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Rapid drop in hype score. Will NCSoft reconsider pricing?
While there has been some support from the MMO community when it was announced that WildStar would be a full-purchase and subscription-based game, there has been a rather staggering negative response as well. Their facebook page was full of irritated fans and prospective players ditching their plans to play the game, and on this website the game dropped from the top 5 anticipated, falling out of the top 10.
My question is, does anyone think they will reconsider this decision while they still have time, and was the timing of the announcement perhaps a way for them to "test the waters" to see if players would accept their plans?
It seems completely illogical that this would be their plan, considering the bleeding of subscribers WoW is experiencing, and the success of games that have gone to a hybrid model, like TERA, SWTOR, Lord of the Rings Online, and Rift.
Or, are they simply trying to milk as much money out of the die-hard fans as possible, then pull a "switcheroo" after 6 months and move the game to a hybrid model after getting full purchase price and subscriptions out of the dedicated few?
Comments
Why do f2p players keep bringing up WoW as some sort of proof that the p2p mmos are dying out?
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The players that refuse to play a game where they have to pay a subscription fee would probably not pay anything in a F2P model either so NCSoft really don't lose anything by not attracting those players...
*shrug
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Thomas Jefferson
f2p players with no cash are usefull to make the game interesting for paying customers.Pi*1337/100 = 42
Sure, by running around naked and insulting everyone....
The sub doesn't surprise me as they are focusing on endgame pvp and raiding rather than lvling progression. Yes those hoping for a free ride are disappointed, but there is also FFXIV that is a sub, and that for some of us is a problem, as we where planning on that being our one sub mmo.
Also for me EQN has stolen a lot of Wildstar's thunder, and there is also Archeage and ESO to distract us. The days of committing to a single mmo and therefore getting the most out of a sub are over.
I fully support sub mmo's.
free to play is lame and should belong to sub par mmo's.
Buy to play is another story, this can be done in proper way like GW2 has proven.
Free to play has no place in good mmo's.
I rather play with less people then a bunch of 8 year old screaming gimme gimme gimme kewl kewl kewl yada yada.
With the exception of Guild Wars 1 & 2, NCSoft games have always launched with a subscription, even in native Korea.
This isn't surprising, anyone who thought it wouldn't be subscription is delusional.
Though I firmly expect it to go freemium, like AION did, about twelve months into launch. Not because a subscription is off putting, but because the box price + subscription is off putting.
People were fine to buy GW2 to see if they liked it because there was no additional cost, plus people are fine to try a freemium MMO and subscribe if they like it, because there is no up front fee, but to have both is a risk for the average gamer, who probably is currently happily playing whatever MMO they are in.
I don't think the hype is an issue right now, its still a long way off from release, if the game is good as it gets closer to release it will go up, look at FFXIV, it will be sub but they never wavered from that fact from day one, and its up there just below EQN in hype, in fact after open beta where a lot of people played it its climbing.
If you make a good game people will pay for it.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
^
Why don't they put a warning label on the thing:
"Warning: Despite its title, this meter does not appear to actually measure hype, or much of anything useful at all. You have been warned."
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
This.
EA taught everyone that their best bet is to go sub based as long as possible to regain revenue and then go to F2P to maintain the rest. Fleece first, then go with a normal model to save yourself. Its the western way of doing business.
That is why Korean game makers are taking over the market. They have a grasp on the future which is why so many of those companies are making hand over fist with true F2P...and with the quality of the games rising so fast, western companies will stand no chance against them in another 4-5 years.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
If a company is dumb enough to use MMORPG hype meter to measure people's reception of their game then they deserve to loose every single cent that they have invested into the game. No - nothing will change payment model.
People really need to stop assuming that clearly they have a better understanding how how MMO sales, marketing and subscriptions work than people who do it for a living and actually have statistical data to back up their choices. I assure you they didn't arrive to lets use subscription model by throwing darts at a wall or by having "how to milk people before we fuck them" meeting.
Believe it or not you can do studies that will cover a lot of different factors and those are the ones used to determine the model. Vocal people are almost always a minority - so listening to hype meters which represents to the extreme of that vocal minority makes no sense.
Why I'll be waiting for a few months after release to see how the game is. Retail + sub is a bit ridiculous. They really needs to just do a flat out sub OR retail with cash shop and not this double dipping crap.
You clung to one thing the OP stated because its the only way you could have formed that powerless consumer mentality you have.
The games facebook and official forums, not to mention NCSofts are filled with complaints and history has already shown that consumers do have the power to change things...TESO is FUBAR right now because they went from trying to make a DaoC skinned TES MMO to trying to make a TES multiplayer game with a mad dash to try to distance themselves from the term MMORPG.
When you are missing your target audience, you better damn well be listening early and MMO game makers today have been learning the hard way that Subscriptions are a dieing breed...the only ones planning on releasing with a sub are those looking for a cash grab before going F2P because they know they may just grab enough suckers to make their investment back before doing it.
None in the west have learned how to make the money they do in the east. Too focused on the past fleecing methods.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
I didn't plan to play this game until I heard the business model. Now I will play for certain.
Also, this site is probably the last place to check the pulse of the average gamer from... just saying.
f2p players are not useful in any way, they piggyback on all the paying players to get their enjoyment. But hey people do it in the real world to by cheating on government assistance or relying on others in this case.
Knowing NCSoft, they will immediately convene the board of directors, announce the cancellation of the project, thumb their noses collectively at those looking forward to the game, and then hold onto the game data more firmly than Gollum clutches the one ring..
Sorry.. My bitterness toward NCSoft is showing.. My bad.. *wanders off, whistling innocently*
..because we're gamers, damn it!! - William Massachusetts (Log Horizon)
if you can't have the common sense to see that this is entirely banking on initial purchases you need to get outside more.
they arent going to do a price drop, the "considering" of the price drop will be when they do the obvious bounce to f2p a year or 6 months later, like all failed mmos do
In wildstar they'll be farming gold for the p2p players.
So they do have some use.