by SmilingFear » Mon Jun 16, 2014 7:06 pm
I agree and disagree. I think that the continuous addition of stronger monsters is important, but I don't think that these monsters should drop the top tier gear, like Reps do. This just creates a bigger gap between the poor and the elite, which serves to drive the price of tickets up. In turn, this makes the game more p2w than anything. Any "noob" can drop 50 bucks into the game and instantly wreck things harder than someone whose actually worked for their 250 levels. Back in the day, as soon as I hit level 125 I started training on Stalkers, and was there for 150 levels. The exp was slow, but the payout was immense. Now, for the elite players to be able to dominate in both exp AND payout from the same monster, kind of ruins the whole "exp or cash" dynamic. You don't have to choose, you get both. And that's a very linear way for the game to be established. "Work up to the point where you can kill this certain monster, and then you're set with only killing that monster" rather than "work up to a point where you can choose whether to farm for exp or drops, and then continue to build your character accordingly." I guess the dynamic of building your character for that doesn't really apply as much as it used to though, with the dex cap we now have. But back before that was a thing I had more dex than I did str. My dex eventually reached 1337 and I don't even think my str had hit 1000 yet. This made competing for farm at Stalkers easier for me as a warrior, because I ran a great deal faster than projectiles.
It's like the game started off with realms of possibility, and as time continues to pass, those possibilities are dwindling, the game is becoming more linear, and a pay to win dynamic is being enforced into a free to play game.