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How does AoC's 'freemium' model compare to that of DDO, EQ2 and LotrO?
MMO.Maverick
Member CommonPosts: 7,619
Ok, I read some of the features in AoC's hybrid F2p model, but not all the details and I'm not that familiar with the details in the F2O model of the other MMO's that changed from P2P to a hybrid F2P form.
Instead of spending a day and some researching the forums and see what's all in those other MMO's, are there people here who have thorough knowledge of all the hybrdi F2P models, enough to list what the major distinctions are between the various MMO's?
For example, how it's now done in AoC (I saw a link to here), what makes it different from the others and what are the strong points and the weak points of all the systems used?
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Comments
Ooooh, yes please!
I'll be listening.
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Of the games you listed, DDO is the only one I know of where you can, rather easily, generate enough cash shop points (Turbine Points) by playing the game to buy almost everything. Yep, with some grinding, you can earn enough points to buy pretty much ALL the content, plus most of the extra features. You can earn some in Lotro, but IMO the grinding is far more lengthy and tedious. I only tried the EQ2 for a few days, but I did not see a way to earn many (any?) shop points by simply playing the game.
From what I've read of the AoC offering, you cannot earn any cash shop points through play either. With DDO, you can literally play for years without spending a dime.
You may not be able to earn cash shop points but you will have access to the full vanilla game from level one to max. Once there the similarites to other F2P's start to kick in with the buying access to dungeons, areas and in this case alternate advancement.
For the F2P players i think their model is less agressive than most.
although im still going to try and give it a go, its actually the most limiting model ive seen besides the freemium EQ2.
at least in EQ2X you can get a series of basic upgrades to your account by spending 10 dollars only once, which moves you from a 'bronze' to 'silver' account. from what i can tell so far, in AoC's version you are going to be chained, not as Funcom's infamous marketing department has titled it 'unchained'.
don't get me wrong, as i've said i'm still going to give it a shot and see what kinds of prices get you what on the shop. however, the most player friendly models out there right now are both by Turbine. and so far, AoC's at least appears at this point to be the most player unfriendly.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
What are you talking about? Let's take a look at just a few of the things Funcom is giving you.
1.) You get to lvl from 1-80 without paying a dime
2.) You can access to to 10 solo dungeons and 7 group dungeons again without paying a dime
3.) You get 2 tier 1 raid dungeons, free.
4.) You get all the original ( pre expansion) out door content of the game in all playing areas.
How can you say that's not player friendly? You literally have months of content to go through without spend a single cent on the game. Not including the fact that you can get some nice gear in the 2 raid zones for free. I have to say this sounds very appealing to me and I would imagine most gamers would tend to agree.
But I don't really like DDO or LotrO so that could have something to do with it too lol. As for EQ2 I think their model is garbage. I love the game but I hate their f2p model. Subbing is a much better choice in that game.
I decided to check it out and I saw that 2 thirds of the classes were locked out until I pay for them...locking most of your classes is a REALLY interesting decision...
I used to TL;DR, but then I took a bullet point to the footnote.
Well in most f2p models they either lock classes or races. Since AOC doesn't really have races I guess they thought class would work lol. But really even with the limited classes the game is still very playable and enjoyable.
Darn, I was hoping for a way to unlock more classes somehow. There is mention of an item store in one of the questions...can you view that online anywhere?
Wonder if there are any benefits to using my old account to play with. If the classes that I have on there are locked I'm sort of screwed.
The same same applies to lotro. Turbine is way better when it comes to the FTP model of their MMO. You can play the whole game and all content without spending a penny with time and patience.
You are also on the same server as vip players unlike EQx. I am a lifer subcriber but lotro and ddo are light years ahead of AOC and EQx.
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I don't know about DDO but I have played LotrO.
You're barred from the questing (and I think also the Books) content. That makes a huge difference in your leveling experience, I can tell you that, everyone who says differently is lying.
Whether you have to level by mob grinding and doing the billboard tasks, or whether you level by doing the regular quests and questing content has a very different feel to it. It's the quests and Books that provide background to an area, provide lore and context and that make the leveling fun and interesting. Without those, I became bored pretty quickly. Mob grinding and checking off some mindnumbing billboard tasks - all kill x of y creature or mob - just doesn't have much charm to it. But that's me. Besides that, the Turbine points you earn isn't enough to unlock a lot of that leveling content, by far.
I don't know how it is for the other MMO's (that's why I asked in the first place), but it seems to me that AoC has as strong point that it provides a lot of the content right away, without a need to pay, where as the other MMO's lock content away:
- in AoC you have access to all the areas and leveling/questing content in them right away, from level 1 to 80.
- you have access to more than half of the dungeons, up to the tier 1 raid dungeons.
That's more than the other MMO's provide, I'm sure of LotrO that it locks away the questing/leveling content, and I guess it's the same for EQ2 and DDO.
The limitations that AoC has that's different from the other MMO's seems to me lie in the limiting to 4 of the classes that you can choose and only 2 character slots.
At least, so far those are the main points I can discern: AoC has the most of the content available, you can fully quest level to level cap, having access to all the quest content and most of the dungeons in contrast to the other MMO's, but you only have access to 4 of the 12 classes if you've never owned the game before.
So far, I like that model better than that of the other MMO's, unless I'm missing something major from the other hybrid F2P MMO's that hasn't been mentioned yet here.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
In reference to the classes, for anyone who hasn't played the game they are actually giving away the four best classes in the game.
Sure, they may not be the most exciting, but you can EASILY do all the content in the game with just those four classes.
Maverick, when you say you'll only have 4 out of the 12 classes available if you've never owned the game before, does that mean if i bought it back at launch and log in with that same account today, I'll have all 12 classes? Sorry if i misunderstood.
I think if you have owned AoC and a full account at some point in the past, then even if you play F2P you still have access to all the classes.
At least, that's what I understood from what I read, but I haven't tested it yet.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Just tested this, I was able to unlock any two classes that I already had including those not on the free four list, unlocked the bear shamen I was leveling. Also had a quick look at the item shop, to unlock an instance it cost from 250 FC points, to unlock nearly all the instances up to lvl 80 cost 1250 points, it costs 5 euro to purchase 600 points, thats just a couple of euro each for the locked instances. As you cant buy in quantities less than 600 you would need to buy 15 euro worth of points to unlock almost all the instances, considering you pay nothing at all for the client that seems like a very good deal to me.
Ah yes, your former characters are ofc available up to a max of 2, but the question I think was if you have an AoC account from before when you bought the game, when you go F2P now, are you able to create new characters outside of those 4 classes, of any class you like?
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
The answer to that then is no, your account automatically goes to a free account which is limited to the four classes, so nope you can unlock a previous character but you are stuck with the four free classes if you want to roll a new one.
Just having a quick look at the cash shop
Some dungeons like the repeatable solo dungeon and Xibaluku are only available to subscribers, you can buy limited passes for these but that works out expensive.
To unlock further classes it costs 750 points each, to unlock an additional character slot it costs 1500 points (5 euro = 600 points)
I'm sort of suprised that there seems to be no benefit for previous subscribers other than being able to unlock two characters of which may be normally unplayable classes for free players.
I think that's a pretty quick-to-notice difference between Funcom's model and Turbine's, for instance, where there are three tiers of account types: free, premium, and VIP. The premium account holders are players who had previously subscribed to their game before their new model went into place and also anyone who makes a purchase of Turbine points through their store; there are a few pretty good benefits for those players.
Not really a deal breaker, but maybe just a nice gesture.
edit: the LOTRO account comparison chart I have linked was from beta, to clarify. here is the updated one straight from their recent free-to-play homepage. there are distinctions between previous subscribers and people who have just purchased Turbine points to achieve the Premium account status as well, but I can't find a nice chart or post that reflects exactly what those are; I do know that it's true from experience, though.
Unlocking each locked-out classe costs anywhere from around $6-12 USD. There are loads of classes, so this would cost an arm and a leg eventually. In LotRO, it cost me about $7 I think to unlock all of their classes.
I'm not going to go into great detail, but the prices on this store look like the Funcom cash shop is quite unlike Turbine shops. With Turbine, their shop is an option to play a little less of the game for less money than a full sub. This Funcom shop seems to be designed for the people who actually want to pay considerably more than a subscription price, or perhaps to get more money out of their current subscriber base.
I had tried the AoC trial and was looking forward to paying the odd $2-3 here and there to enhance my gameplay as I got a better feel for the world outside of Tortage. Unfortunately, this Age of Conan cash shop does not lend itself to that at all.
Hopefully they take a look at this pricing model. I don't think they learned any of the right lessons from Turbine's success.
I am sad FC didn't chose Turbine- like F2P system. But ok.
What really bothers me are INSANE prices on dungeons and locked instances. For example, if you want 7 days access to 3 zones of Khitai you will have to spend 900x3 FP =2700 FP. That's more than 20 euros. FOR 7 DAYS. WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING
The F2P model has too many restrictions and is also very expensive. If i am going to play AOC i will stick to the sub. The F2P model of LOTRO and DDO is still the best
I really, REALLY hope that someone at Funcom accidentally mutliplied the prices of everything by 10/ had the decimal in the wrong place.
All the prices are pretty much like that: 10 times what Turbine has gotten me accustomed to. It was through Turbine's cheap prices that they were able to get me to pay like $160 in 5 months. I subbed and bought $100 worth of points over time. I felt I was getting incredible value for my money. In this game and this cash shop? Not so much. Not so much at all.
I don't get this. Why?
Purely because it locks you out of choosing all 12 classes?
LotrO locks you out of all relevant leveling/questing content.
At least in AoC F2P lets you enjoy the core of the game, you can quest and level with no restrictions up to level cap, I found that a pretty major downer when I gave F2P LotrO a try, Turbine points only got you some area content, after that it was the choice of grinding mobs and tasks or go subbed.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Well, in Turbine shop you can unlock the game by playing the game. Here, you have to spend insane amounts of RL money. 50 euros for pvp armor is IMO ok since it makes you decent player within seconds. But the thing with dungeons, raids and instances ... that is just wrong.
As some other people have said, you'd have to grind a hell of a lot of time, and I mean a LOT of time, to get enough TP to unlock other areas, or at least the content related to it. To reach the max level areas in LotrO and unlock their content, the amount of hours you need to grind is absolutely spectacular (very rough guessing, I didn't feel inclined to give it a try, that path to level cap).
That is content that in AoC you get automatically, no additional grinding required at all, not an hour.
As for the dungeons and raids, eh, sorry, but you get half of them for free, also no paying or grinding required, that's a lot more than what I initially expected and more than other MMO's where you need to unlock more than half of them.
That said, it's clear that they use different kind of models, each have their price accents differently. To me, AoC's model sounds friendlier and more fun for the newcomer (they can quest and level to level cap all the way in all the zones) than the other models.
Unless you want another class to play besides the 4 available, of course.
I was thinking the same, reading the list.
That's not something trivial, imo.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."