No such thing as free to play. Not if you want to stay on equal playing field as the rest of the server. Youspend more in a week playing a F2P game than you would with a 3 month sub where everyone is on equal terms. I dont see why F2P games are becoming so popular. They are 90% of the time they are nothing more than trashy beefed up console rpgs made into mmo's/ And arent worth a dime. I stay far away from F2P games.
On a side note many F2P games offer boxes with a "CHANCE" to get a a good item or 99 crap items. This is no more than gambeling, and for some they cant control the urge to spend 100$ a week or more just so they can have that cool mount or some other junk.
My opinion, dont care if you agree. Wont change my mind.
Smed got banned from selling his packs of cards in the SWG cash shops in some states due to the fact they deemed it as illegal gambling. I remember hearing of some guys spending $400 just to get that special speeder whilst they payed a sub!
There's one born every minute!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
No such thing as free to play. Not if you want to stay on equal playing field as the rest of the server. Youspend more in a week playing a F2P game than you would with a 3 month sub where everyone is on equal terms. I dont see why F2P games are becoming so popular. They are 90% of the time they are nothing more than trashy beefed up console rpgs made into mmo's/ And arent worth a dime. I stay far away from F2P games.
On a side note many F2P games offer boxes with a "CHANCE" to get a a good item or 99 crap items. This is no more than gambeling, and for some they cant control the urge to spend 100$ a week or more just so they can have that cool mount or some other junk.
My opinion, dont care if you agree. Wont change my mind.
Smed got banned from selling his packs of cards in the SWG cash shops in some states due to the fact they deemed it as illegal gambling. I remember hearing of some guys spending $400 just to get that special speeder whilst they payed a sub!
There's one born every minute!
I think i need to edit my comment and put down cash shops and not f2p games lol. Forget sometimes even sub games have cash shops in one form or another But yeah 400$ for a speeder is pretty bad lol.
I have yet to run into any F2P game which was actually good and gave me what I was looking for without nickel and diming me to death to get what I would normally get with a basic sub. Usually it get's so bad you end up spending MORE than you would with a basic game sub.
Take EQ extended for example. Buying the game/sub I'm looking at 30 or so bucks (not so concerned about xpacs etc until I get higher level).
For the basic "free" version of this game you get only 3 starter races (have to buy race packs at 7 to 8 bucks per 3 or 4 races), 2 back packs, no ability to assign aa experience and you can't wear any master crafted items. I'm sure there are other limitations but these were the most glaring to me.
When I did sub to the game I got everything I wanted but I still would have had to buy the race packs for any ones I might want to play. So 15 bucks a month with the sub model and I would have gotten all that AND the races. I sub to the "free" game and I still have to buy the race packs? ,,I,, you SoE.
All this F2P bs is being hyped by people who don't understand you get LESS game and pay MORE money for it. It's rediculous people are actually on this bandwagon and cheering it along.
Flaw: That report is only 1 month after it went P2P + cash shop.
Fact: At launch AoC broke all records for MMORPG sales selling about 1 million units at launch and now it's a P2W/Freemium/Whatever.
Fact: They don't mention revenue just playerbase (if you count a free account set up in a chinese internet cafe as an active player).
I'd like to compare the revenues between one month after launch and one month after the "re-launch". Facts are facts the game was circling the drain and they went F2P any other reason is just delusional or wishfull thinking from the guys that brought you the "sizziling steak" that's now an all you can eat buffet of shit sandwiches.
FACT!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
Part of the attraction of Free to Play games is the Mystery of how much it will really cost you.
I am stopping now. Thread over.
The answer is too much.
Mystery solved.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
Well, the little article says it trippled their PROFIT as well ... I certainly cannot vouch for Hobbitland veracity. Just doing your research for you.
That's just it, the official comments talked about revenues, and blogs and news sites changed that to "profits".
They are not the same thing. Here's an illustration.
If you take in $100/month, that's your revenues.
If it cost you $500/month to produce (figuring total cost broken down to a monthly figure for expected return in a time frame, years) and keep running your product, that's your expense. (And it cost a lot of money to produce these games, compared to the sales revenues at release and subs prices.)
At this point you are loosing $400/month.
You go FtP
You take in $400 from subs and the new sales of items, you've increased your revenues by 400%.
You are still $100/month short of your expenses/month.
See how the figures mean nothing without actual context?
The next question is, are you keeping up with that initial revenue right after the switch? Because if you're not, the figures come out much worse. And they are almost certainly not maintaining that initial sales amount of revenue, because a lot of those were items bought once, then kept.
But I do think they are making some profit. I just don't believe they are making much different than they were before the change. And I wonder if they aren't hurting more because of it.
I agree that games maybe should go F2P but as I see it there are no free to play games, I have played some so called free to play games and those are not free to play not if you want access to all the content and many things maybe you can get in game but then you have to play that game 24/7 for about 2000 years, so for me I rather pay monthly subscription.
F2P MMO's operate like most all you can eat resturants, they give you cheap crap and overcharge you for essential things - like drinks.
F2P is a myth, you cannot support any game with our revenue, even the electrical bill of an 2-3 Zone MMO is in the 100's of US dollars a month, not to mention the managemnt, development and even the bandwidh costs that you need to support such MMO's.
There is a good reason why the only "AAA" MMO with out subs is an all instance Peer 2 Peer based MMO that does not require a vast infrastructure of server to support it - and yes i am talking about GW.
Today F2P MMO's are not "FREE" they use an alternative revenue model, and those models can be much more profitable than sub based MMO's if the game is addictive enough.
I know too many people that spent more money on Farm Vile than what it cost tu SUB to any AAA MMO today.
F2P MMO's count on the fact that many people that their player base have expanded and aged considreably, people that cannot spend as much time as they used to be able too know have much more income to spend. So stuff like XP boosts, pre-made chars and even gold will are litterly a gold mine for those companies, if blizzard would've desided to sell gold instead of leaving that to gold-farmers it would probably double its income from WoW because they know just how many people buy gold.
Dont fool yourself if BZ wanted to eliminate all behind the counter item and gold trade they would've done so from day 1, but since they know just how many players use those services and just how many of them would quit or switch to less restrictive games they dont.
Gold and item trade is a 2 bln dollar a year industry, yes billion! WoW and other top tier MMO currency is worth more than the currencies of most countries.
Blizzard knows it, and every one else does too, D3's RL Money Item mall is just the first step, and the end "F2P" games will cost people much more than sub based games today, a dollar here a dollar build it aroud amounts that no one can notice or track and at the end you pay 20-30 US a month for 'XP Boosts", armor dyes, mounts, and even in game currency.
And some stuff in the article are just WTF? Revenue tracking? srsly?! you really belive companies having hard time tracking revenue? sub numbers? and even predict increase or decrease? forget the more technical aspects of that like ERP and CRM, you really think that Blizzard is having harder time tracking its subs than say AT&T? Verizon? T-Mobile? yeah 12 million is a nice number for an MMO, but try 100's of millions...
If carrier in Asia can track 1.9 billion sub's Blizzard can track 12 million, much smarter people than you work hard to design software to track and manage all those aspects with more ease than it would take you to reorganize your closet...
Damn, my reason didn't make it to the top 5, oh well, my MMO (the one I used to play) should go F2P cuz after blowing up the whole content, why I should pay for a monthly sub? I know I can cancel the sub and wait until a new expansion, but I wished that was not the case.
1) your business consultant told you that microtransactions in f2p mmos generated 72% of the last year overall mmo revenue - but forgot to tell you that 2/3 of it is generated by browser not client based games.
2) when you need evidence for the shareholders of your company that you really tried everything to get your mmo back to profit.
3) when the customers perception is so short-sighted that they still belive your mmo is free even if they spend 50$ per month toenjoy all the ingame content
4) if you can't take any more laughs from competitioners during the next game conference only because you belive in the intelligence that your customers will not fall for marketing terms.
5) if you only spend 500.000$ for development.
and to be serious: there are some good reasons why a mmo(rp)g should go f2p, but its depends on the concept and the quality of the game and which kind of f2p-model you choose.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
I think you fully missed the Trend, you seem to think its more games going free to play when in fact its more released games being mmo's and the sad truth that most of them are so crap in one way or another that their developers know 100% their game would fail badly as a subscription, so they adopt this free to play model.
So its not that free to play is more popular, it just happens to be a cost effective cheep way for all these new mmo's to monatize their games.
The games worth while, the ones you want to play, will still be AAA and will still be subscription.
Best post ever. I could not say it better myself.
I actually think that the people who want games to go F2P are fromt his new console generation off MMO players. I would rather pay 15-20 bucks a month and have a good quality game that hold me for years then to go month to month through garbage mmo's or even worse would be to not play mmo's and spend 40-60 bucks monthly on single player games. No thank you.
I feel the FTP argument is "srs bsns" and I'd like to see a serious rather than mocking debate about it from the anti-FTP side. And considering how many times we have been browbeaten by Mr Aihoshi's rather combative wrting style that FTP is all sunshine and roses, I don't think I'm asking too much.
No worries, Tardcore. This was actually written before I even received Richard's article for this week. Yes, we're still securing a regular counter to "The Free Zone", and if the person we have in mind agrees, you'll be quite happy I hope.
Woot! That is good news!
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
For a large part, they ARE doing well. In fact, it seems that many games "realize" they should have been F2P from the start. And in some cases it's done really well. I'm just of the belief that you should go this way from day one if it's always been "sort of the plan".
I'm also curious to see how GW2's "Buy Once, Play Forever" concept works out since GW2 is not the CORPG its forbear was, and is instead a fully-fledged MMORPG. If they can do it, and their 'shop' is not a money-mongering wallet leech, then it may just set a new standard.
What makes you think they are doing well?
They had an initial surge of revenues when they made the change (and revenues are not profits), but we hear nothing of what's happened since then.
Why are they not boasting their continued success since then? Or am I missing something?
Do they need to continue to boast of their success if it levels off and keeps the game running and in better shape financially than before? IE: "Hey guys, since we switched to F2P, we're still doing just as awesome as we were when we first told you about going F2P." There doesn't necessarily need to be growth past the initial surge they experience when going F2P to remain successful.
Well, that initial revenues boost is like a grand opening sale. Of course they had that. But absolutely no comments from any of them since then doesn't inspire confidence enough to say they are doing well.
Have they lost accounts since because of going FtP? Once people who were willing to buy stuff bought, did they continue to buy more? There are questions that no one seems to be willing to ask, yet the perception that they are continuing to do well seems to willingly continue. Why?
I don't think it's a direction any dev really wants to go at this point. Looking at it realistically, for the people that enjoy the model, there's more mileage in advertising the new items, adventure packs, expansions, live events, etc. For the people that dislike the game for the business model, we've all clearly seen that no comment or announcement will be acceptable.
Any positive comment regarding how it is doing will just be countered by the same comments we have consistently seen already - reinforcement that this is a greedy corporate cash grab preying on what gets portrayed as a mass audience of zero willpower morons, or the tinfoilhattery of how the devs are only posting such news as a cover up because the game is really tanking.
There's a solid year or two history of all the same responses, so there's no value in newsing that kind of stuff right now.
"Fully customizable robots"
"Shakespeare story arc"
"swimsuit inner armor"
There's just too many cool things to announce to the people that ARE interested, anyway.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Why have you forsaken me? In your heart forsaken me? Whyyyyyaaaaaaiiii?
+1 for the SoAD reference.
That said... Great article, Bill. I love some tongue-in-cheek humor. Of course, you also (rightfully) poke fun at some of the very attitudes and perceptions that pervade the whole pro-F2P movement/thing.
Perhaps that's the trick to get counter the whole "F2P is the future!" message being shoved down everyone's throats by the pro-F2P folks - such as a certain other columnist on this site - is by poking fun at the absurdities of the model that don't necessarily "translate" when explained in a serious manner.
Again, well played, Bill. Unfortunately, the joke seems to have flown right over some people's heads. I guess that's unavoidable.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Yeah but what was thier revenue before going F2P? Also a title goes F2P they almost always cut back on staff which has the effect of widening the profit margin. Did it triple the playerbase also? I'm sure they'll give figures to show a rocketing population but what do the vets who still play say?
It's all smoke and mirrors and selling snake oil in my opinion.
I can tell you as someone starting from scratch again on a brand-new character that so far in the lower level areas (the first 20 levels), I haven't seen more than 3 or 4 others players around at any given time, prime time or otherwise.
This surprised me as, frankly, I saw more on a regular basis when the game was still subscription only.
Now, some will say "you won't see as many in lower level areas 'cause they level out of it quickly..."
Fine... then I should at least be seeing more people "passing through" as they fly past me in levels and move on to the next area. I'm not. I'm seeing the same handful of names since I'm back that I saw the first night I started up again.
I logged into my higher level character who was parked in Bree and it was pretty empty as well. Back during its subscription days, you'd see people all over the place, crowding around near the Prancing Pony, near the West exit gate, etc... Not nearly as many now there, either. Again, some may say "well they've passed thrugh there already"... to which I would ask them to read my previous statement; "I should see them at least passing through"...
In short... If LoTRO saw a huge burst initially after the switch to hybrid and was doing gangbusters... it isn't anymore.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
on 5) its actuall becoming common to see people in general/global chat saying the game is not worth the asking price of subscription and that it should be F2P or cheaper subs.
Comments
Well, the little article says it trippled their PROFIT as well ... I certainly cannot vouch for Hobbitland veracity. Just doing your research for you.
If Ya Ain't Dyin, Ya Ain't Tryin
Smed got banned from selling his packs of cards in the SWG cash shops in some states due to the fact they deemed it as illegal gambling. I remember hearing of some guys spending $400 just to get that special speeder whilst they payed a sub!
There's one born every minute!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Done, without pictures though. I hope I did you justice.
So here's my Five Reasons Why Your MMO Should Go F2P
And AOC too!!
http://games.on.net/article/13437/F2P_a_Success_for_Age_of_Conan_-_Revenue_Has_Now_Doubled
If Ya Ain't Dyin, Ya Ain't Tryin
I think i need to edit my comment and put down cash shops and not f2p games lol. Forget sometimes even sub games have cash shops in one form or another
But yeah 400$ for a speeder is pretty bad lol.
I have yet to run into any F2P game which was actually good and gave me what I was looking for without nickel and diming me to death to get what I would normally get with a basic sub. Usually it get's so bad you end up spending MORE than you would with a basic game sub.
Take EQ extended for example. Buying the game/sub I'm looking at 30 or so bucks (not so concerned about xpacs etc until I get higher level).
For the basic "free" version of this game you get only 3 starter races (have to buy race packs at 7 to 8 bucks per 3 or 4 races), 2 back packs, no ability to assign aa experience and you can't wear any master crafted items. I'm sure there are other limitations but these were the most glaring to me.
When I did sub to the game I got everything I wanted but I still would have had to buy the race packs for any ones I might want to play. So 15 bucks a month with the sub model and I would have gotten all that AND the races. I sub to the "free" game and I still have to buy the race packs? ,,I,, you SoE.
All this F2P bs is being hyped by people who don't understand you get LESS game and pay MORE money for it. It's rediculous people are actually on this bandwagon and cheering it along.
Flaw: That report is only 1 month after it went P2P + cash shop.
Fact: At launch AoC broke all records for MMORPG sales selling about 1 million units at launch and now it's a P2W/Freemium/Whatever.
Fact: They don't mention revenue just playerbase (if you count a free account set up in a chinese internet cafe as an active player).
I'd like to compare the revenues between one month after launch and one month after the "re-launch". Facts are facts the game was circling the drain and they went F2P any other reason is just delusional or wishfull thinking from the guys that brought you the "sizziling steak" that's now an all you can eat buffet of shit sandwiches.
FACT!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Part of the attraction of Free to Play games is the Mystery of how much it will really cost you.
I am stopping now. Thread over.
If Ya Ain't Dyin, Ya Ain't Tryin
The answer is too much.
Mystery solved.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
-Thumbs up-
That's just it, the official comments talked about revenues, and blogs and news sites changed that to "profits".
They are not the same thing. Here's an illustration.
If you take in $100/month, that's your revenues.
If it cost you $500/month to produce (figuring total cost broken down to a monthly figure for expected return in a time frame, years) and keep running your product, that's your expense. (And it cost a lot of money to produce these games, compared to the sales revenues at release and subs prices.)
At this point you are loosing $400/month.
You go FtP
You take in $400 from subs and the new sales of items, you've increased your revenues by 400%.
You are still $100/month short of your expenses/month.
See how the figures mean nothing without actual context?
The next question is, are you keeping up with that initial revenue right after the switch? Because if you're not, the figures come out much worse. And they are almost certainly not maintaining that initial sales amount of revenue, because a lot of those were items bought once, then kept.
But I do think they are making some profit. I just don't believe they are making much different than they were before the change. And I wonder if they aren't hurting more because of it.
Once upon a time....
When I saw #5, I was all
.
When I read #4, I was like
.
When I got to #3, I
.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
I agree that games maybe should go F2P but as I see it there are no free to play games, I have played some so called free to play games and those are not free to play not if you want access to all the content and many things maybe you can get in game but then you have to play that game 24/7 for about 2000 years, so for me I rather pay monthly subscription.
F2P MMO's operate like most all you can eat resturants, they give you cheap crap and overcharge you for essential things - like drinks.
F2P is a myth, you cannot support any game with our revenue, even the electrical bill of an 2-3 Zone MMO is in the 100's of US dollars a month, not to mention the managemnt, development and even the bandwidh costs that you need to support such MMO's.
There is a good reason why the only "AAA" MMO with out subs is an all instance Peer 2 Peer based MMO that does not require a vast infrastructure of server to support it - and yes i am talking about GW.
Today F2P MMO's are not "FREE" they use an alternative revenue model, and those models can be much more profitable than sub based MMO's if the game is addictive enough.
I know too many people that spent more money on Farm Vile than what it cost tu SUB to any AAA MMO today.
F2P MMO's count on the fact that many people that their player base have expanded and aged considreably, people that cannot spend as much time as they used to be able too know have much more income to spend. So stuff like XP boosts, pre-made chars and even gold will are litterly a gold mine for those companies, if blizzard would've desided to sell gold instead of leaving that to gold-farmers it would probably double its income from WoW because they know just how many people buy gold.
Dont fool yourself if BZ wanted to eliminate all behind the counter item and gold trade they would've done so from day 1, but since they know just how many players use those services and just how many of them would quit or switch to less restrictive games they dont.
Gold and item trade is a 2 bln dollar a year industry, yes billion! WoW and other top tier MMO currency is worth more than the currencies of most countries.
Blizzard knows it, and every one else does too, D3's RL Money Item mall is just the first step, and the end "F2P" games will cost people much more than sub based games today, a dollar here a dollar build it aroud amounts that no one can notice or track and at the end you pay 20-30 US a month for 'XP Boosts", armor dyes, mounts, and even in game currency.
And some stuff in the article are just WTF? Revenue tracking? srsly?! you really belive companies having hard time tracking revenue? sub numbers? and even predict increase or decrease? forget the more technical aspects of that like ERP and CRM, you really think that Blizzard is having harder time tracking its subs than say AT&T? Verizon? T-Mobile? yeah 12 million is a nice number for an MMO, but try 100's of millions...
If carrier in Asia can track 1.9 billion sub's Blizzard can track 12 million, much smarter people than you work hard to design software to track and manage all those aspects with more ease than it would take you to reorganize your closet...
Damn, my reason didn't make it to the top 5, oh well, my MMO (the one I used to play) should go F2P cuz after blowing up the whole content, why I should pay for a monthly sub? I know I can cancel the sub and wait until a new expansion, but I wished that was not the case.
five reasons your mmo should go f2p
1) your business consultant told you that microtransactions in f2p mmos generated 72% of the last year overall mmo revenue - but forgot to tell you that 2/3 of it is generated by browser not client based games.
2) when you need evidence for the shareholders of your company that you really tried everything to get your mmo back to profit.
3) when the customers perception is so short-sighted that they still belive your mmo is free even if they spend 50$ per month toenjoy all the ingame content
4) if you can't take any more laughs from competitioners during the next game conference only because you belive in the intelligence that your customers will not fall for marketing terms.
5) if you only spend 500.000$ for development.
and to be serious: there are some good reasons why a mmo(rp)g should go f2p, but its depends on the concept and the quality of the game and which kind of f2p-model you choose.
Now that one made me laugh :-)
Not disagreeing mind you... just hit me as funny.
Best post ever. I could not say it better myself.
I actually think that the people who want games to go F2P are fromt his new console generation off MMO players. I would rather pay 15-20 bucks a month and have a good quality game that hold me for years then to go month to month through garbage mmo's or even worse would be to not play mmo's and spend 40-60 bucks monthly on single player games. No thank you.
Pure crap hype to premote F2P. it's a concept that,when it dies it will take hundreds of crap MMO's and crap companys down with it.
Woot! That is good news!
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
I don't think it's a direction any dev really wants to go at this point. Looking at it realistically, for the people that enjoy the model, there's more mileage in advertising the new items, adventure packs, expansions, live events, etc. For the people that dislike the game for the business model, we've all clearly seen that no comment or announcement will be acceptable.
Any positive comment regarding how it is doing will just be countered by the same comments we have consistently seen already - reinforcement that this is a greedy corporate cash grab preying on what gets portrayed as a mass audience of zero willpower morons, or the tinfoilhattery of how the devs are only posting such news as a cover up because the game is really tanking.
There's a solid year or two history of all the same responses, so there's no value in newsing that kind of stuff right now.
"Fully customizable robots"
"Shakespeare story arc"
"swimsuit inner armor"
There's just too many cool things to announce to the people that ARE interested, anyway.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
+1 for the SoAD reference.
That said... Great article, Bill. I love some tongue-in-cheek humor. Of course, you also (rightfully) poke fun at some of the very attitudes and perceptions that pervade the whole pro-F2P movement/thing.
Perhaps that's the trick to get counter the whole "F2P is the future!" message being shoved down everyone's throats by the pro-F2P folks - such as a certain other columnist on this site - is by poking fun at the absurdities of the model that don't necessarily "translate" when explained in a serious manner.
Again, well played, Bill. Unfortunately, the joke seems to have flown right over some people's heads. I guess that's unavoidable.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I approve and heartily second this message.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I can tell you as someone starting from scratch again on a brand-new character that so far in the lower level areas (the first 20 levels), I haven't seen more than 3 or 4 others players around at any given time, prime time or otherwise.
This surprised me as, frankly, I saw more on a regular basis when the game was still subscription only.
Now, some will say "you won't see as many in lower level areas 'cause they level out of it quickly..."
Fine... then I should at least be seeing more people "passing through" as they fly past me in levels and move on to the next area. I'm not. I'm seeing the same handful of names since I'm back that I saw the first night I started up again.
I logged into my higher level character who was parked in Bree and it was pretty empty as well. Back during its subscription days, you'd see people all over the place, crowding around near the Prancing Pony, near the West exit gate, etc... Not nearly as many now there, either. Again, some may say "well they've passed thrugh there already"... to which I would ask them to read my previous statement; "I should see them at least passing through"...
In short... If LoTRO saw a huge burst initially after the switch to hybrid and was doing gangbusters... it isn't anymore.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
on 5) its actuall becoming common to see people in general/global chat saying the game is not worth the asking price of subscription and that it should be F2P or cheaper subs.