Disappointed by Airship Syndicate

[Doc Rossow]

I'm not talking about the launch woes. Servers have issues. Those will be fixed.

I'm talking about the predatory, anti-consumer monetization of the game. Gating content behind the reward tower, in-game currency not lining up with store prices well, and 'seasonal' content (ie, content that gets removed from the game) is just too much.

I really love Airship Syndicate as a developer. Battle Chasers and Ruined King are some of my favorite games. But in those games the transactions were simple: I give money, I get game. The monetization for Wayfinder is just... incredibly unappealing for me as a consumer, and I'm not going to support it with my money right now.

I might check back in when F2P launches, just to see how I feel about it then, when I can check it out without handing over dollars. I really like this developer, and I liked the Beta when I played it. But right now guys, I'm pretty disappointed.

I'm not saying I hope you fail. I just don't think I'll be going on this adventure with you. Good luck, Airship Syndicate.

[Explicable]

Agreed. even if the servers did work its predatory garbage. Game studios are becoming scummy as fk. Even Palia had a predatory pricing system with their in-game currency. Outfits costed like 30$ each and you had to buy 50$ of currency and then have 20$ worth leftover because the 50$ pack was an irregular number on purpose so you couldn't use up all of it.

[FuriousDevi]

I mean on paper they are a known developer for quality games and the publisher is the team behind warframe - and i think thats not a good thing for this game!

It seems the pricing is heavly influenced by warframes over the top pricing politic.

BUT Warframe is also known for being very f2p friendly.
Together with knowing that all the exclusive rewards behind big paywalls will ultimately be mediocre cosmetics in a year (because thats how the cosmetic treadmill works - they always try to offer something better so people feel they need the better more shiny thing).

The Tower is ultimately just a Battlepass which is important for the games financial survival and i dont have an issue with that if its priced reasonable. It also offers motivation to keep playing and the rewards are always worth it.

But i have to say initialy it all sounds very confusing but in the end its just a free pass, a paid pass with no expiration and a premium pass which is the counterpart of a paid pass + instant unlock boost like we know from fortnite for example. You wont really miss out if you stick with the normal paid one.

[Sparrow]

Sure do love when you can buy ♥♥♥♥♥♥ 'premium currency' in 1000 increments, but then they go and make everything cost 1050, 2050, 3050. Pricks.

[mykidsnamedme]

OP lost me at "season content that gets removed" so I just stopped reading.

[Valhalla]

Sure do love the fact that you can get everything IN GAME just by PLAYING the game. Pretty sure I don't call that a paywall. The only single item behind a paywall right now is Heroic Kyros, and it is because he is the BIG "Thank You" from the devs for willing to help them fund the game and help the refine it to be the best it can be at full launch.

Every single thing you see that is available in the packs is obtainable just by playing the game, minus a couple cosmetics. Even a lot of cosmetics can be earned by PLAYING. Even the cheapest $20 founders bundle will get you everything, just a bit slower. Instead of getting things immediately, you get them through playing the game. Venomess, skins, weapons, etc, can all be obtained FREE. The only reason you are paying for things right now if you are paying to be in EA, not to bypass a paywall. When the game is F2P, everything will be obtainable IN GAME, except for certain cosmetics. Just like Warframe.

I have 2500 hours in Warframe, never spent a DIME, and I have every single item and frame in that game minus the newer weapons. Paying is for people who want things NOW. It is not for things that are exclusive to MTX's. If you have access to the EA, you have access to EVERYTHING through gameplay minus Heroic Kyros and a handful of cosmetics.

Just buy the cheapest pack, and play the game. Everything will be obtainable to your hearts desire.

[FuriousDevi]

Well to mention is that warframe has a player market / player trading which is what makes it possible to get basicaly everything through farming.

This game probably wont have that! But yeah i think its fine - more concerning is if the playerbase will stay alive longterm aka if the content stays fresh and fun.
But with the people behind it - i mean they got all the ingredients to make it great!

[spooglebiff snartu]

Haha imagine thinking the Warframe model is P2W and paygated, you'll be laughed out by the community and anyone who actually plays the game at all

[Sparrow]

Originally posted by Valhalla:

Sure do love the fact that you can get everything IN GAME just by PLAYING the game. Pretty sure I don't call that a paywall. The only single item behind a paywall right now is Heroic Kyros, and it is because he is the BIG "Thank You" from the devs for willing to help them fund the game and help the refine it to be the best it can be at full launch.

Every single thing you see that is available in the packs is obtainable just by playing the game, minus a couple cosmetics. Even a lot of cosmetics can be earned by PLAYING. Even the cheapest $20 founders bundle will get you everything, just a bit slower. Instead of getting things immediately, you get them through playing the game. Venomess, skins, weapons, etc, can all be obtained FREE. The only reason you are paying for things right now if you are paying to be in EA, not to bypass a paywall. When the game is F2P, everything will be obtainable IN GAME, except for certain cosmetics. Just like Warframe.

I have 2500 hours in Warframe, never spent a DIME, and I have every single item and frame in that game minus the newer weapons. Paying is for people who want things NOW. It is not for things that are exclusive to MTX's. If you have access to the EA, you have access to EVERYTHING through gameplay minus Heroic Kyros and a handful of cosmetics.

Just buy the cheapest pack, and play the game. Everything will be obtainable to your hearts desire.

Completely missing the point. It's predatory to sell the required currency in increments of 1000, then sell the items for slightly above that, forcing you to spend double to get an item that's valued at just over half of what you end up spending, in order to squeeze out just that little bit more out of the player.

You can get it for free? Congratulations, unfortunately a lot of people don't have a strong enough will to not be enticed by these cash shops, and that's why they work. They prey on a certain sort of people.

I refuse to buy anything from an in-game cash shop because of how predatory the system has become. Selling players outfits/cosmetics that were once previously just unlocked in a game. instead of selling meaningful content, like actual playable content, it's often stuff that was designed during development and ripped out of the base game so that it could be sold at a premium in the cash shop. Diablo 4 is a prime example of this, look at the cash shop there, they're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ out new outfits every few days, that stuff was designed months ago and is being slowly drip fed into the cash shop.

[Zeel Ara]

Right there with you. I looked over the monetization and removed the game from my wishlist. Sad to see another developer flush ethics down the drain, but such is life. There are plenty of developers with moral integrity that can use my money instead.