Paladins players erupt in anger over 'pay-to-win' changes in latest patch

T

TheSpoiler

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Players of Hi-Rez Studios' free-to-play hero shooter Paladins are venting their anger on Reddit and elsewhere over a recent change to the game that's widely seen as a blatant change to a "pay-to-win" system. The complaints are rooted in a new in-game currency called Essence, introduced in the open beta patch 44 that was rolled out last week.

It sounds innocuous enough in the patch notes: Radiant chests are now purchasable for 3000 Gold, an in-game currency earned playing the game, and so instead of awarding gold for any duplicate items they contain, players now get Essence, which is used to unlock high-end cards. Under the previous system, gold did the trick, so players willing to do a little grinding could advance at a reasonable rate without having to spend any money.
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The trouble, as Ten Ton Hammer breaks down, is that the ratio is entirely out of whack. The cost to do anything meaningful with Essence is tremendously high, exacerbated by a new "rarity" ranking for loadout cards. The site states that even after unlocking every card for every Champion, 36,000 Essence per Champion is required to access all their Legendary cards, an astounding 756,000 Essence in total. The amount of Essence awarded for a duplicate Common card? 60.

The net result, according to multiple complaints in the Paladins subreddit, is that gold has been made effectively useless, and Paladins is now a pure pay-to-win proposition: You either fork over money for Crystals (the real-money currency), or you live without the bonuses and advantages that are granted to those who do. The new system is especially hard on new players, because veterans will keep the cards they've acquired under the old system, while newbies will have to start off with nothing.

So it's not pay-to-win in the absolute strictest sense—you can't straight up buy the powerful Legendary cards you want—but players will likely have to put in a good deal of cash just for a chance to obtain them.
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More at the link.

http://www.pcgamer.com/paladins-players-erupt-in-anger-over-pay-to-win-changes-in-latest-beta/
 
Tagyhag said:
Whaaaat, that doesn't sound like the Hi-Rez I know!
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lol

flashbacks to tribes ascend

jSEAJ.gif
 
Why are they doing this? Hi rez managed to make a popular game with llts of good will even with the overwatch comparisions
 
sibarraz said:
Why are they doing this? Hi rez managed to make a popular game with llts of good will even with the overwatch comparisions
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As a SMITE fan, Hi-Rez does not know how their own mechanics work. They break the game for shiggles and then patch it up a month later.
 
Loch Doun said:
Really? I always just wrote it off as a cheap ripoff of Overwatch.
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it looks that way, but its a decent game in its own right.

there was a massive reddit post by a dev that debunked all the copy-cat allegations. but they showed up too late and itll forever be branded as a cheap clone to some no matter what they did first.
 
The Hamburglar said:
I mean its completely free isn't it. They need to fund into somehow, what you expect? Lol
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Cosmetics to pay for are the key, not paying for gameplay advantages. That always leads to games killing themselves(community-wise) because those with tons of disposable income are now the best players instead of those showing good skill. This also makes new players shy away from the game because they don't want to invest in the rat race for buying better items. I was excited to get this game on PS4 soon but this news is making me worry.
 
isn't OW like $30 on sale? why are people even playing this if they have enough cash for a PC in the first place
 
ElBoxyBrown said:
People still play TF2 despite the success of Overwatch. I've never played Paladin but I think they are some differences in how they play.
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The differences are immediate once you watch any footage of just one match. A lot of people were judging the game based off of a youtube comparison video someone made for clicks.
 
jon bones said:
isn't OW like $30 on sale? why are people even playing this if they have enough cash for a PC in the first place
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You realise that most PC owners play F2P games right?

League of Legends player base is the highest of any pc or console ge and its F2P. Add DoTA 2, Heroes and all the other F2P games and you have tons of players not spending money. Only 5-10% make purchases I believe.
 
My guess is this was their play all along. Get people hooked on the first bit, then price gouge the hell out of them. Classic strategy.
 
They're getting destroyed over this on pretty much all social media. This game is fun as fuck but it's sad seeing them damage their game like this for no fucking reason.

Also, this is on the Overwatch reddit front page :lol
 
Owensboro said:
My guess is this was their play all along. Get people hooked on the first bit, then price gouge the hell out of them. Classic strategy.
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One would have hoped they would have waited to do something like that after they released it on consoles instead of doing it before and killing hype.
 
Yeah the're getting too cute with Paladins. The base game is excellent and fun but yikes at most of the fluff things they've added.

Just make fun skins and champs, fools.
 
The Hamburglar said:
I mean its completely free isn't it. They need to fund into somehow, what you expect? Lol
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They already have a bunch of cosmetics for sale and currency. They also sell a Founder's Pack, which gives you all current and future heroes and a bunch of other stuff. As a founder's pack buyer I'm quite annoyed at this development.
 
ElBoxyBrown said:
People still play TF2 despite the success of Overwatch. I've never played Paladin but I think there are some differences in how they play.
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Memory said:
You realise that most PC owners play F2P games right?

League of Legends player base is the highest of any pc or console ge and its F2P. Add DoTA 2, Heroes and all the other F2P games and you have tons of players not spending money. Only 5-10% make purchases I believe.
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TF2 I get, that's an ages-old game. Though I would think a new comer would just opt to play OW instead of starting TF2 in 2017.

LoL is also a much different beast. There is no 'much better' version of LoL that costs $30.
 
I don't play Paladins but this doesn't sound like pay to win. You could already previously buy crystals instead of using gold and nobody complained. There was no change in philosophy. You just don't get gold for duplicates anymore, but some new currency instead. So it's slightly harder to get gold to buy more chests and nothing changed with crystals.
 
jon bones said:
TF2 I get, that's an ages-old game. Though I would think a new comer would just opt to play OW instead of starting TF2 in 2017.

LoL is also a much different beast. There is no 'much better' version of LoL that costs $30.
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The way I see it people wanted more games like Overwatch. lol
 
The Hamburglar said:
I mean its completely free isn't it. They need to fund into somehow, what you expect? Lol
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Free to play doesn't inherently justify pay to win, though- if anything you undermine the whole point of being F2P by making people feel like they *have* to throw money at the game to feel like they won't just get fucked by the people who do pay money. This goes double when you consider the game's most direct competition- if you have to pay money for Paladins to be worth playing, why not just buy Overwatch?
 
Its pretty bad from what I hear. One Paladins player equated to as if you could buy buffs for Overwatch heroes, like 2x headshot damage for Widowmaker or reduced Hook cooldown for Roadhog. And these buffs cost a LOT to buy and are pretty much totally unattainable for free players.
 
Weird. I thought Smite had a really good model when I played, so I'm surprised they would fuck up so much, especially given the giant in the room does cosmetics only. Even if it isnt a F2P.
 
They've tweeted that they're be making some kind of update or announcement tomorrow. I don't think the issue is nearly as bad as people are making out. They really should reduce the cost of some of the stuff.

I don't think it's p2w by any stretch, but I do think it's not as good as before and a bit burdensome. I say this as someone with 250k essence, all the non-legendary cards, and still 50k gold to spend on chests (plus like 50+ chests waiting to be received from the update itself).

Also, I really dislike how toxic the hyperbole is. You almost cannot even see an honest coherent discussion around the issue. It doesn't take 750k essence to get all the legendary cards. By the time you even get half that essence you'll probably have gotten a lot of legendary cards from chests. It it's a lot less than 750k and you certainly don't need every legendary card to begin with.
 
I'm surprised they'd pull shit like this when SMITE has a nice system in place.

I was literally just thinking about checking this game out a few days ago and I won't be doing any of that nonsense now, lol.
 
It really seems like SMITE is the only one they handle well. And even then, I remember quite a few heroes being crazy overpowered when they came out when I played. And the way they make you gamble with money to get some of the premium skins is pretty fucked up too.

Really hope they do something about this. I wasn't really in love with Paladins when I tried it, but it was a pretty decent F2P FPS. Doesn't need to go down this route.
 
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