I play 2 BW and i had enough. For me the biggest gripe is about builds. They claims the game had like millions different builds, that's true, however only a few of these builds really works. In the end you are pretty much forces into a very limited amount of cookie cutter builder or you'll suck.
I mean what's the point of giving players freedom of choice if these choice are bad ? It's like having a game with 100 classes where only 5 really works well.
If it interests you, buy it and play it, you won't regret it.
Good interview for other information too.
Wasn't Swtor saying the same thing? We know how that ended...
I have to agree with Vgamer here. While TSW tries to do something different, I feel it ultimately falls short. There are better games out there that are f2p, why waste $15 on this unless you really like it? Niche product at best imho
Exept Niche games are the best games. It's the games that try to please everyone that are crap.
The only thing "niche" about TSW is the setting.
And? it is still niche even though i disagree with you that setting is the only thing niche about the game. TSW difficulty is above your average themepark MMO where you roll mobs with eyes closed. That is also what puts off a lot of players because they can't just zip through zones.
This ain't rocket science. TSW is not really an mmo with that much dificulty as to call it a niche in that regard. It has a nice setting among mmos, but the rest is standard mmo fare.
They are apparently profitable now, and their population is now growing. It's only three people, but they have hired people back to work on the game, so they have to be getting money from somewhere. Good for them. Why would they go with a F2P model when it seems like they can make this one work?
I'm one of those people who would probably play the game if it didn't have a sub, but I qualify that with I'm probably not going to pay a sub for any game, regardless of what I think of the game.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
If it interests you, buy it and play it, you won't regret it.
Good interview for other information too.
Wasn't Swtor saying the same thing? We know how that ended...
I have to agree with Vgamer here. While TSW tries to do something different, I feel it ultimately falls short. There are better games out there that are f2p, why waste $15 on this unless you really like it? Niche product at best imho
Exept Niche games are the best games. It's the games that try to please everyone that are crap.
The only thing "niche" about TSW is the setting.
And? it is still niche even though i disagree with you that setting is the only thing niche about the game. TSW difficulty is above your average themepark MMO where you roll mobs with eyes closed. That is also what puts off a lot of players because they can't just zip through zones.
This ain't rocket science. TSW is not really an mmo with that much dificulty as to call it a niche in that regard. It has a nice setting among mmos, but the rest is standard mmo fare.
That is your opinion. But i never said TSW is complex. I said the difficulty is above average which puts off people who are used to rushing to level caps by face rolling mobs. You can not do that in TSW. There is a reason why fast food MMOS like GW2 sell millions and TSW only few hundred thousand boxes. I have played almost eveyr themepark MMO and so far TSW is the only MMO which offered me some challenge and thought process allowing me to change builds according to the mobs i am facing.
If it interests you, buy it and play it, you won't regret it.
Good interview for other information too.
Wasn't Swtor saying the same thing? We know how that ended...
I have to agree with Vgamer here. While TSW tries to do something different, I feel it ultimately falls short. There are better games out there that are f2p, why waste $15 on this unless you really like it? Niche product at best imho
Exept Niche games are the best games. It's the games that try to please everyone that are crap.
The only thing "niche" about TSW is the setting.
...and the approach of gameplay to classic adventures (see all the people who googled and rushed through the investigations)
...and the approach to intense and deep storytelling (see all the people who rushed through and wouldnt even know what the hell dungeons are about)
...and the significantly higer difficulty level compared to the mainstream hits like WoW or GW2 (see all the "blue mountain is so hard"-threads)
You cant catch millions today with these things, because computer games getting dumber and dumber today. Yay, we need more shooters and less talk!?! /facepalm
First of all, if we will call every single thing they did a bit different from other mmos as niche then every other mmo is also niche.
Not sure if you mean investigation missions in the first one but if you do, thats just part of the content. Its not the mayority so I would not call it niche because of it. Otherwise I would call a game like GW2 niche because of DEs or LOTRO niche because of the Skirmishes or Rift niche because of the Instant Adventures.
Deep storytelling is not new to TSW, not niche.
No mmo is really that hard to call it a niche market. That is to say no mmo is like a Dark Souls.
If it interests you, buy it and play it, you won't regret it.
Good interview for other information too.
Wasn't Swtor saying the same thing? We know how that ended...
I have to agree with Vgamer here. While TSW tries to do something different, I feel it ultimately falls short. There are better games out there that are f2p, why waste $15 on this unless you really like it? Niche product at best imho
Exept Niche games are the best games. It's the games that try to please everyone that are crap.
The only thing "niche" about TSW is the setting.
...and the approach of gameplay to classic adventures (see all the people who googled and rushed through the investigations)
...and the approach to intense and deep storytelling (see all the people who rushed through and wouldnt even know what the hell dungeons are about)
...and the significantly higer difficulty level compared to the mainstream hits like WoW or GW2 (see all the "blue mountain is so hard"-threads)
You cant catch millions today with these things, because computer games getting dumber and dumber today. Yay, we need more shooters and less talk!?! /facepalm
First of all, if we will call every single thing they did a bit different from other mmos as niche then every other mmo is also niche.
Not sure if you mean investigation missions in the first one but if you do, thats just part of the content. Its not the mayority so I would not call it niche because of it. Otherwise I would call a game like GW2 niche because of DEs or LOTRO niche because of the Skirmishes or Rift niche because of the Instant Adventures.
Deep storytelling is not new to TSW, not niche.
No mmo is really that hard to call it a niche market. That is to say no mmo is like a Dark Souls.
Dude..MMO is niche on basis of what demographics it is catering to. TSW was never made for pleasing masses which is evident from its game design. There are lot of things combined together which makes a game niche. You can not just pick one or things two make your point.
I love the model, its what we've been doing SINCE THE BEGGINNING OF GAMING! Just pay a base price and play the game, all this sub bs is what I can't stand.
That's fine when the game just runs on your harddrive and gets nothing afterward from the makers but the odd bug-fix patch. When you add servers with persistent worlds to the mix, there are ongoing expenses that need to be supported by ongoing revenue. The complaints about "pricy" subscriptions are seriously overblown. A subscription buys you a month-long buffet of all-you-care-to-eat entertainment. Go to a movie and buy something, ANYTHING, from the snack bar and you've already paid more than a subscriptions-worth for one evening of entertainment.
FTP games and their cash shops are fine too. But any game I'm likely to stay with for over a month, I'll subscribe to. It's cheap for what it offers and I don't have to worry about pulling out my credit card over and over to grease my progression past one "stop-pay-toll" obstacle after another.
"MMOs are hugely expensive, and of course Guild Wars 2 has sold a lot, and of course it's a big success. That game cost a lot of money and they're going to have to sell a lot of copies, especially without a subscription model. It is a dangerous path," Tornquist said. "It might be the right path for MMOs; as a consumer, as a player, I appreciate it. As a developer I'm with Joel in thinking that it is unfortunate for a lot of smaller companies or medium-sized companies."
First, they make it sound like TSW didn't cost much so they don't have to sell that much. Then its interesting that they acknowledge the threat that is GW2 the MMO and GW2 the business model.
I read that quote simply as them saying smaller companies can't do a buy to play MMO model because they would go broke trying to keep it running.
I call B.S. on it only because GW2 is a F2P game that you buy not a B2P game so that model, as awful as I think it is, should be able to be done by smaller studios. A true B2P I could see being problematic for a small studio as keeping the servers running with no added income could be tricky. As soon as it is F2P with a box price it shouldn't be an issue as the store will keep the money coming in as you continue to operate.
The oddest thing is as a player and consumer I despise the GW2 model. It takes the F2P model, where you just jump into the game and then fund them by using the store and sticks a $60 access fee to get to the store. I think it is a step in the wrong direction for the consumer.
Huh?
So, I guess GW1 isn't a B2P game either? Neither is Call of Duty since you can buy DLC for it. Interesting....
As for smaller companies not being able to use the B2P model....that's exactly what ArenaNet did with GW1. That game is what put them on the map. So, it is a very viable model if you make a good enough game.
And for the record, I didn't pay $120 for 2 copies of GW2 just to get to the store. I highly doubt anyone else did either. The store isn't really that great, especially considering you can get much of the stuff in it by playing the game.
On Topic: It's too bad TSW "isn't going F2P soon", as I'd love to play it, but no game is worth $15/month to me. Too bad for me I guess.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
If it interests you, buy it and play it, you won't regret it.
Good interview for other information too.
This is a good thing and I've been saying it all along, TSW will not ever go F2P, ever. I can only see two business models come out of MMO's that work the best and F2P only happening when the game is Fail to begin with. The B2P like GW2 and the P2P like TSW, WOW and others. I do like the B2P that GW2 does as long as they don't start getting greedy and it ends up being a P2W game it's a great way to keep subs up.
The thing about TSW is I'm happy to give them the 15 bucks a month, the game is just worth it.
I think they are going to make mistake if they won't go F2P. They are already pre-prepared right?
I would love to try TSW as I enjoy good story, but I am not willing to pay subs for 2 MMOs and I am not going to choose F2P option in SWTOR (I am too attached to my 16 characters LOL). But I would use cash shop for additional content, mounts, appearance in TSW /shrug.
I think that many people would try TSW if it would have Freemium option similar to what SWTOR will be introducing in November. P2P games are starting to look like dinosaurs in era of hundreds of good F2P or B2P games. It's a dying model.
100's? Are you serious. There are 100's of mediocre games out there. If there were 100's I would love to know which ones they are, right now we got about 5-10 MMO's even worth people's time to play. The rest are grindfest they don't last, and die out within a few months, the jury is still debating about TSW on this one.
WOW, EVE, GW2, EQ/2, LOTRO, Rift and SWTOR. Did I miss anything that held up a decent sub number recently? (UO and DAOC are are too old now really) We have Funcom's Trio, Startrek, WAR, DF, Tera, Aion, D&D. Really not much else worth mentioning other than a couple F2P thinks like Maplestory, Wizard 101 and Runes.
You people have no idea why small companys can't he is correct, GW2 sells many copys, and they sell stuff in a store so that makes up for the sub , and like having a sub, get a clue...
They sell gems like its going out of style ......which they are not cheap...... smaller companies sell less boxs and rely on subs for there true smaller loyal fan base so they get that income those are facts I'm in the industry and I deal with small companys I also have a degree in buisness and gaming those are facts...
get a game like mortal online and xsyon if they didn't have subs they both be offline right now period with the buy to play model those are facts. The sub model keeps them going... I know this for a facts, darkfall was another one...
So you people get some facts and learn the industry first before you make false comments about something you have zero experince in, everyone wants to compare GW2 to the industry there are a whole different beast..
GW1 wasn't even and MMo, this shows that people will settle for less, I think the game sucks, its buggy, and the game goes down, also there is no social aspect in the game what so ever, boring event, event events, reminds me off a boring version of WOW... I bet if you stamped any other game with B2p you cheap skates would buy it and praise it.......
AGAIN about the F2P model when its NOT free!!!! iF IT WAS LOTR and DDO would not be makimg money hand over fist, you people and your F2P model.... You end up paying more in the end if got everything in game like before for a sub fee you would pay more, I hear people paying 50 bucks or more for LOTR a month, you people these devs are laughing at you because you hear that word FREE!!!
I know because its used in other industrys and people fall for it, funny actually how silly people think... get a clue , yes you may get to play the game but they you can 't get anything you really want unless you pay so how is it free again, thats right its NOT!!
I love the model, its what we've been doing SINCE THE BEGGINNING OF GAMING! Just pay a base price and play the game, all this sub bs is what I can't stand.
That's fine when the game just runs on your harddrive and gets nothing afterward from the makers but the odd bug-fix patch. When you add servers with persistent worlds to the mix, there are ongoing expenses that need to be supported by ongoing revenue. The complaints about "pricy" subscriptions are seriously overblown. A subscription buys you a month-long buffet of all-you-care-to-eat entertainment. Go to a movie and buy something, ANYTHING, from the snack bar and you've already paid more than a subscriptions-worth for one evening of entertainment.
FTP games and their cash shops are fine too. But any game I'm likely to stay with for over a month, I'll subscribe to. It's cheap for what it offers and I don't have to worry about pulling out my credit card over and over to grease my progression past one "stop-pay-toll" obstacle after another.
There are plenty of games that give a plethora of content with just a base price or no price(f2p). MMO's "excuse" is really not valid anymore. I have already expressed my sentiments over the idea of comparing a video game business model with other forms of entertainment. I compare a video game business model with other video game models, if I compared it to all entertaiment mediums there would be no logic to spending on a ton of forms of entertainment cause they are "too expensive" compared to my free Android apps for example....
The majority of stuff that is happening at Funcom they have no control over. Their CEO stepping down to sell his shares, was caught by another shareholder who reported him when he tried to sell. The shareholders of the company 'forced' Funcom to release their sales figures for TSW. Normally not something they do given a choice. Their share price has dropped dramatically and is not recovering. They can't hide that fact to their investors. It's not a case of Funcom being open and honest about things, it's Funcom being put into positions they can't hide from any more.
People are focusing on the negative because unless you are a Funcom supporter, there really isn't much positive to say. This is a company in disaster recovery mode with no firm plans for the future. They don't know what they are doing at the moment. In one breath free to play in the next no free to play 'anytime soon'. Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. But they are just firefighting at the moment. 50% off is not an incentive to people to buy the game, it's a way in their view to hopefully make some fast cash. They were in a negative cash flow situation prior to TSW release, while TSW itself as a game may hold it's own - their user bases in other games are dwindling significantly. If they are treading water with TSW, then they are probably still in a negative cash flow situation once the dust settles. But of course there is a hell of a lot of dust to settle, including criminal investigations and halfling the workforce.
They have also indicated they are pulling out of the MMO industry, something which appears to be overlooked. Going for games with a quicker development cycle. I agree there are ways to look at things and you can be overly negative, but in this instance the writing has been on the wall since the CEO tried to dump his stock. They are being deliberately vague with the language they are using, that is how Funcom operate (and others). Non-committal. They aren't saying TSW isn't going free to play for at least a year. They are saying not going to free to play 'anytime soon'. Yet we have already been told the game is tooled up ready to go. It was a contingency they already had in place.
Overall my point is this, don't ever trust a company that is in trouble. Learn from past mistakes, people have had less than positive dealings with Funcom in the past. Don't be blinded by the love of a game that you don't see what is happening around you. The problem with Funcom has never been the games, it's always been the management.
The majority of stuff that is happening at Funcom they have no control over. Their CEO stepping down to sell his shares, was caught by another shareholder who reported him when he tried to sell. The shareholders of the company 'forced' Funcom to release their sales figures for TSW. Normally not something they do given a choice. Their share price has dropped dramatically and is not recovering. They can't hide that fact to their investors. It's not a case of Funcom being open and honest about things, it's Funcom being put into positions they can't hide from any more.
People are focusing on the negative because unless you are a Funcom supporter, there really isn't much positive to say. This is a company in disaster recovery mode with no firm plans for the future. They don't know what they are doing at the moment. In one breath free to play in the next no free to play 'anytime soon'. Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. But they are just firefighting at the moment. 50% off is not an incentive to people to buy the game, it's a way in their view to hopefully make some fast cash. They were in a negative cash flow situation prior to TSW release, while TSW itself as a game may hold it's own - their user bases in other games are dwindling significantly. If they are treading water with TSW, then they are probably still in a negative cash flow situation once the dust settles. But of course there is a hell of a lot of dust to settle, including criminal investigations and halfling the workforce.
They have also indicated they are pulling out of the MMO industry, something which appears to be overlooked. Going for games with a quicker development cycle. I agree there are ways to look at things and you can be overly negative, but in this instance the writing has been on the wall since the CEO tried to dump his stock. They are being deliberately vague with the language they are using, that is how Funcom operate (and others). Non-committal. They aren't saying TSW isn't going free to play for at least a year. They are saying not going to free to play 'anytime soon'. Yet we have already been told the game is tooled up ready to go. It was a contingency they already had in place.
Overall my point is this, don't ever trust a company that is in trouble. Learn from past mistakes, people have had less than positive dealings with Funcom in the past. Don't be blinded by the love of a game that you don't see what is happening around you. The problem with Funcom has never been the games, it's always been the management.
You Sir understand and also impress me !
" Charlie Mike "
" Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Those Who Would Threaten It " MAGA
"MMOs are hugely expensive, and of course Guild Wars 2 has sold a lot, and of course it's a big success. That game cost a lot of money and they're going to have to sell a lot of copies, especially without a subscription model. It is a dangerous path," Tornquist said. "It might be the right path for MMOs; as a consumer, as a player, I appreciate it. As a developer I'm with Joel in thinking that it is unfortunate for a lot of smaller companies or medium-sized companies."
First, they make it sound like TSW didn't cost much so they don't have to sell that much. Then its interesting that they acknowledge the threat that is GW2 the MMO and GW2 the business model.
Holy shit, you COMPLETELY misread and/or misunderstood that.
They're saying an expensive-to-develop MMO either needs a subscription model to guarantee an ROI, or needs to sell a lot of copies. Hoping for the latter is risky. That's all they're saying. If anything, it sounds like they disagree with how viable B2P is for a high-cost.
C'mon folks. Are you actually going to believe what Funcom, or any game company says about it's plans? Not only do companies not reveal plans before they want to, they will actively lie to the public. How many times have we read press releases or interviews saying emphatically "this game is NOT being delayed/going F2P/being cancelled", only to have exactly that happen, within a time frame that clearly showed the decision HAD been made before the accouncement.
I'm not saying they're evil, simply that they are like any other business, particularly those publicly traded. Public perception can effect stock prices and they also want to not give information away to competitors.
The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
Damn. I'm actually intrigued by TSW and would love to play it. Unfortunately I don't have an option of going the subscription route. I would still try and possibly be a longtime TSW player (assuming I enjoyed it) if Funcom offered pre-paid game cards like I can find for other MMOs at Best Buy or even (surprisingly!) my local grocery store. Even my grocery store offers the Karma Koin cards for my main MMO - Atlantica Online. If Funcom at least offered a similar option for TSW I'd still consider trying the game out.
In any case...
If game publishers, hardware vendors and especially the big telcos have their dreams fullfilled ALL games may soon be online-only whether Gamers like it or not. The big hope now in all of those industries is to see all forms of video gaming done on the cloud. You'll just "rent" X-number of weeks with the next Call of Duty. They might even implement a cash shop someday (if it doesn't make it P2W for example) but they'll just call it a DLC instead. So publishers will scalp their take, the "platform provider" (aka Sony, MS, Nintendo, EA, Valve, etc) will scalp their take and finally...last in line will be the developers who made the game.
Oh...and if Net Neutrality is made illegal (as Mitt Romney keeps promising he'll do once he's President ) Gamers may well see their ISP Telco bills spike in addition to the above as well.
The lines between MMOs and single-player co-op games, etc are getting increasingly blurred.
Anyway...that's a separate subject. I'm rather bummed TSW isn't going F2P. I actually think Funcom will try their damnest to make sure this MMO doesn't go the way of AoC did. A skeleton team to keep adding small content updates may be enough to make the game profitable even if it never grows to become a cult-hit the way EVE did.
Comments
I play 2 BW and i had enough. For me the biggest gripe is about builds. They claims the game had like millions different builds, that's true, however only a few of these builds really works. In the end you are pretty much forces into a very limited amount of cookie cutter builder or you'll suck.
I mean what's the point of giving players freedom of choice if these choice are bad ? It's like having a game with 100 classes where only 5 really works well.
This ain't rocket science. TSW is not really an mmo with that much dificulty as to call it a niche in that regard. It has a nice setting among mmos, but the rest is standard mmo fare.
They are apparently profitable now, and their population is now growing. It's only three people, but they have hired people back to work on the game, so they have to be getting money from somewhere. Good for them. Why would they go with a F2P model when it seems like they can make this one work?
I'm one of those people who would probably play the game if it didn't have a sub, but I qualify that with I'm probably not going to pay a sub for any game, regardless of what I think of the game.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
That is your opinion. But i never said TSW is complex. I said the difficulty is above average which puts off people who are used to rushing to level caps by face rolling mobs. You can not do that in TSW. There is a reason why fast food MMOS like GW2 sell millions and TSW only few hundred thousand boxes. I have played almost eveyr themepark MMO and so far TSW is the only MMO which offered me some challenge and thought process allowing me to change builds according to the mobs i am facing.
First of all, if we will call every single thing they did a bit different from other mmos as niche then every other mmo is also niche.
Not sure if you mean investigation missions in the first one but if you do, thats just part of the content. Its not the mayority so I would not call it niche because of it. Otherwise I would call a game like GW2 niche because of DEs or LOTRO niche because of the Skirmishes or Rift niche because of the Instant Adventures.
Deep storytelling is not new to TSW, not niche.
No mmo is really that hard to call it a niche market. That is to say no mmo is like a Dark Souls.
Dude..MMO is niche on basis of what demographics it is catering to. TSW was never made for pleasing masses which is evident from its game design. There are lot of things combined together which makes a game niche. You can not just pick one or things two make your point.
That's fine when the game just runs on your harddrive and gets nothing afterward from the makers but the odd bug-fix patch. When you add servers with persistent worlds to the mix, there are ongoing expenses that need to be supported by ongoing revenue. The complaints about "pricy" subscriptions are seriously overblown. A subscription buys you a month-long buffet of all-you-care-to-eat entertainment. Go to a movie and buy something, ANYTHING, from the snack bar and you've already paid more than a subscriptions-worth for one evening of entertainment.
FTP games and their cash shops are fine too. But any game I'm likely to stay with for over a month, I'll subscribe to. It's cheap for what it offers and I don't have to worry about pulling out my credit card over and over to grease my progression past one "stop-pay-toll" obstacle after another.
Huh?
So, I guess GW1 isn't a B2P game either? Neither is Call of Duty since you can buy DLC for it. Interesting....
As for smaller companies not being able to use the B2P model....that's exactly what ArenaNet did with GW1. That game is what put them on the map. So, it is a very viable model if you make a good enough game.
And for the record, I didn't pay $120 for 2 copies of GW2 just to get to the store. I highly doubt anyone else did either. The store isn't really that great, especially considering you can get much of the stuff in it by playing the game.
On Topic: It's too bad TSW "isn't going F2P soon", as I'd love to play it, but no game is worth $15/month to me. Too bad for me I guess.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
This is a good thing and I've been saying it all along, TSW will not ever go F2P, ever. I can only see two business models come out of MMO's that work the best and F2P only happening when the game is Fail to begin with. The B2P like GW2 and the P2P like TSW, WOW and others. I do like the B2P that GW2 does as long as they don't start getting greedy and it ends up being a P2W game it's a great way to keep subs up.
The thing about TSW is I'm happy to give them the 15 bucks a month, the game is just worth it.
Peace
Lascer
100's? Are you serious. There are 100's of mediocre games out there. If there were 100's I would love to know which ones they are, right now we got about 5-10 MMO's even worth people's time to play. The rest are grindfest they don't last, and die out within a few months, the jury is still debating about TSW on this one.
WOW, EVE, GW2, EQ/2, LOTRO, Rift and SWTOR. Did I miss anything that held up a decent sub number recently? (UO and DAOC are are too old now really) We have Funcom's Trio, Startrek, WAR, DF, Tera, Aion, D&D. Really not much else worth mentioning other than a couple F2P thinks like Maplestory, Wizard 101 and Runes.
You people have no idea why small companys can't he is correct, GW2 sells many copys, and they sell stuff in a store so that makes up for the sub , and like having a sub, get a clue...
They sell gems like its going out of style ......which they are not cheap...... smaller companies sell less boxs and rely on subs for there true smaller loyal fan base so they get that income those are facts I'm in the industry and I deal with small companys I also have a degree in buisness and gaming those are facts...
get a game like mortal online and xsyon if they didn't have subs they both be offline right now period with the buy to play model those are facts. The sub model keeps them going... I know this for a facts, darkfall was another one...
So you people get some facts and learn the industry first before you make false comments about something you have zero experince in, everyone wants to compare GW2 to the industry there are a whole different beast..
GW1 wasn't even and MMo, this shows that people will settle for less, I think the game sucks, its buggy, and the game goes down, also there is no social aspect in the game what so ever, boring event, event events, reminds me off a boring version of WOW... I bet if you stamped any other game with B2p you cheap skates would buy it and praise it.......
AGAIN about the F2P model when its NOT free!!!! iF IT WAS LOTR and DDO would not be makimg money hand over fist, you people and your F2P model.... You end up paying more in the end if got everything in game like before for a sub fee you would pay more, I hear people paying 50 bucks or more for LOTR a month, you people these devs are laughing at you because you hear that word FREE!!!
I know because its used in other industrys and people fall for it, funny actually how silly people think... get a clue , yes you may get to play the game but they you can 't get anything you really want unless you pay so how is it free again, thats right its NOT!!
There are plenty of games that give a plethora of content with just a base price or no price(f2p). MMO's "excuse" is really not valid anymore. I have already expressed my sentiments over the idea of comparing a video game business model with other forms of entertainment. I compare a video game business model with other video game models, if I compared it to all entertaiment mediums there would be no logic to spending on a ton of forms of entertainment cause they are "too expensive" compared to my free Android apps for example....
Your point being?
You Sir understand and also impress me !
" Charlie Mike "
MAGA
Holy shit, you COMPLETELY misread and/or misunderstood that.
They're saying an expensive-to-develop MMO either needs a subscription model to guarantee an ROI, or needs to sell a lot of copies. Hoping for the latter is risky. That's all they're saying. If anything, it sounds like they disagree with how viable B2P is for a high-cost.
C'mon folks. Are you actually going to believe what Funcom, or any game company says about it's plans? Not only do companies not reveal plans before they want to, they will actively lie to the public. How many times have we read press releases or interviews saying emphatically "this game is NOT being delayed/going F2P/being cancelled", only to have exactly that happen, within a time frame that clearly showed the decision HAD been made before the accouncement.
I'm not saying they're evil, simply that they are like any other business, particularly those publicly traded. Public perception can effect stock prices and they also want to not give information away to competitors.
The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
~Omar Khayyam
Damn. I'm actually intrigued by TSW and would love to play it. Unfortunately I don't have an option of going the subscription route. I would still try and possibly be a longtime TSW player (assuming I enjoyed it) if Funcom offered pre-paid game cards like I can find for other MMOs at Best Buy or even (surprisingly!) my local grocery store. Even my grocery store offers the Karma Koin cards for my main MMO - Atlantica Online. If Funcom at least offered a similar option for TSW I'd still consider trying the game out.
In any case...
If game publishers, hardware vendors and especially the big telcos have their dreams fullfilled ALL games may soon be online-only whether Gamers like it or not. The big hope now in all of those industries is to see all forms of video gaming done on the cloud. You'll just "rent" X-number of weeks with the next Call of Duty. They might even implement a cash shop someday (if it doesn't make it P2W for example) but they'll just call it a DLC instead. So publishers will scalp their take, the "platform provider" (aka Sony, MS, Nintendo, EA, Valve, etc) will scalp their take and finally...last in line will be the developers who made the game.
Oh...and if Net Neutrality is made illegal (as Mitt Romney keeps promising he'll do once he's President ) Gamers may well see their ISP Telco bills spike in addition to the above as well.
The lines between MMOs and single-player co-op games, etc are getting increasingly blurred.
Anyway...that's a separate subject. I'm rather bummed TSW isn't going F2P. I actually think Funcom will try their damnest to make sure this MMO doesn't go the way of AoC did. A skeleton team to keep adding small content updates may be enough to make the game profitable even if it never grows to become a cult-hit the way EVE did.