TotalBiscuit talks about the PoE microtransactions in todays The Mailbox

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Epicurwin wrote:

I think the character limit could be better off at 5-10 or something. Two is a bit harsh, unless the slots are really cheap.

Please GGG, make me pay more money! I'm serious!

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devilofneurosis wrote:

There are some good points made by TB here, especially regarding GGG being over generous I feel though that model they are using will draw alot of people in. With the addictive nature of these kind of games, and the massive amount of growth available to your character lots of people will get hooked, and the longer they play, more time they invest, the more likely it is a bought service/item will become appealing.

Providing enough people out there get to hear about the game, and people like TB will help with that considerably (I found the game through is original WTF is..) I think it will be a lasting success.

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Tagek wrote:

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WhiteBoy88 wrote:

The most likely reason for the rather high number of slots, a reason that's not brought up in the video, is the league system. Many players will have characters on multiple leagues, and it's a bit unfair to have to buy slots to keep a reasonable number of characters on your account. Sure, you could make another account, but your pool of cash shop credits and purchased perks are tied to your main account.

I know I'll have hardcore characters as well as default ones and maybe even some cut-throat, possibly more than one build of each class per league. When paid leagues come around, I may participate in those, as well. When you think about all of this, ~20 slots starts to sound more reasonable.

Yeah but the vast majority of players will simply not exceed the 20 character limit. Hell, most of them probably won't even use multiple leagues.
A limit of 2-3-4 characters per league would make more sense to me. That way there's an incentive for practically everyone to buy character slots.

Char slots* Not stash tabs.

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

I've said a lot of this before, especially the idea that GGG is giving too much, especially now. And I'm glad to hear a voice people listen to acknowledge that Diablo III is a massive threat.

He also touches on the point that towns are too small and segmented to warrant cosmetic item acquisition.

On the topic of gems/items that increase experience gain or item drops, all I can say right now is the reduced drop rates of this latest patch has me almost wishing I could use some of this GGGold in my account to get back to something close to what was 48 hours ago the standard drop rate.

I also suggested the reason GGG hands you so many character slots is because it gives you more dolls to dress up via the cash shop. This is true, but I agree that they could pare it back with open/release to 8-10 and charge a bit for extra slots.

I think what Mr Biscuit is saying, all condensed and boiled down, is that GGG took the words 'completely free to play' and then threw a heck of a lot on top of that concept. 'Completely free to play' could simply mean all content is free, all classes...but that doesn't mean you get a huge array of char slots, for a start. I guess the game then is seeing how much you can strip from a game to reach the absolute baseline of 'completely free to play' and thus how much you can 'sell' to a player who can play completely for free but wants more. And Mr Biscuit seems to feel that GGG haven't done that to the best of their capacity. Yay for us, Boo for GGG/PoE.

Given this is a beta and that they want us to test a vast array of builds, I don't think anyone would have a right to complain if GGG reduced the number of available character slots somewhat on 'release'.

I had an idea recently regarding the issue of vanity and oddly enough it coincided with a problem I've been having with the 'c' screen UI. Thus I shall post this idea in the appropriate board and hope more than ten people read it.

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Chris wrote:

This reply is only about character slots:

Character slot sales are not what our business is about. I don't want people to be arbitrarily limited in their freedom to play the game (and forced to make new accounts) when they hit some number of characters. I would rather that we make money from things that are aligned with making players happy (more visual customisation options).

The limit of 24 is just because there had to be a limit. In many ways I'd rather it were higher than this.

This game is designed so that you play it for ten years. You'll accumulate a lot of characters. People are already buying character slots. I understand you may not need 24 in a Beta that has two main leagues, but you'll see what I mean in a few months!

With character slots, we're competing with people making new free accounts. It's much better for us if we encourage people to play on one account each. It reduces the problem of external account sales, makes people value their accounts more (so they are less likely to risk bans) and helps us track metrics.

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ualac wrote:

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Chris wrote:

This game is designed so that you play it for ten years.

i do hope that is the case, and it's great to hear you guys have such a decent long term aim for this game and property.

y'know there was a point where i would have laughed at the idea of playing a game for more than a year or two, but recently i hit the point where i had been playing DDO for near 6 years, and have been paying for each and every month of that time. and i realised that the only real reason a bunch of my mates play that game is the social aspect. we all live in differnt cites and have other things happening, so getting together over a few quests in DDO was a great way to stay in touch, and hack some monsters while we're at it.

i'm hoping PoE becomes the platform for us to do that in the years ahead.

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Covert wrote:

I would be happy to cut the current character limit to say 6 – 10 at release. GGG could then charge less for extra slots say $1 instead of $3. The increase in the volume of character slots bought should offset the reduction in price. I do not believe anyone will complain about something like that either. All in all whatever makes GGG more money and is still ethical I support.