That was probably the nicest comment I've ever gotten from a fellow podcaster. Thank you Kash for the very nice words. You guys are truly a pleasure to have in the ashes community! Your continued growth shows it and proves that your podcast is something special. Cheers!

Thank you guys for yet another amazing episode, love Mondays thanks to you! ⭐️ I just wanted to give my take on the cash shop. So I played both GW1 and GW2 and what I loved with GW1 was that you had to EARN everything. Grinding for such a long time to finally get the armor you wanted, just like in OSRS. Nothing came for free. Yes it's a little hardcore but what happens with cash shops like GW2 is that the visual progression is lost unfortunately. The problem: The armor you have earned to put the store-skin on was a 6/10. Now with the in store skin, it's a 8/10, making it look better than some other hard earned achievable items. If they can try to limit how good the items in the cash shops look, to a degree were it almost never stands out but instead just a slight variation. That would be great! And that is coming from a person that has spent hundreds of dollars on cash shop armor and items.. it just ruins it for you. I'd rather spend time doing a certain quest to earn another skin for an already achieved armor piece or weapon! Just increase the fee to 20/25 $! "If you build it, they will come!" And lastly regarding the XP-boost, I am afraid that it will affect the game play experience with the boost. I really don't want them to remove the hardcore aspect of the game since I KNOW that it is a key component of a great MMO. We want to grind for hours, days, weeks, months, years to finally get piece of equipment that we can be proud of and show other people. It's like getting everything you've wanted from your parents, you lose sence of the worth of money. And you do not want to lose the sense of what it takes to build your character in Verra. #KeepItHardcore ☀️ Please let me know what you think! 💛

Great to see you guys for episode 42; you guys are a hoot! I have no issue with a cash shop with cosmetic items (no p2w!) and hearing Steven repeatedly say the same or better will be achievable in game helps all the more.

Appreciate you guys.

Great episode! You guys should call your merch store the Kash Shop.

Amazing discussion, a pleasure to listen, as always :P The sad truth is the token system doesn't fix the whole rmt problem tho. The real reason why token systems exists is because companies know the rmt market will never go away. It's not really a solvable problem. So if you're a for profit company, it's an easy decision, if you can't beat em, join em. It's just to much money for a company not to tap into the rmt market... Also what a token system does It sets a max value to irl currency > in-game currency/token which the rmt market has now to operate around which decreases profits from said farmers/bots. And the Token markets are not really an in-game currency sink. The in-game currency mostly just changes hands, even if a tax is applied.

I was listening while getting ready for work, when Jibbs said "I thought I could swallow faster", I just about choked to death on my mouthwash! Fun show guys. Keep them coming.

I've been keeping up on the UAP stuff! It is wild!🎉

*I'd rather have a box price and collector's editions, and no cash shop.* *But since there's no box price for Ashes, I'm completely fine with a cash shop and merchandise shop.*

Gw2 has gold to diamonds trading, but that also goes the other way. Meaning you can buy diamonds with real money to buy in game gold. It basically enables paying for power.

I think the problem with a $20 monthly subscription is that AoC is already expected to be a niche game, charging $20 from the start will turn people away.

What happens if ashes of creation take charge of the buying and selling. That way both players and ashes of creation make money. Then aches of creation can made some NPC cleaner that rob coins and extra items and equipment from players and the market. Then the NPC can sell or give the stuff to random players through quests or random boxes. This way pays to win players get robbed every time if they buy an op weapon, equipment, or huge amount of gold. This way the cost of the game can stay low.

Should Items be made specifically for the cash shop, then when the new rotation happens the said items become available in-game slightly customized with better buffs? From a lore perspective having a world boss customize gear might be interesting.

It made me sad when Sonny was advocating for the wow token

For me, the only problem with Guild Wars 2 store, is the Black Lion Chests, which is a random chance to get whatever. And obviously the good stuff are very rare, and hard to get. It's basically gambling, very predatory, and I hate it. Even though I still play GW2 to this day.

Kash was right, it's 'exorbitant', hehe ;) I just hope they don't sell cosmetics that are also obtainable in-game. It should be separated, so that you know what someone has earned and what they've simply bought.

Journal Entry: Professor Elden Greythorn June 3, 2024. I have observed the continued decline of gamers. They have grown accustomed to the evils of the cash shop.

I mostly agree with the points about cash shops being a slippery slope. The solution of raising the sub fee would not work whatsoever at all full stop!! I have many guildies spoiled by the free to play model and complain ashes is a sub only game. $15 is reasonable ff14 started at $20 and among other issues failed there. The majority of players will not or cannot afford that price point. The free to play model is also poisoned by the pay to win cash shop items. The only compromise is to have cosmetic only cash shop in this case, hard limit. Then maintain the best things earn able. Remember this game has no box cost. There are hundreds of thousands of people with a1 keys who have 11 months of sub ingrained in their account, prolly more than that for a2 keys with 6 months of sub ingrained and then down the list it will take a year for them to have the full revenue stream coming in. And they need to pay for updates to the game development as we are actually playing when launch happens On the point of xp boosts never and keep the idea of mentor system to help lvl your friends. Continue to promote community building

No cash shop if there’s a mandatory sub. I’d rather know I’m in an immersive world where nothing transferred across a real money transaction.

If you up the subscription from the standard 14.95 /month you kill the game for the masses and mainstream and turn away so many players from even trying the game, let alone ensuring the game maintains a substantial number of players and populated servers.

Oof. No experience boost in shops. I think its better to give high level players incentive for helping out friends and newbies. Cosmetics, a badge, a title, etc. Something to encourage helping others. Also, maybe if youre more than 5 levels above another player but you join their quest/commission to help them out, your level drops to theirs so you dont steamroll their quest. And/or some other gameplay solutions so friends can play together while the newbie levels.

question for for the group. Most MMO's essentially revolve around gear and achievements. better gear means you can achieve higher achievements. one of the ways you used to be able to show off the level of your skill was by the cosmetics you had achieved. if you can purchase equitable gear would that not be a form of pay to win. even at a lesser level since steven has obviously made it clear there is gear that you can only get in game? what can A cash shop sell that wouldn't be some form of pay to win. To be clear im not against a cash shop to lesson how much a sub cost for those with tight budgets to play a game that wont have major elements of pay to win. I agree that cosmetics in a shop can get out of control because marketing wise it makes since that whats in the shop should be cool if you want to sell it. if its not cooler than what you already have unlocked in game why would you by it?

You guys continuously missed a crucial point in this conversation, The fact that the people in this chat/on this show are the die hards who will make up 1% of the player base, yes they might be happy with $25 but the other 99% of causal players or after work gamers will not be willing to pay that and therefore not purchase the game in the first place Those people also want a cash shop to look good instead of grinding out content to look how they want

I dont think there should be a cash shop in AoC at all. I completely disagree with Kash. I get what he is saying, but its a VERRRRRRY slippery slope even with just innocent cosmetics. Because 1, the temptation is there, and number two, some players will say, well I would I make a huge effort to earn that armor set honestly in the game when I can just pay for the look-a-like in the cash shop. It makes a huge disincentive. I dont want the coolest looking gear behind a pay wall. I want to be able to get the coolest mounts and gear from defeating really tough world bosses/dungeon bosses, or a drop from a certain NPC that has very high RNG to get that would probably take a month to grind. OR, as a reward from being elected a mayor, or from being rewarded from the game because you run the node so well that its listed in a node leaderboard or whatever. It should be a showcase of my skill as a player, rather than showing me as a cash throwing whale. Cash shops are the cancer of the gaming industry. I wont have it in this game. The only reason I am ok with it right now is because were still maybe a year or two from a full release and only a niche amount of people know about this game. Once it goes live I hope they can focus on subscriptions for their revenue, and maybe charging players if they want to move their character to another server or change the race and look of their character. And maybe make a spin off AoC themed mobile game and do all the scummy business stuff on there rather than in their MMO. At least that is how I feel. Its like the old saying, I dont s*** where I eat.

For me the second you add non banable buyable gold, you kill the game for me. 1. making legal gold buying makes an exact time ---> real life $$ which makes the game far more exhausting mentally. 2, makes the game strictly pay to win. 3. If the best method to play the game is to go work 8 hours at your job and then use that money to just buy power, why even play the game.

Netflix is also irretrievably bankrupt, it serves a specific purpose thats why it produce its own movies nowdays and you see such "progress" and stuff. Extremely bad comparison for monthly subscription...

Omg this is my discussion with Dygz about Battlepasses on the forums all over again