Eventually people are going to mod or hack the offline mode to force in cosmetics, and people offline only, i would wager, are significantly less likely to buy it anyway. So my suggestion would be to either facilitate it, or at least just not try to limit it too hard.
Being able to test how the cosmetics look together or how abilities look after modification imo would drive sales rather than taking from them. Because if you build your ideal combination offline, when you start playing the next league, youād probably want to make the leap to get all that stuff online as well. Plus it would be cool to see a transmog style community build around this game to some degree, and allowing people to test combinations will probably go a long way towards building that kind of community.
To that extent it might also be cool to make a forum topic for showing off their cool/weird appearance focused concept builds. Not too into that kind of stuff myself, but i could definitely see it driving community engagement with the game if this niche is encouraged.
Obvious alternative to the offline mod stuff is allowing trials of the items, but i feel like thats probably a lot more demanding and exploitable to implement online than offline.
I have a feeling that a lot of this will depend on how EHG implements the ātrueā offline mode that they have promised will be available. (i.e. no login/internet connection needed).
Technically its obviously possible for them to offer offline cosmetics but I have a feeling its a question of how much time it would take to implement rather than it being too difficult to do.
There is also the issue of protecting their only ongoing source of revenue - its probably very important to them to not let people bypass paying for these kinds of items and weighing this against the inevitable hacking that is likely to occur once the game is stable code wise. Pretty sure the devs dont want to end up in a cat-and-mouse code shootout with people trying to āstealā paid for cosmetics so its going to be very important to them to make the right decisions on this.
Maybe there are alternative options hereā¦ Some might not like it, but how about a cosmetics cycle pass that is sufficiently low cost to incentivise not bothering to hack the game to get them.
Just spitballing here as there may be ways to get around the problem without resorting to code gatekeeping or players hackingā¦ i.e. approach the issue from a different angle.
The thing with offline is they will inevitably lose the battle on controlling it. So honestly its probably better to just lean into it, because like i mentioned itāll probably drive sales in online, rather than losing sales in offline where people probably arent going to pay
The big loss might be content creators making vids around it without buying it, however even that i think having a culture building where people actually have reason to want them to show off, probably sells more than the fashion youtubers (and most will probably buy it anyway if they have any success)
To me fighting the battle against offline is just a huge money sink with no end in sight, while leaning into it might give you a much stronger cosmetic culture, and without having to spend time coding an entire suite of trial options and demos. Just a ātry it offlineā button, and a quarantined mode which already needs to be totally quarantined.
Yeah, Iām not sure I see the point in their stance, tbh. Offline cosmetics are just there for the person playing anyhow. If they buy them legit (which Iād wager most would anyhow), or hack the game to give them to themselves free, whatās the difference? If you donāt allow them offline, then you arenāt getting money from either anyhow. Itās a total lose/lose. If you allow them, then you will at least get revenue from your honest players, so itās more of a ratioād win/lose.
And, anyone who wants them online will have to pay for them anyhow, since they can implement some form of authentication for them (which may be the stumbling block in the first place).
Yeah. Thats a given. Unfortunately, the world is full of arseholes - not much anyone can do about that.
Thats what I meant regarding my comment about approaching the problem from another angle. If EHG can throw together some financial models that work around the value of offsetting the hacked loss of cosmetics against the potential exposure i.e. marketing value, then maybe its an option to do it that way. One thing is for sure, they need the revenue stream long term so they cannot just ignore it either way.
What worries me is that if they do allow offline cosmetics and its āhackedā beyond an acceptable level that they are forced to disable it at some future date. Imho this is very likely based on my pessimistic view of peoples morals.
I would hope so. But its gonna be affected by the pricing EHG choses - if its less than coffee money, then maybe but if its too expensive, people are gonna find alternatives. and there will always be the idiots that ruin it for everyone, its the nature of human beings.
Yip, as mentioned above, this will be the trickā¦ swings and roundaboutsā¦ so long as its net positive for EHG so that they can play their operating costs and keep things alive.
Yeah this is my thoughts. Because i honestly think cosmetic only might flounder in arpgs without intentional cultivation of the community. Most ive seen people showing off are showing off rarity, not appearance. So even if its not this solution, i definitely feel like something needs to be done to encourage the incentive.
Primarily i dont want it to end up quality of life sales like poe, since that becomes a major barrier to entry. However, Iām pretty worried that the choice will become necessary if things take the natural arpg course without motivation x.x
But, is that really bad? I mean, think of social media now days, and itās exactly the formula you described (only without the thievery) ā Content creators/influencers are given free merchandise to show off to their viewers. Why? Because visibility drives sales. The majority of microtransactions I purchased in POE were simply because I saw a streamer using them, and thought it looked great. My hideout is the same thingā¦went through all the submissions for the hideout contest, and then downloaded the config for the one I liked.
Yeah i agree 100%, im just saying people making content would be the single largest individual lost sales, because they would no longer need to purchase to make their contest submissions or w.e. context.
However I agree that the community impact that would result would likely offset that ālossā several fold. Especially since many of the creatorās likely wouldnt even attempt the content if it wasnt accessible.
Yeah, but on the same token, they wouldnāt be able to use cosmetics online without purchasing them. So they wouldnāt be available while streaming any real gameplay content.
I think it would work against a streamer to be found using āhackedā cosmetics. Hell, look what happened to the build-creators caught using edited items in their builds/build videos.
Nah i get it, its why i never even considered that aspect in the original post. I mean heck the whole post summation is āfighting thieves will always be expensive and you will always lose, so maybe at least try to spin itā so yeah my faith in humanity isnt all that high either
