Good article. Two thumbs up from me. I think by the time this game is actualy released people will already be bored stupid by it or there heads will literaly explode with excitement. Either way it will probably be messy
Short and simple. Leave TOR as P2P while all the kiddies and unemployed go and play the F2P clone wars game coming out. It'll leave us with less kids spamming chat with HOW I WEAR LIFESAVER and the infamous "anal" spam.
Agreed. It will be so much better to play with someone with your elitist attitude.
Give me a break. Just because someone doesn't want to pay a subscription doesn't mean they are unemployed or a kid.
Short and simple. Leave TOR as P2P while all the kiddies and unemployed go and play the F2P clone wars game coming out. It'll leave us with less kids spamming chat with HOW I WEAR LIFESAVER and the infamous "anal" spam.
lol you make it sound like P2P games dont have kiddies or unemployed. Last time I checked WoW had those kind of people, and it was P2P, as well. Come on, think before you type.
Short and simple. Leave TOR as P2P while all the kiddies and unemployed go and play the F2P clone wars game coming out. It'll leave us with less kids spamming chat with HOW I WEAR LIFESAVER and the infamous "anal" spam.
Agreed. It will be so much better to play with someone with your elitist attitude.
Give me a break. Just because someone doesn't want to pay a subscription doesn't mean they are unemployed or a kid.
You're right.
It just means they're cheap, casual, or don't have the money to pay for a Sub based MMO and thus probably shouldn't be playing one anyways.
Good read and I fully agree with the risk of leaving out your niche, thats the #1 reason why so many MMO's are failing these days. Trying to target a whiny, carebear audience will bring you good numbers in short (till the next hype mainstream MMO is ready), while your niche players - as mentioned in the article - are the ones staying. If you ignore them they'll ignore and blacklist you in no time such as Sony, Lucasarts with SWG.
Things I expect at the E3: showing us the "huge open" world, group fights and crafting.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play." "Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
Funny thing ToR, it already divides opinion on forums more than even wow does, it gets talked about more than wow and it has as many people saying it will die as wow does.
Will ToR be a commercial success? without a doubt, I would go as far as to say 99% of people who will play this game dont frequent forums like this one (full of mainstream hate), 99% of gamers are the main stream. ToR will be good and bad for the MMO industry in much the same way wow was, it will bring new players to the MMO scene who will eventually try other MMO's. They will also be able to actually give Blizzard some competition in the hype stakes, Bioware have IP's just as loved if not more so than the blg blue giant and they have some severe financial clout (Though not anywhere near what Blizzard have).
They are taking their time to release a solid product, they are releasing information only when they are 100% sure of it these are two of the biggest requests of the mmo community.
But and I hate to break it to you guys, they like most Game developers understand that you cant please everyone and that while you listen to feedback you have to go with your vision of the game not the vocal members of a forums wishes.
ToR wont go free to play, IF they were then Warhammer online would already be trialing that business model, EA have a massive amount of F2P social MMO games they already know the limits and perks of this business model, but they rarely make their AAA releases F2P. FIFA online with its massive world appeal is an exception based on the fact that football of any medium that is successful will attract massive advertising sponsorship and cross spectrum marketing chances.
ToR will likely start as a Subscription game, establish its player base then offer us a fluff shop, They will look at maximising revenue streams not because they are going bankrupt if they dont (EA are in a little hot water but Lucas Arts who are funding ToR are most assuradly not in trouble) £150 million to them is while a sizeable amount an amount they can absorb the loss of entirely. But I doubt they will need to, I imagine ToR with the interest it will generate will make its money back within a year easy, probably significantly quicker.
I base that on the following bits of information.
Bioware Box games regularly sell in units multiple milions. Mass effect 1 and 2 were commercial successes Dragon Age sold well despite being in a much less mainstream genre. The only Bioware game that didnt sell like hot cakes was Jade Empire and thats becase it was barely Marketed (one of the undeniable tradgedies of gaming is that thanks to bad marketing there will never be a sequel to one of the most beautifully crafted settings of its time)
2, Star wars has the potential to generate massive interest even without prior knowledge of the product Star Wars games generall sell well regardless, star wars tie ins are very very profitable because it has such a broad appeal.
3, Despite what people think, the "theme park" model of MMO is the one that commands the most market share, its the one with the most potential and actual market penetration. Sorry Sandbox Fans but there is a reason most sanboxes can run on 1 server cluster without issues.
4 (And something this Article ignores) the Star wars "Niche" is one of the biggest most consumerist fanbases around. People will buy Star Wars toilet paper if it were available.
The day may come when Microtransactions are the mainstay of MMOs and I will die a little inside, the commitment to a character, building and evolving him is what attracts me to MMOS in the first place, playing with a bunch of people who will jump ship when ever anything goes wrong doesnt appeal to me. Also the F2P model will be the end of balanced end game conents. But ToR wont be the thin end of that Wedge.
Also going F2P is not "Popular" with developers these days, its popular with Turbine, who hold about 3% of the Market share of Sub based MMO's
Under their Sub Model their customer base was in recession, so the tried something bold, its not the start of the end....Stop over reacting and pushing your F2P (whose adverts pay for this site) Agenda.
Comments
Good article. Two thumbs up from me. I think by the time this game is actualy released people will already be bored stupid by it or there heads will literaly explode with excitement. Either way it will probably be messy
Why does it always have to be either/or?
It can, and will probably be both. You can have it all and pay a subscription or you can do an ala carte option and pay for stuff as you consume it.
In other words the DDO and coming soon LoTRO model. More options mean more people.
Agreed. It will be so much better to play with someone with your elitist attitude.
Give me a break. Just because someone doesn't want to pay a subscription doesn't mean they are unemployed or a kid.
lol you make it sound like P2P games dont have kiddies or unemployed. Last time I checked WoW had those kind of people, and it was P2P, as well. Come on, think before you type.
Great article!
Since Lucas is involved I think we can rule out a F2P model.
You're right.
It just means they're cheap, casual, or don't have the money to pay for a Sub based MMO and thus probably shouldn't be playing one anyways.
There's only one Butterly Effect, and this tosh aint it.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
Probably sub and cash shop... seems the bigger MMOs can pull this off now.
Good read and I fully agree with the risk of leaving out your niche, thats the #1 reason why so many MMO's are failing these days. Trying to target a whiny, carebear audience will bring you good numbers in short (till the next hype mainstream MMO is ready), while your niche players - as mentioned in the article - are the ones staying. If you ignore them they'll ignore and blacklist you in no time such as Sony, Lucasarts with SWG.
Things I expect at the E3: showing us the "huge open" world, group fights and crafting.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play."
"Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
Have my babies?
one of the best posts I've ever read