ArcheAge: Not Pay to Win Enough?
Have a Rumbling Archeum Sapling!
I’d already canceled my AA account before I found out about these little gems. I was feeling a little glum about giving away my farmhouse and picking up my farm with an awesome view. That was until I heard about AA’s newest cash shop venture.
Let me recap something here. Thunderstruck trees were super rare and super expensive (up to 1,300 gold on some servers). They are created when a tree you plant is struck by lightning, which has a very low chance of happening. These trees are used as a part of end game vehicles, such as the fishing boat.
When I got super lucky and obtained a TS tree from my farm, I cashed in big and crafted my farm cart. It was such an exciting moment for me in AA!
But all of that is gone now. You can now essentially pay for a chance at a TS tree in the cash shop.
Yes. You read that right. The most expensive and coveted item, that used to run over 1000 gold… the last time I logged in before uninstalling, it had dropped under 300 gold, and was still falling. I was shocked.
Here’s how it works:
- You buy one of their RNG chests in the cash shop. You have a chance at getting Rumbling Archeum Saplings.
- These saplings require no fancy water and mature in an hour.
- They have a 10% chance at becoming a TS tree.
Now, you might wonder who would pay real money for a chance of a chance at a TS. I did, too, until I realized the massive number of trees up in the auction house. I guess someone is playing that game of chance and AA is making bank for it.
In the meantime, players are worried that now anyone and their cousin can make a fishing boat and start reaping the massive gold from the big catches in the ocean. There’s whispered worries of fishing getting a nerf, or the economy becoming even more over-inflated than is is now.
Do I think that TS trees were too expensive? Yes, I do. But if Trion wanted to make them more prevalent, they could have increased the natural chance for trees to drop on farmed lands. Instead, what did they do?
Put it in the cash shop, of course!
