subtle shift to pay to win ???

McDougle

the huge and if you  have used one you know i mean huge difference in drop rates with the potion of glorious fortune and to some extend the new pet costumes makes me wonder if Bonnie has somewhat softened her never be pay to win stance? I for one would not complain as I have more money than time or sense and would gladly just buy things i want from UO store and not spend too many hours in dungeons the continued shift to limited time do this now drives me batty and IMO makes UO just not as much of a sandbox with the more permanent contend i could decide roof tonight doom tomorrow fishing Sunday now i feel and i know its a choice(we all know its really not) to get the new pixel crack 

Pawain

The pet costume makes my pet better?  Have you seen the price of Feudal grips?  You should do Doom more often.

ForeverFun

Doesn't pay to win already exist?  Quick examples:

1. Forged metal of artifacts tool.  Otherwise impossible to enhance to 190 luck, or only way to add 10SSI to certain items, etc.
2. "Time of legends" expansion.  Only way to equip high powered items like Enchantress Cameo, etc.
3. "High seas" expansion.  Only way to use Tritons, certain ships, etc.

Not sure what the hub-bub is about ?

Yui_Zii_Ariya

I've always felt the 'Forged Metal of Artifacts' fell into this bracket and from the the items mentioned is the most 'pay to win' item in my opinion.  Impossible for a regular player to enhance to 190 luck or enhance high end drops in general without one.

Fortis

Right the only pay to win items is the forged metal...all the rest are booster or cosmetic....any idea yet for your new thread tomorrow?

Pawain

  

Yoshi

“All of the items in the Uo store, I purchase for in game gold from other players. 

It’s only when I have to purchase an expansion or something for real money that isn’t sold on player vendors that I get irked. That hasn’t happened since high-seas.

Time of Legends expansion was free”

Seth

McDougle said:

the huge and if you  have used one you know i mean huge difference in drop rates with the potion of glorious fortune and to some extend the new pet costumes makes me wonder if Bonnie has somewhat softened her never be pay to win stance? I for one would not complain as I have more money than time or sense and would gladly just buy things i want from UO store and not spend too many hours in dungeons the continued shift to limited time do this now drives me batty and IMO makes UO just not as much of a sandbox with the more permanent contend i could decide roof tonight doom tomorrow fishing Sunday now i feel and i know its a choice(we all know its really not) to get the new pixel crack 

Your post has 138 words with only one question mark, and no commas and periods. 

I have a small request: it will help if you can split into sentences or paras.

McDougle

Ain't nobody got time for all that punctuation 

Seth

McDougle said:

Ain't nobody got time for all that punctuation 

Then the Dev will say Ain’t nobody got time for reading that spaghetti   

Tjalle

I tend to skip "spaghetti" posts like that.
If only grammar was a thing...

loop

McDougle said:

the huge and if you  have used one you know i mean huge difference in drop rates with the potion of glorious fortune and to some extend the new pet costumes makes me wonder if Bonnie has somewhat softened her never be pay to win stance? I for one would not complain as I have more money than time or sense and would gladly just buy things i want from UO store and not spend too many hours in dungeons the continued shift to limited time do this now drives me batty and IMO makes UO just not as much of a sandbox with the more permanent contend i could decide roof tonight doom tomorrow fishing Sunday now i feel and i know its a choice(we all know its really not) to get the new pixel crack 

I am of two minds with the potion of glorious fortune (I don't understand how the other things you mentioned are anything less than cosmetic) :

On the one hand, it's psychologically manipulative to design shallow content predicated on random drops and then to monetize the mitigation of this randomness. This is a near-mobile-level, cynical gameplay loop: "Players are willing to do repetitive things over and over again for loot, so let's design things that are deliberately repetitive and random, and let's charge them for the 'convenience' of making things less so." In a 20+ year old game that is already charging for subscription, it's hard to stomach.

On the other hand, players literally asked for this and just about every other post on this forum is a plea for the developers to add one item to the UO store after another. What is there "to win" in UO, exactly? So players who get more drops at these events may get more gear and may get more gold by selling that gear -- and to what effect? There are so very few adversarial interactions between players and where they do occur (PVP skirmishes here and there) they're not that meaningful. Outside of these activities, if a player has more gold than you, has better gear than you, how does that matter exactly?

I'm very concerned about the trajectory of the UO store and the design of recent content, but as long as players keep asking for more things to purchase with real money and as long as players keep making those purchases, it's hard to blame the developers for feeding that beast.

Seth

I have stopped playing mobile games a while back, because seriously some of them are literally pay to win. There is a weekly competition, and the only way to win is when the team has players who buy some items in cash. I have paid like $125 in a frenzy and regretted. 

If we don’t pay, we may miss out the rewards for that week. And since the rewards do not repeat, it becomes a rare item. 

UO is done to acquire something easier. For example, something that requires 100 steps can be purchased to bypass. This is pay-to-buy-time, which somewhat ends up the same because we are going for some seasonal, maybe one-off items with no guaranteed repeat.

But the difference between the above two is:
1) what if everybody buy in pay-to-win? Wow it’s expensive when $125 does not guarantee you will get the reward since 100 players also bought. Maybe you need $250 or $500? Crazy, let’s see who is richer and pray that Bill is not playing the game too.
2) but pay-to-buy-time, I will still get the reward because it cuts down the steps from 100 or 500 times to 1 time. 

Contest-wise, UO has the EM events where players compete to get the qualification to receive the only 10 precious rare each time. As long as you can hit the boss, stay alive and maintain looting rights, you will have a chance at the lottery. 

In conclusion, I don’t see pay-to-win in UO the same as some mobile games I played before, which are literally Paying money to Win a competition.

McDougle

Yes pay to buy time is exactly what I'd like i want to fish i don't mind paying 20 bucks to fish while wearing balron armor you are free to grind I'm free to do what I like...

Seth

McDougle said:

Yes pay to buy time is exactly what I'd like i want to fish i don't mind paying 20 bucks to fish while wearing balron armor you are free to grind I'm free to do what I like...

I am not sure the exact item you have in mind for pay to save time. Is it another type of special net or what, throw into the seas and simulate what you get for 1 hour and drop them into a chest on your feet. Dev has no telepathy to read our mind…

Victim_Of_Siege

McDougle

I think many see this as lazy or cheating or it's too hard for you. 
The current events are not hard or challenging they are repetitive grinds.
We're fighting monsters, that don't follow the rules we're forced to. They have 10/10 fc/fcr obviously not affected by protection they're running cuz they never stop casting despite me hitting repeatedly . They also can both heal and hit me with 60 point breath attacks at same time. Toss in paragon speed etc While we players deal with not only all the caps,but ghost targets, targets in walls,and of course no damage reduction for gargoyles.. .
None of this is fun or challenging...
So yes let me buy the items i want in uo store. You can have "fun" and I'll do my thing..
And all the good items are already for sale online.....

Seth

If the concept of shard bound is working, anyone can “cheat” by buying from others instead of “grinding”. If you do not have enough gold, then buy other items from uo store and sell for gold, then use that gold to buy event rewards from others. Unless shard bound items are so expensive on your shard or no one is selling, then too bad, shard bound probably does not work as expected.