Pay to not Play (Gaming)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, February 25, 2014, 15:08 (3924 days ago) @ Cody Miller

I often launch Oni at Counter Attack (TCTF HQ) or A Friend In Need (Air Processing Plant) because I like having access to the Devil Spin Kick and neck wrenching running attack. Does that mean I think all the previous levels and story points are useless? Of course not! I just like skipping to a point where I have the moves I want.

Ahh, but would you PAY for that privilege? Seems Oni lets you do it the right way, for free :-)

No. Mainly because I think loading a save is not something that should ever be a micro transaction or any other type of payment. Perhaps Oni was not the best example vs subscription or free to play games...

Bringing it a bit closer to the leveling up structure of WoW, I would also not pay to increase my level in Skyrim, but I have paid (extra) to level up faster in EVE Online. The difference for me there is that Skyrim is offline and I never have to worry about keeping up with friends while EVE Online is... well... online and being far behind the people you are playing with sucks.

I think a good choice would be to allow the starting level of a character you create to be equal to or lower than the highest level character on your account.

I think this suggestion is decent, in some circumstances, but is terrible in others. For instance, EVE Online has a huge, dynamic, working economy. That economy is a major selling point of the game. Allowing players to equip themselves with any level of ship would break a hugely satisfying part of the game. A part that many people enjoy. Of course, other games focus far less on their ongoing universe and economy. Mass Effect 3, for instance, has a multiplayer mode that anyone skilled in the game can be a help (and not a hurt) to any team at any difficulty level even with a base level character and weapons.

Is one of these games right and the other wrong? I certainly don't think so. I think they both have strong core gameplay they just target different audiences. I play (or played... EVE raised its minimum system requirements above my laptop...) both and got a lot of enjoyment out of both.