I know you guys need to make money. You have bills to pay, content to make, equipment to maintain, legal fees to pay, and investors to placate. I get it--which is why I'm not opposed to micro-transactions, when they're in keeping with the spirit of the game and the values Jagex wants to abide by. I don't mind the idea of paying a bit extra for cosmetics. I do, however, mind putting in-game advantages up for sale. That's contrary to your own values as a company.
I think the community as a majority fears that this will be the inevitable place we land: having to shell out to be on equal footing--even after having already subbed. It's a legitimate fear on our part, even if you swear the game will never get to that point. It's not your fault, but you must still understand that we've seen it happen time and again, with other games we play. They start out offering an advantage for a nice little one-off payment and say, "It's okay, you don't /need/ it to play the game!" As time goes on, more and more of the content requires micro-transactions, until it gets to the point where you can't realistically play without it--you may still play, but the game's so gimped that you're basically just being stubborn.
I'm a firefighter/EMT. I don't make a lot of money. The society we live in makes it very clear to me what my time is worth compared to, say, a professional athlete--the comparative sizes of our paychecks speak louder than anything. That's the real world. I want to play in a game world where I can advance based on my own merit, not based on how much extra cash I have lying around.
I guarantee you that this community doesn't want to play in that kind of environment, and we need reassurance (in deeds) that that's not the direction this game is going.
Maybe Jagex and the players should get together on Kickstarter and buy back majority shares from IVP. Seriously, forget those guys. They don't play, and they don't care about players.
29-Aug-2012 23:12:40
