Post by Lantesh on Jun 4, 2011 12:02:57 GMT -5
So as I said earlier I was going to give one of their games a shot to see how Perfect World is as a company. Here's my report:
I tried out Forsaken World which was supposed to be an entry into the western market (or so I've heard at least) and it doesn't seem to be too bad. It comes across to me that they gave a good shot at it, but fell short in a few areas. Some of the gameplay mechanics don't go over too well with a western audience from what I've seen, both in game and on their forums. I can go into more detail later on that part if anyone is interested. After playing it for a bit I can definitely see where they would want to acquire Cryptic in order to get into the western market more. I've seen a few posts from CO players about them possibly wanting Cryptic's tech and that too makes sense.
One example for tech issues they have is on their forums. They have a nice feature where you can choose your forum avatar to display your character's name, level, and portrait. The issue is that apparently the portrait they use is just a generic model of the race/class you pick and not your actual character. I sent in a support ticket about that since the portrait I was given was nowhere near what my in game character looked like. They told me in my response that they currently do not have the tech to translate in game characters into forum avatars. Guess what tech Cryptic has on the main CO forums though? So yeah, I can see where they would want that as well as some of Cryptic's other tech. Their customer support was nice enough to manually change my avatar to the closest model of my own character though. I thought that was very nice of them.
I also found out something that might interest those of you worried about your Atari Tokens. It seems that their cash shop actually uses a two-tiered system for transactions. So here's how it works: Basically they have currency called "ZEN." When you buy currency from the cash shop or use a prepaid card, they add ZEN to your account. Now here's where the second tier comes in. Each game has it's own form of cash shop currency. In order to use that game's cash shop, you have to exchange your ZEN into that particular game's currency.
Example time! I'm going to use Forsaken World as an example since that's the one I'm playing. Okay, so let's say you want to buy a nifty vanity outfit from the cash shop. You go to the main PW site and buy some ZEN. 100 ZEN = $1. Now when you log into Forsaken World, their cash shop uses "Eyrda Leaf" as their currency. 100 ZEN = 40 Eyrda Leaf. So you go down to the option to convert your ZEN into Eyrda Leaf. The FW cash shop has their prices in increments of 40 though and not in increments of 100, so it's not like your being ripped off. That nifty outfit you want costs 160 Eyrda Leaf, so that would be around 400 ZEN, or $4. Here's the thing though, once you exchange your ZEN for a game's currency, it can ONLY be used in that game and cannot be used in others. So converting your ZEN seems to be a one shot deal. You can choose how much ZEN you convert though so it's not like you have to convert everything you have.
So what does this mean for Atari Tokens? The two-tiered nature of their cash shop has me inclined to believe that all Atari Tokens will be left alone. Since you can't convert your Tokens into ZEN, you won't be able to use them in any of their other games, meaning they won't lose any money from leaving your Tokens alone. Of course that's assuming they link Cryptic into their ZEN system at all. It's possible they could just leave it as and independent system.
When I first heard about PW buying Cryptic, I was a bit wary. After checking them out a bit and getting some firsthand experience with them, I think we will be alright. Their games seem to be fairly solid and their customer support is top notch. Twice now I've had some account problems, and both times they took care of my issues quickly and professionally. If they are serious about their claim to further penetrate the western market, my opinion is that we won't see any drastic changes to CO. I actually think the opposite. With Cryptic's tech, ideas, and experience in a western market, I can see them making some changes to their existing games in order to make them more palatable for western audiences.
In short, I feel much better about this whole deal than I used to.
I tried out Forsaken World which was supposed to be an entry into the western market (or so I've heard at least) and it doesn't seem to be too bad. It comes across to me that they gave a good shot at it, but fell short in a few areas. Some of the gameplay mechanics don't go over too well with a western audience from what I've seen, both in game and on their forums. I can go into more detail later on that part if anyone is interested. After playing it for a bit I can definitely see where they would want to acquire Cryptic in order to get into the western market more. I've seen a few posts from CO players about them possibly wanting Cryptic's tech and that too makes sense.
One example for tech issues they have is on their forums. They have a nice feature where you can choose your forum avatar to display your character's name, level, and portrait. The issue is that apparently the portrait they use is just a generic model of the race/class you pick and not your actual character. I sent in a support ticket about that since the portrait I was given was nowhere near what my in game character looked like. They told me in my response that they currently do not have the tech to translate in game characters into forum avatars. Guess what tech Cryptic has on the main CO forums though? So yeah, I can see where they would want that as well as some of Cryptic's other tech. Their customer support was nice enough to manually change my avatar to the closest model of my own character though. I thought that was very nice of them.
I also found out something that might interest those of you worried about your Atari Tokens. It seems that their cash shop actually uses a two-tiered system for transactions. So here's how it works: Basically they have currency called "ZEN." When you buy currency from the cash shop or use a prepaid card, they add ZEN to your account. Now here's where the second tier comes in. Each game has it's own form of cash shop currency. In order to use that game's cash shop, you have to exchange your ZEN into that particular game's currency.
Example time! I'm going to use Forsaken World as an example since that's the one I'm playing. Okay, so let's say you want to buy a nifty vanity outfit from the cash shop. You go to the main PW site and buy some ZEN. 100 ZEN = $1. Now when you log into Forsaken World, their cash shop uses "Eyrda Leaf" as their currency. 100 ZEN = 40 Eyrda Leaf. So you go down to the option to convert your ZEN into Eyrda Leaf. The FW cash shop has their prices in increments of 40 though and not in increments of 100, so it's not like your being ripped off. That nifty outfit you want costs 160 Eyrda Leaf, so that would be around 400 ZEN, or $4. Here's the thing though, once you exchange your ZEN for a game's currency, it can ONLY be used in that game and cannot be used in others. So converting your ZEN seems to be a one shot deal. You can choose how much ZEN you convert though so it's not like you have to convert everything you have.
So what does this mean for Atari Tokens? The two-tiered nature of their cash shop has me inclined to believe that all Atari Tokens will be left alone. Since you can't convert your Tokens into ZEN, you won't be able to use them in any of their other games, meaning they won't lose any money from leaving your Tokens alone. Of course that's assuming they link Cryptic into their ZEN system at all. It's possible they could just leave it as and independent system.
When I first heard about PW buying Cryptic, I was a bit wary. After checking them out a bit and getting some firsthand experience with them, I think we will be alright. Their games seem to be fairly solid and their customer support is top notch. Twice now I've had some account problems, and both times they took care of my issues quickly and professionally. If they are serious about their claim to further penetrate the western market, my opinion is that we won't see any drastic changes to CO. I actually think the opposite. With Cryptic's tech, ideas, and experience in a western market, I can see them making some changes to their existing games in order to make them more palatable for western audiences.
In short, I feel much better about this whole deal than I used to.