEX for Eve was the best thing they could have ever done for that game. Its literally kept the game alive LONG after it should have died out.