150 points map tab bollocks BONUS: Fragment tab is 75 points, totaling at 22,5$!
" You certainly mix up sequence of how things happen. GGG certainly does not make money from expansion to China before they expand there and establish PoE on the market. Players in original POE realms are paying for that expansion. Same goes for expansion to Xbox. Upfront costs of expansion must be paid from profit from original reals and their players. Sure, GGG can get a loan but it is a risk that must be covered and we are back to those players from original realms and platforms that will pay for it. In your own words, you said that it is the veterans that are willing to drop some $ on the game from time to time without a need to be "incentivized" by GGG. You admited that you give money to GGG to fund their future endeavors. It is not the newcomers who fund GGG, it is the seniors who throw $ at GGG. I joined the conversation because I find it ridiculous to have conversation about pay-to-win in a game like POE. There are egregious example where P2W is rampant, mostly mobile gaming or lately BF2, but this is certainly not the case of PoE. I'm not interested in P2W discussion because I dont believe PoE is a case of P2W in first place but Im interested in discussion about long term solution to funding free-to-play games. Growing the game and company that maintains it is good but it represents a problem. I honestly do not believe F2P model is sustainable in long term for game with dedicated infrastructure and continuous content updates. PoE is bright example of a game where things work well so far, however, at one point the pressure to fund the game will be either too much or the game will become stale and players will leave. We, players, are pampered by current rate of content additions and game updates but what happens when things slow down. I dont believe that GGG can sustain itself on just optional MTX for indefinite period of time. I believe the pressure is already here and as a result of it we have this discussion. Subscription model for PoE would be interesting approach. It would allow GGG to plan their content updates, put a firm dates on them but it would also allow them to plan financial streams in advance. I do not want to theorize how much would such monthly subscription fee be nor what benefits it should grants to its adopters, however, I believe it would allow GGG to have more stable financing and it would reduce pressure on MTX releases. Last edited by Baron01#3047 on Feb 2, 2018, 9:33:31 AM
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^ Decent read.
Worth noting that POE is not the only F2P game that has seen success without being P2W. Dota 2 is another game that purely sells cosmetics and constantly pushes out content updates, in fact they are changing the model of updates to be every 2 weeks, instead of having larger balance patches every couple of months. So I'm not so convinced that GGG's model won't work for many years to come, so as long as they cater to a dedicated, loyal fan base they will be sustainable, so as long as there isn't a viable competitive alternative in the ARPG genre, the model will work fine. One could argue a remastered D2 would upset GGG's grasp on the ARPG genre, at least some of the initial supporters of the game, that might have already left or border line leaving, due to the nature of the game being "too fast paced" and catering to, no better way to say it, but people who seek "instant gratification" So as long as GGG doesn't add functionality, that is unable to be replicated to these special tabs, I see no problem with adding the tabs. Storage is technically infinite and storage has diminishing returns (for many things), adding functionality like smart deposit or auto deposit isn't acceptable. GGG has the situation, at least currently, that so as long as they cater to people with more money to spend then they should, like myself, i_no, ect, they will get larger supporter pack purchases then most companies can get. As long as they continue to put content out, they can keep getting money. Its not a subscription service, but in many ways it fills the same role, while at the same time allowing people that won't pay a subscription to still play, increasing the population of the game in the process and ensuring the temp leagues, which draws a large portion of the playerbase back, league after league. Regarding the China\Xbox realms:
Spoiler
I think many players were not happy about the reveal of the xbox realm\dev work, because they viewed it as taking away time and resources that PC players had put into the company.
The thing is, expanding the game and the ways they can bring money in, only should ultimately help both the PC and the Xbox realms, as well as the China realm. PC players should look at this as an investment into ensuring that the game can bring in more money, so as long as these additional realms don't take that much more resources, it should be profitable for the company and there for lead to a better experience for us, as a result. Some part of me wished that the xbox platform would make balance changes to cater itself to more casual players, so that the standard PC realm could pull back on its roots some and be the more hardcore game it was designed to be. Ultimately, I just don't think that GGG cares that much about its hardcore playerbase (in terms of playstyles\ideas, not league. And would rather take the easier money and the larger numbers from the casual playerbase. It is sad and I think if the balance continues to move towards catering more and more to the casual player, the likelyhood of the game's population decreasing (and its support as a result) will decrease once it passes a certain threshold of casualness. Ultimately, far too many gamers these days want instant gratification, what they don't realize is that the destination isn't nearly as important as the journey. Eventually you will get burnt out quicker and quicker until there is almost no point left of playing. https://youtu.be/T9kygXtkh10?t=285 FeelsBadMan Remove MF from POE, make juiced map the new MF. Last edited by goetzjam#3084 on Feb 2, 2018, 10:17:41 AM
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" PoE (2013), League of Legends (2009), DoTA 2 (2013), Battlerite (2016, early access, it hasn't been around for very long, but I want to call it a success, nonetheless). You don't have to believe - just look around. About the China expansion: I'm not 100% certain about this, so I wouldn't bet my money on it, but I'm pretttttyyy sure that GGG doesn't pay for PoE China expansion. If you think about - GGG couldn't possibly have enough money to even start marketing campaign in there. Last time I checked Tencent (absolute giant of a company) was running the game there, so if I were to guess GGG simply sold the license (on terms, of course) to Tencent and gets a % of sales there, while Tencent gets the rest. Tencent, however, pays all the bills. The same way Disney doesn't pay money to make Star Wars games - they simply sell the license (with terms). Same goes for Games Workshop - they don't make WH40 video games. They are a tabletop miniature company, lol. Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. Last edited by Perq#4049 on Feb 9, 2018, 2:01:35 AM
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