Fallout 76’s latest Wild Appalachia update rolled out this week, implementing the Pioneer Scouts faction and quests, new backpacks that boost carry weight, legendary exchange machines to change junk legendaries into scrip, and the promised personal vending machines, which of course allow players to set up their very own vendors to sell their unwanted stuff to fellow gamers. There’s a catch with the vendors, however:
“You will receive a notification whenever a player buys one of your items. 90% of the sale price will be added to your Cap balance. This 10% fee has been designed to help maintain the health of the game’s economy and mitigate inflation.”
This kind of market tax is well-known to MMO players as a gold sink for player vendors and auction systems, though of course a badly implemented version can actually harm casual players and cause some goods to simply be not worth selling. As Kotaku points out, some players are already complaining, while others are jacking up prices to compensate.
Still, where some people see merely the annoyances of always-online tropes, others are looking at the new additions as something that actually makes the game feel alive again.
“So I’ve managed to get a few hours in with the new update and the game feels alive,” one Redditor wrote in a heavily upvoted thread. “People coming and going, dropping into your camp to check out your vending. I no longer feel like other players are some weird nuisance. I actually feel like we’re all kind of in it together. That we’re finally getting out there and rebuilding a little society. Especially since we’re creating our own fast travel network together.” That, my friend, is why we play MMOs.
This week’s #Fallout76 Inside the Vault offers a closer look at the Purveyor, a new vendor who is preparing to sell you legendary gear when she opens shop in Appalachia on May 16.
Read on here: https://t.co/gmUhQ3YVBj pic.twitter.com/P9eMOVK9OF— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) May 9, 2019
