Paying real money for in-game advantage?

[Tasi]

Hi,
First of all: congratulations on successful Kickstarter. The game looks like an interesting tactical game.

Let's jump into the issue:
I have read your Kickstarter campaign page and the rewards left me with concerns. It says:

Starting at the Soundtrack Edition ($25) you can pick up digital unlock codes for extra in-game content and boosters. At $25, gain access to the Chromehawk Starting Weapons for improved starting weapons featuring an in-game cosmetic to spice up your screenshots, streams and in-game teams. At $40, gain access to an additional cash money (same cash you spend on guns, make running missions) and item booster for your new games with the Nano-Boosted Start. At $60, you’re on the exclusive alpha team but also have stocked your closets with the latest Omega Style Collection, featuring exclusive outfits, hats and accessories (4 of each, thanks to the "Savage 700" bonus). Finally, at $100 your story will include a Cyber-Tactician Ally who is none other than the head of security at Crane Technologies and offers a unique storyline and will open up new options, pathways and possible early game rewards that can help you get a jump on your new “career.”

If I understood correctly some rewards up to $500 are in-game advantages like: boosters, weapons, ally, in-game cash, quests.

A short note about Pay-to-Win business model[en.wikipedia.org]:

In general a game is considered pay-to-win when a player can gain any gameplay advantage over his or her non-paying peers

If I am not wrong the game is singleplayer only and that is sometimes used as an excuse for such practices.

Let me clarify: I am not labelling the game as Pay2Win. I am just expressing my concerns about some questionable practices. I believe some developers are going this way because they have seen it somewhere before without realizing the issues.

If you take a look at
Shadowrun: Returns[en.wikipedia.org] example of backers-only exclusive mission:

Upon reaching the $1 million mark, Weisman recorded a video for the Kickstarter project stating that if the project were to reach $1.5 million, the developers would develop a "backers-only exclusive mission which will tie together the stories of the SNES title and the Sega Genesis title." This goal was achieved but Kickstarter backers demanded that the mission be made available to everyone, so Harebrained Schemes announced that the mission would be available to them for a limited amount of time before being available to the public.

you will see that P2W is not a consumer-driven model. Backers generally want to support the game, they are not looking for unfair advantages. On the other hand, it is nice to reward those (only those) who helped you when you asked for it. That should not be, in my opinion: boosters, weapons, ally, in-game cash, quests but rather cosmetic rewards: portraits, in-game costumes, badges, titles, etc.

When I got pre-ordered X-Com I felt cheating because I got 1 more preorder-exclusive soldier. When they released it is paid DLC I felt being cheated because they have monetized DLC with preorder-exclusive hair cosmetic (together with that one extra soldier which I never wanted).
Because of the same reason I have not purchased a new indie game Alder's Blood. They have a backers-exclusive quest which I can not access. I will just wait until they will release it (after a year maybe?) with the game. Really smart business model...

In my humble opinion, any cosmetics (non-gameplay) rewards should be only for backers. Making a profit from something which should be "thanks" to those who support the game does not sound very "thank you"... Anything game-related should never ever be an exclusive or special reward for higher tiers backers, etc. Anytime you will give anyone game-related advantage for money (does not matter if from Kickstarter or DLC) you are following definition of P2W.

So my question:
Will you release the game with in-game advantages for some players (e.g. high tier backers)? You can easily ask them for their opinion or offer them different non-advantage rewards if you wish.

[Trese Brothers]

Thanks for the feedback and for the suggestions. At this time, we're focused on completing the promises we committed to in our Kickstarter and will not be changing those promises. The Kickstarter rewards are exclusive to Kickstarter as promised to the Kickstarter backers at the time of the campaign, as we have done with all of our previous Kickstarter campaign digital rewards.

[Tasi]

Not every game is for everyone I guess.
Thanks for replay.

[Trese Brothers]

Originally posted by Tasi:

Not every game is for everyone I guess.
Thanks for replay.

Happy game out there!

[Cyrus]

Excuse me I just want to ask, is there any kind of competitive multiplayer in this title? I don't remember you guys doing anything like that I own all your games Elite versions on my phone.

[Trese Brothers]

No, there is no multiplayer aspects of the game. It is a single player title only.

[Cyrus]

Originally posted by Trese Brothers:

No, there is no multiplayer aspects of the game. It is a single player title only.

Then I'm very confused about what advantages this guy talks about...guess he's just broke...
Keep up the good work guys you are one of the best devs of this(and the previous) decade.

[Tasi]

Originally posted by Cyrus:

Then I'm very confused about what advantages this guy talks about...

Starting from $25: Chromehawk Starting Weapons
Starting from $40: Nano-Boosted Start
Starting from $100: Cyber-Tactician Ally
Starting from $500: Boost your recruitable character

Originally posted by Cyrus:

guess he's just broke...

I would kindly ask you avoid any personal attacks[en.wikipedia.org]:

genuine discussion of the topic at hand is avoided by instead attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.

I have expressed my concerns and I have got my answer. I have not insulted anyone. I am not staying here any longer to troll. The only reason I am responding now is that I have subscribed this discussion so even after that long time I see your ad hominem fallacy.

[Trese Brothers]

Sorry this thread turned, locking it now.