Why do people like boosters so much?

[Otleaz]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

Bottom line, it is a psychological need to be accomplished and boosters make it happen faster... same reason people use steroids and 'natural male enhancement'.

In my case, it will be a psychological need to send in twice as many magriders and scythes as the non-boosters so my side will have an easier time capturing a base.

Man, I sure am glad they aren't planning on making this game pay2win!

[TAA]

I have never purchased a booster before, but now I am so busy with RL that money is not so much the limiting factor anymore but rather time. If boosters work on a measure of hours played as opposed to real-time hours then I may be tempted to get them.

[Trafalgar]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

In many F2P games... Perfect World International for example, the default grind is so ridiculous that you need boosters just to get a somewhat normal xp/hr. And even then you still take months or even years to get anywhere meaningful.

Games like those make you feel like boosters are necessary, even if the really aren't.

Personally, games like those just make me uninterested. Why buy boosters when I could play something that isn't grindy?

[ChipMHazard]

Originally Posted by Otleaz

Man, I sure am glad they aren't planning on making this game pay2win!

Yes it is a good thing that they are indeed not planning on doing that.

[Geist]

Honestly, the best part of Planetside is the fact that no matter what BR you are, you can still play with your friends and kill anyone. It will honestly be one of the easiest grinds because there is no grind, what your doing at BR1 will be exactly what your doing at BR20, only with more options available.

[Wayside]

Originally Posted by Tooterfish

I'm not asking rhetorically here, I'm genuinely curious as to why Boosters are considered to improve the game-play experience by so many people. I may be going out on a limb here in assuming as such, but I've rarely seen any real complaint toward it.

In my opinion, boosters only inhibit the overall experience. The grind, the well-deserved rank, the all around effort that is associated with leveling and progressing. I recognize the need to include appealing incentives for a premium membership or micro-transaction worth real cash, but how could shortening and ultimately devaluing your in-game status be rewarding to anybody? Psychologically speaking, it is reasonable to assume that a reward will be more meaningful when it is earned through hard work which, I might add, would seem more relatable, and appreciated, if achieved on an equal, un-tamperable scale (if that makes any sense at all). If all it took to become a millionaire was a few minutes of your time, then who would be impressed by a million bucks any more?

I'm probably looking at this all wrong, so I'm all ears here. Fix me please.

I somehow doubt you struggle to comprehend the appeal of instant or accelerated gratification as much as you seem to imply in your post. Even if your own principles or ideals are at odds with it, its not a complicated concept from an academic standpoint. As such, I don't think theres a legitimate conversation to be had on that front.

You did however touch on an interesting concept towards the end of your post:

If all it took to become a millionaire was a few minutes of your time, then who would be impressed by a million bucks any more?

The implication of this analogy is that you assume people are trying to impress you with the manor or speed with which they acquire items in a video game. Now, there are people out there who are convinced that the world as a whole cares how long it took them to acquire [iron sight attachment #1255] in Planetside 2. But, drawing from personal experience only mind you, I expect those people are in the minority. Even among fellow gamers.

I suspect its far more likely that people beat their chest and tute their horn over what they DO with [iron sight attachment #1255], not how long it took them to acquire it. Again, totally my opinion, but it holds true for the vast majority of hardcore gamers I've played with. I suspect its even less likely that casual gamers would walk around bragging about how much time they sunk into a game. Seems a bit contradictory to the concept of casual gaming.

You're far more likely to hear someone shout

"DID YOU SEE THAT?!! I TOTALLY PWNT THAT NOOB!"

than you are to hear a cry of

"DID YOU SEE THAT?!! I TOTALLY ACQUIRED [iron sight attachment #1255] AND ITS ASSOCIATED CERTIFICATIONS 43% SLOWER/FASTER THAN THESE OTHER PLAYERS OVER HERE! I ROCK!"

I'm sure that second statement gets used occasionally, but again I suspect it sees far less use than the first. How long it takes to get something in a game just isn't as interesting or fulfilling in the long run as what you can DO with it.

Anyway, back to the implication that players care or are trying to impress you or anyone else with how long they were able to put off the acquisition of an item; The idea that people in general are salivating over the prospect of making rewards arrive as slowly as possible so that they can gloat or brag about how little they've accomplished over a span of time and how cool that makes them:

I think you'll find that most gamers don't really care if you look down your nose at them for opting to spend more time using an item than they spent grinding for it. And I think you'll find most people would take that million dollars and not give a damn what you thought of how much or how little work was involved in claiming it. :P

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TL;DR - Yes, people generally appreciate an achievement more when it takes a bit more time to accomplish. But the types of achievements that leave a true and lasting sense of accomplishment in a game have more to do with feats of personal skill or cunning. A sense of superiority that comes from defeating your opponents because you were better. You tried harder. You trained longer.

At the end of the day, no one is singing songs about the guy who chose to crawl down the path to [iron sight attachment #1255]. They're singing about the guy who no-scoped that dude mid-sprint, took [iron sight attachment #1255], and used it to kill 15 other dudes before he finally got taken out by 3 tanks.

Seriously it took 3 tanks to take him down. What a baller.

My 2c.

[kejel]

I like boosters because its a good way imo to support a game. yes i believe they need money to succeed otherwise how else would higby get his pizza.

Also would you rather you get x amount of xp as a free player and x extra for a booster or you get x for being a paying customer and x less if you dont pay? really its exactly the same just the first option doesn't upset so many people.

Ofc we could say well no-one pays but then we also get no cool games

[gufftroad]

because getting things faster is nice and it is usually cheaper to buy a boost or two then to buy an item and if you use the boost right you can get the item and possibly another if you work your ass off i personally love boosts in Tribes the boost is such a huge quality of life upgrade they are worth every penny

[Arcticus]

Originally Posted by Tooterfish

.... Psychologically speaking, it is reasonable to assume that a reward will be more meaningful when it is earned through hard work which, I might add, would seem more relatable, and appreciated, if achieved on an equal, un-tamperable scale (if that makes any sense at all)...

Some of us believe that our RL jobs are harder work than our playtime. I believe that boosters, if done correctly, fall perfectly well withinin the f2p revenue model. It'll work well because I'm assuming these conditions:

1) If, as stated somewhere else, the unboostered player who is actively in game is earning around 1 point every ten minutes or so, then the un-boostered leveling won't be such a grind as to push away from the game those who can't /won't pay. In other words, they are experiencing progression.

2) The boosters are just faster leveling, not just a bunch of instant levels/unlocks.

3) SOE has stated multiple times that lower level players can still kill higher level players (ca 20% power difference).

4) This is an FPS, so the "grind" activity is the joyful activity for which we all are logging into this game...which is killing other players. We actually like doing this, so it's not a monotonous grind. There's no PvE questing here. No interacting with NPCs. You interact with your enemy by pairing their internal organs with inorganic matter (or energy in the case of Vanus).

The magic for SOE will be if they hit that sweet spot wherein those who come into the game not planning to pay for boosters, after unlocking most of the lower cost certs, feel that the remaing high level unlocks are still fairly achievable for free, but decide that, for themselves, it's now time for some accelerated boostering.

[vVRedOctoberVv]

I hate grinding. In any game. I don't feel "accomplished" that it took me six weeks to do something. I feel annoyed. My sense of accomplishment comes from playing the game, not wasting time so I can get a slightly bigger pew-pew stick.

[Policenaut]

I think boosters really depend on the game. For example, if you don't have the VIP booster for Tribes: Ascend, the amount of time it takes you to unlock a weapon is absurd. Hell, it's absurd even with the VIP booster, taking up to a week of playing 4-6 hours a day to unlock one of the better weapons. But seeing as how weapons are unlocked with resources and not experience, I don't think it will be too much of an issue.

[Figment]

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Not everyone has the time to "grind" so they might choose to pay for a boost of some sort or an unlock.

Indeed.

Btw, if I gave you your arm back, what would you do with it?

[DarkChiron]

I would be interested in boosters because I would like to have as much customization options available as soon as possible. It's not to show off or to try to catch up. I would like to play the game in the manner I want to, not spend all my time working to get to that point.

[Envenom]

Originally Posted by Tooterfish

I'm not asking rhetorically here, I'm genuinely curious as to why Boosters are considered to improve the game-play experience by so many people. I may be going out on a limb here in assuming as such, but I've rarely seen any real complaint toward it.

In my opinion, boosters only inhibit the overall experience. The grind, the well-deserved rank, the all around effort that is associated with leveling and progressing. I recognize the need to include appealing incentives for a premium membership or micro-transaction worth real cash, but how could shortening and ultimately devaluing your in-game status be rewarding to anybody? Psychologically speaking, it is reasonable to assume that a reward will be more meaningful when it is earned through hard work which, I might add, would seem more relatable, and appreciated, if achieved on an equal, un-tamperable scale (if that makes any sense at all). If all it took to become a millionaire was a few minutes of your time, then who would be impressed by a million bucks any more?

I'm probably looking at this all wrong, so I'm all ears here. Fix me please.

Because I have a life outside of the game and can't dedicate ridiculous hours of grinding like others to experience all the content.

Power to your if you have this kind of time. Unfortunately I do not. Why should I be inhibited from experiencing the full game? I will gladly pay for convenience.

[MegaBusta]

On one hand I like boosters because I don't have time to play constantly.

On the other hand I hate boosters because I don't have time to play constantly so I feel like I'm wasting money not playing.