L2 Player Base, Reality check time!!

[Dannyboy]

Like many of you, I played during Prelude and into C4 and C5 or even beyond.  I saw the classic relaunch and jumped at the chance. Honestly, I've loved it so far 3 Accounts DEEP into VIP3.  There are things I hope they don't add to the cash shop and I've complained about the bots to our clan members etc etc.  I do not think this reboot has been perfect by any stretch.

 

Here is the REALITY CHECK:

NCSoft is a business they see this as a last-ditch effort to SQUEEZE as much as they can out of us and will reinvest every penny into something else.  They have no grandiose Road Map for a 15-17-year-old game.  They WILL not ban bots, each of those is a revenue stream and continues to add to the ever-growing revenue results from this endeavor.  No matter how much you think they are listening, I assure you everything you see was already thought out and is being rolled out accordingly.  

 

For example #1 cash shop item to date?  Dgrade SS (Reusable spam) they intentionally bottleneck the C grade gear with skewed drop rates 40+.  They let that run for a few extra weeks (Just more revenue in the shop while we are stuck in D).  Now they will slowly loosen up that hold on C grade (BAM Now they will open up C grade SS/BSPS in the shop) Bottleneck B grade new patch new items in the shop.  All of this would have been forecasted and thought out prior to even opening this server.  

 

I assure you they have had multiple discussions on the ever-evolving juggling act of what can we release into the store at what price/time and what will be the fallout vs the return?  Another example the $50 XP/SP 30-day rune.  I assure you that was not some random number they pulled out of the air, the data will show that ENOUGH of this player base will pay that to justify the cost.  Regardless of how much you hate to hear this,  NCSoft is a company and ALL they care about is how much Revenue they can squeeze out of this little side project to fund other up and coming projects on their product roadmap. 

 

Enjoy the ride as long as you can.  

 

D, 

[Dannyboy]

Sadly that is what I foresee coming down the pipe.  That may be what breaks me sadly.  At some point, NCSoft needs to understand that L2 at its heart has a player driven economy and the more they play in that, the more they take away from what we all loved about it.  I don't mind the XP/SP runes cosmetics, even buff scrolls.  But the ssC and ssB would be a blatant disregard for the player's impact on the game.  

 

Interesting juggling act for NCSoft, at what point to you tie off a revenue stream that is amazing, to justify keeping player base to continue to milk from other aspects.  Would be interesting to see their data backing the upcoming decisions.  

 

For me personally, I think once they dip into the 40+ economy I'll be out.  Either way, it has been a hell of a lot of fun and they got what they needed from me ;p.  I don't mind spending some money to rehash some good old L2 fun (If done respectably).  If their Mobile game strategy is any indication of what is going to happen here,  Expect a TON of P2W items coming down the pipe.  

[ogfullmelt]

riding this till ProjectTL, my son will probably be a teen by then, oh well  we can duo.

[ogre]

luckily for you, Tinfoil Hats grade F will also be available in the store.

 

[Kraken]

21 minutes ago, ogfullmelt said:

riding this till ProjectTL, my son will probably be a teen by then, oh well  we can duo.

I know they're trying to take it back to the old days with the action rpg style, but, they seriously just need to do another one like L2. Would be a much better experience overall.