Just because it is EA doesn't mean they aren't allowed a redemption arc. What I played I liked (the combo system was really fun and some of the maps on hard could get hard). The base idea is beyond solid - I'm ok giving them some time to get another crack at the game having been put through the ringer from gamers.
What I like is again the work they are showing is more than just a coat of paint. It definitely feels like they are shooting for an FF 14 style revamp.
Shame they screwed up so badly the first time. I was so excited for this game. Havent thought about it for months.
Its basically everyone of these style of games, they all come out missing pieces and either get them corrected or just die on the vine. Even Destiny famously came out underwhelmingly.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Should be interesting... just hope that they don't grossly underdevelop their inventory management system like all these games love to do. Like, cursor-UI or bust... it looks like they are, though it really seems like it borrows heavily from the UI of Destiny.
Just as long as it's not another here's hundreds of items but 100 slots deal.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Should be interesting... just hope that they don't grossly underdevelop their inventory management system like all these games love to do. Like, cursor-UI or bust... it looks like they are, though it really seems like it borrows heavily from the UI of Destiny.
Just as long as it's not another here's hundreds of items but 100 slots deal.
I'd hope not because the game already had a dumb limited inventory system for no reason. I want to say it was better the last time I signed in, but I rarely keep extra items in Anthem so I never came close to having too many.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Yeah, I tend to keep stuff in case I want to mix it up into another build entirely. Also kept htings around to not get caught off guard because service=games love to radically shift meta.
They did update it and made somewhat better than its earlier incarnations though. You're right about that, it's just that most loot games just miss the mark hard when it comes to inventory QoL.
Hopefully they'll cut back on the hold-to-perform actions too.
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Its basically everyone of these style of games, they all come out missing pieces and either get them corrected or just die on the vine. Even Destiny famously came out underwhelmingly.
Pretty much, Destiny, Diablo 3, Division, FF14, SWTOR, and I'm sure there are plenty of other examples. For Anthem, it's just a question of if EA will put the effort and funding for that 2nd round. I remember they hired a well respected loot designer post launch, so assuming they are still working there, that bodes well.
Should be interesting... just hope that they don't grossly underdevelop their inventory management system like all these games love to do. Like, cursor-UI or bust... it looks like they are, though it really seems like it borrows heavily from the UI of Destiny.
Just as long as it's not another here's hundreds of items but 100 slots deal.
Last time I logged in, they had improved the inventory quite a bit compared to launch. However it was still really cumbersome and wouldn't be without a major re-haul. What we saw on the blog is a good sign. The interface already looked cleaner and easier to use.
yeah, dunno if it was the hardware it was on, or just that there wasn't much going on, but that UI was pretty responsive and clean. Looked like they were using a PS4 controller on most of them, and there's keyboard button prompts on another. But there were PC mouse cursors. Console games that do use the mouse have cursor sets that change and stuff though so it's not telling much.
What also jumps out to me is there are only 8 boxes for primary and secondary weapons on that loadout screen (and the other sections too). Makes me wonder if that's what you can carry or what? Updated Anthem brought in the ability to change weapons mid-mission iirc, it wasn't restricted to field drops? So... idk. Hopefully they will go into detail about their UI and inventory stuff eventually.
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
I hold the, apparently, very unpopular opinion of liking both their locked loadouts and the way the loot discovery system worked in-game.
I liked that you chose a loadout for your suit and thats what you had for the mission or exploration or whatever. If you wanted to change you had to go to base.
And I really liked that I didn't know the loot until I got back from exploration or done with the mission. It gave me the freedom to just worry about playing and not check everything that dropped to see if it was an upgrade.
Both of them combined made for really fun play sessions of
- Do a thing for a while
- Go back to base
- Check new gear and make new loadouts
- Rinse/Repeat
It looks like this new system is almost exactly Destiny, which, while it works for Destiny, I think Anthem had a thing that worked really well too.
I hold the, apparently, very unpopular opinion of liking both their locked loadouts and the way the loot discovery system worked in-game.
I liked that you chose a loadout for your suit and thats what you had for the mission or exploration or whatever. If you wanted to change you had to go to base.
And I really liked that I didn't know the loot until I got back from exploration or done with the mission. It gave me the freedom to just worry about playing and not check everything that dropped to see if it was an upgrade.
Both of them combined made for really fun play sessions of
- Do a thing for a while
- Go back to base
- Check new gear and make new loadouts
- Rinse/Repeat
It looks like this new system is almost exactly Destiny, which, while it works for Destiny, I think Anthem had a thing that worked really well too.
I think they should go with a compromise system. Having to go to base and go through a loading screen to see what you got and change load outs sucked. That's an awful decision in a loot based game. But if they let you do it on those big striders out in the world so you didn't have to go through loading screens, that would have been fine.
I hold the, apparently, very unpopular opinion of liking both their locked loadouts and the way the loot discovery system worked in-game.
I liked that you chose a loadout for your suit and thats what you had for the mission or exploration or whatever. If you wanted to change you had to go to base.
And I really liked that I didn't know the loot until I got back from exploration or done with the mission. It gave me the freedom to just worry about playing and not check everything that dropped to see if it was an upgrade.
Both of them combined made for really fun play sessions of
- Do a thing for a while
- Go back to base
- Check new gear and make new loadouts
- Rinse/Repeat
It looks like this new system is almost exactly Destiny, which, while it works for Destiny, I think Anthem had a thing that worked really well too.
I agree with you Obi, but it wasn't popular and you need widespread appeal for these kind of games. Also it is nice if you picked a shitty gun to be able to swap it on the fly rather than either kill the mission early or just continue to ride it out.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
The identify items bit wasn't that bad, but the issue with loadout lock was if you were doing challenge runs and you needed just a few more kills/actions to pop it then you were stuck eating an entire mission load cycle just to get a few of those. Being mismatched to the content or group composition while pubbing also made loadout changing better.
New drops getting gated while old ones are accessible wouldn't be a step too far back imo, but the practical flexibility should be retained imo.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
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ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
I hold the, apparently, very unpopular opinion of liking both their locked loadouts and the way the loot discovery system worked in-game.
I liked that you chose a loadout for your suit and thats what you had for the mission or exploration or whatever. If you wanted to change you had to go to base.
And I really liked that I didn't know the loot until I got back from exploration or done with the mission. It gave me the freedom to just worry about playing and not check everything that dropped to see if it was an upgrade.
Both of them combined made for really fun play sessions of
- Do a thing for a while
- Go back to base
- Check new gear and make new loadouts
- Rinse/Repeat
It looks like this new system is almost exactly Destiny, which, while it works for Destiny, I think Anthem had a thing that worked really well too.
I think they should go with a compromise system. Having to go to base and go through a loading screen to see what you got and change load outs sucked. That's an awful decision in a loot based game. But if they let you do it on those big striders out in the world so you didn't have to go through loading screens, that would have been fine.
Being able to do it on the striders would be fine, yeah.
I hold the, apparently, very unpopular opinion of liking both their locked loadouts and the way the loot discovery system worked in-game.
I liked that you chose a loadout for your suit and thats what you had for the mission or exploration or whatever. If you wanted to change you had to go to base.
And I really liked that I didn't know the loot until I got back from exploration or done with the mission. It gave me the freedom to just worry about playing and not check everything that dropped to see if it was an upgrade.
Both of them combined made for really fun play sessions of
- Do a thing for a while
- Go back to base
- Check new gear and make new loadouts
- Rinse/Repeat
It looks like this new system is almost exactly Destiny, which, while it works for Destiny, I think Anthem had a thing that worked really well too.
I agree with you Obi, but it wasn't popular and you need widespread appeal for these kind of games. Also it is nice if you picked a shitty gun to be able to swap it on the fly rather than either kill the mission early or just continue to ride it out.
They just needed a test range for that kind of thing.
The identify items bit wasn't that bad, but the issue with loadout lock was if you were doing challenge runs and you needed just a few more kills/actions to pop it then you were stuck eating an entire mission load cycle just to get a few of those. Being mismatched to the content or group composition while pubbing also made loadout changing better.
New drops getting gated while old ones are accessible wouldn't be a step too far back imo, but the practical flexibility should be retained imo.
I think I dislike the immersion factor of swapping components on my suit while out in the middle of nowhere. It makes sense for Destiny because they have transmatting. Doesn't make sense in Anthem to me.
They did draw the line at changing out Javs, so there was that. Unless you could after the update and I just never noticed.
Syphon's idea of swapping out on the striders would have been a good compromise.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
Yeah, part of Anthem's fun for me was the feeling of preparation and deployment, almost more like a Monster Hunter rather than having a drop-in-drop-out inventory like Diablo or Destiny. Having the latter to sacrifice that feeling in service of player convenience would honestly bum me out a bit
Obviously it's all a work in development, but that UI doesn't excite me as much as Anthem's current UI does, even if I guess it's more readable
I’m not crazy about the new UI, but I’m still happy to know the game is not being abandoned and they’re trying something even if it’s not exactly what I want.
Yeah, part of Anthem's fun for me was the feeling of preparation and deployment, almost more like a Monster Hunter rather than having a drop-in-drop-out inventory like Diablo or Destiny. Having the latter to sacrifice that feeling in service of player convenience would honestly bum me out a bit
Obviously it's all a work in development, but that UI doesn't excite me as much as Anthem's current UI does, even if I guess it's more readable
Nothing about Anthem ever felt like a preparation/MH moment. I cannot imagine how someone else experienced that. It's very strange to me! It's.... just a shooter. Where were the moments where your careful preparation and research were payoffs in some piece of content?
Yeah, part of Anthem's fun for me was the feeling of preparation and deployment, almost more like a Monster Hunter rather than having a drop-in-drop-out inventory like Diablo or Destiny. Having the latter to sacrifice that feeling in service of player convenience would honestly bum me out a bit
Obviously it's all a work in development, but that UI doesn't excite me as much as Anthem's current UI does, even if I guess it's more readable
Nothing about Anthem ever felt like a preparation/MH moment. I cannot imagine how someone else experienced that. It's very strange to me! It's.... just a shooter. Where were the moments where your careful preparation and research were payoffs in some piece of content?
I'm exaggerating in that regard, but I'm more referring to the feeling of preparing a particular build or loadout that the player needs to work with for the entirety of a mission, which works in the context of most of the outside world being a generally inhospitable killzone where being able to change primary equipment whenever or wherever would not really be feasible.
Having it be as accessible and freeform as Destiny would diminish the feel of the setting
For readability that UI is a lot better, but it feels very cold and sterile. It needs some personality.
It looks very 'Alpha build' to me. So I'm sure they'll add some personality as it's solidified. I love the direction though, so much easier to see everything at once.
Man all those changes like skill trees and the artifact system and everything seem like what the game should have been (and was initially promised to be!) at launch.
I’m all for them going nuts and revamping everything and anything other than the core that feels oh so good. But do not, for one instance, think I am willing to put more money into this game than what I already have put, to be able to play with the “new” game. Release it with it’s fixes and then have an Expansion of some sorts and that’s ok. But I already shelled out $60 for the game and don’t think I should have to pay $0.01 more to get the revamped version.
Kind of depends on that they do with the story content and levels.
If they rejigger all this stuff and then tell the same exact story, with the exact same levels and whatnot then yeah... selling it again is not gong to go over well.
If in this rework they're also redoing the story, recreating or adding new levels and all... then maybe selling it again with a discount for people who owned the previous product (or free) isn't that bad. IDK, we'll have to see what happens I guess.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
I’m all for them going nuts and revamping everything and anything other than the core that feels oh so good. But do not, for one instance, think I am willing to put more money into this game than what I already have put, to be able to play with the “new” game. Release it with it’s fixes and then have an Expansion of some sorts and that’s ok. But I already shelled out $60 for the game and don’t think I should have to pay $0.01 more to get the revamped version.
There's no way these changes will cost anything. They might put out an expansion at the same time as the changes, but like WoW or any MMO, those changes will become part of the base game. You just wouldn't be able to play the content.
I just really wonder how they are going to make it "next gen" ready. I'm sure the big patch is months out still, and people will be migrating off of the current consoles over the next year.
I don't doubt that the system changes will come out to the base game, as WoW does (or did, I haven't played in years), with more content coming in a paid expansion or DLC or whatever.
I mean, it's intended to be a game that is paid for again and again. That's what Games As A Service is about, whether we're buying premium currency for skins and other "microtransactions" (quotations because if I can drop as much as I paid on the game was new and not have enough currency to get everything, the 'micro' part of that is being said sarcastically), so while I agree that we shouldn't have to pay more, the whole plan to keep it sustainable (and pay for servers and bandwidth and support and content work) is that they manage to entice some people into paying cash up front.
Like, if the game is selling for $5 or so these days (at least on sales), it's clearly not going to rake in millions per month unless every gamer on earth decides to buy it over the next year or two.
Even if the initial purchases let them mostly break even with development costs, we're over a year and a half post release. Even a small team's salaries and other expenses will add up over time.
Like, I bought in at full price for the deluxe edition, and bought another one for a friend. I'm not eager to throw more money at a game that actually became kind of contentious within my circle of friends, (finding out that it was allegedly deleting hard drives or bricking PS4s or whatever, however rare as that might have been, was probably the killing blow for a few of my more anxious associates). I wish it made a triumphant comeback, I would love to dive into it again at some point in an engaging and ongoing manner.
But I'm also not going to get my hopes up.
I hopped in around last Christmas to see the events, and while I appreciated seeing the lights and whatnot all over Fort Tarsis, I just wasn't drawn in to dive back into that treadmill either.
Monetizing the Mass Effect tie in skins might've been one of the killing blows for my personal interest, in retrospect.
I don't mind buying a game. I don't mind throwing money at a F2P for skins (Apex Legends and DotA2 have earned... substantial sums from my bank account these last few years, and I barely even play the latter), but even recognizing the economics involved, I also get the reluctance to open up ones wallet, while also recognizing that's something they're going to be seeking to inspire, at least in some people.
Yeah, yeah, maybe GAAS just isn't for me, I recognize, as someone who paid for a WoW subscription for a few years back in the day. If I feel I'm getting my money's worth out of it, I'm not entirely opposed, but it's a fine line to walk, and requires a game to carry itself as essentially a lifestyle choice, which carries a lot of other math and prioritizing behind it.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
On that note, I do hope that they fix their shop or how they manage their cosmetics. The whole rotations thing and seeing someone with something that I had missed, while being there for things I wouldn't buy was annoying.
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
On that note, I do hope that they fix their shop or how they manage their cosmetics. The whole rotations thing and seeing someone with something that I had missed, while being there for things I wouldn't buy was annoying.
That will never go away in a real GaaS. FOMO is the only thing that makes a premium shop run.
On that note, I do hope that they fix their shop or how they manage their cosmetics. The whole rotations thing and seeing someone with something that I had missed, while being there for things I wouldn't buy was annoying.
That will never go away in a real GaaS. FOMO is the only thing that makes a premium shop run.
True, but they only offered a few items a week, and if none were for a class you actually played you were kind outta luck.
small selection and the lack of player trade (not an argument for this) didn't help.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
While I don't think GaaS will ever go away I'll be happy if they were just the fad for this console gen and take a backseat for the next.
Eh, GaaS has always been around though, even prior to this generation. The constant demand/need for games to be actively supported along with have added content pretty much drove the model to where it is now. The perpetual monetization for those things on offline/single player games will likely never fly.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Literally the only thing that made me look at the Premium shop and go "I have to have that" were the Mass Effect crossover Javelin designs. And, even then, I only really needed the Asari and Quarian sets.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
I hold the, apparently, very unpopular opinion of liking both their locked loadouts and the way the loot discovery system worked in-game.
I liked that you chose a loadout for your suit and thats what you had for the mission or exploration or whatever. If you wanted to change you had to go to base.
And I really liked that I didn't know the loot until I got back from exploration or done with the mission. It gave me the freedom to just worry about playing and not check everything that dropped to see if it was an upgrade.
Both of them combined made for really fun play sessions of
- Do a thing for a while
- Go back to base
- Check new gear and make new loadouts
- Rinse/Repeat
It looks like this new system is almost exactly Destiny, which, while it works for Destiny, I think Anthem had a thing that worked really well too.
It's the exact same system that WARFRAME does and I don't think I've EVER seen a complaint shit that. I didn't mind it because it made my build even more important and felt like you were useful for the team.
I hold the, apparently, very unpopular opinion of liking both their locked loadouts and the way the loot discovery system worked in-game.
I liked that you chose a loadout for your suit and thats what you had for the mission or exploration or whatever. If you wanted to change you had to go to base.
And I really liked that I didn't know the loot until I got back from exploration or done with the mission. It gave me the freedom to just worry about playing and not check everything that dropped to see if it was an upgrade.
Both of them combined made for really fun play sessions of
- Do a thing for a while
- Go back to base
- Check new gear and make new loadouts
- Rinse/Repeat
It looks like this new system is almost exactly Destiny, which, while it works for Destiny, I think Anthem had a thing that worked really well too.
It's the exact same system that WARFRAME does and I don't think I've EVER seen a complaint shit that. I didn't mind it because it made my build even more important and felt like you were useful for the team.
I think the Warframe comparison is very apt right up until you get new things during those gameplay sessions. Warframe loot takes 12 to 72 hours to become available which is a pretty big difference from as soon as the mission ends. Honestly that part never really bothered me though. Literally not having enough content coupled with a loot system that flat out didn't even work for a substantial period of time really killed off my drive to keep playing.
The game is so close to being really fucking good but the mistakes they made are just too large to overlook. It's like putting a go kart motor in a Ferrari and wondering why no one wants to drive it.
Gamertag: KL Retribution
PSN:Furlion
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
edited October 2020
Warframe's dodgy wait period monetization really only works for players because it again, contributes to the dopamine satisfaction of gathering resources and crafting an item, which contributes to the feeling of "working" for a guaranteed reward. It also cleverly obfuscates progression and encourages players to step away from the game so they're not bullrushing their way through content from 0 hour to endgame in a manner of days like they do with other games, while netting them extra money for power users who don't have the patience.
Could Anthem do it? Probably, but they would need to vastly expand the loot table into more meaningful tchotchkes and also vastly expand the behaviour of equipment past what they already have.
Warframe is free to play, so FTP BS systems like "wait for loot to open" serve a purpose (getting people to spend money occasionally). Anthem has no excuse for attempting something like that and was rightfully shit on for not getting that balance correct. (I don't think the loot not opening in the field was an attempt to make money, I think it was one of like 50 systems they failed to set up correctly because they didn't even know they were making a looter shooter for 3+ years).
Posts
Shame they screwed up so badly the first time. I was so excited for this game. Havent thought about it for months.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Just as long as it's not another here's hundreds of items but 100 slots deal.
I'd hope not because the game already had a dumb limited inventory system for no reason. I want to say it was better the last time I signed in, but I rarely keep extra items in Anthem so I never came close to having too many.
pleasepaypreacher.net
They did update it and made somewhat better than its earlier incarnations though. You're right about that, it's just that most loot games just miss the mark hard when it comes to inventory QoL.
Hopefully they'll cut back on the hold-to-perform actions too.
There are some ideas that need time in the hands of actual gamers especially games that are more GaaS focused.
Pretty much, Destiny, Diablo 3, Division, FF14, SWTOR, and I'm sure there are plenty of other examples. For Anthem, it's just a question of if EA will put the effort and funding for that 2nd round. I remember they hired a well respected loot designer post launch, so assuming they are still working there, that bodes well.
Last time I logged in, they had improved the inventory quite a bit compared to launch. However it was still really cumbersome and wouldn't be without a major re-haul. What we saw on the blog is a good sign. The interface already looked cleaner and easier to use.
What also jumps out to me is there are only 8 boxes for primary and secondary weapons on that loadout screen (and the other sections too). Makes me wonder if that's what you can carry or what? Updated Anthem brought in the ability to change weapons mid-mission iirc, it wasn't restricted to field drops? So... idk. Hopefully they will go into detail about their UI and inventory stuff eventually.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I liked that you chose a loadout for your suit and thats what you had for the mission or exploration or whatever. If you wanted to change you had to go to base.
And I really liked that I didn't know the loot until I got back from exploration or done with the mission. It gave me the freedom to just worry about playing and not check everything that dropped to see if it was an upgrade.
Both of them combined made for really fun play sessions of
- Do a thing for a while
- Go back to base
- Check new gear and make new loadouts
- Rinse/Repeat
It looks like this new system is almost exactly Destiny, which, while it works for Destiny, I think Anthem had a thing that worked really well too.
I think they should go with a compromise system. Having to go to base and go through a loading screen to see what you got and change load outs sucked. That's an awful decision in a loot based game. But if they let you do it on those big striders out in the world so you didn't have to go through loading screens, that would have been fine.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
I agree with you Obi, but it wasn't popular and you need widespread appeal for these kind of games. Also it is nice if you picked a shitty gun to be able to swap it on the fly rather than either kill the mission early or just continue to ride it out.
pleasepaypreacher.net
New drops getting gated while old ones are accessible wouldn't be a step too far back imo, but the practical flexibility should be retained imo.
Being able to do it on the striders would be fine, yeah.
They just needed a test range for that kind of thing.
I think I dislike the immersion factor of swapping components on my suit while out in the middle of nowhere. It makes sense for Destiny because they have transmatting. Doesn't make sense in Anthem to me.
Syphon's idea of swapping out on the striders would have been a good compromise.
Obviously it's all a work in development, but that UI doesn't excite me as much as Anthem's current UI does, even if I guess it's more readable
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Nothing about Anthem ever felt like a preparation/MH moment. I cannot imagine how someone else experienced that. It's very strange to me! It's.... just a shooter. Where were the moments where your careful preparation and research were payoffs in some piece of content?
I'm definitely in the minority though, I had tons of fun with Anthem, and just wanted more content.
I probably put about 150hrs into the game, so at the end of the day I was happy. This is all just gravy for me.
If they aren't asking me to buy the game again I might try it out.
I'm exaggerating in that regard, but I'm more referring to the feeling of preparing a particular build or loadout that the player needs to work with for the entirety of a mission, which works in the context of most of the outside world being a generally inhospitable killzone where being able to change primary equipment whenever or wherever would not really be feasible.
Having it be as accessible and freeform as Destiny would diminish the feel of the setting
It looks very 'Alpha build' to me. So I'm sure they'll add some personality as it's solidified. I love the direction though, so much easier to see everything at once.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
If they rejigger all this stuff and then tell the same exact story, with the exact same levels and whatnot then yeah... selling it again is not gong to go over well.
If in this rework they're also redoing the story, recreating or adding new levels and all... then maybe selling it again with a discount for people who owned the previous product (or free) isn't that bad. IDK, we'll have to see what happens I guess.
There's no way these changes will cost anything. They might put out an expansion at the same time as the changes, but like WoW or any MMO, those changes will become part of the base game. You just wouldn't be able to play the content.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
I mean, it's intended to be a game that is paid for again and again. That's what Games As A Service is about, whether we're buying premium currency for skins and other "microtransactions" (quotations because if I can drop as much as I paid on the game was new and not have enough currency to get everything, the 'micro' part of that is being said sarcastically), so while I agree that we shouldn't have to pay more, the whole plan to keep it sustainable (and pay for servers and bandwidth and support and content work) is that they manage to entice some people into paying cash up front.
Like, if the game is selling for $5 or so these days (at least on sales), it's clearly not going to rake in millions per month unless every gamer on earth decides to buy it over the next year or two.
Even if the initial purchases let them mostly break even with development costs, we're over a year and a half post release. Even a small team's salaries and other expenses will add up over time.
Like, I bought in at full price for the deluxe edition, and bought another one for a friend. I'm not eager to throw more money at a game that actually became kind of contentious within my circle of friends, (finding out that it was allegedly deleting hard drives or bricking PS4s or whatever, however rare as that might have been, was probably the killing blow for a few of my more anxious associates). I wish it made a triumphant comeback, I would love to dive into it again at some point in an engaging and ongoing manner.
But I'm also not going to get my hopes up.
I hopped in around last Christmas to see the events, and while I appreciated seeing the lights and whatnot all over Fort Tarsis, I just wasn't drawn in to dive back into that treadmill either.
Monetizing the Mass Effect tie in skins might've been one of the killing blows for my personal interest, in retrospect.
I don't mind buying a game. I don't mind throwing money at a F2P for skins (Apex Legends and DotA2 have earned... substantial sums from my bank account these last few years, and I barely even play the latter), but even recognizing the economics involved, I also get the reluctance to open up ones wallet, while also recognizing that's something they're going to be seeking to inspire, at least in some people.
Yeah, yeah, maybe GAAS just isn't for me, I recognize, as someone who paid for a WoW subscription for a few years back in the day. If I feel I'm getting my money's worth out of it, I'm not entirely opposed, but it's a fine line to walk, and requires a game to carry itself as essentially a lifestyle choice, which carries a lot of other math and prioritizing behind it.
That will never go away in a real GaaS. FOMO is the only thing that makes a premium shop run.
True, but they only offered a few items a week, and if none were for a class you actually played you were kind outta luck.
small selection and the lack of player trade (not an argument for this) didn't help.
It's the exact same system that WARFRAME does and I don't think I've EVER seen a complaint shit that. I didn't mind it because it made my build even more important and felt like you were useful for the team.
I think the Warframe comparison is very apt right up until you get new things during those gameplay sessions. Warframe loot takes 12 to 72 hours to become available which is a pretty big difference from as soon as the mission ends. Honestly that part never really bothered me though. Literally not having enough content coupled with a loot system that flat out didn't even work for a substantial period of time really killed off my drive to keep playing.
The game is so close to being really fucking good but the mistakes they made are just too large to overlook. It's like putting a go kart motor in a Ferrari and wondering why no one wants to drive it.
PSN:Furlion
Could Anthem do it? Probably, but they would need to vastly expand the loot table into more meaningful tchotchkes and also vastly expand the behaviour of equipment past what they already have.