Are MMORPG Item Malls Unbalanced?

Of course it's imbalanced - that's the nature of the service. If it wasn't imbalanced then people would have much less incentive to buy the items.

the wave of the future, to bad all the best perks cost a fortune for those interested ;) way to offset the subscription fees

Is kind of hard to determine, if it is just a pk sense then there will always be a big advantage to whoever has more artefacts, but less so if it is a group fight. Plus Achaea is perfectly enjoyable without any artefacts or ooc purchases.

Pay for perks in Achaea is skews things a whole lot.

In a game like League of Legends (haven't played Dota/HoN), every champion is balanced against every other champion. Except Jax. Screw that guy. And Akali. And each champion starts over fresh in every new match, with 0 gold/items. There are some minor persistent elements in runes and masteries, but those are really, really minor, and they're quickly accumulated by playing a few dozen games - no cash required.

In Achaea, classes are balanced against each other, but the game really comes down to investment vs investment. A sentinel with 3 class skills transed is roughly balanced against a priest with 3 class skills transed - but then maybe one of them has Survival and Avoidance transed too, and their miniskills. Maybe the sentinel has +3 knuckles, maybe the priest has a shield of absorption. The persistent elements, and possibility for investment, throw things out of the window.

Despite all that, the PK system is complex enough that personal skill can make up for huge deficits. Once you reach a certain threshold of abilities and personal skill, you stand a reasonable chance against most people who aren't crazily artifact-laden. That gets into Achaea's huge barriers of entry for PK, but maybe there will be an article about that tomorrow.

There is one thing that money can't buy, and that is competency. I, for one, will *never* be competent at combat. Ever. I hate PKing in IRE games because I can't keep up with the scrolling, and generally I end up dead and I have to scroll up to figure out what happened. I just can't keep up with it. But other people can, which is great for them. I could become an artifact pile for a few thousand dollars and I would still suck so horribly at combat I would wonder why I spent any money on credits whatsoever. But, given the actual skill of one player versus another, if one player has a pile of artifacts, they will likely win because of that advantage. It is up to the less wealthy player to come up with new techniques to overcome their deficiency. Or grind some gold to buy some credits to even the playing field. Whatever floats your boat.

There is a flip side, however. Those bonuses can translate into an easier or more enjoyable time bashing. A +15% equilibrium balance, a sip ring, and a shield of absorption can go a long, long ways in making bashing a little easier or let me explore some strange and exotic new place with a bit more confidence, thereby increasing my enjoyment of the game. It's a win-win.

^

I'm starting to think all anyone cares about are item malls. pay-for-perks is awesome, though I wish the artefacts didn't cost quite as much.

Yeah, noticed a lot of MMO's going free and then charging for stuff later extra character slots or whatever. Most recently it was the DC Universe.

there is no way -at all- that the pay-for-perks system in HoN or, in my area of personal knowledge, and broght up because it is a very similar system and game, League of Legends, is worse off then Achaea's. THe one key difference is that when it comes down to it, spending real life money can bring you virtually NO BENEFIT. THe only exception that I know of is the xp bonus in LoL, which can make you gain levels faster, but, as levels cap at thirty and do not actualy provide a serios chance over twelve, even this never really affects gameplay. Skins are literaly worthless in combat, and new characters, with the occasional exception, are generally in the same range ofpower as old ones. In LoL, it is the cheap characters who have been taking the 'arguably most powerful character' spot for a long time. Essentially, if you had played two games, you could play the most powerful character, all for free.

In Achaea, you can do nearly anything better because of credits. You can travel faster, bash faster, fight better, make money to buy more credits better. In terms f combat, the best argument is that "you still have to know how to fight." Well sure you do! The problem is sthat arties make it so that the playing field is incredibly unbalanced. If you were playing chess, sure you would have to know how to play, and a very skilled playr would beat you no matter what, but if the other gy starts the game with twice as many peices, you're probably screwed unless you are a grandmaster and he is absolutely awful.

Further more, credits make getting credits easier. Virtualy every class gets better the more lessons you put in their primary skill, and it will take forever to max that skill without the use of real money. It is very doable, just takes a long time. And it still has been done better by the person who bought credits. At higher levels, things like sip rings, crit pendants, and shields of absorption put those willing to put down signficant amounts of money way ahead of the rest. Yes, it can be earned in game. You could hunt, which is significantly easier if you had the artifacts, you could fish, which is hard without having the lessons to trans another, non class skill, and gets even easier when you have access to a boat, which costs even more. You could use a class crafting skill, which, again, means you have to put down more mone for lessons, or you could get a non-class crafting skill, like tailoring, which takes an initial investment of 200 credits, or seventy dollars, before you can even start. So yes, you -can- earn money in game, if you are willing to work for a very long time and spend a large part of your time doing it, only to be beaten at making more credits by the people who already have them. THats the biggest problem. The rich get richer, and those unwilling to spend money are left in the dust at nearly every turn.

I for one do not purchase credits on any character but my main. I also never log him... I have a slew of characters, all tri-trans, with avoidance and other skills. Some have small artefacts like collars or tophats or pipes. This is all done IC with IC gold. Eventually I'll get a dragon somewhere and be able to bash up enough for some real artifacts. I do find much more enjoyment in the fact that I can kill an artied player, with no artifacts and less trasncendant skills. I also die alot.-shrug-

so for an unfair gaming experience, it really isn't, if you don't want to pay for credits in an OOC method there are still a lot of ways that you can earn them in game. For instance I will use forging, I've made well over 100k just off the new alchemists alone, according to current market standards that's still 18 credits for one IRL day of forging, I just can't see what the supposed problem is, you get what you put into it

Without some way of earning money, IRE wouldn't exist.

Yes

time to give free credits XD

My mad hatter Shaco gets me mad kills in LoL

No more item mall articles please! Talk about something else, perhaps the 10 biggest mistakes you made, or a city raiding 101, or something! Just no more item mall articles, three in a row is enough!

Credit

Of course it is. But that makes killing those people even more fun.

By now it is clear that IRE is probing the players' attitude towards item malls and so. I see no other reason for these ever repeating articles.
Second, I do not buy the free to play argument here, unless I see the numbers accounting how many players actually succeeded in doing so.
Third, the artifacts are extremely expensive. I do not have any of them, but either artifacts are powerful or they are not worth it. Something is not right there. My opinion is that we are simply talking about a business model that has proven to be quite successful.

Artefacts are supposed to unbalence combat and allow people of lesser skill to win, keeps the game free for those that can't or chose not to pay. And this is a great thing. Defintly agree with top comments about constant bugging for you to pay like lotr aren't good in anyway.

balancing the scales, one post at a time

I agree!

I like the lack of constant notification to spend real money in IRE games. The option is there, but it's not like a neon sign in your face.

1. I'm not sure really sure why Heroes of Newerth brought up, if "there is no way to trade silver coins for gold coins". Why don't you pick the game where it's possible? Achaea may (or may not) was first, but hardly unique with its business model these days.

2.  "Achaea has the most fair pay-for-perks system" is really stupid oxymoron. The whole point of paying for perks is to make the game unfair in your favour and against those who didn't pay. Combined with Achaea (all Iron Realms games really) being essentially glorified PvP arena (with minimal RP elements) these perks usually translate into very substantial advantages. May be author meant "most unfair pay-for-perks system"? 

3.  All these people who play Achaea for years without needing to buy credits I want to invite to the new FREE restaurant that I have found a while ago. Yes, it's absolutely FREE. Well, some meals may look overpriced, but you don't have to buy them and restaurant's owner will let you to wash dishes absolutely for FREE, isn't that awesome? Moreover, if you are smart and nobody is looking then you can eat some leftovers and absolutely for FREE too! This is a revolution in food business, people with money can just buy meals and poor people like you and me can wash dishes for FREE. Amazing!

4. I also fully agree with people who "find much more enjoyment in the fact that they can kill an artied player". I'm also enjoying the fact that without any martial arts experience I can beat up a  professional boxer (if said boxer is 90 years old, asleep and tied).

A valid point

Eh, I see credits as 'speed it up' rather than a requirement. With the in-game credit market, you can (albeit slowly) get all the things an OOC purchaser can.

I favor persistance over spending money. If you show up every day and do something to earn gold/credits you will eventually get there without having to spend your hard earned cash.

Ya I am just taking a long tim to get anything with the whole perserverence method haha

Don't forget about using credits to buy lessons vs. the long & slow path of learning via leveling

This is a comment

If there is a next mall article, let it be about the items, not about goldfarming or buying credits please.

It should be hard to get mega artifacts and to complete skillsets, it should also be expensive, otherwise everyone would have them and then what would be the point of anyone having them?

Lower the in-game credit prizes

The good part about artifacts is that the onesthat help in bashing also help in pvp if you're good at that .  Me, I suck so bad at pvp but, I like the hunting bonuses of artifacts.

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Games shouldn't be both pay2play AND pay4perks at the same time. One or the other, not both.

Less performance-based perks, more RP-based perks.