So ye, many of the big titles have now moved to F2P. Star wars, Secret World and now Tera!

 

Tera's press release video is actually worth while watching, although I won't be playing it, it was quite humorous.

 

Best part of the video "Our philosophy from the beginning of this change was to add to what we already offer, instead of restricting what we already have.... this includes not taking away your existing hotbars". That certainly made me giggle! Fair play for having a dig at bio-ware, they deserved it

 

 

So these "wow-killers" have succumbed to the F2P status, and it seems like blizzard are potentially the only ones left able to charge a subscription.

 

So rather than writing a post doing nothing but having a dig at bioware, I was also wondering what people thought a "successful" F2P model would be like and what would you be willing to put up with? This question is more relevant than ever before as its unlikely there will be a new MMO without a F2P status. Questions to think about answering:

 

- Would the bioware model be acceptable for you?

- How passionate are you about the issues of gear and boosts in item shops?

- Are you still playing swtor mainly because your a star wars fan?

- Would you always take the subscription path?

- Would you prefer a F2P game that had no subscription plan offer and was entirely item shop?

 

/discuss

Edited January 10, 2013 by Antitso

I like the model of being able to choose a sub or F2P with MTs. That is likely the future of all forthcoming MMOs.

- Would the bioware model be acceptable for you?

- How passionate are you about the issues of gear and boosts in item shops?

- Are you still playing swtor mainly because your a star wars fan?

- Would you always take the subscription path?

- Would you prefer a F2P game that had no subscription plan offer and was entirely item shop?

 

I dont disagree with the Item shop, as I have paid for a few Cartel packs myself. However, quickly seeing it as a RL cash sink for utter junk 95% of the time I quickly abandoned my purchases from the Item shop.

 

I am still playing SWTOR because yes I am a fan as I grew up during the release of the original Star Wars films. I get to live out some moments as a BH, or Sith. Even this will give into boredom sooner than later with a majority of the cool guy stuff costing RL money. I want to quest and earn the rare things, not buy them and this in the end will drive me from the game even as a fan of Star Wars.

 

I will always take a subscription plan over F2P, as I believe it takes a paying player base to make a great product. I never was a fan of F2P, understanding why it has to be though. I just think you get a better quality game from a subscription player base, almost Quality over quantity.

 

- Would you prefer a F2P game that had no subscription plan offer and was entirely item shop? NO

All F2P games i´ve tried have some limitations. Ofc they have, the subscibers should feel like they get value for their sub. If instead you went B2P you could give away the full game and then add content patches via DLC.

 

If that game had to get some F2P option it didn´t need to be that restricted. Make the DLC´s cost 10% extra for F2P that could be all. Maybe something minor like people who buy the game (B2P) gets some fluff too.

 

And dont give away free gameshop currency (CC in swtor). I dont mind if you could buy the DLC´s and sell them for ingame cash to other players. Just let the gameshop currency be real money. It makes prices much more transparent.

They must be failing if they are going F2P.

 

Everyone knows that F2P means failing MMO.

 

What will we do once all MMOs fail and go F2P? What will we play!?

 

You all may now commence with the panic and accusations.

 

Begin!

So ye, many of the big titles have now moved to F2P. Star wars, Secret World and now Tera!

. Questions to think about answering:

 

- Would the bioware model be acceptable for you?

- How passionate are you about the issues of gear and boosts in item shops?

- Are you still playing swtor mainly because your a star wars fan?

- Would you always take the subscription path?

- Would you prefer a F2P game that had no subscription plan offer and was entirely item shop?

 

/discuss

 

- yes, the idea of F2P and stuff for real money is good.

Still, items on CM are too expensive, and the content in Cartel packs is not worth the money. The drop rate of some cool items is low. This makes me think that with this strategy BW/EA is aiming to milk existing fans of the game rather than trying to increase the market share.

 

- I play because the game keeps me involved, and it is different from other MMORPGs. I got tired of medieval fantasy games with orcs, elfs and other pandas.

 

- I like the flexibility wth subscription offered by BW (though F2P could be less restrictive). There are periods in my life when I can't play a lot and very often. I unsubscribe during those periods. However, F2P with preferred status still allows me to login to forums, to my characters, chat to my friends and play a bit when I have time. When I don't lose connection with the game I will definitely resub for a period when I have a lot of time to play.

 

- I choose the game to play not becaus it is sub based or F2P. First, there is fun factor.

- Would the bioware model be acceptable for you?

- How passionate are you about the issues of gear and boosts in item shops?

- Are you still playing swtor mainly because your a star wars fan?

- Would you always take the subscription path?

- Would you prefer a F2P game that had no subscription plan offer and was entirely item shop?

Let's see. Not quite sure what you mean by Bioware model, if you mean f2p but with a subscription available for those that wants less limits, that's fine with me although I personally can not stand the limitations that are put on f2p accounts so I still have a subscription. I prefer the model of GW2 and not the Secret World but I cannot answer which of the two is more financially viable for the publisher.

 

The way they have the items now being either just empty customizable sets or a piece with stats but for low levels I'm completely fine with, I would not like it if they started selling say complete War Hero or Campaign sets. The boosters I don't mind either as long as none of the original rates for XP or the like are adjusted which they weren't, they are just a nice extra for those who want to pay for it.

 

I'm currently playing SWTOR because I actually find it fun (did take a break of a couple of months a while back) and because I'm part of a guild I like playing with. I'm not really that big of a Star Wars fan, I mean, I like Star Wars, but as far as Sci-fi goes it is far from the top for me (if you can even call it Sci-fi).

 

Unless the restrictions put on f2p/preferred accounts are scaled back by quite a bit I will keep my subscription for as long as I'm playing, there are far to many restrictions on travel, xp gain, trading (for f2p) and having to pay for operations and so on that I find it pretty much unplayable without a subscription. Likely because I played the first six months or so of the game without these limitations, getting the now just doesn't work.

 

If there was no subscription that would mean f2p accounts wouldn't be so limited being the only accounts there are so that would be good, on the other hand the game would then be more likely to start doing stupid things with the item store to encourage the use of it. Without subscriptions I also get this feeling that the lifetime of the game might be shorter and the time between updates would certainly be longer as I don't think they'd be making as much money (unless you had to buy the box). In other words, wouldn't make much difference for me but it might for the game and in a negative way so might not be that good of an idea.

 

- yes, the idea of F2P and stuff for real money is good.

Still, items on CM are too expensive, and the content in Cartel packs is not worth the money. The drop rate of some cool items is low. This makes me think that with this strategy BW/EA is aiming to milk existing fans of the game rather than trying to increase the market share.

That is a good point, a lot of things are strangely expensive like all the armours they are currently adding which are from character creation, the kits basically cost as much as a month of game time does, that's not getting your money's worth. More reasonable? 450cc.

Of course, I see why they didn't want to do that as subscribers could then pick one each month. I'd argue there is little reason to give subscribers much cartel coins at all though and even so, if prices of the more expensive things go down a bit to be more realistic you can give subscribers less as well and still give them the same worth of cartel coins.

Edited January 11, 2013 by Leonick

Isn't Blizzard's new Titan MMO going Free to Play at launch?

Isn't Blizzard's new Titan MMO going Free to Play at launch?

 

Considering nobody knows anything about "Titan" outside of Blizzard, I don't think anyone knows what they're going to charge for it.

 

The market is certainly becoming over-saturated with F2P MMOs. At this point I think the different companies really need to focus on their niche.

 

BTW, OP, Rift and EVE are still sub models, not just WoW. I can see Rift caving to F2P, but EVE has been around so long that it'll probably stay fine the way it is.

Edited January 11, 2013 by chuixupu

They are moving to F2P because they are themeparks and are not worthy as a sub only game. Only Sandboxes can posses such power of having their game sub only.

i see it as the evolved financial model of future mmos. also i see player bases being no longer as large as they once were too. players now have differing tastes where some will conflict with others so mmos will no longer be everything to everyone. in other words what you really like and enjoy might be a deal breaker for me. there are just too many choices now out there and they are still coming out. in the past there really wasn't all that many. blizzard entered the market at the right time with the right thing. there are too many of "that thing" now and hence this thread.

 

investors need to understand what made blizzards' wow successful and no longer try to emulate it. timing played a tremendous role in its success and blizzard will be hard pressed to repeat it with another mmo. sure there will always be people who will now flock to a new blizzard product because it is blizzard. but also those that wont because it is blizzard too.

 

when done correctly f2p can be very profitable. but that is the issue. it has to be done where people dont think they are being nickeled and dimed to death. this mmo has unfortunately made that very mistake. perhaps in time it can change that perception but i doubt EA will do that.

IMHO the best f2p model is when a lot of people can try a game, but in the end many/most ends as subs or buying the game. SWTOR seems to be quite unplayable in full f2p mode so its definetly succesful.

After all marketing is not about providing service as desired by customers, but about finding new exiting ways to charge the sheeps from every penny they are willing to spend. ;-)

 

For me as universal gamer the whole MMO RPG genre is dead end, nothing good will born here.