The Problem With Destiny’s Paid Character Boosts

Pixelgate.co.uk writes:

''My history with Destiny is something I look back on fondly. To be brutally honestly, the initial release back in 2014 was a huge scam. Barely any content and god awful balancing resulted in the whole thing feeling like a Beta. To make matters worse, the DLC plan felt obtrusive and abusive towards the customer. £40 for the core game plus two £20 pieces of DLC within a year. This was disgusting, this was a £80 game.''

[ninsigma]

It's not to boost characters to max level. The max level is now 40. But I they are way too expensive.

I'm not inherently against them because it doesn't affect other players and for noobies who pay straight off to get to level 25 will have no where near the experience I or anyone else who did the grind from 0 to 40 and beyond have. I would have considered this when I go back to play against at some point to boost get a third character up to 25 but not a chance for that cost. I haven't even paid the price for any of the emotes so good luck trying to get me to pay for this. Silly pricing is my problem with it but if people wanna spend the money on it the off you go. It's your money!

[PixelGateUk]

Aye i just corrected that, i was trapped in the mind set of thinking about WoW's boost service XD

While you are right about people spending their money how they wish, i'm looking at the bigger picture. The way Destiny has been monetized is straight from the free-to-play book. Obviously the problem here is that Destiny is not free-to-play.

There's a whole world of impacts paid boosts can have on long standing titles. I just don't think Destiny is currently suited to hosting them given it's still pretty young....that and it's kinda expensive

[ninsigma]

Haha no problem.

Yeah I can understand your point and I agree, it is very expensive to play destiny, especially from the beginning. I got it day one and thoroughly enjoyed it but eventually got sick of the drops so I quit without getting either dlc because I didn't think they were worth it. Got ttk and I love it again. Massive improvement but again needlessly expensive for those who already had the original and previous dlc. Haven't played in a while though due to over playing. I'll jump back in when they release some decent new content.

While I agree that the microtransaction route doesn't suit a fully priced game and it is without question greed on behalf of the dev/pub, if there are people willing to spend all that money and the extra stuff they are buying do not negatively impact on player who haven't bought extras then I doesn't particularly bother me. Like I said, I haven't spent a cent on the emotes and now way will I spend money on this but if people wanna do so then fair enough but if the micros start giving an actual advantage to those who buy then that is a serious issue in my books!

[--Onilink--]

My biggest issue is price vs value

Sometimes something can be expensive but provide good value... this is definitely not one of those cases.

Paying $30 for a lvl booster that doesnt take you to the cap is ridiculous.
Paying $30 for a lvl booster that doesnt take you to the cap in a game where the lvl cap isnt even really the actual lvl cap is just outrageous

Add in the fact that after lvl 40, increasing light level is significanlty harder and time consuming, that they are not giving you any currency (weapon parts, glimmer, etc), that the only gear you will get is for level 25(no light in it), so its basically gonna be pointless after 20min

And then the situation is just downright criminal

Its as if they are trying to take advantage of some sucker who is just getting into the game and thinks lvl 25 is the cap and he will get some cool gear in the process.

I have no issues with lvl boosters per se, they dont affect how i play in any way, but at this price, Activision is really crossing the line

[ninsigma]

Definitely there is no value in it at all. The only reason I'd consider using a booster at all would be to make that third character less of a chore but no chance would pay that price.

At the end of the day I try to avoid stating what a dev should or shouldn't do, so my opinion of it is, clearly they have a user base that will actually spend that kind of ridiculous money on it, so I don't actually blame them. As long as it doesn't affect how play, just let people waste their money is what I say lol.

[Neonridr]

technically this isn't really a paid character boost. Most people were gifted a "Spark of Light" to use if you wanted to make a new character (benefited me because I originally had 2 warlocks and a hunter) when the Taken King released.

However, once using this spark, sure you get a level 25 character, but none of your abilities or attributes have been unlocked at all.

You would actually be better off starting at level 1 and working your way up. Instead of trying to do much higher level content without the aid of any special abilities.

I did not realize you could purchase additional sparks though.

But it's not like you are purchasing a maxed out level character here.

[PixelGateUk]

They're selling it as a boost, so i can't really see passed it being a boost.

I could understand maybe selling new character slots (much in the same way as Guild Wars 2) but character boosts for such a young game feels a bit odd

[FamilyGuy]

The boost goes to 25 so you can skip all the story content that happens before the Taken King stuff

[Neonridr]

but you are vanilla. Great that you can skip the earlier DLC, but you have zero skills.

It's not like you are getting a maxed out level 25 character. It gives you default gear and zero xp earned to that point.

And it's not like you actually need to do any of the story content, you can do like 1-2 missions, then just do some bounties to get yourself up to level 25 if you really wanted to. At least that way you would have unlocked some skills along the way.

You know how bad it is having using a Titan in the Taken King that didn't even have a bubble yet?

[eferreira]

@ neon below have you ever thought of the people who have busy lives and want a 2nd or 3rd character to raid with? If it was like 10-15, I'd pay that to skip the part I've played already.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

I mean take a long look at Skylanders and you wouldn't be surprised the direction Destiny was going.

[2cents]

Destiny was not what I was hoping for.
I'm sadly disappointed, I was hoping for a deep storyline to elegantly drive the unraveling mystery of the traveler.

But no, it's a shooter, a grindy, tedious, repetitive, wallet hungry shooter. With laughable cutscenes that just... meh.

Sorry if I upset any hardcore fans but its only my opinion which is not really important to anyone other than me. But I'm bored and felt like posting something...

I'm gonna go play fallout.

[ninsigma]

I love Destiny but understand your point. The problem from the start is that the devs didn't know what they wanted the game to be. They wanted an mmo like game but have it be an actual mmo because that would scare a lot of console people away from it. So they came up with this hybrid idea and in the end it didn't particularly work. I love the world and the lore behind it. The gun play is great fun but I agree it could have been a lot better.

[PixelGateUk]

I always felt like Warframe provided a better thrill out of the two. Both can get a bit repetitive though

[spicelicka]

Finally an article pointing out all the bullshit in the Destiny pricing model. This is a full priced game adopting the model of a free-to-play game. How people defend this is beyond me. I really want to play Taken king but I refuse to pay $60 for it.

You're welcome so spend the money, but please don't defend these practices.

[Manubiggs]

If you buy the boost your missing a huge chunk of the game. You can level up to 25 in a day or 2 but if someone wants to pay that much for a quick boost that's fine. If you need that boost there is no way you can even compete in pvp; so there's nothing wrong with it, doesn't affect me in any way.

[ninsigma]

I see this as more beneficial for those who've already done it for one character from 0 to 25. If new to the game I don't see why you'd want to use it.

[Halo2ODST2]

I haven't played destiny in over 2 months, but i have 3 characters above lvl 30, it's easy.

[ninsigma]

Easy yes but effort of it when I just want another character for raiding. I'd rather go through the effort though than pay that price.

[medman]

It's amazing how many people they sucked into continually paying to play this game. At what point do gamers get offended and tell them to buzz off?

[Artemidorus]

I'll tell you what the problem is, modern day gaming is at the worst possible place right now and it's here to stay thanks to the fans.

You have to pay for cheats which is criminal considering they were free for many years and you get more and more gamers wanting to take the easy route.

Now I understand we all got lives and don't want something for too long but instant cheats provided and paying for them is an all time low from both the player and the developer. Anyone who suppports it all the time is not really a gamer just a payer instead.