Cash Shop Advantage

I used to be a frequent player of Gunbound 5 - 6 years ago. Before I quit, I toggled between a battle axe+ and silver battle axe.

Recently I decided to pick it up again. Now they are on season 2. I started a new account to just fool around and have some fun.

I was dismayed to find that Softnyx's cash shop has given huge advantages to their buyers. First of all, the international server does not have a rookie zone with avatar off. A whole lot of the players in there are fake noobs, and you can usually tell because they are decked out in the archangel garb. This outfit cannot be bought by gold, which is earned in game. Right off the bat, they then have +42 attack, +42 defense and a plethora of other stat bonuses. They're obviously not encouraging new players with this; who wants to keep playing when they always lose or get pounded down in 1 to 2 turns? Not too many of the spiffy avatars are willing to mix with the newbies. Ijji's American servers do have rookie zone avatar off, but they are discontinuing service soon.

Of course, they have also introduced a length of possession system. If you want limitless, it costs a hell of a lot more than when I used to play, which gave me limitless at the cost of a one-week holding. It is difficult to get a good avatar by buying only limitless right at the start, but I think it's better in the long run.

Another feature they've added is "item 2." Item 1 things are available to all users, but majority of the item 2 offerings are again cash only. The worst one in my opinion is defense, which essentially shields the user from damage. I saw one player use it three turns in a row while he continued to kill the other team. The three I see used most, defense, damage up, and special force, are cash only.

I understand that the Softnyx cash is really cheap, but I do not really play games that cost money. The only exception was probably Guild Wars, and that had no monthly fee. I'm just not willing to spend money on Gunbound, and I'll probably keep playing despite the state of things.

Despite Ijji's in-browser launching system, which I did not like, I'll give them credit for occasionally offering both cash and gold buying options on some items.

I'm not against using cash to buy things. Most free (and many non-free actually) online games go about generating revenue this way, and that's a good thing. I just think that Softnyx has given too much to cash users.

They have an item that prevents the recording of your losses into your stats? Wtf? I think that misses the point...

P.S. I just got hit on in game. So disturbing...