Kobold Nuts. We should call them Kobold Nuts.
Well, now you're just being crude.
Also, to be honest, I kind of like Gobs of Time. Or something using GOBS as an acronym, like...Gem of Being Super?
Yeah, I got nothing.
Hang on, how about Gem Of the Boneyard? Not a perfect acronym, I'll grant you, but it ties in with Pharasma! Or Teeth of Oblivion--a reference to the cultists of Groetus.
Overlooking all of Pharasma's Boneyard is another, lesser god. This is Groetus (pronounced GRO-tus), the god of the End Times, a sentient and cruel moonlet that looks down upon the Boneyard and waits for the last living soul to die. When Pharasma judges the last soul after the last living body dies on the Material Plane, Groetus descends to the Boneyard to do something to it and Pharasma before he moves on to the Material Plane to "clean up" and pack the dust away for another reality. No one really knows what Groetus is going to do once the last soul is judged, but it is generally accepted that it will not be pleasant.
The Teeth could be literal teeth of some strange creature, related to Groetus only in name, or they could be small pieces of the moon/Boneyard taken by Pharasma herself and given to assist those she has chosen in their ambiguous missions. As previously suggested, these items would be required to allow the undying adventurers any semblance of advancement.
Goblin Squad Member
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What is your reasoning of including a cash shop...I can't find the graph yet (perhaps Nihimon can help), but Ryan showed us that they can come close to doubling their revenue by allowing people who're willing to pay more than the subscription price to give them more money. There's another segment of the graph for revenue they could generate from people who aren't willing to pay a subscription, but are willing to pay *something*; I expect we'll see something clever for allowing those folks--eventually--to support the game as well.
There are quite a few threads where Ryan has addressed player concerns that "Cash Shop = Pay to Win", but this and the one Urman quoted above are probably the most on-point.
If I understand the comment above you buy time with real money, sell if for in game coin, use coin to buy the top tier best items in the game, thereby "paying to win"There's a huge difference between:
"I buy something on-demand from the cash shop, and it is immediately available to my character and instantly usable."
vs
"I buy something on demand from the cash shop. Then I put it up for sale on an in-game market, where I receive Coin in return at an exchange rate set by market demand not developer fiat. Then, I have to negotiate for and purchase the uber-cool stuff I want in game, which may, or may not, be available at the time & place of my choosing. I may have to buy it in one place and transport it to another place. I may have to travel to a very dangerous place to make the purchase, and then return from that very dangerous place to wherever I want to use that purchase.
In order to get full value from my purchases, I need to have trained certain skills, achieved certain merit badges, and have been awarded certain character abilities; the achievement of which may have required months (or years?) of real-time."
Realistically there are people who will say the two are both "Pay 2 Win". But the absolute iron-clad reality of the situation is that there will be people who organize to sell in-game equipment for real money the day the game opens to the public. Those people will never be stopped no matter how much we invest in trying to do so.
Therefore, we either let them do what they do (which results in a lots of bad activity), or we do something that blocks a part of the value they attempt to extract from our game which reduces that bad activity.
The "Plex" system pioneered by CCP has several advantages over 3rd party real-money vendors:
1: There's an offsetting positive contribution to the community for each purchase which is that someone is playing the game who might not otherwise play. We are effectively selling game time, not Gear.
2: The ability to conduct this business with us dramatically reduces the exposure our players have to fraud, identity theft and malware, which in turn reduces our customer service overhead and makes people less likely to experience problems they attribute to our software, helping us maintain a high reputation for quality.
3: We have an element of control over the entire process. We can change the price for the game time we sell to affect the amount of Coin it is going to generate when sold on the in-game market. This gives us a knob we can adjust if we think that there is too little, or too much game time going into the system, or of the price being paid for that time is too high or too low. It's an essential part of our "Central Bank" mentality of how to manage the economy and avoid classic degenerate spirals of inflation and deflation.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Thanks Nihimon, it looks like I "jumped the boat" a bit too soon when noticing Pathfinder Online will include a cash shop - I was just quite surprised. It seems like Goblinworks has given this a lot of thought and though a part of me still remains wary my outlook has gained a sense of optimism. I apologize if I came off like a jerk in my replies but poorly implemented cash shops have completely ruined my game experiences in the past; I'm jaded.
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Goblin Squad Member
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You didnt "jump the boat" too soon. The game isnt out yet, and the cash shop isnt in full swing. If GW cannot market the game properly enough to have a large player base... That cash shop will turn into their cash cow no matter what it takes to get there.
It would help if we all recruit, even the player types we do not agree with.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I don't think it needs too much effort to come up with a new name because whatever GW ends up calling it a majority of us are still going to call them goblin balls and the new generations will learn from us. That official name will be the secondary name that we have to explain to newbies when they ask what to do with goblin balls.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Thanks Nihimon
Very happy to have been of use :)
No need to apologize. I think Ryan is trying to accomplish some pretty lofty goals, specifically in parts of the game where a lot of people have really strong reactions based on prior games that did it poorly.
I'm really glad you have a more optimistic outlook now. I too have had a number of experiences where reading Ryan's thoughts on a subject has really opened my eyes and made me look at something in a new light.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Thanks Nihimon, it looks like I "jumped the boat" a bit too soon when noticing Pathfinder Online will include a cash shop - I was just quite surprised. It seems like Goblinworks has given this a lot of thought and though a part of me still remains wary my outlook has gained a sense of optimism. I apologize if I came off like a jerk in my replies but poorly implemented cash shops have completely ruined my game experiences in the past; I'm jaded.
No not a jerk. just a bit 'knave-y'. ;) Which cash shops are in your Top 5 bad practices of interest?
=
Skymetal = meteorite-origin in suitable language: I like that name.
Maybe because Golarion is a metaphysical world as well as a physical one with deities, as per the Romans and Greeks, "Goddess of Wisdom (and learning?) Athena points equivalent to skill-training in PFO if I understand PLEX-equivalent/skill-training time correctly?
Alternatively "Pathfinder" : Choose which path --> Pathfinder points?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Being greedy I embedded the latter in the former. Rumbled.
I've only ever touched app cash-shops and they've invariably been terrible on mobile giving F2P not a bad name but a toxic name. Since then I've lost a tiny amount of cash experimenting with them and that led to my conclusion that buying stuff in a game is not as fun as doing stuff in a game.
Buying new units for a TBC combat makes sense where they are all balanced ala LoL, however. Those devs can have my cash if I want more units and options. :)
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Goblin Squad Member
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This part is interesting and could possibly cause some debate:
Convenience consumables: Things that your characters might want to use in–game in lieu of relying on always having specialist characters with you while you adventure, or as a way to recover from an encounter that goes horribly awry
It sounds like you could buy consumables that give you buffs comparable to what another character could give you;
Also possibly some sort of resurrection-sickness cure; or even a resurrection-stone though that does not seem likely.Both seem to be a convenience because you do not *need* either: you can also ask another player for a buff or to come with you. Or you could wait untill the resurrection-sickness wears off.
Other players may have a cure-spell that removes it or maybe an NPC in a high-level settlement or an Inn can cure you.
The debate could go about the fact that some player-interaction may get lost because of the storebought buffs.
But the biggest convenience seems to be for when no other players are around in the first place, is my guess.
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Goblin Squad Member
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This part is interesting and could possibly cause some debate:
Convenience consumables: Things that your characters might want to use in–game in lieu of relying on always having specialist characters with you while you adventure, or as a way to recover from an encounter that goes horribly awryIt sounds like you could buy consumables that give you buffs comparable to what another character could give you;
Also possibly some sort of resurrection-sickness cure; or even a resurrection-stone though that does not seem likely.Both seem to be a convenience because you do not *need* either: you can also ask another player for a buff or to come with you. Or you could wait untill the resurrection-sickness wears off.
Other players may have a cure-spell that removes it or maybe an NPC in a high-level settlement or an Inn can cure you.The debate could go about the fact that some player-interaction may get lost because of the storebought buffs.
But the biggest convenience seems to be for when no other players are around in the first place, is my guess.
This is definitely something I am quite wary about. If you need a potion, it should be mandatory that you find it from a player or make it yourself. I hate the idea of someone simply buying these kinds of things with real life money. The inclusion of these type of "convenience items" seemingly choke the whole idea of Pathfinder Online with laughable irony. Isn't the whole idea of PO that you have incentive to group with others? And perhaps if you're not in a social mood, could you not buy these "convenience items" off a player or player shop and go along your happy-hermit way? Why include them in the cash-shop? I mean, I get the whole money aspect, but before committing to including such things, I would hope Goblinworks would see how their finances fair without taking such avenues first.
Does this make sense? I'm not trying to come off like a jerk - I just want this to be a game where everything a player makes has a use and cannot be replicated in a cash-shop. And I'm ESPECIALLY against "unique potions" or anything that gives any kind of advantage, buff, cure or effect solely being purchased by real-life money.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Tyncale, I think some marginal player interaction being lost is worth it if it helps keep the game afloat significantly. I would hope that, if these are buffs-in-a-bottle type deals, as usual they shouldn't allow low rep characters effective access to skills that are not available to them. That is, if high rep skills are sold as consumables in the cash shop, I hope they have minimum rep requirements to use (if they are significant enough buffs, which I would assume they are if they're sold in the cash shop).
Though that could possibly be a continuous stream of income, it also seems like declawing your own system.
I'm only speaking of long-term buffing here: people will still want buffers around because that means they can spend their cash shop funds elsewhere, but at the same time it's good for when the buffers aren't around and you really feel you need the extra oomph.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Tbh we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
@Nevy: I guess the idea is that consumables might be more attractive the MTX floating/migration crowd who are dislocated from a major player group affiliation and want to some quick consumables (eg oiling swords and whatnot) to carry on having a bash below the sub fee line and paying a small mark-up on what would be available in player-run settlements, accessible to members.
We need to avoid painting all players with the same brush with the same needs and circumstances if there's a constant high turn-over of trialling players around NPC starter areas that might feed the player-driven part of the game or otherwise, that informs the business model and pricing and game design. Maybe it should be called "variegated pricing".
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Goblin Squad Member
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Tbh we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
@Nevy: I guess the idea is that consumables might be more attractive the MTX floating/migration crowd who are dislocated from a major player group affiliation and want to some quick consumables (eg oiling swords and whatnot) to carry on having a bash below the sub fee line and paying a small mark-up on what would be available in player-run settlements, accessible to members.
We need to avoid painting all players with the same brush with the same needs and circumstances if there's a constant high turn-over of trialling players around NPC starter areas that might feed the player-driven part of the game or otherwise, that informs the business model and pricing and game design. Maybe it should be called "variegated pricing".
Agreed, I'll try to chill my burners for a bit. ;)
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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On the original subject: Would incorporating "egg" into the name (as a reference to potential yet to be fully unlocked) trigger any intersesting ideas? Goblin Egg just sounds weird, but Phoenix Egg sounds great, even though it doesn't say anything about what it is we're trying to name.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Egg of Potential?
Egg of Groteus also has an appeal, as Pharasma is probably keen on keeping any and all aspects of the God of the End from the world, and her clergy would probably do anything for the adventurers/mercenaries who delivered such unspeakably profane artefacts into their hands.
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I honestly really like Groetus being involved somehow, just because it keeps Pharasma involved and kinda shows what she might be up against. Maybe Eggs of Groetus could basically look like tiny little Groetus moons.
Hey, Gobs is the biggest consensus we've had so far on this thread (six people, counting the original suggester). I do like it--It's informative, informal, and pretty cute. "I'm gonna go buy some Gobs!"
Plus, good marketing campaign: GoT Gobs?
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Goblin Squad Member
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I don't think it needs too much effort to come up with a new name because whatever GW ends up calling it a majority of us are still going to call them goblin balls
I doubt that a 12-letter term will hold, compared to something much shorter like 'gobs'. We are, after all, talking about a culture which thinks repeating 'plz' a dozen times is convincing, and that 'thx' actually conveys gratitude.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Also, about the store bought consumeables:
I imagine they are stuff like healing pots or knowledge nature kits that always succeed. It'll be low teir stuff like this, probably in-bulk, as well as mounts and stuff. So it might make a solo player more efficient, but a party/guild/settlement will always be way more efficient, and as the system is built around players being a part of those it shouldn't be much of a problem.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I don't think it needs too much effort to come up with a new name because whatever GW ends up calling it a majority of us are still going to call them goblin ballsI doubt that a 12-letter term will hold, compared to something much shorter like 'gobs'. We are, after all, talking about a culture which thinks repeating 'plz' a dozen times is convincing, and that 'thx' actually conveys gratitude.
11 letter term?
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Goblin Squad Member
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11 letter term?I don't think it needs too much effort to come up with a new name because whatever GW ends up calling it a majority of us are still going to call them goblin ballsI doubt that a 12-letter term will hold, compared to something much shorter like 'gobs'. We are, after all, talking about a culture which thinks repeating 'plz' a dozen times is convincing, and that 'thx' actually conveys gratitude.
I suppose I should have said 12-character, although [space] could be considered a letter in the sense that zero is a number. It's a useful placeholder which helps with formatting, but has no value of its own.
Call it 12-keystroke, since that's what lazy typists are apparently trying to avoid.
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Goblin Squad Member
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...The idea that our immortality could come with a karmic learning block...
simply: Karma?
Basically you are sacrificing to the creators of the world in order to improve your fate. Proper sacrifice will let you live long and prosper, but vile transgressions will earn smiting by the banhammer.
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Goblin Squad Member
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11 letter term?I don't think it needs too much effort to come up with a new name because whatever GW ends up calling it a majority of us are still going to call them goblin ballsI doubt that a 12-letter term will hold, compared to something much shorter like 'gobs'. We are, after all, talking about a culture which thinks repeating 'plz' a dozen times is convincing, and that 'thx' actually conveys gratitude.I suppose I should have said 12-character, although [space] could be considered a letter in the sense that zero is a number. It's a useful placeholder which helps with formatting, but has no value of its own.
Call it 12-keystroke, since that's what lazy typists are apparently trying to avoid.
Yeah, lets just go with GoblinBalls then
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Goblin Squad Member
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LOL yeah I do that some times...say something and then relize I turned my filter off on my mouth and forgot to consider what I was actually saying. In this case, it would be typing instead of saying, but the idea is the same. GG bludd. way to go. Now I will need to farm gold in game to afford STD's. GG
How many SAD's would it take to afford 1 STD? :-)
