It's called GREED. One of the world's biggest issues when it comes to "art" or "fun". Look at all the junk games, movies, and books that could be better if they weren't just trying to make a buck. But the overwhelming number of bad titles in all these mediums shows that MONEY is the driving force behind most decisions and only every now and then do you get a true gem that goes beyond the money aspect.

Anyway, about this issue with LoN and SOE. I personally hate the card game. It's confusing, annoying, and giving extra benefits like this are completely unfair to the paying playerbase. If the game was FTP with microtransactions, I could see this MAYBE being ok, but it's not and it isn't OK.

I agree with you Mr. Angry.

Unfortunately more and more companies look at what SOE is doing and copy them as fast as they can. Its no longer about making fun games that keep people subscribed, and its no longer about being happy with just raking in millions on subscriptions. Now it is all about nickle and diming the hell out of your customers and squeezing all the money out of them that is possible.

Build a solid game.

Include large amounts of fun and varied things to do.

People will subscribe.

Include updates of REAL content(not rebalancing) a couple of times a year, and people will stay subscribed.

Profit.

Bottom line. This is a business. Along with a business comes cost and profit. If you don't like the product, don't buy it. Of course money is the driving force behind their decisions. This isn't a non profit. I can never understand how people lose sight of that fact. Sometimes an idea fails, sometimes its a success, but a good business model should always be trying new strategies to see what works and doesn't work. The hard part for game developers is that they want their fans to see it as "art" and something the player is contributing to, but they need their investors, managers, and share holders to see a turn in profit.

We play a game.

steven.fuller,

When anything is driven by profits above all else the consumers are the ones who are short changed.

Steven, when does playing a game as a leisure activity, mean you have to worry about how people do business? It's not a charity, and you know why, because people already pay a monthly fee to play the game, did you overlook this part? People are already paying a monthly subscription, which was laid out when the game was released. If you don't like this, don't play, yup that's fair. If you don't like additional charges, hidden content, development resource used for a gambling game, then how do you feedback?

Do you just shut up and figure that's the way people do business
...or do you complain?

Fact of the matter is they got the business end of this entirely wrong, and now it's effecting people's enjoyment of the game.

Don't like it, don't buy it, yeah nice try, but prior to a couple of years ago people had invested upwards of 8 years, then they changed the game to incorporate faux mini transactions in game.

They can try new business ideas on new games, no problem with that, don't force it down the necks of established customers who have already bought into the game, that smacks of greed, not innovation, there has only been one loser with this whole pitiful charade, that' the faithful customers.

Secret is, make a good game, innovate, impress, develop and communicate, not nickle and dime players whenever you get the chance. SOE have had such a bad track record with their clumsy attempts to wring every last penny out of their IP's it's pathetic.

I'm really uncertain why they thought this was a good business model. Yes, it forces purchases. That will generate money. However...goodwill is far more valuable than tricks. How many people, looking at this, think "well, that means I won't buy an SOE product," compared to the number that suck it up and spend extra money? How many people will flat-out quit?