Discussion: Purchasable Character Respecs

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I'll never need to purchase one, ever .. but I see no problem with charging the people who want to change powers so frequently. If they want it, they can a) wait b) Pay for it.

Hooray Options.

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What about the people who want it, but cannot pay for it? Or cant afford it? It only creates a greater gap between the haves and the havenots. Any content that is not given to everyone only makes a wider gap.

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They have freespecs, VR respecs, IO recipe respecs and respec trials, same as always. The $10 respec is a tax upon players who are impatient, who must "have it now," or just want a convenient 5th option.

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This would be so cool if we could buy a respec for a lvl 50 that has been nerfed in the past, and change the primaries & secondaries of that particular character. Now THAT is something id pay money for in a heartbeat. Also it would put some worth into the "paid respec". Pls devs let me fix my broken 50s you ruined with the nerfs! Pretty pls? 8D

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pretty please with a cherry on top?

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They have freespecs, VR respecs, IO recipe respecs and respec trials, same as always. The $10 respec is a tax upon players who are impatient, who must "have it now," or just want a convenient 5th option.

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Exactly. And I'm that impatient guy.

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or for 10 bucks you can buy 100 mill inf from one of the stupid spam in game emails that continue to fill my in game mailbox. and with that 100 mill you can buy 5 in game respec recipies.

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Sure, if I wanted to lose my game account, I could do that.

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My point was who is the real crook?

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or for 10 bucks you can buy 100 mill inf from one of the stupid spam in game emails that continue to fill my in game mailbox. and with that 100 mill you can buy 5 in game respec recipies.

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Sure, if I wanted to lose my game account, I could do that.

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My point was who is the real crook?

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If you have to ask like this... You, for making the comparison. Seriously, this level of stupidity should be criminal.


This is NCSoft's game. Completely, now. This means they're the only ones with a right to make money off of it. Because they're the ones who pay Posi and company's salaries so they can fix bugs and create new contant. Because they're the ones who maintain the servers.

Respecs are still in game, and can still be gained by either just waiting for the next VetSpec or Freespec to become available, or can be gotten with a 1-2 hour time investment. Or you can buy them with in-game currency off the market, or even just find them on accident. NCSoft is now simply offering another way for people to get them. A way for people who don't want to commit themselves to waiting or investing 1-2 hours of their time in a Respec Trial.

I find it hard to conceive of there being a huge customer base for this addition, but I have seen the request for exactly this feature pop up once in a while on the Suggestion Boards. And it's completely optional. If you don't want to pay ten bucks for a Respec, don't pay for it. It's not like Ex Libris is coming over to your place and forcing you at gunpoint.


Meanwhile, RMTs are selling a commodity they don't own.


You do the [censored] math.

I love you Eisregen. Have my man-babies.

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or for 10 bucks you can buy 100 mill inf from one of the stupid spam in game emails that continue to fill my in game mailbox. and with that 100 mill you can buy 5 in game respec recipies.

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Sure, if I wanted to lose my game account, I could do that.

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My point was who is the real crook?

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On top of Eiseregen said?

A quote from Scott Olson, Edge-Online.com.

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While Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMO) sites continue to beef up their fraud detection capabilities to combat a wide spectrum of online fraud and abuse that includes credit card chargebacks, stolen virtual assets, gold farming and account takeover, the biggest threat today is fraudsters working together to create fraud rings and share information on how they can defraud MMOs and their legitimate players.

Unfortunately, we’ve reached a point in time when acquiring stolen credit card information over the Internet is as easy as purchasing a Starbuck’s gift card. With the simple click of a mouse, fraudsters can easily and affordably purchase details on hundreds of stolen credit cards to create new online accounts to commit online fraud and abuse. And while adding more tools and techniques to an existing fraud fighting arsenal may help reduce fraud and abuse, a online gaming site that doesn’t have the ability to identify fraudsters within their network who are hiding behind multiple identities and accounts, will continue to experience increased levels of fraud and abuse.

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From SOE president John Smedley on Gamasutra.com.

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Moreover, Smedley believes that 95 percent of game fraud is perpetrated overseas, primarily in the Asian region -- and North American companies are limited in the ways they can seek restitution, further disarming game companies. "The fraud rate is starting to become a very significant issue," he said of the industry at large. "We’re seeing customers facing farmers, and we're seeing, economically, ourselves and other publishers being hurt."

It isn't just issues of game balance and gold farming, Smedley says. "We're seeing a lot of stolen credit cards. Say you buy gold from a service in China -- you may not know it's in China, but you give them your credit card and buy gold only once. They use these credit card numbers to set up new accounts in these games. They buy an EverQuest account key, farm for a month, and then charge it back to the stolen credit card."

And this isn't just damaging to the consumer. "What happens is that over time, as that rate of chargebacks rises, we start getting fined. We have been fined over a million dollars since June. That's not the chargebacks themselves -- just the chargeback fine. It's brutal; it's the dirty little secret of the industry."

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The farmers are the real crooks, and any player who uses their services is not only an accomplice but a potential victim. That foolish gamer loses, the company who owns the game loses, and we lose. Imagine how much could be done if all that money that was used to pay off fines from credit card companies was used for game development instead?

So, on behalf of everyone who's ever had their credit card number stolen and sucked dry, or their account hacked, characters wiped clean, I will have to say the spammers are the real crooks here. I can't find a single argument against NCSoft doing this that even comes close to comparing to what the real crooks, thieves and out-right rat-bastards are doing.

As a bit of support to the poster above me, I just did a WHOIS search on who owns that infamous RMT "gold farmer" spammer website that starts with a G.

The name of the company that owns their website?

HICHINA ZHICHENG TECHNOLOGY LTD.

Buyer BEWARE!

We all pay money every month 15 bucks on up. that money needs to be spent on developing content and fixes for the game as it is now. seem that they just used our money and developed a way to make more money by charging 9.99 for a respec.

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We all pay money every month 15 bucks on up. that money needs to be spent on developing content and fixes for the game as it is now. seem that they just used our money and developed a way to make more money by charging 9.99 for a respec.

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Your monthly fee is going towards development of the game, paying salaries, paying for servers (power, bandwidth, maintenance, maintenance staff), etc. And I believe the money from the sales of "extras" goes towards increased development too (recall the wedding pack sales let them do the VEAT's a whole issue early).

Didn't one of the rednames saw, roughly, where the money goes? I recall it wasn't for champagne and Ferarris. I remember one of the big goals was to double the development team...

I tried finding it, but my search-fu was weak

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And no, they haven't handed out freespecs for *every* power change. For example, they are not handing out a freespec for the Gaussian Unique fix.

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lawl! guess we needs to edit this one....

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Didn't one of the rednames saw, roughly, where the money goes? I recall it wasn't for champagne and Ferarris.

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I believe it was RC Cola and AMC Pacers, with an occasional trip to Disneyland whenever there was a little 'mad money' to spare.

RC cola without peanuts? Man... that stinks.

I can understand why a lot of people are against this, but I kind of like the idea. I made some really bad choices on my current character before I got a real handle on the powersets and I really want to respec now. I only have an hour or so to play on weeknights and maybe 2-3 on each weekend, and I play on guardian (one of the least populous servers I think). It can be really tough to find a group that can make it through the respec trial. And I don't have anywhere near enough influence to buy a respec recipe. I'll probably try the trial a couple more times, but if I keep failing it, I'll probably seriously consider this.

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We all pay money every month 15 bucks on up. that money needs to be spent on developing content and fixes for the game as it is now. seem that they just used our money and developed a way to make more money by charging 9.99 for a respec.

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Yes we all pay a monthly fee. But keep in mind this game also needs to stay profitable. It would not be good business in ANY business to allow for your profits to all be redirected back into the company and/or service. You would infact then make no profit. NC Soft needs to make a profit. Otherwise why keep the game running at all if your only goal is to break even.

There are certian costs associated with the game that already take from the monthly sub. Server maintaince, bandwidth, GMs and administrators, running these forums etc, long before you even get down to the game devs, and the cost now of running there own studio for devloping content.

I really have no problem with NC Soft looking for ways to increase its profits. I dont mind the in game ads, the extras like server transfer or new slots, and now respecs. I do however wish they would maybe concentrate some of these extras into tangible in game products, like say unique costume sets or new base tile sets or perhaps even to develop as some games have a personal base/hideout system.

I have no problem paying for expanded content. If you look at most MMOs by now would have had several expansions requiring payment. Guildwars has been made for half the time and has 3 boxes to buy(though granted its a free game), think everquest has had 7-8 expansions EQ2 i think atleast 3. FF11 like 4 i believe, and im not even sure on something like dark age of camalot had like 3-4 also i think. COX has had 1 expansion being COV. 10 bucks here or there to get ingame stuff i have no problem with. I just wish they were alittle more fun. My ideas would be like:

1) sell a halloween kit. Doesnt grant badges, but would give you like 25 of the costumes earned from trick or treating each with a 1 hour timer rather then expiring on a set day. Maybe 2 packs covers getting all the costumes. Have it apply to the entire account, and maybe grant a cool ingame like a unique costume peice set to be added into the normal tailor and something like the jingle jet pack as a temp travel power.

2)Obviously i think spending money on new costumes would be a great money maker and could probably support a costume dev team on its own based on how people love the character creator.

3)the ability to purchase a plot for an in game hideout or apartment. Has limited in game use compared to a SG base, but like maybe 1 teleporter covering 2 zones, and rez station and then unique decorations that would be kinda like making a home much like the options to make unique costumes. More over the ability to invite others over, giving it better use then a simple SG base.

4)honestly this is a big one, but i would spend 5-10 bucks to say start like 3 characters at level 14-20. Most of us have spent so much time leveling that it would be nice to start with a travel power and stamina. But if nothing else a base set of travel powers and a temp Geas type power for any new character would be cool and worth the money IMO also.

With so many different options i do just wish they would get creative. Respec is fine, but i do feel will kinda kill the want or desire to run the respec. I would rather these options offer new things that cant currently be done in game, or earned through vet rewards. Just my 2 influence.

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And no, they haven't handed out freespecs for *every* power change. For example, they are not handing out a freespec for the Gaussian Unique fix.

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lawl! guess we needs to edit this one....

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Actually, it turns out they are...but only to the people who have multiple Gaussian Uniques slotted.

I can't find it now, but I saw a post that they had written and tested code to identify and notify everyone with one or more characters with more than one slotted, and that they were going to give a respec to each of them.

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We all pay money every month 15 bucks on up. that money needs to be spent on developing content and fixes for the game as it is now. seem that they just used our money and developed a way to make more money by charging 9.99 for a respec.

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Yes we all pay a monthly fee. But keep in mind this game also needs to stay profitable.

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You lost me there. Of course they game needs to stay profitable. But this is not the way. I go on gaming forums on other websites. When people who don't play this game saw this announcement , do you know what they thought? They get turned off my the microtransactions. I know I would. It's only hurting the reputation of the game.

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We all pay money every month 15 bucks on up. that money needs to be spent on developing content and fixes for the game as it is now. seem that they just used our money and developed a way to make more money by charging 9.99 for a respec.

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Your monthly fee is going towards development of the game, paying salaries, paying for servers (power, bandwidth, maintenance, maintenance staff), etc. And I believe the money from the sales of "extras" goes towards increased development too (recall the wedding pack sales let them do the VEAT's a whole issue early).

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Technically, your monthly fee is paying for access to the game servers. That's it.

What NCSoft as a company chooses to do with the revenues from subscriptions or micro-transactions is really a different matter all together.

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We all pay money every month 15 bucks on up. that money needs to be spent on developing content and fixes for the game as it is now. seem that they just used our money and developed a way to make more money by charging 9.99 for a respec.

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Your monthly fee is going towards development of the game, paying salaries, paying for servers (power, bandwidth, maintenance, maintenance staff), etc. And I believe the money from the sales of "extras" goes towards increased development too (recall the wedding pack sales let them do the VEAT's a whole issue early).

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Technically, your monthly fee is paying for access to the game servers. That's it.

What NCSoft as a company chooses to do with the revenues from subscriptions or micro-transactions is really a different matter all together.

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True. Apologies for assuming.

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We all pay money every month 15 bucks on up. that money needs to be spent on developing content and fixes for the game as it is now. seem that they just used our money and developed a way to make more money by charging 9.99 for a respec.

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Yes we all pay a monthly fee. But keep in mind this game also needs to stay profitable.

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You lost me there. Of course they game needs to stay profitable. But this is not the way. I go on gaming forums on other websites. When people who don't play this game saw this announcement , do you know what they thought? They get turned off my the microtransactions. I know I would. It's only hurting the reputation of the game.

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I dont see how. I havent heard of many MMOs that dont offer some type of RMT services. Even the biggest MMO out there charges for transfers etc.

I think everyone needs to keep in mind that to date, nothing that has had a real money purchase attached to it was a required purchase to play the game. Just as respecs wouldnt be either.

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We all pay money every month 15 bucks on up. that money needs to be spent on developing content and fixes for the game as it is now. seem that they just used our money and developed a way to make more money by charging 9.99 for a respec.

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Your monthly fee is going towards development of the game, paying salaries, paying for servers (power, bandwidth, maintenance, maintenance staff), etc. And I believe the money from the sales of "extras" goes towards increased development too (recall the wedding pack sales let them do the VEAT's a whole issue early).

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Technically, your monthly fee is paying for access to the game servers. That's it.

What NCSoft as a company chooses to do with the revenues from subscriptions or micro-transactions is really a different matter all together.

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I think what the poster was trying to associate BAB is that like running any business there are inherent costs to making money. Yes our subscription gives us access to the game. That is infact what we are paying for. However that money is revenue to NC Soft. And the revenue they earn from there products has to pay for the support of the product. If i ran a small business say selling groceries. The prices i charge my custumers are my revenues i use to support the business. Which would include things like cleaning supplies, cost of the product on my shelves, employees, rent, electricity, etc. All those behind the scenes things are supported off the sales you make. In a MMOs case, its supported off subscriptions and box sales, and in an ever increasing way, microtransactions.

What NC Soft does with the money is there business of course. However i think it would be safe to say that a game that they dont predict to have a good income stream would first not have been recently purchased by them outrightly, but more so, not stay in business to long. The revenue that COX earns its publisher is I would think be a deciding factor in how NC Soft choose to finance its future.

So im not sure i get all the hate for these type of transactions. I like COX, i dont plan on quitting anytime soon, so i would just like to see the company that runs it feel its a profitable enterprise for themselves and keep my fix availible for me. If these help assure that, im all for it.

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Technically, your monthly fee is paying for access to the game servers. That's it.

What NCSoft as a company chooses to do with the revenues from subscriptions or micro-transactions is really a different matter all together.

[/ QUOTE ]And yet, if you announced tomorrow "there will be no more free issues" the subscriber number would drop off dramatically. So we shouldn't exactly pretend they are unlinked, either.

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What NCSoft as a company chooses to do with the revenues from subscriptions or micro-transactions is really a different matter all together.

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So the additional revenue from the in-game ads is not automagically going back into development like a lot of folks around here like to think?

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What NCSoft as a company chooses to do with the revenues from subscriptions or micro-transactions is really a different matter all together.

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So the additional revenue from the in-game ads is not automagically going back into development like a lot of folks around here like to think?

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Where the revenue goes is none of our business. we aren't shareholders, we are customers who pay for access to their servers. I don't care who they hire, which brand of cola they like, what political party they prefer or what car they drive. I just want the servers to be up so I can play. thats what I pay for every month x2.

I won't be using the paid respec system myself but I'm not sorry they added it either. They have not taken anything away, they've ADDED to the game. Now I'd have a problem if they started charging for each new character creation, but thats not what they're doing. everyone get it?