Does Free2Play Hurt Allods?

PurpleCliff

I've played Allods Online for over a month now, and in my opinion it's definitely the most polished and well-made free MMO around at the moment.

It seems to have a pretty big playerbase, but I wonder if it would have more players if it was 'Pay to play'? It isn't just another cheap foreign MMO, and I wonder if the 'free2play' thing puts a lot of gamers off?

Also, if you've paid to play then you phsycologically think you're getting a premium experience - and therefore enjoy the game more. (Not to mention GPotato could afford an actual support team :P)

Is this just me thinking too much into it?

beefaroniap

honestly allods is the poster child for failed free2play mmo the reason there isnt alot of ppl playing is because they force you to use the cash shop with fod (i have a lvl 40 cleric before you sart saying you can buy that off.. )in dungeons you cant and besides dungeons an astral  and pvp there is nothing all wgich require incence which require you to pay irl.. there is no way that you can play this game for free at max lvl unless you farm 6 hrs a day for gold  after a while the game gets boring.. was on top guild on nezeb 2 months after launch 50 percent or more of the lvl 40s quit including myself

PurpleCliff

Hmm so Free2Play really does hurt Allods. I reckon they'd have huge success if they went the DDO/RuneScape/Global Agenda route and had a Free option and a Subscription option, with no microtransactions.

amirite?

EDIT: Or I guess they could just balance their item shop ...

Tyrrhon

The russian devs originally tried to make the game very close to P2P, with "pay by hour" incense use being very much forced, but little else in cash shop, which was ment to keep the game ballanced - provided you pay the hidden sub. This did not work. People did not pay even the resonable reccuring fee and there was not much else to make the hooked snorters pay huge amounts of money and make income that way. The original plan could and would work, but there are several reason why it failed, like russian mentality, lack of late game economy, making already niche PvP even more niche.

F2P does not mean cheap for a loyal player. That is one part that puts people off. F2P is much more expensive than P2P if you plan to stick around, playing end game or keep rolling alts. This is no such a huge deal, P2P games are cheap entertainment for how much fun you get out of them, it is just the reccuring payments that are issues for some players (they do not have regular income or they play in short bursts with pauses, alternate several games etc).

Another reason people stay out of F2P, even if they do not conciously realize, is the absurdity of making the games less fun than they could be on purpose, because unhappy people feel more pressure to shop around. This is very visible in Allods that is indeed nice game but made poorer by the presence of cash shop, be it FoD, ridiculously small bags or cursed items. The devs are "torturing" the games to squezee money out of audince and not everyone wants a part in such spectacle.

In the end, the game has aspects that quite some people will not like, like forced PvP that is *intentinally* designed as gank fest (lvl 40 instance smack dab in middle of first PvP zone and unsormountable level differences). In the end for a games with such issues it is better to go F2P routes, admit that you never get large loyal following and milk as hard as you can the few you can get to stick around. The problematic issues in Allods are closely knit to its F2P (force to pay) nature which makes fixing them very costly, and on top, cash shop is pretty much the very worst part of the game, expensive, unfun.

F2P does hurt the game experience, quite a lot, but it does not hurt the game business, actualy is quite healthy for it, and as such ensures the game existence. Do you want to play the game or nanny the game?