Winterminal

Odds are, if a player is playing the solo and small team content, they do not want to transition into the trial scene. The contacts that explain where to start with the trials (i.e. BAF and Lambda) make themselves obvious when a character trains up to 50.

The other thing to consider is story line. This is a continuation of the Praetorian War story line, and as such, it should be more difficult than the content that came before it. Just as most level 25-30 content is more difficult than level 20-25 content.

If they wanted to add another +0 incarnate trial, it would only make sense that it be the beginning of a different story line. I hope this is eventually what will happen, but as it is, I think they made the right call.

As for the article: I give the Developers major props for listening to their players. The latter trials have certainly shown that, and I look forward to Dilemma Diabolique.

Pinnacle native here, and these two pretty much sum it up. Most of the teaming recruitment happens over global channels (PinnBadges and Cozmic's Playground are the big ones). Though, if you advertise coherently and politely over the Help channel that you are looking for a team, there are usually a number of low level teams that will be happy to take someone on, or at least there will be people who can point you toward where to find 'em.

If you can get online on a Sunday evening, come join the weekly ship raid. I lead 'em, and would be happy to introduce you to some of the more active players on the server.

Except that's only from the perspective of someone who only wants the Elemental Order costume. The fact is that when you buy a super pack, you are getting more than the costume parts. You may not necessarily want those other things, but they are there just the same. The value of those other items has to factor into the equation.

I totally see what you are saying. I got pissed off as a kid when I would spend $40 on playing card packs and only end up with one rare that I actually wanted or intended to use. In my mind, I had just paid $40 for that one piece of cardboard because that was the only one of any value to me, but I still received a bunch of other cards with it that, whether I liked it or not, contributed in worth to the overall cost.

It is for that very reason that I will not buy the packs. I dislike it, but I have accepted it, and I hope that it does not become something they do too often.

To reiterate: I totally agree with your perspective and your frustration, I am just trying to politely point out the flaw in your logic.

You have to take into account how many individuals are included in each of your groups of "people."

The number of people who purchased Going Rogue was the vast majority of the player base, and based on the spike in sales, was an obvious draw for players who had let their accounts lapse as well. Once Going Rogue had been out for about a month, it was rare that you would run into a subscriber (which all players were at that point) who had not purchased it.

The number of people who have spent large sums of money on the Paragon Market is most likely significantly lower. Speaking only for myself, I have actually spent less money on the game since Freedom launched. I am still paying my monthly subscription fee, but in the approximate 5 months since Freedom launched, I have not spent an extra cent, using only my monthly stipend. Before Freedom, it is possible a Super Booster would have been released in that time on which I would have spent an extra $10, but with the VIP rewards, I am able to get exactly what I want without spending extra (so far, at least). So Paragon Studios has actually lost money from me.

I doubt I am the average, but I am willing to bet there are other players out there who could say the same. I am willing to bet there is a small percentage of players who previously were scraping together enough cash to subscribe, but are now content to play the game as Premium, purchasing small things off the market here and there, for the sake of their wallets. I could go on, but the point is that there are a number of ways that Paragon Studios has lost income here and there.

The question is: is the income coming from those spending a lot of money on the market enough to surpass the sum of the tiny losses?

Personally, I hope so. I love this game as much as the next player, so I hope it has a number of years left.

Yes. Once you get one piece, it is removed from the table of possibilities.

That's an easy and truthful analogy to make, but here's the difference by my logic: gambling on trading card packs yielded something I could see, touch, and play with exclusive of anything else, while gambling on super packs is gambling on bits of data that become inaccessible if my computer crashes, the power goes out, the servers go down, or (in an extreme case) the game ceases to exist for some catastrophic reason.

At the end of the day, I am paying money for intangible stuff that depends on multiple parts of a technological system. I have no problem doing that so long as I can afford it, but I have to at least be paying for exactly what I want.

As I said earlier, I am not knocking anyone who wishes to or has already purchased these. I am simply giving my reasoning as to why I will not be doing the same.