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General: Brace for the Free Wave
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
As more and more games adopt free to play and/or hybrid revenue models, it becomes apparent that this is a trend that is not going away any time soon. In today's column, MMORPG.com Lead Writer Bill Murphy takes a look at the trend and what it means for the future of MMOs. Check it out and leave us a comment or two.
There’s a stigma hanging over F2P games, because they’re admittedly running with a track record of extremely poor quality. Hell, I’m guilty of letting my expectations for these F2P games make me lighter on what I think is “good” from them. But like it or not, LotRO and DDO have upped the ante. Nexon’s stable of games keeps increasing in terms of quality as well. Though few here may call Vindictus an MMO, there’s little denying its craft and polish. More and more games that won’t require a subscription are going to see the light of day, and they’re going to be good. They’re going to be good because they know it’s not enough to be an also ran like so many failed F2P clones. They’re going to be good because they don’t want to go up against Blizzard. When Guild Wars 2 comes out, with any luck and a whole lot of hard work from ArenaNet, it’s going to show the industry that a AAA game can be designed and built without “free to play” in mind.
Read more of Bill Murphy's column, Brace for the Free Wave.
Comments
that is all fine and good but guild wars and guild wars 2 isnt exactly a free to play title either. you have to buy the game and then new xpacs for it every year and a half or so, it just doesnt have that monthly fee stigma hanging over it. free to play to me is completely free, free download, no monthly fee. guild wars is also much better than any other free to play game out there. imo the only free to play game that has come out recently with some good quality is world of tanks, it just needs more modes and stuff to really get players more interested. ive recently been looking more into free to play games because im burned out on sub games right now where i dont want to pay a subscription to a game i dont like and dont play but i still like the subscription model for certain games but that is mainly because you dont have pay to win gamers ruining the game with either their own money or mommy's credit card. i dont think sub fees are gonna go anywhere, but the people that expect us to pay for the games might want to make a complete polished game or else just go f2p.
I never considered guild wars a true mmo. It was more along the lines of a multiplayer rpg where the lobby was a city.
Dont get me wrong GW was a nice game i played through it......with henchmen solo. In regards to the pvp, that is just avail just about anywhere could never get into the small battle deal.
I consider very few games full blown mmo's anymore. There are some aka RIFT is a very good example of a story based mmo. Then there is darkfall which is your pvp/partial sandbox mmo. If the game does not have a large world that ANYONE can go too without instancing it is not a mmo.
When i went to Solusek RO in EQ i never had to choose which "instance" i was going too or ask my friends which one they were in. That just ruins the experiance for me.
Arenanet have said outright that they won't use subscriptions, it is even in the FAQ for the game on the official site. So it won't be a surprise at all when they have a cash shop.
I agree, the only TRUE hold out to the definition of a mmo any more is Eve, after all, its a huge shard of an enviroment, and when u zone from one system to another, ur fleet, or, team can zone right with you with out the yelling of what zone your in.
All these new games with instancing is ruining the whole mmo genre but, try and tell the companies that, after all, "they Know What Players Want".
Good example to all of this is, is what happened to SWG with the NGE, and the CU events.
But, to Funcoms credit, they've had some expierence of the hybrid model to F2P with Anarchy Online, and many players were very happy to play such a game both as a paying customer of premium services, and, as a froob player.
It worked as a win win, unfortunately, Funcom lost thier way with that game when other games like DDO and WOW continueously upped thier graphical enviroments and gave players more visual performance to the games, Anarchy Online is still stuck in thier Direct 7 enviroment, for the last 5 years with constant promises of a new graphics engine every one of those years that never arrived, which makes the whole Funcom issue depressing.
Even the developers, ArenaNet, never considered GW1 an MMO. They always referred to it as a Co-op Online RPG.
GW2 however, IS a full blown MMO with a persistent world. Not only that but unlike most MMO's to date your actions visibly affect the world. (e.g. if you don't protect a town then bandits will take over, if you escort a caravan to a town the vendors will more items for sale, ietc).
The train left you behind, they've confirmed multiple times that they are going to have a cash shop. Heck they even posted a blog article about it.
The whole philosophy behind GW2's cash shop is that you should be able to have fun without having to use the cash shop, and that those who DO use the cash shop should not have a direct gameplay advantage because of it.
This means the cash shop will likely sell things such as name changes (server changes are going to be free), costumes, extra dye colors, weapon skins, transmutation stones(which allow you to put an item's skin on the stats of another) as well as content.
Personally, I also believe that the subcription model is going to take a steep drop if GW2 turns out to be as good as it looks. It will be clear proof against the myth that subscription fees are necessary to make a AAA MMO.
In successful games, the profit from subscriptions is hundreds or even thousands of times the amount of money spent on the game both in upkeep and developing new content (e.g. for the amount WoW makes, they should be pumping out free expansions every couple of months yet they still feel that they should gouge customers even though those same customers are the ones who fund development).
The only way I see subscription surviving in the future is for games that have a constant flow of new, quality, content. The whole concept of paying just be able to play a game you've already bought is ridiculous and going to go out the window as soon as quality B2P games, such as GW2, are available.
Did this arcticle really call Nexon games stable? Do you guys seriously look into information before you type? Every single game that nexon offers is buggy as hell, and they are always being exploited by hackers. Even their flagship (Maplestory) MMO can't go more than 3 or 4 months without a major exploit that either ruins an event or requires a rollback and/or mass bannings.
However, I would agree that there is a Pay to Win wave coming. Developers are looking at it as a way to extend the life of their defunct MMOs. This may be a double edged sword, since players will have to put up with crap MMOs for a longer amount of time, but maybe it could be a blessing (DDO).
I always thought it made more sense to ditch the box price and keep the sub fee...
Important facts:
1. Free to Play games are poorly made.
2. Casuals are not all idiots, but idiots call themselves casuals.
3. Great solo and group content are not mutually exclusive, but they suffer when one is shoved into the mold of the other. The same is true of PvP and PvE.
4. Community is more important than you think.
The stigma for "F2P" games for me has nothing to do with quality of production, but rather in quality of gameplay.
F2P games have always ended up trending toward desigining to push purchases of virtual items. In otherwords, they intentionally create 'problems', then sell the solutions to those problems in their item mall. For example, making leveling slower and more painful, then turning around and selling XP boost potions. Or making it so the only way to get a mount to travel around more quickly is from the item mall.
I cannot play an F2P game, because they all use item malls. Every single one of these MMOs gameplay is corrupted by this design philosophy to prop up the item mall. I cannot bring myself to play a game that feels like more of an elaborate plan to con me out of money rather than an actual game.
I'd rather just pay a set fee a month and unlock all content. At least with subscription MMOs the games are designed to keep player attention, which means developers have to focus on how to make the game fun, and not how to add inconveniences that they just so happen to also sell the solution to in their item mall.
I'll gladly pay $50-60 for a game with no subscription. i still play GW regularly, and probably always will, unless GW2 replaces it, since I can always go back to it for free.
They said "stable of games", such as a number of them, like horses in a stable.
Back on topic:
We know that the sub model is being heavily scrutinized at the moment. Turbine showed that freemium can work, even though having a sub winds up being better in Turbine's model. The GW1 cash shop added nothing but luxury and additional content, there was nothing in there that I would consider necessary. GW2 will most likely be very similar.
There was a thread a few days ago about how SWTOR is the game that the industry is keeping its eye on. GW2 is where they should be focusing their attentions though. GW2 could be the game changer in the Sub vs. "Free" war. If ANet can pull off a huge success with the game, and keep it as a buy 2 play with a fluff cash shop, we will most likely see more developers following suit.
Why do you assume that all subscription-less games MUST be Pay-to-Win?
Do you honestly not see how a quality MMO can be made without the need for subscriptions?
I do agree that the vast majority of Nexon games are trash, but this has nothing to do with being F2P as much as it does with these games having very little production value.
We have yet to see a subscription-less AAA MMO, and that's why the article focuses so much on GW2.
This thread is about F2P MMOs, not subscriptionless MMOs. There's a big difference.
F2P games all have item malls, because they don't charge for content or subscription, only for "perks".
B2P games charge one time fees to unlock content, but have no subscription... but they're still not free.
GW2 will NOT be a "pay to win" game. Their cash shop will not sell any performance enhancing items. Strictly cosmetics and a possibility of DLC.
Wisdom is conquered with patience.
Another shill piece for the F2P industry. Wasnt the regular column you run enough to promote it as 'good for us' and 'inevitable'? (when in truth it is neither).
I think, when looking back with the clarity of hindsight, gamers will realise that not only was cash shop the very worst thing to happen to actual real gaming, but it was also an outright scam and only was pushed by the companies involved (and their 'sponsored' opinion forming website mouthpieces) because it was in the corporate best interest (ie, to make more money out of the gullible and lazy consumer for less and less investment).
I hope governments are watching the social engineering that has taken place here on these various gaming sites, that are so happy for the F2P dollar. It has been amazing to watch happen... how pretty much an entire user base has been convinced of something that they once hated the idea of (and rightly so).
I think looking back we will be ashamed at how easily the majority went along with it, how gullible we all were repeating the mantras so pushed and repeated constantly by the 'journalists', and how easily and cheaply we were all bought.
By that time though, when there is no where left to run, i will obviously be done with computer gaming and will have gladly left the smoking ruins of what games used to mean to the next wave. I hope everyone is happy with their virtual knitting simulators and chat rooms and pretend malls selling pretend stuff, for real money.
GW2 is also not a Free to Play game, you still have to have to buy the game before you can play.
You know what I find funny? I play Eve and I play GW when the money needed to play both are combined its like I'm paying for just one MMO... and I don't even use real money to pay for Eve lolololololol.
This is not a game.
I don't know, I think the gaming world will benefit from a GW1/2 style payment system. But SPECIFICALLY when compared to GW. There's ~nothing~ in that cash shop you need to buy and in fact, nothing you even need (except the expansions, which you should expect to pay for). I only have most of them because the money was gifted to me, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered. Except the skill pack, because I'm lazy. But that skill pack came after the fact, by the time it was released plenty of people already got all the skills, and you can only use them on your PvP and Hero characters.
It's all additional storage space (which didn't even come until years after the game was released) and costume pieces. And the game has been running swell for years now. Clearly it's possible. I do however, understand that GW2 is a much larger game and they'll have to make additional money to make up for that, but Anet has done a really good job of listening to its players so far and I think they'll continue that trend. They're taking a HUGE chance on a full MMO that's B2P, and if they gouge in the cash shop people will leave and they will be screwed. They know this. They're not going to take that risk. Things like expansions, costume pieces and skins, I fully support and would probably even buy just to contribute to continued development.
I think other games should consider this model too. If I buy a game I should be able to play it without having to pay a monthly fee. Why? Because that means without paying the sub, the 60 i spent on the game itself is worthless. What a shame that is. If I at least had access to the initial areas, I could still be a contributing member of the game; I could contribute to the economy, the community, etc. With a sub, if I've had enough of the game, you lose me entirely. And that's one of the ways games become ghost towns. People lose interest and don't want to pay anymore. At least with GW2, when I need a break, I'll still have access to the content I already paid for. I can pop in and out, help in whatever content I have access to, and all around still be a part of the game without paying monthly for something I'm not as into anymore.
But yeah, some people will disagree. I personally would rather pay 40 for an expansion that keeps me occupied for months on end than pay 15 a month for an expansion that comes once or twice a year.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Where they go wrong is if they put gear with stat up for sale (looks like I'll be cancelling my AoC account as they've said their selling power items). Or even worse is if they ruin the gameplay, I.e. Champions online reducing buff drops by 90% just to sell pots from the store.
I still see f2p as the domain of crap games, and these western 'freemium' games as the failed mmo club. Nope, I still don't care if Jesus Christ himself appeared before me and declared F2P as the holy grail of mmo models, I'd tell him where he could shove it and look for an alternative subscription game.
What it means is that we're all screwed because the devs, and their funders, no longer give a crap about us.
The title is ironic...
For MMO's the idea of F2P is all about changing how you charge the customer. Its never about being "free".
Basicly its do you think there are more people who will pay $14.95 a month or...
Pay say $5 a month for random item mall crap or not realize they are spending more than 14.95 a month in the mall...
Further down the road of irony is the fact that companies are more than willing to be creative with billing...
Yet they won't take the time to put the same creativity into their games, which is exactly why the masses don't wanna pay a sub. I didn't stop paying for any MMO I ever played because $14.95 was to much... I stopped paying because the game was no longer worth $14.95...
So the free to play wave will come and more games will do the spiral swirl down the drain... the real question is will any of these companies buy the clue.
I find it quite humorous that the gaming community for years spurned all the F2P games coming out of asia. Yet now when we see all these western F2P games coming out the western community does a 180. My how transparent we all are.
Be careful, you may not like what you find at the bottom of the well
~You reap what you sow~
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Gaming has always been about nickle and diming people. Uhm, arcades?...
Social engineering? in Shill pieces? Normal people have a nice quality about them it's called self control. Who is swayed by an opinion piece or two on one (in a million) gaming oriented websites?
You're acting as though every single game to come from here forth will carry a cash shop or "pay to win" model. It just isn't going to happen.
Who goes F2P? Small insignificant gaming companies, over the hill game makers who've failed too many times, as well as games that failed to perform or which have become obsolete. What are big companies doing with F2P? Padding their websites with them, plastered with Ads for their bigger (commercial) games.
As for social gaming which you took a crack at as well, those games aren't meant for the type of gamer I am, I know that for sure. Do you play them? If not, why care about them? There will always be projects based on the type of consumer you seem to be, so I don't know what all the fuss is about. Unless of course you have a need to play every single "game' that's ever going to be made.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
What it all boils down to in my opinion anyway is what do we get for our $14.95? Is this a number that MMO's charged as a sub because they had to or because they could? In the past I could kind of believe it was because they had to (internet wasn't wide spread and it was more expensive to run a server farm and bandwidth costs were high) but over the last few years I'm turning more to the point of veiw it was kept at that level simply because they could. I mean look at the numbers of people who play multiplayer on single player games. Surely to be viable such games would need a sub on top of the box price to keep being profitable? Not as much as an MMO obviously but still if those guys can do it and make enough money to keep on making those kinds of games on box sales and DLC then why do MMO's need a $15 (rounded up because I'm a lazy SOB) a month on top of the box price?
I also think the sub model is whats limiting the MMO market. Sure $15 a month isn't much but it would appear that there are many gamers who just don't see the value in it. Thats actually what I think TOR will show us. If TOR succeeds it will do so not by bringing a whole bunch of fresh blood into the genre but will canablise alot of subs from other sub based games. The other thing is there really is only 1 wildly successful sub based game and evan then most of the players of that game actually don't pay a sub they buy time cards and pay by the hour. Which is why Blizzard doesn't have an income of $171,925,000 per month which is the number you get when you multiply 11.5 million by 14.95.
By the way may I suggest a change to the title of the peice to something along the lines of prepare for the sub-free wave which I feel would greater emphisise the point your trying to make especially as you seem to focus much of the article on the GW2 and GW payment model which arn't exactly free to play.
The lesser of two evils is still evil.
There is nothing more dangerous than a true believer.
In a way, devs of mmos have almost engineered this situation of fostering a F2P model onto the market as a natural progession of trying to create MMOs that appeal to the widest audience: "Friends of all, friends of none." F2P naturally follows I'm beginning to think. If most MMOs on the market are of a similar type that are not niche or select then the attitude of the player will be to try an MMO and move on. Hence F2P that bumps up the number of people playing and monetizing at about 1% or 2% can take advantage.
I think only the AAA quality MMOs that can sufficiently provide something unobtainable elsewhere (eg a stable and established community with barriers to entry being one example) can work on P2P moving forwards? Alternatively an MMO that offers something to some people who consider that valuable. Power progression of characters in MMOs can be monetized but it's not exactly valuable ie an experience that a 'particular' player would subscribe for initself? That would be a niche MMO I speculate. Ironically, GW2 B2P will probably end up being a game design that is worthy of being a sub mmo without being one because the different business model led to those decisions being made!
Eg Age of Empires dev:
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
iv played all the games too and the f2p are last on my list to play for the simply fact like someone else said .. they just think up ways to suck you money out ... now if more games would go the way of eve online .. sub per month but all expansion are free ... you dont have the money for the sub this month .. you can use your in game money to buy a pilot license. which is a 30 day sub. also ... lets say you forgot you sub was up and you cant log in ... no problem you just go to the web site log in to you account and they have a 1 time 4 hour login when you sub has expired ... u can go into the game for 4 hours to try and buy a pilots license { if you know you got the money the ingame PL cost 300 -350 million so if you know you got the money you can buy your sub with that with in 4 hours ... this is so cool ... any ways F2P and cash shops ..i just stay away from .. when i play i want it all dont 40% of the game ..
its a GoOd dAy to diE !!