HUT = Pay to win so why do so many buy into it?

[2kguy]

I kind of did this with MLB 14 Road To The Show (RTTS). My preorder of the game game with $20 worth of points. I cached in some, but not all of those. This allowed me to build my guy up from the start rather than putting in about 500 games worth which is about what it would have taken to earn those points. Say what you will but in my case I don't get a lot of time for gaming so this "jump start" was great. I could see doing the same with HUT for myself, to basically kick start it - but then cool off on it otherwise it can take too much of the fun out of it if I spend too much $ on it and don't "earn" it.

[jyoung]

As long as you have a 99-overall boosted goalie and a team of 20 NHL skaters, you can beat pretty much any team that you'll face in HUT.

You'll certainly have an easier time scoring and defending if you have Crosby, Ovechkin, Weber, et al., but those players aren't gods in this mode by any means. Especially going against a 99-overall goalie, which is pretty much mandatory for Online Seasons games.

[thejudicata]

I played HUT casually in NHL 14 (about 150 games total over the game's life). It basically amounted to playing 4-5 games a weekend or so. I never spent any money on HUT and did not pre-order. It took a long time (About 100 games) to assemble a competitive team and I was playing in Division 5 I believe. My top line was Landeskog-Stastny-Parentau, and had Craig Anderson in net.

In Division 5 I consistently played people with super stacked teams, where their 3rd line had higher rated players than my 1st line. I would say on average, I was a better skilled player but it balanced out since they had a significantly better team. And once every 5 games I'd met someone better than me with a stacked team and just get killed.

This year I pre-ordered the Ultimate version, and don't plan on spending any money other than that. I've only purchased I think 3 gold packs through earned game pucks so far, and my top players are Hertl, Matt Carle, and Josh Gorges.

My personal 2 cents, unless you play constantly and are willing to spend hours working the auction house, you NEED the ultimate version with pre-order bonuses. I did the math in NHL 14 and the extra packs equal something like 40-50 game hours at the rate I was earning pucks....In order to earn pucks you must win games, but you also lose games on contracts, so earning packs through only playing games is a significant grind to earn the same amount of packs as someone with the bonus packs.

[GROGtheNailer]

I guess in the long run it does not matter how it affects others or affects policies and strategies going forward, as long as each individual is happy with what shakes out, I guess that is fine. By all means enjoy.

[DHMN69]

Quote: Originally Posted by unisol_us

You may very well be right, but the idea of collecting cards and finding rare collectibles will probably never get old/unprofitable. It is just a matter of time until this type of industry has an upswing. I am glad that I found a new way to collect cards especially that I am able to use those cards to build a fantasy team. I don't get angry about this business model.

I never said I was getting rid of all my old cards I bought and sold on eBay a bunch for about 4-5 years and have thousands of cards.. and I'm old enough that they're not going disappear thanks to a mother throwing them out like those poor kids in the 50's 60's etc

[DHMN69]

I bought one jumbo pack.. but didn't spend any money on it.. I had a $5.00 Microsoft credit from their transition this year and I wasn't going to spend THAT any way.. still have $1.51 I think it is balance but I'll just leave that sitting there forever

[DHMN69]

Just got my butt kicked (6-0) by another stacked team.. outshot 64-16.. NEVER seen numbers like that.. I couldn't get into the offensive zone thanks to defensemen who took the puck away at the blue line over and over again with poke checks.. it wasn't even knocking the puck off my stick.. it was actually putting it on THEIR tape and off they went.. never experienced that before.

I'd love to know what Ryan Miller would go for in auction in this game.. because this guy had him and I've not seen him up for auction EVER and haven't even played against him until the lopsided blowout.. not even for one of those obscene 500k auctions people do just to show off what they have.

This team since I deleted the first one .. is 3-20-3 and stuck in division 10 STILL and I see no way to get 6 points in 10 games with 1 player 86 rating and every other player I have between 79 and 85 with most 82/83. My only 86 is Sakera, a defenseman.. 3 85's and 4 84's on offense. Team overall is 82 Offense 84 Defense 86 Goaltending.. without buying offense I don't think I'll ever win

[18 eighty 5]

Quote: Originally Posted by GROGtheNailer

"I find opening packs hoping for a good pull to be dangerously addictive." That's where EA wants people to be. People are naturally competitive and EA is giving people that competitive advantage that also happens to line their pockets. It is a unfair practice and a breeding ground for EA to take advantage of gamers. If you get down to the root of it, here is the philosophy: "the one with more disposable income will be set up to succeed" ,People with low disposable income will clearly have a disadvantage, it is unfair to gamers, it is pure greed on EA's part and they count on a percentage of gamers to fall for this. The only way this could be legitimate is if players could not buy packs but have to earn them. Pay to win is horrible game design. Yes you do not have to buy packs but from what I see, many do. How many of these people can afford it? EA already has 70 bucks of yours and is trying to squeeze out all they can by setting up this scheme. This a scheme, I am surprised people try to slide this off the table. It goes against fairness and it irks me that people support it. I can point the finger at myself too if I am being honest, I support this by buying NHL 15, and though I have bought this years mode-less mess I have bought versions in the past. I guess what I would offer is this, do not spend money on HUT, you are supporting an unfair practice and I hate seeing people suckered.

Whilst I respect where you are coming from I don't think the practice is 'unfair'. Is it a money spinner? Absolutely. It is an in game monetization scheme and whilst I personally don't like its inclusion in the game (and aren't interested in the whole HUT concept, never play it), I don't think you can tell people who do play it that it is unfair because the ones who do play it I am certain already know what the scheme does and whom it favours. There is no smoke and mirrors about it.

But it is no different to paying for boosts in EASHL.

I don't like its inclusion because I don't like the direction in-game monetization schemes can potentially lead gaming to. I'd hate to see it become the norm that buying the disk or the digital content is only half of the equation, to access game features we have to pay for them. Imagine if in the future, say NHL 22 comes out and by that time it has all the features it has ever had and more but to play any of them you have to unlock them via a fee??!! Imagine having to pay to unlock the 'Play Now' feature??!! Imagine threads on OS that go like this 'So what modes will you unlock first?' It is for the potentially scary future in gaming that I detest in game monetization.

Apart from everything I just said...carry on old Charles.