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So is EVE going F2P or what?
lumpking69
Member Posts: 18
So I know they recently added an ingame store for you guys to buy stuff and some other really crazy shit. I figured this was a stepping stone or maybe a red flag signaling the games eventual transition to an F2P model. I don't think the store has been flushed out enough to support an F2P model yet though (correct me if I'm wrong).
Anywho, EVE isnt the only Space MMO anymore. STO is going F2P in jan, SWTOR will be going F2P most likely too. When is EVE going F2P?
Is there any hope for it to go F2P? Are there any legit rumors regarding an F2P model or is it all hearsay? Do you guys think it will go F2P?
I welcome any and all of your thoughts on the subject.
Comments
Not
Going
To
Happen!
EvEr!
I think they learned the lesson this summer...
What happened this summer?
Also, don't you think it silly (when you consider all the success the F2P games have had) for EVE not to go F2P? The market has shown that subscription models just don't work anymore.
The community send a clear message to CCP that F2P and MT was not wanted. CCP got the message and publicly declared a change of course. Not much more to add really.
EvE and F2P dont mix. Some games just cant work with a F2P model. EvE is one of them.
Could you go into a little more detail as to why you think EVE cant work with an F2P model?
Because I don't see how thats possible.
Beyond the PLEX system, I don't see how Eve goes F2P. What would they sell to make money that couldn't be characterized as pay2win?
Eve already is free 2 play.
Well there are many F2P models.
The ones I like are the ones where all the content is open to everyone. They sell lots of "fluff" and maybe they sell ingame items too. But these items can also be obtained in game.
So you can make your ship look fancy and buy an item, or you can earn it in game.
How is it F2P? I can't play rite now lol
Sorry man, but the burden of proof is on you. You say that Eve should go F2P, and now at least 2 of us have expressed doubt that it would work given the game's characteristics. If you think it would, you have to present your case as to HOW it works. What does CCP sell to make money off of the F2P people?
Ok its sort of semi free to play, once you hit a sort of critical mass with your char, once you get to a certain point in your career your earning a big pile of ISK, you then buy game time with the ISK in the form of PLEX and ergo you are now playing for free.
This however is very much common knowledge so gonna have to question this avenue of posting on your part.
I didnt claim to have the answers. Ive only played EVE for maybe 15 minutes and that was years ago.
What I should have said was, with a little imagination and some will.. theres no way it can't be done. To simply say "it cant be done" is a bit of a cop out. But I may be wrong, thats why I'm asking you guys.
So far people have said it can't be done, but no one has gone into any detail explaining why. I want to know why it wouldnt work. I'm assuming that some of you know the game better than I. I wasn't challenging you guys, I just want a real answer.
Oooh, ok. I did read about that when I googled the very subject we are talking about. I really thought it was a great thing to do. I wish more MMO's adopted similar models.
EVE is currently "play to pay". player can choose to farm ISK and use it to buy PLEX (worth 30 day of play time) from other players. how one gets ISK is irrelevant (as long as it's legal, within game rules), so player can be missioner, NPC bounty hunter, miner, manufacturer, trader, or even scammer. effectively, as long as you can turn profit, it's "free to play".
Not to change the subject, but for curiosity's sake... I wonder whats the best way to earn ISK? Is there a method thats at the top of the list? I mean, is there a profession that earns you the most or something?
Also, at what level can one farm suffient ISK in order to start having the game pay for itself? Is that somethign a new player can or do you have to be at the top of your game in order to earn that much ISK and pay for the game ?
game never "starts to pay for itself". you still have to play it to make ISK. currently, Incursions are "in", tho it requires quite some skill investment and a group (either players or alts). trading can be profitable. missioning is stable income, but it can be tiring after a while. mining is low-profit, but also low intensity. joining an established corp/alliance can be profitable, even for a new player (salvaging/looting after a big boys).
it all comes down whether one can have fun while earning ISK. checkout http://www.isktheguide.com/ for possible "career choices"
OK, I getcha, now.
But I answered your question. I don't think it would work, because there's not really anything in the game that you can sell through an "Eve store" that wouldn't be considered pay 2 win, and thus piss people off. Heck, the stuff in the Noble Exchange is totally worthless, and folks are already annoyed with THAT.
There's not really any "quest content" of significance. Maybe that new sector that opened up, recently? I'm a subscriber, temporarily, and I don't really feel any motivation to go there now, let alone buy it to get access.
Selling ships, ammo, or any weaponry for it would get the p2w stamp right off the bat.
inventory seems pretty much unlimited, and I'm pretty sure it is. Maybe limit a free player's inventory and make them buy it up?
Limit manufacturing? Still, technically, that's P2W.
Limit advancement? DEFINITELY p2w. Besides, advancement is on the clock. You'd have to limit by points.
That's all largely my point. Eve, being a PvP-centric game, would alienate its players by providing an "out of game" path to obtaining ship equipment of any kind. The economy is almost solely player driven, so you have to be careful limiting a free players ability to participate in it. And no matter how you slice the Eve Universe, there's not a ton of motivation for most people to buy, say, Amarr's region if they're Minmatar. Sell by security levels? Most casual players(the biggest cross section of f2p players) couldn't care less about lowsec, and Hisec is where you start.
In the end, there's not much of a means to piece the game out to buy, and there's not much motivation for them to go f2p in the first place. Add on the huge risk they're taking of alienating their current paying players, and you've got a perfect storm. Of all the MMO's, I'd bet Eve will be the last to go F2P
The best ways to earn ISK are actually closely guarded secrets and seldom shared with even friends or family. Reason being, due to the market driven economy, if too many people start doing them then the profitability goes away very quickly.
Also, over time it changes, what is very profitable today won't be necessarily true in six months.
That said, some of the more common ways to get ISK flowing in at a steady rate include Mission running at level 4, with folks claiming to average 20-40M ISK per hour, Wormhole farming, which back in the day could make crazy ISK, not sure if that's quite so true today.
Market trading is arguably one of the best occupations, but also quite challenging as you try to guess what the next big thing is going to be in upcoming expansions and corner the maket before it happens, trillions are made and lost every day in this arena.
The ways to make big ISK in EVE are probably too numerous to mention. I one time noticed a certain player had seeded some outlying empire regions (located at quite a few hops from any learning acadamies) with what could have been up to 20B or more in ISK in higher level skill training books, and I assume they were making a handsome profit. I thought of competing with them but realized if I started a market war they probably had the resources to outlast me soI declined to make the attempt.
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Well they could sell "Fluff items". Things that would let you customize your character or ships. Maybe change the look and color, that type of thing.
They could get away with selling loot items if they also let people get those items in the game, like Star Trek Online did. You can pay real money for Item X or you can earn it in game. Thats not really "Pay to win", its "Pay not to play". They could even take another note from Star Trek Online and make what ever they make the "store currency" is totally obtainable in game. So if Item X costs "5 EVE points" you could turn X# ISK into "5 EVE points". T
Heck, if they wanted to they could also create special content for the game that would need to be purchased.
They could also sell buffs. Like a buff that gave you +ISK, HP, Damage, etc etc./
They could sell crafting materials.
They could sell combo packs of the mentioned items.
Basically they could sell anything the player base demands.
F2P doesnt always translate into "Pay to Win". If its done rite with respect to players, it can be done very tastefully. It only requires a little imagination and dedication.
I would love your thoughts on what I suggested.
Almost everything you mentioned would be considered pay2win in a PvP environment.
It works ok with LotRO or STO where PvP is moreless an afterthought. Since the bulk of your endgame will be in raids, who will complain that a guy on your side bought a 5% damage buff?
But PvP-centric games like Eve are a whole different community.
Fluff items would be the exception. But they already have much of that, save the ship color customization. I wouldn't pay for stuff like that, but there are some who would. It depends on how hard it would be to get that sort of stuff in the game.
As Kyleran pointed out, there are numerous ways to make lots of ISK in EVE but no one is going to share specifics on how to do it.
Mission running is extremely easy and offers a steady flow of income and unsurprisingly is considered extremely boring to many pilots.
Incursions offer pretty good money but require a fleet with specific roles (logistics + DPS). I ran my first incursion Saturday with a bunch of other incursion noobs and we were pulling in 10.5 million ISK every 8-10 minutes. From my understanding the guys in T3s and Faction BSs run them much faster therefore pull in a LOT more ISK per hour, but we had fun.
Traders make a ton of money in EVE. I know people who have never left Jita 4-4 for the last couple of years and they log in everyday just to play market PvP.
Wormhole living is where I make most of my ISK. It's a little more risky and requires a lot of traveling and scanning to find a good target system, but the rewards are excellent. Some weekends I can pull in 250-300 million from clearing out a couple of C1/C2s. If I'm lucky I can find a C3/4 and make closer to 500 million in the same time but I spend a lot of time scanning for them.
A single new pilot will not do well alone in any of these situations, but those new pilots can do very well by making some friends or joining a corp that likes to do group activities. Although I can handle anything up to a C3 alone, I always invite new players into my fleets whether it is mission running, incursions or sleeper sites. They may not be able to do what I can due to a lack of skillpoints, but by showing them what right looks like and providing guidance on what skills are important to do the task, they can learn how to earn their own ISK faster.
wow, it seems like youre earning some good cash, I think lol How much does it cost to pay for a months worth of gaming? What the ISK cost to play "free" ?
Right now the 30 day PLEXs are selling for roughly 430-440 million but our corp trader provides them for 410-415 depending on the market fluctuation.
And yes I can make good money, but I have invested a lot into specialty skills/ships and I lose a lot from PvPing. The only reason I do the PvE content is to fund my PvP addiction.
The most important thing here of course is that EvE is not f2p as you can't play without CCP getting payed. Sure YOU might not be paying them yourself, but SOMEBODY is playing for you.
So EvE can only support as many 'free' players as people willing to actually buy PLEX's from CCP can support.
EvE is not f2p, even if YOU play for free.
There are 2 major issues with game design being not very F2P friendly.
1) Real-time skill training.
2) Very complex economy.
Regardless how you put your question, it most likely can't be done unless you change some very core mechanics of the game. But that is something difficult for you to comprehend as your game knowledge is based on 15 minutes experience...
3) PvP environment where if you loose fight then you also loose ship and it's equipment (if you are lucky).
Another words in order to make EVE f2p they would have to change pretty much every core mechanics in game: PvP, economy, skills. But then what could stop them to change game's name from EVE Online to World of New Eden? I guess nothing. And I also believe that nobody wants that.