Count von Tilly
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The nonvarium/varium debate can be viewed from two sides:
Varium gives you premium service, so therefore a p2p player deserves to be better of than a f2p; therefore varium is fair.
Or Varium gives you an auto-win against f2ps, therefore making unfair for them.
I find the latter to be more accurate. In almost any pvp game, the purpose of the f2p, bluntly speaking, is to be juxtaposed in the power of the p2p. When structuring a game, the developers aim to have a majority of f2ps and a small concentration of p2ps since it allows the p2ps to stand out more. However, most successful pvp games balance the p2ps and f2ps so that the f2p still has a decent enough chance to win against the p2p if he/she tries. This way, the p2p is satisfied since he still notices improvement on his character while the f2p is also satisfied that he has his "decent chance", meaning that he will not realize that he is a tool of juxtaposition, and will continue playing his role as that which is juxtaposed, maybe paying for something himself later as he likes the game more.
However, in epicduel's case, as soon as a player reaches lvl 27, he is most definitely going to lose against frequent lvl 32 p2ps unless he is a special super-genius. Then, it becomes strikingly obvious that he is there only to serve as a free win for others, a tool of juxtaposition, which is bad for any healthy person's self esteem, unless he pays. Epicduel certainly does not hide this well.
At this critical moment, the player decides on whether to quit, continue(rarely happens), or become a p2p. In this decision, the player would calculate how much varium he will need to become competitive against the other p2ps and what the cost would be.
Then he sees that the ~10k varium he would need to fully equip and enhance himself costs $50. Most players would turn away at this point since they percieve that $50 is overpriced, especially since CoD, Super Smash bros, Medal o Honor(all of which have 3-D graphics, teams of developers, and no "self esteem" problem), and many other games are being sold at around the same price. That's what the average person is most likely going to think.
Only those who are liberal with their money and somewhat rich, or those who are convinced that epicduel offers them a gaming experience other games cannot, would pay at that point. They pay to be competitive, not to gain an advantage.
I myself believe epicduel is unique and fun, otherwise I wouldn't bother to play or post. Unfortunately, epicduel is structured the way it is right now, and I don't see much hope that it will ever attain the aforementioned balance.
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