I literally had to download Free Fire Max so I could get my point across properly. At the end of this rant, it'll make sense when you watch the related recording.
So my account is five years old, but in reality I only have about 2 years of experience. Didn't start playing until I got to university last year. Was fortunate to get adopted by a clan of competitive people, so I'm slowly getting there, to being a good player. I was unfortunate to miss 2018-2022 era, where things were a lot more competitive rather than entertaining and all about socializing.
Now, as I started playing the game more often, cause I'm not completely a PUBG Mobile purist, more like a new-gen player, I decided to invest into my account; make it look amazing yk? (Will share my account collection if y'all want to see it.)
Currently on an RP purchase streak of since A15 or so.
This anniversary A18 RP pass is one of the better ones I have witnessed, in my opinion. Not quite as good as A1, but yeah. And I'm sure we're all aware of the new "aesthetic features" that come with the Static Maverick set (I've you've seen me around in this subreddit before, I like the "TV head" set, as I call it). The running trail and footstep effects, I mean. They actually look rather neat. I get that PUBG is a lot more serious and that these things mean nothing and might rather hinder a competitive person, but I still advocate for them. We'll come back to this but later.
Now, what severely irks me about them is the fact that they are locked behind the paywall of elite pass premium. And due to my geographical location, it is more expensive than you think. I've done the math. Compared to free fire and how they've structured their things, Level infinite is a money vampire. Observe the video.
I will equate some terms so it's easier to understand:
Booyah pass = RP pass
Outfit tokens = RP points
Now, to unlock the features in free fire, all you had to do was play the game to beyond completion of the season pass to get token crates so you could "upgrade" the skin. If the season ended before you could do that is when you had to spend money to get the season tokens to do that. PUBGM follows the same mechanic, but go into the RP activity store and see just how much those things cost. And RP points to RP tokens are converted at a 1:1 rate.
I watched Wynnsanity's YouTube video today unboxing the RP today and he had to spend A LOT of UC to even be able to afford the footstep effect (the run trail is at lvl 85 or so), even after he purchased ALL THE RP ACTIVITY POINT PACKS. And of course, he got elite pass premium cause well, that's the only way to access it. Now imagine your average pay-to-play player, not really spending a lot in game. That's literally minus 1 level of the RP, if they didn't get elite pass premium.
That person, along with a whole lot others paying money to a wealthy game company that really doesn't need all that money (I mean, 1 mill invested casually into community creativity best decision ever), is me.
Where I am, getting the 1.5k UC bundle is enough to get about 2k diamonds in free fire, which Is twice what their booyah pass premium costs.
And I didn't do a business major, but I know that affordable stuff to be accessed by more people brings more profit than expensive things bought by the *few" high rollers.
Now, to the features themselves. I know PUBG is a lot more serious and that every advantage matters, but I feel confident in my survival and fighting skills to say the last thing my enemies will see will be that blue trail, if they fix this greed issue and I am able to get it. But an overall better idea would be adding a button to toggle between whether only your teammates can see it, or whether everyone can see it.
TL:DR:
Locking these features behind elite pass plus is not worth it. You all already make enough money from gilts and upgradable firearms and collabs and car skins and gun skins and other shit.