I agree! Wait til we get it and see how it works, but to go as far as to say they will pay monthly fees for extra retainers /facepalm
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First winning a game isnt all about combat, so I'd disagree right there - like buying exclusive mounts in WoW I think is crap (though this isnt the normal defintion of p2w which usually just refers to combat related winning).
Second retainers will be able to do chores which gets you items, so yes they do (literal p2w). Also they can hold items for you and help you sell more (more p2w).
I really don't see paying for retainers as P2W. It is a bit on RMT side of things, but the good side of this is RMT are paying SE more money to sell more goods! You can't complain to much about that. Plus how much of an edge can you get more retainers anyway? Corner the market in goods and sell for high prices? This happens in in-game economies anyway even without an artificial limit on selling items. The more goods they try to control and sell is costing them more real life money than what they are making in the game.
And with no exchange rate to convert game money to RL money there is no incentive to go hardcore and sell tons of items. You just end up paying more money to SE! Quite ingenious if you ask me and not anything like P2W type scenario that you are suggesting.
Sweet! Thanks for the source info! Got to admit I do remember glancing over this, I was just to dense to put 2 and 2 together that 0 items player bazaar would mean no player bazaar! Derp! lulz
Thanks for pointing it out!
Well, I'm basing this on how they handled retainers in 1.0 where you could add more by paying an extra 1.00 a month.
Sure, I would rather not pay extra at all, however the idea is unique and different enough that I'm okay with it.
Secondly it's SE's attempt from Tanaka to stem RMT, which was the main reason to NOT have in game mail in the game in the first place till the figured out a way for it not to be abused for RMT. SE is notorious to combat RMT in their games.
I am still impressed with XI's Goblin Bounty hunters that run around attacking players botting fishing along the coastline! lol They are low level and easy to dispatch, however if your a bot, you won't attack back and the character will die. So this is the first time I have ever seen an in-game mechanic by a game developer to actively handle botting for RMT. Again it's quite ingenious!
Np on the source. Lol at the Goblin Bounty Hunters, that happened after I left I guess, but cool none the less. Also I understand, I guess that from my point of view, paying a dollar a month for storage seems steep, not to mention I got irritated with people double stacking their retainers in the market to where I couldnt get my retainers in there.
The full edge is unknown right now but having chores to gather materials, being able to sell more at a time, and being able to hold more does indeed lend an edge.
You can argue its for the good of the company but I guess I don't really care. I'm not a fan of out of subscription cost edges. And while its not a huge win its still p2w, not like you are suggesting.
If you get benefit outside of normal game means, its p2w sell. You can argue that expansions are p2w as well :P, but they are generally accepted for their mass amount of content added (unlike say buying exclusive ability packs or double exp tokens).
Like I said a bit ago I'm against p2w but if there was one to be had I'd be least upset about one that had content obtainable in the game that isnt useful in winning (like mounts) that you could also rush acquire through money. So say WoW's exclusive unicorn mount could be gained through a long quest chain or you could just buy it - something similar to LoL's payment system where it really doesn't matter.
None of this is pay to win. None of this increases your power. None of this helps you beat any content in the game. I cast extreme doubt that you're getting any items of meaningful economic value frojm the retainers- mainly just stuff that is already common,making it purely a convenience, not paying for power.
exclusive mounts in WoW isn't pay to win either- no power, no economic advantage.
This is no more "pay to win" than using additional characters as mules, which has been around since the dawn of MMORPGs.Quote:
Also they can hold items for you and help you sell more (more p2w).