InfinitasX

Anime-esque art.
If it was originally designed in Asia.

Excellent, well-written piece Jef.

The sad part is it is all true.

Why have one when you can have both?

@InfinitasX

Oopsies on the language. Can someone censor that?

25/25 FiOS and some days that feels too slow...

@(Unverified) only after death. Wardens don't have a snap aggro button. We have threat leeches from the fellowship, but Conviction/Dance of war can take a while to get off and doesn't generate any additional threat.

There is a force attack legendary (31313) (Defiant challenge) but the animation is painfully long, and after the duration the player with the highest threat gets attacked again (which may not be you).

However, once a warden has max aggro, it is pretty damn hard to pull a mob off of one (Don't you love leeching threat?).

@fallwind

Let me sum this up for you. By buying the box for a game, you are basically saying, "Yes, I want everything in this game!" and not "No, I only want the content included for the free trial." (a freemium game).

And really, you don't always save money with freemium. Lets say, World of Duke costs $15/month for everything + 500 points/month with a $30 box (includes 30 days free) or you can buy content ala carte. Let's also say you can buy 1000 points for $9.99, 2000 points for $14.99, and 3000 points for $19.99. For purposes of this experiment, let's also say you will play this game for 3 months, and for ~4 hours a day, 3 days a week, and the game has 6 content packages with 20 hours of content each. Each package costs 1500 points.

Now, Billy Bob will subscribe to this game. He pays a total of $60 for 3 months of a horrific Duke Nukem'esque experience. But look! Billy also sees a shiny costume package that includes a poo flinging emote, and a mini hooker pet! It is on sale for 500 points! Thankfully his sub gives him 500 points a month so he buys it. He is able to see the entire game and taste the shop.

Joe Jumper isn't quite that smart. He gets his first 20 hours (approx 2 weeks) for free from included content. Then he has to buy 1500 points. Since our publisher is shady, he has to buy 2000 points for $14.99. He buys his content and has 500 points left. But look! Joe also sees the same shiny costume package that includes a poo flinging emote, and a mini hooker pet! It is on sale for 500 points! He quickly snaps it up. Joe decides he wants to unlock extra bag room as well (Billy is a subscriber so he doesn't have to worry about bag space!). Bag space costs 2100 points. Joe buys another 3000 points for $19.99. He has spent $35 in his first month. Joe is running low on content again so he buys 1000 points to get more content. (400 points left after purchase). He goes along until, once again, you guessed it hes out of content! Since 400 points isnt enough to buy a content pack with 1000 points, he is forced to buy 2000. With 900 points left, Joe buys access to a subscriber only alien shooting gallery mini-game. He now has 200 points left. Month 3 starts, Joe needs more content, so he buys another 3000 points, knowing he will probably play thru two more zones. He buys his content and he still has a balance of 200 points! But the cheapest items are 300 points. So Joe ends up paying ~$2.00 to the company that he can't use unless he pays the company $9.99 more. By the end of the three months Joe has paid ItTakesForever Studios $79.95, nearly $20 more than Bob!

Your comparison of a video game and TV makes no sense either. That's like comparing a single apple with a bushel of oranges. It would make more sense if you compared a gaming service like OnLive with TV.

As far as $30 - $40 subs go, do I even have to explain that hardware costs keep dropping? $15/player is more than enough to pay the bills, and line a companies pocket. Plus, I'm pretty sure in the current market, any company suggesting such high subs would be laughed out of the room.

tl:dr?

You buy the box, you want the game not parts of it, Freemium is just an illusion of being cheaper, don't compare a single object to a collection of different objects, and higher subs make no sense.

Somebody buy this game and give it the love and time it deserves...

Jumpgate: Evolution is/nearly is vaporware at this point, being stuck in the legal quagmires as it is, and barely anything official has trickled down the pipes. Petition for removal?

A game with great potential lost to the nasty troll known as corporate greed.

I followed this game for a long while (having hoped it would be everything I wanted out of WAR but didn't get), and for all of its lack of polish (hell the beta felt like an alpha, and release like beta, but lets face it, you try to develop a bug free mmo in the amount of time they had), there was a team of hardworking devs focused on bettering the game and listening to feedback along with a good PvP community.

Best of luck to the dev team!