A game is a game. Plain and simple. A game is also exemplified by the players that play it. It takes all kinds to make it work. Balances need to be kept. Challenges need to be made. It keeps it all interesting.
And there is no such thing as a balanced game unless everyone?s dead. It?s just a matter of who clicks first. That wouldn?t be a very popular game in this day and age. It?s already been made anyway. It?s called pong.
People play games for a challenge and to have fun. In rpgs especially, it?s usually the challenge of making your character better and watching them grow, testing them again others, even using them to abuse others that is most of the fun for a game.
Conquer Online just got turned into a Los Vegas Casino. Not a good move on the part of those running the game. In my own opinion, they just issued a death warrant on it. All of the challenge in the game has been completely reduced to who ever wants to toss the most money at the game FIRST, wins. Personally speaking, if I?m going to spend money online (and I do), I?m going to spend it some where worth a damn.
If I feel the need to waste the extra money on a chance at getting something, it won?t be on pixels or intangeble items that require no effort and carry no value at all. Spend money on ebay, spend money in the stock market, or even spend money on access time and you will at least have a chance at something tangeble.
Spending money on playing a game is one thing, but I fail to see the point of spending money on items IN a game. One bad glitch and those items are gone. Get hacked and you?re out the money you spent. If there is a title to be had for spending the most money, I?m pretty sure no one on this game is going to earn it no matter how many dragon balls they buy.
Spend money on game access and at least you?re only paying to play the game. That usually means you have the same chance at being as good as anyone else. It then becomes a matter of how much effort you put forward to determine what you will get out of it. Even those that use the easy advantages in the game are still working for something.
Take away the need to work for something and you take away the interest of playing at all. People play to be competitive. They play to make their chars better, wether that be for being better than other people, showing off for their friends, or even just kicking the crap out of everyone they can. But they always have to have the hope that if they?re not as good as everyone else, they can be eventually. This game didn?t lose that hope. It is now just being sold to the highest bidder. Once again I go back to the part that if I?m going to bid on anything it?s going to be on someplace like Ebay where I actually get something useful out of it.
Let?s take this game to it?s logical conclusion shall we?
The game now allows anyone willing to spend enough money to get all items in the game super +9, 2 socket. Doesn?t matter if you don?t get it right away, wait till till next time you get money to waste and toss it at more DBs. You can then use those to gamble until you GET said super 2 socket +9. You can even use this advantage to buy experience.
This reduces the need to hunt, trade, and even level a character. If you hunt, you get items that pale in comparison to what anyone can buy,so there?s little use in even selling them. That means the market is almost useless except to eventually trade in DBs because nothing else will be worth the time. Even if the lottery is reduced in frequency, the price of DBs (which are nicely needed in every single useful aspect of the game) will soar to beyond the reach of any non-paying player. People will always take the easy chance at just getting good items as oppossed to having to work for them.
That in turn makes the charater pointless as it no longer even needs to be played at all to become equal to the best characters in the game. So this eliminates challenge from playing a character. There?s no need to play them if they can?t get any better. Those that simply want good characters will just buy them. But that alone will not kill the game.
Without challenge or hope of being better, those that prefer this game style will leave and go elsewhere. This leave just those that wish to duke it out. In it?s own right a viable style of play. But, then we have to go back to the totally equal concept. Where every player has the best gear and highest levels. After a while, this will get old as player realize that without clear advantages, they can?t win, just tie. Not to mention they?re left fighting a select few that remain because it was easy to buy your way into being ?good?.
The players that pay to be ?good? get tired of no clear advantage and realize that they can simply tie with the others that remain will wonder at the point in paying to be equal in a game when they can simply do so elsewhere for free. There is no shortage of first person games in which people can mindlessly kill one another for free. They don?t have to buy in game items to be better or equal. Is it supposed to be a status symbol that someone pays insane amounts to be no better than anyone else in the game? Frankly, I think I?ll just laugh and go spend my money on something far more interesting and definitely more challenging.
If CO had gone to donations or even to ?pay for play?, it would not and could not have done any more possible damage than how things have been changed. If players were asked to pay to play a game where they knew they had an equal chance at being better than everyone else while still keeping the game a challenge, they would probly do it. Many would leave, but yet many would stay.
I?m not sure what gold digging, gold medal achiver in the special olympics thought up this Paper Mach閠e marketing gimmick, and I don?t even want to ponder what sort of corporate money making moron approved it. I do want to thank them for executing one of the most ignorant and destructive ideas in gaming history and allowing me to witness it. This should be a truely spectactular train wreck with a body count in the thousands. I would love to also see the resulting end count of pink slips handed out after this mushroom cloud clears. But, I?ll most likely get bored with watching and go somewhere more interesting.
The majority of non paying players are going to leave because, well frankly, even in a free game, no one wants to be anyone else?s *****. They have no chance and no hope of competing with the all mighty plastic held by idiots. They?ll go somewhere where they feel their time is better spent.
The rest of the non paying players will eventually either convert to paying players or give up waiting for the situation to be fixed. If you can?t beat them, join them. And if you refuse to join them, abandon ship.
Of the paying players, they will remain and shell out money until they figure out that no matter how much they spend, they cannot go past the ceiling limit of their gear and levels. When they get bored, or realize that they are tossing money into something with virtually no point. It?s all just become a matter of spending the most money and those that haven?t will get tired of being considered substandard and either resort to total hacking and or leave.
PKers become rather bored I?ve noticed when they either have no one to pk or have to keep pking the same people over and over agian with only ties to show for it. With less victims, they will eventually leave and seek someplace else where prey is more readily available and for a much cheaper price. I?m sure anyone can name at least ten games that meet those requirements.
This will leave only the die hard paying players that that believe it?s something important to be gods of an empty game. They?ll find it amusing for a while and gloat about all the players they spent more than our out lasted. Once the number of people reduce in sufficient numbers and these players are left with no one to gloat to, they will also eventually leave. After all, if being the last person following a fad were something good, we?d all still be fashion victims.
This all should be impressive to watch. It?s not often that a company tries so successfully to shoot themselves in the foot. Not only have you managed to single handed shoot yourselves in the foot, you managed to blow your whole leg off up to the hip. I?m on macabre son of a ***** so you?ll have to exscuse me while I make up some popcorn and watch. I?ll opologize before hand in case I should get any of the popcorn salt in what is surely one very gruesome open wound.
I always wondered what the end of the world would look like. I guess we?ll find out. ^^
[Comment by Engputer] I mostly agree with the opinion in this post and through this post we can get to know a lot of stuff. Things aren?t going very well in CO latest update. I don?t know what to say, actually I am currently are against it. But who knows? But I won?t update all servers if I want feedback and re-evaluating this update since it reshapes the economy of CO and ruined the current balance between db buyer and non-db buyer.
Can be found 
