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Defiance Going Free to Play My Thoughts
Silentstorm
Member UncommonPosts: 1,126
Defiance going free to play is a nice thing. I heard a few times people say "I would play buy I don't like pay gates" Or that they wished it was free to play. Well in June all of those I woulds. Can now be hey I can do it now. You can be the run and gun cowboy you always wanted to be. And explore a new world yet to be tamed.
Defiance is a fun game to try out. Ok the storyline from what I can see. Is a little drawned out but I like how it mirrors the TV show a bit. The reason why I cheer this game on. Is because it's trying something different. Can you imagine if we had a Firefly mmo? And that it followed show when it was on air?
We don't have many different things in the MMO industry. A lot of the games mirror each other. So I would like to see Defiance succeed at the shooter/MMORPG setting. Because things like Firefall and Global Agenda have faltered.
Comments
I agree, f2p isn't going to "save" them like it does a sub game. If $5 was keeping someone from playing this game, they're not going to offer the game anything but a semi-warm body.
Expect the f2p transition to create more pay walls not less. This switch is to go after the people who have already spent money on the game and play now.
The $5 doesn't even matter, with the trial the game is technically f2p right now as we speak (within the 500 EGO limit you can play through the whole game). This move is smart because of season2. During season1 the game was, I dunno, maybe $30ish at the biggest sale, so there was an entry barrier. Now they can advertise it as free, reaching much more people during the show.
The show/game idea is great, and while both were decent on their own last year, the connection and the "interdependency" were a bit lacking, at least imo. With season2 on the air, and (probably) more folks in the game, they can go for a second shot, with building on experiences of the first year. I mean, it was a completely new idea, Trion / Syfy were jumped into the dark with it, there was no previous data for them to use.
I hope the project will be successful, new ideas and methods and mechanics are always welcomed by me, the industry needs new blood frequently
it might be "free 2 play" but the game won't do any better. It's just simply that bad, I never even finished the 1st season quests nor the main story line. I was bored to tears in this game and the social interactions in this game are so bad, the UI is awful and so on...
It's just something to keep the game alive and try to get money out of it while the show lasts (I just wonder how are they going to integrate the story with the game, if that'll go poorly then it'll be a steep road to the bottom again).
"Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life."
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An MMO based on a new, untested SiFi tv show. No one could have predicted this game would end up in desperate straits...
Oh, who am I kidding. Even Trion saw this coming from a mile away. Probably just trying to recoup losses from having to cancel End of Nations. The game didn't turn out as bad as most licensed video games, it was actually a decent effort at a game marred by contractual obligations (TV Tie in stories taking development time from other, more important things.). Unfortunately, "decent" does not cut it in the MMO business, not even in the F2P market.
On that note... is the TV show itself any good? Considering it's on the SiFi network... might explain a lot about the game's current state of affairs. =/
The TV show is not bad actually. It isn't game of thrones, but for a syfy show it's good. The game itself isn't bad either. I bought it at release and played it for a couple weeks. It just doesn't have much of a hook to keep you playing it once you are done with the story line. I think they kind of rushed the release to match the TV show and they had some problems they didn't have time to solve. It is certainly worth the download to check it out but as far as this game being successful it's pretty much over.
They were not making any money on this game anyway so going F2P to maybe get a little hype bump for the new TV show season makes sense I guess. I kind of think going F2P is just a step toward this game being canceled when the TV show is since Trion can't afford to carry games that are not profitable. Unless they get their head out of their asses with AA Trion is basically a has been MMO developer/publisher anyway.
It could be right, but it could also be wrong. F2P players or 'freeloaders' are unique. They tend to against spending any cash at front (a big NO to B2P and P2P). However, when it comes to F2P mmo, they'll happily spend hundreds of dollars so they can enjoy the game fully, be it by purchasing cosmetics, exp boost, or power up item. They'll happily throw their money if they think the game is any good and worth it. I know them in real life.
Who really gives a crap when you could get it as cheap as $5 on Steam for b2p?
And that is about what this game was worth.
As it is, it isn't going to help they game be anything but a half-crap, shallow actionish shooter with a 3rd person view.
Fine if you like that, but no real staying power and very light on "being an MMO".
As I wrote above, both the show and the game are decent. I think if Trion and SyFy will be able to tie those two more closely together, then both could profit from the project even more.
I'm not saying your concerns aren't valid... I'm not a huge fan of the "channel formerly known as Sci-Fi" either
But Defiance is a decent show (which means: much much better than the average SyFy products 
). It had its weak points of course (like the whole 'two rival families, with a lovebird couple' story arch), but the setting, the languages, the sub-plots and the backstory are all pretty cool. Btw there's an e-book on Amazon, if you are interested a bit more on the story (a free download for Kindle). Oh, and also it has Mia Kirschner in it. A huge plus. At least for me. 
The game is good too, I think the main issue was the lacking of the ties/connections. Pre-launch they were talking about game events affecting the show, plots from the show reaching out to the game (like the antidote), etc. and there were only a few of those. The game is still a decent shooter with a nice storyline (and set in the world of the show), but when the show was over, and also the game was finished with the story too, there wasn't much left to stay for. At least for me, never liked Borderlands, nor simply grinding the so-called "endgame" for a few % better perks. It was like if they'd forgot that the show will be off for several months every year. DLCs were arrived a bit late for example, to help with the issue and giving more story.
Still, it's a good and promising project, imo. Now with season 2 in the corner, and with the game is f2p, I think (as I wrote above) it's like a second launch / chance for them. I went back when they announced the season 2 lead-up quest series, they're pretty good (and it's like the original launch was, the game is "introducing" you the show which is launching a bit later). Also there were a lot of folks in-game at the starting area. Don't know the effect of the f2p switch yet, I haven't played in the last couple days, but I guess there will be even more people in-game, which is good for the tougher group missions.
My only concern is Glyph, but that's just my personal pet peeve, don't like this new "we're forcing our new client on you simply because we can and it's good for us" trend.