Is Anyone Else Disappointed With This Game's Economy?

[Dal3292]

Let me start off by saying that yes, of course Niantic and Capcom have to make money somehow, but that being said, the way this game’s economy is handled feels very predatory. It’s effectively a convenience economy, except obviously the convenience only exists because of the intentionally designed elements.

Specifically I am referring to potions and paintballs, it truly feels like a limit of only 5 free heals a day is not nearly enough. This heavily disincentivizes any risk early in the day. It also kills engagement since once you run out of first aid meds, you have no choice but to put the game down if you make just one or two mistakes. Not even being able to fight any significant monsters at all for extended periods of time. An entire walk could involve zero hunting due to a single mistake early on.

This perhaps wouldn’t be so egregious if paintballs were more accessible, but those too have no consistent or reliable means of renewing at all outside of real money purchases or gems which are also only consistently and reliably gained through real money transactions.

All this is to say that I don’t feel the economy is a healthy one that encourages people to support a game they love for bonuses, but rather a manipulative one that pressures players into paying for the convenience of actually playing consistently at all. I’ve already made an improvement request that thankfully does seem to have been seen, but I want to get everyone else’s opinions on the matter.

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Googleによる翻訳

まず最初に言っておきたいのは、もちろん Niantic と Capcom は何らかの方法でお金を稼がなければならないが、そうは言っても、このゲームの経済の扱い方は非常に略奪的であるように感じられるということだ。実質的には利便性経済だが、明らかに利便性は意図的に設計された要素によってのみ存在する。

具体的にはポーションとペイントボールについてだが、1 日に 5 回の無料回復という制限は、まったく十分ではないと本当に感じる。これは、1 日の早い段階でのリスクを大幅に抑制する。また、応急処置薬がなくなると、1 回か 2 回のミスでゲームを中断するしか選択肢がないため、エンゲージメントが失われる。長時間、重要なモンスターと戦うことさえできない。序盤の 1 回のミスが原因で、1 回の散歩でまったく狩りができなくなる可能性がある。

ペイントボールがもっと入手しやすければ、これはそれほどひどいことではないかもしれませんが、ペイントボールも、リアルマネーでの購入や宝石以外では、一貫性や信頼性のある更新手段がまったくありません。宝石も、リアルマネー取引を通じてのみ一貫して確実に獲得できます。

つまり、ボーナスのために好きなゲームをサポートするよう人々を奨励する健全な経済ではなく、実際に一貫してプレイする利便性のためにプレイヤーに支払いを強いる操作的な経済だと感じています。私はすでに改善要求を出しており、ありがたいことにそれは認識されているようですが、この件について他の皆さんの意見を聞きたいと思っています。

[Hechem2384]

外国人の方には驚かれそうですが、このゲームの課金圧は他のゲームに比べて低いです。

例えば回復課金を回避するためには、防御力を上げれたり、プレイスキルを磨くことによって回避出来るなど、対処法が用意されているからです。

ただまぁ、日本は他国と比べてソシャゲ課金に抵抗がないので、足許を見られてるというかカモられてるのはそれはそうだと思います。

[Stampeder]

Thank you for sharing your perspectives, @Hechem2384!

My response to OP @Dal3292 :

The final, ultimate control is in players’ hands. The decision to spend that money or not is entirely up to you.

This is a free-to-play game, and everyone must have some level of awareness that this game is not built by people who work for free (they have families to feed too), and that the costs of running the game servers to give this level of connectivity is not cheap. It’s not stellar, yes, but it still costs money.

At least, this game does not force you to pay at all, and doesn’t make the F2P experience horrible at all, unlike many other games on the market right now.

Also, the “pressure” is what you give yourself. Nobody forced you to play when you have run out of first-aid med. Certainly nobody pointed a weapon at you and forced you to play. You can simply just take a break and do other things, and I’m sure there are many other things worth doing than just playing a game.

I’ve played since the soft launch, so today marks my first anniversary of playing this game. I have never paid for a single potion or paintball, and I’ve only used like a couple of potions (still have 43 left) and several of the pink paintballs (still have 28 left). Whenever I am down, I just put my phone down and do other things and come back later. If the monster despawns, let it be. They will respawn again anyway, not as if they’re time-limited monsters that will never spawn again for all eternity. And I’ve unlocked 10-stars with just a single Pukei Bow, and I did so because I want to get really good at this game and did not want to confound myself by taking up different weapons for different monsters and end up putting myself in a spot where I gets pressured into buying. Do you see what I did there? Self-management. Manage yourself better so you do not feel the pressure.

The only time I paid for stuff in cash are the handful of hunter’s passes, the initial 5k item box expansions, and the recent Nightshade event ticket. The Season Pass costs were paid for with the gems from the hunter’s passes.

The things I choose to pay for are the most economical and serves a long-time purpose that would help reduce the amount of admin work I need to spend on this game, so that I can hunt more than re-arranging my item box. I consider these the “service fees” for enjoying the services this game provides me with.

The game’s design is obviously one that would nudge players towards making a purchase, and I feel that they have done quite an impressive job of doing so without being blatant or brutal about it, unlike so many other games out there. The game needs money to be run and continue being developed for quite some time to come, so this is fair and square. However, none of it are ever mandatory. If you feel or see that it is mandatory, that is on you, not anyone else.

Last but not least, you don’t need anyone else’s opinions. What for? You hear A, you hear B, you hear all sorts of things. But if you cannot change your interaction and perception of this game, what for? Pitchfork? For what? Self-justification? That the way you interact with this game is justified through the others but not by your own accord? Why this lack of confidence in yourself?

Edit: I am going brutal on this because I see so many posts of people who seem to believe that they have no control of themselves. Why though? Why? Why not? We’re not marionettes. If you genuinely believe that something that costs money is not justified, then simply don’t buy it. Economists will see it clearly when the “market” isn’t “responding”. If we believe that companies are driven solely by the economy, then why not show them?

[Arachaon]

@dal3292 I Agree.

It feels like other Niantic games are more balanced in terms of how the economy is handled, Pokemon go as an example gives you all the combat items you could need and still provide options for purchase if required.

if they implemented a system that gives First aid kits for every 5 stops visited for a max hold at any time of 5 or 10 it would help combat this a little more constructively or even the abillity to earn premium currency capped at 50 a day like pokemon go, i dont belive it needs a massive overhaul but just a few tweaks.

[Dal3292]

Hey thanks for your long and detailed response! I definitely have alot more resistance to mobile game marketplace strategies, and haven’t purchased anything yet with real money. I’m more-so worried what effect it could have on more vulnerable people and how the way its designed currently could disproportionately hurt a subset of players who don’t get as many chances to travel for play.

It’s clear you’re a seasoned player and that’s great, I just feel like these “service fees” would be more compelling of purchases if instead of purchasing items that make progression faster via more effective hunting, they instead felt more so like rewards for supporting development. Such as more layered armor cosmetics. The rest of the game’s economy such as the passes and wonder items seem perfectly fair to me so far. Added little conveniences that don’t directly effect the hunting. I feel this is especially impactful for new players trying to get into the game.

And the reason I’m asking for other people’s opinions is so we can start a discussion over how we can make what is a still very fun game even better for all players involved.

Keep hunting, friend! ^-^

[EnD1086]

Im gonna add my 5 cents as someone who also started since soft launch

After getting through the initial learning curve of the game, I’ve started to use less and less potions. This accompanied by my rather stingy approach to consumables in general (I’m allowing myself to get to 5 guild issued ones during non essential events) made me go for weeks without the need of refill. I still have like 3 potions I gained during the prologue (used 2 on, I believe, azure rath event). I have never bought a single potion as it is and the 40 something I do own are from the combo chests and redeemable codes. The better you get at the game, the less potions you will consume, at some point they might become actually obsolete is all I’m saying.

As for paintballs, I’m sitting on about 100 and that’s a goof on my part, since I was playing initially with a friend only for this friend to drop the game. Havent used a single non palico ball since like 5 months now. Yay, go team and all that. I’m mostly a solo player participating in global queues at this point. If you don’t play with friends, those also become obsolete and quickly so.

The biggest cash sink, apart from box upgrades are ultra tickets and insta smelts for me at the current point. I’m limiting myself on that matter too of course since both HaT/EDI and smelts are finite per day. Of course, this might be seen as predatory, after all there’s ultra hunting popping everywhere if you have at least some gathering nodes nearby and stones drop semi consistently too. But at some point you start to cut corners. I mean, I can exterminate the entire gene pool of rust puppy, but Im not really interested in anything but 8 , so why should I spend my cash on 6 ? My point is, it seems unfair at first, and after some time you look at the cash shop and think to yourself, I don’t need like half of this. I’ll buy 10 bucks package once per month and maybe double my rewards if rngesus smiled upon me.

To reiterate my point to be comprehensive: whatever you think about MHNow, at the end of the day it’s a skill based game that lets you justify going for a walk on daily basis. There’s just this much you can monetize without the core fan base (mostly veteran hunters) going absolutely Rajang on you. It’s not gacha. You don’t spin a virtual lottery for best waifu or whatever. Getting better means either less spending or different spending, but the game simply, by design, cannot force you to spend, cause that would break the entire premise and kill MHNow basically on the spot. So the entire economy is based around pay for convenience instead of pay to win. Thus I don’t think that the economy is predatory