Last night the Allods Online servers went down for maintenance. When they finally came back up,
we were greeted with a surprise. The Cash Shop was patched in. The surprise was not only that the cash shop was put in but that the prices were so totally outrageous. Things that were very reasonably priced in the Russian version suddenly jumped up astronomically in the North American client. Indeed, it seems that every thing in the Cash Shop simply had an extra 0 put on the end. For a game that has such a communistic art style, it is obvious that gPotato really supports capitalism. In this case, capitalism at its worst.
Now, this could be a mistake but I am unwilling to believe that. If it was a mistake then you would think someone from gPotato would jump onto one of the protest threads on the main forum and let people know. Instead, they are not saying a word.
The prices are so ridiculous that I will not be using the Cash Shop in its current form. At all. Period. Most of you who read this blog with any regularity know that I have been a supporter of Perfume and spending money in the Cash Shop. I want to support gPotato and the entire Allods team.
That went totally out the window with the current Cash Shop.
I will not spend $20 bucks for a bigger bag. One that only gives six extra slots. That’s right. Twenty bucks for SIX extra slots. I will not spend $11 bucks for fifteen hours of perfume. That is ludicrous. It was going for around fifteen bucks for fifty hours on the Russian client, yet they expect us to pay that? What the hell??
I support gPotato. I love Allods Online. However, this reeks of a company overestimating the worth of its product and getting greedy. I will not support this. I can not support this. I will continue to play Allods Online because it is a good, nay it is a great game, but I will not contribute one of my dollars to the cash shop. Not one single red cent. Not now, not in its current form.
Hopefully, this was a mistake or, if it was not, hopefully gPotato comes to its senses. The backlash has been huge. Keen has already written his post on the debacle and I expect even more backlash as other players log on to see the outrageous prices.
The next few days will be very meaningful to the success of Allods Online in North America. Do the right thing and gPotato will have a hit on their hands. Do the wrong thing and Allods Online will flounder in North America and a great game will die.
The ball is your court now, gPotato. Don’t let us down, eh?