Topic of the Month: The Cash Shop

    • Topic of the Month: The Cash Shop



      The Korean Cash Shop of Bless is indeed one of the fairest F2P Shops around. Unfortunately, Aeria Games has a bad reputation when it comes to Pay2Win games but they definitely made a lot of good moves in the last months by removing Pay2Win elements from some of their games. They also started communicating a lot with us by doing AMA's on reddit and answering questions on our forum. Aeria is trying hard to turn everything into the right direction and we are very sure that they will offer a fair Cash Shop for the western version.

      The Korean Cash Store currently offers the usual F2P Premium Service for a monthly fee, Skins, Mounts, some smaller Pay2Progress items like Skill Books and Potions you can also buy at the NPC but no real Pay2Win Items.

      What do you think? How should Aeria handle the Cash Shop question?


      Official responds from Aeria so far

      Q: All your games are Pay-to-win for about a decade now, what can you say to ensure us that BLESS will make a difference and not take the same wrong road ?

      Aeria Games wrote:

      A: I understand your and the other´s concerns. What´s happened in the past is difficult to change but I am not here to give empty promises, I think that Echo of Soul, Goal One and Dawn of Gods are good examples on how Aeria Games has changed recently and we will keep on changing, I believe that this ama is Aeria Game´s first one so.. yeah.. hey.. we are working on it.

      Q: The gap between paying users and free users is always present – However in Bless KR the gap is fair (= not that wide). Will you keep an overall balanced gap or do you have a clear stance like “paying users before f2p users” or something like that.
      Now about the game itself

      Aeria Games wrote:

      A: I don´t have such a stance. I think a non-payer, a low-payer and a high spender should enjoy playing together, or against each other. Among F2P mmorpgs there is however the time vs. money approach, how much time does a non-payer have to invest to reach a goal equal to a certain amount of real currency a payer has spent? That´s something that can be balanced, e.g. is 3 USD / hour better than 7 USD / hour? In theory yes, because it makes items cheaper, in reality it may be not, because it makes the time invested less valuable. This is just one of the dimensions we will think about in the upcoming months

    • To be honest, i would spend so much money for cool skins/costumes instead of useless pay2win crap. They could consider putting (more?) effort into awesome skins which attracts many players to pay for it. Maybe some "armor set skins". Or even particular gear skins for example shoulders to be able to create ur own kind of skin set.i think no mmo has that kind of cash shop.

    • Cash shops, item malls, whathave you are necessary evils in the MMO world, and they're not going away. In most Aeria games they play a large part because Aeria focuses on F2P rather than subscription models for many of its games.

      Will they offer a premium package? Maybe. But even if they did they rake in so much money from cash shops that they'll never not have them.

      The gap between paying players versus non-paying is always going to be an issue, and I think as long as they don't make it an insurmountable gap it should be okay. I've spent money on P2W items, like costumes with stats, weapon skins with stats, mounts with stats, backpacks ... but that was just to add to my own enjoyment of the game.

      Okay, so this is a mess.

      Ca$h shops are okay. Not good, not great, but okay. They give us costumes and other cosmetics. They give us small little extras to make the game more fun. They also help keep the game F2P.

      The Bless C$ - and I speak only from hearsay and second hand knowledge since I haven't played the Korean version - seems fair. I doubt Aeria's going to mess with it much. Maybe add in a few things here and there, alter prices a bit ... but I don't think they're going to go crazy with is.

      What I"m concerned with are the Tiered Spender packages. Spend $500 and get alllllll the things! Oh, or you can buy gambling boxes! Oh, wait, we can't call it gambling; not when we're aiming this at kids. The "random chance" boxes!

      Those bug me.

    • tamberleigh wrote:

      Cash shops, item malls, whathave you are necessary evils in the MMO world, and they're not going away. In most Aeria games they play a large part because Aeria focuses on F2P rather than subscription models for many of its games.

      Will they offer a premium package? Maybe. But even if they did they rake in so much money from cash shops that they'll never not have them.

      The gap between paying players versus non-paying is always going to be an issue, and I think as long as they don't make it an insurmountable gap it should be okay. I've spent money on P2W items, like costumes with stats, weapon skins with stats, mounts with stats, backpacks ... but that was just to add to my own enjoyment of the game.

      Okay, so this is a mess.

      Ca$h shops are okay. Not good, not great, but okay. They give us costumes and other cosmetics. They give us small little extras to make the game more fun. They also help keep the game F2P.

      The Bless C$ - and I speak only from hearsay and second hand knowledge since I haven't played the Korean version - seems fair. I doubt Aeria's going to mess with it much. Maybe add in a few things here and there, alter prices a bit ... but I don't think they're going to go crazy with is.

      What I"m concerned with are the Tiered Spender packages. Spend $500 and get alllllll the things! Oh, or you can buy gambling boxes! Oh, wait, we can't call it gambling; not when we're aiming this at kids. The "random chance" boxes!

      Those bug me.
      I wish some company would show some transparency and explain why they need a specific amount of money every month to keep their game alive. Like how high are the monthly expenditures and how much do they earn with the cash shop.

      And i don't really mind about Founder Packs. In general it's nothing but a bundle with some cosmetics, potions, premium service and some cash shop currency + it's very profitable for the publisher. The more money they make with Non-Pay2Win stuff than longer we are spared from it right

    • I agree with you about transparency ... and even founder's packs. I have nothing against people wanting to spend money to get in early and to get some snazzy loots.

      But if you're going to do that (founder's packs) I kind of resent releasing those items later on in the game as part of a fortune pack, a C$ item or what have you.

    • premium accaunts for little extra boosts on exp/drop rate along with other minor stuff could be fine.
      mounts and pets are fine.
      costumes are fine.
      exp boost items are fine.


      anything else that is not in one of the above categories should stay far away from the cash shop, especially if it's related to gear like armors/weapons, or consumables like life potions and the like.

      "Rise and rise again, until lambs will become lions."

    • No Cash Shops! they are useless!!! I bet it would be better if the game had some "special" quests giving you cosmetics,skins,costumes etc, it would be more easy. Or atleast monthly rewards? it sounds very "easy' to give rewards (like cosmetics,skins,costumes etc) but i think its fair. And thats my opinion.

    • I think the only negative thing about the cash shop in bless are the honor / dungeon currency potions and the most expensive mount.
      That mount you can buy from the cash shop is the best mount in the game on land. It is almost impossible to get the fastest mount with right buffs that is equal to the cash shop mount. There is literally like 4,5% chance to regrade your mount from rare to epic grade. Legendary is even more harder.

      Then there is the potions. This one doesn't really hurt me that much but some people will cry about it because you can just buy the currency you need for some of the endgame equipment. This ain't so bad currently because you can get that currency so fast, it is only gonna be problem if they limit the amount of dungeons, pvp and other activities you can do daily.

      Some might also say that the crafting tools are op, but hey, you can get them for 1 copper each from vendor so it doesn't really hurt unless the crafting gets more complex.

    • MargaretGR wrote:

      No Cash Shops! they are useless!!! I bet it would be better if the game had some "special" quests giving you cosmetics,skins,costumes etc, it would be more easy. Or atleast monthly rewards? it sounds very "easy' to give rewards (like cosmetics,skins,costumes etc) but i think its fair. And thats my opinion.
      And how do you think they are gonna make money with the game then lol ? You already get so much free stuff as F2P player.

      F2P games without cash shops can't really survive.

    • Atleast to be fair, if AG want to make the game p2w, they could atleast add the most exclusive items true needed to a combat ,and okay for the mounts to be in a cash shop, (as for me, i dont use very much mounts). It's unfair to pay 5-10 or less euros to buy a skin or cosmetic or costume, beacause skins,cosmetics and costumes arent "extremely special" to the whole game (anyway i love skins,cosmetics and costumes etc). These items for the costum of the character can be get on some special quests. I think this idea is really good.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by MargaretGR ().

    • great discussion!

      So far from what I see in the survey, most of you felt that the F2P balance was pretty good and you did not feel pressured by the game to make some purchases which, to me, is very important.

      We'll keep an eye on this discussion so we can tailor the model the best way possible.

      Have a great day!

    • I wouldn't mind having a Buy2Play model as it's something that keeps a good portion of cheaters away. Anyway, I think that we should be getting the possibility to change name, race, gender, realm(?) and faction with real money. Something that can generate a good amout of income for Aeria would be osmetic pets and mounts. Experience potions, buffs and a renewable food and flasks could work too as long as the game is based on its endgame.

    • Dokanix wrote:

      I wouldn't mind having a Buy2Play model as it's something that keeps a good portion of cheaters away. Anyway, I think that we should be getting the possibility to change name, race, gender, realm(?) and faction with real money. Something that can generate a good amout of income for Aeria would be osmetic pets and mounts. Experience potions, buffs and a renewable food and flasks could work too as long as the game is based on its endgame.
      Honestly B2P will keep away gold spammers so i'm on board!

    • well to be honest - I'm in for b2p but I don't see Bless being worth a normal b2p sum. Also b2p only keeps an significant amount of bots/spammers/etc. if the price is high. I mean ArcheAge Alpha for 150€ was kind of Spam-Free. There were some bots here and there (which was to be expected) but well...

      About founder packages - I'm in so I don't mind and don't really care about it that much.

      About the cash shop - the only thing I never want to see are gambling boxes. I'm fine with spending $30 for a digital costume if I can buy it with no chance, gambling or anything like that involved.

      About the subscription model: To be honest - I think the perks of being a subscriber (in KR) which give you 3 rows of inventory space, free transportation, 1 addtional skill template and a fixed number of gems per day seems fair to me.

      You get 120 gems per day with purple subscription service (most expensive one) and get 3600 gems per month and all the other perks. Since gems are a major currency used in enchanting high lvl items, resurrection on the spot (CD 30 or 60 mins) and of course the shop - I would love to see a similar subscription system (maybe just 1 subscription plan instead of 3 services - purple blue and green).

    • Founders Packs to me offer unique costumes, a unique mount, a unique pet, and maybe some fluffier items like a ring that adds more xp until level 20 or something. That's a pretty standard early access or bonus content pack, especially on the digital side.

      I can't see paying $60 for the game, like with GW2, and then needing to subscribe on top of that unless the subscription rewards are equal to or better than the KR version.

      As for the shop itself, my biggest concern is how folks who do not want to be perma-flagged for PVP can play the game. A 10 minute peace buff usable only every 30 minutes is not the same thing as turning off a flag and penalizes players who want to focus on PVE. This isn't exactly the thread for my concerns about PVP, however, this item has been in the cash shop and isn't something I think should be there. Give players a flag instead of forcing them to spend money to prevent being ganked.

      What I'd prefer to see in the cash shop are things along the lines of what SWTOR and TSW do: tons of costumes, weapon skins, wing/head/cape/fluff accessories, mounts, pets, holiday and seasonal outfits and gear, party fluff (like a box you open and it causes everyone to dance or get party favors), etc. Nothing should have combat-related stats. Nothing should give one player an advantage over another player (with the exception of some +xp potions or the like, given how fast you already level up).

      If you really want the cash shop to thrive, add an auction house so some items (like boxes that may contain rare mounts) can be put on the AH by players. If everything in the cash shop is BOP, then that severely limits the amount of money a cash shop will generate.

    • The fact this game has forced PvP unless you buy Cash Shop items for temporary immunity from PvP is HORRIBLE. I really hope the NA/EU versions at least offer them in infinite supply for very cheap in-game currency from some NPC vendor (~50 copper or less for 30 minutes for example). Somewhat related examples are like the 36 gil "gysahl greens" in FFXIV for summoning Chocobo Companions. 36 gil is REALLY cheap in that game (maybe like 20 copper in most games), and it'll get you 30 minutes of Chocobo Companion time. Nothing to do with PvP sure, but at least they don't force people to pay RL money just to summon their Chocobo Companions.

      The post was edited 5 times, last by Zazaaji ().

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