Brandon Potocki

@Deliverator
I agree. It's refreshing to see a developer that understands their customer-base so well and is so honest with them. What you see is what you get. The free content is pretty limited, but I guess that's to be expected. This game really deserves more attention, as the enjoyment of the game increases exponentially with the number of players.

To a player, of course maintenance mode is better than a closed game. You aren't forced to pay for it or play it if you don't want to, so why not have the option to pay/play if you still want to?

As long as the developers aren't stringing people along with lies about upcoming content, I think it makes perfect sense.

Looks like another batch went out around 2pm CST today.

Check your Battle.net account to be sure, as I show access there, but still have yet to receive an email about it.

And for the record, they've said it's based on subscription time and the date you signed up for the Annual Pass... so even if you bought at launch, if you took breaks and unsubscribed, you'll probably be behind people that created accounts after you yet have had more paid months.

@Protoavis
That's an awful far distance for those bits to travel...

@Yukon Sam
You mean like GW2 has????

Just kidding. Those days will come, but unfortunately not any time soon. Hopefully my kids will be able to experience the "magic" that those experiences will bring (though by then, people probably won't even care about video games because they'll be too busy zwakking on their gaaldrenars).

And after actually reading the article, I think you're overreacting a bit. The only part that is really questionable in any way is the part about buying skillbooks for real money. EVE has been successful with a similar system (the blog even reference EVE'S PLEX system), so I can see it working out fine here, too.

@jmerriex
I'm actually not familiar with any PnP games (/gasp?), mainly because it's not really something anyone I knew was even remotely interested in. Guess I can read up on it and pretend like I know what it's all about...

@jmerriex
Yep, I was just about to comment after fully reading the dev blog that this MT system sounds like EVE meets LOTRO (not exactly, of course, but similar), with the two biggest points being:

- There is an optional subscription that will provide perks that can otherwise be purchased a la carte.
- There is an (apparently essential) item that can be bought with real money to be used or sold in-game.

While I'm not familiar with the IP at all, everything I've heard from these guys seems very well thought-out. Granted, it's all words and ideas at this point... guess we'll see how it turns out :)

@oxlar
Look up Planet Calypso (Entropia Universe).

It's like Second Life in the sense that it's a free-to-play game with an in-game currency that has a very real exchange rate ($1 USD = 10 PED) and its sandboxy (no levels, just skills), but it's got more of the MMORPG gameplay that you'd expect (hunting, mining, crafting, etc).

It's a little too intense for me, as literally every shot you fire costs money and its basically an MMORPG-skinned casino, but it does have a decent population playing. So to answer your question... yeah, I do think people would play it (given the limited information we know today).

@Deliverator

Ridiculous... I should have known someone would have brought unfounded F2P hate to a completely unrelated article.