Not free to play?

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#41

This. Sorry if the humor didn’t come across.

At the end of the day, while we are making art (to a degree, and sometimes debatably), it’s entertainment first. If we fail to entertain, we aren’t doing our jobs. Every human is entertained differently. So, it’s a daunting job at times.

We’re also very very aware that people have limited budgets and vote with their money. We hope with Battleobon that what we have made (and are making) is entertaining for you. We really hope that you like it enough that it will entertain you for a while, and you will want more of our particular flavor of insanity. That does cost money, though. :slight_smile: And somewhere, someone has to pay for it.

Just to be clear, as well…I certainly don’t think of fans as a hive mind. For some research, yeah…we look at big data, crunch numbers and have our PhD of behavioral science help us peer through the cloud to find patterns. On the other hand, I’m here on the forums, talking with you guys, listening, and developing opinions about how our game and changes to our game affect you and what entertains you best.

Somewhere in the middle, if we can meet, it will be awesome.

7 Likes
#42

Totally saving that typo for historical reference.

2 Likes
#44

The game is clearly set up for a LoL/DoTa2 style of micro purchases… Why would any one buy the game?

I really like the game but i can get the same level of quality out of free games. It should be micro transaction based!

#45

Also, in the end you´ll pay far more through microtransactions than by purchasing the game for the full price.
Its like a damage-over-time effect which deals more damage than a single shot attack.

If you want to spend an uncertain high amount of money instead of a set amount, feel free to do that.

1 Like
#46

Since when was the pricing model up for a discussion though? It wasn’t even in the feedback survey you gave us, as an option. Evolve definitely had one before the alpha if I recall, that a bunch of us received.

When you rope entire clans into it because of no barrier of entry they tend to want to spend money because friends are doing it. So it ends up in people who normally wouldn’t pay, paying.

Or you get those people who are like I am just going to buy this ONE thing, then they get stuck in an infinite loop of buying and then end up spending 200$+ on hats. We had someone in a clan who did exactly this to the point we told them NO ITS NOT JUST ONE YOUR GOING TO BUY LIKE 5 MORE STOP.

#47

Keep in mind this is where your seeing the split between the players here. Some are strictly on the pvp/coop and some care if there’s a singleplayer/missions or not. I personally only really care for the PVP and Horde mode. League had a terrible few sentence story initially because I don’t think they even thought honestly people would care much about lore. Kind of like CS etc…

#48

Well, I´m sure we know that there are two types of players (PvP/story) , but maybe the PvP/MOBA crowd should take notice that GBX indeed cared for the story/lore. If players don´t want to care its their choice, but the developers/artists did care, so they should respect that.
What I want to say here is: BB has a pricetag because of the huge storymode. If it just were about the meltdown mode it would be free. But its not only the PvP-mode, its much more. We pay for that “more” that did´nt exist in other games with PvP.

#49

Yes, I get that. I see the potential for profit, but its simply not a fitting model for a game that centers about the storymode.
Yes, BB has PvP, but its not LoL nor any of those F2P-titles. I can understand your demand for such a game, so why not simply play one of the countless F2P-Battleborn clones that are be released everywhere suddenly? (In my opinion the art styles resemble BB a bit much)

  • Gigantic
    -Wildstar
  • at least 3 other small F2P titles looking like BB, can´t remember… “Star…”-something, not WildStar… nevermind…
    Gigantic looks even rather neat and its as you want it: F2P.
#50

I at least confidently agree that as a f2p the current model isn’t a good setup at all with this currently, but that actually seems to be partly because we have pvp and the gear system as a result tries to appeal to both pvp and pve.

As far as a focus on story-mode goes I can’t really say that is a center of the game currently. They seem to have a kind of weird 1/2 and 1/2 where it’s focused on story and pvp but now the story seems to be mission based and the loot is a huge step down from borderlands. Also we have a ton of characters now but lost progression with them basically. Actually the new worry should probably be that it’s trying to appeal to both crowds but might not appeal to either strongly.

Also the games you listed look similar but gameplay are super different. Wildstar is a mmorpg basically. Gigantic is actually a decent team arena combat game, but we have to see if its issues can be weeded out. That and eventually they will catch on to the fact their community manager has been wasting time because they refuse to change their community involvement ideas. The third one your thinking of is Paladins, Battlecry, or Overwatch I think. Paladins test starts Monday.

#51

That’s what I’m worried about. I don’t care about PVP, I want to be able to play the story with my wife and our friend. We’ll see how BB shakes out when it’s released and buy or pass then.

2 Likes
#52

This is why drug dealers often give out free samples. They know you’re going to get hooked. The person buying thinks they’re getting a freebie when in fact they are getting roped in unbeknownst to them.

2 Likes
#53

TL;DR: if its pay2play only then Gearbox are money-grabbing cowards

Their current idea of the way they’re going to sell this game is very similair to Borderlands, which is the most likely thing they can replicate for succes as much as possible. In the planned model it will pay for its self as they still have tons of suckers from Borderlands. However this means this game wont make the community grow, which is something they kinda need in a pvp enviroment and the initial pay will be their own little fallback money incase the game won’t grow well enough, which is going to happen.
If however, the game was both purchasable and f2p then that problem simply won’t exist.

#54

I posted a link to the Ars Technica interview with Randy Varnell before (although it apparently got moved into into the CTT forum or something?) Here’s the link again.

My main reason for mentioning it is this quote:

Varnell was refreshingly candid: “I would be lying if I said we hadn’t
thought about it [microtransactions],” he told me, "What’s been really important for us
though—the same thing was true for Borderlands—is that we want
to release the full price retail game, everything you see in here, 25
characters, all the loot you can unlock in the game, you can get without
spending another penny.

(Emphasis added).

It looks like GBX is determined to make their own way and take their chances with this game that is a weird mash-up of so many things. Personally, I applaud them for trying and wish them every success. I’m still not sure if this is something I want to play, but I’m certainly watching with interest.

2 Likes
#55

I’ll be playing, that’s for sure. Love the game. Already experiencing withdrawal symptoms. I need to find more good people to team with though before the game comes out.

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#56

Yeah. I take it you’ve never developed a game professionally? Please, enlighten us with more of your wonderful grasp of the gaming market.

I think you need to polish off your crystal ball because the view is very cloudy.

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#57

Well, maybe they just don´t want they community to grow, if that means it grows by snobbed PvP-kids who does´nt give a ■■■■ of the story, lore, characters and universe they create.

It seems these ranting MOBA-crowd just want to increase scores, not to experience a game.

TETRIS would be a great MOBA today if they´d remake it: no art, no fancy graphics, no story , no character - only a nice score to increase.

I rather stick with the old gang, we care about the feeling, the art in a game. And yeah, we want to kill virtual stuff, but with style.

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#58

Have a cold turkey too! :slight_smile: Which platform are you playing on? Me and my boyfriend still look for people to explore the Solus system :heart: (We are on XBoxlive)

#59

As just someone commenting

You don’t have to be free to play to be successful with PVP. Have you heard of games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Destiny, etc…

As a mod

Let’s be a little more respectful ok.

2 Likes
#60

I’m on Xbox LIVE, but only on the 360. Currently I am on PS4 and PC (if I ever get my PC back in working condition).

#61

I don’t even care about this whole debate but:

What the actual h*ck are you trying to say here? lol