Sorry but it seems amazing to me that you instantly assume that new players:
Know how to play the game from the get-go so being undergeared is fine
Know how to gear or save/use pheons and other resources properly from the get-go
Don’t hit this big wall called Gatekeeping the instant they step up to those raids
I shouldn’t have to say this, but they don’t
But it’s ok, you know, at least most new accounts are secondary/third accounts from already existing players so it at least gives us the illusion that what we are bussing 80% of the time through argos/valtan/vykas are new players.
Edit: Unless they whale it out. F2p or close to it is impossible unless you are the most hardcore no-lifer or unless you were here from the beginning (at most 3 months) like I was
other games dont have that problem somehow
tbh its not that hard to track ppls that would do that, just put it in eula and give 7 days ban for it
its just extra forced revenue for company (from whales but for f2p time value)
nothing more nothing less
it dosent help with bots
it dosent help with flippers beside making them somewhat absolete cause company is making flipps with added fixed value to each transaction, which also grow with inflation
it kills non bis market out there in the process
also make most of gold from selling, outside of bis of the bis items, go to actuall whale not the one who got “lucky”
its also taxing inter roster trades not mentioning items that can be traded once
Wow had mandatory 10 eu sub for 15 years. Average player count according to mmo charts about 8m ( more or less depending on DLC ). It gives 8m x 10e x 12 x 15 = 1b 200m euro.
They could as well make wow absolutely free now.
But going back to LA. I’d prefer same 10eu sub instead of pheon system. I’m all about fairness - either everybody has to pay or nobody. Would you like that? I sure do.
its not like lost ark is out there for like 5 years already, company make 1,5 bilion $ per year
so bringing up wow in this context is intresting to say the least especially if it made on subs acording to your calculations a litlle bit less in 15+ years (it had 18 years aniversary last week btw)
also for some time already wow tokens can be bought with gold, maybe thats why you calculate 15 years but i think it was ben implemented much earlier than 3 years ago
subjectivley in wow i can do more if i want but i dont have to grind that hard as here,
the grind i also a bit more varied
you can jump in on frequent basis to start on even fot with everyone (every 3-4 months)
and have posibility to just catch up wherever you want basically
while if we count amount of mounts and cosmetic and their quality accesible from just playing the game as mid spender with self set limit of 25-50 euro/month on gaming i can get so much more from the game for so much less spent of both money & time if chose so
i wont even start talking about quality of game or life in game or support to discusion
i dont think this game have capacity to ask for subscription
and im sure they make more money from pheons thing taxing most transactions
but answering your question yea 3-5$ per month instead of pheons + adding more cosmetics to actuall game instead of shoop would be in favor of players esspecially if there would be also option to buy game time with farmable in game resources for hard f2p crowd
Yeah true, it’s all for the good of players so true. Market is always demand and supply EVEN WITHOUT PHEONS. Not even mentioning everything has trade limit.
Try list your godly accessory for 100000000000k see if anyone buys it.
Maybe then you say pheons is there to prevent flipping? Explain the cost on ability stones then. You don’t understand, but you think you do.
Did mention “flipping market” anywhere ? That’s next level entitlement here, you basically didn’t read my message and made up a nice story about what my message tell (that has nothing to do with the initial message) and answer based on that super story you made up out of your mind.
Interesting.
So in case my message were not clear : Pheons force players to actively involve into RC/Gold exchange place, period. If you remove pheons, everything collapse. You can’t do that unless you completetly revamp the system, and it won’t happens.
PS : I’m not saying that the system is good or bad. It works that’s for sure. But sometimes it doesn’t works (example : SA situation with lack of whales because of non-regionalized price). I’m just saying that you can’t just blindly remove pheons or this system will collapse into a chaos that is way worst that the SA situation.
As I stated, it’s there to milk players. Just like you said there could be better systems and there’s tons games without such system out there.
What does RC/Gold system do? So for you it’s just forcing players to involve to exchange and this does not count toward revenue eh?
Literally everything on the store. GW2 has the same system its not a horrid mess. wow has the same system with tokens its not a horrid mess.
Remove BC. Have only a RC<–>$$$ exchange allow people to trade, allow people to buy w/e they want from the store via exchange gold for RC omg problem solve. The exchange will adjust itself from demand, but now there isn’t this stupid real money tax attach to ingame progression for the ftp player or those trying to be efficient with their gold.
So you are essentially saying McDonalds should offer Fries as a FREE side with the purchase of every meal. This is essentially what Blue Crystals Demand from Pheons is.
People wanted a honing buff, they gave a honing buff where rosters can now essentially earn 3x more gold then before. BC price triples and its a problem. I see nothing but standard economics. When players earnable gold is 3x as much, prices will match that 3x rate. I mean what person would buy 500g for 238 royals when you earn 500g these days by just sneezing.
McD? Honing? Earning gold? literal gibberish I have no idea how any of that has anything to do with what I said. But imagine reading Nothing is free someone is still buying that RC.
Remove Pheons, remove BC
Have the exchange consist of only RC<—>Gold
Now the whole of Lost Ark Shop is available for players to buy from cause of the aforementioned exchange. The exchange will go +/- depending on supply and demand from people buying and selling RC and from people selling gold and buying RC
Nothings free, someone still has to buy RC.
All that shiny cool shit in the store or gold will move RC sales for people.
And now ingame gear and ability stones w/e else no longer has this horrible real money $$$ tax on their progression. Trinkets cost to much? Ability stones cost to much? increase the supply just like they did with engravings with the vendor, either though a vendor or just drops from the raids themselves.
Like come on multi-dollar company. Are these the most incompetent game devs in the world or what. MMOs have been a thing for decades.
It’s up to the developers to come up with and implement useful items and services to spend Crystals on, if they want players to engage with them more.
They already have a handful - Crystalline Aura, cosmetics, weekly and monthly bundles, Mari shop, inventory expanders, stronghold upgrades, and more.
Pheons are not a useful account upgrade or attractive cosmetic. They are a forced p2w tax. It doesn’t provide any benefit to the players purchasing them, it only allows the player to complete transactions that developers decide are too profitable to leave untaxed.
It is absolutely embarrassing they even exist, when instead they could put that effort into offering useful, enjoyable services or cosmetics for us to swipe for. It speaks volumes to how uncreative yet thirsty for USD they are.
Mark my words. With this shockingly low creativity and thirst for profit they will abandon the game without hesitation and without notice, once the Pheon dollars stop flowing.
