Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Should EVE go free to play? (think about it)
Trolldefender99
Member UncommonPosts: 416
Remember what it did for LOTRO? EQ2? I can't speak for EQ2...but LOTRO was doing rather good for subscribers. It went free to play and the popularity sky rocketed AND Turbine started earning a lot more money.
A lesser example is Saga of Ryzom. It is a sandbox MMO, but more PvE based. It was dead. Granted, the game still hasn't really taken off...but free to play really boosted the activity in the game. Not only that, but the community is still great as well.
What if EVE was free to play? It already is for people with a lot of ISK...but what if it was like that for EVERYONE? They can still charge a monthly fee for added bonuses to people who pay. People could pay others with ISK to buy things in a VANITY cash shop. Don't go pay to win of course, we all saw what happened with Allods.
EVE would not just be a niche MMO, but the people playing AND the subscriber count would sky rocket. Why should only senior players get to play for free, anyway? That just makes it where the best and richest players remain the 1% and everyone else has to scrounge up or try to catch up to them. And CCP could have a cash shop where there are vanity items or small bonuses, to entice people to pay. Maybe free players have limits or "debuffs" so to speak, so they don't have everything a pay to play player does.
Anyway, before flaming...and I know EVE is doing rather well...but think how much better it could do.
Comments
I don't think it would work well for EVE to be free to play. I really don't believe the monthly fee is what limits the number of people hat play eve that much of course it does to a degree. But in general EVE only appeals to a very small percentage of people.
No way.
It's one of the *few* games out there where the barrier to entry prevents total abuse. If it was F2P, you'd see a LOT more multiboxers fleeting by themsevles. I mean people still do it atm, but at 15$ a month per account, well, it's more in the realm of 'pathetic', rather than 'smart'.
I can probably name off a dozen things that free accounts could do that would absolutely ruin the game. If you ever played it, then you can too, so I won't even bother.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Granted, you did say a lot more and not everyone. But while I was trying EVE out for a few months, I met TONS of people that had 2+ accounts...it seemed really common. So, I doubt it would make that big of a difference.
Ancient law: Don't fix that which is not broken.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
EVE doesn't need more subscribers.
It doesn't take being a veteran player to be able to play for free. It takes being an intelligent player.
Just because you've got a 6 year old account doesn't automatically mean you have the isk to afford plex. I managed it in under 3 months with a new account. I also earn enough isk in under a week with my "veteran" account to pay for plex through intelligent manufacturing and smart market sales.
But then I also pay for a year sub outright for both of my accounts.
Never, 1. If your wealthy you can buy game time with ingame currency, 2. F2P would mean more inexperienced pilots and overall decrease the level of quality and presentation in the game world. EVE has a clear audience, and CCP is devoted to them.
Played-Everything
Playing-LoL
It would.
Imagine Goodsquad if a mandate went out that "now everyone can have alt accounts, so all of you WILL, and take them to suicide bomb people at Jita".
Free accounts ruined Wurm Online a handful of times when 4chan made events to come in and trash the place. They had to make a trial server just to ward it off from the main populace, and then when they removed the server, they had to adapt a ton of rulesets to free characters to prevent grief (and they still can do a lot as is).
What amount of revisions is EVE gonna have to do to prevent abuse of free accounts?
The fact of the matter is; subscriptions work when there HAS TO BE a barrier to entry in order to prevent total abuse. This only happens in games where the ruleset allows it - MO, DF, EVE, etc
Otherwise, I'd be in your camp.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
No
Definitely not, and the guy really needs to research the game before proposing something so ludicrous..
No bloody fucking way in hell.
Do you have any idea at all what kind of carnage the smart players could do with the ability to create unlimited free alternate accounts? Have you not heard about Goonswarm/Something Aweful and their absolute love for picking apart loopholes in games? The suicide ganking alone that would result from making it free to play would be utterly catastrophic. A brand new alternate character funded by a veteran main can become a very effective suicide ganker in less than a week.
There's also the fact that paid subscriptions = RELIABLE income forecasts. A company that has a fully reliable, predictable income stream is able to plan out their operations much more efficiently. The income rates for free-to-play games are completely UNreliable, utterly up to the whims of the players if they feel like buying something, not to mention the fact that in order to get customers to buy something from a cash shop it needs a tangible benefit in terms of their combat abilities, so you also now have pay to win which is always a bad thing. Without reliable income, support/development staff drop and the overall quality of the game decreases over time, which makes more people leave and therefore less people buy stuff from the shop, more staff get fired, etc...downward spiral of doom.
OP, you have just made a suggestion that would completely and permanently destroy Eve Online. The day that Eve Online goes free to play is the day that I quit it, and I'd guess that at least half the current veteran player base would too.
Where's the any key?
F2P evangalists are now pushing for successful games to adopt the model... was gonna come I guess.
Why do you care if CCP have a ton of extra players in this game? As you say it is doing rather well as is. How would it benefit you? If you are only pushing the idea because you are too cheap to buy a client for a game you would enjoy, then... well... I can only look at you and shake my head, becuase you obviously just don't get it.
If a game is worth your time then it is worth your money. If you think it is 'too expensive' to buy a client or sub then it probably, as a game, is not worth your time.
EvE is fine as is, it isn't failing and therefore dosen't require F2P.
Nobody that plays EVE wants F2P or the unwashed masses that it will bring. It all leads to dumbing down the game.
EVE is not hurting and in no way needs your input.
Where did all the trolls come from?
I know EVE has locked down General Discussion for people but seriously....
Anyhow.. Free to play model works for theme park mmo's because you can sell bits off (quests, areas etc) or leveling boosts or P2W items.
EVE is a sandbox that means there is nothing to parcel off other than things like standings or boosts. Boosts can and will destroy the game. This is what the 'jita riots' were all about.
EVE has a perfectly good F2P option already. You accept a moderate penalty on your account's monthly income and you get to play for free, with exactly the same access to the game as someone who subscribes. How much better do you want it?
Give me liberty or give me lasers
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
PLEX does not make the game F2P.
If you do not understand how PLEX system work, you are lacking fundamental game knowledge and therefore you are not enlightened to make proposals regarding payment model.
EVE is very complex but yet fragile and vulnerable. Problem isn't whether to go with F2P or not, problem is how.
The CCP management will strongly disagree.
WOW: The Most Well Known Non-Free Non-Browser Client-Based 3D Fantasy MMORPG In Some Parts of the World.
Does this include Miners Kyleran, if it does then if not F2P what about a new PVE server then.
" Hail ALL Goonswarm, Hail "
MAGA
"need" isn't a synonym for "want".
Could EVE survive indefinitely with the current number of subscribers? I say yes I'm pretty sure it could. Of course I'd be very happy to see EVE grow further, but not at the expense of what makes EVE EVE.
Unlike Elsabolts who would be happy to see EVE turned into Generic Sharded PvE MMO #247 because apparently Generic Sharded PvE MMOs #001-246 just weren't generic or shardy or PvEy enough for him.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
Thinking thinking thinking........... NO.
btw. 3 / 10
coming from a 5 year player of eve NO NO NO NO NO!!!! the game has enough morons and ID10t's we dont need more it goes f2phails I and many others will unsub and be gone.....Cant afford to play work or earn isk and play for free anyway.
No Eve should nto go f2p...
f2p is a menace on MMORPGs and should never have happened because it spawned the dreded cash shops..
Eve does not need this, its a sandbox game and not everyone will enjoy it.. the player base has ben growing slowly since release and thats fine... it does not need to be flooded by all the kids complaining how complicated the game is and that it needs to be made easier..