Can we stop pretending that Path of Exile is free to play?

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth." - Vladimir Lenin

“A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth” - Joseph Goebbels.

“You can go very far on a lie, but you’ll have no hope of returning”. – Jewish Proverb

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Boem wrote:

I wouldn't mind GGG giving two premium tabs to player accounts under the win conditions i outlined previously.

1) beating the full story line
2) reaching level 100

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I would support the idea to give one premium tab to any account that completes all 10 acts. The other condition is pointless as the effort is too disproportionate to the reward and it would be only available to very minor portion of PoE population.

Hell, I would support GGG decision to give currency stash tab to every account that completes story line. Currency stash tab is essential in my opinion and it should be part of account stash setup along with a premium tab and few normal tabs. I would not mind GGG giving currency tab to any new account even if I paid real money for mine--I did it because I wanted to support GGG and I also found them beneficial.

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Baron01 wrote:

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Boem wrote:

I wouldn't mind GGG giving two premium tabs to player accounts under the win conditions i outlined previously.

1) beating the full story line
2) reaching level 100

...

I would support the idea to give one premium tab to any account that completes all 10 acts. The other condition is pointless as the effort is too disproportionate to the reward and it would be only available to very minor portion of PoE population.

Hell, I would support GGG decision to give currency stash tab to every account that completes story line. Currency stash tab is essential in my opinion and it should be part of account stash setup along with a premium tab and few normal tabs. I would not mind GGG giving currency tab to any new account even if I paid real money for mine--I did it because I wanted to support GGG and I also found them beneficial.

I should clarify, beating the story line in my eyes means beating the atlas final boss.

Not beating the 10 acts.

I think both goals are difficult and take a lot of time to achieve, but thats one of the reasons why i think they are an appropriate thing to lock this behind so it doesn't get abused by bots or etc.

Let's imagine you really have no money to spend on PoE, i think having a big time sink to gain a stash tab is an ok barrier.
You can do it, but it will require effort, substantial effort even.

On the other hand, you playing fills the community and economy with one other participant, which is one of the big gains GGG gets out of their F2P model.

Locking the stash tabs behind a long time investment gives GGG the participation they want out of their freeloaders(and i don't mean that negatively, i enjoy an active community and economy) while providing the option to expand their stash tabs if they want to commit to them as a goal.

Peace,

-Boem-

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Boem wrote:

I should clarify, beating the story line in my eyes means beating the atlas final boss.

Not beating the 10 acts.

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I disagree with this. Killing Sirus takes significant amount of time and by the time you did that you already bought some stash tabs or you found a way to deal with the game without any. A single stash tab, premium or not, can not be considered a badge of honor because anyone with $2 can afford it so such "give away" does not mean anything at all. I would be insulted if GGG gives me single premium stash tab after 100+ hours effort to kill Sirus and only once per account.

If you are looking to reward players for achieve hard goal, find different and relevant incentive. Stash tabs are meant to make the game easier to pick up, more attractive or lessen the burden of inventory management for new players. New players are not the one that kill Sirus or level their character to 100.

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Baron01 wrote:

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Boem wrote:

I should clarify, beating the story line in my eyes means beating the atlas final boss.

Not beating the 10 acts.

...

I disagree with this. Killing Sirus takes significant amount of time and by the time you did that you already bought some stash tabs or you found a way to deal with the game without any. A single stash tab, premium or not, can not be considered a badge of honor because anyone with $2 can afford it so such "give away" does not mean anything at all. I would be insulted if GGG gives me single premium stash tab after 100+ hours effort to kill Sirus and only once per account.

If you are looking to reward players for achieve hard goal, find different and relevant incentive. Stash tabs are meant to make the game easier to pick up, more attractive or lessen the burden of inventory management for new players. New players are not the one that kill Sirus or level their character to 100.

I'm thinking of the people that aren't willing to spend any money on PoE for whatever private reasons.

I think we can exclude all people with disposable income, they will simply purchase them when they see fit and just go "oh one extra of these".
But for people who cant justify these purchases i think it would feel different and having the option, even if its hard and remote to achieve would be a boon to the game in my opinion.

I don't really wanna get into a "its only 2$" debate, because i don't think its my place to judge how people allocate their incomes.

Peace,

-Boem-

My suggestion was more aimed to make PoE more accessible to larger masses of people and also retain them for longer.

I fully expect that people who spend more than 50 ours in this game will spend some amount of real money to make their experience better, be it by purchasing some stash tabs or visual MTX.

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Baron01 wrote:

My suggestion was more aimed to make PoE more accessible to larger masses of people and also retain them for longer.

I fully expect that people who spend more than 50 ours in this game will spend some amount of real money to make their experience better, be it by purchasing some stash tabs or visual MTX.

I don't really care for people with disposable income in what i am suggesting, since like you hinted at already in your own post, it would mean very little to them either way.

But i would also want to put it behind a very hard game-play wall to prevent abuse cases as much as possible.

Peace,

-Boem-

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CryformeSky wrote:

Jesus christ. What has happened to the gaming industry over the last 2 decades......it actually makes me kind of sick. People bitch about EVERYTHING nowadays. Who cares if stash tabs are a convenience. Don't buy them. There is absolutely nothing in this game that you pay for to "win". Yes the cosmetics cost millions of dollars, but these dudes have to fund their game for us somehow dont they? And GGG is actually one of the few developers that is active on forums and listens to community feedback. Most people buy their shit because they want to. They choose to support these people making a game they actually enjoy and want to play. It HAS changed alot over the years, but they are STILL making content all the time, and people STILL bitch.......SMFH

Found the white knight!

Read the bold above. SURE! Cosmetics. That's how plenty of F2P games fund themselves and do fantastically! What if you could buy inventory space in Apex Legends with real money? People would be OUTRAGED. I'm just not sure how the same thing doesn't apply to an ARPG.

The only difference is the PvE vs PvP aspect. But so many people see PoE as a competitive game (indirectly), it still stands to reason that paying for convenience, even if it isn't direct power, is teetering on the edge of something more sinister.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I've put about $2000 into this game, and I'd double that if new players could have a currency tab and a premium quad stash. I would actively pay that amount again if they said they were making buy-able items entirely cosmetic.

We can sit here and argue for days (oh wait, we have), but the truth is, none of us could accurately determine the overall outcome of them removing paid accessibility. Maybe it would bring in tons of new players, maybe they'd buy cosmetics, maybe it would be super profitable? Maybe it would be a disaster. We can keep spouting our opinions though, because we're all talking about Schrodinger's cat here.

For the record, I'd still love to see a F2P game be free for a few months, then switch to a B2P model (sure, with MTX cosmetics). It would effectively allow all the early adopters in free, then put a $20 price tag on it to keep botters, RMTers and the like out.

Everyone says it wouldn't work, but as far as I know, no one's tried yet. I'd just like to see it.

I can pretend whatever I want!

I'm 6'6" handsome and a master wizard!!!