While I’ve been playing more and more of Riders Republic, I’ve come across a pretty toxic mechanic that’s slowly becoming more and more of a problem for me. The Bucks economy. Bucks are the in-game currency that you can easily earn through events in the game. As you’d expect, it’s easy to earn Bucks at the start, but once you’re into a couple of weeks with the game, the Bucks start to dry out. There are very few events that will award you with Bucks, making it almost impossible to get back on the Shackdaddy Challenges. The thing is, those are the best reason to play, so you’re almost forced to spend some real world cash on Bucks so that you can continue to play.
I will admit that I’ve only hit this issue recently, and it’s down to be buying an expensive in-game outfit. It was worth it though. However, you don’t realise how slow it is to earn Bucks until you’ve run out of them and need to spend them. The boss events and other big events award Bucks the first time you complete them, and there are Sponsor Contracts to earn Bucks from too, but there’s not much to get them from outside of those things. It’s a weird and vicious cycle that doesn’t seem to want to let you earn the Bucks you so sorely need.
I’m not one of the most dedicated players in the game, but I do play regularly and really love every game mode on offer. There’s just something about this Bucks fiasco that has me questioning Ubisoft’s intentions with the game though. You should be able to earn this currency easily, and have certain items restricted by a paywall, not have items that can be purchased with both. Destiny 2 had this issue and it nearly killed the game. I’d like to see some sort of change in the Bucks economy so that we really get ahead of the game on this and can go about our days having a great time playing, not worrying about where we’ll earn Bucks for next week’s challenges from.
