First off I personally cannot stand anyone who hacks this game. Second MANY players including myself spend a ton of money on this game, making those that hack even more hated. You really put yourself in a pickle by asking others to help you hack. One I think it's against the forum rules, and two Mobage does monitor. Some advise...don't hack, build your deck the old fashioned way.....buy it or play for it.
That's fine, you don't have to pay for cards....there are MANY free players who do well. They Manage their resources and get T2 rewards most of the time They also do get T1 by managing resources and being smart about how they play and which event to go for. They do get top rewards... Maybe not every event, but it works.
I'm a free player. Sometimes I'll kick in a buck here or there but I play carefully like butchercon says, I play smart, I don't always use up all the chains they give me and take advantage of those Mobacoin offers, but only if it's worth it. By playing this carefully, this event I ended up with 3 full Orions and 3 Flamewars in addition to my 2 complete Elita-Ones and friend bonus Sky Lynx and I only spent a buck. After this event, my deck will mostly be R5 cards. Not bad for a free player.
Noice. Seriously, it's gonna obviously be tough if you aren't paying money to get the benefits. Of course, for those that play for free, it's more fun that way.
I've got a better idea, just don't play. If we all play F2P games and no-one pays it is very obvious what will happen to the games themselves.
I'm not condoning hacking or the OP's post in general, but here's the problem I see with all these western F2P offerings. They are more accurately described as F2P-P2W. Since, yes, they are free to play...but if you want to truly compete and actually get the full experience of the game by not getting your arse handed to you left and right, you must pay to win. From the posts here, it seems that legends is exactly that...though it is possible to be competitive without, it's not a horse that anyone would bet on. While I fully understand that people willing to pay money should get something in return over those who do not, I fail to understand why that must automatically equate in so many of these titles to clear and distinct advantages in the actual gameplay - especially when that gameplay has a competitive nature. Now if this boiled down to a small payment here and there and you can be kept up to speed, alright fine - consider it a subscription and be done with it, but more often than not it seems like all I hear is that you have to dump a ton of cash for so many of these. So much so, I'd honestly rather they quit making them as F2P and just charge from the get go. Your ability to compete in a game should not reflect RL economic status. Charge everyone the same required payment, and give everyone the same level playing field because otherwise it's not a true and fair competition, but a farce. In the end you're paying for those who don't as it is, so why not make everyone equal rather than just winning with your wallet. But hey, that's just me. Hell, game developers don't even open their alpha and beta testing phases to people who they scrutinize as ones that use applications and interviews to find those who could actually truly help with development like they used to anymore - they just let you pay your way in (EQ Next / Landmark, looking at you) Should work out great for them when all these 'testers' who simply paid to get to play early only report bugs by way of bitching about shit being broken on something they paid for.
I saved up my chains and played and played and played. I ended up getting 7&1/2 full orion pax and a alpha Triton. them log on everyday bonus helps. You just have to have patience and time and you don't have to spend money.
Consider how Mobage/DNA shut down their NFL game despite people (like me) spending serious money to draft NFL players, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever give DNA or Mobage another f'ing cent. I'll kill some time playing the game for free, but after they screwed me over with their NFL game, they're smoking crack if they think I'll pay them another dime for in-game content. I hope they burn in hell.
Why bother having a closed Alpha/Beta testing phase when you can release a game like TF:L and just let the bug filled app itself function as your in-game testing while still making money? DNA/Mobage has been doing this for the better part of 3 years.
I'd actually prefer it that way really. No sense in coloring it as something it's not. Just announce it's an early build and you'll be ironing out the bugs live or some shit. Paying to get into alpha just stinks of cashgrab and pay to win mechanics.
How very healthy. I guess that depends on your own definition of win. I have never paid a cent, yet I was able to save and I earned the Galvatron tier 2 reward in the awesome "Till All Are One!" event. A G1 movie powerful Galvatron card was literally my goal since starting this free game. Win achieved. So for me it's "Free-To-Play, Strategize-To-Win"
Being able to compete and progress-(in a general sense) on an even level regardless of how much or how little $$ you spent. Yea, I was basically just speaking in general as I'm not overly familiar with this particular game. As long as you enjoy whatever you're doing, then that's really all that matters truthfully.
As you pointed out, it'll never be "even" as long as some are paying and others can't or aren't. I guess I'd change it to "even enough". For me, I know there's the big spenders (heck, even a spender) who will have better cards than me. I also know that a majority of them feel the need for instant gratification so they'll bail pretty quickly when an event reward requires playability & perseverence to win. In the long run I feel this perseverence will weed out many of these payers. Not all, but enough for the game to be enjoyable and winable.
