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If an Open Beta for a free to play is not supposed to take money, what is it supposed to do?
reploidx
Member UncommonPosts: 320
This isn't a troll post, nor is it one to start a flame war. But I know this will generate both. Not to mention I'm trying to throw logic and reasoning in a forum that I try to stay away from since everyone just likes to go with a knee jerk reaction, but I'm staying the course on this!
Neverwinter is indeed in open beta/soft launch, but I don't have a gripe for it. I threw down five bucks for some character slots and thats about it, and I might throw down money in the future if classes that I want are hidden behind a pay wall, but that is neither here or there. What seems to be the problem lately is free games going into open with their cash shop open, and it seems some people forget that during closed it was not open. How I view all this, is that during open beta their cash shop needs to tested and tweaked. I saw the same thing in Allods Online as well, where their shop was open and by the time "launch" showed up, their market was different. Open beta lets the masses in, it's bigger than closed betas of course, so this would be a perfect time to test out their market place, and it seems when the actual launch shows up, maybe just maybe that 10 dollar back might be down to five.
Now I got done reading Bill Murphy's blog, and I respect the guy, but I think the blog post is just one big destructive criticism that we see in every MMO forum, and all it does is cater to more destructive talks. I think what would make a better blog is if Bill gave us an opinion on what to do with Free to Play games cash shop during their betas. It seems like he is stuck in 1999/early 2000s where every game needs an subscription and nothing more. He is not the only one, there is a vast majority of people that want a subscription based only game (P2P) and want nothing more. There is an ugly stigma with F2P that needs to be cleared. The games that are free now are not what they where ten years ago, they are not the korean grinders that make you buy XP pots just so you can get a level after one day (but that is how they like that for some reason). The stereotypical MMO gamer now is someone who wants instant gratification NOW, but doesn't know what he/she wants when they get it. I've seen it time and time again, like one post I read on here on what people would do to make their perfect game. What did they pick? WoW options that is freemium, yet most of these people before hate WoW "clones" that are freemium.
This is just an opinion of mine from observations. If people prefer to pay fifteen bucks a month, go for it, if you wish to play a free game thats awesome too. I myself like the Freemium/Free to play games because I'm a poor gamer. I don't have the money to throw down 14.99 a month for a game that I might just randomly stop playing because I'm bored of raiding or running dungeons over and over again. Sure some of the free games will make me do it at their endgame, but I have nothing to loose if I don't put all that money down and can just leave it to go back to another game that is free.
tl;dr: I'm just giving out my opinion is all and I'm tired of people just trying to see stuff ruined when we should work together to solve problems, or just let other people have their fun.
Comments
Any "Open Beta" that is a F2P title should follow suite with what "Open Beta" actually means. A TEST of content that does not require anything to be charged for testing purposes.
Anytime you CHARGE money in a "Beta" it means you're not in a BETA, and have actually launched.
Launch.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
That's because subscription is the only legitimate model to have. There's only one game that has the perfect F2P model and that's League of Legends (which is NOT an MMO) but it allows you to buy everything by playing the game to be competitive. Which ironically it's the only game I've dropped money on that's free, and quite a bit, because I buy things that are purely cosmetic.
F2P ruins MMO's and has no place in them. The reason he seems "stuck" back in the 1999/2000 era was because games back then actually gave REGULAR monthly content releases to go along with the subscription. Asheron's Call did it best; a major content release every month, only breaking that pattern when an even larger expansion or storyline content was in the works.
All of the actual "teesting" on the players part of game mechanics should be long done with in alpha and closed beta. Open betas are play the game so the devs can see what happens.
If they're not going to do character wipes or if they are they give you all the ( real money currency ) back on your account to spend again then I'm fine with them taking peoples money.
No one is forcing them to pay and cash shops and cash shop items need mass market testing too. If you don't like the idea of spending money in a beta...don't.
But like most things it's not about what ppl are willing to do, it's about what others are doing that seems to get talked about the most.
^QFT
If they REALLY only want to test the Cash Shop, then they would do what quite a few other games have done lately, namely giving you a few thousand units of Cash Shop currency to spend during Open Beta. Of course it's all wiped along with your character at the end of Open Beta.
That wipe at the end of Open Beta has always served a very important purpose: It removed any advantages anyone could have gained from exploits or bugs during beta testing. It meant that many of the obvious bugs and exploits had been fixed and wouldn't be affecting the game after launch. A point that NWO could certainly have benefited from.
The only thing that has distinguished most "Open Beta's" in the last few years from actual game launches was the character wipe before launch and the fact that subscription games allowed players to play for free during Open Beta.
Game launch has traditionally meant: "NO FURTHER CHARACTER WIPES".
If PWE/Cryptic never actually announces the "release" of Neverwinter, would any of the players actually notice ? What would be different in the game before and after launch day ?
DDO did that in their closed test when they where going into Freemium. They gave people their currency on their test server and then polled it. When I played in the closed beta for Neverwinter, I saw nothing about their cash shop, which I knew would pop up in open and be a problem for people coming in, but this may be PWI way of doing things and we might see significant changes when the "real launch" shows up.
And for the end of what you said. I've seen lots of games do that, I even played in some of the earlier Korean games that did that as well and it all stayed the same.
They can grant people money and see how they spend it like Marvel Heroes is doing. They could let people pre order the game and grant them the money from it than refund it once the game "launches" or they could just use common sense and use prices that are reasonable. You know like everyone else who sells things in the world does.
No one really buys the "open beta" moniker anyway. People who rally "it's beta" are just looking to pick a fight, trolling, or being way to much of a fanboy. Everyone knows it's a thinly veiled attempt to release a product before it's really ready for release so they can start to earn revenue on and hopefully avoid some of the negative fallback they would rightfully deserve from releasing a unfinished game. NW was actually in ok shape at launch and I think they could have just skipped the whole open beta thing and it wouldn't have mattered much at all. Mechwarrior on the other hand is a example of where this kind of tactic is really bad for gamers in general. I wouldn't be surprised if that game ever leaves "open beta"
No instead they typically make you pay to beta in this day and age (note: this started back in the UO beta days and stopped for a time, now it's the reality again).
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
FYI: I am sorry, the universe doesn't understand what a negation ("...isn't...") is - therefor you have just sent the subliminal message to all readers: "This is a troll post."
I haven't heard much from Mechwarrior, which means I never knew it was still in Open as well. Personally I would like Neverwinter to just say it's launched, but they want to signify they "launched" with the release of Drow and the two classes that have been discovered.
Someone else already mentioned DDO. I am also pretty sure that GW2 threw some cash shop currency at us during one of their beta weekends to test out the store.
If Marvel Heroes is doing the same, then respect for them.
The problem is that once you let people spend real money during Beta, it kinda makes it tough to do a wipe.
I think Blizzard is planning on testing the store during Hearthstone Beta, but will refund all the money you spent (likely to your BNet balance) once the game goes live. That sounds like a reasonable idea to me.
I do what I can. Even if I didn't put that in someone later down the line will say this is a troll post.
Why are you so much concerned about the fact that a company charges for certain things that are NO must-have in a free2play title? Dont get confused by the Open Beta title.
It is not hard to say "No I do not want that." - how many other games are available on this planet? In what trillion of other hobbies can one participate?
Dont be so fixated on negative stuff, my friend. Chill...
It's hard to give back the money but it's not hard to give back the 1s and 0s. Any game with an real money currency can give that currency back no problem, but going through bank process or credit card companies would take a bit if you had to give money back. It's not an impossibility.
I'm only concerned on why people only want to hate on everything. Honestly I don't pay money on F2P games unless I like it. I spent money to EQ2, Neverwinter, DDo, Lotro. All stuff that was not really stuff I needed but I wanted. I'm not here to tell people to STFU. I'm posting to get a conversation going.
And trust me, I'm super chill, I'm really a very positive guy.
Considering that sub based games don't charge players for playing during "open beta", it seems like a game that's considered "free to play" would also be able to conduct an open beta without collecting money from players.
I don't play Neverwinter and don't plan to but I find the way that they are handling the game to be a definitive step in the wrong direction for the genre.
People who want to stick up for NW are certainly entitled to but please know that you are doing nothing to help improve the genre by continuing to support this type of shifty business model.
How is it shifty though. People are claiming that this is shifty but it's not. And I don't mean for just Neverwinter, but in general. You pay for a "product" (bag, mount, clothes) and you get it. How is that wrong?
I don't have a problem with being able to buy things in open beta.It give's the company a chance to recoup some of the cost of the game.We all know how people flock to a new game in open beta,burn through the content and then leave.Having the shop open let's them get some coin from some people before they leave.
The companies have gotten smart.Remember when WoW and War were in beta and people were selling keys on Ebay and other sites?I sure do.Now the companies eliminate that by offering vip pack's and early access to open beta and such.Seems to be working.
Some day I'm going to put a sword through your eye and out the back of your skull!
Arya Stark
I find it laughable that they claim the "protection" of the "Open Beta" flag, yet are conducting business exactly the same way as if the game was launched.
I disagree with companies charging money for products and services while hiding behind terms like "open beta" to minimize accountability.
Obviously, you don't seem to have a problem with this which is fine but I do think that players like yourself who choose to support this business model are doing more harm than good for the genre we all enjoy.
How is it harmful. I payed five dollars for two character slots in Neverwinter (which is way better than paying five bucks for one from the other places) and now I have four characters slots. I now supported a game I liked, how is it bad? You keep saying it's harmful and deceitful yet you haven't given me that reason on why it is? I had the same thoughts as you before and mine changed, I just want to know why you think they are so awful