Surely WoW has had a cash shop for years, or how did they pay for the special Unicorn (?) mount? And having a cash shop in a P2P game is now a must have. I am not sure there are many P2P games that do not have a cash shop these days. My guess would be they will see how P2P and cash shop go before they think about F2P. If they then decide F2P is the way to go they would already at that stage be in a position to launch it.
Not an in-game cash shop. You can't use a web shop for a F2P game. It is just not convenient enough.
Secondly, Blizz is never fast. Everything they do is tested, tested, and tested again.
Surely WoW has had a cash shop for years, or how did they pay for the special Unicorn (?) mount? And having a cash shop in a P2P game is now a must have. I am not sure there are many P2P games that do not have a cash shop these days. My guess would be they will see how P2P and cash shop go before they think about F2P. If they then decide F2P is the way to go they would already at that stage be in a position to launch it.
Not an in-game cash shop. You can't use a web shop for a F2P game. It is just not convenient enough.
Secondly, Blizz is never fast. Everything they do is tested, tested, and tested again.
I doubt a cash shop will bring in the 120 million or so they bring in from subs. They'll switch when it becomes more prophetable to do so. I am certain they have already go the cash shop in place and have a threshhold of what revenue they earn from subs before they switch. The game is aging so eventually it's going to lose subs.
F2P players are honest about what the dont like about a game, but on the flipside, they rarely give a game a real chance. Some might not even try the game for more than a few hours. Some might go into the game thinking, "Ok, if this game is free, it cant be good" and just search for issues in the game. Usually they dont stay around too long and move onto the next big F2P release when the time comes. The community can be pretty bad, since people dont care if they get banned as much. There is also no "barrier of entry" and it's easier to be a rotten egg than in P2P games.
P2P players are really invested in the game, cause they want their monies worth. A new player will almost always play one full month too se if the game is any good. They want to enjoy the game, cause they are paying for it. Sometimes so much even, that they get blinded by things that are bad. You can notice it by them always arguing and defending the game and hating on people who bring up things which might not be good. I'm all for people enjoying games they pay for, but not bias. If a mechanic is broken or doesnt simply work I'm moving along. Only after their subscription ends, do they bring up negative things, usually in excess. Like the whining has built up during their playtime, and it's finally coming out. Perfect example is ex-wow players.
B2P players are a mixture of these I think. People dont feel like they are forced to play cause they are paying monthly, so they can put the game down if it's not fun. Those who enjoy, stay, those who dont, leave eventually.
f2p certainly does induce bad behaviour but it has always existed, you are far more likely to be obnoxious or cheat if you can just make another account np, same for hackers n gold spammers.
part of the game for me is earning that item and buying turns it into why the heck plkay the game at all it feels like we are playing how big is your wallet?
Thing is alot of us play both f2p and p2p......I've seen alot of good and bad communities in both pay systems.....THe stereotype though is that the p2p is a good person and the f2p person is bad and that is just not true......I met just as many jerks in WoW and Eve as I did in Runescape amd DDO.......Usually I find when I run into a jerk in a f2p game that they dont stay very long......They either get banned or bored and move on quickly.....In a p2p game though, some feel entitled to be a jerk because they are paying for the game and feel they are entitled to do whatever they want.
I doubt a cash shop will bring in the 120 million or so they bring in from subs. They'll switch when it becomes more prophetable to do so. I am certain they have already go the cash shop in place and have a threshhold of what revenue they earn from subs before they switch. The game is aging so eventually it's going to lose subs.
The question is how fast they are losing that 120M. In the last report, it is like 200k fewer subs every month. That is 2.4M subs a year, assuming the deterioration does not accelerate. At that rate, WoW can last may be 3 years.
Comments
Not an in-game cash shop. You can't use a web shop for a F2P game. It is just not convenient enough.
Secondly, Blizz is never fast. Everything they do is tested, tested, and tested again.
I doubt a cash shop will bring in the 120 million or so they bring in from subs. They'll switch when it becomes more prophetable to do so. I am certain they have already go the cash shop in place and have a threshhold of what revenue they earn from subs before they switch. The game is aging so eventually it's going to lose subs.
I think,
F2P players are honest about what the dont like about a game, but on the flipside, they rarely give a game a real chance. Some might not even try the game for more than a few hours. Some might go into the game thinking, "Ok, if this game is free, it cant be good" and just search for issues in the game. Usually they dont stay around too long and move onto the next big F2P release when the time comes. The community can be pretty bad, since people dont care if they get banned as much. There is also no "barrier of entry" and it's easier to be a rotten egg than in P2P games.
P2P players are really invested in the game, cause they want their monies worth. A new player will almost always play one full month too se if the game is any good. They want to enjoy the game, cause they are paying for it. Sometimes so much even, that they get blinded by things that are bad. You can notice it by them always arguing and defending the game and hating on people who bring up things which might not be good. I'm all for people enjoying games they pay for, but not bias. If a mechanic is broken or doesnt simply work I'm moving along. Only after their subscription ends, do they bring up negative things, usually in excess. Like the whining has built up during their playtime, and it's finally coming out. Perfect example is ex-wow players.
B2P players are a mixture of these I think. People dont feel like they are forced to play cause they are paying monthly, so they can put the game down if it's not fun. Those who enjoy, stay, those who dont, leave eventually.
f2p certainly does induce bad behaviour but it has always existed, you are far more likely to be obnoxious or cheat if you can just make another account np, same for hackers n gold spammers.
part of the game for me is earning that item and buying turns it into why the heck plkay the game at all it feels like we are playing how big is your wallet?
The question is how fast they are losing that 120M. In the last report, it is like 200k fewer subs every month. That is 2.4M subs a year, assuming the deterioration does not accelerate. At that rate, WoW can last may be 3 years.