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I'm not going to get the employee in trouble, and I also do not care who doesn't believes me. But here is the comment I got from an employee inside Zenimax.
"Right now, we do not have any plans to make any changes to the payment model of the game. The subscription models are 30 days and 90 days right now. You can check out the announcement page for any changes we make to the game in the future."
That is exactly what they said, and on the surface it looks like the game is going to keep it's subscription.
But notice the use of the words, "right now". It was used twice in two sentences. I personally want the subscription model to stay. But when you use the words, "right now", the person is telling the truth because right at this very minute because the game is not free to play currently. It makes it very easy to assume it is not going free to play. Same with the subscription model, "right now", there are two payment models for the game. At this very second, those are the payment models. It sounds like lawyer speak, until they make an official announcement.
It could just be a poor choice of wording, but the in two sentences in a row? They repeated the same wordings when talking about subscription methods of the game. They could have used the words "in the future", "this year", or simply said "we are not planning to go free to play".
In my opinion this absolutely means ESO is going buy to play (doubt it will go free to play), with some sort of subscription bonus. Probably will be announced alongside the console release. I hope I'm wrong, I really do. The bots have been managed much better. I have only seen one speed hacking ore farmer since I have been back (playing over two weeks).
But if this game does go free to play instead of buy to play? Can you imagine how bad the bots will be? With the punishment of having a free account banned? There will be no cost of entry to just create another one. So at least with buy to play they have to pay for another copy. This won't exactly stop bots but it will cost the hackers and bots something. Zenimax would make money off the bans.
Comments
When I said I would love you forever, I meant it at the time.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/01/eb-games-is-removing-all-copies-of-elder-scrolls-online-from-stores/
I can understand the use of "right now."
If they're comfortable with the income of the game as is, great. But when it comes down to laying off staff / shutting the servers down, or changing up your income model...you change the income model. Because no matter how much you may prefer the sub model in principle, you enjoy paying your employees even more.
Let me just make it clear that I am not suggesting that ESO is, or should, go free to play / buy to play.
I can see using the words 'right now' because that employee probably has very little to do with making the final decision. If he says, "I 100% know for a fact subs won't be changing." You can bet he's lying because he doesn't know what the higher ups are working on and keeping close to their vests. He also knows that if he's wrong and the bosses wakes up one morning and decides something different, his words will be copy and pasted all over the internet as proof of how Zen lies.
It's easy for players to say what they want and state what the facts are or are not because they have nothing to lose if their wrong. But speaking as a rep for a large company is a different matter. You use words like might, as far as I know, and probably, a lot.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Playing- Guild Wars 2, SWTOR
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I bought it during steam sale - if they don't change to f2p or b2p I just wont ever play it again.
Don't care either way.
I'm sorry but i LOL'd really hard at your tin foil hat conspiracy theory about 2 little words lol. Its so ridiculous lol.
Its not going FTP or B2P so just get over it and stop denying reality lol.
The game is great, a better one we've seen in years (FF14 v2 is another one), why kill it by going F2P? Support it by paying subs.
So tired of this conversation....
At least this post pokes fun at ESO going F2P. But can we at least STOP!?!?
Or is it that we need to keep the post counts up here?
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
but you can still buy it online from EB with no discounts...
https://www.ebgames.ca/SearchResult/QuickSearch?q=elder+scrolls+online
I hope it does not end up going f2p or b2p as neither of those will work well with the bug fixing and revamping patches that ZOS is doing such a good job with. F2P / B2P games need content in patches - purchasable content, like shiny suits! Or maybe you can get the buggy from RAGE as a mount! Or reskin your bow like a gun from Quake! So super cool gotta buy it, only $7.99~!
Really though, if they are even considering this I hope they work out how the hell they will make more money without completely destroying the game. It would not fit in well with a cash shop at all, it focuses too heavily on immersion.
On the other hand I would have thought SWTOR would not have fit well with a cash shop either... and they started selling parts of the UI, the ability to wear epic gear, and weekly passes to play in pvp/instances... oh god just thinking about it makes me literally facepalm, I can't finish the sentence without sadly holding my head. Then they could go LoTRO style and sell quest chains... oh goddamnit wtf turbine. Maybe like GW2 and EvE, give a currency people could buy to trade out in game for in game money... but one of the appeals of ESO is the non-centralized auction system, which would not really support that at all.
I cannot think of anything they could monetize that would not be severely damaging to the game. My best guess would be you get one alliance you can play with, have to pay to unlock the other two. Probably have to pay to join a campaign, and then buy another ticket to join it again after it completes. Perhaps lock all but one race in each alliance behind a paywall. Maybe they could get away with putting each zone's major questline up for cash. Probably limit experience gain, either the rate of it or locking off certain things entirely. Maybe sell enchantments that don't fade, but you have to buy one for each weapon/piece of armor. Perhaps limit weapons depending on class unless you unlock them....
All of those ideas would suck. B2P wouldn't be as bad because they would embrace the expansion model for producing content, and the offline ESO games have had great success doing that already. The problem of course would be the immediate drop in bugfixes and any chance of working on old content.
Exactly, because as FTP they'll be more focused on making crap they can sell you in the cash shop then actually fixing the game.
I use "right now" a lot when talking about things that may change in the future. it would be foolish to say that it will always be P2P when you do not know that for certen,
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I feel it is coming in 3 months because any sales they get from console will be excited new players willing to sub for a couple months.Once the new sales market is dried up about 2 months after console launch i suspect a change in plans.
If they do change in the next 3 months,that would indicate it WAS already in the plans and make them out right liars,until then we sit and watch.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Anyone who thinks this game isn't going F2P is in denial. In fact, given that they've pulled the 6 month sub, and pulled all time cards and boxes off shelves should give you a time frame. They are working on the code for the new model as we speak, if it isn't done already.
It's happened time and time again. The idea that sub based games can still thrive in this day and age (That are not WoW or EVE) is wishful thinking at best. They are just milking the sub money for as long as they can because they know there are people who hate the F2P model so much, they are willing to pay for a Sub-Par game just to avoid them. And once they dwindle to the point where it's no longer profitable, they switch the model. You should all be familiar with this pattern by now.
Game costs 18 Euro now
First time I bought Imperial Edition 80 Euro and din't play Imperial race but Nord also I barely used Imperial horse because one sold in game is much better been in pre lunch max vet top players all maxed [mod edit]
Returned to game 1 month ago when I heard about 1.6 uptade bougth Standart Edition and Enjoy the hell out of it
[mod edit]
And considering all won pools so far ESO seems to have a passive majority that just don't give a dime about your F2p model .
[mod edit]
People are finding a lot of connections that give evidence to this. Though I believe it originally started due to precedence; there were games that removed their long-term subscription plans before making the turn to F2P in the past.
About two weeks prior to ESO's release I commented on a topic myself regarding a friend that claimed to work on the project. They said that it is a planned contingency for them to make the game B2P before the console release, and that they might push said console release back as a part of this if there's enough money -- and or changes -- to be had prior to it.
I'll probably have to find that post eventually, though I didn't think much of it back then (mainly because you should plan for various outcomes). Though this is an Elder Scrolls game we're talking about; that community is all about buying up DLC or cash shops and still somewhat wary of monthly fees. Given ES's single player history, it could make them quite a bit of money.