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General: Free Zone: Who'da Thunk It?
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Richard Aihoshi returns to his Free Zone column this week to talk about three concepts or perceptions about the F2P side of the industry that may not be as true as we think they are.
Last week's column occasioned some responses that ran contrary to my opinion that relatively few people realize the first 12 words in Dickens A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", do not comprise the novel's entire opening sentence. For instance, one reader contended in the comments thread that I'd be surprised how many are familiar with the larger context. Frankly, I hope my assessment was inaccurate. It would be great if a major proportion of the general population or even of the online gaming audience is well read enough to know this.
In any case, I got to thinking about some things within the MMOG space and the free to play sector that, at least in my opinion, fall short of being universally known or even common knowledge.
Read Free Zone: Who'da Thunk It?
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
No Richard, I'm still not going to play F2P mmorpgs.
One more time,
players should buy items in the item shop because they like the game, not because the game is crap without them.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
Some quick research found this article explaining "life" in ZT Online, www.danwei.org/electronic_games/gambling_your_life_away_in_zt.php
Which reminds me how F2P games truly become successful, the kind of thing they must offer in order to achieve that high revenue.
Same here. No I will not play FTPs. Unless my some major miracle, they decide to build deep games the likes of Eve, EQ2, LOTRO, etc. DDO doesn't count because it still offers a monthly sub. If anything they have it right.
I also have yet to play an American FTP. They, so far, have all been based across the pond.
I like your writing style, and I admit that your articles are a good read. However, Toquio3 shares my sentiment.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
Good read Eric, that is exactly what f2p games are all about. Greed. I am amazed at how many foolish people sink so much money into these games.
Nice article, and I found this tidbit in there too, and this is what I refer to as the nickle and dime you to death. Maybe some folks like to go this way but I don't as I don't have those kind of assets at my disposal. So while yaun is only 6.9 dollars when you take 10's of thousands of these is 69,000. Im like OMG!!! I first quoted how many dollars equals a yaun and that is .147.
"Lu Yang received an excellent professional education, her husband is a businessman, and she has substantial financial assets. To her, money has never been a problem, but she still calls some well-regarded players in the game "RMB gamers" in frustration. Though she has invested tens of thousands of yuan in the game, she has suffered defeat after defeat due to the fact that others are more willing to spend, and to spend much more money than she is."
Nice article, and I found this tidbit in there too, and this is what I refer to as the nickle and dime you to death. Maybe some folks like to go this way but I don't as I don't have those kind of assets at my disposal. So while yaun is only 6.9 dollars when you take 10's of thousands of these is 69,000. Im like OMG!!! I first quoted how many dollars equals a yaun and that is .147.
"Lu Yang received an excellent professional education, her husband is a businessman, and she has substantial financial assets. To her, money has never been a problem, but she still calls some well-regarded players in the game "RMB gamers" in frustration. Though she has invested tens of thousands of yuan in the game, she has suffered defeat after defeat due to the fact that others are more willing to spend, and to spend much more money than she is."
It's the other way around, I think. US$1 was around 7 RMB when I was in China.
Hehe, "QQ Dancer". Sounds like most of the posters in this thread.
Those two sentences don't match. You say pointedly you won't play F2P games and then say what a F2P game would need to have for you to play it.
So which is it?
1. You won't play any F2Ps
or
2.You would play a F2P if you were buying items in the shop because you like the game and the game is fun independently from those items.
- If your answer is #2. Then it validates 'the big picture' Richard has been trying to get across. You've proven it isn't the pay structure, but how it is implemented that gets you mad.
Those two sentences don't match. You say pointedly you won't play F2P games and then say what a F2P game would need to have for you to play it.
So which is it?
1. You won't play any F2Ps
or
2.You would play a F2P if you were buying items in the shop because you like the game and the game is fun independently from those items.
- If your answer is #2. Then it validates 'the big picture' Richard has been trying to get across. You've proven it isn't the pay structure, but how it is implemented that gets you mad.
I think they match perfectly. I say I wont play one, but also say what it would take for me to do so. How dont they match? They seem to follow a nice line of reasoning.
I dont play F2P mmorpgs because the games suck if you dont pay enormous amounts of money (way more than the standard 15 per month).
And the big picture Richard has been trying to get across is that everyone that wont support this business practice is "in denial" and a "snob", to use his own words.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
Nice article, and I found this tidbit in there too, and this is what I refer to as the nickle and dime you to death. Maybe some folks like to go this way but I don't as I don't have those kind of assets at my disposal. So while yaun is only 6.9 dollars when you take 10's of thousands of these is 69,000. Im like OMG!!! I first quoted how many dollars equals a yaun and that is .147.
"Lu Yang received an excellent professional education, her husband is a businessman, and she has substantial financial assets. To her, money has never been a problem, but she still calls some well-regarded players in the game "RMB gamers" in frustration. Though she has invested tens of thousands of yuan in the game, she has suffered defeat after defeat due to the fact that others are more willing to spend, and to spend much more money than she is."
It's the other way around, I think. US$1 was around 7 RMB when I was in China.
Even if it is the other way around thats about 1500 dollars there abouts per ten thousand and it said she spents 10 of thosands cha ching. makes monthly subs look good.
Don't care if its ftp or ptp if it has an item shop that has anything other than cosmetic items, they will never see a penny of my money. I don't care what my avatar in a game looks like even in the slightest so it doesn't bother me if someone wants to drop real money to get some shiney hat. What totally turns me off those types of games is when people can spend real world cash to get xp bonuses etc.
Fascinating. I still don't care about F2P nor will anything but a change in modeling affect that opinion.
I visit Allods website for a minute, the day after I read the article about the greed that drove the item shop prices. I figure in a handful of years, I might peak at another F2P game and then be, again, reminded why I keep staying away.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
Aioshi you are one persistent man. I'll give you that.
I don't understand your infatuation with shallow games. More power to you. Just don't try to sell it to us. If 2.5 million users play some crap Last Chaos/PW clone, well, too bad for them, I guess. That tells me how boring life in China must be.
"I first quoted how many dollars equals a yaun and that is .147"
Right, so it only takes a fraction of a dollar, 0.147 dollars to buy a yuan.
"It' s the other way around, I think.US$1 was around 7 RMB when I was in China. "
Right, so it only takes a fraction of a dollar, 1/7 = 0.142 dollars to buy a yuan.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
Still its a boatload of cash when you look at it even from us standards 1500 bucks for per 10k, and there no telling how many 10k units she spent on the game.
lol lotro lifetime only cost me 199 pluss the xpac and all total investment of 300 vs 1500, so then I ask whats free to play.
Now all is clear. Not only is everyone who doesn't like the F2P model an anti-Asian bigot with deep-seated mental problems, they are all poorly informed as well.
The depth and persuasiveness of Richards' arguments never cease to amaze me.
Who'da thunk the moon was shaped more like an egg than a pink polka dotted ping pong ball.
Godspeed my fellow gamer
Racism makes your argument stronger.
I love coming onto Aioshi's article's comments section. Never will you meet a more racist, closed-minded, elitist group of MMO "enthusiasts."
... Enjoy your World of Warcraft. Because doing the same dungeons and raids week after week for a whole year == boring life...?
puh-lease.
Still its a boatload of cash when you look at it even from us standards 1500 bucks for per 10k, and there no telling how many 10k units she spent on the game.
lol lotro lifetime only cost me 199 pluss the xpac and all total investment of 300 vs 1500, so then I ask whats free to play.
Thats the thing that people dont seem to be able to grasp... which is pretty damn pathetic, cause its so simple. Its FREE to play, because you dont HAVE to pay to play. Choosing to spend money like that was a choice, made by her, just like its made by every player on any F2P game, regardless of reason. Wether its to be competetive, or for content, or faster xp, or to look cooler, it dosnt matter, it is still a choice. Wether the game is designed to make you spend or not doesnt matter, you still have a choice. Play it for free, the way it is, or make a concious decision to spend whatever money you have on the game and either a) understand you actually have something called free will, and learn to control yourself and your spending like a normal person with a bit of common sense or b) make the choice to spend money, and then come back and cry over and over that you got scammed out of money by those evil MMO devs who made the game (because yeah, they have access to your bank accounts and control your typing and clicking when you go charge the credits to your account.....)
People really need to get off this crap abut F2P not being free and grow up and learn to make choices for themselves instead of acting like "OMG if i log in im gonna get sucked into a void where they steal my money out of my bank account without my knowing". Ive gone several route in MMOs from P2P, F2P without spending money, and playing an F2P and spending a few thousand on it over a few months. I never complained about spending the money because i knew wtf i was doing and made a logical decision based on my funding and my desire to play that game wether it was woth the price, or if it was better spent elsewhere.
I have NEVER seen the big obsession about item shop items with marginally better stats than anything you can acquire through missions or crafting. If someone wants to sink money into them, FINE! Let them do it! I'll be here with my lower grade armor and weapons, looking MUCH cooler and not to mention, more functional than some bellend with half a car for shoulderpads, coupled with a flaming wake-board for a sword.
You are not forced into buying anything. If you want to be "competitive" in the game, then I suggest saving your money and looking at other tactics... or you are playing that game for the very wrong reasons.
I have played MMOs going into my second decade.
I would like to say I'm a better than average player in regards to them.
f2p games, I have played a fair share of them, all pvp based. Though I am confused as to what many have said here, and I have read what you have said.... You have to pay to compete?
No, you don't, not in any of the games I have come across. I face no opponent that has anything I cannot get in-game that can be used in combat or worn as gear (protection not fashion) than either of us can get strictly through playing the actual game.
Crafting items, sure I have seen some cash shops offer materials to craft with that normally you farm for. But I truly think they are paying a fair price for that, the ease of farming materials, they still need the skill to craft the item.
I have seen a cash shop that offers epic gear and weapons though... Everquest.
Yup, a P2P game. I quit the day some new character bought a gift box from the cash shop that had a full set of epic gear and weapon, potions, etc..
Better gear than I had crafted/quested for for years, in a p2p game. Yeah, please tell me again how f2p are unbalancing.
All I will say, is it's the future of the genre. Look at how many of the p2p models have placed cash shops in their games, or completely changed the game over to f2p model (I really like how DDO did it, btw). Unless someone comes up with a new way of getting a sub fee (DDO?), f2p is going to become the new norm, want to know why?
Because f2p devs need you to play the game. They need you to play it for a long time, they need you to want to play it. I have not seen a single f2p cash shop in my travels that sells unbalancing gear. It wouldn't make sense to do that, they would lose all their playerbase, and unlike the p2p model their playerbase is not locked into the game, they can leave at anytime, and will if given just cause. Those devs seem to get that aspect.
p2p devs lately just want you to buy the game. That's it, they're pretty much done after hyping it, making it pretty, enticing you with all they are going to do in the future plans...but once the first month is done, so are they, off to make (er sell) the next game.
I'll take the f2p folks, minimal risk, greater rewards. I used to be like many of the above posters, please take my advice play the games first. Try Perfect World International, or Free Earth Zero. PWI is from China, FEZ is from Japan (Square Enix), seriously you are not going to mock the creators of Final Fantasy before trying their game out, are you?
Have a good one.
not really to detract from your point I see how buying stuff in a p2p game that someone else had to spend hours on end to get is bad but on your f2p game that gives advantages to buyers in pvp part I can name one 9dragons the game is cool but the grind is horrid and items you buy make the grind easier but the main thing that makes it pvp disadvantage is if you pay for the premium package you get access to the hermit that gives your player a significant stat buff and you can purchase other stat increasing stuff from him
I like your writing style, and I admit that your articles are a good read. However, Toquio3 shares my sentiment.
Ditto.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club