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Buy to Play - the future of MMO.
Seival
Member Posts: 136
Anyone else hopes that after GW2 release more and more MMOs will be developed with B2P model so F2P and Subscription MMOs will die forever soon enough?
I hope so. It will be nice to pay only for bugless content you want to see instead of paying for ingame "unfixed-bugs-neutralizing-support" and for content you do not want (or can't access depending on time you spend in game and your playstile).
Comments
I much prefer the subscription model, but so long as the money I am paying is relatively reasonable and the game is being supported, I don't care all that much. The only thing I don't like is Cash Shops which sell items which boost stats and such, fluff is fine, but again I don't feel it is a reliable way to support a games costs to run and develop content.
I prefer p2p, will try GW2, as I did GW....But I do not like cash shops, and it seems some p2p games even have a hard time not trying to use them.
I like knowing my fixed price, and not being at the whim of what fancy overpowered items may be introduced to screw me over, and make me buy to be on a even playing field.
Not saying GW2 is going to do it, they might....But a lot more without subs do/will.
there are some f2p games with nice cash shops,like cabal online in wich you cand buy premium items with in-game money.but i would rather go for B2P,i wonder why not that many mmo's r like this.for example TERA should be B2P,and not P2P because it has been created as a F2P game and they tought that the game is to awesome to be F2P
,and that isn't true........
people are so brainwashed by the p2p model they would rather pay a subscription to a game every month rather than have it a buy to play game like guildwars 2. I have heard people say crazy things like, "i wish guild wars was p2p rather than b2p", these people would rather pay 15 bucks a month to bask in the illusion that they are getting a higher quality product.
I think that cash shop for B2P game is nice Idia but only if this shop will never sell something that can affect game balance (powerfull items, fast mounts etc.).
Talk about brainwashed, the game isn't out, nothing is final, you cannot tout events of tomorrow....today.
If GW2 sells exp potions/content/tokens for something....then I probably would be with those saying p2p. If they just sell fluff...then b2p is fine. We will see, last I read, they were not finalized on what they would be offering in its shop.
And some folks seem to think B2P games are "free", when in fact they are more like purchasing as series of single player games, where every 6 months or a year you purchase the next expansion.
I sort of prefer the CCP/EVE model where you purchase the game once, and the expansions are free forever. (same is true with Lineage 2)
What remains to be seen is if a traditional MMORPG can be developed and supported with the B2P model, GW1 was not such a game (even the Developers acknowledge this) so GW2 is the great experiment. If it succeeds then yes, we'll see the model expand to more MMO's, if it flops then the model will be relegated to just one of many alternatives.
Edit, one more thing, having a monthly sub keeps out "some" of the riff-raff of the gaming world (check out the communities of almost any F2P game to see what I mean, and GW1 was no exception) and in fact, I'd pay 30 bucks a month if it would ensure a more mature player base.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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GW2 shop may offer just paid lore DLCs, new looks for character and armor, more character slots, more bank slots etc. It will not affect game balance. And I'm sure a lot of people will use in-game store like this.
And it might not. It might offer potions/weapons and other items, where people may feel that they have to purchase them to be on a level playing field. Which I'm sure most agree, it ruins the nature of the game.
I don't think a B2P model is all that different to Subscriptions, you pay a similar amount at the end of the day, you just pay more often with a Subscription (assuming monthly) but you get the content patches free. However with B2P you purchase all the content patches but pay no subscription. The only thing people are worried about is Cash Shops being introduced.
So let's hope that ArenaNet and NCsoft will not make silly mistakes
I prefer to pay only for expiriance I will have rather then for expiriance I might have. Why should I pay for something ill never have?
There are things in WoW (for example) that I can't access due to my playstyle. When I played that game I did 5-mans and battlegrounds mostly. But I had to pay same 15$ as onyone else who also did a lot of raids and arenas. I prefered not to have even the ability to enter raid dungeons and arenas but pay much less then 15$ for the rest. Or even have access only to battlegrounds and do not pay sub at all, becouse BGs were are and will be the less supported part of WoW.
There seem to be successful business models in F2P, B2P, P2P, and any other kind of play. Because of this, I don't think you will see the end of anyone of them. I think more ppl are driven to play a game based on the game itself than the payment model they use. I know there are diehards who wont do F2P or absolutely reject P2P, but I believe those are in the minority. Most ppl will bite the bullet if the game looks fun enough.
I self identify as a monkey.
Buy to play is just pay to play where you can choose to pay for the next big content update (expansions) or not (Although, you have to buy sub expansions too, so meh.). Some stuff is also free in guild wars, and i'd expect the same in gw2. It's essentially a sub (albeit a little cheaper) that you have a conscious decision on whether or not you pay the next sub, and can still play if you don't.
It's not strictly 'buy once' at all, but it is the best of all worlds and some players can choose to only 'buy once'. The devs need to make good content for people to buy it, the players don't have to buy content to keep playing, and you still get rid of game breaking puchases in the item shop like 'epic gear'.
it's only the fact that arenanet are gamers first and foremost that we won't have an itemshop loaded with game breaking stuff, other companies will do just that. Therefore buy to play is probably only good for good developers. However, as long as all work, they'll still exist. We just may see far more copying the B2P model after gw2.
Agreed, but ANETs B2P is a pretty nice payment model and some more followers of it is just good.
It is in itself not enough to make most people choose a game but choices are good for us consumers.
I would prefer if 1/3 were B2P, 1/3m F2P and the last third P2P (with no RMT shops thankyou).
The main reason of playing P2P games (besides how good the game is) is no RMT shops. P2P games that have better be good for me to cash up the monthly fees. I think adding them is a big mistake that will open up a lot for B2P and F2P.
I think it would be naive to assume that we wont continue to see changes in the model over the next 3-10 years. Technology from graphic arts peripherals to development "engine" software should continue to improve development efficiencies to where more is possible. Clearly the anet guys think they are already there and can leverage that as a competitive advantage (B2P in a persistent world).
The same goes for P2P and F2P. SOE handling of EQ2X isn't optimal either and many P2P games start to sell more and more useful stuff in their RMT shops as well, like in STO.
Or the other guys thinks the same but prefer to milk out as much money they can out of the players. Hard to tell which thing is the truth here.
And Wow was actually originally made to be B2P as well. It would still have earneed money but not the huge sums ut have gotten as P2P.
First off, ArenaNet is committed to having only a vanity cash shop. If you look at the shop for GW1, you can see that additional bank tabs are as close as it gets to affecting gameplay.
https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl?dnv=794193407&action=toggleCategory&category=4
This is a quote from their Lead Game Designer Eric Flannum
“We haven’t decided on what exactly we are or aren’t going to offer for money post-release. We’re open to whatever our players seem most interested in. If, after release, you guys would like more story content, more dungeons, more events, more maps or whatever, it’s something that we have to consider because ultimately making you happy is what makes us successful. Whether we release that in DLC (like the bonus mission packs in GW1) or whether we do it through expansions (Like Eye of the North) is yet to be determined. As to whether or not there are going to be items like XP boosts available in the in game store, I can only reiterate what we’ve said before (and will continue to say,) that we’ll release details on it when they are available, and that our core philosophy of not requiring you to spend additional money to play the game and not making the game difficult or painful to play in order to encourage you to buy things from the store still stands.”
From http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/10/21/guild-wars-2-to-have-dlc-microtransactions/
I wouldn't even worry about XP boosts or anything. The whole idea of the game is that it's got a flat leveling curve and 90 minutes per level or so. This isn't a game where you rush to the endgame and then grind that out. This is a game that you replay to see how doing the personal story differently affects the outcome.
I agree with what Flannum says in that article. It's true, when you play something like WoW, you're getting free content expansions, but you're also getting what they give you. You're paying for it whether you want it or not. And on top of it, they make you pay for the full expansions as well.
What I think people have to remember is that GW1 was profitable as a B2P. It sold several million copies. The servers are still running and they're still providing customer support and banning exploiters. If GW1 had been P2P, it would probably be long since dead. Not because it's a bad game, but just because that's the way it goes. I'm happy to spend $40 on the trilogy and play it until GW2 comes out instead of paying $15 a month for some other game until then.
I really do hope GW2 convinces players that they can get a AAA MMO experience from a B2P game. And I hope it convinces future developers that instead of fighting over the couple hundred thousand people dissatisfied with WoW and willing to pay another subscription or two subscriptions, that they can get several million people willing to pay a one time fee for quality.
When WoW came out, I asked my brother why we ever thought sitting in one room all night in EQ grinding out one bubble of XP had ever seemed like a good idea. He replied it was because we didn't have any other options. I'm hoping that once GW2 comes out, people will ask themselves "why did we ever think paying $15 a month was a good idea?"
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Hmmm a quick comparison .
5 x years playing wow = $900
5 x years playing gw = $120
How can you say that b2p is p2p?
I would like all game to be b2p but that will never happen. P2p games are here to stay for there are plenty of rich players than will spend thousands of dollars to have better items than there peers. I know this for a fact for i have played plenty of p2p games.
Then we also have the greedy companys that charge p2p and also have a cs in there game ... but anyone with half a brain would stay away from these.
B2p with a fluff cs is the way i would like games to be.
GW2 is B2P because there game design is easy to host. Its all zoned and instanced. The only pvp will be in "World battlegrounds". Which is limited to the numbers that can join in until another instance of it is created. I will play guild wars 2 but there is no way I would pay 15 dollars a month for it.
More often than not a p2p is higher quality than f2p or b2p. GW2 may break this but GW1 didn't. GW1 was very good but you can tell from a mile away it didn't have the quality of most p2p, for me anyway.
So far for me, the p2p model has been worth the money. Also i doubt GW2 will break the mold. GW1 sold very well, 6 million boxes wasn't it?, but that didn't stop companies using the p2p model.
GW2 will not be that instanced. Besides, do you really think paying 15$ for persistent world where you can't see moving objects (other players, mobs, transport etc.) that are more then 100 meters away from you is good idia? Slightly instanced world with limitless visibility range and no subscription -vs- fully persistant world with 100 meters visibility range and 15$ fee. What is better?
I prefer to see people at any range but have few more loading screens as a side effect and do not pay 15$ for world with less loading screens.
Hmm... maybe im special, but I left WoW not long ago and desided to try GW1. I really enjoy GW1 and find it much better then WoW. And I already used in-game shop: there are 2 costumes that I really like (Lich and Grenth). These costumes have no stats but make my character look much better. To see frozen skull instead of just a face of your character inside campaign's cutscenes is fun
More then 6 million copies for a game without any famous name or background is very good. WoW was rised by War, War2, War3 and already existed community. GW1 had nothing for its support.
Now GW2 has big community and looks like will have the same buisness model. So if everything will be done well, B2P model will show other models theirs place
To me it is worth it. I feel like all players are playing together and part of 1 world. The idea that there is 20 copies of the exact same zone breaks what an MMO is all about IMO. Especially if it is a pvp focused mmo. I'm glad that B2P games exist and that people love them, but I just don't want the whole industry to go that way and be forced to restrict there games due to server costs.