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pwyll · 01-17-2004, 12:16 PM

I have been reading these type of posts all over the place and time and time again I have held my peace. The fact people repeat this type of thing again and again has annoyed me into action.

Saying that the purchase of equipment in Achaea or similiar places gives a huge advantage over those who can't purchase them is similiar to saying people who can afford better running shoes will win a foot race. If the ability to sink money into were a measure of success, you would expect more people from the US to win the NYC Marathon - the top 3 in men and top 2 in women's division this year were from Kenya

Similar to the Kenyans, success in places like Achaea is a result of investing time and thought into developing your skills and tactics. Certainly being able to program your client with macros and triggers is a larger determinant of success in Achaea than money is.

Now I will certainly agree that at a certain point, purchasing enough favors makes you nigh invulnerable on Achaea, but there are few people who can afford that and they are expert combatants already. (They would just die more often if not for their enhancing items.)

Of the 400+ people logged on to Achaea at any one time, I would conservatively estimate that 200 people have purchased at least one enhancing artifact or additional lessons with OOC cash. (I am sure the number is closer to 300) Added to them are about 25-50 people who have spent alot of time playing the game, accumulated in game coins and used them to purchase enhancing artifacts and lessons.

Of the 400 people logged on, 200 of which have OOC purchased advantages and 50 of which have IC purchased ones, two would be considered "artifact whores"--people whose large number of purchased artifacts make them an incredibly difficult opponent to kill. Certainly there will be people with artifacts who are hard to beat because of them, but who see death quite frequently for various reasons (being cocky about their ability to beat others by grace of their artifacts among those reasons.) Two people out of 400 doesn't seem like a large enough ratio to support an assertion that Achaea's system creates a class of privileged and powerful haves and cowering masses of have nots.

There are quite a number of tales of people in Achaea who were superb fighters with normal weapons and far from ultimate skills. They took what they knew and exploited every advantage they could conceive of from those skills.

I think in the absence of the type of combat system Achaea possess (for example one in which you type kill X and sit back and watch combat play out) then certainly the person who purchased the weapon with better stats and ring of accelerated healing would win more often and the game would be grossly unbalanced in favor of those with money. But that isn't the case with games like Achaea.

Just as a disclaimer--while I have played Achaea, I stopped a number of months ago because I grew to prefer a more RPI setting. I have no vested interest at this point in saying nice things about the game.

01-17-2004, 12:16 PM	#28
pwyll New Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 10	I have been reading these type of posts all over the place and time and time again I have held my peace. The fact people repeat this type of thing again and again has annoyed me into action. Saying that the purchase of equipment in Achaea or similiar places gives a huge advantage over those who can't purchase them is similiar to saying people who can afford better running shoes will win a foot race. If the ability to sink money into were a measure of success, you would expect more people from the US to win the NYC Marathon - the top 3 in men and top 2 in women's division this year were from Kenya Similar to the Kenyans, success in places like Achaea is a result of investing time and thought into developing your skills and tactics. Certainly being able to program your client with macros and triggers is a larger determinant of success in Achaea than money is. Now I will certainly agree that at a certain point, purchasing enough favors makes you nigh invulnerable on Achaea, but there are few people who can afford that and they are expert combatants already. (They would just die more often if not for their enhancing items.) Of the 400+ people logged on to Achaea at any one time, I would conservatively estimate that 200 people have purchased at least one enhancing artifact or additional lessons with OOC cash. (I am sure the number is closer to 300) Added to them are about 25-50 people who have spent alot of time playing the game, accumulated in game coins and used them to purchase enhancing artifacts and lessons. Of the 400 people logged on, 200 of which have OOC purchased advantages and 50 of which have IC purchased ones, two would be considered "artifact whores"--people whose large number of purchased artifacts make them an incredibly difficult opponent to kill. Certainly there will be people with artifacts who are hard to beat because of them, but who see death quite frequently for various reasons (being cocky about their ability to beat others by grace of their artifacts among those reasons.) Two people out of 400 doesn't seem like a large enough ratio to support an assertion that Achaea's system creates a class of privileged and powerful haves and cowering masses of have nots. There are quite a number of tales of people in Achaea who were superb fighters with normal weapons and far from ultimate skills. They took what they knew and exploited every advantage they could conceive of from those skills. I think in the absence of the type of combat system Achaea possess (for example one in which you type kill X and sit back and watch combat play out) then certainly the person who purchased the weapon with better stats and ring of accelerated healing would win more often and the game would be grossly unbalanced in favor of those with money. But that isn't the case with games like Achaea. Just as a disclaimer--while I have played Achaea, I stopped a number of months ago because I grew to prefer a more RPI setting. I have no vested interest at this point in saying nice things about the game.