[Column] General: Do Subscriptions Make a Difference in Community?

SBFord · September 2013

Subscriptions are the hot topic lately with three big-name titles opting to go with a subscription based revenue model. In today's Social Hub, we take a look at the potential impact that subscriptions have on today's games. Read on and then leave your thoughts in the comments.

Reading MMO discussions here and elsewhere, it’s common to see complaints about free to play and lists of reasons why subscription games have arguably better communities. Some will argue that subscriptions are good for keeping people out of a game, with assumptions about just who those people are and why they supposedly taint communities. They’re ‘poor’, they’re ‘kids’, they’re ‘newbs’, they’re “freeloaders”, they know nothing about MMOs, or any number of similar comments pop up across gaming communities around the internet.

Read more of Christina Gonzalez's The Social Hub: Do Subscriptions Make a Difference in Community?

Adalwulff · September 2013

The answer is YES!!!

I have been playing MMOs since 98' and I've been in many guilds and clans, and without a doubt, the community in subscription MMOs is FAR better.

People here will split hairs and say things like, "not all players are like that" ....lol

Experience trumps fiction

Nadia · September 2013

when EQ2 went ftp on Freeport server -- i saw no difference in the community

the Freeport community was friendly and helpful and much better than some sub games

IceAge · September 2013

Answer to your title question, as I didn't bother to read the whole article : YES!

Distopia · September 2013

In my experience the only real difference is more of this or that type of player, which goes both ways, you don't just see more of the bad apples.

You will also see more people who are simply there for a short free ride before they move on to the next.

RudedawgCDN · September 2013

YES - I will not play a "Free to Play" Game.

I've never met a free to play game that I liked.

For one; not one of them was ever Free.

The community is generally filled with 8 yr olds or 40 yr old men who act like 8 yr olds.

I prefer subscription model games 100% over FTP.

krondin · September 2013

Absolutely it makes a difference!

In simple, its a different mentality of player. Not always, but usually more mature and socially minded.

Vilroth · September 2013

The payment model makes no difference at all for the community. In fact the worst community ive experienced during my 15ish years of playing MMOs is WOWs community.

The players who play F2P games are usually the niche players who really enjoy playing that specific game (instead of playing it simply becasue its the biggest game).

Dauzqul · September 2013

These days? Yes. In a p2p game, you need people to be social.

Po_gg · September 2013

Nice column, I like the conclusion (and agree with it wholeheartedly)

Subscriptions aren't a panacea for community improvement. That, as discussed here in this space before, is up to both developers and players themselves to proactively pursue and not presume the other side will take care of it.

Do subs make a difference? Technically, yes. As you wrote too, it can bring different player count, different targeting, different churn rate, stuff like that. I'd even debate the "value and investing", one can value and invest in f2p games as well.

A better question, does the difference above affecting the quality of the community? Nope There were games with bad communities way before f2p, and there are f2p games with a good one as well. People's qualities have nothing to do with the payment model.

So, +1 for the ending: the best communities are full of people who feel invested not because they had (or didn't have) $15 a month withdrawn from their accounts each month.

azmundai · September 2013

subscription model has only a minor effect on communities.

modern mmo developers don't care about communities, or they care enough about allowing everyone to solo 90% of their game, or instantly queue for content in their game, that their thoughts on community are irrelevant.

community will never exist again as long as instant gratification is a pillar of design.

Panther2103 · September 2013

It depends on the game but usually you can tell while there's a free weekend or the free month before the game actually makes you pay. Usually in most mmo's excluding hardcore oldschool mmo's you get these players who abuse chat to basically spout memes and troll people IE: I HAVE AN ALIENWARE AND THIS GAME ISNT RUNNING GUYS, I've seen people saying that in at least 6 different MMO's or the old WOW IS THE FIRST MMO type of thing. But magically once the free time ends, it all stops, there is nobody saying any stupid crap anymore and everyone is either looking for groups in chat or just talking about the game. It happened in FFXIV, it happened in Tera (except the opposite when it went free to play it got all the trolls) it happened in Global Agenda for some reason. I just have seen it happen too many times to think it must be a coincidence, it's just the younger players who don't feel like paying or can't pay because they don't have a credit card who just are generally obnoxious in chat, then once one of them is, everyone of them is.

That isn't to say there isn't exceptions though, I've seen paying games have that issue, just look at wow and the spamming of anal (link item here) in trade chat. Or when someone links thunderfury and everyone else seems to go DID HE JUST SAY THUNDERFURY? It just is based on the community the game ponders to, and most pay to play games don't ponder to that community, they just go jump ship to all the free games and wow for some reason.

MumboJumbo · September 2013

Free-to-Play Players as a Commodity in WH40K: Eternal Crusade

Here is how it works, according to interviews so far. All of the races are pay-to-play, except Orks. The Ork Boyz, which is the horde army similar to the Imperial Guard, Necrons, or Tyranids where options exist to field tons of lower point cost units that are weak and only succeed through massive chance. In the various dice rolls, an Ork Boyz will have a 1 in 4 chance of defeating a Space Marine, giving the best scenario for the Orks, so imagine having 30 of them on the field. Of course, a Space Marine Terminator has a less than 1 in 10 chance of falling to an Ork Boyz, so you can see where their weaknesses are.

Well, free-to-play players will get to only play the Ork Boyz and will serve as the massive reaching horde army. They will be weak and incapable of doing much (other than fighting other Ork Boyz) without massing in numbers, but the general idea is that since free-to-play players have no investment in the game, it’s totally fine for them to be uncoordinated. They will just roam around and do whatever they want, much like the real Ork Boyz, while pay-to-play players can decimate them.

So the idea is that the game will be populated by a large swath of free-to-play players who will all be Ork Boyz. Since “free-to-play” players generally aren’t invested in a game nor do they listen to orders, it’d make a lot of sense if they’re like all Ork Boyz and running around being silly and stuff.

F2P players should be cannon fodder.

Voqar · September 2013

I despise F2P for a variety of reasons including its impact on community but the effect on community really isn't that big, IMO.

The bigger factor with community has more to do with challenge and grouping. The reason the classic MMORPGs (EQ, DAoC, FFXI types) had the strongest communities is because the games were challenging and you had to group the majority of the time. Forced grouping means you MUST get to know other people - the more the better - and you must behave somewhat otherwise you will never get anywhere (the glorious side effects are less idiotic public chat and lfew people behaving like tools in general - when you have to group to level, it tends to regulate behavior by default). When the gameplay/content is challenging, when you're overcoming memorable and difficulty trauma together, and/or can discuss it with others, you form stronger bonds.

The newer style of fast food/ez mode/solo heavy MMORPGs simply don't offer gameplay that leads to strong community. You don't establish relationships with people when you solo for the bulk of the content and most grouping is optional/avoidable. The content tends to be far easier and is only memorable for other reasons (visuals, humor, gimmick). Grouping tends to be more common at endgame, where it's usually the realm of guilds, so your community is much more limited to a smaller number of people (that you often already know from other games). Or, with dungeon/raid finders you're now pugging simplistic/easy versions of endgame content and in most such environs people can't even be bothered to say hello or goodbye to players they'll never see again.

F2P most often involves lower quality gaming - since it tends to involve pay 2 win, facilitated cheating (currency exchanges), etc, and as such involves lower quality players, but, I'm sure some F2P have strong community because they games are hard and require more cooperation between players.

Easy mode single player pseudo MMORPGs are what has killed community over the years.

dontadow · September 2013

Absolutely not.

My experience, someone whose been playing since e

CrazKanuk · September 2013

Originally posted by Vilroth
The payment model makes no difference at all for the community. In fact the worst community ive experienced during my 15ish years of playing MMOs is WOWs community.

The players who play F2P games are usually the niche players who really enjoy playing that specific game (instead of playing it simply becasue its the biggest game).

+1, unless you ignore everything except Guild Chat, the public channels are littered with people who do nothing except degrade the community.

I have played both and I find no real difference in communities based on the payment model. What I do think, and Christina touched on it, is that if you're invested in a game then you care about the community. If you're not, then you will say/do whatever with complete disregard for the consequences.

So I guess that you might believe that there would be more people causing trouble in F2P games based solely on the fact that they don't need to be invested in the game, because it's free. There are some people like that, but since most P2P games now offer a trial, I don't think you get any fewer of these "riff-raff" in a subscription game. These people generally don't care to do anything else than cause trouble, so they will seldom level a character because that's simply not the reason they're there. If they do level a character then it's usually only for a few hours.

I think that the subscription model actually introduces a completely different type of "riff-raff". The whiners. These are the people who feel like they are entitled to do whatever they want to whomever they want and the publisher can't do anything about it because they are subscribers. They are the people who bitch and moan when they get banned for being an ass (although they'd never admit it). It's the "Holier than thou" attitude.

So I think that the two models both have riff-raff of some sort, to some degree. It does degrade community, but what can you do? Will SOE's new policies with regards to trolling change things up? Well I hope so, someone's got to be a trailblazer and make a bold move to try to stop it. It's definitely not a model-related problem, it's an industry problem. Not just MMOs either, it's online gaming as a whole.

Siug · September 2013

Yes subs make difference. Went back to SWTOR in August and the general chat in fleet was just awful, probably kids because it was really juvenile. I haven't seen so many complete morons in sub based games and it wasn't even an American server

Then again, most people I played together with were nice and also subscribers.

flizzer · September 2013

I see no difference in sub or f2p games. At the moment I'm enjoying GW2 and find the community is one of the best I've seen in any MMO I've played. Maybe b2p or f2p have better communities then? I keep believing people who see a difference are just dealing with a prejudice for sub games and believing they are better are in every aspect. Just not true.

Wicoa · September 2013

Yes P2P communities tend to behave better.

lfr excluded (for some reason)

DeVoDeVo · September 2013

There is no difference in the communities. An arse will still behave like an arse whether he/she has more money or more time.

BMBender · September 2013

TBh yea it prob makes some difference, however I don't think it's the biggest contributor to a good/bad community. If it did every time someone lifted a leg in WoW it would smell like roses. Conversely if it was the main driver LOTRO's community should be at each others throats by now. While there's been some change it's no where near as bad as some subs I've seen.

Play style, targeted demographics, social aspect of your game; I would assume are the bigger driver to type of community good/bad/indif.

CrazKanuk · September 2013

Originally posted by Wiha
Yes subs make difference. Went back to SWTOR in August and the general chat in fleet was just awful, probably kids because it was really juvenile. I haven't seen so many complete morons in sub based games and it wasn't even an American server Then again, most people I played together with were nice and also subscribers.

Yes, because "Anal <insert inventive skill additive here>" never happens in WoW..... ever...... it doesn't, nor is it juvenile.

Rockniss · September 2013

P2p game have better communities and better quality. If the quality isnt there then it gets downgraded to the lower class of mmorpgs, the f2p class. F2p dtypically has no commitment and is a much less quality game. Those two characteristics of f2p games feed off of each other. On top of all of that consumers are on constant high alert for money grab cash shops and pay to win. Not only is there no commitment from the players but there is no commitment from the devs either. Players simply jump into the game buy thier power only to find it obsolete a month later when the devs roll out the next whatchamagadgit op weaponry at a fair price of $20 of course. If devs could let me know here is how this game will roll out over the next 2 to 3 years I mivht buy in, but they cant commit either considering the uncertainty of the mmorpg market.

Plageron · September 2013

no subscriptions don't make a game better.

In many ways it makes it worse...as I have played so many games and seen so many parent buy games and subscriptions for their kids its not funny.

The games may say 18+ or require a subscription but I still wind up playing with a 6 year old.

And the really pathetic thing is...that the companies allow it....they cater to it....they put in filters in chat to block things or censor their game to cater to it.

Another really bad thing is that there are just tons of players who like to cause problems...and subscription games have more of them. These are the ones that are definitely older, and should know better but they continually do things against the terms of service agreement.....and then stupidly say they cant understand why their name was censored or why they got into trouble for stalking other players or for just plain bad behavior in game.

So to answer the question more.....the concept of a subscription might make it seam it weeds out a lot of the bad elements.....but instead it seams to encourage it more.

Its like the subscription almost is like some form of beacon that draws them to the game.

And this is after playing subscription games since they started.

BMBender · September 2013

Originally posted by Plageron
no subscriptions don't make a game better.

In many ways it makes it worse...as I have played so many games and seen so many parent buy games and subscriptions for their kids its not funny.

The games may say 18+ or require a subscription but I still wind up playing with a 6 year old.

And the really pathetic thing is...that the companies allow it....they cater to it....they put in filters in chat to block things or censor their game to cater to it.

Another really bad thing is that there are just tons of players who like to cause problems...and subscription games have more of them. These are the ones that are definitely older, and should know better but they continually do things against the terms of service agreement.....and then stupidly say they cant understand why their name was censored or why they got into trouble for stalking other players or for just plain bad behavior in game.

So to answer the question more.....the concept of a subscription might make it seam it weeds out a lot of the bad elements.....but instead it seams to encourage it more.

Its like the subscription almost is like some form of beacon that draws them to the game.

And this is after playing subscription games since they started.

well to be fair nothing you've stated I have not seen pretty regularly in f2p b2p or p2p games

Theocritus · September 2013

There used to be the perception that the f2p games lured in lurkers who were just out to cause trobule, but in my experience it really depended on the game, not the subscription model.....People make too much of this...Its like in RL where people think the rich are good people and the poor are scum.....Once again, in my experience I've met alot of nice poor people and alot of scumbag rich people......Whether a person pays or not has nothing to do with the quality of person yo uare going to get.

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