Is DE starting to turn in the direction of P2W?

[Knight_Ex]

Wooo, touchy subject I know, but in light of the recent update and looking at the store, aura forma bundle and eidolon lenses, doesn't seem that big of a deal? However these are extremely rare drops in the game, because people were complaining DE decided to appease the wallet warriors, we already have boosters in game, and I understand the argument of P2W in a PVE game not being relevant however there are people that dedicate time and effort into farming these things, for DE to just pop them on the store and says "Hey guys, give us money and we will give you these rare drops", is quite a bit disheartening, not because I don't want this available to other people, I just don't want to see a habit of DE meeting complaints with "Oh lets just throw it on the store", whats next? Umbra forma?

[DarkRuler2500]

I doubt it... you can really easy farm those too.
I had 7 Aura Formas before and only spend 2 in the frames so far. I kind of like the "possibility" in case of RNG not liking you.

[KnossosTNC]

It's... ...sorta already like that. Strictly P2W implies that you can't get these gameplay-enhancing things any other way, but these things just take time and effort to grind. Even boosters can be bought from Baro or earned from Sorties if you're patient enough.

Someone said Warframe is more of a "Pay-to-Skip" game; you either pay with your time and/or by playing the game, or you pay with money. That seems more accurate. Whether people should be concerned by that is YMMV.

Edited August 31, 2019 by KnossosTNC

[Otobai]

Starting lmao

[sinnae]

Yes give me umbra forma please 🙂 

[vorpal.void]

I don't ever used any of those formas (only regular ones) and don't have any problem with anything game can throw at me as a challenge. So it's not P2W, because everyone can W without actually P.

[kyori]

Umbra Forma each 800p. Bundle of 3 is 1500p.

[Hypernaut1]

I only got one Aura forma, but I'm kind of disappointed in DE just throwing it into the shop. Kind of makes it feel cheap to me. Now I have no real reason to not buy them. 

[NightmareT12]

1 minute ago, Hypernaut1 said:

Now I have no real reason to not buy them.

To be fair, there's no reason to buy them outside of for 2 or 3 frames at most *shrugs*

Anyways no, it's not pay 2 win. It's no different than selling Warframes on the market, their bundles or hell, even Prime Access. You want to farm them? Do it. You don't want to? Don't do it.

Edited August 31, 2019 by NightmareT12

[Ace-Bounty-Hunter]

I don't think "Pay to win" really applies to a mostly PVE oriented game. It's not like they are giving you advantages against other players because hardly anyone gives a hoot about Conclave anyway.

Edited August 31, 2019 by (NSW)Ace-Bounty-Hunter

[Nurmetya]

I forgot aura forma were even a thing.

[Genitive]

3 minutes ago, Hypernaut1 said:

I only got one Aura forma, but I'm kind of disappointed in DE just throwing it into the shop. Kind of makes it feel cheap to me. Now I have no real reason to not buy them. 

I feel the same way, it should have stayed out of the store.

[sinnae]

I bought one aura forma bundle on top of 2 or 3 I had cooked and I don't think I'll ever use all of them. They're more like a luxury I put on my favorite frames just because I love them so much and want them to have nice things 🙂 

[KnossosTNC]

8 minutes ago, Hypernaut1 said:

I only got one Aura forma, but I'm kind of disappointed in DE just throwing it into the shop. Kind of makes it feel cheap to me. Now I have no real reason to not buy them. 

My personal spending rules forbids me from buying anything, quote; "I feel I can earn in-game." This therefore doesn't affect me in the slightest.

Besides, only about 2 or 3 frames actually benefit from it, and I've use 3, with 2 still on hand. Don't see myself need them any time soon, so I'm happy I ground for them instead of buying them.

Edited August 31, 2019 by KnossosTNC

[trst]

You know that that has been their monetization model since the very beginning, right?

It's still pay for convenience and cosmetics. Nothing has actually changed.

[RamonLLLL]

Have you just started playing the game?

It's always been "grind or bust"

[Jarriaga]

34 minutes ago, DarkRuler2500 said:

I doubt it... you can really easy farm those too.
I had 7 Aura Formas before and only spend 2 in the frames so far. I kind of like the "possibility" in case of RNG not liking you.

You are grossly overestimating the number of players who stay long enough and dedicate themselves to the game enough as to complete every single mission node in the entire game to unlock Arbitrations. 

On topic: OP, DE started selling Ephemera with Wukong Prime, and now the Aura Forma. So there's a precendent to believe they will slowly start selling away content that is gated behind Arbitrations in order to appease players who may not want to play and grind for so long, or can't be bothered to complete the Archwing missions. 

If this wasn't their intention then they would have made Adaptation and Archgun rivens untradable so you would need to farm them yourself instead of buying them from other players.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Jarriaga

[(PSN)Quantaminum]

Aura forma isn't special.

I use greater lenses and booster to farm focus, and they are enough to hit daily cap in 15~20min.

What's the price of Eidolon lenses? I can buy those for 15pl from other players.

Anyway, you can still farm plat to buy these. Not P2W yet.

Edited August 31, 2019 by (PS4)Quantaminum

[Nitresco]

Ah, yes. The "aura forma". The most powerful tool in existence. The item that people most certainly run arbitrations solely for. The doodad that has single-handedly defined the meta. Ladies faint at the sight of the aura forma. Children idolize the aura forma. Men want to BE the aura forma. You ask any person walking on the street if they'd rather have the aura forma or the 4 regular forma used to craft it, and they'll tell you they want the aura forma. What's that? You could just spend those 4 forma optimizing a build so that you could run a mispolarized aura and still fit everything? Heresy. The aura forma is all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-accomplishing. Putting such a powerful item on the market is absurd. Nobody should be able to acquire such an integral item so easily.

Eidolon lenses, too. You dare tell me there's a far superior Lua version that converts 3.25% affinity into focus instead of 2.25%, almost a 50% increase over Eidolon lenses? Lies and slander.

Sarcasm aside, this is nothing new. DE has allowed people to skip the grind for resources using plat for years. Also, Umbral Forma isn't "rare". It's limited. Specifically by nightwave seasons, and likely won't be available on the market until DE gives us a method of obtaining them outside of seasonal rewards. Even then, they may not even put it on the market.

Call me when DE implements an item as fundamental as the catalyst or reactor on the market for plat. Remember those? The items that double mod capacity, and are only available in limited supply from quests, nightwave seasons, sorties, or devstream alerts?

Here's some food for thought. If you wanted/needed a catalyst right now and are out of nightwave missions/have done your daily sortie, the only way to farm it without merching for plat would be killing 120 groups of random zealots. Yet here we are shaking our heads at something as fundamentally flawed as an aura forma.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Nitresco

[Knight_Ex]

I feel like people are failing to grasp the underlining issue that content that was once behind a grindwall that actually gives you an edge in the game is becoming available in the market, I agree with what many people are saying, putting content from Arbs in the store is kinda disappointing for those that were doing the grind, but as another person mentioned above this could very well be a precursor of things to come, I sure don't want to see veiled rivens available to purchase directly from the store,  though I think maybe what caught me by surprise was how soon aura forma was released into the store, especially when they are fully built aura's so no 4 forma costs or 10 nitian, I also imagine that new players would get confused by the aura and regular forma, I wonder how many times a new player has accidentally bought aura forma since its introduction in the store.

[MPonder]

I played a lot of arbitrations, bought around 12 rivens, but got only 2 aura.

No much reason to do arbitrations now, since Aura forma was all I want.

[SneakyErvin]

6 minutes ago, Knight_Ex said:

I feel like people are failing to grasp the underlining issue that content that was once behind a grindwall that actually gives you an edge in the game is becoming available in the market, I agree with what many people are saying, putting content from Arbs in the store is kinda disappointing for those that were doing the grind, but as another person mentioned above this could very well be a precursor of things to come, I sure don't want to see veiled rivens available to purchase directly from the store,  though I think maybe what caught me by surprise was how soon aura forma was released into the store, especially when they are fully built aura's so no 4 forma costs or 10 nitian, I also imagine that new players would get confused by the aura and regular forma, I wonder how many times a new player has accidentally bought aura forma since its introduction in the store.

If this was a PvP game I'd agree, but you are talking about a non exsistant edge here since it is a pure PvE game. The people that buy them simply rob themselves of one more piece of content that they have no use for playing. That my friend is what is called pay for conveniance or pay to skip ahead.

Veiled rivens will also never be a thing because it would essentially be a lootbox and gamble mechanic, something DE has already removed from the game in the past because it was unhealthy for certain players. They've even removed the RNG mod packs very recently. And even if for some odd reason they'd add rivens it would still not be p2w because there is no one to compete with or win over except the mobs.

Also, you are missing one thing. You arent getting aura formas from the market without the added need for the 4 forma cost or 10 nitain. Those two things are part of the price at 80p a pop. I also doubt very much that any new player has accidentally bought them.

[Sandomere]

27 minutes ago, Nitresco said:

Call me when DE implements an item as fundamental as the catalyst or reactor on the market for plat. Remember those? The items that double mod capacity, and are only available in limited supply from quests, nightwave seasons, sorties, or devstream alerts?

Here's some food for thought. If you wanted/needed a catalyst right now and are out of nightwave missions/have done your daily sortie, the only way to farm it without merching for plat would be killing 120 groups of random zealots. Yet here we are shaking our heads at something as fundamentally flawed as an aura forma.

I agree with this. Aura form is nice to have but it is not really as important as a catalyst or reactor. I’ve regularly bought catalysts and reactors for my weapons and frames but i’ve not yet bought aura forma. 

[Goodwill]

Warframe is more like trade to win. To be honest, buying plat with real money is more of a loss for you. You are giving free plat to other players who will then go to make more plat than you could ever buy with money. Unless you strictly only use plat for the market and not trade.

I'd definitely say Warframe is more pay to lose unless you like cosmetics. Then hopefully your vanity will comfort you in your loss.

[Silver-Priest]

I have unused aura forma lying around, just because most frames don't even need it. If it was not just for aura slot, then that would be a much more desirable commodity, but as it is right now, you only need around 3 of them, and even then it is just a bonus, since you are still stuck with the same polarities on other slots, and your build is mostly fixed, and you need a duplicate frame to make it different enough. Same with lua lens - it is just overkill. With hydrolyst, you don't need them to max out in a very short time. They don't raise your daily cap anyway.