User blog comment:ShinnyShin/The Problems with the S-Class Tier/@comment-27980511-20160502003438

Fellow players,

One thing I forgot to mention when I wrote this blog the first time, expanding on the issue of COST. This is a problem that's not only affecting the Asphalt series, but slowly taking over the mobile gaming industry in general:

Cost vs Advantage.

Remember those days where you bought a game off the shelf, paid one flat price for it, took it home, played it until you finished it, and got a full, complete game-play experience? And any extras, DLCs or IAPs were entirely optional, and these things didn't affect your ability to play the game and enjoy it?

Or even if you just had the base game, and your friend had the same game with DLCs, it didn't mean that the game gave your friend an advantage over you, just because they paid for more stuff?

Those days are over, sadly.

Asphalt 8 used to be like that, to some degree, when it first came out in 2013. It prided itself on being a Free-to-Play type of game where you could play for free, and get close to the same achievement levels as those who shelled out money, and it was an even playing field for everyone.

Now, it's fast evolving into a Pay-to-Win model which favors those who pay money (and hackers) at the expense of all those who play the game for free, and risking alienating the first type of gamer audience who embraced this game concept and made it so popular.

There are parts of the game that are now totally unwinnable and inaccessible to a huge portion of players, like Tokens Cars (which also affects the Car Mastery challenges for said cars), most of Season 9 being unplayable due to lack of these cars, and a very steep pay wall that gamers have to overcome if they are to progress any further.

On top of that, you have these glorified Token Grabs that are the R&D events. Especially those that feature Tokens Cars, which need to be upgraded using Tokens. For cars that supposedly we should win for FREE.

And the odds are always stacked against players a great deal of the time, like being stiffed on much-needed PRO Kit Cards that are even more rare than unicorns!!

And looking at Gameloft's business models for the next instalment, Asphalt 9, it seems ever more apparent that all this will be a huge exercise in squeezing as much money out of us as possible. IAPs will be quite likely more frequent and aggressive, and possibly block off even more game-play content to players who choose to play for free.

'For the record, don't quote me on any of this, this is just my opinion on what I understand from reading this business plan. Your opinions might be different, and I totally respect that.'

For Gameloft's business models for Asphalt (and other games that they make), those of you who are interested, check it out on https://vk.com/doc276651054_437378086?hash=97b65a10722e674a87&dl=f685c676617a1ca8ff It's a bit of a read, but very info, much wow.

If Gameloft keeps going in this direction, will Asphalt survive in the eyes of the players who helped make this series so popular?

Is this direction a good move for the game series, the developers and the players?

Tell me and your fellow racers what you think!

- ShinnyShin