The future of Eliatopia (is not too bright)

[cinos]

So the update came out, and while I could talk about how cool the lore is, or how weak the new boss is, the one thing that I specifically feel the need to talk about is the global exp feature, an inherently pay to win mechanic, locked behind a FIFTY DOLLAR price tag.
Now before some of you immediately come to the conclusion that I'm just mad I don't have any money to get the incredibly broken mechanic that is GLOBAL SHARED EXPERIENCE, no, I was infact mad in the post that revealed it's inclusion. I found it conceptually broken, and as a payvault feature a complete betrayal of that whole "not p2w/like HH" thing we've had going on for...oh I dunno, like three years? I'm not mad about the price, I'm mad about there being ANY price.
Like, hear me out on this, this is GLOBAL EXP, a pretty huge advantage for a guild, objectively superior in every way...and this is something you can gain easily, officially, by just giving robby fifty bucks? No, this isn't it, bob. I hope I'm not alone when I say I won't support this practice, as it's a clear sign of desperate money pinching. If you have money, you are simply better than everyone else...incredible, literally the worst thing you could add, and you added it, brilliant.
I propose you make this feature UNLOCKABLE, by perhaps doing something in your guild? Maybe you unlock it by filling it up for the first time? SOMETHING NOT ABOUT YOUR WEALTH? Anything?! Add that, and then refund the emeralds, I MEAN, anyone who bought any for this already gave you the money, atleast give them back the emeralds, IF they bought this.
Oh, and for the record, robby, because I know you have not answered the thread about the price, no I'm not going to buy any emeralds until you specifically answer why you did this, because it feels like you are ignoring our complaints. Shame too, since I really do want to support what you are doing with the lore, the game itself and all that, but THIS is genuinely inexcusable, and I am immensely disappointed.

I won't enable you.

[cyro557]

rubby needs to pay the bills some how

[troopas]

Ok so I'm writing this on phone so expect grammatical errors. Also I havent read any of the replies to this thread so I'm not gonna mention them at all.


So basically your saying this feature is pay to win and is the beginning of the end (as the title implies) but it's just not true AT ALL. First off, the price is NOT $50 which you heavily insist it's in the high $30~ so rounding up to 40 would make more sense but NOPE you say its 50 to help prove your point.

So one of the things you mention is that Robby has been silent when that isnt the case. He provided reasoning for this price in bugs and errors but you didnt seem to acknowledge it and just say he never even mentioned the price.

Next you say this item is just p2w which is just straight up not true. New players are going to spend "$50" just for people to grind for them (they also need guild members to AGREE to this might I add) but even people who are willing to spend more are almost GUARANTEED to be high level so the benefit from boosting will be minimal and again, need people to actually grind for you. It's not pay to win and even if you dont believe me you can easily make the argument item capacity is ALSO pay to win.

How though? Simple. You are restricted to (I believe) 3 lines of inventory space which can hold pretty much NOTHING of value. You need to DROP items just so you can get other ones BUT this pv item allows you to increase it thus allowing more spaces to hold items that you can sell for MORE money. You can essentially pay for more money in this way yet you dont complain about that.

You also conveniently ignore how you had asked for my emeralds to buy the pv item for the guild (well more accurately JoMan pinged me on discord telling me you wanted my emes for it.) So yeah you were going to buy it at one point which kind of makes you look like a hypocrite.

And lastly I dont understand why you think you're going to get Robbys attention when you essentially are attacking him in this post. If you want change you dont immediately start attacking him and boycotting him because you waited like 2 days for a reply on your thread when you should know by now he doesnt immediately reply to this kind of stuff. (Especially this close to the weekend)

So yeah if you actually want Robby to take you seriously you shouldn't be so hostile in every critique you find with the game especially like this essentially going into an Hptest rant.

[Flashlight237]

This I can understand. I mean if it has to stay (if only because whales will do anything to keep their waifus), at the very least make it wallet-friendly like Dragalia Lost had with most of their stuff! Gee! (RIP Dragalia Lost)

I've seen people say this isn't the downfall of Eliatopia, but as one of the main figures behind the game, I'd say it's only "not the downfall" if you don't stand by idly like those guys.

[cinos]

This I can understand. I mean if it has to stay (if only because whales will do anything to keep their waifus), at the very least make it wallet-friendly like Dragalia Lost had with most of their stuff! Gee! (RIP Dragalia Lost)

I've seen people say this isn't the downfall of Eliatopia, but as one of the main figures behind the game, I'd say it's only "not the downfall" if you don't stand by idly like those guys.

Which is precisely why I made this thread calling out the issue at hand...if ONLY robby would actually address this

[Flashlight237]

This I can understand. I mean if it has to stay (if only because whales will do anything to keep their waifus), at the very least make it wallet-friendly like Dragalia Lost had with most of their stuff! Gee! (RIP Dragalia Lost)

I've seen people say this isn't the downfall of Eliatopia, but as one of the main figures behind the game, I'd say it's only "not the downfall" if you don't stand by idly like those guys.

Which is precisely why I made this thread calling out the issue at hand...if ONLY robby would actually address this

Believe me, if your own figurehead is calling your bluff (your meaning Robby), that's saying something.

[forumMikel]

Ive prolly said bad things abt the price of global xp share but bro rob is also a person living and needs food and money to exist, something like this isnt much of a big deal. Bros been holding back the urge to make elia have pv like hh to milk players for cash but hasnt so yea

[cinos]

Ive prolly said bad things abt the price of global xp share but bro rob is also a person living and needs food and money to exist, something like this isnt much of a big deal. Bros been holding back the urge to make elia have pv like hh to milk players for cash but hasnt so yea

Oh wow so he's been "holding back", so what? That excuses just doing it now? No dude, I don't think so, and "he needs money" is a major no-brainer, like, I know, I have been buying emeralds to use things like signs and buy cosmetics, specifically because I thought we were over this.
If he wants to sell us an advantage, well sorry, I think that goes beyond the moral justifications of "he needs money", he is just going back to his same old tricks with the payvault, and if it goes on any further, one day you'll see another Helmet Heroes at hand. Unless you want that, don't enable him.

[forumMikel]

Right

[CrazyVanilla]

While I agree the price is too high, and I'd also agree this is on the line of P2W, I'm not opposed to this feature, or actually other future features like this, that you would most definitely consider P2W. Before you get triggered and start accusing me of just wanting to AFK my super pet in Elia, which we all know was coming, allow me to explain.

I'd argue that Elia is currently just as P2W as Helmet Heroes, and gets more and more P2W each update. The reason for this actually has nothing to do with the Payvault, instead it has to do with the cost of equipment and upgrading said equipment, which is the largest advantage you can have in the game, a maxed (or extremely good) set. It doesn't matter which part of the game you want to talk about, PVE or PVP, it is undeniable that having a better set > being a higher level, especially if the player with the better set is somewhat skillful. Now, why is this P2W? Well, depending on the class, and excluding the cost of actually obtaining the runes (which is either a minimum of 15-20 hours grinding for them, or paying an additional 15-20m+ for them instead), a maxed set would cost roughly $80m, yes $80,000,000 coins, give or take ~$10m depending on class, weapon type, etc. Now, how long would it take to grind that amount of money? Well, if your grinding with an already highly upgraded set (which would already cost 20m+ on its own), say you can make 500k per hour on average, which is high, but just say that for example. That totals up to approximately 160 hours of grinding for that set, and thats assuming you already HAVE a good set, nevermind if you want to look at the time needed to go from a level 1 to a maxed set player without any help or P2W, thats gotta be at least double the amount of time. So, what are the alternatives to spending your entire life grinding Eliatopia for a set? Well, you can buy emeralds, support the game, and sell them for money to help you out, or you can just buy coins from other players for IRL $, which is significantly cheaper than the emeralds route. I could buy that $80m for at most $80 USD right now, yup, 160+ hours of grinding as a high lvl player, done in a matter of minutes for a measly $80 USD, and thats at a 1m per $1 rate, which is lower than the current rate. Not to mention, this type of transacting, opens the game up to a lot of scamming. While i'm not at all opposed to IRL trading, I don't think it should be encouraged, which currently it pretty much is given what I've just said. This is no different than Helmet Heroes. Whats the big advantage in HH? Super pets. So just buy a super pet for irl $ from other players, you don't have to make your own.

Now, before we get back to the Elia Payvault, let's look at a game that is considered very P2W by most people, and i'm sure most of us are familiar with, Clash Royale. Yep, Clash Royale was extremely P2W when it first came out, just spend thousands on gems and open up the OP chests and boom, maxed player. But, did that mean the good players couldn't become maxed players and compete? Not at all. Sure the P2W noobs got a massive head start, but the players who are skillful were able to traverse their way to maxed level as F2P. Clash Royale gives out a lot of gems on their own, and they also have a lot of ingame ways and events where you can win a lot of coins & cards, without being P2W, you just need to be good at the game to take advantage of them. I'm talking about challenges, events, private and public tournaments (where card levels above level 9, now level 11 do not matter, making an even playing field), Guild wars, and now things like using a card and winning with a card can get you rewards such as gems, coins, etc. My point to this is not to explain Clash Royale, but to demonstrate that there is a difference between "P2W where F2P players have no chance to compete", and "P2W where skillful and determined F2P players can compete just as well." As a maxed F2P Clash Royale player, I can vouch for this myself.

Why is that important tho? Well, what if the "Pay" in "Payvault" was sorta, removed? What if, you could win emeralds from ingame events, like KOTHs, Guild Wars, Challenges, Missions, Seasonal Events, etc? There are plenty of ways to incorporate a rewards system into the game for players who are dedicated and good at the game, so why not take that route? Similar to how Clash Royale does?

And before it is asked, "why is that even needed, just don't add things worth buying to the Payvault". Well, Eliatopia is a business. Wether you want to admit it or not, this game is a business for Robby, just like Helmet Heroes, and it is more than fair for that to be true. The driver for this game, is to make money in the long run. Sure, I bet Robby really loves what he does and has a passion for it, and I'm sure he wants to make something he is proud of, but if he didn't care about money at all, the Payvault wouldn't exist and every perk, cosmetic, etc would be free to everyone. There is nothing wrong with that, and it is extremely naive, and quite frankly unfair to think otherwise. Does Robby deserve to work for free? Do YOU want to work for free? Because I certainly don't and I give Robby a heck of a lot of credit for making it this long while essentially working for free on Elia. Not to mention, as Elia gets more and more successful, it would likely motivate Robby more and more to keep going, while also giving him the opportunity for potential expansions and upgrades to the game, which would be costly to do, especially while the game makes basically nothing for him.

Also, before you mention the whole "cosmetics are the way" argument, this is Eliatopia, a game which in its peak had ~180 players. This is not Fortnite with millions of players. Theres only so many different cosmetics that can be added to a game like Eliatopia, and theres very few players even playing to purchase them. Eliatopia does not have the luxury of setting a massive trend for buying a certain cosmetic like a game like Fortnite has. It's just not realistic to assume Eliatopia can survive forever on cosmetics and point resets, and it's unfair to shame Robby for realizing that, as long as he does it the right way.

TL;DR
Robby deserves to and needs to make money, so instead of trying to stop him from making money, why not encourage it in a way that provides benefit to everyone.