Ember will have a concept of time-limited skins in the store. This is a FOMO choice to help sales.
This has a problem of envy from pay-to-play, hasn't-bought-anything-yet-but-might, or bought-other-things players. For each skin available to one player and not (or not appropriately) available are others who would feel left out. The solution presented is to have skins be available within the game world under some circumstances. I hope this will apply to all skins.
(I do understand the idea of "unique" skins, and I recognize I am working to undermine that concept, but a FOMO "founder" skin is likely extremely important for funding and should not be touched by ideas in this post.)
An example solution is for a skin in the store to also be "grindable" in-world. While this addresses some of the problem of envy, it also creates a social version of "pay to win"; a "pay to skin".
Also, one thought is that a FOMO / seasonal experience in-store would be mirrored in-game by being seasonally-grindable. It has already been said that seasonal grinding would carry over to the next season, so that seasonally-casual players could still look forward to continuing their progress next time.
I think that something can be added to muddy the problem of a "pay to skin".
In this idea, while things would be available in store (limited availability or not), and things would be grindable in-world (seasonal or not), a counter would be added to grinding. For this, there would be no changes to skin appearances. At a distance and during gameplay, there would continue to be no social difference between purchased-skins and grinded-skins.
However, upon inspection, players who have worked toward grinding a skin which they are wearing will have that displayed when they are inspected. Players who have succeeded in the complete grind will have that indicator on a piece of a skin highlighted (number color, a crown, a border, etc.). A complete grind also provides a title which is unavailable for purchase. That title would a non-power-granting one among however many titles the game provides (e.g. achievement-attained) and the pay-to-skin players simply do not have the title until they "earn" it.
This way there can be people who look to others with envy about pay-to-skin (e.g. they have no budget, spent their budget elsewhere, spent outside of a seasonal availability), but can at least feel okay by falling back on the notion of "earning".
With this idea, anyone can purchase and display beauty, but nobody can purchase proof of effort on inspection; beauty is skin deep.
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Related / inspiration:
This has a problem of envy from pay-to-play, hasn't-bought-anything-yet-but-might, or bought-other-things players. For each skin available to one player and not (or not appropriately) available are others who would feel left out. The solution presented is to have skins be available within the game world under some circumstances. I hope this will apply to all skins.
(I do understand the idea of "unique" skins, and I recognize I am working to undermine that concept, but a FOMO "founder" skin is likely extremely important for funding and should not be touched by ideas in this post.)
An example solution is for a skin in the store to also be "grindable" in-world. While this addresses some of the problem of envy, it also creates a social version of "pay to win"; a "pay to skin".
Also, one thought is that a FOMO / seasonal experience in-store would be mirrored in-game by being seasonally-grindable. It has already been said that seasonal grinding would carry over to the next season, so that seasonally-casual players could still look forward to continuing their progress next time.
I think that something can be added to muddy the problem of a "pay to skin".
In this idea, while things would be available in store (limited availability or not), and things would be grindable in-world (seasonal or not), a counter would be added to grinding. For this, there would be no changes to skin appearances. At a distance and during gameplay, there would continue to be no social difference between purchased-skins and grinded-skins.
However, upon inspection, players who have worked toward grinding a skin which they are wearing will have that displayed when they are inspected. Players who have succeeded in the complete grind will have that indicator on a piece of a skin highlighted (number color, a crown, a border, etc.). A complete grind also provides a title which is unavailable for purchase. That title would a non-power-granting one among however many titles the game provides (e.g. achievement-attained) and the pay-to-skin players simply do not have the title until they "earn" it.
This way there can be people who look to others with envy about pay-to-skin (e.g. they have no budget, spent their budget elsewhere, spent outside of a seasonal availability), but can at least feel okay by falling back on the notion of "earning".
With this idea, anyone can purchase and display beauty, but nobody can purchase proof of effort on inspection; beauty is skin deep.
-
Related / inspiration:
Likes:
Pandagnome
