Massively Speaking Episode 90: Allods Online's cash shop interview

GPotato is presenting "The Wallet Skills".

That was a great interview. Please keep them coming!

Thank you also for being so honest and giving us you own feedback, that's what I like so much about Massively.
And you have a point, the game primary game mechanics should not be affected by cash shop items.

From the interview I understand that they expect their primary source of revenue to be coming from the "Fear of Death". Good luck with that!

It's nice to see the MMO market evolving anyway.
But we're not blind.

50 bucks a month, are they fucking kidding?

What is their target audience, retired widowers?

It's not even a real game, it's a cash mall game. What a joke, they clearly seem to be trying to milk the American tit. These guys only seem interested in wealthy shut ins. I hope everyone wakes up and drops this game.

I really hate to come off as hostile but the level of greed here just makes me sick.

I've put this on the EU forums, but it could apply to all three zones. This is my idea to fight fire with fire if they really don't show some signs of listening soon. I've listened to yesterday's podcast and I'm afraid I feel no better hearing the executive squirm and try to spin the situation. So, having thought about it all night... here goes:

If they implement FoD for PvP, especially if there's any hint of following up with perfume prices ANYwhere near the US prices then don't rage quit. Instead:



1. Refuse to engage in PvP.

2. Start *helping* the other side to kill mobs in PvE.

3. Stop doing dungeons that lock if you leave.

4. Most of all - DO NOT BUY PERFUMES. if you don't buy, they make no money, and must reconsider their prices/development plan.

5. If you have the in game money (i.e. Gold) to buy stacks of Myrrh, buy it, and GIVE IT AWAY. Its not real money, after all.



Essentially, just help as many people as you possibly can avoid getting FoD in the first place. Those that get it become able to buy their way out of it with in game stuff.



Act like a *community* and look out for each other. Don't stop playing. Empty world=dead game. What I'm proposing is completely circumventing the 'force you to spend money' mechanic until they change it. If we all do this for a while immediately following FOD/Cash shop implementation, we'll know whether they're paying attention at the very next update because they'll do one of two things:



1. Change the mechanic or prices to something more rational and sensible

2. Bring in other changes that stop the above suggestions working.



If they go for 1, you can all go back to ganking each other, kill stealing and generally acting like two factions at war.



If they go for 2... ragequit.



Thanks for listening. Pass this idea around your guilds, fansites, blogs, etc if you agree. I have only just started playing this game, I want to keep playing it, and I don't want to be blackmailed in the process. If we have to blackmail them right back in order for them to get the message, then so be it.

I really can't believe the amount of potential this game had, it looks absolutely beautiful, the end game sounded fun and interesting but the entire game has boiled down to one of the stupidest god-forsaken devlopment moves I have ever seen.

Fear of Death

Whoevers idea this was needs to be fired immediately and not be allowed to have any say whatsoever as to what goes into an MMO let alone a game.

The game will die at this rate and it appears they blindly believe people are going to fork over the immense amounts of cash it would take to play this game fairly seriously.

I had such high hopes for this game but seriously, if you have NO intention on listening to the playerbase then you will never succeed in this business. It's based on trust, feedback, and having a great product. Of which you had a great product and nothing will make up for the other two.

Good luck rotting at the bottom of the ever increasing pit of dead and decaying MMO's.

Amen

OK, this is it. Uninstalling. Those greedy idiots seem to live on another planet.

The only hope now is that there truly won't be enough suckers to put money into this game so another company can buy it and produce a sane pricing stucture. Paying to wipe a death debuff? Paying monthly to "feed" a mount? Who are they freakin' kidding?

An issue with the Fear of Death mechanic is that it will put a massive burdon on guild masters to farm their guild members or money to purchase these things, or alternatively make the guild master have to spend hundreds of dollars to supply everyone with enough perfumes. This can only end in misery.