FrozNlite Wrote:agree with aslemn that MapleStory certainly appears to be heading down that path, but I disagree with Stereo. We don't have "Equip Shop Surprises" or things of the sort yet that cost 500 NX and, at a 0.1% chance, pop out a Horntail Pendant or a Reverse Lampion. THAT'S what it sounds like Trickster online is like. The difference between GMS and such a gamestyle, then, is that the aspect of probability still dominates. All Nexon keeps doing is giving us more chances and greater odds at rolling the dice: Vicious Hammers allow us to try two more times for higher stats on an item, the exorbitantly priced Vega Scrolls give us a better chance of successfully imbuing our gear with such stats, and Dark Scrolls/White Scrolls/Chaos Scrolls, in and of themselves, increase stats/assurance of rate passage at the cost of your wallet and/or the item itself. No where in there is the 100% assurance of "Godly Items" via the Cash Shop, and so this game is definitely not what others are.
I don't play Trickster so shrug about that. But if there are items that can only be obtained by spending NX and affect gameplay, it doesn't matter if you get them every time you spend $12, or if you have a 1/12 probability of getting them for a dollar - they're still unavailable to anyone who doesn't use NX. Sure, they can trade them away, but they don't have to - if all the Gachapon users decide not to sell their Purple Surfboards there's not a lot I can do to get one.
Of course with the MTS, NX:Meso trade is possible - which means that technically you can get anything you want ingame without spending a cent. But I think that's not the point. I'm sure you can sell trickster money or something for paypal $, and spend the paypal on cash gear. But the primary audience is people who charge NX cards - MTS is less efficient, far more work (I make about 1k NX per hour of training) and obviously gonna be inferior to just paying for stuff.
Personally I think the Vega scrolls are cheap - the 60% Vega's Scroll could be anywhere up to about 20k NX and it would be worth using on some of my gear. And that's the problem with making stuff available outside the economy - the price doesn't change based on how useful it is. It just rewrites market value on equipment.
Consider. You have a SCG to scroll. Stormcasters cost about 600mil... which is like $60. For $20 more, you are given a 60% chance of it coming out 15 atk(average cost $133) - or, you could skip the $20, and have a 7% chance (average cost $771)
I think the drop from 771 to 133 dollars for a 15 atk SCG will affect the market, no? The Vega scrolls could cost $79 each and it would still be cheaper than using 60%s alone.