What a hate filled article, borderline rude in tone, insulting to sections of the MMORPG community and practically overflowing with a horrible sense of smugness. I expect it on the forums, but expected better from the Columnists.
So the article seemed to basically be saying that anyone who is against F2P is a retard and Richard failed to even provide balance in his article by maybe mentioning some of the valid objections some people may have with the F2P model and LOTRO's move to it. Ohhh but silly me, anyone who dares say anything negative about F2P must be a hysterical, tin foil hat wearing loony. Sorry, my bad.
Probably to worst article I've read in the many years I've been reading this site.
Wow, some of you people are way too overly sensitive. Read the article, didn't find one thing rude or offensive or insulting, but then again maybe thats cause im not, as the blonde chick in Scrubs put it... a tiny girl bitch.
He didn't really claim anything close to anti-F2Pers being retarded, people do have some valid points, howeve rthe great majority of peoples anti-F2P arguments are simply ignorant and outdated. By reading many of their arguments its clear that some of them have never even played an F2P game and are basing their arguments solely on misinformation given to them by other people out of hatred for something they don't like. On top of that, many of the arguments are also based on what the F2P genre was several years ago, not the current state of the genre.
Unfortunately for you, there have been very very few valid points made by the anti-F2P crowd that are even worth pointing out in his article, so there's no need to go over them in detail when they can be summed up in a blanket statement, and actually in way fewer words than he did it. In fact, i can some up the majority of the anti-F2P arguments in 1 simple word... WRONG
Free to play columnist Richard Aihoshi wonders at some people's unwillingness to accept LOTRO's announced change of business models.
After the announcement 10 days ago that The Lord of the Rings Online will become free to play this fall, it took almost no time at all for the silly reactions to begin. Considering the hate-on some people have for anything and everything F2P, it was no surprise they didn't like the news. But it was almost comical to see some of the spin doctoring they engaged in to try to soften or negate the impact on their tender psyches instead of simply admitting what's happening with the game and in the MMOG market.
For example, one point of view was put forward stating this isn't an important development because LOTRO doesn't qualify as a major subscription title since it only has a single-digit share of that market. The problem is that if we apply this particular criterion, practically every single release aside from World of Warcraft could adopt F2P, and not one of the conversions would be significant.
Quote: "In a similar vein, some have contended that the best available estimates of LOTRO's subscriber base, 250,000 to 300,000, are inflated. It's possible they are. However, better numbers aren't available, and it does seem kind of presumptuous to make the wishful assumption that the actual figure is substantially smaller based on no facts, at least not in anything I've read. "
You don't think the numbers are inflated, when the CEO's of both Turbine and Warner Brothers stated LotRO is 8th in the NA market, when they've done nothing before to curb the "speculation" put forth by fanbois even on their own forums that LotRO was "one of the top 3 mmos" to try to prove how "successful" it was when rational people dared to be realistic?
And then you go on to admit you don't care what the truth of the matter is, if someone slaps "F2P" on their marketing spin, then it's F2P as far as you're concerned. Don't ever try to come here with one of those "I'm on the gamers side" speeches, because you'll be laughed of the site.
And you like to think this F2P thing is just the next best thing to happen to gaming, Aihoshi? I presume you are old enough to remember how mmos started out? Pay by the minute, costing people hundreds of dollars a month being a regular occurance? And I suppose you remember why that was completely killed off ( except in asia apparently ) by the monthly sub? There is nothing new under the sun, man. This is just suits trying to regurgitate a system that was already shown to be inferior and cast aside years ago. The trouble is, they are hoping the younger players don't know their history.
Do us all a favor Aihoshi, and stick to just writing "facts" about games themselves, and stay out of the "personal agenda" realm, because you fail at it.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Wow Richard, feel sorry for you, try to do a F2P column, and the biggest news you see in a while falls out of the sky, you do more than one article on it, and as soon as you respond to what you see being talked about, your bashed like this.
I don't particulary like your writing style, you tend to use alot more statistics than I care to absorb, but you don't deserve what these people are saying. Its not low to talk about whats being said, unless people are ashamed of what they are saying, in which case they should not open their mouths, and as for this sounding like a forum post, no, its really not, its an article. Now if some of these people want to write something that everyone will read once a week, they can apply for a columnist job. besides, I don't know if your at E3, but if you are, I doubt you really care to take alot of time on your column this week.
I wouldn't either. And neither would any of these haters if they were in your shoes.
Thanks for saying that I've been thinking for quite some time now.
However, don't expect a warm welcome from this crowd. You'll hear the same criticisms regurgitated in every post here. Bandwagon-ing at its finest. What do you expect from people who haven't had an original thought in, well, since birth?
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. -Winston Churchill
I had litterally started downloading the trial about a half hour before I read about the switch to free to play, as soon as I read it I stopped the download.
After playing DDO for a week I have no interest in another turbine "free to play untill you want content and max level"
After looking at the screenshots of the market windows everyone can see that they did the same thing with LOTRO and put the interesting parts of the gamein the market place along with lots of stuff to make sure the bankrollers can litterally buy a better toon than the rest of the population.
Thats the case with most f2p mmos no matter how ignorant one may be they can't in good faith deny that someone with a fat wallet has a huge advantage, not even the ignoramous that created this column or the two posters above me.
Of course it is a choice as to whether or not one actually spends money in the game, but when you start offering content and advantages your just baiting people, not unlike 0% interest loans or cell phone plans, $30 a month but once you get done paying for features that should be standard you end up with a $140 bill and are upset because you could have a bundle that would have only cost you $50.
I had litterally started downloading the trial about a half hour before I read about the switch to free to play, as soon as I read it I stopped the download.
After playing DDO for a week I have no interest in another turbine "free to play untill you want content and max level"
After looking at the screenshots of the market windows everyone can see that they did the same thing with LOTRO and put the interesting parts of the gamein the market place along with lots of stuff to make sure the bankrollers can litterally buy a better toon than the rest of the population.
Thats the case with most f2p mmos no matter how ignorant one may be they can't in good faith deny that someone with a fat wallet has a huge advantage, not even the ignoramous that created this column or the two posters above me.
Of course it is a choice as to whether or not one actually spends money in the game, but when you start offering content and advantages your just baiting people, not unlike 0% interest loans or cell phone plans, $30 a month but once you get done paying for features that should be standard you end up with a $140 bill and are upset because you could have a bundle that would have only cost you $50.
Cool story, problem is everything you said about DDO and LOTRO is wrong. Yes you CAN pay $ to unlock the stuff, but you can also unlock it 100% free by investing a bit of time in earning Favor points. Its up to you, time, money, or a combination of both, but nothing forces you to pay for content or levels or anything else.
Stop crying something isnt F2P just because you cant get a full game + max level & uber gear instantly 100% free. Youre going to need to either work for it in game, or out of game for the $ (or at least pray your parents do if your etoo young).
You can't. And this guy submits this type of "column" every other week or so. Apparently there really is nothing going on in the F2P space news worthy so he just submits a troll/rant at people voicing their opinions that differ from his. Only he's allowed to take shots and make innuendos about those people's perceived lack of intelligence. Stuff we'd get a warning or ban for.
This site is supposed to be for us. If that's true, then there should be some kinda of voting system for the columns written. If a particular columnist scores below a certain level they rotate him/her out. I never had anything against this guy (didn't even know he shared the same planet with me until he started writing for here) and don't care if people enjoy F2P games. Doesn't affect me. But when someone starts taking verbal shots at me just because I don't agree with their point of view and I can't respond in kind, yeah, that's a problem.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
I had something else to say, but after reading the comments posted to this article,All I'll say is, if someone says something and you lash out all butt hurt over it, its obviously true what they said.
Or you can look at it like this;
these comments vs his article, his article speaks for itself.
You can't. And this guy submits this type of "column" every other week or so. Apparently there really is nothing going on in the F2P space news worthy so he just submits a troll/rant at people voicing their opinions that differ from his. Only he's allowed to take shots and make innuendos about those people's perceived lack of intelligence. Stuff we'd get a warning or ban for.
This site is supposed to be for us. If that's true, then there should be some kinda of voting system for the columns written. If a particular columnist scores below a certain level they rotate him/her out. I never had anything against this guy (didn't even know he shared the same planet with me until he started writing for here) and don't care if people enjoy F2P games. Doesn't affect me. But when someone starts taking verbal shots at me just because I don't agree with their point of view and I can't respond in kind, yeah, that's a problem.
This ^^ The few points that Richard tried to make were lost in the condescending attitude of the article. I find it highly unprofessional that in the last few weeks we have seen staff of this site lashing out and verbally attacking the forum posters here. While i do not post a lot i do read a lot and i have never had anything against any of the writers here most of the articles are pretty decent or at least provoke some discussion...however uncivil it may be. People are entitled to their opinions wether you like F2P hate it or could care less about it. I find this article lacking in tact or any information to provoke valid discussion.
And then you go on to admit you don't care what the truth of the matter is, if someone slaps "F2P" on their marketing spin, then it's F2P as far as you're concerned.
I really don't care for Mr. Aihoshi's articles...like...at all, but the above point he made in this latest article really made no sense. It reminds me of the scene from Tommy Boy:
Tommy: Let's think about this for a sec, Ted. Why would somebody put a guarantee [F2P] on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.
Tommy: 'Course it does. Why shouldn't it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee [F2P] Fairy might come by and leave a quarter [item shop], am I right, Ted?
Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer [money grubber]? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy; well, we're not buying it. He sneaks into your house [wallet] once, that's all it takes. The next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser, and your daughter's knocked up. I seen it a hundred times.
Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit [F2P game that they simply said was F2P and naming something as such does not necessarily make it so]. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed [F2P], I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.
It's not the best one-for-one example but the point I'm trying to make, Mr. Aihoshi, is this. Just because someone says something does not make it so. Non Sequitur argument my little-F2P-fanboi-friend of mine.
I had something else to say, but after reading the comments posted to this article,All I'll say is, if someone says something and you lash out all butt hurt over it, its obviously true what they said.
Or you can look at it like this;
these comments vs his article, his article speaks for itself.
REALLY?! I mean do you seriously believe this? So if someone says Gandhi is a bigot and he isn't, but I get all “butt hurt” over it and lash out then it clearly means that he is a bigot?
I had something else to say, but after reading the comments posted to this article,All I'll say is, if someone says something and you lash out all butt hurt over it, its obviously true what they said.
Or you can look at it like this;
these comments vs his article, his article speaks for itself.
REALLY?! I mean do you seriously believe this? So if someone says Gandhi is a bigot and he isn't, but I get all “butt hurt” over it and lash out then it clearly means that he is a bigot?
Where the &$%@ do you people come from with this crap?
Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing.
In your scenario, it would be Ghandi who would either get butt hurt or not. Of course, knowing that he was not a bigot and the accusation was false, Ghandi would not get butt hurt or even dignify the accusation with a response. Whether you got butt hurt or not would be irrelevent to the equation, as you were not the one accused in the first place.
So as it stands, if Mr. Aihoshi knew the accusations against his beloved F2P scheme were false, he would not make an article to attack those claiming otherwise, he would simply move on and write about some other aspect, as the F2P would make it's own case to prove the naysayers wrong.
Aihoshi could learn from another old saying: Methinks thou dost protest too much.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I had something else to say, but after reading the comments posted to this article,All I'll say is, if someone says something and you lash out all butt hurt over it, its obviously true what they said.
Or you can look at it like this;
these comments vs his article, his article speaks for itself.
REALLY?! I mean do you seriously believe this? So if someone says Gandhi is a bigot and he isn't, but I get all “butt hurt” over it and lash out then it clearly means that he is a bigot?
Where the &$%@ do you people come from with this crap?
Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing.
In your scenario, it would be Ghandi who would either get butt hurt or not. Of course, knowing that he was not a bigot and the accusation was false, Ghandi would not get butt hurt or even dignify the accusation with a response. Whether you got butt hurt or not would be irrelevent to the equation, as you were not the one accused in the first place.
So as it stands, if Mr. Aihoshi knew the accusations against his beloved F2P scheme were false, he would not make an article to attack those claiming otherwise, he would simply move on and write about some other aspect, as the F2P would make it's own case to prove the naysayers wrong.
Aihoshi could learn from another old saying: Methinks thou dost protest too much.
Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing, I completely agree. Therefore I highlighted the yellow text to point out that the person referred to "something" being said. They did not specify that it was said to someone or about someone (I, however, chose to use a person as an example) they just said that something was said. Therefore, if someone happened to hear this utterance and get "butt hurt," then the utterance must have been correct.
If you believe something is false then why wouldn't you defend it? Although I dislike Mr. Aihoshi I will at least defend the intent of his article: Silence is consent.
If you believe something is false then why wouldn't you defend it? Although I dislike Mr. Aihoshi I will at least defend the intent of his article: Silence is consent.
Why should you have to defend the intent of HIS article? As you say, apparently silence is consent. So since he is silent, I'd say that means he's consenting to what the rest of us are saying then according to your veiwpoint, correct?
If the man has the balls to submit his article, he should have the balls to stand up for it, right? Unless I am totally missing your point somehow.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
If you believe something is false then why wouldn't you defend it? Although I dislike Mr. Aihoshi I will at least defend the intent of his article: Silence is consent.
Why should you have to defend the intent of HIS article? As you say, apparently silence is consent. So since he is silent, I'd say that means he's consenting to what the rest of us are saying then according to your veiwpoint, correct?
If the man has the balls to submit his article, he should have the balls to stand up for it, right? Unless I am totally missing your point somehow.
No, no, you get it.
I don't know. I'm torn between the fact that I really dislike Mr. Aihoshi as a journalist, which bleeds over to a general dislike of him as a human being, and the understanding that he can't address every single argument against F2P. Though I will admit that he should address some of the more moderate and what I would consider legitimate arguments made against the F2P model.
I had litterally started downloading the trial about a half hour before I read about the switch to free to play, as soon as I read it I stopped the download.
After playing DDO for a week I have no interest in another turbine "free to play untill you want content and max level"
After looking at the screenshots of the market windows everyone can see that they did the same thing with LOTRO and put the interesting parts of the gamein the market place along with lots of stuff to make sure the bankrollers can litterally buy a better toon than the rest of the population.
Thats the case with most f2p mmos no matter how ignorant one may be they can't in good faith deny that someone with a fat wallet has a huge advantage, not even the ignoramous that created this column or the two posters above me.
Of course it is a choice as to whether or not one actually spends money in the game, but when you start offering content and advantages your just baiting people, not unlike 0% interest loans or cell phone plans, $30 a month but once you get done paying for features that should be standard you end up with a $140 bill and are upset because you could have a bundle that would have only cost you $50.
Cool story, problem is everything you said about DDO and LOTRO is wrong. Yes you CAN pay $ to unlock the stuff, but you can also unlock it 100% free by investing a bit of time in earning Favor points. Its up to you, time, money, or a combination of both, but nothing forces you to pay for content or levels or anything else.
Stop crying something isnt F2P just because you cant get a full game + max level & uber gear instantly 100% free. Youre going to need to either work for it in game, or out of game for the $ (or at least pray your parents do if your etoo young).
I guess I just don't share your views on what makes or breaks a game, anytime you can buy things in an item mall that give your character an edge over someone who chooses to not be nickle and dimed to death is simply game breaking for me and pretty much anyone else who are accustomed to AAA titles where $15 a month will buy you an even playing field with everyone else, no need to buy 50 $2 potions a month, or $30 worth of quests, or $15 worth of armor just to be able to keep up with your guild, freinds or be considered for a group because when you try to get a group up to just earn the stuff everyone just says "buy it".
Thats the way it was in Shaiya, SUN, 2Moons, 9Dragons, DDO, Allods and pretty much every other FTP game in this websites game list....I've tried pretty much every one of them and their all running the same scam.
You people are hopeless. I 100% support Richard Aihoshi's very unpopular, but truely valid opinion.
But the best thing is that soon there will be less and less of you. And in the end you'll be the ones which are "hard to understand" and support. Mark my words, you're going to be a minority sooner than you expect. And you didn't and still don't have to.
You people are hopeless. I 100% support Richard Aihoshi's very unpopular, but truely valid opinion.
But the best thing is that soon there will be less and less of you. And in the end you'll be the ones which are "hard to understand" and support. Mark my words, you're going to be a minority sooner than you expect. And you didn't and still don't have to.
Did you watch E3? We p2p folks are far from a specie in danger of extintion.
Oh and we are a minority, we've been for a while now. Even before ddo lotro.
You people are hopeless. I 100% support Richard Aihoshi's very unpopular, but truely valid opinion.
But the best thing is that soon there will be less and less of you. And in the end you'll be the ones which are "hard to understand" and support. Mark my words, you're going to be a minority sooner than you expect. And you didn't and still don't have to.
Ohhh Doom upon us !
Funny thing that these f2p folks and their aioshi prophet resort to insulting and cursing when their poor reasoning fails to convert the unfaithful.
You know, there's still someone that wants to go on thinking with his own head and refuses your kind of jihad-like intolerance.
Main point of the article was actually fairly valid, presentation was horrible. A few basic rebuttals to complaints that largely amount to "people are making claims without facts to back them up". Followed by a "This is the future, too bad the haters are in denial". Seriously, I browse random forum posts to get that much, I have higher expectations from a front page article.
While I personally believe the F2P model can be done well, the MMO scene is horribly bare of good examples these days. People wanting to legitimatize the business model on grounds beyond "everyone is doing it these days" need to go beyond the standard back-and-forth and actually spotlight the good examples. Lay things out in detail and explain precisely why a given example is worth looking at as more than a rebadged Skinner's Box or online casino. And god-forbid, let's have some reviews that actually take upcoming games to task over poor implementation. Accountability is the first step towards improvement, after all.
A Modest Proposal for MMORPGs: That the means of progression would not be mutually exclusive from the means of enjoyment.
Sweet, they're letting the columnists troll the forums now, its open season baby.
I for one don't think the announcement heralds the end of MMORPG's or even the P2P model, however it does point the way to an increasingly hyrbid model of payment options and revenue streams which I think all MMO's will soon employ. (even my beloved EVE)
I do think its not fair to lump all alternate payment models under the single category of F2P, as there is considerable difference in how they are employed in a game like ROM vs that employed by DDO, however its too complicated to invent a lot more new terms so what the hell, let's just stick with one and keep it simple.
EVE already has a "hybrid" payment option Kyleran, but can't you see - you foolish conservative dinosaur - that's it is the wrong kind of hybrid, beause it doesn't allow for soaking more dollars per account? It's a useless relic, because it still incentivises CCP to make the game worth subscibing to, instead of incentivising them to make it unplayable unless you're paying them two or three times as much as the normal $15 sub. Paleolithic is the only word to describe such an old-fashioned model.
Get with the times, old man.
Can't think of a good way to post a rebuttal to mine so you lead with slams regarding my age, common sense, or political views? (BTW, I tend to be a fiscal conservative but a social liberal)
And you are correct, EVE's game design encourages multiple accounts (much as DAOC did) yet both games are extremely playable by a person who only has one account and that's how the majority of players in both games rolled. (just not me)
I'm not sure why you think game designs should not encourage players to sub to more than one account, its just yet another alternative payment model and truth is, everything in the game is available to a single account but certainly having multiple accounts imparts advantages.
And EVE has other RMT aspects BTW, they charge us to change our Avatars portraits and of course there's the PLEX system which doesn't directly feed into CCP, however indirectly it of course pays for more subs in the game.
I figure its a matter of time before they get sucked into the cash shop game, probably to give us something like ship customization (appearance only) or when/if Incarna comes, they'll be tempted to sell us alternate clothing or let us own a "house" in them that we can pay to furnish.
The lure of easy money has a very strong appeal.
As for getting with the times, I'm already there. I've played F2P games in the past, and in fact I'm currently playing Earth Eternal (under this name) because someone stated it was a great example of a "good" F2P game so I decided to find out if the experience was better than the one I had with ROM.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Comments
Wow, some of you people are way too overly sensitive. Read the article, didn't find one thing rude or offensive or insulting, but then again maybe thats cause im not, as the blonde chick in Scrubs put it... a tiny girl bitch.
He didn't really claim anything close to anti-F2Pers being retarded, people do have some valid points, howeve rthe great majority of peoples anti-F2P arguments are simply ignorant and outdated. By reading many of their arguments its clear that some of them have never even played an F2P game and are basing their arguments solely on misinformation given to them by other people out of hatred for something they don't like. On top of that, many of the arguments are also based on what the F2P genre was several years ago, not the current state of the genre.
Unfortunately for you, there have been very very few valid points made by the anti-F2P crowd that are even worth pointing out in his article, so there's no need to go over them in detail when they can be summed up in a blanket statement, and actually in way fewer words than he did it. In fact, i can some up the majority of the anti-F2P arguments in 1 simple word... WRONG
Quote: "In a similar vein, some have contended that the best available estimates of LOTRO's subscriber base, 250,000 to 300,000, are inflated. It's possible they are. However, better numbers aren't available, and it does seem kind of presumptuous to make the wishful assumption that the actual figure is substantially smaller based on no facts, at least not in anything I've read. "
You don't think the numbers are inflated, when the CEO's of both Turbine and Warner Brothers stated LotRO is 8th in the NA market, when they've done nothing before to curb the "speculation" put forth by fanbois even on their own forums that LotRO was "one of the top 3 mmos" to try to prove how "successful" it was when rational people dared to be realistic?
And then you go on to admit you don't care what the truth of the matter is, if someone slaps "F2P" on their marketing spin, then it's F2P as far as you're concerned. Don't ever try to come here with one of those "I'm on the gamers side" speeches, because you'll be laughed of the site.
And you like to think this F2P thing is just the next best thing to happen to gaming, Aihoshi? I presume you are old enough to remember how mmos started out? Pay by the minute, costing people hundreds of dollars a month being a regular occurance? And I suppose you remember why that was completely killed off ( except in asia apparently ) by the monthly sub? There is nothing new under the sun, man. This is just suits trying to regurgitate a system that was already shown to be inferior and cast aside years ago. The trouble is, they are hoping the younger players don't know their history.
Do us all a favor Aihoshi, and stick to just writing "facts" about games themselves, and stay out of the "personal agenda" realm, because you fail at it.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Wow Richard, feel sorry for you, try to do a F2P column, and the biggest news you see in a while falls out of the sky, you do more than one article on it, and as soon as you respond to what you see being talked about, your bashed like this.
I don't particulary like your writing style, you tend to use alot more statistics than I care to absorb, but you don't deserve what these people are saying. Its not low to talk about whats being said, unless people are ashamed of what they are saying, in which case they should not open their mouths, and as for this sounding like a forum post, no, its really not, its an article. Now if some of these people want to write something that everyone will read once a week, they can apply for a columnist job. besides, I don't know if your at E3, but if you are, I doubt you really care to take alot of time on your column this week.
I wouldn't either. And neither would any of these haters if they were in your shoes.
My Thoughts on Content Locust
Richard,
Thanks for saying that I've been thinking for quite some time now.
However, don't expect a warm welcome from this crowd. You'll hear the same criticisms regurgitated in every post here. Bandwagon-ing at its finest. What do you expect from people who haven't had an original thought in, well, since birth?
I had litterally started downloading the trial about a half hour before I read about the switch to free to play, as soon as I read it I stopped the download.
After playing DDO for a week I have no interest in another turbine "free to play untill you want content and max level"
After looking at the screenshots of the market windows everyone can see that they did the same thing with LOTRO and put the interesting parts of the gamein the market place along with lots of stuff to make sure the bankrollers can litterally buy a better toon than the rest of the population.
Thats the case with most f2p mmos no matter how ignorant one may be they can't in good faith deny that someone with a fat wallet has a huge advantage, not even the ignoramous that created this column or the two posters above me.
Of course it is a choice as to whether or not one actually spends money in the game, but when you start offering content and advantages your just baiting people, not unlike 0% interest loans or cell phone plans, $30 a month but once you get done paying for features that should be standard you end up with a $140 bill and are upset because you could have a bundle that would have only cost you $50.
Cool story, problem is everything you said about DDO and LOTRO is wrong. Yes you CAN pay $ to unlock the stuff, but you can also unlock it 100% free by investing a bit of time in earning Favor points. Its up to you, time, money, or a combination of both, but nothing forces you to pay for content or levels or anything else.
Stop crying something isnt F2P just because you cant get a full game + max level & uber gear instantly 100% free. Youre going to need to either work for it in game, or out of game for the $ (or at least pray your parents do if your etoo young).
You can't. And this guy submits this type of "column" every other week or so. Apparently there really is nothing going on in the F2P space news worthy so he just submits a troll/rant at people voicing their opinions that differ from his. Only he's allowed to take shots and make innuendos about those people's perceived lack of intelligence. Stuff we'd get a warning or ban for.
This site is supposed to be for us. If that's true, then there should be some kinda of voting system for the columns written. If a particular columnist scores below a certain level they rotate him/her out. I never had anything against this guy (didn't even know he shared the same planet with me until he started writing for here) and don't care if people enjoy F2P games. Doesn't affect me. But when someone starts taking verbal shots at me just because I don't agree with their point of view and I can't respond in kind, yeah, that's a problem.
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I had something else to say, but after reading the comments posted to this article,All I'll say is, if someone says something and you lash out all butt hurt over it, its obviously true what they said.
Or you can look at it like this;
these comments vs his article, his article speaks for itself.
This ^^ The few points that Richard tried to make were lost in the condescending attitude of the article. I find it highly unprofessional that in the last few weeks we have seen staff of this site lashing out and verbally attacking the forum posters here. While i do not post a lot i do read a lot and i have never had anything against any of the writers here most of the articles are pretty decent or at least provoke some discussion...however uncivil it may be. People are entitled to their opinions wether you like F2P hate it or could care less about it. I find this article lacking in tact or any information to provoke valid discussion.
I really don't care for Mr. Aihoshi's articles...like...at all, but the above point he made in this latest article really made no sense. It reminds me of the scene from Tommy Boy:
Tommy: Let's think about this for a sec, Ted. Why would somebody put a guarantee [F2P] on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Go on, I'm listening.
Tommy: Here's the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee [F2P] on a box 'cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Yeah, makes a man feel good.
Tommy: 'Course it does. Why shouldn't it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee [F2P] Fairy might come by and leave a quarter [item shop], am I right, Ted?
[chuckles until he sees that Ted is not laughing]
Ted Nelson, Customer: [impatiently] What's your point?
Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer [money grubber]? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy; well, we're not buying it. He sneaks into your house [wallet] once, that's all it takes. The next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser, and your daughter's knocked up. I seen it a hundred times.
Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box?
Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit [F2P game that they simply said was F2P and naming something as such does not necessarily make it so]. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed [F2P], I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.
It's not the best one-for-one example but the point I'm trying to make, Mr. Aihoshi, is this. Just because someone says something does not make it so. Non Sequitur argument my little-F2P-fanboi-friend of mine.
REALLY?! I mean do you seriously believe this? So if someone says Gandhi is a bigot and he isn't, but I get all “butt hurt” over it and lash out then it clearly means that he is a bigot?
[Mod Edit]
Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing.
In your scenario, it would be Ghandi who would either get butt hurt or not. Of course, knowing that he was not a bigot and the accusation was false, Ghandi would not get butt hurt or even dignify the accusation with a response. Whether you got butt hurt or not would be irrelevent to the equation, as you were not the one accused in the first place.
So as it stands, if Mr. Aihoshi knew the accusations against his beloved F2P scheme were false, he would not make an article to attack those claiming otherwise, he would simply move on and write about some other aspect, as the F2P would make it's own case to prove the naysayers wrong.
Aihoshi could learn from another old saying: Methinks thou dost protest too much.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
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Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing, I completely agree. Therefore I highlighted the yellow text to point out that the person referred to "something" being said. They did not specify that it was said to someone or about someone (I, however, chose to use a person as an example) they just said that something was said. Therefore, if someone happened to hear this utterance and get "butt hurt," then the utterance must have been correct.
If you believe something is false then why wouldn't you defend it? Although I dislike Mr. Aihoshi I will at least defend the intent of his article: Silence is consent.
Why should you have to defend the intent of HIS article? As you say, apparently silence is consent. So since he is silent, I'd say that means he's consenting to what the rest of us are saying then according to your veiwpoint, correct?
If the man has the balls to submit his article, he should have the balls to stand up for it, right? Unless I am totally missing your point somehow.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I think its easy to see what is happening at mmorp.com.
Corporate shills, nothing more nothing less.
Wether you want or not you will like f2p.
We all know we are adopting the payment model because we think we can sucker you into paying more for less. But you know what, we don't care.
Face it people, they have decided that we want f2p.
And if we don't like it we got to piss of.
Richard, telling people they are being stupid doesnt make them smarter...
It just makes them angry!
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Why does he not defend his article? What I miss is a post from Richard. Apparently he just writes a column and then that's it.
No, no, you get it.
I don't know. I'm torn between the fact that I really dislike Mr. Aihoshi as a journalist, which bleeds over to a general dislike of him as a human being, and the understanding that he can't address every single argument against F2P. Though I will admit that he should address some of the more moderate and what I would consider legitimate arguments made against the F2P model.
I guess I just don't share your views on what makes or breaks a game, anytime you can buy things in an item mall that give your character an edge over someone who chooses to not be nickle and dimed to death is simply game breaking for me and pretty much anyone else who are accustomed to AAA titles where $15 a month will buy you an even playing field with everyone else, no need to buy 50 $2 potions a month, or $30 worth of quests, or $15 worth of armor just to be able to keep up with your guild, freinds or be considered for a group because when you try to get a group up to just earn the stuff everyone just says "buy it".
Thats the way it was in Shaiya, SUN, 2Moons, 9Dragons, DDO, Allods and pretty much every other FTP game in this websites game list....I've tried pretty much every one of them and their all running the same scam.
You people are hopeless. I 100% support Richard Aihoshi's very unpopular, but truely valid opinion.
But the best thing is that soon there will be less and less of you. And in the end you'll be the ones which are "hard to understand" and support. Mark my words, you're going to be a minority sooner than you expect. And you didn't and still don't have to.
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Did you watch E3? We p2p folks are far from a specie in danger of extintion.
Oh and we are a minority, we've been for a while now. Even before ddo lotro.
Nice reading. Some people dont like the truth spit all over his face, but nice reading.
Ohhh Doom upon us !
Funny thing that these f2p folks and their aioshi prophet resort to insulting and cursing when their poor reasoning fails to convert the unfaithful.
You know, there's still someone that wants to go on thinking with his own head and refuses your kind of jihad-like intolerance.
Main point of the article was actually fairly valid, presentation was horrible. A few basic rebuttals to complaints that largely amount to "people are making claims without facts to back them up". Followed by a "This is the future, too bad the haters are in denial". Seriously, I browse random forum posts to get that much, I have higher expectations from a front page article.
While I personally believe the F2P model can be done well, the MMO scene is horribly bare of good examples these days. People wanting to legitimatize the business model on grounds beyond "everyone is doing it these days" need to go beyond the standard back-and-forth and actually spotlight the good examples. Lay things out in detail and explain precisely why a given example is worth looking at as more than a rebadged Skinner's Box or online casino. And god-forbid, let's have some reviews that actually take upcoming games to task over poor implementation. Accountability is the first step towards improvement, after all.
A Modest Proposal for MMORPGs:
That the means of progression would not be mutually exclusive from the means of enjoyment.
Can't think of a good way to post a rebuttal to mine so you lead with slams regarding my age, common sense, or political views? (BTW, I tend to be a fiscal conservative but a social liberal)
And you are correct, EVE's game design encourages multiple accounts (much as DAOC did) yet both games are extremely playable by a person who only has one account and that's how the majority of players in both games rolled. (just not me)
I'm not sure why you think game designs should not encourage players to sub to more than one account, its just yet another alternative payment model and truth is, everything in the game is available to a single account but certainly having multiple accounts imparts advantages.
And EVE has other RMT aspects BTW, they charge us to change our Avatars portraits and of course there's the PLEX system which doesn't directly feed into CCP, however indirectly it of course pays for more subs in the game.
I figure its a matter of time before they get sucked into the cash shop game, probably to give us something like ship customization (appearance only) or when/if Incarna comes, they'll be tempted to sell us alternate clothing or let us own a "house" in them that we can pay to furnish.
The lure of easy money has a very strong appeal.
As for getting with the times, I'm already there. I've played F2P games in the past, and in fact I'm currently playing Earth Eternal (under this name) because someone stated it was a great example of a "good" F2P game so I decided to find out if the experience was better than the one I had with ROM.
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