The sand park MMO ArcheAge has drawn the ire of numerous fans due to a change in the cash shop. Now, Trion Worlds states that it didn’t go as planned.
If there was still something like a house blessing between players and the publisher Trion Worlds, it has not only been askew since the weekend, but even more so. A new limited-time chest was introduced in the cash shop. The content: seedlings for special trees (Rumbling Archeum Trees), from which there was a 10% chance to become a “Thunderstruck Tree”.
That had been one of the most valuable resources in the game, fetching prices of 400 gold (depending on the server). “Successful” players had previously made great efforts to acquire these “Thunderstruck Trees”, created massive forests that were farmed, saved up every coin, prayed to the Karma gods, trusted their luck, robbed and plundered. It was also a valuable speculative commodity. Now prices have plummeted. They could be found – with a bit of luck and effort – directly for some euros from the chests.
Some cheered: Finally, the trees had become affordable and the “Farm Cart”, with which one could more easily complete trade runs and become rich faster, was within reach. Others were visibly upset, as their efforts turned to ashes overnight. And why did this change come out of nowhere? Was it an attempt to make a quick buck with ArcheAge? Did they want to snatch away the retroactively accumulated 10% bonus from patrons?
A dangerous trend was observed, many said: Trion Worlds intervened from the outside, through the cash shop, in the economic cycle of the sandbox ArcheAge, which should actually be determined by the players. The excitement was great. Pay2Win accusations circulated. The discussion went back and forth, tempers were heated.
The blame for the tree fiasco in ArcheAge was a misunderstanding in the communication with Korea
Now Trion Worlds has commented on the issues: It didn’t go as planned.
The fault was once again the apparently difficult communication with the Korean developers XLGames and Trion Worlds’ own difficulties in explaining clearly and timely what they were doing to the fans. XLGames proposed changes to the cash shop and intended to introduce the new chests to ensure that more players received their “Farm Cart”.
At Trion Worlds, they agreed to the request but did not know how high the chance of the trees actually would be to become a “Thunderstruck Tree”. They did not realize that the changes to the shop would bring so many new trees into the game. They thought they would be significantly rarer and harder to obtain. Here, a misunderstanding in communication occurred. In the future, they want to pay more attention to ensure that this does not happen again.
They want to test changes to the cash shop more thoroughly and broadly, also regarding their long-term effects, and tell players exactly what they are planning.
Currently, it happens that they meet with XLGames twice a month, talk, make suggestions, and agree on what they want to change in the cash shop, then the Koreans program that and it gets inserted into the game. It is the sole responsibility of Trion Worlds to explain this to the players correctly and in a timely manner. That went wrong here.
They will now first remove the chest from the game, as they had already planned with XLGames, and then consider how to reintroduce it into ArcheAge. Since the chest was introduced, they have noticed an increased volume of trade and more activity in the game. They find that good.
