It will be hilarious if SWG ever goes F2P and then still loses players. NGE = Not Good Enough
NGE=Not Good Enough? If it wasn't for the CU or the NGE, I wouldn't have played SWG as long as I did. Which I played the game between June 2004 through May 2008. I only stopped because evevn their new content always felt like.........been there, done that. Just new story and new NPC boss. But I would go back SWG, if it was free to play. SWG is the reason I started playing MMOs. I didn't even know what a MMO was before SWG and I've been playing PC and console video games since 1983, when I was 5 years old. I had an Atari 2600 and a Commodore 64. So I've been gaming awhile, but I just didn't take notice of the MMO genre til SWG was announced.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
Hrm, , both STO and Champions are actualy getting a slow but stable increase of players.
CO is pulling more and more players from CoX seeing the comments in the chat chatter, those who tried out cox after CO are not able to reteurn/enjoy its long slow grind compared to the better grapics and fast level gain. not to mentions the classless system.
sure it got a store for cosmetic items but do mention that almost al items are unlockable Ingame. just the easy way to pay for it.
both games have some very obvious flaws but I doubt F2P would make that instandly go away. ... . thus ending whit the same "problems" discriped.
I would not mind CO going F2P whit c-store tho. aslong they get a more modern payment system in place. only CC and Paypal is a bit little.
Fallen Earth needs to go f2p so i can afford to play it again lol..
Seriously idk what they'd charge but i think the game would find a boost of population if they go f2p..
But yeah for a very long time i was only a p2p MMO player.. I never took the f2p market seriously, putting the games off as childish ot pay2win games.. But that all changed when i lost my job and needed something to get my MMO fix with.. I'am now a heavy f2p MMO'er and i have actually spent $$ in the cash shop so i know there's a future with this if a game company can do it right.
Currently Playing: Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
If Vanguard were free I would definitely play it. I liked a lot of what it had to offer: diplomacy, crafting, all the races and professions. Just not enough to pay a monthly fee for a dying game.
Exactly this. And I do think that going F2P would save this game.
It is already common knowledge that SOE is where games go to die. Vanguard was already a hit before it released but news that SOE took over was a nail in it's coffin. SWG was another addition to the SOE graveyard. So other than EQ, any F2P model offered by SOE will be tainted with fail due to SOE's lack of life given to these games.
Are the hybrid revenue models doing better? Currently we have one DDO, LotRO just launched. Do we know they are making more money? Despite the hard fact that such questions are commercial secrets DDO’s hybrid model is hailed as a success.
I think they are making more money the question is are they making enough to really make a difference and pull new paying players in? Have they lavished new content on DDO, investment would indicate that they have more revenue. I am talking real new content hear, not some dresses and xp potions?
Because variety is fun and prevents burn out. On some days, the player might like to cut something with a sword while on another day, they might want to pilot a spaceship.
Even filet mignon gets stale if eaten every single night.
As many have stated before, some people do put money in a F2P and some put a great deal more in a F2P than a P2P. If they want to spend on a luxury garage with all the bells and whistles, more power to them. If they don't want to pay for a garage, they can always park out in the open.
Just play the damn F2P MMO that are already F2P !!! Stop begging that every damn single fucking MMO become F2P.... dammit...
And what is the part about a burnout ? Seriously ? Who can get a damn burnout from a game ? You must hope you wont be working soon... 30 hours a week : burnout, 40 hours a week : unconscious, 50 hours a week : Dead !
cant believe it.... just cant...
I think you're confusing me with some other poster. I'm not begging that every single MMO become F2P. I don't keep track of what MMOs are out there nor do I care that they become F2P.
Lots of people get burnout from games. It's pretty apparent from reading posts on various games' forums on which posters are burnt out from the games they're playing and sometimes they outright state that they are quitting a game because they're burnt out from it.
I've been working for over a decade and I work 49 hours on a regular week (those weeks that don't involve overtime). This leaves me one or two hours per night for video games and other fun activites. On most nights that I do play video games, I spend the time in a F2P that I've been having fun in for close to 3 years. Occasionally, I'd like to mix it up by returning to an older F2P MMO (to see the updates or check out the community) or trying a completely new one. That I can return to those games at any time without the need to keep up a subscription is a very huge appeal to me.
I don't play entirely for free in those F2P games though. If the game is polished and fun, then I'll put some money in it. A $100/month is a drop in the bucket to me (impulse buy). I like that I can put in $2000 or even $10000 if I wanted to. Time on the other hand, is what I'm short on and there is an upper limit on what can be squeezed out as there is only 24 hours a day afterall.
People solve burnout at work by switching projects or jobs. At my particular workplace, when people get bored (or burnt out), they switch projects and can be reassigned to other states (in the US) and even other countries such as Japan and Saudi Arabia.
Are the hybrid revenue models doing better? Currently we have one DDO, LotRO just launched. Do we know they are making more money? Despite the hard fact that such questions are commercial secrets DDO’s hybrid model is hailed as a success.
I think they are making more money the question is are they making enough to really make a difference and pull new paying players in? Have they lavished new content on DDO, investment would indicate that they have more revenue. I am talking real new content hear, not some dresses and xp potions?
Update 3 was the first update after they changed to F2P. Update 6 was recently released.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
i guess you all are so closed minded you have no idea about the whole global thing wa have? a round planet with more then your puny markets?
yes asians have used the fre to play model with a cash shop for over a decade. its NEW to you puny minded people because you are narrow minded and can only see hwat you want to see.
internet cafes and free 2 play games is a great profitable business model. heres a f20 game that hase thousands of players and was produced to be free to play Voyage Century Online. it makes money hand over fist. of course its a pay ti win game and cash shop but it is very profitable.
there are hundreds of free to play with im games you people dont bother to think outside the box, only see whats on your monitor. try putting your monitor in front of a window so you can be reminded youre a real person not a automon.
oh and for the record WARNER BROTHERS owns turbine now so it can be attributed to Warner co. for the free to play aspects of the future, that is the reason its other sub game isnt on this list as warner will wait until lotro runs for a while before reading the data.
i see several people who seem smart repling there but so many numbskulls who have not the first clue what a mmorpg is supposed to play like.
sad to see people fail to research the hobby they choose and just blather on about things they know absolutely nothing about.
rofl, its pretty funny you all spend more time on a mmorpg forum instead of playign the games you oh so enjoy discussing liek you were a part of the communities or dev processes. what a hoot and what a bunch of phoney people.
i guess you all are so closed minded you have no idea about the whole global thing wa have? a round planet with more then your puny markets?
yes asians have used the fre to play model with a cash shop for over a decade. its NEW to you puny minded people because you are narrow minded and can only see hwat you want to see.
internet cafes and free 2 play games is a great profitable business model. heres a f20 game that hase thousands of players and was produced to be free to play Voyage Century Online. it makes money hand over fist. of course its a pay ti win game and cash shop but it is very profitable.
there are hundreds of free to play with im games you people dont bother to think outside the box, only see whats on your monitor. try putting your monitor in front of a window so you can be reminded youre a real person not a automon.
oh and for the record WARNER BROTHERS owns turbine now so it can be attributed to Warner co. for the free to play aspects of the future, that is the reason its other sub game isnt on this list as warner will wait until lotro runs for a while before reading the data.
i see several people who seem smart repling there but so many numbskulls who have not the first clue what a mmorpg is supposed to play like.
sad to see people fail to research the hobby they choose and just blather on about things they know absolutely nothing about.
rofl, its pretty funny you all spend more time on a mmorpg forum instead of playign the games you oh so enjoy discussing liek you were a part of the communities or dev processes. what a hoot and what a bunch of phoney people.
Your first post is a big insult to everyone on the site? OK.
Just a tip: some people actually have computer access at work (I know, what a shock), so they can post but most can't play.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Warhammer online wont be f2p. It would totally ruin the whole point of the game.
I currently play WAR and I can only say that we had enough of these chinese/asian tendencies i.e gold seller/powerlvler spammers. To make a wrong turn and make it f2p(with other words make a western game asian) would ruin it all. A game that is based on character and player skills to gain progress the f2p model could only make it totally unfair. Beside the carrie said that f2p wasn't a option at this time.
F2p is never a winning model. In asian f2p you only have the eternal grinding and the expensive item mall, with barely any game updates(and those updates who come are more than often full of bugs and flaws) and no quality at all. Asian f2p games give a feeling that the game developers only ambition is to earn cash. Real game developers makes game with passion and have ambitions to make a game that players want. In western f2p games you only see failure, less succesful game with no value(i.e DDO and LOTRO). They fail and they make them f2p to save whats able to save, ofc the f2p players get intrested but gamers like my self move on.
I dont encourage people to play f2p games since they're very expencive, lacks quality and they have no ambition to become anything in the world of gaming.
Pay the 12.99 euro a month and PLAY your way to the top and dont PAY to get there.
Vack have you tried LotRO after it went F2P? I'm guessing not because while it wasn't designed from the ground up as F2P it's doing a very good job of transitioning. All Lifetime/current subscribers get access to all content everywhere, for us it feels like nothing has changed, except a whole new zone and some of the best old instances are back at level cap. The only things we can't get from loot tables are a handful of cosmetic items and increased vault/wardrobe/shared-storage space. On top of that we get 500TP a month.
Now that 500TP is just enough to whet your appetite for all the cool little things like increased skirmish mark aquisition (also purchasable with Destiny Points earned for free by leveling and raiding.) and stat tomes if you don't want to raid to get those. With the stat tomes you can only buy 3/5 for every stat as the last two tiers are raid drops only.
All this coolness that we VIPs get, premium and free players have to unlock it with TP, everything from quest packs (VIPs get free) to Trait Slots (VIPs get free), any destiny point perks can be unlocked one perk at a time or equivilant items can be purchased from the store.
So me and my fellow VIPs really don't have to buy anything from the store just to compete, doesn't mean we wont but we're not forced to "Pay to Win". Even free players can't "Pay to Win" they're really "Paying to Compete" which IMO is totally fair since VIPs pay a subscription (lifetime or monthly) so it just evens things out.
If a free player doesn't really care about endgame content and just likes running around the shire it's not going to cost them a lot and what it does cost they actually earn points by completing deeds (as can VIPs) so it's actually a very balanced system and as a VIP I'm enjoying all the new content, some of the cool cosmetics from the store and seeing a lot of old friends coming back as well as a ton of new faces.
F2P is working great so far for LotRO and is a great example of a good transition.
Since the games mentioned in the article are "old" games with the exception of Star Trek, why would you want to go back and play an "old" game you left, even if the game became a "FTP"?
I find it funny that prior to the whole F2P craze, P2P did just fine and no one ever second-guessed it. People bought the boxes, paid the subs, and played.... this lasted just fine for about a decade. And, in a number of cases, it's still working just fine.
Yet, you have people who like to think in absolutes out there now arguing that "P2P doesn't work anymore and F2P is the only viable way to go". Of course P2P still works. It still *is* working. The trick is to create a game that enough people find *worth the subscription fee* to pay for. Several developers over the past 5 or 6 years have failed to pull that off.
Their failure - at least in part, in my own opinion - is that instead of trying to forge their own identity and providing a unique experience (like the old school MMOs were), they were trying to ride WoW's coat-tails by trying to capture Blizzard's lightning. One after another, they failed, and players became more and more disenchanted, and more and more cynical.
And of course there's that word "free". People are drawn in by the word. All their "standards" and "demands" and "expectations" fly out the window the moment they realize there isn't a price attached to something. *Especially* if it's a AAA title making the switch. Look at DDO for example... That game was failing, absolutely, as a P2P MMO. It simply wasn't retaining enough subs to remain healthy. Turbine made the switch to their Hybrid model and, holy crap, you'd think the heavens parted and released a gift to the F2P crowd. People were so enamoured by the fact that a "AAA Quality" MMO had gone F2P that they completely overlooked the fact that it was a steadily sinking ship as P2P.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... when a MMO that was on its way down the tubes as P2P becomes the Darling of the F2P market... that's painting a pretty sad picture of F2P overall. And yet, some F2P advocates, such as Richard Aioshi here on MMORPG.com, can't understand why many people will only play P2P titles and won't touch F2P games, citing inferior quality as a common reason.
I just wanted to point out, very, very, good post! I 100% agree with what you had to say. Personally it is a sad market and I know this sounds horridly twisted of me, but I look down on F2P games. The 'cool' kids in the MMO world are the P2P games. They're so good that they can actually get people to pay to play them. F2P games are in some ways failures, and lack any real quality hence no one wants to pay for them untill they play them and get hooked. The fact that LoTRO is going F2P shows me that that game is going down the tubes, but I've felt that way for a year or so now.
I agree developers need to start making up new visions of MMOs. These days every MMO plays so much like the other that I don't even bother opening the books that come with them I just pop it in, load it up, and play away as if I'd been playing it for months. I remember going from UO to EQ1 and then to AC back in the day took a while to get used to them. Now MMOs are literally cookie-cutter copies of eachother.
As a LotRO lifer since 2007 I'd have to say LotRO is far from going down the tubes, the game was doing well on a P2P model, true we'd lost some players but the number of new players was enough to offset that from everything I've seen. True some of the things the Devs have started adding to the game such as an absurd amount of barter items or the balancing issues that plauged Moria and the gimmicky boss fights of Mirkwood have been frustrating. Those issues have been for the most part worked out and the new Enedwaith expansion feel a more like the old SoA days so I think the game will keep improving.
LotRO F2P is merely a way to bring back old players who got tired and aren't sure if they want to keep playing. I've seen so many of my old friends come back just in the first week or so of F2P and they're already re-subbing and there are so many new players in the starting zone that the game can't help but go up from here. With F2P lifetime subs like me can actually start paying a little to support the game so we're no longer just deadweights and with all the new subs and Froobs (free noobs) spending TP there will be more money to pump into updates and expansions.
The Turbine Model for F2P could be applied to most P2P games and would see an increase in players, subs and revenue. People have said it before in the comments, but it bears saying again there is a world of difference between the Turbine Model and the standard F2P model and while I would most likely not play a traditional F2P I'd be more than likely to try one that uses the Turbine Model.
I still dont belive that Warhammer isn't free to play. Its perfect for it. It tells you everything about how poor job Bioware/Mythic/EA are doing still leaving this game under sub and expecting ppl to pay for "extra content".
Warhammer online is already the biggest grind you will ever find in any MMO game (including Asian games). Im sorry but 100 levels of renown is something that you would have to pay me for spending time on in normal sub.... Its total...utter waste of time, effort and money.
Im just speachless that even to this day there are STILL making the wrong dissions when it comes to WAR...
Warhammer and Age of conan will never go free, period.
Champion online will be free for sure. Dont know about lineage 2. Fallen earth deserve to be free, so i dont know why they did not list it.
Age of Conan is going F2P cashshop in Asia already.
WAR is dying faster than anyone could belive at this stage. And there is nothing ... absolutly NOTHING on the horizon for the game to keep even fraction of the playerbase... not to mention new recruits that will never show up for the next 3 way dlc extra expensive package (based on the Bioware normal DLC modules)....
I think ppl do not really understand how bad state WAR really is in. At this point in time it looks so bad that devs and EA/Mythic are not gonna do Anything at all - just to prevent them loosing even more money on the game. Thats sad cause WAR would ROCK as F2P title.
AOCtester, did you seriously just call one of the most casual mmo's in existance the biggest grind ever?
Not even to mention you don't have 100 lvls of renown yet in WAR in the first place.
If you think WAR is difficult, or grindy, then you should stick with a coloring book.
Erm... you played on minority servers ?
Do the calculations and it would take factions on some of those servers over 2 years to get to rank 80. And ofc they are just gonna add 20 more to make it even more grindy....
Warhammer online wont be f2p. It would totally ruin the whole point of the game.
I currently play WAR and I can only say that we had enough of these chinese/asian tendencies i.e gold seller/powerlvler spammers. To make a wrong turn and make it f2p(with other words make a western game asian) would ruin it all. A game that is based on character and player skills to gain progress the f2p model could only make it totally unfair. Beside the carrie said that f2p wasn't a option at this time.
F2p is never a winning model. In asian f2p you only have the eternal grinding and the expensive item mall, with barely any game updates(and those updates who come are more than often full of bugs and flaws) and no quality at all. Asian f2p games give a feeling that the game developers only ambition is to earn cash. Real game developers makes game with passion and have ambitions to make a game that players want. In western f2p games you only see failure, less succesful game with no value(i.e DDO and LOTRO). They fail and they make them f2p to save whats able to save, ofc the f2p players get intrested but gamers like my self move on.
I dont encourage people to play f2p games since they're very expencive, lacks quality and they have no ambition to become anything in the world of gaming.
Pay the 12.99 euro a month and PLAY your way to the top and dont PAY to get there.
Warhammer as f2p? No thanks!
/a WAR player
LOL at your Lack Of Logic and racisism Holst! Yes I agree goldfarmers and powerleveling services suck, unblance games, generate spam in chat channels and dump max leveled players who have no idea what they're doing into the game. However that does not make everything Asian bad like you say it does that's just being racist and bigoted. Also by saying F2P is bad because it's Asian on top of being racist and bigoted is an Ad Hominem or attack on the man failure of logic. F2P especially the Turbine Model has a lot of potential and can make the game more accessible to other people who can't afford a monthly sub.
You say that asian devs are nothing more than money grubbing player haters who are wholy evil and western devs are the angels of light who make games because they love their players and want them to have fun. Let me correct your racists niavete, while individual devs in probably almost every case regardless of their ethnicity or where they live in the world want to make fun and enjoyable games it's also their job which means the games have to make money for the company so that the company can pay the devs. So you're bigotry is wrong again.
Last thing I'm going to touch on is that you feel that LotRO is a failure. Not because you've played pre and post F2P or probably ever. Nor because you've seen how much money it's making or any concrete evidence that it's a failure. No your entire ASSUMPTION is bases on the fact that LotRO is a failure because it's going F2P and your bigotry just knows that anything F2P is a failure because F2P is "inherently" asian in concept and your Racism makes you positive that anything asian is a failure. You sir are a racist, a bigot and completely illogical, please keep your idiocy to yourself from now on.
Originally posted by muertepk
i guess you all are so closed minded you have no idea about the whole global thing wa have? a round planet with more then your puny markets?
yes asians have used the fre to play model with a cash shop for over a decade. its NEW to you puny minded people because you are narrow minded and can only see hwat you want to see.
internet cafes and free 2 play games is a great profitable business model. heres a f20 game that hase thousands of players and was produced to be free to play Voyage Century Online. it makes money hand over fist. of course its a pay ti win game and cash shop but it is very profitable.
there are hundreds of free to play with im games you people dont bother to think outside the box, only see whats on your monitor. try putting your monitor in front of a window so you can be reminded youre a real person not a automon.
oh and for the record WARNER BROTHERS owns turbine now so it can be attributed to Warner co. for the free to play aspects of the future, that is the reason its other sub game isnt on this list as warner will wait until lotro runs for a while before reading the data.
i see several people who seem smart repling there but so many numbskulls who have not the first clue what a mmorpg is supposed to play like.
sad to see people fail to research the hobby they choose and just blather on about things they know absolutely nothing about.
rofl, its pretty funny you all spend more time on a mmorpg forum instead of playign the games you oh so enjoy discussing liek you were a part of the communities or dev processes. what a hoot and what a bunch of phoney people.
lol Muertepk thanks for the laughs . We understand the world is round and that there are many more markets than the western one, thing is we don't live in those other markets. Over here we don't really have cyber cafes because most people own a computer and have internet where they live. Personally I would like to see some cybercafes and restraunts like the ones I enjoyed in Hong Kong, they have a fun and friendly atmosphere where you get to meet people with similar interests.
As for why our "puny minds" haven't moved away from subscription based models till now. It's because the companies that made the high quality games didn't feel the need and we the players didn't mind paying a monthly fee to play our favorite games. Subscriptions are a very stable payment platform which companies like because they provide steady revenue. Free to play is riskier because people may not spend money in the store or they may not spend as much as they would with a monthly sub. Yet it can pay off more if you're willing to take the risk because people are more likely to play a game that says "Free" and will often succumb to buying stuff from ingame stores on an impulse. You add up all those new people and all their impulse buys and it can be a nice chunk of change, but it's not as stable as subs.
You say Voyage Century Online is a pay to win game which undermines everything you've been saying. We don't want pay to win, we want to win on our own merits using our own skill not cause we bought stuff from the game store. And yes there are many free to play games, but in our market most games that are free to play have been underwhelming and not worth our time, so for us having games that are actually good and fun go to the Turbine Model is new and controversial. By the way Warner Bros may have bought Turbine but the transition from subscription to the hybrid Turbine Model was in the works before that.
Comments
NGE=Not Good Enough? If it wasn't for the CU or the NGE, I wouldn't have played SWG as long as I did. Which I played the game between June 2004 through May 2008. I only stopped because evevn their new content always felt like.........been there, done that. Just new story and new NPC boss. But I would go back SWG, if it was free to play. SWG is the reason I started playing MMOs. I didn't even know what a MMO was before SWG and I've been playing PC and console video games since 1983, when I was 5 years old. I had an Atari 2600 and a Commodore 64. So I've been gaming awhile, but I just didn't take notice of the MMO genre til SWG was announced.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
SWG
MO - lulz
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
Games should follow the Guild Wars economic model.
Buy to play, In-Game Shop to buy extra character slots, name change, etc etc. (With the exception of buying every skill pack)
City of Heroes has a good item shop, that's to say that it still is p2p....
Hrm, , both STO and Champions are actualy getting a slow but stable increase of players.
CO is pulling more and more players from CoX seeing the comments in the chat chatter, those who tried out cox after CO are not able to reteurn/enjoy its long slow grind compared to the better grapics and fast level gain. not to mentions the classless system.
sure it got a store for cosmetic items but do mention that almost al items are unlockable Ingame. just the easy way to pay for it.
both games have some very obvious flaws but I doubt F2P would make that instandly go away. ... . thus ending whit the same "problems" discriped.
I would not mind CO going F2P whit c-store tho. aslong they get a more modern payment system in place. only CC and Paypal is a bit little.
Fallen Earth needs to go f2p so i can afford to play it again lol..
Seriously idk what they'd charge but i think the game would find a boost of population if they go f2p..
But yeah for a very long time i was only a p2p MMO player.. I never took the f2p market seriously, putting the games off as childish ot pay2win games.. But that all changed when i lost my job and needed something to get my MMO fix with.. I'am now a heavy f2p MMO'er and i have actually spent $$ in the cash shop so i know there's a future with this if a game company can do it right.
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Exactly this. And I do think that going F2P would save this game.
It is already common knowledge that SOE is where games go to die. Vanguard was already a hit before it released but news that SOE took over was a nail in it's coffin. SWG was another addition to the SOE graveyard. So other than EQ, any F2P model offered by SOE will be tainted with fail due to SOE's lack of life given to these games.
Are the hybrid revenue models doing better? Currently we have one DDO, LotRO just launched. Do we know they are making more money? Despite the hard fact that such questions are commercial secrets DDO’s hybrid model is hailed as a success.
I think they are making more money the question is are they making enough to really make a difference and pull new paying players in? Have they lavished new content on DDO, investment would indicate that they have more revenue. I am talking real new content hear, not some dresses and xp potions?
Warhammer and Age of conan will never go free, period.
Champion online will be free for sure. Dont know about lineage 2. Fallen earth deserve to be free, so i dont know why they did not list it.
C:\Users\FF\Desktop\spin move.gif
I think you're confusing me with some other poster. I'm not begging that every single MMO become F2P. I don't keep track of what MMOs are out there nor do I care that they become F2P.
Lots of people get burnout from games. It's pretty apparent from reading posts on various games' forums on which posters are burnt out from the games they're playing and sometimes they outright state that they are quitting a game because they're burnt out from it.
I've been working for over a decade and I work 49 hours on a regular week (those weeks that don't involve overtime). This leaves me one or two hours per night for video games and other fun activites. On most nights that I do play video games, I spend the time in a F2P that I've been having fun in for close to 3 years. Occasionally, I'd like to mix it up by returning to an older F2P MMO (to see the updates or check out the community) or trying a completely new one. That I can return to those games at any time without the need to keep up a subscription is a very huge appeal to me.
I don't play entirely for free in those F2P games though. If the game is polished and fun, then I'll put some money in it. A $100/month is a drop in the bucket to me (impulse buy). I like that I can put in $2000 or even $10000 if I wanted to. Time on the other hand, is what I'm short on and there is an upper limit on what can be squeezed out as there is only 24 hours a day afterall.
People solve burnout at work by switching projects or jobs. At my particular workplace, when people get bored (or burnt out), they switch projects and can be reassigned to other states (in the US) and even other countries such as Japan and Saudi Arabia.
http://www.ddo.com/ddogameinfo/46-game-info
Update 3 was the first update after they changed to F2P. Update 6 was recently released.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
i guess you all are so closed minded you have no idea about the whole global thing wa have? a round planet with more then your puny markets?
yes asians have used the fre to play model with a cash shop for over a decade. its NEW to you puny minded people because you are narrow minded and can only see hwat you want to see.
internet cafes and free 2 play games is a great profitable business model. heres a f20 game that hase thousands of players and was produced to be free to play Voyage Century Online. it makes money hand over fist. of course its a pay ti win game and cash shop but it is very profitable.
there are hundreds of free to play with im games you people dont bother to think outside the box, only see whats on your monitor. try putting your monitor in front of a window so you can be reminded youre a real person not a automon.
oh and for the record WARNER BROTHERS owns turbine now so it can be attributed to Warner co. for the free to play aspects of the future, that is the reason its other sub game isnt on this list as warner will wait until lotro runs for a while before reading the data.
i see several people who seem smart repling there but so many numbskulls who have not the first clue what a mmorpg is supposed to play like.
sad to see people fail to research the hobby they choose and just blather on about things they know absolutely nothing about.
rofl, its pretty funny you all spend more time on a mmorpg forum instead of playign the games you oh so enjoy discussing liek you were a part of the communities or dev processes. what a hoot and what a bunch of phoney people.
Your first post is a big insult to everyone on the site? OK.
Just a tip: some people actually have computer access at work (I know, what a shock), so they can post but most can't play.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
hopefully EQ1. I revisit that game for nostalgia from time to time before getting annoyed and leaving. Going free will save me that expense
Warhammer online wont be f2p. It would totally ruin the whole point of the game.
I currently play WAR and I can only say that we had enough of these chinese/asian tendencies i.e gold seller/powerlvler spammers. To make a wrong turn and make it f2p(with other words make a western game asian) would ruin it all. A game that is based on character and player skills to gain progress the f2p model could only make it totally unfair. Beside the carrie said that f2p wasn't a option at this time.
F2p is never a winning model. In asian f2p you only have the eternal grinding and the expensive item mall, with barely any game updates(and those updates who come are more than often full of bugs and flaws) and no quality at all. Asian f2p games give a feeling that the game developers only ambition is to earn cash. Real game developers makes game with passion and have ambitions to make a game that players want. In western f2p games you only see failure, less succesful game with no value(i.e DDO and LOTRO). They fail and they make them f2p to save whats able to save, ofc the f2p players get intrested but gamers like my self move on.
I dont encourage people to play f2p games since they're very expencive, lacks quality and they have no ambition to become anything in the world of gaming.
Pay the 12.99 euro a month and PLAY your way to the top and dont PAY to get there.
Warhammer as f2p? No thanks!
/a WAR player
Yes, and in so doing, they have exchanged quality for quantity and are screwing us all.
Vack have you tried LotRO after it went F2P? I'm guessing not because while it wasn't designed from the ground up as F2P it's doing a very good job of transitioning. All Lifetime/current subscribers get access to all content everywhere, for us it feels like nothing has changed, except a whole new zone and some of the best old instances are back at level cap. The only things we can't get from loot tables are a handful of cosmetic items and increased vault/wardrobe/shared-storage space. On top of that we get 500TP a month.
Now that 500TP is just enough to whet your appetite for all the cool little things like increased skirmish mark aquisition (also purchasable with Destiny Points earned for free by leveling and raiding.) and stat tomes if you don't want to raid to get those. With the stat tomes you can only buy 3/5 for every stat as the last two tiers are raid drops only.
All this coolness that we VIPs get, premium and free players have to unlock it with TP, everything from quest packs (VIPs get free) to Trait Slots (VIPs get free), any destiny point perks can be unlocked one perk at a time or equivilant items can be purchased from the store.
So me and my fellow VIPs really don't have to buy anything from the store just to compete, doesn't mean we wont but we're not forced to "Pay to Win". Even free players can't "Pay to Win" they're really "Paying to Compete" which IMO is totally fair since VIPs pay a subscription (lifetime or monthly) so it just evens things out.
If a free player doesn't really care about endgame content and just likes running around the shire it's not going to cost them a lot and what it does cost they actually earn points by completing deeds (as can VIPs) so it's actually a very balanced system and as a VIP I'm enjoying all the new content, some of the cool cosmetics from the store and seeing a lot of old friends coming back as well as a ton of new faces.
F2P is working great so far for LotRO and is a great example of a good transition.
Since the games mentioned in the article are "old" games with the exception of Star Trek, why would you want to go back and play an "old" game you left, even if the game became a "FTP"?
As a LotRO lifer since 2007 I'd have to say LotRO is far from going down the tubes, the game was doing well on a P2P model, true we'd lost some players but the number of new players was enough to offset that from everything I've seen. True some of the things the Devs have started adding to the game such as an absurd amount of barter items or the balancing issues that plauged Moria and the gimmicky boss fights of Mirkwood have been frustrating. Those issues have been for the most part worked out and the new Enedwaith expansion feel a more like the old SoA days so I think the game will keep improving.
LotRO F2P is merely a way to bring back old players who got tired and aren't sure if they want to keep playing. I've seen so many of my old friends come back just in the first week or so of F2P and they're already re-subbing and there are so many new players in the starting zone that the game can't help but go up from here. With F2P lifetime subs like me can actually start paying a little to support the game so we're no longer just deadweights and with all the new subs and Froobs (free noobs) spending TP there will be more money to pump into updates and expansions.
The Turbine Model for F2P could be applied to most P2P games and would see an increase in players, subs and revenue. People have said it before in the comments, but it bears saying again there is a world of difference between the Turbine Model and the standard F2P model and while I would most likely not play a traditional F2P I'd be more than likely to try one that uses the Turbine Model.
I still dont belive that Warhammer isn't free to play. Its perfect for it. It tells you everything about how poor job Bioware/Mythic/EA are doing still leaving this game under sub and expecting ppl to pay for "extra content".
Warhammer online is already the biggest grind you will ever find in any MMO game (including Asian games). Im sorry but 100 levels of renown is something that you would have to pay me for spending time on in normal sub.... Its total...utter waste of time, effort and money.
Im just speachless that even to this day there are STILL making the wrong dissions when it comes to WAR...
AOCtester, did you seriously just call one of the most casual mmo's in existance the biggest grind ever?
Not even to mention you don't have 100 lvls of renown yet in WAR in the first place.
If you think WAR is difficult, or grindy, then you should stick with a coloring book.
Age of Conan is going F2P cashshop in Asia already.
WAR is dying faster than anyone could belive at this stage. And there is nothing ... absolutly NOTHING on the horizon for the game to keep even fraction of the playerbase... not to mention new recruits that will never show up for the next 3 way dlc extra expensive package (based on the Bioware normal DLC modules)....
I think ppl do not really understand how bad state WAR really is in. At this point in time it looks so bad that devs and EA/Mythic are not gonna do Anything at all - just to prevent them loosing even more money on the game. Thats sad cause WAR would ROCK as F2P title.
Erm... you played on minority servers ?
Do the calculations and it would take factions on some of those servers over 2 years to get to rank 80. And ofc they are just gonna add 20 more to make it even more grindy....
Yeah more or less my list as well.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
LOL at your Lack Of Logic and racisism Holst! Yes I agree goldfarmers and powerleveling services suck, unblance games, generate spam in chat channels and dump max leveled players who have no idea what they're doing into the game. However that does not make everything Asian bad like you say it does that's just being racist and bigoted. Also by saying F2P is bad because it's Asian on top of being racist and bigoted is an Ad Hominem or attack on the man failure of logic. F2P especially the Turbine Model has a lot of potential and can make the game more accessible to other people who can't afford a monthly sub.
You say that asian devs are nothing more than money grubbing player haters who are wholy evil and western devs are the angels of light who make games because they love their players and want them to have fun. Let me correct your racists niavete, while individual devs in probably almost every case regardless of their ethnicity or where they live in the world want to make fun and enjoyable games it's also their job which means the games have to make money for the company so that the company can pay the devs. So you're bigotry is wrong again.
Last thing I'm going to touch on is that you feel that LotRO is a failure. Not because you've played pre and post F2P or probably ever. Nor because you've seen how much money it's making or any concrete evidence that it's a failure. No your entire ASSUMPTION is bases on the fact that LotRO is a failure because it's going F2P and your bigotry just knows that anything F2P is a failure because F2P is "inherently" asian in concept and your Racism makes you positive that anything asian is a failure. You sir are a racist, a bigot and completely illogical, please keep your idiocy to yourself from now on.
lol Muertepk thanks for the laughs
. We understand the world is round and that there are many more markets than the western one, thing is we don't live in those other markets. Over here we don't really have cyber cafes because most people own a computer and have internet where they live. Personally I would like to see some cybercafes and restraunts like the ones I enjoyed in Hong Kong, they have a fun and friendly atmosphere where you get to meet people with similar interests.
As for why our "puny minds" haven't moved away from subscription based models till now. It's because the companies that made the high quality games didn't feel the need and we the players didn't mind paying a monthly fee to play our favorite games. Subscriptions are a very stable payment platform which companies like because they provide steady revenue. Free to play is riskier because people may not spend money in the store or they may not spend as much as they would with a monthly sub. Yet it can pay off more if you're willing to take the risk because people are more likely to play a game that says "Free" and will often succumb to buying stuff from ingame stores on an impulse. You add up all those new people and all their impulse buys and it can be a nice chunk of change, but it's not as stable as subs.
You say Voyage Century Online is a pay to win game which undermines everything you've been saying. We don't want pay to win, we want to win on our own merits using our own skill not cause we bought stuff from the game store. And yes there are many free to play games, but in our market most games that are free to play have been underwhelming and not worth our time, so for us having games that are actually good and fun go to the Turbine Model is new and controversial. By the way Warner Bros may have bought Turbine but the transition from subscription to the hybrid Turbine Model was in the works before that.