Hi-Rez, while I love Smite, I can't help but feel you are starting to slip to the dark side of gaming, causing most existing icons to be only purchasable with gems when they used to only cost favor was the beginning, but making people pay 8000+ gems (over a hundred USD if you buy them all at once, more if you don't) for a single skin, or more precisely for all the items they need to own to get the skin for free, borders on tipping over on the downward slope to the scorn of your fans.

If you want to skip reading this and want me to get right to the point, scroll to the bottom Hi-Rez but I put a lot of work into this so I'd appreciate it if you read the entire thing.

Let me explain, as this one skin, Archon Thanatos, is just the most glaring bit of arrogance to me, all the other "exclusive" skin and other items could be just as desirable if not more so from person to person, Nerd Rage Cabrakan, Buccaneith, Orbital Strike Rama, just to name a few, if for whatever reason they missed out on the slim window of opportunity (in retrospect, a few months for a games that will be around years and years) can never, ever be purchased again, ever.

To be completely honest, this makes no sense to me from both a moral or financial standpoint, the former of which I think you are forgetting more then the later, but even that one has slipped your mind it seems.

First the moral standpoint;

Yes I can hear you now internet, oh yes, quite clearly; "You don't need skins to play, you can play for free, you unlock gods via favor you earn in matches, you don't need them at all, for any reason at all, ect." This is true, but we humans are fickle creatures, we may want to play a god just to use the one skin they have, because we like they way the look/act/talk with that skin as opposed to their default skin.

This of course adds nothing to the game play, a god preforms the same regardless of the aesthetic skin chosen for them, the only thing it could change is intimating the opponent, but this is something of a moot point as not only are some gods less intimating with some skins (Poolseidon as a prime example, giant rubble ducky, much scary...) but that some gods are just play scary with their default skins (Thanatos, Fenrir, Bakasura).

But what if someone really wanted that skin?

What if for whatever reason they couldn't buy it until after the event in which the skins where offered expired?

What if they where so bummed at not being able to buy the skin they had really wanted they stopped playing altogether?

What if they kept playing but decided they just didn't want to play anymore because of the let down from being locked out "exclusive" by dint of only bad timing or lack of funds (remember we humans are fickle creatures prone to illogical acts based only on our feelings and not facts)?

What if they kept playing but whenever asked about Smite by friends they have nothing nice to say about Smite and by extension Hi-Rez?

What if said friend, that would have become a playing customer if their friend had said nice things about Smite decided not to play, or to play but never buy anything with Gems bought with real money out of spite for how they feel their friend was treated?

Do you see where I am going with this? Yes? No? Maybe? Well there's the other standpoint, the financial one;

I've been an avid online gamer my entire life, since I was right about nine years old, and played my first game silly free flash game about a duck that dug holes to defeat bees chasing him, and the half a dozen re skinned versions of it, I'm 26 now, but one of the things I've learned over the many years since is this;

In the long run Exclusive doesn't make money.

Sure, you make a quick influx of money off people with the "gotta have it" mentality (remember, fickle creatures) but after you lock it from ever being purchasable again, nothing. Just. Nothing.

In the long run you'll make more money if you allow it be always purchasable, I can say with confidence that what you loose in the short term financially you make up ten fold in the long run.

Someone might see a game and think "one day, I'll play this", and possibly because they saw something "exclusive" they wanted, a time later they come back, sign up, make an account, download the client, log in just to find the one thing that reminded them they wanted to play the game in the first place is now gone.

Fickle as we are (broken record I know but trying to stress this point) might decide "you know what, I don't want to play this anymore" and never touch the game again, and paying customers leaves before they ever had a chance to be one in the first place.

I'm no business tycoon but this seems to blatantly a bad thing, one that looses an entity money, and not gain them any.

So can you see what I'm getting at now? A little? A lot? Not at all? Well let me sum it up for the "Too Long; Didn't Read" people out there who want to cut straight to the chase, as I did promise to make this short and sweet for the impatient;

Exlusive anything is bad. What you gain in the short term, you loose in the long term ten times over;

The faith and adoration of your fan base.

Money generated by said fan base from micro transactions that said exlusive content might have bought you.

The longevity of your game, unhappy fans are fans that no longer play, fans that no longer pay won't even pay money for things like skins, no money means the game will fail at some point a game studio who makes games that fail doesn't stay around for long.

Making content Non-Exclusive means more money, happier fans and a longer lifespan for your game.

So in short all I am asking is that you strongly consider making Exclusive Content purchasable again for a reasonable price, even one a little bit high, people will always be happier knowing that thing they want is always there waiting for them when/if they get the money/desire to purchase it.

Not to sound condescending Hi-Rez, but I don't see how this is rocket science, this all seems easy for just about anyone to understand.

I'd love to be proven wrong but I have never seen a single instance of exclusive anything in gaming that in the long term was worth doing in the short term, most end up either being flashes in the pan that achieve nothing and are easily forgettable and are a waste of money, or simply causes other problems like those I've listed above and do far more harm then good.

All I'm asking is that you consider what I am saying, and it's why I've made a petition on here on Change.org, so other that agree with me can come together and express greater as whole how we feel, then we can as scattered voices in the dark.

So if you agree with me, then sign this, if you don't agree with me, then you're free to just go on about you life, and Hi-Rez, I know you will see this sooner or later, so don't play the "lalalala we can't see this, lalalala" game so many other companies do, just tell me, us you are listening.

Is that so hard?