Paying for revives is a bad game mechanic -- Here's why.

[ikrolm]

So you're running missions, killing bad guys, all the good stuff, and doing pretty well at it. But occasionally, through carelessness or what not, you die. Then you click revive because who wants to restart from the beginning when you don't have to? But after you've done that a few times, you run out of revives. Do you continue on? As your potential teammate, I hope not because I want a teammate who doesn't handicap the team with a disadvantage (no more revives) another teammate of equal skill wouldn't bring to the table.

Now, do you purchase a revive? Maybe, but probably not. Sure they're cheap, but no one wants to be nickled and dimed to death. Instead, you quit and go play Firefall or Planetside 2 or Blacklight: Retribution, or even Tribes: Ascend. Why? Because they're all free and they don't charge you to continue playing.

Now maybe you come back the next day when your revives have regenerated, but are you going to continue to pay money to buy cosmetics, etc. in Warframe? Would you pay for cosmetics in a game that wants to charge you to play the game? That's personal preference. For me, no. I'll pay to play a game that rewards me for playing and enchourages me to continue playing.

I enjoy Warframe so far, but the microtransactions need some work to promote player retention and value-for-money.

[Takamori]

I think this post should be on the why Pay to win is bad to the game.

[MJ12]

I think this post should be on the why Pay to win is bad to the game.

How is this "Pay to win" at all? All it is is paying for convenience. It is the antithesis of "pay to win".

Because if you're getting killed from a group enough to make your revives actually important there are two possibilities:

1. You are undergeared for the level

2. You are using extremely bad tactics

Okay, there's possibility 3: You're facing a boss because some of the bosses are ridiculously vicious but that's a game balance problem with the bosses, not a revive problem.

[Mortarion]

A possible solution would be to extend the time by which a fellow teammate can revive you by. Currently it's what 10 seconds? All I know it's actually pretty fast. It would be more feasible if the default timer was set to 15 seconds, and you could repeatedly tap X to "hang on to life" at the expense of being unable to move or shoot.

[MJ12]

A possible solution would be to extend the time by which a fellow teammate can revive you by. Currently it's what 10 seconds? All I know it's actually pretty fast. It would be more feasible if the default timer was set to 15 seconds, and you could repeatedly tap X to "hang on to life" at the expense of being unable to move or shoot.

I actually like this idea + a second wind or something for singleplayer but I don't think the problem is Revives, the problem is the game balance in general has a few frustrating issues (grenades for low-level frames are one of the ones I've made a thread about I think) which, if fixed, are going to solve the Revive issues.

Because the anger about running out of Revives isn't a problem with Revives. It's a problem with how the game's difficulty is tuned.

Especially because even in the worst case (you keep failing missions without Revives) you keep the stuff you collect, you don't expend any money on missions, and so on. Revives are literally just convenience.

EDIT: If revives were only available via real cash I wouldn't buy them, I wouldn't miss them, and my game experience would be largely unchanged. They're not a necessity by any means, the game is balanced for going through the missions without dying.

Edited January 4, 2013 by MJ12

[Sealgaire]

Personally, I like having to pay for revives, even though I've only done it once. It adds consequence to death and therefor more tension when you're running a difficult mission.

[Scyfle]

Personally I don't care for the revive system.

If with a team, I'm close enough for them to help me.

If solo or a marginal distance from my team, then I play slow and careful, or I just run past the enemies to the objective.

[Lumireaver]

Um, couldn't you chose to fail the mission and then try it again? No lives dosn't mean no gameplay, just no margin for error. ...Right?

[Zelex]

if arcades game 4 revives for free they'd be out of business. besides if you didnt have a limit to revives what would be the consequence of dieing? the game would quickly grow stale cause thered be no risk you could just run in and do F*** all anything cause theres nothing lost from death.

[Spiffmeister]

Make it costs credits. Either a flat amount or a %.

[Agua]

I think this game is p2w, but not because of revives. It is actually just convenience, and they regenerate. The thing is, they should add some time for partners to get you up. Seriously, y died with a partner just by my side and he could get to "revive" me. Time to get help should be around 15-30 sec, not just 5.

[Archer777]

i heard somewere on the forums that the revive time is 20 seconds, and enemys stop trying to kill you once you go down, but if you shoot at something then enemys will take notice of you again and can shoot you and you die much faster. but if you dont know that then you'll just try and help kill things and more than likely die. i think they need to explain more in the Tutorial then basice combat.

[b00zy]

I think it would best be tackled similar to torchlight where upon dying you can either quit, pay a % of your total current credits to revive or use a revive

[MJ12]

I think this game is p2w, but not because of revives. It is actually just convenience, and they regenerate. The thing is, they should add some time for partners to get you up. Seriously, y died with a partner just by my side and he could get to "revive" me. Time to get help should be around 15-30 sec, not just 5.

If you're dying enemies can shoot you more to kill you faster. A similar system was in the co-op mode of Splinter Cell Conviction (funnily enough, that was also a game about ninjas.)

[TheSyv]

I personally Love the revive system.

it is there for conveince to buy more if you want and if not it forces you to get better and having a limit also, as a few other have stated, give you tension knowing there is a conseqence for death. If you didn't have a limit and could revive infinintly why even have death at all, just be invincible.