Out of 10 million North American WoW players, how many of those previous paying subscribers have found F2P worth their time?The Market is speaking. You do not have sensitive enough ears to listen to it. Subsequently, the "many" people you speak of (that feel F2P is worth their time), is a small percentile of the MMORPG space.
WoW didnt have 10 million North American players...try to get your facts straight when you are trying (way to hard i might add) to make a point.
And those who feel the way you do...is an even smaller percentile of the MMORPG space.
It is quite likely that WoW has had MORE than 10M NA players. However, it is NOT possible that they had them all at one time. The amount of people that have ever played WoW is much higher than the amount that played it at the same time.
I can only imagine how many gamers, after over ten years running at millions of subs a month, have played or tried World of Warcraft.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
...and the simple answer is by being a better free to play product. That is as simple as it can be put. We are seeing a big shift in monetizing models. Truth is one can only do as much with a game to bring an audience and what's even more challenging when it comes to the MMORPG market is the fact players are "invested" in other MMORPG's.
It's not only about making a superior product than those available but giving the market a trustworthy product, one that players will know years from now will still receive updates, content, and so forth. Bottom line is developers realize today how valuable all players are both paying and not paying.
What does a producers receive from a non paying customer? Community, healthy population, and more importantly potential new recruits like bringing friends, which is far more valuable than advertising that these non playing players provide to the game. When we come here on forums like these often many players seek for a new game and guess which one will be recommended the most?
I think by 2017 the B2P and P2P product will become obsolete in this genre. There is also only as much one can do to their unpolished, fresh MMORPG, especially how expensive is today to deliver AAA MMORPG and competing with the rest.
It was about time we saw producers compete with one another more aggressivly than ever to give us the best experience without restrictions.
By 2017? Try by 2013ish. Subscription gaming is dead, it just hasn't realized it yet.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
True, I'm sure you can get some Free 2 Eat and Free 2 Wear clothing at a nearby dumpster. The cash shops are close by if you really want to get the cool stuff though.
...and the simple answer is by being a better free to play product. That is as simple as it can be put. We are seeing a big shift in monetizing models. Truth is one can only do as much with a game to bring an audience and what's even more challenging when it comes to the MMORPG market is the fact players are "invested" in other MMORPG's.
It's not only about making a superior product than those available but giving the market a trustworthy product, one that players will know years from now will still receive updates, content, and so forth. Bottom line is developers realize today how valuable all players are both paying and not paying.
What does a producers receive from a non paying customer? Community, healthy population, and more importantly potential new recruits like bringing friends, which is far more valuable than advertising that these non playing players provide to the game. When we come here on forums like these often many players seek for a new game and guess which one will be recommended the most?
I think by 2017 the B2P and P2P product will become obsolete in this genre. There is also only as much one can do to their unpolished, fresh MMORPG, especially how expensive is today to deliver AAA MMORPG and competing with the rest.
It was about time we saw producers compete with one another more aggressivly than ever to give us the best experience without restrictions.
By 2017? Try by 2013ish. Subscription gaming is dead, it just hasn't realized it yet.
Haha tell that to WoW, Ffxiv, And Swtor (1/2 their 160 million a year revenue is from subs).
Hey its a great thing MMORPGS have passed those like you by, you just haven't realized it yet. It's probably time to find a new hobby.
Haha tell that to WoW, Ffxiv, And Swtor (1/2 their 160 million a year revenue is from subs).
hmm ... sub-ONLY MMOs are dead. TOR is not sub-only.
Ad yeah .. two sub-only MMOs out of how many .. hundreds?
How about you keep the part I was replying to...
He said subscriptions are dead not sub only. And there are 100s of MMORPGS? And it's not a surprise WoW, Ffxiv and Swtor are always in the top 5 in revenue thanks to their subscriptions. Once that ends you guys can dance around. Until then just stick to...it's too easy, it's not old school enough, blah blah stuff
Haha tell that to WoW, Ffxiv, And Swtor (1/2 their 160 million a year revenue is from subs).
hmm ... sub-ONLY MMOs are dead. TOR is not sub-only.
Ad yeah .. two sub-only MMOs out of how many .. hundreds?
How about you keep the part I was replying to...
He said subscriptions are dead not sub only. And there are 100s of MMORPGS? And it's not a surprise WoW, Ffxiv and Swtor are always in the top 5 in revenue thanks to their subscriptions. Once that ends you guys can dance around. Until then just stick to...it's too easy, it's not old school enough, blah blah stuff
well .. i didn't say he is correct .. i said "sub-only" MMO is dead.
Pllus, ffxiv and tor in top 5? What are you dreaming?
Haha tell that to WoW, Ffxiv, And Swtor (1/2 their 160 million a year revenue is from subs).
hmm ... sub-ONLY MMOs are dead. TOR is not sub-only.
Ad yeah .. two sub-only MMOs out of how many .. hundreds?
How about you keep the part I was replying to...
He said subscriptions are dead not sub only. And there are 100s of MMORPGS? And it's not a surprise WoW, Ffxiv and Swtor are always in the top 5 in revenue thanks to their subscriptions. Once that ends you guys can dance around. Until then just stick to...it's too easy, it's not old school enough, blah blah stuff
well .. i didn't say he is correct .. i said "sub-only" MMO is dead.
Pllus, ffxiv and tor in top 5? What are you dreaming?
Haha tell that to WoW, Ffxiv, And Swtor (1/2 their 160 million a year revenue is from subs).
hmm ... sub-ONLY MMOs are dead. TOR is not sub-only.
Ad yeah .. two sub-only MMOs out of how many .. hundreds?
How about you keep the part I was replying to...
He said subscriptions are dead not sub only. And there are 100s of MMORPGS? And it's not a surprise WoW, Ffxiv and Swtor are always in the top 5 in revenue thanks to their subscriptions. Once that ends you guys can dance around. Until then just stick to...it's too easy, it's not old school enough, blah blah stuff
well .. i didn't say he is correct .. i said "sub-only" MMO is dead.
Pllus, ffxiv and tor in top 5? What are you dreaming?
and yet MOBAs are on this site game list. In fact, i come here to talk about all MMOs, not just MMORPGs. You can certainly ignoring my comments about MMOs.
I will share with you a little what MMORPG companies pay me to share with them. One of the reasons John Smedley was set back & example of what my meta data says.
That nearly any FREE TO PLAY MMORPG that has surfaced, nearly 40% of the accounts are common across games. Meaning (like Narius) the same person is playing multiple free games (2 to 5 different games) within a given year.
This artificially inflates the amount of perceived players in the marketplace. So essentially, the same people/accounts are being counted falsely across the genre, when it is actually multi-game accounts, by a single players. Further more, a small portion of uber-active players have multiple accounts within the same game.
Accounts do not equal players.
These junior "think tanks" are using erroneous data that artificially inflates the size of the "marketplace". Marketplace = those currently spending in the MMORPG market. Marketplace does not equal those who are idle, or waiting, or Guilds that are on sabbaticals, etc.
To the main question posed here in this thread... YES, the marketplace has forced MMORPG players out. The reason is lack of quality and craftsmanship in building these game worlds. These people are not in the market for a MMORPG, because there are none good enough to buy. Or even try.
There are roughly 62% more people not playing anything (idle) in North America, than there are who are spending (read that carefully and many times). Of the 28% who are actively SPENDING in MMORPGs marketplace (roughly 800k), those people only spend for a short while. Typically no more than 18 months.
And again, 40% of those over-all accounts, are people playing multiple free games and spend a nominal amount fishing around different FREE games, but not truly happy in any of them. They are bored with FREE.
Narius, no matter what data you use, you will see the gaps in meta data and how nothing I have said is in opposition or conflict to the standing data. It just encompasses and encapsulates it more.
Interviewing a 16 year old about MMOs, has no bearing on interviewing a 33 year old on MMORPGs. This is an important factor that many here overlook, or ignore.
A 16 year old next summer can be playing Paintball, or have a new hobby and spending his birthday money on radically different things. A 33 year old, is regimented and typically does not have radical spending habits and sets themselves up within systems of self governing. (Monthly/yearly economics.)
So the MMORPG, Guild and Character they played last summer, is probably the one they are playing next summer, while the 16 is not going to settle down in one game and will follow whatever is hot (marketed to them) or catches his friends attention. (Xbox/PlayStation?)
Again, your own links and data provide the exact same results. I have challenged you & others numerous times. You fold. I do not think you have a clue who I am, or what I know. But I am about to drop a dose of reality on this site over the next few years.
Out of 10 million North American WoW players, how many of those previous paying subscribers have found F2P worth their time?
The Market is speaking. You do not have sensitive enough ears to listen to it.
Subsequently, the "many" people you speak of (that feel F2P is worth their time), is a small percentile of the MMORPG space.
To my knowledge, no one has done any statistics that determine what former WoW players are now playing. As such, there isnt any reason to believe that they are playing any more/any less F2P than non former WoW players.
The only indications that we have (from any of a number of commonly reported sources) is that F2P is both growing in volume, and makeing more money each year. Do you have anything to point at to indicate otherwise? (i.e. is everyone missing something?)
You're probably right. But everyone (well, in development at least) is still missing something. Where's the alternative?
I know there are other styles of games, but the primary level grind design is the same as WoW offers for game play. There's things that go along with level grind like zoned content and fixed adventures (quests) that aren't really much in the way of "adventure" since you know what it is and what's coming next. And there's nothing made even close to "well made" and worth playing as an alternative.
I disagree that there is not unique content out there.... but it is often not seen as comparable (because it is different). I could easily list many types of different games (FPS, MOBA, Social, etc) that dont have the same design as WoW.... but you would not see them as a replacement for WoW, because of the extreme differences.
I also dont see how these designs relate to Free vs Paid content. The real design difference is not in the game style, but in how it relates to multiplayer aspects. The MMO inherently benefits from the free element, as a higher number of players can add inherent advantage to a game. The use of players as content (PvP, Content Building, Social interaction, etc) benefits more from the free approach than the paid approach. This is regardless of the style of the game.
If you go back to the OP, he is clearly taking about MMORPGs in the subject matter.
The only one who benefits from FtP is the game company. Those advantages you mention are solely for their benefit. When it comes to the gamers, other than the fact they get something for free regardless of quality (assuming they don't decide to pay up for some benefit(s)), they don't get anything that any other MMORPG doesn't offer. And where is this "social" you speak of? In global chat?
Price is subjective. What some people consider free, I consider too expensive. What some people consider too expensive, I consider free.
You compete in the MMORPG market by being better at being an MMORPG. Not by being an MMOFPS, and then saying to MMORPG players, here is an MMORPG.
MMORPGs are living worlds. They are not about raid bosses. They are not about ancient myths. They are not about ancient artifacts. Or elves or wizards or warriors.
They are about YOU.
That's right. They aren't about dead things. They are about living things.
You inject your DNA into the game world when you place abilities onto the action bar. You inject your DNA when you dye your armor a certain color. When you make a particular character. That character is your character. It was made literally by you. You went on adventures as them. And when you someday die, this adventure is still apart of this virtual world, and apart of you and your soul. Forever. For all eternity.
My character is RedX The Mercenary. I have more than one, but that was my first one. What is yours?
This is what the MMORPG was about.
It was about being able to forge your own path, given a bunch of really cool looking tools to do so. This arena of game will continue to get better whether game developers even recall what CHARACTER was, or whether they go continue on focusing on how evil the raid bosses look and lose tons of money. These companies look like they are generating tons of money on the outside, but it won't last without character.
I watched for a decade as MMORPGs lost more and more these things that gave us the power to color our armor. Until you could either not do so anymore, or it meant changing a tiny dot on the armor. Same thing happened to armor customization and creation. Now people are happy waiting for random armor to just pop out on a timer. Or some other such kind of ridiculous anti-character mechanic they came up with.
It's no wonder everyone either moved on or chose to remain in nostalgia land.
It's about you. Not the purple manure that drops between the raid monster's legs every time he takes a respawn.
The number one question being asked by developers today of new hires? How do we eliminate the Play 4 Free Gamer? The number one answer is bots. AI that will fill the world with a seemingly active community and take marginally more server load. The P4F Gamer will be filtered from the MMO experience. No commercial site will give voice to the P4F community for fear of angering their paying advertisers. Algorithms are being written to deny the P4F any access to social media. A "to be shunned" database is being developed along the lines of the "no fly list", that all commercial websites will have to comply with.
There is no free speech on the internet, all service providers reserve the right to deny service. Maybe they will find some freedom site that will host their rants for free gaming. But guess who won't carry that message across their network, our local cable provider.
Pardon any spelling errors
Konfess your cyns and some maybe forgiven Boy: Why can't I talk to Him? Mom: We don't talk to Priests. As if it could exist, without being payed for. F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that. It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
The intent of the OP was to suggest that developers roll over and play dead. That they should eliminate all obstacles to Free Gaming (ie subs, P2W, and cash shops). This is the "quality" that is referred to. Meaning that a quality game would make available to the free gamer all the content and features offered to the subscribing or cash shop using player, but at no cost to the Play 4 Free Gamer. This isn't going to happen.
I want the AI bots to indistinguishable from real life gamers. They should be roaming the game world leveling their characters, joining PUGs, raids, PvP, and using Teamspeak. Dev's want the AI to be dumb voiceless NPCs that they sell in the cash shop. I think both ideas will be seen in the market soon.
Pardon any spelling errors
Konfess your cyns and some maybe forgiven Boy: Why can't I talk to Him? Mom: We don't talk to Priests. As if it could exist, without being payed for. F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that. It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
The intent of the OP was to suggest that developers roll over and play dead. That they should eliminate all obstacles to Free Gaming (ie subs, P2W, and cash shops). This is the "quality" that is referred to. Meaning that a quality game would make available to the free gamer all the content and features offered to the subscribing or cash shop using player, but at no cost to the Play 4 Free Gamer. This isn't going to happen.
I want the AI bots to indistinguishable from real life gamers. They should be roaming the game world leveling their characters, joining PUGs, raids, PvP, and using Teamspeak. Dev's want the AI to be dumb voiceless NPCs that they sell in the cash shop. I think both ideas will be seen in the market soon.
Go ahead, do it. Just don't touch the games and people that actually have character still. That's only for the people that wanted a lifeless dead virtual world.
The intent of the OP was to suggest that developers roll over and play dead. That they should eliminate all obstacles to Free Gaming (ie subs, P2W, and cash shops). This is the "quality" that is referred to. Meaning that a quality game would make available to the free gamer all the content and features offered to the subscribing or cash shop using player, but at no cost to the Play 4 Free Gamer. This isn't going to happen.
I want the AI bots to indistinguishable from real life gamers. They should be roaming the game world leveling their characters, joining PUGs, raids, PvP, and using Teamspeak. Dev's want the AI to be dumb voiceless NPCs that they sell in the cash shop. I think both ideas will be seen in the market soon.
I think your entire premise of bots is insane but if they did all the things you said they should do, they'd take up the same server load since the exact same stuff would be stored.. more so because the server would have to calculate all of the actions ; ;
The number one question being asked by developers today of new hires? How do we eliminate the Play 4 Free Gamer? The number one answer is bots. AI that will fill the world with a seemingly active community and take marginally more server load. The P4F Gamer will be filtered from the MMO experience. No commercial site will give voice to the P4F community for fear of angering their paying advertisers. Algorithms are being written to deny the P4F any access to social media. A "to be shunned" database is being developed along the lines of the "no fly list", that all commercial websites will have to comply with.
There is no free speech on the internet, all service providers reserve the right to deny service. Maybe they will find some freedom site that will host their rants for free gaming. But guess who won't carry that message across their network, our local cable provider.
Great post.
Comcast is double dipping. They stole dark cable the US government ("We the people") payed them to lay down. And then Comcast leaves it dark, because it does not want to invest into lighting it up until we pay for it again. They can do this, because they are a US Company and we are only "we the people". Companies own America and "we the people" have to pay $100 month for free stuff.
Riding on a government backbone, subsidized by "we the people" Comcast ask us to pay $100/month and we have to watch commercials..? What are we then paying Comcast for..?
I understand why I pay for HBO. But what are we paying them so much money for Comcast? Their shitty noisy TV box and same remote for 15 years? Why are we watching commercial at all if we are paying to watch..?
Get it?
Ironically, OTA Television is higher def than what Comcast uses. It has commercials too. The only thing is it is free. Cost about $200 in Antenna & DVR to set up 1080i and then it FREE (ie: ChannelMaster). OTA Broadcasts and Internet are all you need.
Also, Comcast piggy backed it's VOIP telephone & Home Security over their own network, eating up your bandwidth, then telling you it cost more money, for a higher tier service. Greed has gone too far.
The number one question being asked by developers today of new hires? How do we eliminate the Play 4 Free Gamer? The number one answer is bots. AI that will fill the world with a seemingly active community and take marginally more server load. The P4F Gamer will be filtered from the MMO experience.
For various reasons, I know plenty of people job hunting and landing jobs in the industry currently. Not one has mentioned such an odd question, let alone the acquisition-defeating, self-destructive answer you presented.
Replace the free gamer with bots? The free gamer is your conversation pool, Konfess.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Haha tell that to WoW, Ffxiv, And Swtor (1/2 their 160 million a year revenue is from subs).
hmm ... sub-ONLY MMOs are dead. TOR is not sub-only.
Ad yeah .. two sub-only MMOs out of how many .. hundreds?
How about you keep the part I was replying to...
He said subscriptions are dead not sub only. And there are 100s of MMORPGS? And it's not a surprise WoW, Ffxiv and Swtor are always in the top 5 in revenue thanks to their subscriptions. Once that ends you guys can dance around. Until then just stick to...it's too easy, it's not old school enough, blah blah stuff
well .. i didn't say he is correct .. i said "sub-only" MMO is dead.
Pllus, ffxiv and tor in top 5? What are you dreaming?
and yet MOBAs are on this site game list. In fact, i come here to talk about all MMOs, not just MMORPGs. You can certainly ignoring my comments about MMOs.
Simple, you offer a significantly better product that isn't free.
To find an intelligent person in a PUG is not that rare, but to find a PUG made up of "all" intelligent people is one of the rarest phenomenons in the known universe.
There are two major things that need to be done in order to 'compete' with the free mentality.
First, you need to have a product that is solid, strong, and extremely high quality. The user has to be able to interact with the product in a manner that is easy, quick, and fulfilling. The mentality with a P2P product has to be one that builds a sense of investment to the player. You need to make the product a fundamental need. The same way that the majority of us classify our cell phones or internet connection. Much like a dealer peddling drugs, you need to consistently keep people on board for the long haul. Not just for a quick fix.
The second is much harder to obtain, you have to breed a sense of elitism to the people who subscribe to your product. Such as those between Apple and Android products. You have to market your product in a way that those who choose not to pay or play it, are somehow sub-human, less intelligent, casual, poor, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is the distinction that those who do subscribe or pay are somehow fundamentally better humans than those who do not.
Windows competes with Linux just fine. Linux is completely free. And clearly better than Windows, mind.
For the same reason WoW is still running at what ? About 5 Mio players ? Its not free either. It has horribly outdated graphics for sure.
The main investment into an operating system is the TIME IT TOOK TO LEARN using it. When people switch from Windows to Linux, they have a lot of different tools to work with.
For the same reason, people have invested a lot of time into WoW. They have their highlevel whatever character and are attached to them. Switching to another game will require them to start at zero again, probably they'll lose their WoW friends and guild. And WoW is apparently "polished" so it works pretty well. Newer, younger games will be more bug ridden, less balanced, and have less content. So the switch needs to be kinda worth it.
I like Linux, but I don't think it's better then Windows. It's safer then Windows and may not crash as much. On the flip side apps for one distribution may not work in another distribution or even different version of a distribution. Even Ubuntu requires you to use the command line on occasion. You really never need to do that in Windows unless you are an administrator of a company network. Even then it's mostly GUI tools. Newer versions of Windows have added things like ISO mounting support and seem to be a lot more stable/lighter to me. The biggest advantage is probably that Microsoft is a big company and will make sure that your Windows software will work on their OS in most cases. Linux has help from the community, but it doesn't have official support and a need to fix issues quickly. I prefer Ubuntu for browsing the web as I feel it's difficult for people to target it with viruses. There are just to many distributions and you are user instead of an administrator by default. Windows is great for games and usually the best for Windows apps, ease of use, controlling a large group of computers on a network with active directory/group policy, and games. I use Windows mostly for games and work. I use Linux for web browsing and downloading things from web sites I don't trust. Windows has a lot better gaming drivers then any Linux distribution. I haven't tried steam OS yet. It also has the most gaming tools and the most games made for it. There are more games made for Windows then any console or OS in existence.
Comments
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Hey its a great thing MMORPGS have passed those like you by, you just haven't realized it yet. It's probably time to find a new hobby.
Ad yeah .. two sub-only MMOs out of how many .. hundreds?
He said subscriptions are dead not sub only. And there are 100s of MMORPGS? And it's not a surprise WoW, Ffxiv and Swtor are always in the top 5 in revenue thanks to their subscriptions. Once that ends you guys can dance around. Until then just stick to...it's too easy, it's not old school enough, blah blah stuff
Pllus, ffxiv and tor in top 5? What are you dreaming?
http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/23/league-of-legends-tops-mmo-revenue-list-hearthstone-no-10/
The top 5 are LoL, Crossfire, DFO, WoW and WoT. Only Wow. TOR and FFXIV are not even in top 10.
Out of the top 10, only WOW is sub-only.
http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/20/5920815/list-of-mmos-by-revenue-warcraft-old-republic
http://massivelyop.com/2015/06/11/perfect-ten-the-top-10-healthiest-live-mmos/
So again, sub-ONLY MMOs are dead.
Nothing is free to play, I wish they would change the name to free to download game, after that it will cost you cash.
Star Citizen – The Extinction Level Event
4/13/15 > ELE has been updated look for 16-04-13.
http://www.dereksmart.org/2016/04/star-citizen-the-ele/
Enjoy and know the truth always comes to light!
Allow me to let the cat out of the bag.
I will share with you a little what MMORPG companies pay me to share with them. One of the reasons John Smedley was set back & example of what my meta data says.
That nearly any FREE TO PLAY MMORPG that has surfaced, nearly 40% of the accounts are common across games. Meaning (like Narius) the same person is playing multiple free games (2 to 5 different games) within a given year.
This artificially inflates the amount of perceived players in the marketplace. So essentially, the same people/accounts are being counted falsely across the genre, when it is actually multi-game accounts, by a single players. Further more, a small portion of uber-active players have multiple accounts within the same game.
Accounts do not equal players.
These junior "think tanks" are using erroneous data that artificially inflates the size of the "marketplace". Marketplace = those currently spending in the MMORPG market. Marketplace does not equal those who are idle, or waiting, or Guilds that are on sabbaticals, etc.
To the main question posed here in this thread... YES, the marketplace has forced MMORPG players out. The reason is lack of quality and craftsmanship in building these game worlds. These people are not in the market for a MMORPG, because there are none good enough to buy. Or even try.
There are roughly 62% more people not playing anything (idle) in North America, than there are who are spending (read that carefully and many times). Of the 28% who are actively SPENDING in MMORPGs marketplace (roughly 800k), those people only spend for a short while. Typically no more than 18 months.
And again, 40% of those over-all accounts, are people playing multiple free games and spend a nominal amount fishing around different FREE games, but not truly happy in any of them. They are bored with FREE.
Narius, no matter what data you use, you will see the gaps in meta data and how nothing I have said is in opposition or conflict to the standing data. It just encompasses and encapsulates it more.
Interviewing a 16 year old about MMOs, has no bearing on interviewing a 33 year old on MMORPGs. This is an important factor that many here overlook, or ignore.
A 16 year old next summer can be playing Paintball, or have a new hobby and spending his birthday money on radically different things. A 33 year old, is regimented and typically does not have radical spending habits and sets themselves up within systems of self governing. (Monthly/yearly economics.)
So the MMORPG, Guild and Character they played last summer, is probably the one they are playing next summer, while the 16 is not going to settle down in one game and will follow whatever is hot (marketed to them) or catches his friends attention. (Xbox/PlayStation?)
Again, your own links and data provide the exact same results. I have challenged you & others numerous times. You fold. I do not think you have a clue who I am, or what I know. But I am about to drop a dose of reality on this site over the next few years.
Stay tuned, the Baby Bells are coming.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
The only one who benefits from FtP is the game company. Those advantages you mention are solely for their benefit. When it comes to the gamers, other than the fact they get something for free regardless of quality (assuming they don't decide to pay up for some benefit(s)), they don't get anything that any other MMORPG doesn't offer. And where is this "social" you speak of?
In global chat?
Once upon a time....
You compete in the MMORPG market by being better at being an MMORPG. Not by being an MMOFPS, and then saying to MMORPG players, here is an MMORPG.
MMORPGs are living worlds. They are not about raid bosses. They are not about ancient myths. They are not about ancient artifacts. Or elves or wizards or warriors.
They are about YOU.
That's right. They aren't about dead things. They are about living things.
You inject your DNA into the game world when you place abilities onto the action bar. You inject your DNA when you dye your armor a certain color. When you make a particular character. That character is your character. It was made literally by you. You went on adventures as them. And when you someday die, this adventure is still apart of this virtual world, and apart of you and your soul. Forever. For all eternity.
My character is RedX The Mercenary. I have more than one, but that was my first one. What is yours?
This is what the MMORPG was about.
It was about being able to forge your own path, given a bunch of really cool looking tools to do so. This arena of game will continue to get better whether game developers even recall what CHARACTER was, or whether they go continue on focusing on how evil the raid bosses look and lose tons of money. These companies look like they are generating tons of money on the outside, but it won't last without character.
I watched for a decade as MMORPGs lost more and more these things that gave us the power to color our armor. Until you could either not do so anymore, or it meant changing a tiny dot on the armor. Same thing happened to armor customization and creation. Now people are happy waiting for random armor to just pop out on a timer. Or some other such kind of ridiculous anti-character mechanic they came up with.
It's no wonder everyone either moved on or chose to remain in nostalgia land.
It's about you. Not the purple manure that drops between the raid monster's legs every time he takes a respawn.
There is no free speech on the internet, all service providers reserve the right to deny service. Maybe they will find some freedom site that will host their rants for free gaming. But guess who won't carry that message across their network, our local cable provider.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
I want the AI bots to indistinguishable from real life gamers. They should be roaming the game world leveling their characters, joining PUGs, raids, PvP, and using Teamspeak. Dev's want the AI to be dumb voiceless NPCs that they sell in the cash shop. I think both ideas will be seen in the market soon.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Great post.
Comcast is double dipping. They stole dark cable the US government ("We the people") payed them to lay down. And then Comcast leaves it dark, because it does not want to invest into lighting it up until we pay for it again. They can do this, because they are a US Company and we are only "we the people". Companies own America and "we the people" have to pay $100 month for free stuff.
Riding on a government backbone, subsidized by "we the people" Comcast ask us to pay $100/month and we have to watch commercials..? What are we then paying Comcast for..?
I understand why I pay for HBO. But what are we paying them so much money for Comcast? Their shitty noisy TV box and same remote for 15 years? Why are we watching commercial at all if we are paying to watch..?
Get it?
Ironically, OTA Television is higher def than what Comcast uses.
It has commercials too. The only thing is it is free. Cost about $200 in Antenna & DVR to set up 1080i and then it FREE (ie: ChannelMaster). OTA Broadcasts and Internet are all you need.
Also, Comcast piggy backed it's VOIP telephone & Home Security over their own network, eating up your bandwidth, then telling you it cost more money, for a higher tier service. Greed has gone too far.
For various reasons, I know plenty of people job hunting and landing jobs in the industry currently. Not one has mentioned such an odd question, let alone the acquisition-defeating, self-destructive answer you presented.
Replace the free gamer with bots? The free gamer is your conversation pool, Konfess.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Simple, you offer a significantly better product that isn't free.
To find an intelligent person in a PUG is not that rare, but to find a PUG made up of "all" intelligent people is one of the rarest phenomenons in the known universe.
First, you need to have a product that is solid, strong, and extremely high quality. The user has to be able to interact with the product in a manner that is easy, quick, and fulfilling. The mentality with a P2P product has to be one that builds a sense of investment to the player. You need to make the product a fundamental need. The same way that the majority of us classify our cell phones or internet connection. Much like a dealer peddling drugs, you need to consistently keep people on board for the long haul. Not just for a quick fix.
The second is much harder to obtain, you have to breed a sense of elitism to the people who subscribe to your product. Such as those between Apple and Android products. You have to market your product in a way that those who choose not to pay or play it, are somehow sub-human, less intelligent, casual, poor, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is the distinction that those who do subscribe or pay are somehow fundamentally better humans than those who do not.
For the same reason WoW is still running at what ? About 5 Mio players ? Its not free either. It has horribly outdated graphics for sure.
The main investment into an operating system is the TIME IT TOOK TO LEARN using it. When people switch from Windows to Linux, they have a lot of different tools to work with.
For the same reason, people have invested a lot of time into WoW. They have their highlevel whatever character and are attached to them. Switching to another game will require them to start at zero again, probably they'll lose their WoW friends and guild. And WoW is apparently "polished" so it works pretty well. Newer, younger games will be more bug ridden, less balanced, and have less content. So the switch needs to be kinda worth it.