Friday 26 April 2013

"The Entire Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions" - a look into the no-no of the games monetization



I recently reviewed Dragon Eternity and it looked like a quite good playable game (f2p) but on gaining more levels and going deeper an ugly face started to show.
This game is a money making factory and a good example for the title saying. The supporters of monetization / f2p eternal pro is the fact that people get the chance to play the game for free. 
True but not. Yes technically speaking, but in this game if you don't invest there's no chance on doing well in game and tho you wont see it on the net there many abandoning the game before achieving level 10.

First of all is the gear: leveling up you get access to better gear (weapons, armors, and so) but the better items are not available in shop. Presumable you get them in quests from enemies drops - which are very rare and involves using a lot of other items (potions, orbs, and so that also costs) to get there - or you can buy them in the auction hall at almost prohibitive prices. Which means you need to buy some "reals" on real money.
Quests items / collections also requests reals. You get the first ones also from battling monsters or in PvP but a part of them you have to buy. I got the "amendar" but it expired before getting the chance to gather enough reals for a "mekhar" (priced 3 reals) so only chance was to buy the reals from bank with my real money.
Upgrading items like parcels costs a bunch of reals if you buy them from the Merchant. 

Of course you can avoid investing and painfully crawl on gathering money through game but in the meantime you'll be constantly busted by rich players. You may end up by being level 12 to 15 hardly worked on some reasonable good armor and weapons and a level 9 with a bought better gear will bust you in PvP.
And the rotational PvP system is also designed to break as much as possible from the gear that will need repair (more money) and consume loads of orbs, potions or glyphs - more money. You'll fight one and when you are about to give the final hit it's switched with another one and someone else will give the deathly hit taking your credits. potentially this is said to balance the fight but not true. If they would want balance then they should offer equal levels one-o-one fights for PvP. Because you don't get the option to switched by yourself if that suppose to simulate real battles.


Even the monster battling tho appears like a random is not: it has an algorithm also to break you the most. I studied and registered about 200 of my battles and it is obviously not random: if you give a critical hit for example almost sure next time you'll have a low attack or the monster will block / dodge. You never have 2 critical hits in a row or if it is random at one point this will happen. I asked friends to study their fights and they confirmed: is not happening. Or you get a false critical hit - its marked in red but in fact is not bigger than your average damage potential.
 
With that being said, yes you can play the game for free but it wont be too much fun, you'll struggle a lot. I am considering that the "buy the game system" (paying a price from the beginning) is a far more honest offer that will bring the fighters with the same chances in game. 
Paying 30 to 50 $ on a game from start (you will pay far more in the so called f2p except that you'll pay by instalments) is what I want (at least at this point) but it is your choice. Maybe other f2ps are more honest but this one is not. So basically speaking is not that I'm against the f2p system but I want an honest offer.

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