Originally posted by Madimorga I hate to be one of those people, but I'm waiting for this. The game simply isn't worth $15 a month to me, month in, month out. I spent around $50, and got less than two months out of it, and was done. That doesn't mean it's a bad game, it isn't. It just isn't the type of game I'm personally going to pay a monthly sub for.
Originally posted by Madimorga I hate to be one of those people, but I'm waiting for this. The game simply isn't worth $15 a month to me, month in, month out. I spent around $50, and got less than two months out of it, and was done. That doesn't mean it's a bad game, it isn't. It just isn't the type of game I'm personally going to pay a monthly sub for.
You'll be waiting an extremely long time
In 5 years time he will probably still be waiting and hoping, some games just don't go F2P, and SE are in no need to do so, the game is profitable enough that adding millions of freepers probably wouldn't actually help, and oddly enough, they seem to care about their current customer base rather than some unquantifiable demographic that may or may not exist, and lets face it the freepers don't stay with a game, they flit depending on which game is flavour of the month/week, whatever, does any game really need them?
The thing I took away from the interview is that Yoshida is looking at World of Warcraft and seeing that they can add mounts and other cosmetics without having to go completely F2P.
I can see SquareEnix adding a cash shop long before they drop the sub.
It's only a matter of time honestly. They're currently charging an extra $2.00 per month for another retainer (an extra means of storage/more listings available on the market board) and there's a strong demand for paid character alteration and name change services.
I'm honestly not too thrilled about the retainer thing because they just added a new system for them like in SW:TOR where you can send your retainer out to get items for you, and some of them are items specific to this system. Said items are also rare, high level crafting materials, and in my eyes this is pretty much a P2W system since having more retainers = more chances at getting these materials.
I don't see F2P happening. Square has a pretty solid player base so the F2P option is out of the window. You make more money with subs then you do with F2P.
I brought the game when it was half price on Steam . It seems a pretty solid game I liked the dungeons and the story but there were so many delivery quests I felt like a mailman at times . I gave serious consideration to subscribing but what it came down to was I wanted to try the Elder Scrolls which I'm enjoying at the moment but I can't see myself staying in that long term . The thing about free to play and preferably buy to play games is that they give me the freedom to subscribe if I like and if I don't want to then I can still log in and maintain some social connections and do a few quests at my pleasure . I do think if the right game comes along the subscription model is the best one but none of them at the moment have the right combination that would make me want to stay for a long period so I play sub based games for a bit and when they have some interesting new content i drop in and out but its in the buy to play or free to play games I have my long term social interactions with other players simply because I'm not barred from entering if I don't think they are worth a fee that month . If ff14 went buy to play I would jump back in in a heartbeat I would most likely pay for DLC like I do in TSW . I like the concept of the DLC because you are paying for something the devs have worked on and not the promise of something they are working on because they are getting a monthly free . It seems a more honest arrangement to me .
When EQ2 was sub-based the "barber shop" was included with your sub fee. This is especially true since the games charge box fees in addition to the sub. It makes me wonder what the sub is even paying for.
There's a barbershop in game, but it remains within reason of what a barber would do - changing hairstyles. There's some other minor things like face paint and other minor racial changes (ear clasps for Elves) you can change.
Everything else requires a major alteration (think plastic surgery or even major body modification) such as gender/race change, facial appearance change, height, muscle mass, etc, and this is what people are willing to pay for. I think the gender/race change is a big reason why people want it. They start off as a boring human and want to try something else, but being that this game doesn't really encourage using alt chars they have to change their main character.
I wish I could start threads this large by taking something out of context. There is no "writing on the wall" when it comes to this game going F2P. Selling fantasia, something that could be considered a "character service" akin to a transfer, is not the end of the world, especially since they already give players 1 use of it for a 30-day subscription, which is really generous imo. The entire subscriber bonus system is brilliant actually.
People love drama, I swear. Chill out. FFXIV:ARR is finer than fine.
I wish I could start threads this large by taking something out of context. There is no "writing on the wall" when it comes to this game going F2P. Selling fantasia, something that could be considered a "character service" akin to a transfer, is not the end of the world, especially since they already give players 1 use of it for a 30-day subscription, which is really generous imo. The entire subscriber bonus system is brilliant actually.
People love drama, I swear. Chill out. FFXIV:ARR is finer than fine.
This. They're just selling extra character re-customization/gender change on the store (you get one free with every char) that's literally all it is. They don't even sell name changes. The only reason they're even doing this is because everyone on the official forum asked for it.
Comments
You'll be waiting an extremely long time
I would gladly play it for free if it's like rifts or secret world's pay model.
If it's going to swtor route of course i will not touch it.
In 5 years time he will probably still be waiting and hoping, some games just don't go F2P, and SE are in no need to do so, the game is profitable enough that adding millions of freepers probably wouldn't actually help, and oddly enough, they seem to care about their current customer base rather than some unquantifiable demographic that may or may not exist, and lets face it the freepers don't stay with a game, they flit depending on which game is flavour of the month/week, whatever, does any game really need them?
It's only a matter of time honestly. They're currently charging an extra $2.00 per month for another retainer (an extra means of storage/more listings available on the market board) and there's a strong demand for paid character alteration and name change services.
I'm honestly not too thrilled about the retainer thing because they just added a new system for them like in SW:TOR where you can send your retainer out to get items for you, and some of them are items specific to this system. Said items are also rare, high level crafting materials, and in my eyes this is pretty much a P2W system since having more retainers = more chances at getting these materials.
"Everything is mine and your woman too"
There's a barbershop in game, but it remains within reason of what a barber would do - changing hairstyles. There's some other minor things like face paint and other minor racial changes (ear clasps for Elves) you can change.
Everything else requires a major alteration (think plastic surgery or even major body modification) such as gender/race change, facial appearance change, height, muscle mass, etc, and this is what people are willing to pay for. I think the gender/race change is a big reason why people want it. They start off as a boring human and want to try something else, but being that this game doesn't really encourage using alt chars they have to change their main character.
I wish I could start threads this large by taking something out of context. There is no "writing on the wall" when it comes to this game going F2P. Selling fantasia, something that could be considered a "character service" akin to a transfer, is not the end of the world, especially since they already give players 1 use of it for a 30-day subscription, which is really generous imo. The entire subscriber bonus system is brilliant actually.
People love drama, I swear. Chill out. FFXIV:ARR is finer than fine.
This. They're just selling extra character re-customization/gender change on the store (you get one free with every char) that's literally all it is. They don't even sell name changes. The only reason they're even doing this is because everyone on the official forum asked for it.