<3 Psycho. +1

MASSIVE WALL O' TEXT

O wait i read the whole thing. Yay logical and well thought out arguments! Seriously good job. Soon there will be trolls but you're just too awesome to care

Thank you thank you so much!
Nice to see some people can keep a cool head among all this ranting.

As a F2P player myself (caving after seeing the expansion), I honestly don't understand the mass rage at this, I mean, yes it's a "P2P only part"

What about it?

So OOO added, um, let's see, 2 weapon lines and 1 helm line along with an awesome mission.
Whoop-dee-doo, there's one part you need to spend RL money on.
Yes, let's totally ignore the fact that everything else can be done without spending any RL money at all
While I do agree that said weapons and helm are amazing (me wants shadow bomb!), It's really not enough for anyone to get really worked up over.
First of all, like I said earlier, it's one SMALL P2P part in an otherwise F2P game.
Secondly, it's only $3.99.
Four bucks.
You're really gonna whine and rant, just for something that costs FOUR BUCKS?
A decent meal from my school cafe costs more than that.
Thirdly, you don't even have to spend RL money to get, with the advent of steam trading.
Just save up enough ce and buy it from someone who wants to sell.
Nothin' more than that.
Not on Steam? Tough. You don't get the cons of Steam, we get the pros of Steam.

Well, there's my two cents, sorry if i came off trolly, or flamey, or w/e, just getting tired of all this whining
Off to try to get my PayPal to work then.

@Qaz
It's how the content was released this time. It's now exclusively P2P. That's what's ticking people off. It's also better to stop using "whine" "rant" and calling people things like that. That's what ticks some people off. You're fine, just watch out for even the slightest of diction.

Day 1-365+, SK F2P.

2/29+, SK is not 100% F2P.

So we've been dancing around this line of "F2P" vs. "Not F2P" game for a while. First it was the Auction House update, and then Shadow Lairs -- see, those things only extended the time it'd take to get it, or to get to a piece of content. But you could always get there.

Today's the day that that all changes. And what's the scariest of all: people are "falling" (I hesitate to say the word "falling," because I think people know exactly what they are getting into) into this new business model of P2P for anything more than Snarby, Twins, JK, and Vana.

That's okay, from a purely business standpoint. Plenty of games do that -- WoW is F2P up until level 20, with restrictions. TF2 is F2P, up until one full backpack of items. That being said, you can buy at any time to enhance your gaming experience. In WoW, you'll pay for the rest of the game. TF2, you'll pay for more loadouts and items.

For Spiral Knights to become P2P like this, that's okay. But when you take that firm, defining line between the F2P and the P2P, then you really can't call yourself 100% F2P anymore. That's what the veterans are scared of -- They've already spent money, they've gotten their gears, and they don't want to have to spend money in order to keep enjoying the rest of the game, and all the new content.

This is the punchline. If this business model is successful, what reason would OOO have to not keep it that way? The answer: It'd work perfectly this way. That makes this game MASSIVELY P2P. The next content will come in this fashion, and the content after this. Again, there's nothing wrong with a game going this way, but for a game that has been, has catered to, and has firmly taken a stance in "F2P," this is an issue. Suddenly the game is no longer F2P. F2P players not only do not have access to the new levels, but now they dont' have access to the weapons. Or the new gremlin types (extrapolating, here, but the point remains the same). They are inferior to P2P players, and if they get none of the content -- well, why even play a game where you watch everyone have fun with new stuff, while you're stuck with the old?

A game that's no longer F2P isn't the SK I signed up to play.

--

THAT being said, I bought the pack. I ran the levels. I had an awesome time doing it too - lets be real, it's a great mission and a ton of fun. And, it's only $4. But having to pay $4 for each boss, over and over again, would really dry up the excitement, at least for me. And most of all, I won't be able to enjoy this game as what I want it to be -- a F2P game that I don't have to keep paying for.

I paid this time. Next time, I won't be so sure. I feel like I speak for most of the player base when I say that OOO should tread extremely carefully. The best remedy is making it buyable with CE -- that gives F2P players a shot, at the very least. But that's not for me to decide -- I just ride the flow.

inb4 hipsterlyf3.

@Knightrails I'm using the definition the About page of Spiral Knights (as of this posting) provides:

Free to Play!
Spiral Knights is free to play, no subscription is required to enjoy everything the game has to offer.

http://www.spiralknights.com/about.xhtml

The wiki article is valid, but broad. For the purposes of this specific case, I believe the definition provided by OOO is more accurate.

That's true. But that's still theoretically true till now unless you're a non-steam user. But I'm not going to debate schematics. That said, you're right. They really should update that. It's no longer accurate. Unless of course, they find a way to enable non-steam users to trade the expansion pack as gifts. Then it's back to the old CE can buy everything in the game model.

Yep. That's the reality. As games change, their customer base changes. Sometimes, it's for the better, sometimes, it's for the worse. That's even true in real life. New Coke, anyone?

I think that the expansion mission should be still worth 4$. There has to be difference between f2p and other players.

Thanks Psycho, someone really had to say this.

As for me, while everyone was whining about the P2P DLC, I was busting my *** in the clockworks farming CE and finally traded most of my CE for the DLC.

This is the first set of levels and gear that is not accessible by CE. It is not just F2P players that are hurt by this move. There are people who have spent hundreds of dollars building up a stockpile of CE, supporting OOO in the process, that are basically being told that that isn't enough.

With a CE based economy, paying players have a choice of how much they pay. You can buy just enough CE to craft one item, or you can buy a whole ton and save it for later / mass craft / trade it for crowns. Free players also have the ability to trade with paying players to get some CE for themselves, either directly or through the energy market.

Why is this move away from a CE based economy a good thing?

Green Ward and Static Flash along with the Plasmatech Costume.

True, I did leave those out, but compare those items to these new ones. Plasmatech is a costume set that doesn't affect game play. Green ward is irrelevant for PvP and quickly obsolete for PvE. Static Flash is about equal in damage to Firecracker for T1 PvP, and again, quickly obsolete for PvE. Also, as these are 1star items, aren't they unbindable?

"This is the first set of levels and significant gear that is not accessible by CE."
Is that better?

AMEN BROTHA Psycho!!!!but seriously,its about time somebody said this.unlike all the ragequitters,you,sir,are making sense.the game is still 100% free to play.the DLC is completely optional and wont keep you from progressing in the game.while i do wish OOO had made it so that you could unlock it with ce so that you f2p players could experience it,i guess it was not meant to be.but im glad you realized this and post this.I now wish you an endless supply of crowns and energy.
-magnicth

@ Smit

Static Flash and Green Ward are unbindable, untradeable, and undropable.