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General: Three Reasons Free To Play Isn't Dying Either
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
To complement last week's column, Richard Aihoshi turns his attention to the current status of the F2P revenue model, which seems to be in good shape.
Free to play isn't dying.
While there's a sometimes highly vocal portion of the MMO gamer audience that fervently wishes it would, it's not happening and not going to, at least not unless we see some pretty dramatic changes in the market.
As I noted last time, the space isn't a binary proposition where either model can basically only grow at the expense of the other. This type of competitive situation isn't uncommon. As a somewhat simplified real world example, if we consider the two most familiar regular colas, Coke and Pepsi, any actions that cause the sales volume of one to increase will probably lead to a decline in the other's. It's possible for both to rise or fall at the same time, but largely because the total market size is relatively fixed, that's not nearly as likely to happen.
This isn't the case with MMOGs. The subscription and F2P segments can both grow at the same time, at least in terms of player numbers and total revenues. So, just as there are strong indications the former is healthy, there are reasons to believe the latter is and will continue to be strong.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Wait, what?
There will always be people not willing or able to invest in computer games.
I guess one reason is enough there, Richard
F2p is just a marketing scheme and nothing more. It is a way to get people in and to get them playing.While the real truth is eventually the players will end up paying or leaving.
So understanding that one would have to classify "casual" gamers as ones who never finish a game because that is really the only way any f2p game remains totally free.
The more people learn about this and act accordingly, the less chances will f2p games have to survive. Considering the state of some of the f2p games (including the 2 mentioned in this article), it is apparent that them dying would be a good thing anyway.
People should informed of this marketing ploy and tell you their friends also. This article about f2p games-http://tinyurl.com/28qxgh7 clearly explains just what happens when a f2p game becomes successful and how in the end the players end up losing their money and time. It is only through the spreading of knowledge, that we can have any hope of stopping the spread of the plague, that is the f2p game.
If we fail to change the things of today, they will become the lucid nighmares of tommorrow.
I stopped reading the article you linked when it claimed Frogster also developed Aion, Axewielderx. It was great for a very loud laugh though (still couldn't really take it seriously anymore), but yeah I do agree on the more exploitive nature of "F2P" games.
Anyway, it's quite obvious considering future releases that no model is going to kill the other in the foreseeable future, if anything, none will ever kill the other, it's the model that's going to kill itself.
If we fail to change the things of today, they will become the lucid nighmares of tommorrow.
Richard, I agree with you. Since there are great rivality between these two MMO solutions. It's obvious that Pay 2 Play games have better graphic and sound queality, better gameplay and no Item Shop. But on the other side, Free 2 Play MMOs doesn't have good graphics like Pay 2 Play, but it certainly has bigger playerbase and better gameplay (at least in my expirience it does). Even though they are complitely different, they still make compromise and make games that are both Free 2 Play and Pay 2 Play in one game. Personally, I think some of Free 2 Play MMOs are better then Pay 2 Play MMOs. Look at the Vindictus for example, it's publisht by Nexus so that means it's good game. And it's also Free 2 Play.
One artical/company does not an industry make.
This attitude that these companies are just trying to get all our hard earned cash and are evil is eyond silly. Burn the witches...oops, no witches eh...sorry bout yer sister.
If you submit a resume for a job is that to just a scheme to get a job? It is for sure an attempt, but calling it a scheme puts you in the burn the witches crowd.
The glass is half full, honest!
Lineage II has oriharukon.
I am usually reading your blogs (lets be honest with what we are dealing with here) and well I often find my self dissapointed. However the last two weeks have been more like what I wanted to see from you, a comparitive of the merits and drawbacks of both business models, a sensible middle view point where it is realised both have their place and room for growth. Now next week if you did a compare and constrast and investigated the hybrid model thats becoming popular and exposed it for the money grubbing scam that it is, while backing that up with some praise of games that simply stick to making a nice profit while providing a fun and unbroken balanced game experience that would be great.
But a vast improvement over your prior efforts, Seems you took some of the criticism and flames on board and have improved because of it.
I don't recall anyone claiming the F2P was dying. It's not a bad piece or anything, but even people who, for some reason, hate F2P so much they want it wiped out generally don't claim the model is dying. Most these dying claims come from the other camp.
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.
Dying? Of course not. Playing with an item mall is the future of online gaming (sadly).
Free to play games, as long as they are properly supported and have a moderate audience, are cash cows. Companies sit back and watch the money roll in. And when they players complain about the shitty games? We'll don't worry kids! The sequel is coming soon!!
The main reason F2P is not going to go away.
People want something for nothing.
So we need to get rid of f2p games because they will just take your money and you lose money and time? What do you mean by losing time? If I play an f2p game and enjoy it for a while how have I lost time?
At any rate, almost 5 years ago I bought WoW. Then I bought TBC. Then I bought WotLK. Now I'm about to buy Cataclysm. Add that $150 or so dollars to 5 years at $15 per month and explain to me why I, a semi-casual mmorpg player, would want to do away with f2p? For less than what I've spent on WoW I can literally buy all the content in DDO and never have to pay another dime after and own all of this content until the game shuts down. What do I get if I stop paying for WoW? I guess that would fall into your definition of wasted money and time.
So who's greedier, Blizzard or Turbine? To me the answer to that question is a no-brainer.
I was pleasantly surprised when I went from Apprentice to full 5 star Elite in under 2 months. I was pleasantly surprised again when I went from Elite to just barely Hardcore in 2 weeks. Apprentice, here I come!
sorry. that was a reply to axewielderx but I evidently didn't do it right.
I was pleasantly surprised when I went from Apprentice to full 5 star Elite in under 2 months. I was pleasantly surprised again when I went from Elite to just barely Hardcore in 2 weeks. Apprentice, here I come!
Game companies have bills to pay. One way or another this means that somehow they must receive cash from having their product used.
You could make games and sell them to a breakfast cereal company as free give aways.
You could sell advertising space in your games.
You could find some rich benefactor who is funding it all for his own reasons.
You could get people to pay for items in the game.
Or you can sell it in a box and charge a monthly subscription.
The last two are most common, but the second last one is NOT F2P. It is micro-transactions. Yes, it is free to play if you don't buy anything but if everyone did that, the game would soon close down.
That is the inherent problem with the optional micro-transaction model, the paying customers are subsidizing the non-paying customers. Imagine the rail network working like that, optional ticket purchase. First class ticket buys subsidize the 2nd class free-loaders. How long would that work?
F2P/Micro-transactions MUST charge MORE per customer compared to a subscription based game because the paying customers must pay for the non-paying ones. Either that OR they must be simpler in terms of support and hardware to lower the cost.
You cannot simply run a standard MMO on a F2P basis (and this might bit Lotro in the ass) because were is the money coming from?
That is why traditional F2P (Korean) MMO's have been so much simpler. Guild Wars doesn't even have a cash shop, but its virtual world is little more then hubs connecting instances. This allows for a far simpler server setup. No 1000 man battles on GW. It means every instance can be hosted on its own cheap server. Saves them a fortune.
Micro-transaction when you do the math can run very expensive. A spaceship in Star Trek Online went for 25 dollars. That is TWO months of WoW or the price of an expansion. What is micro about that transaction exactly?
Another game I played had a little piggy in the shop that picked up your loot. No "need" to buy it, except the game dropped loot left right and center. Good luck playing without one, enjoy clicking a million and one loot drops?
Micro transactions seem to make sense for casual gamers. If you only play once per month, then 2 bucks for an item to help you is cheaper. But play 5 times a month and then you are already paying a monthly fee higher then some subscriptions.
But are those extreme casual gamers even of intrest to a gaming company? Would Blizzard do well with 10 million times 2 dollars? And then with so little investment in the game, so little reason to play would people even play?
F2P: "Mmm, it is nice outside, should I play? It is going to cost me 2 dollars."
Subscriber: "Mmm, it is nice outside, but I already played so I might as well do some gaming" followed by "Mmm, gamed a lot this month, average price 10 cents per hour, lets renew my subscription".
When I read an announcement about F2P, I don't think "oh, that is nice, this company wants lots of people using its servers, costing it network bandwidth and trying up customer service staff without paying a dime", I think "they must have some hidden lure to get me to pay for everyone else".
I see a few disagree with my assessment of the f2p marketplace and most certainly, you are entitled to your opinions.Although I have wonder if you are playing a f2p game right now.:)
If you want to believe that some f2p games out there is different, then by all means you are more than welcome to do so. I can only speak from my past experience with various f2p games and that experience has shown me a number of things that are true and good enough reason to stay away.
1. No f2p game is really f2p. It is a ploy to get you into the game. You can play the game but at some point you will either end up paying or leaving(or be banned). Does anyone, casual or not join a game to quit it? I highly doubt it, but then again I start a game with the intention of finishing it. Maybe that is just me though....
2. If you do have the intention of finishing that f2p game you will end up spending more on it than any subscription game.
3. Because it is f2p you do not expect customer service and usually do not get it. Furthermore,people will tell you can't complain because it is free. Tell me again how that cash shop with items in it needed to finish that game, is free.
4.Lastly, when you spend money on the game and then get banned you are out money and time.The money you spent on in-game items, internet connection, bandwidth,etc. The time you spent making that money and playing game where you thought they, would at a minimum uphold the their OWN TOS. Pretty sure no one would ever start playing any game if they knew that the GMS of the game were going to allow you to be harassed, so that certainly is wasted time playing and definately not fun.
But hey, you feel free to try and belittle my posts here or on my blog and defend the f2p market, as if it were some legitimate business,that does not use marketing ploys and deception to get people into their games and paying. Go right a head if that floats your boat.
I am quite sure I will be the one laughing when all is said and done. I will be one of those who reads YOUR complaints when you finally realize what I have been saying. It is just to bad that through your jeers and jokes here, that others will be led down that that jagged f2p markplace and will get burned with you.
Axe
If we fail to change the things of today, they will become the lucid nighmares of tommorrow.
The cool thing about subscription only games is that everyone has the same access to the game content and has the same opportunity for all gear, items, crafting, and whatever floats your boat in game.
If you don't pay a subscription or buy premium goods in a F2P game, you have substandard access to these games. You are a second class or even third class citizen. You're locked out of the best and most recent content. In many cases, you are locked out of advancing at all once you reach a certain level.
There is no such thing as "Free to Play". It's a misnomer and a fraud. I look forward to the class action suits.
With respect to DDO [the only f2p game I have played]:
1. You can play for free - you just can't play all parts of it for free. I don't know for certain, but I would be willing to bet that there have been f2p players that have reached max level [and have used just earned TP to buy many of the adventure packs].
2. See 1 - like pnp D&D, there is no "finishing" of the game.
3. Cash shop is not needed to finish the game - see 1 & 2 above.
4. Bannings are rare in DDO.
F2p IS a legitimate business in DDO's case, anyway - people have the option of going f2p, subscribing, or mixing the two. Personally, I really like the flexibility because I have limited gaming time some months, and nearly unlimited time other months.
Lastly, why would you laugh at another's misfortune, if there were any? Schadenfreud is not very becoming.
<p align=center><a target=_blank href=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm><img border=0 src=http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/20.jpg></a></p>;
Free to play games are destined to die... want proof, look at a comparable market... email.
You dont see anyone using free email. That is only for casual users, hardcore users will pay a monthly fee for this service, so that they can have higher quality. It is clear that the free email fad passed, and everyone moved back to the paid email, because it was so much better.
Note: Sarcasm/Parody intended. Some of us remember this exact same debate when 'low quality' free email services hit the market, and it was declared a passing fad.
Bingo, my thoughts exactly, you cant call it waste of time if you enjoyed the experience... i speak for myself i played some mmos, im actually paying for wow but atm all i do is wait for the raids since we are at the end content of the game and grinding the heroics is boring as hell so while not raiding im playing Runes of Magic which has some inovating ideas, well maybe not inovating but fun, the housing the pets (new pet system) etc... i think there are room for mmos out there and thank god there is competition so they can become competitive and grow even if they are F2P i would say some are more fun than P2P, and you only buy items from the shop if you want to
-Meow
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i wanted to quote !Joarnaj" but something went wrong lol
-Meow
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well Superman0X i dunno if you are right but hmm lots of ppl still use free mail, and free social nets like facebook etc... casual gammers will tend to go more to the F2P and even more if the quality of the F2P games continues to grow.
-Meow
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What is it with these types of white-knight posts? I see them a lot in threads discussing f2p games. Posters like this assume those who play f2p games have somehow been duped into playing, and assume that players of f2p games are not fully aware that at some point one might have to pay. These posts create a controversy of their own devising and then pretend to save you, the poster, from it.
Nobody I know who plays f2p games and enjoys them feels cheated at possibly paying a few dollars here and there to help support the game, or to gain content acess (adventure pacs and such) After all, developers don't create games and offer it free out of the goodness of their hearts in a land of unicorns and rainbows. People who play f2p games understand this. It is only the anti-f2p types that somehow take great offense that the game isn't utterly and completely free. Quite naive if you ask me. They're convinced they have the inside scoop on some vast conspiracy beyond the ken of the rest of us for which they feel honor-bound to expose. Trouble is, there's nothing to expose.
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
Although they're not dying.... they should!
Well not all F2P games, just those that have cash for items shops. For that matter, both models (P2P & F2P) that have cash item shops should be "killed".
Those only produce raging teens that compete to see who has the biggest e-peen based on how much of their allowance they can spend in their precious "items".
I prefer to pay a monthly subscription in a game that has none of that and everything has to be earned with a lot of clicking and keystroking.
my 2 cents (earned by killing a lvl 1 mouse... not by using paypal on a gold shop :P)
TU2 Closed Beta Testing... looking very good so far
Not true on a number of levels. But let's address one point: If you don't pay a subscription to a subscription game, what is your acess level? Careful, that's a trick question. The answer is zero. If you don't pay your subscription to a subscription game, you have zero access to it. On the other hand, a f2p game allows you access whether you've paid a subcription or not. So your point about access is not only flawed, but moot. On top of that, once I've purchased the content, such as adventure packs in DDO, it remains with the account and I still don't have to pay a subscription fee. I bought a two adventure packs for DDO last month for $6. This month, I haven't given DDO any money but I still have access to the world and those xpacs I bought.
Now as for opportunity, that's another canard. In reality, my casual playstyle in EQ1 ended up subsidizing all the Raid play developers created, giving me little to nothing. Oh, sure, I had the POTENTIAL to Raid the Planes of Power, but I had neither the time to grind out the requirements, nor the inclination to waste said time doing so. In EQ's case (and many other sub models), it was a welfare state in which the casuals paid for the development of content for the chronically obsessed players who could put in 80 hour weeks. I say no thank you, and no more!
With the f2p model, I purchase the content I want, when I want it, and content that I could use. I'm not forced to buy content that I might or might not use in 2 years. Let the Raiders pay for their own content. We'll truly see if there's enough of them to support that playstyle without the rest of us chipping in.
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
Don't think you fully got the idea he was trying to get across. Although what you say is true in some form (DDO is only one example... I can give you a lot of bad examples of F2P game models)
And I will try to explain a little better what he was trying to point out by giving one of those examples.
Metin 2... I once had a real life talk with one of the top players in the game... he was a former L2 player, we were in the same alliance at the time... bla bla bla... cutting to the chase:
I asked him if he was enjoying it even though it was considerably worse (imho) than Lineage2. His reply explained to me everything I needed to know... this is almost "ipsis verbis" his words
"Well, I have spend almost on the cash shop than I have in my 3 years in L2... the difference is that here in Metin2 no one with my level (max cap at the time) only equipped with items you can get ingame is able to defeat me. The items in the cash shop are so powerful that they simply have no chance no matter how good they might be with their character.
And I enjoy kicking ass, I enjoy being the top dog...I like being one of the best in my server when I didn't even get close to being a hero in L2 (poster note: research 'hero system in lineage 2' to better understand this part)"
This is what he was trying to point out... F2P models with cash for content can really turn a game into a e-peen contest based on just how much you're interested in spending. And like all casino owners know, once you start spending... you can't stop
You can buy content to explore, resulting in being able to get new items. But if there is a "Sword of uber pwness" available for 200 bucks in the shop and someone buys it and then one shots you even though you clearly think you have bought "enough game content" ... you'd be pretty annoyed no?
Try to keep an open mind... your experience isn't the only one... there isn't only one answer to this issue. But you contribution is appreciated
have fun
TU2 Closed Beta Testing... looking very good so far