Paid XP accelerators in non free to play games are awful

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bigsocrates

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#1  Edited By bigsocrates

For a game to sell an XP accelerator is like a restaurant charging you a fee to eat half your meal for you. With rareexceptions there is no actual reward for playing a game other than the experience of playing it, so to compress that experience is to offer less of your product. Nobody should want that if it is a good product.

A well-designed experience curve should be part of the fun of the game. Whether it's leveling up in an RPG or earning guns and perks in a shooter there's fun to be had in incrementally increasing, and if it's more fun to improve faster then the curve should change until it's optimal. In a well designed game you don't want to skip ahead. How many people would buy a special edition of Chronotrigger where for $10 extra you start at the max level? Or a version of Skyrim where you begin with every skill?*

Yes developers can argue that different people like different skill curves, and if that's true they should include options, like they do for difficulty. With rare exceptions you don't have to pay extra for hard or easy mode. What bothers me about these accelerators is not that someone might level faster in an online game than I do, but that I'm probably playing a less fun progression curve just so the developer could upsell the other guy.

As for this 'feature' in a single player game...well... I don't like to have to buy my games on installment.

My only hope is that the reputation damage done to developers who use this "mechanic" is great enough that it hurts their bottom line and it dies the death of the online pass.

*Sure those things can be fun as ways to wring a bit more out of the game by breaking it, but I'm talking about your primary experience.

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Freshbandito

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What an awful analogy.

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Oldirtybearon

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Nekroskop

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Just give me all the personas, items, weapons and max level in PE4:G so I can enjoy my Japanese high school visual novel in peace.

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JZ

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#5  Edited By JZ
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crusader8463

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#6  Edited By crusader8463

I for one enjoy paying for things I used to get free and to have my games designed from the ground up to annoy me to the point that I pay money to make it go away. I welcome the day I can get these added features in all of my games.

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Hunkulese

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#7  Edited By Hunkulese

Lots of people would have paid to max their character in Skyrim. I've never paid for an xp boost because I don't really play a lot of games where they're offered but I see no problem with them. I'm not 12 anymore and I don't have unlimited time to devote to video games. A couple bucks is nothing in comparison to the number of hours I'd save.

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bigsocrates

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Lots of people would have paid to max their character in Skyrim. I've never paid for an xp boost because I don't really play a lot of games where they're offered but I see no problem with them. I'm not 12 anymore and I don't have unlimited time to devote to video games. A couple bucks is nothing in comparison to the number of hours I'd save.

Give me $20 and you won't have to play the game at all! That'll save a lot of time.

I'm a pretty busy professional myself with more money than time but the whole point of the game is to play the game. Shortening the amount of time it takes to play the game implies that the gameplay, the very thing you're paying to get, is bad enough that you should want to pay to avoid it. And yes different levels of grind might appeal to different people but that should be a free option, like difficulty level. Selling me a 20 hour experience and offering to cut out the boring bits for $10 and make it a 12 hour experience just makes me ask why the boring bits were even there in the first place.

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alanm26v5

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I hate to use anything that messes with the natural progression or difficulty curve of a non free to play game. I avoid preorder bonuses when possible. I stopped using Heirlooms in WoW when leveling an alt because they're overpowered and the xp bonuses mean you outpace dungeons and quests too quickly. If I wanted to reach the end of a game or grind faster, then that probably means I'm not having fun and I would just be more likely to stop playing altogether.

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Nadril

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I hate to use anything that messes with the natural progression or difficulty curve of a non free to play game. I avoid preorder bonuses when possible. I stopped using Heirlooms in WoW when leveling an alt because they're overpowered and the xp bonuses mean you outpace dungeons and quests too quickly. If I wanted to reach the end of a game or grind faster, then that probably means I'm not having fun and I would just be more likely to stop playing altogether.

To be fair Heirlooms are for people who have already played through that stuff a bunch and just want to get through it fast with a new character.

Like, I would not be opposed to being able to get a level 85 or 90 or w/e (placing you right before the latest expansion's content) right off the bat. I've played through the leveling stuff in WoW so many times.

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Justin258

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#11  Edited By Justin258

If it weren't already something you could probably do with a mod, I might pay 5 bucks for a maxed Skyrim character.

I don't actually think there's an issue if the XP curve or whatever is well-paced for those who don't want to pay anymore, and the F2P options are not in your face.

Also your first bit about the experience needs some work. Does that mean the whole game? Just one part? What if I want to analyze it to know what I should and shouldn't do in my own game?

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spraynardtatum

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#12  Edited By spraynardtatum

I'm a huge fan of spending money on things for no fucking reason so I have to disagree.

I'm too busy to do fuck-all so I'm really happy that there's an option for me. Busy people are people too and it's about time that developers and publishers started to fight for us. I'm looking at my schedule right now and I have no free time for the next 14 years. How am I supposed to buy these companies products when I don't even have time to play them? They're thinking of us when they add these options for us. You're being ungrateful.

Paid XP accelerators are for the people and only haters think otherwise. Everyone that doesn't like it are haters and idiots who are poor stupid hater idiots. They should get a life.

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chemystery

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I think the video game crowd is aging into a point where time is more valuable than money. Streamlined offerings are going to sell well to this group so you are going to continue seeing it. If it doesn't affect your gaming experience then they should be allowed to have their own experience if that is how they want it. I like books, but sometimes I just read the wiki and let the details fall by the wayside.

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spraynardtatum

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I think the video game crowd is aging into a point where time is more valuable than money. Streamlined offerings are going to sell well to this group so you are going to continue seeing it. If it doesn't affect your gaming experience then they should be allowed to have their own experience if that is how they want it. I like books, but sometimes I just read the wiki and let the details fall by the wayside.

totally bro! That's almost exactly what I was saying the post above yours! I just wish that movies offered a similar experience you know? Like maybe directors could let you pay to skip ahead or speed up movies so that us busy folk can get the gist of the experience! Since I'm busy, I definitely have money, and I love that they're finding new things for people like me to spend it on!

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ryanwhom

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#15  Edited By ryanwhom

It was only a matter of time before someone in a suit looked at how free-to-play games generate money and went "hey guys Im a genius what if we sold our games then also in addition to that sold shit like people got the game for free I did the math and profits increase a million percent I'll take that promotion now EA". People excused it over time as how ftp games have to operate to profit, and once people got used to that, the same hooks showed up everywhere else. And now all games are going to be balanced unfairly to further encourage you to buy the xp booster pack, cus publishers think you're a little bitch and they're mostly right. They'll take your bitch money and keep making the vanilla game more and more unfair so the "new years xp boosters 50% off!" sale looks even more appealing to your bitchass.

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Jimbo

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#16  Edited By Jimbo

People who defend practices like this are everything that's wrong with gaming.

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Starfishhunter9

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Remember when cheats used to be free? Well no to properly level up and get items in a single player game you gotta pay too....

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spraynardtatum

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@jimbo said:

Robots who defend practices like this are everything that's wrong with gaming.

I agree. They remind me of these:

No Caption Provided

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chemystery

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@spraynardtatum: They need to find a way so people can have a job, raise kids, and still enjoy their favorite media. We can only dream!

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bigsocrates

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I think the video game crowd is aging into a point where time is more valuable than money. Streamlined offerings are going to sell well to this group so you are going to continue seeing it. If it doesn't affect your gaming experience then they should be allowed to have their own experience if that is how they want it. I like books, but sometimes I just read the wiki and let the details fall by the wayside.

I am part of the aging crowd who doesn't have a lot of time to game and it DOES affect my experience because developers intentionally draw out the XP curve so they can sell accelerators, the same way Forza 5 made cars very expensive in in game currency so they could sell macro transaction cars. I don't care how other people play their games until the result is I either have to pay a BS fee to get a decent XP curve or grind for an extra five hours to see the later game content. But that's where we are.

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chemystery

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@bigsocrates: But you said "there is no actual reward for playing a game other than the experience of playing it, so to compress that experience is to offer less of your product." So creating a longer curve is a good thing then because you get to play more of your game. Also there is no telling what the curve may have been before. Perhaps this was the curve they had intended and these boosters are just tacked on. If they are tacked on and hadn't changed this curve then it doesn't affect you any so why the people have it?

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bigsocrates

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@bigsocrates: But you said "there is no actual reward for playing a game other than the experience of playing it, so to compress that experience is to offer less of your product." So creating a longer curve is a good thing then because you get to play more of your game. Also there is no telling what the curve may have been before. Perhaps this was the curve they had intended and these boosters are just tacked on. If they are tacked on and hadn't changed this curve then it doesn't affect you any so why the people have it?

By your logic a game could have infinite length and infinite value, which is clearly not the case. The only value of a game is the experience of playing it, but that experience can be better or worse depending on how its balanced. Selling a worse balanced version in order to make people pay to improve the balance degrades the game's quality. My point in saying that originally is that while there are things in life we'd all like to skip, like waiting on line at the DMV, and might be willing to pay to skip or shorten, those things shouldn't be in a game, because the only value the game has is the experience of playing it.

If the booster is just tacked on to an already well balanced game then it's a bad value for the reasons above but I don't care. However we all know that's not what's going on. Just like on-disc material is withheld for DLC and weapons and skins that should be in the game are withheld as pre-order bonus, now a good progression curve is being withheld unless you pay for booster packs in certain games. It is a terrible practice.

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thesquarepear

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Welcome to the new era of 'AAA' gaming.

PayForFreeMMOArcade

You pay to skip the grinding and get the status symbols (showing off for other people is a reward) except grinding is the only gameplay there is.

/snark off

It's a business and some people pay for it so it keeps existing. Remember you can choose not to give these companies your money. Nintendo might be the last bastion for minimal DLC or microtransactions.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

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bigsocrates

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@thesquarepear: It's true that Nintendo doesn't really do many microtransactions, but they're definitely experimenting with DLC recently. To be fair, DLC can be high or low value and isn't an inherent problem. Microtransaction consumables and overpriced DLC are bad, but something like Mass Effect 3 Citadel is pretty cool (Then again From Ashes was clearly pulled from the main game and that's decidedly less cool.)

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ryanwhom

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#25  Edited By ryanwhom

@chemystery said:

@bigsocrates: But you said "there is no actual reward for playing a game other than the experience of playing it, so to compress that experience is to offer less of your product." So creating a longer curve is a good thing then because you get to play more of your game. Also there is no telling what the curve may have been before. Perhaps this was the curve they had intended and these boosters are just tacked on. If they are tacked on and hadn't changed this curve then it doesn't affect you any so why the people have it?

That makes no sense at all. If a 30 hour experience is stretch into 60 hours with no additional content to rebuff it, that's not 30 extra hours of fun. That's 30 hours of time this game wasted stretching shit out, daring me to quit because they thought it would make their 3 dollar booster pack more appetizing. Fuck them.

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bigjeffrey

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#26  Edited By bigjeffrey

but i gots to get to top level in battlefield.

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chemystery

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@ryanwhom: I'm just saying the argument isn't put together well. It seems like all the gaming community does is mope about every innovation or concept people try to test. If you put out DLC you are a monster for not having all the content at once, if you put in boosters you've ruined the XP curve, Free to Play ruined unlockables, etc. I'm no game developer, I don't understand this stuff and I really don't want to. This model is out there, people will buy it if they want to, if it ruins the game I'll just move to another game. Worse case scenario, I just play older games.