The Death of F2P
Recently Acclaim cancelled its entire F2P line up. Rather than waiting for a staff writer (ahem) to pick up on this I thought I would put it out there. When a P2P game goes hybrid P2P/F2P we get a fanfare of staff writers wanting to talk about what it means for the MMO industry. But when a F2P goes belly up, or as here a whole stable of F2P goes south we hear nothing about what this has to say for the industry. Here or on any other site.
F2P is not the saviour of MMO finances but until their noses are rubbed in it nobody in the industry wants to recognise that F2P is not the easy solution to financial problems that they hope it is. Yes P2P has problems but that has generated a willingness in the MMO industry to look for a saviour, F2P is not a saviour, there are no easy solutions to the problems MMO’s are in currently.
Most of these games were not premier F2P by all accounts, but DDO was hardly premier P2P and look at the trumpets that sounded on this site when one P2P MMO went to a hybrid P2P/F2P model.
I notice that these F2P games which are now cancelled all still appear on this sites games list with no mention of the fact they have folded. Surely such games need their own section, not part of the main game list. I am not suggesting that the forums are deleted just separated from games which are still live. Or do old F2P games never die on the game list? I then noticed that Asheron’s Call 2 is not there, it seems P2P games do get removed, perhaps for fairness it's best cancelled F2P ones are removed as well! You can still find the AC2 forums under the forums list, thats were F2P's that are not active should go as well.
As some bright spark always tries to use DDO, Lotro or GW as examples when talking about F2P I will just point out that DDO and Lotro use a hybrid P2P/F2P system, they are not just F2P. Guild Wars has a unique ‘pay for the box’ finance model, it is not F2P.
Comments
I think its a good sign for F2P MMOs that the crappy korean ones are dieing off because that we now get western quality MMOs that offer both a better buisnes model and better gameplay.
So you could call DDO/LotrO/Eq2ex the F2P killers. It may mean that both pure F2P AND pure P2P is dieng and instead we get MMOs that will give us the choice in how we want to pay.
Personally I woldnt mind if 99% of all asian MMOs just died.
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
Can you remind me all the bunch of P2P online games under Activision wings(apart from WoW)?
They canceled becasue the hard truth is...there really is no such thing as free to play.
They wanted to make money and the concept they where using or going to use didnt work.
Any cash shop game you look at that is doing well or is successful....you can see a formula in the approach they are doing. They offer items that literaly reel the players in.
They dont force you to pay they simply make it so its too good to pass up...and if the company cannot offer that...then the free to play or cash shop models fail.
The so called hybrid model....is basicaly pay to play but they just add cash shop like items and things to their game.....hybrid and calling it that is a joke....i cannot believe the lack wits who like to call it that....they should call it what it is...a pay to play game with the ability to buy more.
Final Fantasy XI and a few other games already used that model....and some of the older games that used that model ceased not becasue the game was bad but becasue the developement team realized they could come out with a differing version of the same game and charge money all over again but with inflated rates.(a good example of this are the phantasy star online games...see in its past how it changed literally 4 times before its current version each time forcing players to make new characters and to pay a little more...for the exact same game with some improvements that would take maybe a year to create...a humbling testament of the times)
People like to argue claiming that cash shops require you to pay money to play or that they hate the model of being able to buy things in game......the cash shops dont force you to pay anything and you never have to use them....what the games do to reel people in is just a few things...on every game that uses the pay for items even hybrids you will notice the same thing....leveling becomes more and more difficult as you go up levels. The great artificial way they make the games exiting are strategicaly designed to make it more and more difficult to level....on a cash shop game or the so called hybrids most companys start with the typical item that gives you a small edge a way to level faster(WOW uses mounts, City of heroes gives powers, flyff uses exp scrolls and such, the list goes on).....a way to allow you to level up in the 100s to eventualy get to level 400(this is the actual levles for one game, there was another game i played where is maximum was equivilent to level 800 can you imagine the time it would take to get there...last i checked the highest level player was 425 or something like that) by maybe adding a 1.5 times the exp items....add enough of those that combine to give a whopping 15% bonus and you can get people to buy it(this is a concept that the gpotato group uses...not too bad you have to be impressed with the concept)...just charge a small 10 cents for the item.....10 of those would be a dollar....make it last for only an hour or so....and you can start your way to making tons of money.
Most cash shop games graduated to the next tier of items that cashes in onthe nature of players to be addicted tot he gambling aspect of the game.....in the form of offering items that may or may not give you a really great item...take a look at games fromthe perfect world group or from iiji. Atalantica was the craziest with this in my opinion...they sell some new item like a costume or travel device...in a box that you have to spend 5 dollars for....thats the conversion for it.....and when you get the box you have a 1 in 20 chance of getting the item....but if you dont they actualy put alot of other useful things in you can get.
The next step of reeling ithe players is the conversion of cash to the cash shop cash.....oh yess you can get some many of cash shop gold or you can spend a little more and get a percentage more....
Now i realize i went off the topic....but thats just how it works....
This is not a bad thing....no matter what people say this isnt bad...eventualy the next stage of this evolution will be for the cash shops to give things back.....
There was a short story(It was called Catacomb was featured in an old Dragon Magazine you can look it up... the writer wrote about conepts that where simply brilliant) written a while back that had a game in it where people could pay to play...doing so allowed them to access the game from anywhere they wanted...also gave them in game items and such...but it also had a another feature....inside the game it had special items and treasures that could be collected and turned in....and at the end of the month people would get cash back for whatever they turned in...
This i believe will be the eventual way games will work...they will be ones you can pay per month which will literaly have your character controlled and doing things while you are offline....if you dont pay to play your character will simply be inactive...you will also have the option to buy the usual costumes and items to help you level or whatever and then you will also have the ability to find items and things to turn in to get cash back...that will be I am sure the eventual model all games will follow.
The concept of the character doing things while you are offline is simply another feature where people will slowly keep there skills or have a chance to get things while they dont play...its a concept that capture those players who dont mind the system like in EVE where you train skills in real time...whether you play or not.
ANywise thats the truth....free to play or rather the cash shop games will never die...they will simply improve and eventualy the developers will realize what they need to do to make them successful. and they will all follow the same paths.
I realize people will definately disagree with what i have written...and thats a good thing....but i hope after reading what i have put here they will also go and look at what there is and think for themselves and not just say the typical spoon fed rubbish the industry has been handing out lately....and look at the concepts and ideas some of these companies have done...i have to say some of them are simply brilliant...and if i had my way i would combine alot of the game concepts and cash shop concepts and make one super game.
i played one FTP mmo in my life and i sayd i would never again play one.
The whole paying for items ingame with real money just isnt right (TOO greedy for my taste).
PTP is paying for using their servers and their support......that i can live with and am happy to pay for that.
Maybe I'm wrong but I've witnessed the opposite. That is more cash shop games or free to play games than subscription based games. The only real exception I see is AAA titles.
BTW: as for mho i realy hope ALL these FTP games die a horrible death
If you dont want to pay for an mmo then dont play it......simple as that.
go play single player games who have online features (NFS series.....not talking NFS world or like SC2....single player game with options to go compete against other players without monthly subs.)
Just an FYI, Activision/Blizzard is just fine. Its Acclaim that is the one that got bought out 3 months ago by Playdom and they just now shut the publisher down. Think their biggest f2p MMO was 9dragons?
[url=http://www.enjin.com][img]http://sigs.enjin.com/sig-swtor
Thank you for telling me what to do! I would be completely lost without you!
Still, I prefer to decide on my own rather than avid, unreasonable hate of someone else.
let me make my post clear:
mho = my honest opinion (just mine....not forcing anyone to listen to it it any way)
So when stating what i think i am forcing you to do something you dont want?
Sorry to see you feel attacked by my post, i didnt mean to attack anyone with it.
Al i wanted to say is that there are other options then MMO games if you dont like them, thats all.
Hate??? where did i put it into a hate post??? just because i (that is i as in JUST ME to be clear about it) would realy like to see the FTP games gone.....thats all.
No hard feelings (just to be sure you dont think i am attacking you again).
lolz
greetz
Sloeber
Down with F2P and Cash Shop based games.
It's not good that one person can buy items in games to get an advantage over someone who can't/won't spend as much. I've known some players to spend over 10k USD on a single game character.
totaly agree with you on that one......some people are already in alot of depts as it is.
All players should be treated the same....not the one with more money gets more items.....just dont seems fair.
Thanks for pointing that out it was Acclaim not Activision!
Here is a list of their games which was compiled by popinjay (credit due):
BOTS!!
9Dragons
2Moons
Dance! Online
Ponystars
My Diva Doll
Tribal Nations
Prize Potato
The Chronicles of Spellborn
Knight's Blood
Muniz Online
TrackMania
PrizeIsland
Top Secret
RockFree and RockRiot
Ninja Clans
Rush Fighters
Many of these never made the MMORPG game list, but those that were on the list are still there. Early days yet as the cancellations are recent, but I do wonder when will they be removed from the game list?
So a company was bought by major social game company - Playdom, who canceled all client based projects and planned to focus on what they do - produce flash games.
At that same year, just a couple months later, Playdom was bought by Disney Interactive and you are here with a thread title: 'The Death of F2P' drawing out your spectacular conclusions from the events?
Dude, take a break. Trying to troll a bit too much...
F2p is immoral and no one should support that model.
When you have teams bragging about having an average of 50$ from each player.. when the majority of players play 0 or almost 0, this means they are extorting a very large amount out of those few people with pathological spending problems, and that's just wrong.
It's more complicated than that, but if you think about it based on that, you might 'get' what I am trying to say.
I think the F2P industry needs to be regulated.
And what is the problem? I am more than happy to have someone spend $10k subsidizing my gaming fun.
What is wrong? It is not like they are forced to spend money to subsidize my games.
Terrible old Asian F2P games (KnightOnline, Kal Online, 2Moons etc are "dieing " for sure. But they are being replaced by better quality ones (Runes of Magic, Allods, Aika). So the way I see it F2P games are not dieing but evolving. Really crappy ones die and better ones replace them. F2P games are not going anywhere. Face it and learn to live with it.
It's interesting to me to see the paradigme shift from people who have the most time to gain an advantage in an MMO to who has the most money. It's the same argument and always will be. Whoever has the most resources, whether it be time, money or whatever else, wins. It's a problem if you perceive it as one, that will never be solved because someone is always going to have more of something than someone else. It's just the way it is.
I think you are confusing correlation with causation. The F2P games that went under were just plain bad games. F2P is here and is here to stay. Have *no* doubts that the industry is well aware of the obscene profits that Farmville and their ilk have made...they are *all* working on how to integrate such models into their games. WoW has had an alternate model of such a store for a while (in the form of collectible cards...buy enough cards and you get in-game items...functionally the same as a shop).
F2P does not necessarily mean failure (DDO happens to be one of the few bigger name efforts that tried it...and it worked quite well for them). P2P does not necessarily mean success (Tabula Rasa quickly comes to mind, but there are plenty of others that had P2P that were spectacular failures). Some games simply resonant better with players than others *regardless* of pay model.
I think part of the test will be to see how well LOTRO does in the coming months.
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This right here. Most F2P games ARE crap with a few notable exceptions. I'd argue that the P2P market isn't much different.
Nobody is saying that F2P is an automatic success for a game, and likely one of the many reasons MMORPG or others don't hone in on such stories is because those games never generated enough buzz to begin with.
A game, ANY GAME, has to be:
Worth playing
Competitively priced
Profitable
F2P games of the Acclaim variety are barely worth playing for free. And now with EQ2, LotRO, and DDO going hybrid, they are no longer competitive.
so you're saying we need to make those people that spend thousands of dollars on F2P MMO's stop? umm...why? because you don't like it? to make F2P's fail? it's their money, if they want to spent it on a F2P game that's their choice.
this ^
i think we are all missing the point here.....P2P isnt going to die and neither will F2P and there is no need for something like that to happen there are tons of MMORPG's out here other are P2P others are F2P some of them might be crappy some of them have fresh features all im trying to say is that we have THE OPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE!!! we can choose to either play a f2p game or a p2p one and from my experience ive heard a lot of people crying about not having enough choices about all kinds of stuff and as far as the mmo industry is concerned we have enough pay styles so every1 should be happy.
BUT NO.....there are still people that want to a certain pay type to die simply because they dont like it.....and thats from both sides and im really sad and upset about this i mean how would a WoW player feel if his game that he/she had so much fun with died out simply because some of the f2p gamers hate p2p games and that goes for every1 in every mmorpg ur playing
ohhh. and before people start putting tags id like to say that ive been playing MMORPG's for 4-5 years now ive played WoW, Lotro (when it was a sub game) , GW , Fiesta Online , Runescape , Runes of Magic , and ive tried a lot of other games too And also ive never spent a single cent for the F2P ones all im trying to say is that u should be happy that u are able to choose
For the record, it still is a sub game. Just, as you said, you now have a CHOICE between that and an ala' carte model.
Other than that clarification, I agree 100%.
Also, for the record, I'm still keeping my sub to LotRO. It was worth a sub before, and I suspect it will be worth a sub, after.