monkeystick

I'm in favor of using the word "subscriptionless" for these types of games except for the fact that "subscriptionless" isn't actually a word.. yet.

Looking forward to the podcast as always! Thanks for updating the story.

Tizmah, I'm well aware that the article was based on a player's forum post. I've stated that several times now.

I'm saying Massively, a major gaming website, didn't try to contact the developers to see if the prices were correct or not before posting the article to a larger audience which as a result fanned the flames even more.

Again, the game is in testing and the cash shop isn't officially live.

If the original article was based on a press release from Allods which stated "Here are our cash shop prices", that would be an entirely different story.

I'm not going to insult you back, but you simply do not know for a fact whether the pricing of that one bag was a mistake or not. I don't care how long it took the Allods team to respond.

You can get the same bag for free at a very low level by completing a quest. If it does indeed end up costing $20 and you think it's too much, don't buy it.

Ipso Facto, hallelujah, neener neener.

I know I'm totally wasting my time here, but I'm being accused of not reading.. I love this site and read it several times per day. The comments lately, however, not so much.

atruehitt: I was referring to the original story, not this one. Massively did not try to contact the company before posting the article that got everyone's panties in a bunch. The original article and quote:

http://www.massively.com/2010/02/19/allods-opens-cash-shop-prices-drive-players-insane

From the original post: "It's not entirely clear whether this is some kind of back-end mistake on gPotato's part or an actual pricing change."

The original article was based on a forum post made by a player, not a statement from the company. Allods didn't even announce that the cash shop was officially open, it just happened to be functional for the first time after the last patch and some players noticed it.

If you read any of the non-ragequit articles on those same forums, you'll see that in the Russian version, that bag is $2, not $20.

If you're playing the game at all, you'll notice that the translations are still a work in progress for the most part.

I'm not saying they aren't trying to keep those prices.. I'm saying no one tried to find out if those were the intended prices or a misprint before going live with the story. There is a fine line between journalism and rumor mongering.

If you play the game at all right now, you'll know there are misspellings everywhere in the game. A lot of quest text isn't even finalized. It's still very beta.

Who knows.. maybe they are planning to charge out the ass.

..or fork out $15/mo to spam it ad nauseum.

Maybe throw another "horribly" in there for good measure.

How did the cash shop story become a featured article on Massively today without even contacting the designers to see if the $20 bag item was a misprint? There are only a few items in the cash shop and they haven't finalized anything yet.

All you've done is unleash a legion of troll commenters who are dead set on destroying this game before it's officially released.

Allods team responds:

"Because of our lack of communication to you, many of you were wildly taken back by what you saw in the item shop today.

We’ve heard you loud and clear and it’s no secret that some of our players feel the prices we have in our item shop are not fair.

Over the next several weeks we will continue to evaluate the details of our item shop and we will begin to introduce new items to help assist you throughout your Allods experience. We wanted to make clear that beyond the introduction of the item shop nothing has changed in Allods that wouldn’t allow you to enjoy the game just as much as you did during closed beta."

http://allods.gpotato.com/news/2010/02/19/reflecting-on-the-allods-open-beta-launch/