Cosmetic Cash Shop Only

[Xenogear]

Now I know this won't happen and I hate to compare games / developers but hear me out.

GGG Recently released Path of Exile, for those who have not played this game the cash shop is "Strictly Cosmetic" aside from slots you can buy (However you do not need these slots because your given more than enough to begin with) and there doing awesome! Infact 183 people bought there diamond pack priced at 1000$ before the game was even released!

When I say "Strictly Cosmetic" I mean that the players support the game in its purest form by buying items from the cash shop that have no bonuses whats so ever aside from "Hey look at me I support this game" which in itself its very rewarding

Warframe does have a similar system to its cash shop! Everything for the most part can be found via blueprints and resources can be found to construct these blueprints, so really the only thing you technically have to buy if you want to grind for everything is slots!

But what if that was not the case. What if you took away the ability to buy Warframes and Weapons with platinum and replaced it with "Strictly Cosmetic Items" what would you get?

"A Longer Lasting, More Dedicated, Driven, Rewarded Community"

Think about it, if your forced to grind for your gear and you know everyone else is in the same boat with no easy way out, "Everyone" is gonna have the drive to find that group doing those runs to get your gear, putting that much more reward into the time you spend when you finally get those blueprints done and you have your shiny new warframe!

Now I know you don't HAVE to buy anything from the cash shop to enjoy the game.

However there are alot of people who will! And what do you think will happen to the majority of them?

"They will buy everything, get bored, and move on"

In other words lowering the player base of the game eventually IMO

Now in closing I know this is a touchy subject I'm sure, It is just a thought and feedback, critiquing, or critism is encouraged, but stay friendly.

Or maby throw in some Ideas on what some cosmetic items could be!

[Heroshua]

I agree with the OP, and I'd like to add that once a game becomes pay to win it doesn't last long. Straight power upgrades that are only available via cash limit the ability of the playerbase to play together. People who don't pay for their power feel cheated by those who had more cash on hand that day, especially if for all intents and purposes the former may have been more skilled. Granted, this applies less for cooperative games like Warframe than it does for a game like, say, Gunz. So far I've noticed that most things you can purchase for real money are also obtainable by farming, and this is definitely a step in the right direction.

It would be nice to see a bluelprint for every item in the game, so conceivably a player with enough time and effort could unlock everything without spending money if they so choose. I'm generally of the opinion that a cash shop should only expedite progress, create a second class of player that is more powerful than everyone else simply because they paid for it. Essentially it is the difference between paying to be level 100 or paying for an upgrade to exp rate. The latter is far more fair and doesn't encourage pay to win tactics.

[Xenogear]

Sound advice there Hero, but for the record let it be known that I never said Warframe was p2win! Not that you said I said that, just throwin that in there haha.

Anywho if they ever do implement pvp environment like Gunz or other P2W games like that, having just cosmetics in the item shop would give everyone a fair chance at getting whatever they perceive as the "best pvp warframe and weapon set" because everyone would have the right to grind for said equipment of their choosing.

Its just a better system all around for almost every aspect of a game, and allows the them to implement things without giving people an advantage when they pay outright.

[Speary]

This was explained by the devs a while ago on their Youtube channel. The only advantage of putting money into this FREE TO PLAY game is to save you a few days of grinding to get the sets you want. I see nothing wrong with the system in place.

Observe Team Fortress 2, a game by Valve with an economy based solely on cosmetic items. People don't buy from the in-game store because it's much cheaper to acquire said cosmetics through user-to-user trading. Self-admittedly, Valve has not made money from TF2 since it became free to play in 2011 (rather it's used as a gateway product for PC gamers to discover Steam).

Warframe is not and should not follow in TF2's footsteps because it is a completely different game. When it was released in 2007, the Orange Box (which included TF2) cost $50. Valve made enough money off of this to be considered a huge commercial success, and you can bet they're still using the initial revenue to fund servers and content updates. Warframe, on the other hand, is still in its infancy and has no substantial backing to compare to the millions TF2 earned. It needs more revenue. Furthermore, TF2 is (mostly) PvP and intended to give no significant technical advantages to experienced players over new ones, as all the weapons are very easily obtained - in other words, the differentiator is entirely skill, not hours played. Warframe is PvE and relies heavily on time played; even if you put money in, you still have to rank up your frame and weapons and craft your mods. But if you don't want to spend real-world money, the result after grinding is completely the same. Trading, in my opinion, should never be released, because it would defeat the purpose of acquiring items through gameplay. The system in place is just fine, guys.

tl;dr - I disagree with the OP. Warframe can't be TF2 or Path for several reasons, including game type and financial backing.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Speary

[LordLokai]

I was really annoyed when i noticed skins had stats attached to them... along with helms... not totally against buying the frames... but some of items in this game take so long to make...been farming all day for alloy to make my boltor and only just now sitting on 240 or so alloy... reason drops are so bad is because they WANT you to buy the guns and items... which isnt worst thing i've seen HOWEVER!

When you start making certain weapons clearly BETTER then others in the game, and start making those weapons SUPER hard or difficult to craft in game... you are now selling power... now some might argue thats not the case but it clearly is. The hammer skin increases attack speed and lowers charge time is a blatant upgrade you only get from cash... so you buy power...

Sorry but i hate games that do this... NOTHING on cash shop should be a clear cut power increase...also SELLING color pallettes? i could slap guy came up with that idea... all in all i hate how games get ruined by cash shops because devs feel need to " nerf " everything in game to promote the cash shop... it infuriates me to no end! to make any of the frames naturally talking about 7 days... 4 days of grind and 3 days of watching the craft bar...

Seriously love the game but not a huge fan of the pricing on the market, or fact some items have stats attached to them...

[Heroshua]

I didn't mean to imply that the market was broken as it is. Simply that many games that are free to play (but pay to win) die quickly or suffer from limited success. In fact I alluded to that in my post. If the devs are of the opinion that paying should only alleviate some grinding then that's great, that's the sort of mentality that keeps a free to play game fair for those who don't have tons of cash to sink into it regularly.

[Xenogear]

TF2 ? Why would you even mention TF2 or put Warframe + Path of Exile into the same sentence? :P

I should smack you lol

But all jokes aside TF2 is not a prime example of what I was saying for all the reasons that you mentioned.

TF2 Is strictly PVP

TF2 Is owned by Valve who is rich beyond belief

TF2 has ingame tradeing (that is one thing i agree with, Ingame tradeing should never be implemented)

TF2 Is a gateway as you mentioned for people to discover steam

You should look more into Path of Exile as the prime example, they are doing fine with strictly cosmetic items because of the support they get from their dedicated community and happy players that will be there for years to come! They have stated that they want to spend 5 years building the game and 5 years maintaining, and they started with "founders packs" just as Warframe did. It's extremely possible to get the support needed to do these kinds of things nowadays with websites like Kickstarter + Founders packs + Cosmetic Items its absolutely plausible even with a tight budget, it comes down to if the game is good or not, which this one is no exception, its awesome and obviously has a dedicated player base that can support the game without having to pay for convienence and giving everyone a level playing field.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Xenogear

[Dasmir]

Theres a lot of thing to put in the table.

paying for a mods/weapon/armor/potatoe =/= Less player base. Theres a alot of people who cant farm them (Work/Time/Etc) and buying them are just helping the game and you dont know if they are going to quit latter. NOW THE TRUE PROBLEM OF P2W GAME STARTS when you are selling power only via cash.

I was really annoyed when i noticed skins had stats attached to them...

You are getting the information WRONG every skin has a downside, like the hammer skin: ITS +%5 ATTACK SPEED and -10% Charge time ( Thats mean you take more time to charge the heavy attack) Plz check the wiki.

now about the color, thats is cosmetic dealt with it.