Posted 06 February 2013 - 07:45 AM
PGI, let me tell you a story.
I slid my credit card sensually out of my wallet and laid it gently down on the smooth wrist rest of my cold, mechanical keyboard. I shivered. It was ready. Ready to be the instrument of the electronic transfer of funds from my turgid credit account into your hungry, waiting payment system. It was there, ready. It ached, it burned with the passionate desire to spend.
I whispered into the sultry darkness of my study, "Account-wide colour unlocks" and my credit card trembled in sweet anticipation for what could come next. What it had waited so long for. What it needed so badly that it almost hurt.
I opened the game client and held my breath as I placed my hand on the mouse, slowly tracing a line along the curves of my HBK-4H as I drew the cursor closer, closer to the "ADD MC" button. I knew what was coming but I wanted to savour this moment on this the night of my first MC purchase since the Founders program.
I clicked. My computer's hard drive purred as a browser window appeared. I scrolled down and looked deeply into the endless depths of your Credits page. You hissed, desperately "ADD MORE CREDITS" and I knew that you needed this as badly as I did. We yearned for each other and there was no shame here anymore. We both knew what we wanted and it was time to take it and to hell with what the world thought of us. Tonight, none of it mattered. All that mattered, PGI, was you and I, here, together. The moment drew closer. I knew I had some extra money this week, so I caressed the left mouse button and selected a larger amount. I gripped my credit card in one hand and my mouse in the other as my cursor slid down toward your beautiful, green BUY NOW button...
But then, in just a single moment of hesitation, a thought, just a wisp of doubt entered my mind. "Wait a sec," I said quietly to myself, unable to make that final, sweet click on your button, "how much does this crap cost again?"
I desperately clicked on the game client, selected a mech and opened the Camo Spec tab. And then I saw it and all my fears were realised. It was all a fraud and though your sweet promises of account-wide colour unlocks tempted me still, I knew then that it could never be. The moment was gone and I would never again be so innocent. I opened my wallet and slipped my credit card back inside. It was over.
Seriously guys. I want to buy pretty dresses war paint for my precious little sweeties masculine battle robots. I want to spend on your game and this trivial cosmetic stuff is exactly the kind of crap I'm a total sucker for. But you have make some kind of worthwhile value proposition here. Your pricing is silly and somebody needs to look up what "microtransaction" means and how this whole free-to-play thing is supposed to work.
Let's get right on that K? K.