This is exactly the kind of game for a FTP set-up and everyone knew it. Get in, fly/run around, beat on some mobs, do a lot of open-world PvP... that kind of quick hitting stuff. No long term committments of raiding and such for hours, no huge hotbars all over your screen, Rock Paper Scissors PvP.
People were just waiting to come out of the woodwork on this game, lol. Now that they can do just that and spend a few bucks to unlock everything then play when they want, I don't think there is no stopping this game.
Figure around Xmas they'll do another media blitz and can now push the FTP aspect. So now parents can truly buy this and not go broke (or so they think, lol).
After Nov 1 ive been able to get on only a handful of times and pretty much everything is bugged and broken now, i unsubed today. Please god let Skyrim not suck!
Originally posted by mmodanno Yep, I suspect that this last couple weeks they lost a majority of the people who were actually still paying to play this game. Another winning move by SoE management.
That's not really a problem though in my opinion.
Let's say they had 20% of the "loyal" customers paying $15/month to play. Now those 20% are mad they can't get in and quit. Assuming DCUO had 80k subs (dunno what they got), they just lost 16,000 subs for a total of (without a discount plan)= $240,000 month. Sounds bad, right?
Now, they just got over 180k signed up FTP at last count (it's WAY more than that now). Let's assume they had 20% of those new subs spend $15 in the shop to unlock a zone and buy whatever. That's a one-time payment of $540,000 or twice as much as the subs gave.
So they got two months boost out of that to replace the one month they lost. Pretty good deal. Trust me, SOE is the king of number crunchers and they know just like LOTR), DDO, AoC, and EQ2 all did... their revenue is about to spike heavy.
Besides, the thing SOE probably needs now more than actual money is people in the game. When you get more people in a game like this, they tend to stay longer and interact more. The longer you can attract FTPs to stay, the more they will eventually spend over a paid sub or a Lifetime sub.
I'm number 5,483 in the queue. I subbed to try out the full facilities, but it's not worth subbing at this level of Sony ineptitude. I think I'll cancel the sub less than 24 hours after I started it. GO SONY!
How do you roll out a f2p version of the software and have it not work ? Don't they test stuff ? LOL idiots...
I think it's more of a not expecting so many to come play sort of thing. Ideally, they probably should have done what DAoC did and just made the servers into clusters that you could roam through. Would have been more stable, and the population would have been more spread out.
It's nice to see so many interested, but yeah....they should have thought this out more.
I was having alot of fiun with this this morning and then the mad rush hit. No excuse for not being prepared but hey hopefully hey fix it soon so I can beat up on veterans who think they are all that.
You know, having read a few more posts in this thread i can't begin to credit how dimwitted Sony are. I knew they were pretty dire at running their games, but this particular game sets a new low even for them. How did they manage it, I hear you ask? (Well, you didn't but...) Long-time subscribers have to sit in queues the same as the Froobs, which is a great way to kick your most loyal, long-term players right dead square in the nuts. In one fell swoop Sony managed to piss off the long-term players by treating them the same as F2P players, then they pissed off the new playerbase - F2P players as well as the old-timers - who all have to watch a number tick down from the several thousands to play the game.
Oh, and it seems there's no way for me to make a post in the official forums, either. No "Create new topic" button or even a "Reply" button in sight. Maybe a glitch, or maybe a way of stifling the surge of flamefests and complaints?
These guys couldn't organise an orgy in a brothel.
was 900th in q on eu server ,,has the number was going down i just get kicked all the time..i,m sure they will sort it..give em time..i dont think they expected so many f2p guys comin on board.last count was 120,000 it said,probably more now.
Load of rubbish. 14 gig download, tons of bugs trying to log in, when it does work I'm generally 6000th in the queue, keeps kicking me out when it gets down to around 2000th in the queue, log back in, back to 6000th in the queue. You'd need the patience of Batman to stick with this game.
After running games for over a decade, and converting at least one of their main titles to F2P I think they had an idea of what to expect. Hmm, but on the other hand this IS Sony we're talking about.
Originally posted by bumuscheekus Load of rubbish. 14 gig download, tons of bugs trying to log in, when it does work I'm generally 6000th in the queue, keeps kicking me out when it gets down to around 2000th in the queue, log back in, back to 6000th in the queue. You'd need the patience of Batman to stick with this game.
Especially on the first weekend they offered it free. :P
Comments
Yeah, it's kind of weird.
This is exactly the kind of game for a FTP set-up and everyone knew it. Get in, fly/run around, beat on some mobs, do a lot of open-world PvP... that kind of quick hitting stuff. No long term committments of raiding and such for hours, no huge hotbars all over your screen, Rock Paper Scissors PvP.
People were just waiting to come out of the woodwork on this game, lol. Now that they can do just that and spend a few bucks to unlock everything then play when they want, I don't think there is no stopping this game.
Figure around Xmas they'll do another media blitz and can now push the FTP aspect. So now parents can truly buy this and not go broke (or so they think, lol).
"TO MICHAEL!"
After Nov 1 ive been able to get on only a handful of times and pretty much everything is bugged and broken now, i unsubed today. Please god let Skyrim not suck!
Yep, I suspect that this last couple weeks they lost a majority of the people who were actually still paying to play this game.
Another winning move by SoE management.
Let's say they had 20% of the "loyal" customers paying $15/month to play. Now those 20% are mad they can't get in and quit. Assuming DCUO had 80k subs (dunno what they got), they just lost 16,000 subs for a total of (without a discount plan)= $240,000 month. Sounds bad, right?
Now, they just got over 180k signed up FTP at last count (it's WAY more than that now). Let's assume they had 20% of those new subs spend $15 in the shop to unlock a zone and buy whatever. That's a one-time payment of $540,000 or twice as much as the subs gave.
So they got two months boost out of that to replace the one month they lost. Pretty good deal. Trust me, SOE is the king of number crunchers and they know just like LOTR), DDO, AoC, and EQ2 all did... their revenue is about to spike heavy.
Besides, the thing SOE probably needs now more than actual money is people in the game. When you get more people in a game like this, they tend to stay longer and interact more. The longer you can attract FTPs to stay, the more they will eventually spend over a paid sub or a Lifetime sub.
"TO MICHAEL!"
I'm number 5,483 in the queue. I subbed to try out the full facilities, but it's not worth subbing at this level of Sony ineptitude. I think I'll cancel the sub less than 24 hours after I started it. GO SONY!
Im 7,972 in queue
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3845509852.png
COME AT ME BRO!!!!!
This is not a game.
You know, having read a few more posts in this thread i can't begin to credit how dimwitted Sony are. I knew they were pretty dire at running their games, but this particular game sets a new low even for them. How did they manage it, I hear you ask? (Well, you didn't but...) Long-time subscribers have to sit in queues the same as the Froobs, which is a great way to kick your most loyal, long-term players right dead square in the nuts. In one fell swoop Sony managed to piss off the long-term players by treating them the same as F2P players, then they pissed off the new playerbase - F2P players as well as the old-timers - who all have to watch a number tick down from the several thousands to play the game.
Oh, and it seems there's no way for me to make a post in the official forums, either. No "Create new topic" button or even a "Reply" button in sight. Maybe a glitch, or maybe a way of stifling the surge of flamefests and complaints?
These guys couldn't organise an orgy in a brothel.
was 900th in q on eu server ,,has the number was going down i just get kicked all the time..i,m sure they will sort it..give em time..i dont think they expected so many f2p guys comin on board.last count was 120,000 it said,probably more now.
Load of rubbish. 14 gig download, tons of bugs trying to log in, when it does work I'm generally 6000th in the queue, keeps kicking me out when it gets down to around 2000th in the queue, log back in, back to 6000th in the queue. You'd need the patience of Batman to stick with this game.
After running games for over a decade, and converting at least one of their main titles to F2P I think they had an idea of what to expect. Hmm, but on the other hand this IS Sony we're talking about.
"TO MICHAEL!"