MMOHut, "Why is everything so terrible? It doesn’t matter where you go, these days. Pay-to-play, free-to-play… it’s all the same. Some of these games I play at release, and I ask myself, “Who spent time making this treadmill of suffering and thought it was FUN?” It’s like none of these MMO developers, whether it’s a big name, or a little indie operation..."
Ben from Netto's Game Room looks back on what he considers to be one of the worst cases of microtransactions from a 2007 game, where spending close to $40,000 is needed to even stand a chance.
Yes, Microtransactions now are bad. Giving an example of one of the worst cases of a hardly known game in the past doesn’t make the situation now seem any better.
It doesn't make them any better for sure! It just further shows how a good/fun game can be completely ruined by greed
It was a popular game back in the day among those who played free to play mmos on PC.
I believe the reason for talking about this game is to give an example of one of the worst offenders so we don't end up there again.
I remember playing this game back in the day. It was one of the first free to play mmos on the market. The gameplay, atmosphere, music and community were great.
I didn't pay much attention to the item mall and always ensured I participated in events that game mall points.
I remember when my younger brother and I would grind all weekend long starting from Friday night. He would start Friday night when 2x exp was turned on and go all the way into Saturday afternoon when I came home from class then I would take over until Sunday afternoon when 2 times exp ended. The game had a mentoring system that could be exploited by free to play players where we would create alt accounts with dummy characters and level them up to 40 then take all the rewards, delete and start over again. Eventually, we would earn enough currency to purchase gems and equipment from players who spent money on the game.
We were able to make it into the top guild on our server with a level 96 Crusader and the swords had plus 13 a d 14 gems. We shared the one character and took turns using it.
The game released a sequel called tales of pirates 2 and they raised the level cap of the game. At that point it would be extremely difficult to progress further and compete with the players who spend money on the game so we quit. The game was terrible with micro transactions and even made it so the Crusader was the strongest class to encourage players to use it. This because it had swords needed for applying gems.
Spent countless hours using that mentor system as well haha
The ToP2 version was actually the version private servers were already running on, so when it officially got released it left me and my friends confused. (If I recall it also added the Bleach knock off costumes?) I remember we spent so much time going for Rebirth to get the cool wings, but we ended up leaving the official servers before we reached that point.
The great thing about Private Servers was the fact that you could just get the leveled up gems in game for free, and all apparel costumes were free as well.
From Xfire: "Gear is everything in MMOs - well, almost everything - and grinding out the best stats in the endgame after you hit the maximum level can be a struggle if you don't know the best methods and tactics. Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare's successful massively multiplayer RPG, is no different, and here we'll teach you how to hit the coveted Item Rating of 306."
Developers go to great lengths to create mmo immersion for their players. MMO-Play offers their list of the top five immersive mmo games.
