Ace Combat: Infinity - Mission 2 (Great Migration) - Tangled Web
2One thing I can say about the game, at this point in time, is that it does look stunning. Despite it's early issues, this looks like a title that I may have some fun with. But in saying that, my thoughts behind this being a free-to-play game still weighs heavily against it. And for good reason, too.
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The description below was too long for the info box in the video it was suppose to be in, so I had to split it into two sections. This is section one. Section two will be out this Saturday at 2pm EST. .
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Free-to-Play (F2P) - Refers to a business model for online games in which the game designers do not charge the user or player in order to join the game. Instead, they hope to bring in revenue from advertisements or in-game sales, such as payment for upgrades, special abilities, special items, and expansion packs. (Techopeida)
Role Playing Game (RPG) - A game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making or character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. (Wikipedia)
Let me throw some numbers at you guys, and then I'll explain what it all means.
In order to gain access to the entire campaign, without having to pay for it in real world money ($20 USD), the in-game asking price is (2,700,000 Credits (2.7M)). If you decided to grind out the experience, and go online to get all the credits necessary to accomplish the goal of unlocking all the missions, an estimated price for the venture would be ($540.00 USD). This is assuming you don't wait for the (12 hour) refueling process, which is free, then the venture would take around (3 months). The average payout for an online mission, if you are in a decent group, is around (5,000 Credits). Other micro transactions in the game include: mercenary contracts ($1.00 each), R&D contracts ($1.00 each), and some expansion packs ($15.00). All these numbers come directly from the game itself.
In the first video for this series, I gave the game two strikes out the gate. One dealt with a connection issue with the game's servers. The other dealt with the game itself being free-to-play. Upon turning on the game today, I, along with other players, had received a notification in the game's IM board that acknowledged sever issues. In accordance with that, I will retract a strike from the game. However, the retracting of that strike, comes after I gave the game its third (and fatal) strike the day after I posted the second video for this series. This third strike came about when the game purposefully restricted access to essential sections of itself that would allow the player an alternate option to play the game, rather than paying for a product that is over-priced, broken, and incomplete.
Strong words, I know, but they have to be said. But to understand what they mean, you would have to understand how the game functions. The first two definitions at the beginning of the description is a great starting point. They can serve as a control group in how a F2P game should operate, especially one that tries to poorly imitate cues from an RPG.
Ace Combat Infinity (AFI) is a game that tries to heavily focus on online multi-player. It's being sold as a F2P game in order to broaden awareness of the franchise(*). The game works by players splitting into two teams and attacking a mutual threat. The team with the highest score (from the most number of kills) wins the match. In order to get into a match you need a plane and fuel to fly it. A plane (albeit a crappy one) is given to the player upon entering the online playing field, along with some fuel. If the player accumulates enough credits, he / she can use them to buy better planes, upgrade current planes, or order custom parts that can be fitted to a current plane. Fuel cannot be purchased with the credits you earn in game. The only way to get it is through either doing challenges (which gradually increase in difficulty), or buying it with real world money (which can get rather expensive really quickly).
For this game fuel is a necessity if you want to do anything outside of looking at skill trees and a list of challenges. And for it to be restricted to only rewards in challenges, or an online purchase, is absolutely unacceptable! The devs who made this knew that this was one of many areas to exploit in the game for a cash grab, and they executed on the idea without hesitation. Possibly knowing that if they made a way for the player to buy fuel with credits in-game, it would become a more appealing alternative route in accessing the game, versus paying ($20.00) for something that lasts at least (2 hours).
To Be Continued in Next Video...
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