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pay to fucking win
8 years ago
General
Hello Fuzzies!
Just as a mini rant...I feel very justified in calling out these pay to win games. All technicalities aside, I understand that in most cases things that allow you to win in these games can be earned by simply playing them, and yes I also know that developers need to generate revenue after releasing a game. However I can't help but feel cheated when I'm playing a game like Heartstone and I know for a fact that people in ranked have sunk possibly hundreds of dollars into this game for the sake of winning.
As far as I've found there is no strict definition on "pay to win" however, I do think that Urban Dictionary summed it up best: "Games that let you buy better gear or allow you to make better items then everyone else at a faster rate and then makes the game largely unbalanced even for people who have skill in the game without paying."
Some games really walk the fine line in this regard like Warframe and League of Legends...but games that make it so obvious like Heartstone, Archeage, and Pay Day 2 have all the fun stripped from them. Part of what makes a game so fun is when you can master the game and use the skills you have learned to do the best you can. This is even more true with MMO games when people take their skills head to head on a balanced playing field. Only problem is that more and more games are tipping the balance in favor of those who are willing to waste their wallet to get an advantage. I get it, winning is great. But personally, I feel much more satisfied when I can obey the laws of the game and challenge my own skills. That's what make games like League of Legends and various other competitive games so much fun and exciting.
But the instant people are giving the option of getting the upper hand for chump-change, they will go ahead and do just that. And for some of these games, you could be grinding for years and still not get to the level of others who have had the upper hand from the get-go because they paid to get an unfair advantage. And unfortunately I feel that this trend is only going to get worse in the future as devs figure out that they can makes more money by allowing gamers to pay their way to victory.
I know it sounds petty, but after years and years of gaming both on the console and on the PC I have become more and more annoyed over the years with people buying their wins. So...as much as I love playing MMO games and games in general, I've felt more and more like I need to talk about this because it's like the nickle in the jar for every person I've faced in games who have had a clear advantage...and the jar is bursting now.
I won't stop playing those games, but I certainly won't be playing them as often.
As far as I've found there is no strict definition on "pay to win" however, I do think that Urban Dictionary summed it up best: "Games that let you buy better gear or allow you to make better items then everyone else at a faster rate and then makes the game largely unbalanced even for people who have skill in the game without paying."
Some games really walk the fine line in this regard like Warframe and League of Legends...but games that make it so obvious like Heartstone, Archeage, and Pay Day 2 have all the fun stripped from them. Part of what makes a game so fun is when you can master the game and use the skills you have learned to do the best you can. This is even more true with MMO games when people take their skills head to head on a balanced playing field. Only problem is that more and more games are tipping the balance in favor of those who are willing to waste their wallet to get an advantage. I get it, winning is great. But personally, I feel much more satisfied when I can obey the laws of the game and challenge my own skills. That's what make games like League of Legends and various other competitive games so much fun and exciting.
But the instant people are giving the option of getting the upper hand for chump-change, they will go ahead and do just that. And for some of these games, you could be grinding for years and still not get to the level of others who have had the upper hand from the get-go because they paid to get an unfair advantage. And unfortunately I feel that this trend is only going to get worse in the future as devs figure out that they can makes more money by allowing gamers to pay their way to victory.
I know it sounds petty, but after years and years of gaming both on the console and on the PC I have become more and more annoyed over the years with people buying their wins. So...as much as I love playing MMO games and games in general, I've felt more and more like I need to talk about this because it's like the nickle in the jar for every person I've faced in games who have had a clear advantage...and the jar is bursting now.
I won't stop playing those games, but I certainly won't be playing them as often.
Kyrre
~kyrre
Agreed with Hearthstone. I've never given Blizzard money for the game, and never will. But on day one when an expansion comes out and I'm p,aying against someone who has -every- single new legend with a perfect new synergy deck, and I cannot counter it because I don't yet have these new cards, it feels like the game is very much Pay to Win.
reaver666
~reaver666
OP
I invested a few dollars here and there for shits and giggles I must admit. But most of the cards I earned I used in game currency for. So it's a kick in the teeth when you know you have some skill with your own deck but people can blow you out of the water with -paid for- meta decks. It takes all of the fun out of game. =/
Kyrre
~kyrre
Note me your Hearthstone ID and I'll add you and share my 80g quests with you every so often!
yeenpeenqueen
~kittoku
For most of the games I can agree with or I don't know enoigh to form an opinion. But, I do disagree with Payday 2, however. While some of the better weapons, mods, and heists are paid DLC, there are still good items and missions added for free. In fact, some free updates are geared to make the free items a lot better, balancing them out to be even with the DLC guns. There's plenty of videos online of loadouts that can be good on even the highest difficulty thar use no DLC. Payday 2 is honestly good about balancing it's Free content with it's DLC content and went from it's past state of pay to win, to a now even playing field for those who don't wanna dish out money for DLC with those that do.
reaver666
~reaver666
OP
I haven't played Payday 2 in a while so I don't know what sort of content they released. But back (probably 6-8 months ago) then it was really bad. The DLC's and micro-transactions were a horrible RNG tease, what with the vaults and the release of that super police dude. And the fact that more than half of the weapons are blocked by a pay wall didn't help the fact. Sure, it can still be a fun game but the rewards that begged to empty your wallet simply killed the game for me.
yeenpeenqueen
~kittoku
The major balance updates came about around the time you were still playing then. Along with that came a pack called the Butcher Mod Pack which was most famous for making weapons like the UAR highly viable on the higher difficulties. Throughout time they've been re-balancing non-DLC perk decks as well to make them be equal with the DLC ones so they're all pretty even (once again, before this 6-8 month time frame, the deck re-balance came about around a year and a half ago if I'm correct). The thing I can remember being a major problem with money around your time is the Black Market which introduced the micro-transactions for weapon skins with stat boosts. I half agree that much is pay to win since you're paying for an advantage, but it's such a minor difference it doesn't really matter too much. But at the same time, this update came along with the Economy update which reduced the prices of all past DLC making each DLC easier to access, so if you chose to purchase them, it was cheaper and more cost-effective. Overkill has done a good job of making free content balance with paid content. When there was a tazer-like melee added to the game via DLC pack, they later added a similar weapon that was in fact an improvement on it along with an arguably great perk deck and a good secondary weapon. For every good DLC, there's at least one good free content update or re-balance that lets people choose on if they'd like to pay for content or not.
cody_snowmew
~codysnowmew
I wouldn't say warframe is a pay to win type game. It can cut your time down farming things but that's about it. To even trade with others costs credits that you have to farm for. Unless you're flithy rich and can drop a ridiculous amount of money, then sure you could probably buy a lot of things without having to farm for them. Since warframe is mainly a PvE game having better stuff helps you and your teammates out anyways.
reaver666
~reaver666
OP
As I said, it walks a fine line. You're correct in saying paying money cut down on farming and that there is also the trade to consider. But the amount of time it takes to grind through sorties, fissures, leveling, and farming all amounts to massive time constraints. By paying for content you can significantly cut down on the amount of time it takes...not to mention if nobody buys plat then there essentially is no trade. So someone has to be paying money in order to keep the trade active. So Warframe is kinda weird in in that regard.
cody_snowmew
~codysnowmew
That's what keeps it free to play in a way, if no one spent money for cosmetics and to save time then the game would have died a long time ago.
