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Free-to-Play and Preferred Player Adjustments


DanielSteed

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Its funy how you ignore fortnite, so far no one earn that amount of money, and its F2P...

 

Ok I'll give you that Fortnight is Free to Play but is by no means Free.

 

From Money Magizine review:

Spending money on Fortnite is far from rare. A LendEDU survey discovered that nearly 70% of players said they’d made in-game purchases, with the average person splashing out $84.67 total

$84.67 that is a lot more than $15.00 for a subscription and that $15 cost is one of the loudest complaints from the Free to Play crowed. Oh and you have to buy the game as well it's not free, you forgot that....

 

Playing "Fortnite" is free, but progressing through the game's loot-unlock system is not.

 

So it's not totally free. They have restrictions for Free to Play too...

 

Are there microtransactions in Fortnite?

There are frequent opportunities for players to spend real money on items in the game. Fortnite encourages purchases such as upgrades to editions such as Deluxe and Super Deluxe, as well as in-game currency called V-Bucks to buy bonus items. (Learn how online scammers lure kids into buying fake V-Bucks.) There's also the Premium Battle Pass, a $10 subscription that lets players compete on more levels and win exclusive game skins/costumes.

 

Nice it's a Scammers Paradise there. Oh look a Subscription too.... Who would have thought that a free to play game would have a Subscription...

 

If RTM and Microtransactions are your solution to income....I will stick with a Subscription and not Free to Play.

Edited by denavin
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Ok I'll give you that Fortnight is Free to Play but is by no means Free.

 

 

Well i did not mention "free" anywhere, im talking about F2P , and how most successful "Game as a live service" use F2P monetisation system, where all money come from cosmetics items... What is contradictory to your statement that F2P model is non profitable... So either you dont know what F2P terminology exactly means, or you are outright wrong as Fortnite proves it...

 

Fortnite is not "free", Its F2P , and in its case you can play every single content in there, but if you dont pay you wont look "as cool" as those who spend RM... I dont like that game, but F2P Monetisation is well done and most profitable game to this date...

Edited by denisdenizg
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F2P are potential money income to the game. Cutting them out will reduce the player number yes, and with it the income. They had to enable F2P to survive, it was big news back then. You are not familiar with game's history and why it added second and third tier accounts, because it couldn't survive on sub alone, and your attitude is awful and hurts this game. Players can now try for free (a big trial) and pay if like, most current subs are former F2P. Having to pay to try is what would cut down subs in significant number. And with current restrictions, it cuts it to some percentage anyway, it's why they finally decided to do something about it, but unfortunately they are still not aware how to properly realize the good idea.

 

The Cartel Market was introduced at the same time, and I think it could easily be argued that the CM had far more to do with keeping SWtOR afloat than f2p.

 

If you were here at the time, you should remember that the description of the new model was not "play everything you want for free", but to pay "a la carte". In other words, pay for what's important to you rather than for a full, ongoing subscription. That's what the passes were for and that's what the unlocks were for. So people could pick and choose what they wanted to pay for.

 

Was that model a mistake? Probably, but it's too late to make any substantial changes. The industry as a whole has been floundering around in this era of micro-transactions to find a model that works. Players demand more and more from an MMO and want to pay less and less for them, which just isn't financially feasible.

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$84.67 that is a lot more than $15.00 for a subscription and that $15 cost is one of the loudest complaints from the Free to Play crowed. Oh and you have to buy the game as well it's not free, you forgot that....

 

Are you kidding? I've been preferred ever since.. its not the dollar amount, its the manner in which it is requested.

 

I fully appreciate there's a vocal part of the community that pays to show support, as their own personal gesture of charity, and this is amazing, but not the reality for many people.

 

If you as an alternative look to spend money and ask "what do I get for my money", removal of restrictions generates easily a passionate tirade of insults and rants, and sparking fires to do anything in your own power to avoid paying. Which somehow swtor's system also lets you do in many aspects. Without some very outdated subscription only moral code, or some charitable love for bioware and swtor, how the store / customer relationship works is far from ideal.

 

Meanwhile how many millions of players did eso hit?

 

Disclaimer: This post was made in the spirit of good faith, we care, and blowere care. I understand completely that these decisions are probably locked away and inflexible for whatever reason. Also the original f2p businesses model no way it was EA.. do you guys remember the 2 page long matrix of restrictions AND loopholes? That stuff could only come out of the mind of one of those 20 sided dice pen and paper rpg kind of player, Imo :)

 

EDIT: From primarily being around in the early days of f2p.. I could never shake the opinion that the business people couldn't let go of the "subscription" revenue stream. Maybe they were never ever intending to invest the post launch development to sustain a content driven game (so needed a setup where people were paying money for no development in return). Maybe the concept of SWTOR was sold to ea based on wow like subscriptions, and in the boardroom were never forgiven for the promise they made of making world of warcraft (and ea were dumb enough at the time to only look at wow and not alternatives when it didn't work out).

 

Also lastly.. the biggest shame for SWTOR wasn't really the business model.. remember between 1-2 years post f2p.. SWTOR was amazing... it was booming.. servers were packed, things were going so well. SWTOR must have been selling tonnes of gamble packs because everything was so freely available on the GTN. A real shame they didn't roll with that, rather than funnelling money out with a "better late than never kinda grudge", what else would explain fizzling like that.. and then completely screwing then game up with the dumbification patch. That to me was the only real shame in SWTOR, because the post f2p peak was glorious!

 

.... Remember when more objective subs were dropping to preferred because of lack of content (I remember the distinct price inflation). But instead of adding content, they removed the passes instead? How spiteful is that? Don't you dare stop giving us money for nothing.

Edited by stockmks
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Bottomline is more F2p players brings in new blood. every F2p players if they enjoy the game, is going to be a future sub some point. F2p players should be given more benefits to get them to enjoy the game, Preferred players should fall under the same logic as well, preferred players who enjoy the game is also going to sub in the future when there is new content, i.e. expansion.

I would suggest to appease the subs, maybe add another tier of sub? Such as premium sub tier that gives like 2k cartel coin a month for a higher monthly price? This way, we can work on our collections as well while supporting the game.

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First of all, the notion that this game is f2p is bull. U cant do anything meaningful if u r preferred. U can never step into an op, u cannot do ranked pvp (not sure y u would ever want to, but still) u get very limited reg queues. U cant even loot anything if u solo FPs more than x times a week, wth.

 

Y cant anyone just enjoy the entire game? Its fine to pay 1 months of sub just to be able to get to max lvl every now and then, but seriously, content should not be denied to anyone, period.

 

The sub feature should merely provide perks/bonuses such as the ones u get for crafting (can make 8 comps slave away at a time, u can queue up 5 things etc). Stuff like that, except more. Recustomising ur character should not cost u cartel coins, wth. I never touched that in my life. Make it free for subs.

 

Subbing should not be the way to open the door to more content, unless u just need to sub for 1 month to get to max lvl to be able to enjoy endgame.

 

What is even the point of money cap? So u cant buy stuff on GTN that is more than x amount? Last i checked u dont need a sub for the trade exchange to use it. Credits r next to worthless anyway.

 

Think about it: instead of removing limitations, how awesome would it be if subbing actually gained u bonuses? Woot! Happy costumer! Nah wait, cant have that.

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The Cartel Market was introduced at the same time, and I think it could easily be argued that the CM had far more to do with keeping SWtOR afloat than f2p.

 

If you were here at the time, you should remember that the description of the new model was not "play everything you want for free", but to pay "a la carte". In other words, pay for what's important to you rather than for a full, ongoing subscription. That's what the passes were for and that's what the unlocks were for. So people could pick and choose what they wanted to pay for.

 

Was that model a mistake? Probably, but it's too late to make any substantial changes. The industry as a whole has been floundering around in this era of micro-transactions to find a model that works. Players demand more and more from an MMO and want to pay less and less for them, which just isn't financially feasible.

 

I was there yes I remember. It was working at the time because GTN economy was benefiting free to play players. Friends were buying the passes for their free to play friends, and passes were also hosted within the credit cap on GTN (as well as the account wide unlocks but those started going above credit cap fast so it was good to buy them of GTN while you are sub which was cheap for that form anyway, for later use as pref). Those items still required real money (cartel coins) so in a way it was paid for free to play players (usually by a sub but f2p could buy them themselves too), allowing f2p accounts to actually make incomes to the company.

 

Swtor can make more money and have more players by implementing a better business model. It would benefit them as well as the players. I think that would be the final goal, the current buffs to F2P/Pref are half decade late, and removal of passes inflicted further damage.

 

Swtor has been for a very long time pay real world money to gamble. I am not talking about the cartel market alone, this one would be acceptable (if it didnt hurt the rest of the content). More so for a very long time Galactic Command was pay real world money (sub) to gamble lootboxes for real gear with stats, not for fashion. The today so called "Surprise Mechanics" were alone bleeding the subs out of the game. A sub account needs to have real value, it needs not be gamble of lootboxes (for any account status really). The difference should be in how fast you progress (earn currencies, progress bars), so that people who have full time jobs, when they pay for game they do not need to play as a full time job either and to have better cartel coins income per month as well as for example appearance changer could cost credits instead of CC. That alone should be the way free accounts do it, and then they would recognize value of subscribing ("I played with friend same content, I need to sub to catch up it saves up lot of time"). Most unlocks require CC instead credits on free accounts (and appearance changer could be done same way), you know, the things that do not divide players, not cutting out players who chose to stay F2P/Pref for the healthy population.

 

Instead we got a business model where population is divided between subs and free accounts, because they don't get to play real rewarding content together. Subs get thrown into a gamble (either between galactic command or between each other rolls) that requires full time job grind while free accounts can either chose pay to join that "premium account" to do same gambles or quit. Instead to be united.

Edited by BoySaber
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as their own personal gesture of charity, and this is amazing, but not the reality for many people.

 

I have always payed subs for my MMO's since the 90's (i don't even bother playing pure "Free" to Play games) and i assure you it has nothing to do with "gestures" or "charity", it's a service and i'm paying for said service but more importantly, paying for it also gives me the right to complain about said service. :D

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