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Dacypher · 03-26-2006, 12:31 AM

I'm new to the forums, so sorry if this is a dead horse (sounds like it is). I spent a lot of time playing Achaea, and it was one of the first MUDs I got into.

I was so lost when I first started, that I did not even know about credits. When I found out about them (I thought I was going to see the Credits of who made the game. Silly me), I was a little taken back. But, I thought, it's ok, they need to make a little bit of money on this game to spend so much time on it. And then I actually looked at the Artefacts (items you can only get from purchasing "Credits" with RL money, to those who dont know)...

Oh my God. With enough money you can easily double the strength of your character, if not triple or quadruple it. And it takes a lot of money. More than most normal players can pay. But it's not impossible, meaning that some players will get a huge, planet-sized advantage.

I have witnessed very, very good PvPers lose to people who were much lower level (and IMHO much lower skill level) in fair full health vs. full health Arena fights, because the loser could not compete against the extra health, extra regen from sipping health potions, extra stats, extra strong weapon, and the slew of other performance enhancing artefacts that these "artekiddies" stack up.

And the game is mostly geared towards PvP. One could argue that it is inter-player communication, which would be a good arguement, but I would have to go with PvP, since all class's skillsets only have about 3 or 4 skills max that can be used in PvE, if not just one or two (this is out of 50 to 100-something skills for each class). That, and the fact that grinding (bashing in that game, it's called) is totally mindnumbing, involving just pushing one button over and over, no matter what class you are (F1, F1, F1, F2, F1, F1, etc etc etc etc). The game is weighted towards PvP, and the PvP can so easily be imbalanced and overturned with a gob of credits, which take no skill to obtain.

And that does not even consider the fact that, as far as I have seen it, there is no way to trans (max out) even one of your three skillsets without eaither, a. buying credits and doing it in a week (for several hundred dollars or more), or b. waiting RL months and months to do it by getting city or House credits (which your turn to buy only comes up once in a blue moon), and questing to buy the extremely expensive credits on the credit market (which is all fueled by people buying credits with RL money, and then selling it in-game, thus buying gold with RL money, and deflating the value of earning gold). One of the only strategies to trans your skills, is to save up enough credits to trans Survival, which will let you fish for gold to buy credits. This is a very boring, and a veeeeery long process, since the best fishers can only get about 1 to 3, maybe 4, credits a day fishing, and it takes hundreds and hundreds of credits to trans all 3 class skillsets. And that's not even mentioning how long it takes to save up the credits to trans Survival, which you can't even fish for. So, weigh the options: Months and months, possibly years, to trans your class skills, or one week spending money. If you enjoy the game, and want to be the best you can be in it, does that not seem a little unfair?

03-26-2006, 12:31 AM	#113
Dacypher New Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1	I'm new to the forums, so sorry if this is a dead horse (sounds like it is). I spent a lot of time playing Achaea, and it was one of the first MUDs I got into. I was so lost when I first started, that I did not even know about credits. When I found out about them (I thought I was going to see the Credits of who made the game. Silly me), I was a little taken back. But, I thought, it's ok, they need to make a little bit of money on this game to spend so much time on it. And then I actually looked at the Artefacts (items you can only get from purchasing "Credits" with RL money, to those who dont know)... Oh my God. With enough money you can easily double the strength of your character, if not triple or quadruple it. And it takes a lot of money. More than most normal players can pay. But it's not impossible, meaning that some players will get a huge, planet-sized advantage. I have witnessed very, very good PvPers lose to people who were much lower level (and IMHO much lower skill level) in fair full health vs. full health Arena fights, because the loser could not compete against the extra health, extra regen from sipping health potions, extra stats, extra strong weapon, and the slew of other performance enhancing artefacts that these "artekiddies" stack up. And the game is mostly geared towards PvP. One could argue that it is inter-player communication, which would be a good arguement, but I would have to go with PvP, since all class's skillsets only have about 3 or 4 skills max that can be used in PvE, if not just one or two (this is out of 50 to 100-something skills for each class). That, and the fact that grinding (bashing in that game, it's called) is totally mindnumbing, involving just pushing one button over and over, no matter what class you are (F1, F1, F1, F2, F1, F1, etc etc etc etc). The game is weighted towards PvP, and the PvP can so easily be imbalanced and overturned with a gob of credits, which take no skill to obtain. And that does not even consider the fact that, as far as I have seen it, there is no way to trans (max out) even one of your three skillsets without eaither, a. buying credits and doing it in a week (for several hundred dollars or more), or b. waiting RL months and months to do it by getting city or House credits (which your turn to buy only comes up once in a blue moon), and questing to buy the extremely expensive credits on the credit market (which is all fueled by people buying credits with RL money, and then selling it in-game, thus buying gold with RL money, and deflating the value of earning gold). One of the only strategies to trans your skills, is to save up enough credits to trans Survival, which will let you fish for gold to buy credits. This is a very boring, and a veeeeery long process, since the best fishers can only get about 1 to 3, maybe 4, credits a day fishing, and it takes hundreds and hundreds of credits to trans all 3 class skillsets. And that's not even mentioning how long it takes to save up the credits to trans Survival, which you can't even fish for. So, weigh the options: Months and months, possibly years, to trans your class skills, or one week spending money. If you enjoy the game, and want to be the best you can be in it, does that not seem a little unfair?