Okay. I love this game so I keep playing, but I stopped paying for a premium license and I can now clearly see where the devs are taking this game.
It was always pay to play/win/speed up, what have you, but this new update is pure greed, plain and simple.
So now they’re taxing in-game market purchases using gold standards. This is wrong, it’s greedy, and it’s… it’s just wrong.
I know there will be loyalists ready to explain this new update away (oh the taxes won’t be that bad) but it’s not the numbers, it’s the principal. What other game taxes in game purchases bought with real world money?
How can you possibly defend this to me as a good thing? How the F does it benefit us IN THE LEAST?
This only confirms my choice not to give these devs any more of my real world money. I’ll keep playing but this game… I swear… What else do they want? Our first born child for the next Dessie update? This is BS.
Assuming they didn’t notice the tax, I to would like to know a well thought out honest answer about the tax. The gradient tax harms long term players unless they are ok with the hefty loss in resources and time invested something that should be a choice outside of slow interaction to keep under a tax bracket or giving up 40-60% of investment. Respecting your player bases time is a more progressive fair way of negotiating the transactions offered to the players. If i don’t burn out grinding and feeling bad watching my extra effort be met with a tax wall that’s crippling me from gaining end game resources at an acceptable rate my desire to play and spend goes up.
My play time becomes more consistent and I will risk assuming that im not the only one who has a similar reaction. Some tax helps manipulation from the player base on the market but damaging people making strong market capital gains seems like a double standard coming from devs with what would be arguably steep prices for there services in comparison to other games in familiar markets like steam in the f2play model.
Disclaimer I do have a fondness and id even say love for this game but lately choices seem to be more problematic in development as it relates to grind/micro managing player behavior. Please don’t take it as me bashing Im hoping to provide a perspective/constructive criticism and educate myself more on the subject.
Moral note taxing a paid for in game currency that heavily seems off. If I pay for the game id at least expect the taxes I then pay on top of that much like the real world to go to something player value minded. perhaps by giving a “tax write off” for paying players it would help give them a tax break relative to real world money spent, They are after all responsible for the continuation of the game in a unique way.
Well that can explain an initial idea to tax to stop inflation. It fails to address the issue of why the numbers seem so large and why the burden is being dropped on the top end of the market users. Could you rationalize for me the the current rates ? surely there is a better way to siphon off the excess that’s outside of a more authoritarian trade penalty cause as you said the in game is not a real economy. Offer up memberships for GS again just make the price wild high. I mean those paint jobs have a hefty tag why not a few more select purchase options.
More player choice instead of “Taxing” and if you apply it in terms of the game it’s a siphon levied against the more active players in the system. In my opinion it wrongfully is presented as new player friendly well neglecting very real complaints that can be ignored yes, but is it in the best interest of the long term financial gains and player retention ?
PS i don’t consider them greedy to be more transparent, short sighted and coming to wrong solutions but were all human and that’s just my opinion formed after a long history with the game.
Trading
A progressive taxation scale for trade transactions has been introduced.
If the sum of your sales per week is:
less than 500 GS, then the sales tax is not applied,
less than 2000 GS — the tax will be 10% of the sale,
less than 4000 GS — the tax will be 20% of the sale,
less than 10000 GS — the tax will be 30% of the sale,
over 10000 GS — the tax will be 50% of the sale.
From 1.6.4.a patch notes.
The only issue i see with this model is the fact that “high roller” players might have a hard time of dealing with 50% tax. Personally, i’ve never went beyond 2000GS of weekly sales and it’s not possible to earn more without doing conquest for more items on a daily basis (i dont play conquest, not a big fan of it). So, essentially the vast majority will have to deal with 10% tax or less.
While the tax system in place is not the most perfect system in the world, it serves its purpose to some degree to not give the ultimate buying power to one or a handful of individuals that could manipulate the economy of the game, to mitigate the existence of bots and hackers looking to abuse the system for personal gain etc etc.
There are several features of the game that were never planned to be a part of the game, one of them is the trade which was implemented very late into the game, when people, including myself, had maxed out resources. There are people that still do have capped resources and they could at any moment flood the market but at least they cant do it all at once due to the tax. I hope this explains at least some of the issues behind the system and why something has to be the way it is.
Orca what do you think about giving paying players a tax break? It could alleviate the pressure and pain on “High rollers” and be over all helpful to player retention. Band aid solutions have a place but I would hope a more long term thought out answer is coming.
As it stands no game iv played in the f2p market has grind walls this significant over all nor do they micro manage there markets outside of selectively pushing out high demand mats and items in events to meet growing demands. If the issue is flooding there’s a real solution that’s been around a long time and that’s capping trades per day and capping the high end of what can be traded which is less feel bad and more effective in practice then a gradient trade tax on an already purchased token currency.
(a certain frame mod comes to mind prime chamber sold for upwards of 100$ and now is now going to be a scheduled re occurring drop in events to address the inflation the item had in that game.) Ps I don’t know what the policy on using another games name is here and im just being cautious) but it went from 40k plus to 100 of there in game currency over night)
It let’s the player base choose the value of the objects and in the long run would help devs spot what the community deems worth there time or whats in meta market wise to better plan for the future. minimum wages work because the people of a country have other countries to compete in spending with. In a game like this giving a minimum to pricing on an item only serves as a fee most sellers pass on to others in that bubbled virtual space.
Is anyone able to answer for why mats being removed for the claimed purpose of making the system less complicated seems to be forgotten in favor of dumping more one off mats used in single builds ?
I would hope the knee jerk reaction from people isn’t to project there gripes against wealthy elites conflating them with wealthy people in a virtual economy. Theres no elections to be bought and no policies to be lobbied there just people who want the most out of what they do. For me its personally about finding new and more efficient methods to grind up in game currency, to have one of everything there is to offer without having to be wealthy irl , I don’t mind throwing 100$s every few months if im getting my monies worth but the whale hunting is a whole other issue but feels less scummy when its cosmetics (limited time mega price paint jobs) .
Again one of my all time favorite games and id spend time just lurking not voicing my view points but the game i care about is declining and its upsetting to be honest it may be all right for others right now but I can’t be alone in this frustration.
Full disclosure iv spent maybe a bit to much money on this game for transparency sake lol. 500-1k$ plus. most DLC is owned and im an avid sci fi fan/gamer who has had max resource caps in the past.
I want what leads to the best chance at the games long term survival and stability if I’m wrong ill be gladly wrong because then something I love in life is doing better then I thought even if its coming at the cost of a large portion of my personal enjoyment.