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[Interview] TERA: New F2P Model Combating the Stereotype
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Now that the proverbial "cat is out of the bag" about the North American version of TERA adding in a subscription free revenue model, we managed to catch up to Associate Producer Patrick Sun to talk more about the TERA Rising model and about incoming changes to the game. Check it out and then chat in the comments.
MMORPG: TERA continues to evolve in the MMO market. What is the state of the game like today for players?
Patrick Sun: We’ve all seen a lot of changes in the MMO market this past year, and with more free games than ever before, players have a wide selection of quality titles—all of them competing for players’ time. With our award-winning combat system and our upcoming fully-free model, TERA will definitely be a free game to put on your radar.
Read more of Bill Murphy's TERA Rising: New F2P Model Combating the Stereotype.
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Comments
Joined - July 2004
I leveled up a lot of characters doing only BAMs and Dungeons, essentially gaining enough levels to skip one or two areas at a time.
It's far from perfect, but the possibilities are there.
There are alternate areas here and there. Players just need to be a bit more proactive and look for them. Still, it is a standard quest "kill x" game.Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
And why the hell is post format not being preserved all of a sudden? Grrrr... (supposed to be a new paragraph here).
The website is acting funny. I click on posts in the Real-Time Forum Overview and I'm not taken to the newest post.And wut...BBML showing now instead of my standard Enhanced Editor...
I'd say that it's nothing like Vindictus. If people still insist that this is "True Action Combat" then it'd have to be near the bottom of the tiers of Action Combat. Personally I'd put it below Raiderz and Risk Your Life.However I do agree that it does have a nice pricing model.
It does severely harm the mmorpgs of today. You lack in so much that your time is consumed by quests and nothing else. Once those quests dry up, you have nothing to do. Must have openess and some type of game mechanics to allow you to continue on while waiting for content. Should be no end-game in mmorpgs at all. Until that is fixed you will see many more games going f2p and miss out on subscribers.
F2P isnt the future its just a crutch to help a poor game make it a little longer. Granted some are decent and are worthy. Even many here said it wasnt worth the sub price for one reason or another. Exactly my point.
Better games, larger worlds, longevity, and tools to make your own path is what is needed. Nothing wrong with making your own story, and its good for your creative side.
Even if you dont want to craft, pvp, explore, take part in social gatherings, or any other form of the mmorpg......its still nice to have those features to keep you busy while waiting for their content. Without those tools you are stuck with dailies, warzones, and raids to grind out for end-game content. I would rather grind on the way up than get to the top and the only option i have is to grind. End-game shouldnt be like that.
Frankly Tera's revenue model is the least of its issues. A good F2P model isn't going to save the game any more than a sub-model kills good games. What's important is what they're going to do to fix the problems the game has and how they plan on making the game attractive to more players.
I don't think a 3v3 arena and a new dungeon really address what many people seemed to fundamentally find wrong with the game, but I suppose we'll see.
Please elaborate on these topics. The worst part of the game for me was the wall-of-text-poor-translating-ok-you-didn't-need-to-read-that-just-go-kill-shit-quests, and the griefers camping bridge out of noob city.
I practically despised my experience in the TERA free trial, but even I would consider giving it another go with their f2p model. Just won't be rolling on a pvp server if I do.
Collision detection and target reticle combat is what I'm referring to. If a mob is getting ready to swing and I back up, it will miss. Same thing if someone is casting a spell. I also have the option of just blocking it. So in that sense it's closer to Vindictus than it is to EQ. And when you say "true" action combat I get a picture in my head of online fighting mmo hybrids like Raiderz, Vindictus, Dragon Nest, C9 and others like them. They are ok for their combat, but they all allow autolocks to make it easier so players can flip. jump, twist, spin, roll, bounce, tumble and handstand while they fight. Hence the reason I said Vindictus-like instead of just like Vindictus. It's free target combat without all the nonsense or autolocks.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
this felt more of an ad reading than a article about an mmo
Everything in this game, besides
- combat
- visuals
is horribly broken or twisted, depending on PoV. They barely fixed a thing since release and in most cases since fgt1 (4 years). Many things were made worse (removed features, grindier, sometimes far grindier - for example currently KR instances drop roughly order of magnitue more gold than NA version - npc prices of the stuff that matters remained the same) compared to KR counterpart.
And they actually kept digging up their nonsensical hole of broken mechanics and ideas, layer after layer - from update to update.
Yes, the combat shines (in comparison to other games) - sure there are issues (never fixed, what for ?) but overall it's a gem. Visuals are great, maps are big and visually great (and devoid of players for obvious reasons). But that's all - and you can't build a successful game just on top of that. Why do you think - barely after 2 years of struggling in KR - it goes f2p ? Because pricing model was bad ? No, because BHS (and to lesser extent EME and GF) consits of blindfolded imbeciles uncapable of grasping why people still play this, despite all the shortcomings.
What's worse, the KR version is in the process of mercilessly dumbing down the game further. But then again - f2p "revolving door" customers are coming.
A shame really.
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DStuff
My blog about (no more)MMORPG Addicted - a bog about videogames, cinema, politics and other things (in Italian)
Thanks for bringing attention to this.
Tera is purely f2p, people who take the "premium" subscription only receive more daily entries to endgame dungeons, shorter dungeon cooldowns and more daily quests.
Basically this means if you are going to play a lot spending the 15$ a month is a good idea. If you are playing casually/semi-casual you don't need the subscription at all. Or if you play ALTS you don't even have time to do the extra dungeons/quests.
The CS items are still undisclosed but you get every bit of the content and upcoming updates without playing a dime.
They may be closer to F2P than other Freemium games but it is STILL FREEMIUM.
FREE-MIUM = FREE with PREMIUM option
It creates a player class system where free players are second class citizens, or in this case, third class citizens.
I expect things like this from companies like Sony, EA, Funcom...not from a company like EnMasse/BlueHole which is filled with people that have made ACTUAL F2P games targetting the F2P player market.
Freemium does not target the much larger F2P playerbase, it targets subscription players looking for something new, that mostly already passed on the game because it wasnt to their liking...and no freemium game in history ever tricked enough people into a freemium account to regain its former glory...not one, because it doesnt work, the game wasnt good enough to either gain a large playerbase or retain it in the first place.
Go free where the real money is or just let the game die already because its just being prolonged...may as well make the big bucks like Nexon does with their FREE games that are of a much lower quality.
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