Pay to win sucks, but what about pay to fix?

Like most if not everyone I'm not a fan of the pay to win strategy in games including GMS so I'm glad that's not the case here. The donor shop is a great touch, adding in cosmetics only, nothing that you can pay for to set yourself above others through the donations.
However what if there was a "pay to fix" kind of scenario in the donor shop. The SP resets in the usual shop get a bit pricey and could take quite a long while to save up in order to change a mistake you made with your skills. I would say the same thing with AP resets but that would be abused, anyone with money in their pockets could have max health which goes back to the pay to win.
So what if the donor section sold SP resets and made them untradeable? In my mind that would be hard to abuse but very very welcome.
What do you think?

 

That is a form of pay2win, albeit a minor one.

I don't think this would be added.

 

that sounds like alot of work just for untradeable sp resets that many people won't really be using

 

Hmm I guess it would be a minor one. For example with the Strafe skill for Rangers. Great skill for 3rd job and does good damage but it immediately gets replaced by Hurricane in 4th job. So either you only put a few points into it so you can use points elsewhere, hurting your training or max it and possibly leave out something more useful for 4th job. Being able to actually adjust that (reasonably) would have been great.

 

If you pay using real money for AP/SP Reset, you're getting advantage above others players that need to pucharse it from Cash shop, so it is pay-for-win in any way you see it.
In my opinion, should not be implement.

 

That's fair.

 

True, I feel like it would be used a lot mainly for 3rd job stuff.

 

The example Nubis gives in this thread shows how it's a form of pay2win.

 

At the same time, ap resets sell for 9m, so it would be easy to get mesos that way.

I can't read.

 

Yep you're right. Although AP resets would be way more pay to win (paying to max health) so are SP resets, just on a smaller scale. Not gaining any skill points but you do make it easier for yourself by paying.

Still a bummer though. Really wishing i didnt max strafe..... lol.

 

What I really need is more NX added in donator shop

 

Instead using your daily NX or your mesos to buy SP resets, you use real world currency and you get to keep your free NX and your mesos as well. That's how it's p2w

 

Or you could just use your free nx to buy sp resets...? This would never be implemented as we have already stated that we would never be pay to win.

 

Those things are first of all, optional and secondly, purely aesthetic. They do not affect gameplay in ANY way so it is not pay2win. SP resets would allow you to change an in game aspect for real money.

 

Out of curiosity, can someone explain why to me pay to win sucks?

Isn't making more money for the server a good thing?

Is it because once a server has revenue outside of donations it become vulnerable for Nexon to take down?

I remember back in GMs when they introduced gachapon tickets, it was pay to win but still fun and balanced.

I can see MapleRoyals making a lot of money if we were to implement a balanced pay-2-win system.

 

This server is free to play so that more people can enjoy it and dps doesn't rely on how much money you put into the game, hence making it fair for everyone.

 

Interesting question which I wouldn't expect to be asked here, since it's kind of taken as an unspoken axiom that "Pay to win = bad." I'll try to put forward the main reasons why I personally am highly against the idea of a pay to win system.

One reason pay to win is generally considered to be a bad thing because it removes a sense of parity and fairness. One reason why so many people are drawn to Royals' system is because it's fair in that it generally affords progression to those who work hard: you invest x amount of hours and you get y as a result, with few exceptions due to permutations related to RNG with droprates and scrolling. Everyone is on equal footing, and the only advantage that people can have in this game is the advantage of simply having played for a longer period of time than another. You can't pay your way to success; all of the high-level people here have earned their level fairly through hard work and sometimes a bit of luck (scrolling). Thus, we're all on relatively equal footing and as a result, we have a sense of parity. Without a pay-to-win system, we have a closed, autonomous economy which does not rely on outside influence to keep it running, and that's a good thing in terms of fairness.

The most important thing to me is that pay to win business models defeat the spirit of the game. In a nutshell, what pay to win translates to is that you're basically paying to not play the game. Let's say I spend 100 hours farming mesos, and I earn 5 billion mesos. Back on GMS in .62, you could earn that same amount of money simply by spending, say, a thousand dollars. What you're doing in that situation is you're paying for something which could only otherwise be obtained through playing the game. Thus, you're paying to not have to play the game, which (IMO) defeats the entire purpose of a game. Imagine if, back in the 80s, people were allowed to pay an arcade machine $100 to get their name on the high score board. Sure, you get the same results as if you had played the game, but to what end? Why even bother, when the spirit and purpose of the game is to play it and have fun?

It's also a bad thing because it devalues any sense of achievement and undermines any sort of meritocratic principles we currently have in place. To many people, reaching a landmark like level 70, or 120, or 200 is rewarding because it represents many hours of working hard to achieve that milestone. But what if you simply pay for leech all the way from 50-120 with money that you obtained through gachapon (which, in .62 GMS, you bought with real money?) In that case, you're not actually earning your level; you're buying it. It's not an achievement; it's a transaction, a purchase.

Pay to win business models are why I despise MMOs these days, and the mobile gaming business model in general. It's also why I gravitate towards private servers and console games. No unfairness, no meaningless achievements--it's just good, fun gaming. And you know the funny thing about this all? The fact that Royals isn't pay to win makes me want to actually donate to the server!

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In regards to the original topic, I think I'd actually support it. I can't think of any instances where you could really gain much of an advantage by abusing SP resets; the only reason that I would buy an SP reset is if I made a mistake in distributing my SP. But of course, this is a really minor thing which is probably low on the staff's to-do list, and really, most people shouldn't be fucking up on their skilling order, being that we have guides and all... Besides, most SP screw-ups can easily be remedied simply by leveling and adding in more SP elsewhere.

 

The main thing about you being able to buy anything with irl money is that it would give that person a slight edge, no matter how minor. Like you mentioned someone in your response, they would be able to get that sp without having to spend their own nx or mesos in game. This in turn allows them more gaches or more in game options because they didn't have to spend anything. So although minor, yes it would affect gameplay unfairly because people who don't have the money to do so would be forced to spend in game mesos and/or their own nx to remedy a problem whereas someone could just pay their way to fix it and not suffer any consequences in game.

Overall, great post though.

 

I completely agree, it was just an idea I had so I added it to the forum. After seeing other peoples views it makes sense that it wouldn't be a good idea. There's no issue with saving up NX from voting to use on SP resets, just takes a bit. Not to mention the temptation to just use it on gacha omfg.
Thanks for the input everyone

 

I don't like the idea, pay to fix is basically pay to win. You pay to fix AP/SP faster = you pay to become stronger.
Aye.
Aye.