Originally Posted by artifice
Honestly, after seeing the F2P models for Everquest, Everquest 2, and Vanguard, the fact that Planetside 2 is going to be a pay-to-win model isn't surprising at all. I probably won't be playing it now.
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Not sure how you can compare EQ/EQ2/Vanguard MMORPGs to PS2 MMOFPS when talking about subscription models and pay-to-win scenarios. The RPGs are not PvP centric. PS2 is PvP only. Big difference.
Should be interesting to see how they pull this off. IMO, in the short term, there will be somewhat of a pay-to-win scenario happening in PS2. Although in the other thread with Smed's post they did say they are going to give someone fairly quick access to the upgrades they want to allow them to play with special equiptment fairley quickly. That's a pretty good compromise. However, that's still a bit fishy because we are talking about classes and you don't know which class you might like over another right away. But that's the gotcha there and I don't think it's that big of a deal.
PS1 was always about being more versatile which means you could perform better for different situations that you encountered in the game. The difference with PS2 vs. PS1 in this aspect is that in PS1 any player, regardless of battle rank, could obtain any piece of equipment/vehicle they wanted (minus the BFRs and we all know how that ended up) which made all ranks equal. The difference between BR1 and BR40 was the BR40 could have more options over the BR1. But both had all the same options.
PS2 gets rid of the entire PS1 rank and certs system and goes with a detailed cert tree for individual classes. I actually don't know how they plan to tie in battle rank to what type of weapons are available in the cash shop (which are supposed to be side-grades). I don't consider weapons that have extra capabilities vs. the stock a side-grade. But it may be that they just have not implemented BR into this yet. Even still, if you give XP boosters to allow people to gain BR faster then they will still be able to PAY to obtain those side-grades with other benefits I would say that is pay-to-win.