Why can't I just buy my gear with real money?

[Koconutt]

I've bought the game and paid for my subs, just as the rest of you have. I now find that this game (like many other mmorpgs) all but locks you out of the high end content unless you have silly amounts of time to spend getting the ridiculous gear that imbalances pretty much everything. In these games gear is everything, with perhaps a little sprinkling of co-ordination of one's keyboard fingers.

 

I work hard and have young kids, meaning that I'm lucky to get on once or twice each week. There is no chance of me getting my pvp kit to play at a fair level or join operations. I have one 50th level character. At the exponential rate of gear-upping (if that term should exist), I will simply never be able to take part in aspects of the game I already pay for.

 

So why can't I just pay Bioware, or EA or whoever money to furnish my character with the required gear? I have some money but little time.

 

The usual argument against this is for players to be rewarded for the time they put into the game. They already do and I have no problem with that - the usual rewards through the usual channels will always be there. But for the remainder like me, why not let us purchase what we need to at least participate in the end game stuff? The players that spend time will still be rewarded by having heavier wallets!

 

I know many will be against buying your way to gear (and eventual success?), but it's the same in real life. For example, if I wash my clothes I don't first mine minerals, refine them and then design and construct a washing machine. I go and buy one as I do not possess the technical know-how or have the time to do otherwise. Why is this game any different? Money exists to allow people to acquire goods and services that you do not know how to provide and/or have the time to provide.

 

Also, selling gear through official channels would stamp out (or at least impact) the farmers you can look up on any internet search. The market is there, just no one wants to admit it.

 

As I understand it, the game is for fun and, in my eyes, not another set of burning hoops that I need to jump through to get my money's worth through my subs.

 

Let me just buy my gear!

[Denyus]

Singleplayers games are ----------------------------> waya thank you.

 

If you don't have enogh time gather the gear for yourself MMO's arnt your games.

[Marak]

Raiding takes all of a couple hours a week. And most people pug EV/KP now. Even HM.

 

 

This isn't EQ1. It doesn't take months to get gear. It takes a few clears of each tier at roughly 2-4 hours a week.

[Denyus]

Raiding takes all of a couple hours a week. And most people pug EV/KP now. Even HM.

 

 

This isn't EQ1. It doesn't take months to get gear. It takes a few clears of each tier at roughly 2-4 hours a week.

 

Hah depends on droprate etc but if you do HM once a week you maybe have 6-8 clears to get a full set if you are lucky with the drops and rolls.

[Virtus-Kerensky]

This is the easiest most casual friendly endgame gear grind I've ever seen. There is absolutely no reason you can't get loaded up in 136+ rating gear easily doing only a handful of runs each week. A Hardcore raider can get loaded within 2-3 weeks. Even a family man who only has time for one raid a night only once or twice a week can easily get geared up in a month or two. It's not like their adding new content THAT fast.

[HammersteinSW]

Where is the fun in buying gear with real money in an mmo ? You would kill any endgame content for yourself.

[Kalfear]

I was stuck with no gear so what I did was run the daily PVP mission

 

Took 2 hours on a bad day and 30 minutes on a good day

 

2 weeks later I was in full Battlemaster gear

4 weeks later had some War Hero gear

 

Battlemaster will get you in most hard FP groups and some hard ops if you know the people

 

War Hero gets you in everything

 

So sorry, this story of endless hours to get gear doesnt fly!

 

Its not that hard or time consuming if you really want it!

 

As I said, getting the Rakata and other gear wasnt a option for me

So I found a alternative option that many others have also done!

 

30 minutes to 2 hours a day and your ready in 2 weeks and fully equiped for everything in a month (less if you partake in ranked warzone matchs, I just do the dailies and weekly pvp missions)

[dronepilot]

I was stuck with no gear so what I did was run the daily PVP mission

 

Took 2 hours on a bad day and 30 minutes on a good day

 

2 weeks later I was in full Battlemaster gear

4 weeks later had some War Hero gear

 

Battlemaster will get you in most hard FP groups and some hard ops if you know the people

 

War Hero gets you in everything

 

So sorry, this story of endless hours to get gear doesnt fly!

 

Its not that hard or time consuming if you really want it!

 

As I said, getting the Rakata and other gear wasnt a option for me

So I found a alternative option that many others have also done!

 

30 minutes to 2 hours a day and your ready in 2 weeks and fully equiped for everything in a month (less if you partake in ranked warzone matchs, I just do the dailies and weekly pvp missions)

 

exactly this. I this the Op really needs a F2P game where you have to pay for everything like I did playing DA: Legends. I really like SWTOR the way it is to be honest.

[Toweleeeie]

Why do you even play video games?

 

Beating a challenge with friends = FUN

Beating a challenge = Loot/gear

Better gear = progressing to another challenge

 

So again, why do you play video games?

 

If you have all the best gear you don't even have endgame content to run, so you just stand on the fleet showing off?

 

Pretty sure this is a troll post though.

[Tatile]

If you have all the best gear you don't even have endgame content to run, so you just stand on the fleet showing off?

 

Pretty sure this is a troll post though.

 

I'm wondering why he wants gear to run content he already says he can't do. If this isn't a troll (but it's very likely it is a toll) then the OP needs to find a new guild - one that is understanding of IRL commitments but can still help him to do end-game content if he so desires.

 

If it is a troll post, he's just trying to get us to argue over "pay to win" business models and generally cause strife on the forum.

[Shingara]

The day people can buy gear with real money is the day i make a petition to have people who do that to have permadeath status put on there chars that purchase it and wear it. Edited July 15, 2012 by Shingara

[Baphomet_x]

no way no how...i will not stand for people being able to cheese there way up to the top simply because there rich....work is WORK,you must earn your equip,even at the low standards for "earn" that this game has as of now

 

i find gear,buy mods for it to make it better,and feel proud of that cause i made the credits to buy the stuff by spending afew hours killing enemys in quests,and selling the drops to the medical droid....but letting people rich enough to buy there gear get to the top with no work would ruin that sense of accomplishment for everyone

[akridvenom]

The reason you don't have the ability to purchase armor from a cash shop is because the game isn't free to play. It isn't being sold to people that just want to sit on fleet in pretty armour they got with their credit card, showing it off to players who rolled up their sleeves and got stuck into the game (regardless of whether they found it hard or easy).

 

I can understand that it must be frustrating to buy a game and really enjoy it only to find you're missing out on something and there is no alternative to getting it, but flip it around and see that there is also people out there that cannot afford to purchase armour on top of their subs and other bills so the game becomes less appealing to them.

 

If you were able to do both then you cheapen the value in getting the armour the in game way and BioWare wouldn't really be motivated in making new flashpoints and operations, just new cash shop items.

 

Also, don't shout real money and items in the same sentence so loud, EA might be listening.

[Baphomet_x]

The reason you don't have the ability to purchase armor from a cash shop is because the game isn't free to play. It isn't being sold to people that just want to sit on fleet in pretty armour they got with their credit card, showing it off to players who rolled up their sleeves and got stuck into the game (regardless of whether they found it hard or easy).

 

I can understand that it must be frustrating to buy a game and really enjoy it only to find you're missing out on something and there is no alternative to getting it, but flip it around and see that there is also people out there that cannot afford to purchase armour on top of their subs and other bills so the game becomes less appealing to them.

 

If you were able to do both then you cheapen the value in getting the armour the in game way and BioWare wouldn't really be motivated in making new flashpoints and operations, just new cash shop items.

 

Also, don't shout real money and items in the same sentence so loud, EA might be listening.

 

exactly..my internet bill (which is combined telephone/internet) costs 147 or so usd a month...mainly because i get the best non business class internet availible in the area where i live...then there is rent,food...power...and so on

[DarkZeron]

Instead of buying armor and **** in a game why dont you spend your money on your kids...

 

I understand if you pay for a subscirption, but i will not understand buying ingame useless stuff ever.

[Dibdabs]

So sorry, this story of endless hours to get gear doesnt fly!

 

Its not that hard or time consuming if you really want it!

Well said. The OP may as well just play Single Player games which wouldn't cost a sub or indeed require him to find a game with a cash shop, and which need minimal time investment gear-wise. With the very limited playing time he apparently has, it's not like he's doing much in-game socialising anyway, which is one of the reasons people play MMOs.

 

"Pay To Win" = a game I will never play. End of.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Dibdabs

[fptackle]

I can empathize. Rather than focus on what he is asking for, I prefer to draw towards the question he posed of 'Why?'

 

The reason why he wishes to purchase the gear is so he can progress to a higher level of content. To me, this suggests PvE. He's not concerned with defeating other players, but rather with participating in the Ops and whatnots that he's too low-geared to get groups for.

 

While time-constaints is his excuse, I humbly suggest it's probably more a matter of grind-avoidance. There is content at his current teir that he can run, and that content will continue to give him the gear he needs to access the upper teir. He doesn't want to run his present level content, however; he's looking to move onward with less of a time investment at the lower teirs. Essentially, he's asking for a way to escape the grind. Run the stuff a few times while it's new and fresh, and then move on to something else so he can continue to experience something new.

 

The storyline of leveling provides players with a fairly rich experience of this style of gameplay, so Bioware fans who were not previously MMO players will recognize the excitement of leveling and shaping their characters as they go. Then, upon reaching level 50, the curtain is pulled back revealing the Wonderful Wizard of wOZw. Turns out, from here on you're just going to be running the exact same thing, over and over again, grinding away in order to advance. And the purpose of advancing is not to continue with the rich story, but instead to continue grinding away, over and over again, at something differant in order to advance.

 

It's not a complaint because it takes months of time to get that gear, it's a complaint that it takes 10 runs of the same place (however slowly or quickly you do those runs is up to you), and during the leveling portion of the game it was uncommon that we had to do the same thing twice.

 

Understanding his position, I say (more politely than some others) the reason you cannot purchase the gear with real-life money is because that would uncover the fact that there is no more game. When you hit level 50, the amount of content left for you shrunk to barely one evening's worth of gameplay. Much of what level 50 players are given to do is recycled content (such as Hard Modes: Do the exact same thing, but where the NPCs hit harder and have more life). What little new content there is is spread out across the teirs of gear so that players who are performing the circular grind will occasionally get a breath of something fresh.

 

Treat it like a random side-quest. If you miss just a couple, it's really not a big deal. If you're the type of person who gets sick of doing the same thing over and over again, SWtOR is still an excellant game, provided you quit or make an alt when you hit level 50 and just enjoy the story mode like a single player game. But if you don't like playing the same stuff over and over again in order to earn the higher teir gear, then buying the gear with real life money so you can play the handful of even higher teir content is going to be fair less satisfying than spending that same amount of money on a differant game that contains entirely new content. Trust an old MMO dog; all you're missing out on is the next grind.

[Rasticles]

I've bought the game and paid for my subs, just as the rest of you have. I now find that this game (like many other mmorpgs) all but locks you out of the high end content unless you have silly amounts of time to spend getting the ridiculous gear that imbalances pretty much everything. In these games gear is everything, with perhaps a little sprinkling of co-ordination of one's keyboard fingers.

 

I work hard and have young kids, meaning that I'm lucky to get on once or twice each week. There is no chance of me getting my pvp kit to play at a fair level or join operations. I have one 50th level character. At the exponential rate of gear-upping (if that term should exist), I will simply never be able to take part in aspects of the game I already pay for.

 

So why can't I just pay Bioware, or EA or whoever money to furnish my character with the required gear? I have some money but little time.

 

The usual argument against this is for players to be rewarded for the time they put into the game. They already do and I have no problem with that - the usual rewards through the usual channels will always be there. But for the remainder like me, why not let us purchase what we need to at least participate in the end game stuff? The players that spend time will still be rewarded by having heavier wallets!

 

I know many will be against buying your way to gear (and eventual success?), but it's the same in real life. For example, if I wash my clothes I don't first mine minerals, refine them and then design and construct a washing machine. I go and buy one as I do not possess the technical know-how or have the time to do otherwise. Why is this game any different? Money exists to allow people to acquire goods and services that you do not know how to provide and/or have the time to provide.

 

Also, selling gear through official channels would stamp out (or at least impact) the farmers you can look up on any internet search. The market is there, just no one wants to admit it.

 

As I understand it, the game is for fun and, in my eyes, not another set of burning hoops that I need to jump through to get my money's worth through my subs.

 

Let me just buy my gear!

 

You don't need the gear if you don't have the time to do the content in the first place. I vote NO ......

 

If that's all the time you have, perhaps MMO's aren't your thing....... May I suggest Sim City?

Edited July 15, 2012 by Rasticles

[Heist]

You don't need the gear if you don't have the time to do the content in the first place. I vote NO ......

 

If that's all the time you have, perhaps MMO's aren't your thing....... May I suggest Sim City?

I was playing Rollercoaster Tycoon yesterday while our internet was down.

[Baphomet_x]

I was playing Rollercoaster Tycoon yesterday while our internet was down.

 

i was playing dead space 2 during the most recent maintenance

[randalthorr]

Airline tycoon was the best of them all.. Wish they make another one with those goofy toons with large heads.

[amnie]

you know what's REALLY funny about this?

 

even the F2P games seem to understand now that B2W (buy to win) is a model that is hidering (a handful of player who spend 100s on a game a month ruin the fun for the other player, the player base. when the player base is gone the handful of player who are 'uber' because their parents are rich will stop playing because they have nobody who is inferiour to them...)

 

even the F2P games are going for cash shops with cosmetics and stuff like exp-potions and the likes. stuff everybody wants but ... not really needs ... to progress.

 

what I personally wonder is where the OP got the idea for such a game from, a subscription based game that is STILL B2W

(heh, there are a few P2P games out there that have an item shop but I don't think there are any where you can get high end gear and weapons)

 

 

oh, and to the actual topic (theehee)

 

I recently rediscovered Tomb Raider 3. it's still my favourite part

Edited July 15, 2012 by amnie

[akridvenom]

Well The Secret World (another EA backed MMO) has a cash shop in it. TSW is a pay to play game and all that's really in the shop is cosmetic items as your clothes are separate from your stat armor (which isn't visible as it's runes and wards) and even then when they make new cash shop items the old ones will find their way into the ingame shops, although the ones available look kinda horrible lol.

 

So cash items don't bother me in games but to have them as current tier armor and weapons then it would.

[Arlbo_Nabbins]

Raiding takes all of a couple hours a week. And most people pug EV/KP now. Even HM.

 

 

This isn't EQ1. It doesn't take months to get gear. It takes a few clears of each tier at roughly 2-4 hours a week.

 

This is true, I have done KP twice and EV once on my JK and KP once and EV twice on my Trooper as guild runs. They both have 3 Rakata and 2 Columi pieces. Each run take about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

 

Gearing from the dailies can be partially skipped if you have a good guild willing to help gear people up, you can buy the rakata implants on the GTN so what you really need is the earpiece and a couple of armour mods, doing Belsavis dailies a few times will get you armouring and mods that will carry you through a story mode OP as long as others have decent gear. The only real exception is tanks, if you are going to tank Ops you need to gear up more but even that is not difficult, 2 hours can get you the dailies done once and that is 30+ comms.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Arlbo_Nabbins

[Koconutt]

Ok, so the general feedback is that buying gear does not seem to be a popular idea. I'm not trolling as some of the comments suggested, merely stimulating debate by expressing a point of view. This is what breeds progression.

 

Interesting to note from your posts that all that seems to await me is repetition of content, which basically means that buying gear might just be a waste of time at any rate.

 

Thanks in particular to 'fptackle' for the words of wisdom that make sense to me.

 

I'm generally surprised at the lack of capitalists in the community! Now, what was that other game called? Ah yes, I believe Sim CIty awaits me....