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Game looks great but......
GreenChaos
Member Posts: 2,268
Free to play? Deal breaker for me. It's a shame this game looks really good.
Comments
While I understand the concerns people have about "free-to-play" games, I will be keeping an eye on this one and seeing how they handle it. You are correct that it means nothing that the game looks great if they manage to mess up their revenue model, but I'll hold out hope that they have watched and learned from the recent successes and failures of the f2p market. We'll see.
I was actually writing off Jumpgate Evolution for 2 reasons.
1. The direction they were taking the game
2. Black Prophecy
The announcement that the game will be F2P hurt my interest in the game. The fact that Jumpgate evolution has recently stated a redesign caused by player feedback basically killed my interest in Black Prophecy.
A pvp game based on a f2p model will fail. I can guarantee it will not be a similar model to guild wars, or global agenda. Shame.
http://baneoflife.com
Agreed, it is really unfortunate they had to go with a F2P publisher.
You are assuming that the item shop will be nothing but pvp advantages. Personally I am against the mass majority of item shop games, with their bait-and-switch techniques, but not all item shop games are designed the same. There are item shop games out there that offer almost no advantages to purchased items, other than saving up some easily obtainable points, or gives new skins or the such. A good example of this would be League of Legends.
While I understand the concerns people have about "free-to-play" games, I will be keeping an eye on this one and seeing how they handle it. You are correct that it means nothing that the game looks great if they manage to mess up their revenue model, but I'll hold out hope that they have watched and learned from the recent successes and failures of the f2p market. We'll see.
There are a couple of decent f2p models around so will wait and see what they offer for bp
I went from pretty excited beta candidate to heartily disgusted.
In order for F2P to be an effective model, they HAVE to provide cash shops that offer game play benefits. You can't hope your game will survive on people wanting to pay $8.00 to paint their ship dark blue instead of azure blue.
Consequently, F2P games, by their very nature, have to misrepresent the product you are "buying". I don't want to have to pay to keep random pop up advertisements from flashing across my HUD. Or to get unlimited ammo. Or whatever else they say doesn't change the game, but in reality does.
I liken F2P with knock off brands. It's perfectly fine to buy knock offs from street vendors, but you wouldn't expect to find them in a reputable established business.
Personally, it'd be nice if they'd stop covering this kind of thing at MMO. Or maybe start a new site: F2MMO.
Certainly cut back on the heaping piles of crap that seems to clutter the once awesome site.
Payment models of any game does not contribute to defining a genre such as MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game. No matter what you pay for on a MMO, if its known it should typically be listed and rated on a site like this that focuses on the MMO genre.
If you were to make a website and call it "P2MMO", it won't be as informative as a more general site like "mmorpg". You would only see what you insist to see and nothing else. To find a great quality game a gamer has to be open minded of different approaches and perhaps innovative features that get announced for developing games.
So really, just because BP aims to be F2P its not enough of a reason to dismiss the game. Despite your concerns of F2P games no one is going to lose much for at least trying it.
Maybe BP will release with more polished content than a P2P game like Star trek online... would be a shocker if it did, I will be checking out BP to compare.
F2P doesnt bother me unless it afects pvp an thats is the end game.I have played some decent free to play games that dont break the game with item shops.Saga is one,guild wars model works as well.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
It's amazing to me to see how many people simply write off a game because its free to play. They have already stated there will NOT be any combat advantage items in the item shop. Further more they have also stated that any item obtained through the item shop can be obtained by normal means it'll just take a bit longer.
There have been several successful free to play mmo's and the truth is the quality of the game is catching up example are runes of magic which is a World of Warcraft clone. People just hate to admit it but its true.
This game will be very successful and all of you that say you will not play it, you will its free after all.
Why so much against F2P?!
First of all, F2P will most likely be cheaper than paying $15/month in the long run.
Second of all, with F2P model you have no extra costs until you decide to purchase something... and you probably won't until you are pretty much sure you like the game. Unlike monthly subscription where you spend another $30-$50 for 2-3 months play just to realize the game has nothing to offer in the longer run...
Even though they can screw up if they came up with bad F2P model, the fact they decided to go with this model is not a turn off for me.
we dont know many things yet so we cant know if they will add stupid things like buyable items etc.
You should just give it a chance before you quit without even knowing anything...
Funny how people hate F2P games but yet quite a few of them have more players then wow and have a less chance of being cancled unlike P2P.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3845509852.png
if you can level the playing field by spending roughly $15/month on an item shop, then I dont mind it.
But when some douche can drop $100 in a month and have a competitive advantage, that annoys me.
The unique vantage it will have is buying XP buffs and drop rates, thay wont be selling stuff like a cannon that does bonus damage of 200% or highly increased fireing rate or booster shields, Becouse that will unbalance the game.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3845509852.png
First off, f2p does not mean cheaper, these guys arent going listen up, were going f2p becuase we will make less money.
2nd it means there not going to care about balance as much becuase they can always throw in well that is a pay item.
I think this is basicly going to be couter strike, mw2 type fps zerg fest except in space. where death means nothing you just keep spawning and heading in.
As i know someone in the game it is nothing like you just said it will be becouse it is F2P.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3845509852.png
i can count the number of games on one hand that had unbalancing or 'must have' type bonus bought from cash shop. Almost every serious mmo out there that has a cash shop sells cosmetic stuff, nothing that forces people to buy to remain competative. People need to lighten up, if its f2p and a good game and all paying does it give you cute cosmetic stuff so what
The cash shop does give you rewards that help in combat though (link). It's stuff that you can earn with no cash, but it will take a lot more time.
Ya those kinds of items don't worry me
I was just thinking on LoL, I also am a bit disappointed that the game is F2P, but I'm definitely checking it out.
LoL is free to play as well, and still it is pretty great!
Just got mail to transfer my beta registaration from blackprophecy.com to gamingo account site, Whats weird is that in that mail date is 30.04.2010 ( no mail delivery time ) just writen inside mail, so i was thinking that maybe they will announce something on that date,,or its maybe just a bug
Took the words right out of my mouth.. F2P MMO's aren't worth the time or effort to play. None of them are good simply because all of them lack what the good p2p MMORPG's have.. Also, f2p MMO's are flooded with illiterate whinny children,,,, so no thanks...
Rallithon Oakthornn
(Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
Bingo. F2P is being recognized within the industry as a more effective revenue model. In a market of a given size, your subscription fee represents a significant barrier to entry. If a certain number of people can afford your subscription fee, that's your revenue stream.
If you use a F2P model, a larger proportion of your market can afford the smaller transaction size. Usually, the curves cross, and you generate more revenue using the F2P / RMT model. This is compounded by the fact that your subscription CAPS the revenue per customer. In the F2P model, players who have the discretionary income to dump, can and will dump more than the equivalent value of the subscription on a monthly basis.
Oh, we're going to continue to see more F2P games. And not only is the quality going up sharply, but the beautiful thing about them is every one automatically has an infinite free trial. There goes another barrier to entry, filling the game with players, breathing life into the world, and letting a potentially huge number of people try them out.
Turbine took a dying subscription game in DDO and turned it into a highly viable F2P product. If you believe their reports, DDO is making a good deal more money now than it ever did as a subscription game, and their population skyrocketed, for obvious reasons.
Does that mean you haven't played any Cash Shop (CS) F2P games or are you speaking from vast experience? There are some CS games out there that actually get it right. Those that succeed have a vast assortment of items you can buy to save yourself some time but you can get any of the CS items without having to buy them, either by obtaining them from quests/drops or buying them from an Auction House where players that have baught them will sell them to you for game $$$.
I've ended up spending real money in every F2P game I've played for extended periods. I used to play P2P MMOs but I've found F2P games with a well designed CS are far superior, so I'm all F2P now and loving that I can play more games without spending more money. And if I'm tired of playing a game I can put it down for a few months to play something else without having to worry about managing subscriptions. Plus I don't think there is currently a game on the market or in production worth paying a monthly fee.
-Greater Force
To quote something from the above link:
"This is the case with a number of our other games, because, unlike at other game companies, you've often find players at the top of the rankings that haven't spent any money to get there. Exactly how this will work is still in design, but players that buy items will not gain an advantage, they will just save time. This is especially designed with players in mind that work during the day and therefore don't have time to play for hours each day but would still like to be able to keep up with their friends or their clan."
Who here doesn't think saving time is an advantage of sorts? I think its an advantage and as I fall into the demographic of not having a lot of time to play looks like I'll be strongly encouraged to buy items in the cash shop to remain competitive (in a reasonable amount of time)
Which means the game design is unimaginative, and dare I say, poor. Like most P2W games (and P2P as well) they're building in regressive leveling curves which can be reduced by purchasing items in game to reduce the pain. I hate this model of design and I'm done with it.
I much prefer EVE's model of passive skill advancement which solves my problem of not being in game to 'work' on my progression and free's me up for other activites that I find more enjoyable. (even grinding for ISK is preferable to level grinding)
I do not want to trade money for time, I want games designed that focus on having fun, and not toiling away trying to progress my character and having pay to reduce the agony.
But that's just me.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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