TERA Time – From P2P to F2P to P2W(Part 2)

This is part two of this edition of TERA Time. Click through if you haven’t read the first part covering enchanting and community. Thank you!

Inflation

I play on Mount Tyrannus, the most populated server on TERA NA. The prices on MT are naturally going to be higher than other servers because of the amount of players making and spending money. Even so, the prices are going up a bit too high for comfort — and this is happening on every server regardless of population.

The inflation we’ve been seeing can be directly drawn to two things:

1. Cash shop items being sold to other players. Includes cosmetics, scrolls, and extensive alkahest.
2. Elite members’ gold boosts and 20 maximum daily quests (up from totally F2P players’ 10 maximum daily quests).

The cash shop gold injection has a minor effect on all level ranges, but it is doing nowhere near the damage to the economy that the Elite daily bonuses are causing. Consider this:

Elite members make 2,000g for one day’s worth of daily quests. Free to play members not using a quest gold boost make 500g a day from their dailies.

As much as I like being an Elite, it’s hard to look at this and think it’s fair. Because it’s not.

I can understand the need to give incentives to get people to subscribe, but the influx of gold has completely demolished the economy. Level 20 gear costs anywhere from 25g to 40g on average. To a high level player or an experienced lowbie, this is chump change — but to players just starting out, this is a lot of gold.

The cost of equipment only goes up from there. T14 fodder is at all all-time high. Why do white T14 chest pieces cost 90g each? That’s just for the whites! Greens cost more than 140g, and blues and golds can be hundreds of gold.

We’re not talking gear you wear, we’re talking fodder gear for enchanting. Fodder. If I’m going to be failing 40 times getting from +7 to +8 on my MW keeper set, I don’t want to spend 12,000g just on the fodder gear for one enchantment level.

While this is in part due to the new 60 influx, the amount of money floating around is the main contributor to this massive inflation. Unfortunately, I don’t see any solution to this problem.

The P2W Issue

The inflation issues tie into the enchantment issues I brought up in the first part of this TERA Time. After looking back and looking above, it’s hard to not draw the conclusion that the game is slowly becoming pay to win.

Elite 60’s get four times more gold per day from dailies than free players. This wouldn’t be an issue if the prices of items in the trader broker weren’t inflating with the Elite players’ in-game dosh.

In a month, will those free 60’s even want to play anymore? The power difference between a fully-geared player and a fresh or mid-tier 60 is so immense that there is no real fair comparison between the two.

You poor souls without the money to throw at En Masse for an Elite membership are going to be in for one hell of a dungeon grind at 60. While Elite members don’t necessarily have a distinct “winning” advantage, the amount of time it will take an Elite to get the money for enchanting is far less than a free player. It’s sad, but that’s how it is.

Will EME step in to alleviate the gap between the two player groups? If they want to keep raking in money from Elite memberships, they won’t touch how things are now. Unfortunately, this means the majority of players are going to be left in the dust progression-wise for months. There is nothing to be done about it now.