Interesting read on how GREE coerces us into spending gems

[ilvtfu]

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20130626/194933/

Also, I haven't bought a gem in my life.

Just thought some people out there might find this interesting

[possum]

A lot of suckers out there, myself included unfortunately.

You can summarize that entire article with one word: ego.

Add a dash of false optimism on the side (when it comes to "unknown" chests) and here we are.

Like I said before, Gree could make the top prize of main event guild war a epic boss armor from three months ago and watch the top few factions fight with great monetary strategy to win.

[gnolaum]

Personally I'm torn.

One side is: meh what do I care about $20?
The other side is: no way is this game worth $20.

[drygores]

Ya, gree is really good at all of that..unfortunately.

[Zyntree]

Yea, that's about what I've dropped here. Looks like the guild wars are 'Ante' pay systems... as for the rest. Whoever thought this was a skill game anyway? More like an RPG where more time invested = more power... still fun tho :)

[Rylar]

Personally I'm torn.

One side is: meh what do I care about $20?
The other side is: no way is this game worth $20.

Really? I've spent more than an hour playing this game and get paid over $20 an hour. So, if instead of playing this game for an hour I'd been working I would have made more than you think this game is worth.

Hmm, how much time have you spent on this game that is worth less than $20?

[Eunuchorn]

We are so much better off than the other Gree games still. They're getting exponential stat growth whereas we just get new armors.

[knights]

We are so much better off than the other Gree games still. They're getting exponential stat growth whereas we just get new armors.

That is very true. The other games really obsolete your stats by the hour...

Anyways, this game is cheaper than a glass of tap water because you didn't pay a dime to download and play it. Meanwhile, Gree has to pay for the servers and the people updating the game for your enjoyment...

[ilvtfu]

We are so much better off than the other Gree games still. They're getting exponential stat growth whereas we just get new armors.

totally agreed, I can definitely see Gree taking that path though

[PainTenshi]

Well .. its a dog eat dog world. Ask why the fox jump over the dog? :confused:
This type of trick will happen not only in game, but in real life too, as long as human is concern.
But whatever it is , is still the player choice whether to spend money.

[EljayK]

I look at it this way:

I've only ever paid exactly $20 to play. It was for a 30% off package during guild war. In the last year, on steam, I've spent a total of over $200 on games that I don't have the time to play. Dark Souls was too wonky, stopped playing. Fall Out: New Vegas, I don't have the time for, still in character creation because I haven't had a chance to sit down. Diablo III... ha! There are a slew of others. Once I got over the stigma that I was somehow justified in spending $60 a pop for physical games, and decided to use that money on something I play a good 25% of my time, I really didn't see it as that much money. I have no problem putting $20 in a month if I wanted to. Most people pay that for WoW each month, and I don't have to buy new releases. Plus if you don't have time to sit down and play something at home, and are always out and about like myself, this isn't adding to your gaming expenses, it's just transmogrifying them.

[imTectonic]

Very very interesting

[Stooboot]

Just reading this makes me think how stupid I am for giving gree my money. The only thing I can say tho as for mw cc and k&d the top players in these game are mostly over the age of 25 who own businesses or companies and "smoke the crack" but cant break the habbit. the ones who cant afford it and end up broke in real life because of a phone game is the sad part. I always say there should b a warning label on these games like perception medication but there no warning label on crack or heroin so I guess alls fair in love and greed

[cafedecoy]

Personally I'm torn.

One side is: meh what do I care about $20?
The other side is: no way is this game worth $20.

I could justify spending $20. I think if I went and watched a movie instead, I'd easily spend that money and maybe get similar entertainment value? So there is a value I'm willing to pay for enjoyment.

I think some people pay a lot more though? I'm not sure if anyone ever stated the amount, but I suspect that some people are happy to cough up more $. Has anyone confessed (or bragged?) to this?

[Doom1]

Now I'm regretting spending $100 on this.. :mad:

[Sparkle_DPA]

lol yeh its true alot of us spend a crap-ton on gems, but if you want to think of this positively, gree is not THAT bad. I mean the game is expensive but its still in a somewhat reasonable range imo. If you really want a company that just sucks the money out of you, try bigpoint. You'll have fun buying $1000 items and paying over $200 a week for ammo that will only last you a day or two of fighting(which is why i quit), and if gree gets to that point, ill stop paying for this game as well, but hopefully they wont make that mistake though. You can only push the players so hard before they just say screw it.

[Gilfhunter]

I have a feeling that prices will come down on gems as the game grows and as the money flow gets stronger. That's just hopeful thinking on my behalf. But, what a game is to me is a business to them. So why fix what ain't broke.

[cryologic]

The only way anything is going to change is if the player base starts dropping off for other games. Then we will see an increase in % off gem/gold sales. Possibly even see an armor store, at some point where you can just go and purchase the armor your looking for at a certain gem price.

[gnolaum]

The last two posts intrigue me, the first says that as we get more players prices will go down; the second says that as we get fewer players then the price will go down.

[shawnk]

what great read that's why im going to add u to my friends list if u r on android. I don't spend either but have a bunch of boss plus armors upgraded fully and got lucky and opened an epic with my beast keys. lvl 136 zeus. I don't really add people who are high lvls anymore because I have a lot already with great armors but u r going to be an exception. thnx for the read.

[shawnk]

srry bro I cant add u. u r apple version. only thing useful I read on here except people fighting constantly keep it up :)

[The Pale Rider]

Read it. Interesting article on FTP and PTP game mechanics and modeling. Author adopts a very academic style in what is a basically an opinion piece full of criticism. He makes good points, but it's not impartial.

[ilvtfu]

what great read that's why im going to add u to my friends list if u r on android. I don't spend either but have a bunch of boss plus armors upgraded fully and got lucky and opened an epic with my beast keys. lvl 136 zeus. I don't really add people who are high lvls anymore because I have a lot already with great armors but u r going to be an exception. thnx for the read.

Thanks for the compliment haha. I do do my fair share of trolling though...


Read it. Interesting article on FTP and PTP game mechanics and modeling. Author adopts a very academic style in what is a basically an opinion piece full of criticism. He makes good points, but it's not impartial.

Yes, he's definitely leaning towards skill games, he is the owner of king.com which is a gaming website so there's no way he could be impartial but some of the points are definitely valid.

[Deatux]

I can understand they do it to keep the game running but at times it just get ridiculous to a point if you don't have money your not really going to get far in the game as you want to, but it seem's like that with most games now and days

[Tuamare]

The only way anything is going to change is if the player base starts dropping off for other games. Then we will see an increase in % off gem/gold sales. Possibly even see an armor store, at some point where you can just go and purchase the armor your looking for at a certain gem price.

If you had read the linked article, you'd know that discounted sales is one of the tricks used to part people from their money. Whether you do it or not is of course free choice, but it is good to be aware of these things. As for $20 being the benchmark, I know lots of people who have spent way way more than that on this game, and I know others who have spent four figure sums with agree, quite possibly five figure. The escalating strength of the armour is what draws people in, they'll spend lots of money on this weekends war, just to get an armour that looks good now but will be average by the time they level it. Again, free choice, but good to know what you're actually buying into.

There is no coercion going on, just not so subtle manipulation.

[forcefed4door]

^who are you kidding? if they are big time gem spenders that armour they win will reach lvl 99in less than a day. Very sad but very true fact.

[shawnk]

^who are you kidding? if they are big time gem spenders that armour they win will reach lvl 99in less than a day. Very sad but very true fact.
its taking some work lvling my epic which I got during the beast keys and I have to say man its impossible to take I to the max. so far to this day I have mine at lvl 80 (mael) and it doesn't look average at all but that's with my guild members allowing me not to donate gold. I also have to say I have just run out of fusion stones today lol

[Pilfer]

"Virtual fitness" is what I like to call the perceived incentive of pumping money and time into games. Some argue that competitive gaming enhances real life; my experience is that gaming can have benefits, but mostly it causes social and physical harm (RSI, etc.). As for leveling armor--yeah, I get like 1 level for every 120k on my epic atm. Sad but true.

[Tuamare]

Test, am I still banned?

[Tim9870]

If gree wants more gems they should give guilds that will rank 10-25 in old epic like moontide and 25-50 legendary+. more people would be tempted to spend gems to get a top 25 rank.

[Marco_]

its taking some work lvling my epic which I got during the beast keys and I have to say man its impossible to take I to the max. so far to this day I have mine at lvl 80 (mael) and it doesn't look average at all but that's with my guild members allowing me not to donate gold. I also have to say I have just run out of fusion stones today lol
People with a bunch of Epics don't have the need to craft and level the epic boss legendary armors, which saves them a few million gold per week. Then there's also the epic boss victory reward armors they aren't throwing at the epic boss armors and probably a bunch of armors from arena, so they likely have 50+ armors to throw at the Epic armor in an instant. If they pulled the Epic from a chest, they probably also got a lot of 50EP and 90EP junk at the same time they can also throw at it.
And so you have people maxing their Epics in an hour, while others like me will probably take much more than a week...