Here is the link:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/03/mmobility-vendetta-online-on-the-ipad-is-a-familiar-experience/

Every time I hear the words "cash shop" my brain short-circuts (though playing MechWarrior and buying from it's shop has helped that somewhat), but every time he said it, my brain came this close to shattering. This guy is part of the reason p2w exists and is as prevalent as it is.

No, he's totally got the right idea. Haven't you ever been playing Monopoly, and decided that you really just didn't feel like waiting to buy Pacific Avenue before building hotels on Pennsylvania and North Carolina Avenues? We really should be able to just pay Parker Bros. a paltry $10 to be able to do that!

"I take the slower road in many games that allow players to buy power or shortcuts, but I want to be able to cut some corners when I choose to."

It's a this point you start to call yourself a 'consumer' rather than a 'gamer'.

I have no idea who beau hindman is but appart from the cutting corners bit he's right

He sounds like a 12 year old gamer.

"I just don't see many new players being impressed enough to stick around." Most of the people who don't stick around aren't exactly quality players.

"A player can buy what he wants and the rest of the players are not affected." Does he not realize how big of a part PvP plays in this game, or...?

with re: that second point there Snk he is right though, supply side variability is planned for VO 1.9 and it's a key issue with the game that there is no scarcity of commodities. Conflict is supposed to form the basis of the game, but without anything to fight over a key element to conflict is missing.

Which station can I buy a capship from?

I don't fully understand you Esp, what does supply variability have to do with a cash shop?

Most of the criticisms leveled at the game seem fair. However, while I do agree that the subscription model potentially affects consumer perception of the game in a negative manner, I don't believe that the industry trend towards free-to-play and in-game cash shops is necessarily for the better.

Oh I didn't see that comment as related for a cash shop, whoops. I gave him more credit than he deserves then.

Cash shop is stupid, but more to my point, saying that somebody can buy something and have it not impact other people in the game is stupid. I know VO is like that now, but its not supposed to be. You can't have proper economic warfare if somebody can just pump real world cash into the economy. So he's missing the point.

You can't have proper economic warfare if the economy doesn't respond in a way that can be weaponized either.

The way I understood the roadmap for this gameplay from the kickstarter videos is:

Conquer mineral rich asteroid sectors -> increase available supplies for your faction -> increased production output from your factions stations (including weapons etc..)

Of course its circular, because you need weapons and other equipment from the stations in order to conquer more sectors.

If people can just buy mass stockpiles of weapons or new ships then it completely undermines the system.

I'm all for a cash shop to unlock fancy looking corvults or different colour lazers or whatever, but the ability to buy extra items or other advantages to take short cuts would impact everybody elses gameplay substantially.

Of course people who do the review don't see these plans, all they see is everybody has unlimited ships, unlimited commodities, unlimited weapons and tons of easy ways to make unlimited cash.

and tons of easy ways to make unlimited cash

If you look at Beau's review, he actually mentions that he spends some time saving up for new ships.

whaaaat?

I don't mind a cash shop if all it changes is the look and not the statistics.

"If you look at Beau's review, he actually mentions that he spends some time saving up for new ships."

So? he didn't take any escort missions did he cos when I was a newbie I took one and it gave me 700k for the escort and I was like HOLY FUCK money is easy to make here.

HOLY FUCK money IS easy to make here

It's particularly easy when you already know what you're doing. When you're a random dude just playing for a bit to write a review, it is less obvious.

I'm tempted to also bring up that escorts don't even appear until combat three, but I'm not sure there are any ships available prior to that which cost more than three pieces of scrap or so.