14 DAY TRIAL // Sony’s H1Z1 zombie survival MMO has been recently launched on Steam Early Access and since its release many players have been disappointed by some of the last-minute changes developers have implemented.
There’s a lot of debate on the pay-to-win model that Sony seems to have decided to go for in the alpha version available to general public.
Since everyone is blaming Sony Online Entertainment’s John Smedley for lying several months ago when he said that they would not sell weapons, ammo, medical aid or food in H1Z1, he took it on Reddit to defend the unexpected changes.
The main issue that needed to be explained is why Sony has decided to introduce Airdrops to H1Z1. Airdrops are available for either $20 (€20) or $40 (€40) and can’t be called until at least 1/4 of the servers are full.
Players may find randomized content ranging from weapons, ammunition, food, medical aid and other consumables, in these airdrops. Here is what Smedley has to say in order to clear up some of the misconceptions:
“- You cannot call in airdrops until the servers are 1/4 full. - You can't call in airdrops without generating a ton of zombie heat. - The airdrops are random in what they deliver. - You are not guaranteed to get a single thing out of the airdrop you called in. You could die trying and you're out the money. - We fly the plane in very slowly and loudly. We also stream green smoke from it you can see from very far away.”
Those who still don’t believe this is not a pay-to-win game are invited by Smedley to not buy the game or play it at all, however he asks payers to personally try them before making the call.
Changes to Airdrops will be made in the next few days
Smedley also announced that his team plans to make some changes based on players feedback. They will probably be introduced “in the next day or so” and mostly implies some tweaks to the airdrops system:
“- Dramatically widening the radius they come in - it's too small from what we're observing. - Making sure the chance for guns is a much lower chance so they are much more rare. - Upping the minimum number of people on a server to even allow air drops. It's set at 50 right now and we're going to at least double it. We are serious about these being server events and contested. - Making the plane fly even slower.”
No matter how Sony decides to defend a gameplay mechanic introduced in one of its games, ultimately, it’s players’ choice whether or not they will accept it. Even if changes are made to Airdrops, players seem to be extremely vocal about the mere existence of this system.