The developers of Dune: Awakening have announced a building competition. However, the prizes are causing envy among the players.
What is this building competition about? The developers of Dune: Awakening have launched their first community competition. This time, they are looking for talented architects and builders to create a base in the Atreides, Harkonnen, or neutral CHOAM style.
The structures should be tagged and shared on social media with the handle @duneawakening and the hashtag #DuneAwakening or published on the community platform PimpMyDune.com.
According to the rules on DuneAwakening.com, only one base can be submitted per player. However, the prize is currently a point of controversy.
Here, the developers explain how Dune: Awakening plans to make money:
From Building Competition to Skin Debate
What’s the deal with the prizes? While the best builder gets a Lego set of Dune, the top places also receive a special edition of the Dune tea “Spiced Chai Tea Latte” created in collaboration with the manufacturer “MADRINAS”.
All winners will also receive an Atreides weapon skin for the Battle Rifle in the game. This is the very first weapon skin to come to Dune: Awakening. For fans who prefer to focus on box builds and don’t like to build, this is frustrating. After all, they also want to have the weapon skin and not be stuck with the standard design.
The competition has struck a nerve with the prize, as there has been confusion and anger over the skins and optional purchases in Dune: Awakening from the beginning.
How do skins work in Dune: Awakening? When Dune: Awakening was announced, the developers made it clear that it would be a full-price title without early access and that the DLCs in the game would be completely optional. They will always appear alongside major version updates that are provided free of charge to buyers.
The DLCs are primarily supposed to include cosmetic items that do not provide an advantage in the game. So far, only one such DLC has been released. There is no shop for microtransactions, nor is there a battle pass or loot boxes. Skins are rare in Dune: Awakening.
Aside from the DLCs, a way to obtain new cosmetic items is through collaborations like Twitch drops or the purchase of the Dune tea, which also includes a mural in the game.
What bothers the fans about the weapon skin? The players of Dune: Awakening are longing for more customization options. The weapon skin is the very first weapon skin in the game and is therefore highly coveted. That only a few creative builders should receive it causes frustration.
Some players are getting creative to obtain the weapon skin. Felandi has simply recreated the skin as a base on Bluesky:
The players are venting their frustration on Reddit:
- poncheman: “What a dumb idea, just like the Atreides officer outfit that is locked behind a paywall. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dune and play it a lot, but not offering such skins to earn the trust of the players and keep them engaged despite the many problems of the game is incomprehensible to me. I appreciate their efforts to fix the issues, but their business models are miserable.”
- IndexoTheFirst: “It’s crazy. They chose a skin from a faction instead of creating an imperial version.”
- LogistikCZ: “Locking away the first really good-looking weapon skin (correct me if I’m wrong) in a game that desperately needs more customization options/transmogs is indeed a strange choice/to put it mildly. The skin looks great, I hope there will be other ways to obtain it later.”
- Sol0botmate: “Yes. There are virtually no weapon skins in the game, and we get the first very good-looking weapon skin, and it’s a stupid contest reward. If it weren’t, it would be a Twitch drop. What the hell – zero content in the game (as far as weapon skins are concerned), so we choose the one that we have as a base competition for a limited number of people while the rest of the players who’ve paid for the game see an empty ‘customization’ tab for their weapons. Who the hell is making these decisions?”
In the community, there are only a few dissenting voices. Players are seeking more ways to change their characters, and that the very first weapon skin is now only a reward for a few players causes envy and anger.
It is already certain that the developers of Dune: Awakening will add more skins and content in the future. However, for many players, the question of timing is crucial. MeinMMO producer Anna Alberg has also had enough of Dune: Awakening after 100 hours: Is Dune: Awakening simply boring after 100 hours?
