The sandbox MMORPG Legends of Aria recently faced a severe backlash. It concerns the planned introduction of items in the in-game shop that were supposed to provide a gameplay advantage. Players feared that this would be the beginning of a series of Pay2Win items.
What happened? Derek Brinkmann, founder of Citadel Studios, explained how the item shop in the spiritual successor to Ultima Online Legends of Aria should function. He stated: “In the past, we told players in discussions that the cash shop would only offer cosmetic items, because it was our original plan to avoid making our game “Pay2Win”. However, we thought about it and realized that avoiding Pay2Win is not the right path for our game.”
What items were planned? It was initially planned to include two items that would offer gameplay advantages for money:
- The Power-Hour potion would allow for skill acceleration.
- The Soulstones would store skills, allowing learned abilities to be swapped.
There was severe criticism
How did the community react? The open discussion about Pay2Win items led to severe criticism. Players believed that the introduction of these items and the developers’ statement would only represent the beginning and that more Pay2Win items would come.
What did the team say? The developers understand the excitement and have now backtracked. The items will not be incorporated into the game for now. They are considering how to possibly integrate the items into the game in another way, if at all. The team’s priority is the players’ opinions, and they want them to enjoy Legends of Aria. Nevertheless, the in-game shop is an important source of revenue for the game. Therefore, it is intended to decide together with the players what should be offered in the shop.
What about cosmetic items? Initially, there were supposed to be cosmetic items in the shop. However, the developers see the problem that most of these items disappear into the players’ houses or inventories, making them less attractive to buyers. Additionally, cosmetic items should always match the game world and not break immersion.
Thus, the risk of Pay2Win items in the MMORPG Legends of Aria has been temporarily averted. The Early Access version of the sandbox MMORPG was recently postponed to March 21.
