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Would you see free to play as a failure?Follow

#27 Sep 17 2013 at 2:43 PM Rating: Excellent
Failure? Not necessarily.

My kind of game, though? No.

Do I think it will ever happen? No. If SE cared that much about F2P cash grabs, then FFXI would have gone F2P years ago. Like Yoshi-P has said, what separates SE/Blizzard from the rest is a lack of investors to need to pay off. This game will make enough of a profit to be successful for SE, and, like XI, will probably be a nice little cash cow for years to come.


In related news, I didn't realize that ESO is going to have a subscription, too.
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#28 Sep 17 2013 at 2:48 PM Rating: Good
Elder Scrolls Online and (to my surprise) WildStar are both going for the subscription model.

I kind of question whether WildStar will be successful on a subscription model because unlike ARR/ESO, I don't see any niche or group it really appeals to... but we'll see.
#29 Sep 17 2013 at 2:51 PM Rating: Excellent
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The biggest impact that I've seen with F2P is the difficulty with teaming with certain players. Sometimes they didn't purchase a particular dungeon or quest chain so it's tough get a team organized. Also IMHO some F2P games seem a little too pay to win or they sell you some potions which power level you quickly.

I don't believe I would continue playing a MMORPG that only offered F2P.
#30 Sep 17 2013 at 3:32 PM Rating: Good
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DDO is actually a really solid free-to-play game, that offers a lot for free, and actually has an hybrid cash shop and subscription model. I put a lot of money in it, too, but I don't feel like it ever ripped me off.

I don't think XIV is going to go free-to-play for a long time, but if they do, I'll probably keep playing and purchase stuff from time to time. Games I love get my money, it's as simple as that.
#31 Sep 17 2013 at 3:39 PM Rating: Good
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If warhammer "the game every forgot about" ca still survive with a fluctuation if 50k to 100k subscribers you better believe this game will.
#32 Sep 17 2013 at 3:53 PM Rating: Decent
This game will never go F2P. It would be a massive sign of failure and as a Japanese company, SE would never accept such a loss of face. If this game ever did go F2P, which it wont, I would quit immediately.
#33 Sep 17 2013 at 4:03 PM Rating: Excellent
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As counterintuitive as it sounds, the day SE stops charging us to play is the day I stop playing.
#34 Sep 17 2013 at 4:19 PM Rating: Decent
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Can you imagine how much RMT spam we will get if FF14 went F2P................ @_@, even now my blacklist already growing with soo many RMT spam
#35 Sep 17 2013 at 4:38 PM Rating: Default
This game already went Free To Play in its very beginning of the 1.0. We all saw the results? Game wiped harder than the stock markets during the Great Depression (For you US Citizens out there.). A Free To Play engine ruins all games. I personally hate them and I won't lie that my post right now has a boat load of bias. So I'm just going to cover the Free To Play aspect of this conversation and stay on topic.

Free To Play (Pay to Win) - The engine is garbage, utter garbage. This is where most MMO's fail. Because they have to set in restrictions against the players themselves on getting good things. The drop rates usually plummet, which sends the market skyrocketing into the millions. Way out of the reach of your average joe player. This also factors in the one thing that any company wants. Money. Free To Play models are notorious for placing Vanity Items (The "I want that.") in CS (Cash Shops) for those of you who don't know. These are what put players in that restricting bind of either doing one of the following.

A. Come out of their pocket with real money to buy in-game currency sponsered by the company via Cash Cards.
B. Save up enough money in-game to buy a code for choice A due to not having proper income in real life.
C. Cheat/Hack the game using bots/code generators.

Also even if you DO get your item it comes with another restriction. For instance we'll use Maplestory. Buying outfit. Let's use a more settled example here.

Say you pick choice A. from the list there and you want an outfit. The outfit cost I dunno, let's say 2,200 NX. You get the money, about to get the outfit and then you read...(Using an example here.) Holiday X-mas Outfit, 2,700 (7 Days). You kidding me? You have to RENT and outfit just to look cool? Oh but if you want the Permanant one it will cost you maybe almost 10k-12k NX. Which is almost about 20 to 40 dollars in real life.

This is why Free To Play (Pay to Win) Models never work, they drive the players to spend money on items they will never really look forward to using. Unlike in a Pay To Play situation you get your items and they're useful to you.

If XIV goes Free To Play I'm going right back to XI and I will never touch XIV again.

Edited, Sep 17th 2013 6:40pm by ImmolatedHope
#36 Sep 17 2013 at 5:04 PM Rating: Decent
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ImmolatedHope wrote:
This game already went Free To Play in its very beginning of the 1.0. We all saw the results?


No offense, but 1.0 sucked. I honestly wouldn't have played it if they offered to pay me. A game being horribly designed has absolutely nothing to do with it's payment model.

ImmolatedHope wrote:
Free To Play (Pay to Win)

Free to play and pay to win are not the same thing. There are games that are free to play that only offer cosmetic bonuses if you pay. There are games that actually give you an advantage over other players if you pay. There is a difference. If it doesn't give you an advantage over another player, it's not pay to win.

Look at League of Legends as an example. The only thing you have to pay money for is the skins. The skin does nothing at all to enhance your performance in the game.


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HaibaneRenmei wrote:
30 bucks is almost free

cocodojo wrote:
Its personal preference and all, but yes we need to educate WoW players that this is OUR game, these are Characters and not Toons. Time to beat that into them one at a time.
#37 Sep 17 2013 at 5:26 PM Rating: Good
Interestingly, Diablo III is ending its in game cash auction house.

Not quite the same as F2P but whatever reason they had to include it originally apparently is no longer panning out.

#38 Sep 17 2013 at 5:59 PM Rating: Excellent
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Catwho wrote:
Interestingly, Diablo III is ending its in game cash auction house.

Not quite the same as F2P but whatever reason they had to include it originally apparently is no longer panning out.



That auction house never made sense to me. Like why even play the game when, if I have the cash, I can just go buy the item that some kid randomly got and is selling. And if I am going to do that, whats the point in even playing anymore. Guess that's why I've never understood people buying in game currency.

And trying to browse it, at least for me, was super annoying.

I know of a few people that got decent drops they ended up selling for around 100$, I know that's not much, but to me its a little ridiculous that someone would pay that much just for an in game item.
#39 Sep 17 2013 at 6:11 PM Rating: Decent
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Catwho wrote:
Interestingly, Diablo III is ending its in game cash auction house.

Not quite the same as F2P but whatever reason they had to include it originally apparently is no longer panning out.


People were just cutting out the middle-man(Blizzard) and it wasn't worth it to them anymore. I didn't get too deep into D3, but Blizzard basically had you set up an account with them. If you sold goods for real money, that money would go into your account and Blizz kept a portion of the money as an auction house tax.

People said ***** that' and just started selling through other avenues.
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Rinsui wrote:
Only hips + boobs all day and hips + boobs all over my icecream

HaibaneRenmei wrote:
30 bucks is almost free

cocodojo wrote:
Its personal preference and all, but yes we need to educate WoW players that this is OUR game, these are Characters and not Toons. Time to beat that into them one at a time.
#40 Sep 17 2013 at 6:15 PM Rating: Excellent
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I read this article not long ago from the infamous Ethan Levy:

kotaku.com/i-am-not-a-cancer-on-the-game-industry-1208376438

Long story short, he is a game developer consultant who encourage companies to go F2P as it "caters to the masses" and it's essentially a short cut to a guaranteed investment.

That article also mentions that if you think otherwise you best alternative is to speak with your dollars, because the people who say that F2P sucks for the game industry are not generating enough demand for P2P (pay-to-play) to be a viable alternative.

Well I speak with my dollars, not only I'll support games like WOW or FFXIV I will stop supporting them if they go F2P, because it hurts the quality of the product, it becomes greens to reds to blues with incredibly step curves for those who actually play for free and hollow rewards for those who pay. Personally I don't like that kind of game.

Ken
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#41FilthMcNasty, Posted: Sep 17 2013 at 6:20 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) I think you'd be hard pressed to prove that F2P inevitably leads to a lower quality product. The curve for what it takes to acquire experience, items, gear, ect. may be steeper, but if you look around almost any XIV board you'd see that the majority are disappointed by the lack of challenge and/or commitment required to enjoy the game.
#42 Sep 17 2013 at 6:29 PM Rating: Excellent
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FilthMcNasty wrote:
I think you'd be hard pressed to prove that F2P inevitably leads to a lower quality product. The curve for what it takes to acquire experience, items, gear, ect. may be steeper, but if you look around almost any XIV board you'd see that the majority are disappointed by the lack of challenge and/or commitment required to enjoy the game.


People want a steep curve to set long-term goals. Not a steep curve you opt out of for $10 per equipment slot.
#43 Sep 17 2013 at 6:54 PM Rating: Default
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KaneKitty wrote:
FilthMcNasty wrote:
I think you'd be hard pressed to prove that F2P inevitably leads to a lower quality product. The curve for what it takes to acquire experience, items, gear, ect. may be steeper, but if you look around almost any XIV board you'd see that the majority are disappointed by the lack of challenge and/or commitment required to enjoy the game.


People want a steep curve to set long-term goals. Not a steep curve you opt out of for $10 per equipment slot.


Content that is designed to promote players to create long-term goals can be completely independent of the payment model.

I just find it odd that people will pay the premium when it's tacked on to a collector's edition or a subscription plan, but paying for it on their own terms is unacceptable. I've tried to make sense of that, but I can't.
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Rinsui wrote:
Only hips + boobs all day and hips + boobs all over my icecream

HaibaneRenmei wrote:
30 bucks is almost free

cocodojo wrote:
Its personal preference and all, but yes we need to educate WoW players that this is OUR game, these are Characters and not Toons. Time to beat that into them one at a time.
#44 Sep 17 2013 at 6:56 PM Rating: Excellent
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150 posts
I would say a vast majority of developers use the "lets go f2p" as a band aid to a broken game. They do that rather than fixing whats wrong to bring people back.

Its pretty much a money grad hair mary pass.

If anyone hasn't noticed...this game and the devs are about their IP's legacy. Any other developer would have just shut down FFXIV or turned it into a cash shop casino rather than shutting it down for a few years and remaking it.

They don't care as much about making billions off the game and care more about making a good game fitting of the FF name. Obviously if no one plays they would probably shut it down eventually...but that doesn't seem anywhere near the case right now.

I would worry if content doesn't come out for the game, they have a fantastic foundation, now they need to really get to work expanding on that.

Oh and people love wishing the f2p death on games...its the only way they can enjoy the fruits of someone elses labor without paying for it XD
#45 Sep 17 2013 at 7:00 PM Rating: Default
Toyototoyo wrote:
Can you imagine how much RMT spam we will get if FF14 went F2P................ @_@, even now my blacklist already growing with soo many RMT spam


Sorry to quote you, but I feel its important for others to understand the mythology of the so-called "free to play" MMOs out there. No one, for "free", is hosting servers, paying a development staff, support, etc for "free." (No such thing as a free lunch right?)
While F2P MMOs may have some RMT, the point to F2P games is so the vendor can get the revenue that RMTs would... Many F2P game bank on putting RMT out of business and offer RMT (if you will) from the vendor. Sure you could spend, idk 12 game hours getting that magic sword in a F2P MMO, or pay the vendor $12 to get it on the spot.

Last I checked, F2P MMOs are pulling more money than P2P, but SE, or Japan I general, will not accept this. Just look at their iphone games; $20 for a iOS game, really? That foreign to many of us on the west, but I personally agree with them (and I'm the minority there =)

I hope they stay p2p, but show me a successful p2p MMO w/o a healthy RMT community(and we know SEs stance on this)... Sad but true folks...

Edited, Sep 17th 2013 9:04pm by thatguy9927
#46 Sep 17 2013 at 7:12 PM Rating: Good
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Yup. A game that's good & popular enough should probably be P2P. I'll play some F2P games though. It may even make more sense for someone like me to play more F2P games. I'm very laid back and don't take these games seriously. I couldn't care less about being competitive and all that. They're just something for me to do to kill time. So F2P is great for allowing me to try some games I wouldn't have bothered with if they charged. Though, like I said, I expect the very best mmos out there to be charging.
#47 Sep 17 2013 at 7:21 PM Rating: Good
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1) The horse was beaten to death before he could find its free lunch.
2) In Soviet Russia, horses play free games. Sorry guys, but Comrade Stalin is dead.
3) In Capitalist America, horses will be beaten or starved to death if it considers the idea of free stuff.

(I am not sure I am making sense - may be I am reading too much absurdist humour)
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#48 Sep 18 2013 at 5:44 AM Rating: Good
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I forgot to share my experiences with LoTRO when I briefly stopped by at the start of this year. I was shocked to see what they were offering in the "Pay Store" for that game in particular with the crafting section.

* At level-1, you can purchase a crafting multi-tool which is pretty much equivalent to endgame crafting tools. This pretty much killed the crafting market for making tools and it gives paying customers early access to top of the line tools.

* You can buy universal crafting resource box which will let you use it to craft anything within your current tier. You don't need to go out to the fields to gather up different resources to work on leveling your crafter. The same universal crafting resource box can be used by any crafting class. I do believe that the crafted item is untradeable.

* You can purchase recipe packs for your entire crafting tier instead of hunting for them or buying from other players.

Have cash? You too can quickly max out your crafter as long as you keep feeding the pay store.
#49 Sep 18 2013 at 5:56 AM Rating: Default
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Wint wrote:
Smiley: deadhorse

+1

P.S. The dead horse can't speak, but if he could, i'd imagine him saying something like... "ENOUGH ALREADY!!"
#50 Sep 18 2013 at 6:02 AM Rating: Decent
Square back then also said they would never make a final fantasy on xbox 360 either and looked what happened. If the markets shift, so will Square.
#51 Sep 18 2013 at 6:08 AM Rating: Excellent
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425 posts
Allestra wrote:
I see nothing wrong with ftp

I see nothing wrong with the File Transfer Protocals either. I mean, you need them for SSH with linux and other nifty web server stuff.

:p

Edited, Sep 18th 2013 8:08am by TwilightSkye
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