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F2P is not a bad thing.
sonicwhip2
Member Posts: 86
Why does everyone assume that going free to play is the end of the world for an mmo? Currently this games population is decreasing by extremely alarming amounts and will become a lot worse when Warlords of Dreanor releases.
This game actually has a lot of potential and if it were to go free to play its popularity would quadruple instantly as well as their profits.
Their are many ways to make a f2p model successful without becoming pay to win they just need to do some brainstorming.
SWTOR was as dead as doornail and after becoming f2p it has gained a huge player increase.
it is not worth to pay 60 dollars plus 15 a month for a largely mediocre game with the same cartoony style of graphics that most people have already been playing for the past 8 years in WoW it doesn't seem like this game has much of a chance at having a large population unless a change occurs with the business model. Megaservers will just act as an illusion but when even they start to become empty then it is a sign of serious trouble.
Wildstar's current level of quality is not nearly enough to justify paying a monthly subscription fee but converting to F2P or B2P would allow them enough time and comfort to slowly improve the game and have a larger playerbase in the meantime who are spending money on an item shop.
Comments
I agree that F2P isn't bad, but I imagine developers don't like to do it because it's like throwing in the towel and admitting defeat - or at least that they were wrong in the assumption that their game could pull it off.
I suspect that Carbine will already be working on an F2P model behind the scenes though, and that it'll follow shortly after the mega servers - unless those really turn things around the population starts going up again. (Which seems unlikely)
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
I'm sort of surprised that they didn't start with a Buy To Play model.
If they knew their end game was going to be targeting the niche hard-core raiding crowd, along with how many other recent MMO's have gone past their first month in terms of player retention, then that right there should have been enough to know that a P2P model wasn't going to work in the long run.
I suppose you don't know unless you try though. Anyways, I'll probably play it some more if/when it goes F2P/B2P. I certainly didn't hate it. I had a reasonable time once I got adjusted to the difficulty of the dungeons, and managed to get my Mechari Engineer to ~34. I just didn't think it did anything different enough to be worth the subscription price.
How does a population increase help with broken game mechanics? From what I understand their problem is a raiding game that has buggy raids.
I know people want to paint a game switching business models as a success story, but it really isn't. There hasn't been a single game that has switched and continually added servers to keep up with the explosion in population. Switching business models just means a short term boost in revenue, and the players get a chance to play the game for zero cost. Those zero cost players play a short while and in a year or two the population is back in the latrine.
The only solution for crappy games is for publishers to fix their crappy game.
Just looking at the WS forums is a very good idea of how dead that game really is now days. Maybe 4 or 5 new posts a day, if that. No one is around anymore, not even the trolls.
F2P is their last hope.
How does a population increase help with broken game mechanics? From what I understand their problem is a raiding game that has buggy raids.
I know people want to paint a game switching business models as a success story, but it really isn't. There hasn't been a single game that has switched and continually added servers to keep up with the explosion in population. Switching business models just means a short term boost in revenue, and the players get a chance to play the game for zero cost. Those zero cost players play a short while and in a year or two the population is back in the latrine.
The only solution for crappy games is for publishers to fix their crappy game.
SWTOR switched to F2P and it has more players now then it has ever had before. And I am sure they added more servers to the mega server behind the scene to handle the load from it.
Even with buggy / broken raids making the switch to f2p would be a good move. Atleast they would not be constently losing players and the game would not feel like a ghost town.
But my view has always been that Wildstar should have followed the GW2 path and launched as a buy 2 play game.
So there is this guy on the internet ( a 3rd party ) that has logged the visual description that SWTOR uses for their server status and it has shown no noticable change in the last year, which is exactly what I stated would happen with a payment model change.
http://www.torstatus.net/shards/us/totals
A broken game is a broken game regardless of how players are asked to pay.
So there is this guy on the internet ( a 3rd party ) that has logged the visual description that SWTOR uses for their server status and it has shown no noticable change in the last year, which is exactly what I stated would happen with a payment model change.
http://www.torstatus.net/shards/us/totals
A broken game is a broken game regardless of how players are asked to pay.
So you are saying that the change from sub to f2p has had no change on the number of people playing? Because I know for a fact that is not true. And I can safely say that there are more people playing now then there was at any point when it had a sub. And IF there are more people playing now then ever before they have HAD to add more hardware to handle the load behind the scenes. You can not just add more people to a game without adding more hardware behind the scenes at some point.
And using a charge that just lists a word as how many people are on is not very accurate at all. Because SWTOR has shown that they can change the number behind the word and have done so when the game was sub only.
Well I know Wildstar is very dead as a P2P game and it's level of quality is way below that of a game that is worth paying every month for going F2P could not possibly hurt their population anymore. And it will give them more time to develop new content at a better pace without feeling the obligation of paying customers.
People are tired of paying to play, even in WoW, because they aren't getting quality with a subscription anyway. A critical look at both models reveals that all MMOs are basically the same, and no amount of content that each model churns out, is worth the $15 a month anymore. Ironically, people are actually paying for kickstarter and crowdfunded development, because they have become that desperate for a quality MMO.
Subscriptions and F2P models aren't the only revenue streams they get either. This is also a common misconception.
As for Wildstar, it could save itself like Swtor, like so many others have. It just needs a cash shop that is balanced for everyone.
I could see it happening once the megaserver rolls out. There is a 30 page discussion on this on the official forums and Carbine hasn't locked it yet.
https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/114676-on-f2p-the-possibility-of/page-30
Of course it will happen, probably after 3-4 patch in January but before end of fiscal year. Game is empty and already have mechanics supporting f2p item shops like bags, clothing, housing, skill resets etc. It looks like it was designed to go f2p after some time.
P2P - in case of wildstar is like founder beta test with monthly 15$.
In my experience (SWTOR, LOTRO), when games go F2P from P2P the direction of development tends to be aimed less about the game and more about how they can make money in the cash shop.
In that sense it's a bad thing IMO.
I never said it would not change, but that the end result is the same. People leave regardless of the revenue model if it is a crappy game, or in this case they need to fix raid content if there is any hope for change.
Wildstar would probably benefit from using a system much the same as Bioware do with SW;TOR.
A hybrid P2P/F2P system would help overall, SW;TOR handles this pretty well with charging players for weekly access to different things, from PVP, to Operations (Dungeons etc.) and also to quick travel modes. There is also limit to free players in their ability to use equipment and how much cash they can have or use, unlocks of those things also being a 'saleable' commodity, after all who would not be tempted to 'pay up' to use that nice new shiny 'purple' Weapon or piece of Armour that they just looted, the alternative being of course to subscribe and gain full access to those features.
One of the most significant things Bioware did, was to remove the box price from the game, that and their payment model meant that many people who perhaps were put off of buying the game were tempted to do so because there was no financial risk involved, i think that is one reason why a B2P model would not help Wildstar at all, and while i dislike mega servers personally, if the player numbers are that low, it will prevent areas becoming 'ghost towns' something that ESO has demonstrated pretty well given the state of their game, and shows that for low population games, it really does work.
I agree that WS should have considered some sort of B2P model but switching to F2P is no guarantee.
First you have to attract people; SWTOR sort to do this by going "free-to-buy" despite that:
Always had the impression that NCSoft were "hoping" to launch the game in the Asian market using some form of F2P / Pay-to-Play model. Maybe they still are and the western launch is indeed just the extended beta test.
Can you elaborate on this ? I play on Red Eclipse and Tomb of Freedon Nadd and both are anything but quiet. Players are everywhere and grouping for heroic quests or FP's is effortless.
Also: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/star-wars-the-old-republic-adds-2-million-users-since-f2p-switch/1100-6405722/
The EU servers are the extreme opposite of quiet, i play on Progenitor and i can assure you it is BUSY, even the lowby planets are very well populated. SW;TOR appears to be in really good health, although what proportion of those players are F2P or P2P its impossible to say.
Re: SWTOR question: I play on Red Eclipse, Republic usually. Fleet usually has less than 200, starter planets e.g. Ord Mantel had 40 earlier, 100 yesterday; teen planets typically in the 40s; higher level planets often quieter still - less than 20 when I was playing yesterday. Yes there are instances in theory but you are usually on 1 and chat is not that active. So - whilst I know the population is spread out - I consider it to be quiet. Now I have checked other servers but I don't play on them actively - hence my caveat. And as I said SWTOR is "trucking along".
And yes
i tend to agree, whether the game is P2P, F2P or even B2P is largely irrelevant, the game will likely live or die on its own merits.
i think the games largest hurdle, and the one that put me off of even trying the game, was its overly cartoony graphics, honestly i think any game trying to use those kinds of graphics now is probably going to struggle, i don't think many people are really looking for that kind of 'look' in a game any more. Perhaps, they never did.
i think the games largest hurdle, and the one that put me off of even trying the game, was its overly cartoony graphics, honestly i think any game trying to use those kinds of graphics now is probably going to struggle, i don't think many people are really looking for that kind of 'look' in a game any more. Perhaps, they never did.
What killed it for me for WS was outside of Raids or PvP the game didn't have much else to offer. The crafting economy was or is non-existent and even if it was money doesn't seem to have any real demand (hence probably the reason why CREDD prices are high now).
Plus like some said, the raids were buggy as heck, heck even some of the dungeons bosses were buggy.
Check out this article on Why Crafting Sucks
What it comes down to is a lack of acceptance of change. This goes for both devs AND players. Though devs have largely been ahead on this trend when compared to most player viewpoints (at least going by what's said on forums).
On paper, F2P appears way more risky. In practice, It's actually safer (assuming it's implemented properly). You can get a lot more money off F2P atm, because you aren't setting up as many barriers for people to play & enjoy your game.
The problem is there is still a stimga towards F2P games, primarily when it comes to MMOs. Though that's becoming less of an issue as more devs wisen up to smarter F2P models.