Xoie wrote:
F2P isn't necessarily a bad thing. But once it turns into a Pay-to-Win model, it's all over. Then it just becomes a game where actual skill and accomplishment is something to be by-passed by adding extra dollars to your account.
Ultimately, it's simply a last-ditch cash grab by the publisher to soak whatever money they can from whatever whales they can catch before shutting the game off for good. Maybe some people like that, but it's a 100% turn-off for me. If FFXIV goes in this direction, it's dead to me. I want to play a game, not be pressured to buy the next victory.
Yes, apparently all the the free to play supporters never address this. I have yet to see any of them comment on the pay to win aspect. One platitude after another. "The ignorance of free to play is quite astounding." Sure, but there are fundamental issues that will never change. I will now ignorantly type a wall o' text. I enjoy keeping things as basic as possible, as we can all relate to human behavior. People love to win, and people will even pay to make it happen. People also like shiny new things, and the feeling of being special or superior. These things will never change. I'm under this silly notion that people create business where there is a market. So if I were to spend time and finance creating a product, I'm not doing it because I'm just that sweet. In the end I want my money back, and then some. Building a business model around the petty negatives of human behavior? Why not. (Yes I know many businesses do this, but lets stick to F2P, OK?)
People are free to do whatever they want with the money they earn. However, I feel like it's irresponsible to create a product under the guise of "free", then lure people into spending real money on useless items. Free to play, but not free to enjoy unless you spend money. Yes, they don't HAVE to, nor is anyone forcing them. However, you created the situation in order to encourage said behavior. Preying on people's propensity to spend recklessly is something I frown on. This is where my own opinions and values come in. If you're going to create a game, have some integrity. Create a good product that has merit and then let people decide if they wish to spend money on it. It's called taking a risk yes, and that should give you more incentive to put everything you can into it. I know we're comfortable in expelling half *** for profit today, but I think the P2P and even B2P model are the best at keeping developers "honest." Half *** product should give you half *** profits. That commitment between the consumer and the company is important. As long as you keep delivering, I'll continue to give you a fee. It's as simple as that. There is zero need to change that. You worked hard to deliver this to me, I don't mind paying you for your work if it retains a quality to my liking.
I may or may not be alone in this, but I'm glad that SE is in the position they're in right now. I love the Final Fantasy series, but they need to learn that people don't want to spend money on crap anymore. I have faith in ARR not because of my love for the series, but because if it doesn't do well, its over. That kind of pressure has a chance of making them deliver, or crash and burn. I'm hoping for the former, not because of my love for SE, but because I want to be entertained for a prolonged period. The sate 1.0 was release in was all the proof we needed that SE stopped caring. Notice how they started charging a fee again after several patches? That's because the quality of the game went up. You notice how the legacy program encouraged you to pay for 90 days for discounts, exclusive stuff, and that special feeling? It was for the loyal fans, but I suspect that it was aimed at those people who weren't satisfied with the quality yet, but wanted to feel special later. So many flocked back to the game, not to play, but to just drop 90 day's worth for future rewards. 10 of my college friends did that. Those were the one's lucky enough to be told. There are far too many threads on non FF sites that people are still complaining about legacy. Some may even chose to not play ARR just because of that lol.
I'll reiterate, that people will dish out money for a quality product, they also hope that quality products are free, dish out money to win and get ahead, dish out money to avoid work, and also spend money to feel special. They will not typically spend money on a product that lacks quality, unless it helps them win or feel special in some way *Dat Legacy*. I'll leave it to you to figure out which business model caters to particular types of behaviors. Free to play encourages more negatives than positives. Wasting money is bad. Encouraging businesses to prey on our ever growing poor spending habits is also bad.
I'm asking any of you Free to Play supporters, would you spend money on your free to play game? If so, how much? If not, why not? You're arguing from the position, "I don't want to
spend money on a sub," I don't really see you contributing financially to a free to play model. We're always looking for something free that's this huge "win." It's just not going to happen, you're going to pay for it. You can claim that there are many games that are successful. So far I have only heard of LoL(and maybe 2-3 others. That's far from "many"), and from what you people explained it to be, people pay for things that other people can put in the work in game to get (we're very predictable yea?). I wonder though, if LoL is popular because it's free, or because it's actually a quality product. If someone can answer that, I'd be grateful.