Should respec-ing be free? Montization is the end of this game

[Iskarioth]

Since the last official stream I have been pondering a question: should respec-ing be free? They answered with the usual " its a free2play, we have to earn money somehow". But then I remembered my childhood, where I played World of Warcraft. I payed around 20 € per month and got the full bloody game. Now I use premium and buy ships quite regularly and still get to pay for every goddamn little aspect of the game separately. Which lead me to asking myself: WHY? WG is fooling it's playerbase it, it's the typical smoke and mirrors only they call it " FREE2PLAY". What a joke!

 

I used to like this game so I felt good supporting it but if you just stop and think about it for a moment than you people might have the same realization as me, they are f***** bleeding us dry. And the commander rework is perfect evidence for that. They increase the grind and the amount you have to pay, and pretend you got more content. The fact that greed was the only motivating factor is shamelessly obvious. And if you don't push back as community, it will only get worse.

 

So after my long rant comes my proposition: make respec-ing free. Don't give me this "we need money " crap. You are earning plenty and we all know it. At the very least make it free for premium members. I have been paying way more than my fair share. And one of the few things that was somewhat fun was to use memebuilds that aren't optimized. It would allow people to spec without fear of gimping themselves and make the game/ ships more diverse in terms of use.

Instead I am not going to play much after tomorrow because I have no idea how to spec half of my ships. And I do not want to pay through the nose to reset my captains after Thursday once WG finally fixes at least some skills or it turns out I build my ships badly in some fashion because I misinterpreted some of those confusingly worded skills.

 

WG your greed is showing more and more and it's off-putting. You squeezed more than enough money out of me. You'd get a mountain of full-prized games for that. Way too many people just got used to being ripped off – so WG keep doing it despite knowing that the content/ prize ratio you offer is so amorally off that you should feel like dying of shame. Do something to show that you still wanne actually offer a fun-to-play experience to people - that you are not just in for the money. Make respec-ing free. Hell, give premium paying people a full game ( minus premium ships)!

 

[Hades_warrior]

No. Not free for just Premium members. All players or nothing.

[Iskarioth]

5 minutes ago, Hades_warrior said:

No. Not free for just Premium members. All players or nothing.

And why not? They keep saying someone needs to pay for the free players? But why would they if they get little to nothing or at least not enough for their moneys worth?

[wot_2016_gunner]

1 ora fa, Iskarioth ha scritto:

And why not? They keep saying someone needs to pay for the free players? But why would they if they get little to nothing or at least not enough for their moneys worth?

the issue is does WG deserve our money in the current state? imo, NOPE

[Hades_warrior]

1 minute ago, Iskarioth said:

And why not? They keep saying someone needs to pay for the free players? But why would they if they get little to nothing or at least not enough for their moneys worth?

Because they already have sh!tload of income from all kinds of monetized events on monthly basis.

Gambling boxes is where they get a lot of money, besides other things.

[albin322]

meh i use elite comander xp anyway still got a few milion ! 

[DFens_666]

Might aswell make it free for everyone then. We get single premium days all the time, which means, most players could respec the captains for free anyway. And even if not, you can just get a day of premium for a few doubloons if you would want to respec a couple of captains, instead of doing it 1by1.

[Iskarioth]

10 minutes ago, DFens_666 said:

Might aswell make it free for everyone then. We get single premium days all the time, which means, most players could respec the captains for free anyway. And even if not, you can just get a day of premium for a few doubloons if you would want to respec a couple of captains, instead of doing it 1by1.

Fair point. Still I think that for something so simple and quick having to pay something akin to 1,60 € ( I think?) for a single reset of a single tree - one damn click. That's insanity. And if they need to sustain their game they could at elast offer premium user something more in return because thats returning, regular revenue, the best kind for them because they can make reasonable assumptions about their finances with those.

 

Tho tbf like many said here, they are raking it in, shamelessly so. They earn more than enough! Still they bleed us for something so simple like a reset.

 

3 WG Staffers say "no" - jokes aside, those that said no, I'd really like to hear why you think that way.

[DFens_666]

4 minutes ago, Iskarioth said:

Fair point. Still I think that for something so simple and quick having to pay something akin to 1,60 € ( I think?) for a single reset of a single tree - one damn click. That's insanity. And if they need to sustain their game they could at elast offer premium user something more in return because thats returning, regular revenue, the best kind for them because they can make reasonable assumptions about their finances with those. 

 

Tho tbf like many said here, they are raking it in, shamelessly so. They earn more than enough! Still they bleed us for something so simple like a reset.

 

Maybe they should give every user a couple? of free respecs each patch, like maybe 1-3 or something? Or like the coupons in the armory, we get a few coupons for a free respec every x months.

Problem i see is, that we might never get free global respecs again

[Iskarioth]

45 minutes ago, DFens_666 said:

 

Maybe they should give every user a couple? of free respecs each patch, like maybe 1-3 or something? Or like the coupons in the armory, we get a few coupons for a free respec every x months.

Problem i see is, that we might never get free global respecs again

That would be a start. But the true fun begins when you can just test run a few builds or play ships differently from day to day. That's not too  much to ask IMO esepcially since it directly increases participation and counters the the feeling of unease / uncertainty that many people have right now in regards to skills. A couple of resets per month still doesn't do that for me.

[firerider202]

As a f2p player, I have zero interest in more monetization in other parts of the game, which would be the followup to free respecs. If I really need to respec a captain, I use elite commander xp. otherwise, I let others spend money on it, so I can play the rest of the game for free. I obviously would love to be able to respect as much as I want, but it's not possible and I am ok with it.

Times are changing, and these days the game companies know a lot better how to earn money than they did in your childhood. it's not like wg has invented some unique business strategy. And from all f2p games I played wows is definitely one of the user-friendliest. 

In short: no.

[CptBarney]

Ye, as peegee gets enuff moneh and daytah already.

[SirAmra]

I voted yes, for premium users. But only if u buy for 7 days or more.

Free players are free players. And they get enough free stuff anyway.

Is it fair? Not for the free2play users. But it might influence a few more players to chip in a buck or 2.

 

Hold on u will say. I bought ships for money, I spent money on this game....I think it's unfair.

Yes I agree. If u buy a new ship over a certain tier u get a free respec with the purchase.....for no increase in money on what a ship cost today.

 

But all in all we are actually talking about WG failure to balance income/free stuff/xp accumulation in this game.

And all of the stuff they are doing now is a "hit the panicbutton" in hopes of slowing the accumulation down.

And a free respec of any kind like the post is hoping for isn't going to happend anyway.

 

I see a free2play player didn't like my post.....oooh noes.

[HMS_Kilinowski]

It's a bit like making a poll "Should income tax be lowered?". Who can possibly disagree when there's no downside for yourself?

 

Imo the free respecs for Clan Battles were a good solution. It gave players an incentive to at least try out Clan Battles.

 

The key thing to realize is that free respecs are just as much a work-around as the karma system is. WoWs frequently gets messed up by some new ship (e.g. Smolensk) or a change in a relevant mechanic (e.g. IFHE) or a rework. Suddenly the meta changes. Good existing builds are no longer viable. It is not the players fault, Wargaming forces this change of the meta on the players. It forces them to respec. So giving free respecs is the only fair thing to do. Wargaming support would see masses of complaints otherwise. However all this frequent mismatch of player builds and changes in the meta is not a major pitchfork festival, if people know the next free respec is just a couple of weeks away. It literally reduces pressure for all concerned to be able to react to such changes.

 

Wargaming please give us back our free respecs. Doesn't need to be extensive periods, just a couple of days at the beginning of a Clan Battles season.

[Iskarioth]

5 minutes ago, SirAmra said:

I voted yes, for premium users. But only if u buy for 7 days or more.

Free players are free players. And they get enough free stuff anyway.

Is it fair? Not for the free2play users. But it might influence a few more players to chip in a buck or 2.

 

Hold on u will say. I bought ships for money, I spent money on this game....I think it's unfair.

Yes I agree. If u buy a new ship over a certain tier u get a free respec with the purchase.....for no increase in money on what a ship cost today.

 

But all in all we are actually talking about WG failure to balance income/free stuff/xp accumulation in this game.

And all of the stuff they are doing now is a "hit the panicbutton" in hopes of slowing the accumulation down.

And a free respec of any kind like the post is hoping for isn't going to happend anyway.

This is along my lines of thinking. People are already paying too much IMO but there'S the middleway of giving those that support regularly at least this much. It's just so annoying to stumble over a "pay now" button every 5 minutes when you already pay monthly.

[Pametrada]

Not a bad idea at all, particularly as they want to increase premium players. 

[Camperdown]

It does not need to be free, but as with so much with WG, it is badly overpriced. It should be at a quarter of the current normal price.

[Logan_MountStuart]

I don't think it is practical nor fair to make it free all the time, perhaps there could be some means of earning free respecs other than through grinding, maybe even as a reward for playing on the test server which very few people do and leads to things being thrown into the game before they are truly ready.

Other than that I wouldn't mind if they made it say 50 doubloons per point but allowed you to swap out a 4 point skill for another 4 point skill for 200 dubs but swapping a 1 point for a 1 point would only cost 50 dubs instead of calculating the doubloon cost on the full amount of skill points a commander has..

[Iskarioth]

12 minutes ago, Logan_MountStuart said:

I don't think it is practical nor fair to make it free all the time, perhaps there could be some means of earning free respecs other than through grinding, maybe even as a reward for playing on the test server which very few people do and leads to things being thrown into the game before they are truly ready.

Other than that I wouldn't mind if they made it say 50 doubloons per point but allowed you to swap out a 4 point skill for another 4 point skill for 200 dubs but swapping a 1 point for a 1 point would only cost 50 dubs instead of calculating the doubloon cost on the full amount of skill points a commander has..

Many have proposed that, giving us the option to switch out skills individually but I have a feeling it's just too much work for them. They atake forever for the smallest UI changes. Would be nice ot have tho.

[ZeMalm]

Trouble is, if respec would be free, then WG would find new creative ways to make a profit. Soon we would have gold ammo that pens everything.

 

Anyway after this skill rework, I will take a break and not care too much.

[Iskarioth]

Just now, ZeMalm said:

Trouble is, if respec would be free, then WG would find new creative ways to make a profit. Soon we would have gold ammo that pens everything.

 

Anyway after this skill rework, I will take a break and not care too much.

Let'S be honest here: they do not need that money, as in the money they now get thru respeccin and they would introduce absolutely anything into theis game regardlessly as long as they can press us for even more money.

[Verblonde]

I voted 'yes for premium users', because I get that WG need to make money, and that might be a useful sales tool for them (with a clearly demonstrable value, as the f2p crowd would still have to pay).

 

If I might suggest a refinement though, rather than simply giving premium folk unlimited respecs, perhaps (kind-of) steal an idea from WOT (and annoy the f2p folk less too):

• In WOT, demounting equipment costs gold; however, with the recent rework (!) of equipment, you now get a finite number of free demount coupons (good for one piece of equipment).
• For WOWS, WG could use a similar mechanic, where each coupon allows a single complete reset of any captain.
• WG could then use those coupons as a selling tool: depending on how much premium time you buy, you get more or fewer coupons at the same time.
• Furthermore, they could stick them in the shop, for further vodka voucher generation (discounts for larger bundles etc.).
• It would also be sensible (again, as per WOT) to have them earnable for f2p folk via missions etc.

If the cost for each coupon is - say - the cost of currently respeccing maybe a 15 point captain, then we (the players) probably end up no worse off, WG get a new (modest) income stream, and a potentially useful sales tool to boot.

 

Yes, I would prefer all respecs to be free for everyone all the time, but that's an unrealistic hope for a commercial product; I'm just thinking of ways that the current approach could be improved, but in a way that might be appealing from a commercial standpoint too...

[SkollUlfr]

respec as a function needs to change.

 

a respec should allow 30 hours of resetting on a given captain, to allow for experimentation and remove the threat of "buyers remorse" over a feature that costs as much as a game.

respec tokens should cost a different amount depending on the level of the captain being respeced.

[MementoMori_6030]

Paying to reconfigure something which I have already earned or bought is a no-go. It's like buying a car, but having to pay the vendor again every time I give it a new paintjob or replace parts.

[Stormhawk_V]

The problem isn't monetization of respeccing per se, it's that we don't know how WG will adjust their rework over the course of the next few updates. Look at all the topics where players declare they will reset their captains except for one or two, only spend points on skills that are unlikely to get changed, or straight up won't play until the situation is resolved. These people aren't paranoid, they expect to get shafted because it's what they were conditioned to.

 

There have been no reactions or comments about the testing the community has done with the new skills, how useless or even detrimental some are, how we can't get anywhere close to the performance we had despite getting two more skill points. We literally have no clue what's going to happen next and we're expected to pay around 500 dubs for every captain who turns out to have a bad build after the next patch.