Someone is paying though. That is the thing. I'm not sure why, but someone is paying.
The whale pheonomenon is pretty well known. Usually only a small percentage of F2P players pay. And a even smaller percentage will pay a lot and make up for the rest of the free players.
It is not hard to believe. Let me use an example .. STO. I play it .. pretty good game and i am happy to play it for free. (I like Star Trek.)
But you can imagine some die-hard trekkies who would pay $$$ to get every last star ship, and uniform in the game. If they would spend thousand of dollars to go to convention, cos-play, or even model their home (http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2012/01/25/man-forced-to-dismantle-star-trek-living-room/), why wouldn't they spend a few hundred dollars in a game?
I think its more the P.T Barnum effect. "There's a sucker born every minute".
Being F2P just exposes the games to more suckers. :-)
I guess its working for now, and babies aren't gonna stop happening any time soon.
Then again there aren't very many circus around these days either.
I think you also have to consider a sucker may be just a person who has a different preference than you.
You, and I probably won't spend $200 on a virtual starship .. but for a trekkie (and i am kind of one, so i do see the logic), being able to drive a Galaxy (or whatever .. fill in the blankhere) starship is a dream come true, and $200 is a steal. So why is he a "sucker" when he is spending money he can afford, and he is enjoying every min of it?
Someone is paying though. That is the thing. I'm not sure why, but someone is paying.
The whale pheonomenon is pretty well known. Usually only a small percentage of F2P players pay. And a even smaller percentage will pay a lot and make up for the rest of the free players.
It is not hard to believe. Let me use an example .. STO. I play it .. pretty good game and i am happy to play it for free. (I like Star Trek.)
But you can imagine some die-hard trekkies who would pay $$$ to get every last star ship, and uniform in the game. If they would spend thousand of dollars to go to convention, cos-play, or even model their home (http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2012/01/25/man-forced-to-dismantle-star-trek-living-room/), why wouldn't they spend a few hundred dollars in a game?
I think its more the P.T Barnum effect. "There's a sucker born every minute".
Being F2P just exposes the games to more suckers. :-)
I guess its working for now, and babies aren't gonna stop happening any time soon.
Then again there aren't very many circus around these days either.
I think you also have to consider a sucker may be just a person who has a different preference than you.
You, and I probably won't spend $200 on a virtual starship .. but for a trekkie (and i am kind of one, so i do see the logic), being able to drive a Galaxy (or whatever .. fill in the blankhere) starship is a dream come true, and $200 is a steal. So why is he a "sucker" when he is spending money he can afford, and he is enjoying every min of it?
I can't find the rest of the P.T Barnum quote, but when he made that famous quote he was talking about the sideshows in the circus that featured things like the strong man and the bearded lady and other oddities and outright falsehoods like a one horned goat as a unicorn.
And he said something along the lines of he would rather get a penny from everyone who came to walk the grounds then the nickel from the people who bought tickets for the big top. Thus the sucker quote. I didn't mean it to come off as derogative.
More people means more money I guess is what it comes down to.
Oh and I totally get the whale thing. No argument, i just don't think the whales alone can sustain the games.
City of Heroes allegedly had some very large whales.
( Note to self-Don't say anything bad about Drizzt.)
Originally posted by Aeonblades I could post something inflammatory about MMORPG socialism and the new world order, but I'm just too tired to stir things up today. Suffice to say a lot of people hate F2P, and a lot of other people hate Subs.
And the same time, more and more games are F2P, and F2P has grown its market share.
But not market share in hard $$$ signs. For those doubting: look at the figures of Zynga. Zillions of players, around 80.000.000 million for Farmville alone, dozens of games ... and they need to resort to poker gambling sites to ensure income.
Zynga is no surprise really as most of these games tend to hide behind non stock rated companies. The moment Zynga went public it went down like a rock.
Also these macro figures don't say much about profitability for single games. Sure the market went crazy with IPad apps, but what is the final revenue for each product ? What is the final turnover for the average F2P MMO?
TLDR: free to play is much about % instead of dollars and I don't see anyone moving 1 billion dollars on a yearly basis like WOW does.
In short: MMORPG's (more than other games) need long term play to become interesting. Hopping from one free dud to another isnt going anywhere.
It will be interesting to see if P2P can hold steady in these rocky times of "everything for free".
As I said, I was most surprised a site like MMOdata.net has now become meaningless.
For all those talking about f2p has no long term viability you have no idea what you are talking about.
Fact - f2p with a cs has been around longer than p2p. Therefore it has just as much if not more long term viability than p2p.
You can talk about individual games all you want, however the model has been around longer.
For people talking about subscriptoins as a gold mine, for the most part (not all) f2p has generated more revenue than subscription.
For people stating that p2p games are better quality. In that past that may have been true, in the last few years the f2p is just as high quality as p2p and no p2p quality has not gone down, it is leaps and bounds better than the quality of games in yesteryear. We are all just used to the mechnics so we are bored of them but the quality is way better.
For all those stating that p2p means that developers have to put more and better content to keep someone paying and playing, that is the most rediculous of all claims. When you sub, they have you at minimum for a month, yes they do need to have quality and conent to keep you for another month. F2p and b2p is no different. If the game isn't fun, you won't play, if they there is nothing in the cs you want, you won't pay. IMO f2p has a much greater dependance on making the game fun and at the same time attactive enough to buy. Too much of a grind, they won't play or pay, too much of a gap in power between f2p and cs, they won't play or pay.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad.
I can't find the rest of the P.T Barnum quote, but when he made that famous quote he was talking about the sideshows in the circus that featured things like the strong man and the bearded lady and other oddities and outright falsehoods like a one horned goat as a unicorn.
And he said something along the lines of he would rather get a penny from everyone who came to walk the grounds then the nickel from the people who bought tickets for the big top. Thus the sucker quote. I didn't mean it to come off as derogative.
Barnum never said that phrase, he was only remembered for saying it
P. T. Barnum Never Did Say "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute"
WIth Blizzard publishing its subscription numbers today it is kind of odd that subscriptions these days have become an odd word in MMORPG land.
WOW - EVE and a few left overs in RIFT (8US servers coming from 55 or so) and that's about it I guess.
Even http://mmodata.net/ is no longer updating its pages anymore in the last year. What's the use since every one left the boxing ring of subscriptions.
EA didn't mention anything about them and as SW TOR turned into a free to play but pay for many things game, it is interesting to see how the last of the Mohicans will stand in the future.
Nevertheless a subscription based game is a gold mine, while the complete absence of hard $$ signs on cash shops says it all. We only see things like suspicious % growth in these F2P games and it is quite clear after seeing Zynga games hit the bottom of the barrel with its ... 80 million players and 800% stock crash, the on line industry is licking its wounds.
MMORPG's a dying breed...
good thing people with fucked up theories are no dieing breed, as you have just proven
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Originally posted by Aeonblades I could post something inflammatory about MMORPG socialism and the new world order, but I'm just too tired to stir things up today. Suffice to say a lot of people hate F2P, and a lot of other people hate Subs.
And the same time, more and more games are F2P, and F2P has grown its market share.
But not market share in hard $$$ signs. For those doubting: look at the figures of Zynga. Zillions of players, around 80.000.000 million for Farmville alone, dozens of games ... and they need to resort to poker gambling sites to ensure income.
"in 2009 the percentage of F2P MMO game spending was about 39% in the US, it is now 50%" .. note that it is spending. And this does not include farmville, which is classified as social games.
Oh and I totally get the whale thing. No argument, i just don't think the whales alone can sustain the games.
City of Heroes allegedly had some very large whales.
Apparently the whales are sustaining the games now. And of course i agree that we cannot project how long that will be so. But many F2P games are making more money than they were with P2P. That itself is a fact.
I think MMOS that have to covert to it are really the ones that are hard pressed to survive. If TOR does'nt produce revenue we all know it will coast in limbo, so in truth they really needed F2P to survive. without it they would have run the risk of just shutting down or, coasting along in limbo land. I'm not sure i'm sold on the idea F2P means poor quality. indeed with the economy in the tank for the middle class, I can see it as a viable way to be able to find a game you can play.
I know that if people can aslo afford cable internet and a 100 month smart phone and turn around and bitch about subscriptions, I really just want to facepalm when I hear them complain.
Not sure yet, but hey I will read the opinons here see if it can help solidfy my own.
Interesting subject for sure.
"Not even a cray super computer can make this game run well. Thats what happens when you code an MMO in pascal. " - miglor
I know that if people can aslo afford cable internet and a 100 month smart phone and turn around and bitch about subscriptions, I really just want to facepalm when I hear them complain.
It is seldom about affordability. It is about competition and comparison. I will (and have) drop $900 for a meal at the French Laundry because that is the ONLY place in CA for a michilin 3-star Thomas Kelly meal.
However, why should i pay a sub when a F2P game gives me roughly the same amount of fun? It is not like any sub game is providing me with a unique experience i cannot get anywhere else.
I think that is the key .. competition. If you want someone to pay a sub, there better be no F2P alternative. And games, while they are not truly identical, many can provide similar level of fun.
I can't find the rest of the P.T Barnum quote, but when he made that famous quote he was talking about the sideshows in the circus that featured things like the strong man and the bearded lady and other oddities and outright falsehoods like a one horned goat as a unicorn.
And he said something along the lines of he would rather get a penny from everyone who came to walk the grounds then the nickel from the people who bought tickets for the big top. Thus the sucker quote. I didn't mean it to come off as derogative.
Barnum never said that phrase, he was only remembered for saying it
P. T. Barnum Never Did Say "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute"
I knew someone was going to bring that up, but I didn't feel like explaining it all. Thanks for posting the link.
Edit - I guess I should have read a little further in that link, because that story is not 100% accurate either. Actually about a half dozen people have been attributed to that quote, but Barnum never denied saying it either.
There is no way to tell anymore who really said it.
Those prices in the story you linked seem a little inflated for the time period as well.
( Note to self-Don't say anything bad about Drizzt.)
Wow I thought World of Warcraft was supposed to bypass 14 million subscribers by now. I never thought they would be down to 10. I think people are starting to move to F2P games to get their 2 hour fix.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
The subscription model has taken a hit lately due to so many sub-based MMOs doing badly as a result of not having a specific target audience. Essentially they get greedy and try to appeal to everyone and ultimately satisfy no one. Rather than rethink their strategy and develop better games for specific player types though they instead just change the business model but continue to develop the same shallow games...
This whole B2P and F2P craze will die out after a while. Players will eventually realise that subscriptions were better as they guaranteed the devs had to work to keep you paying. Look at GW2, there has been very little post-launch content added to that game and the majority of it has been very poorly received... B2P means the devs can get lazy as they already have everyone's money.
F2P is still, in most cases, just a scam. The more games go this route the more people will finally work it out for themselves.
If sub games die out then that'll leave the market wide open for someone else to release a new sub-based game for the players unsatisfied with B2P and F2P. In other words, subs won't die out because a lot of MMO players would rather pay for quality.
I agree with you. For sub. games the devs have an incentive to develop the game as they rely on people staying subbed. For B2P games, they already have your money so the incentive for them to continue to develop the game is much less.
Finally F2P games are just bad for most gamers as devs will spend most of their time adding things which are either directly or indirectly sold from the cash shops and actually improving the game will be a secondary objective.
In the end I think that sub. games will find its nische of players who are willing to pay a montly fee for quality content which is not tied to a cash shop. But for that to happen they need to stop releasing ThemePark garbage and go back to creating virtual worlds and evolve it. Only people doing that are indy devs and unfourtunately they dont have the resources for creating a quality MMO but hopefully there will be a big company finally creating a proper sandbox MMO and not more ThemePark, cash shop, pay to win tripe.
This whole B2P and F2P craze will die out after a while. Players will eventually realise that subscriptions were better as they guaranteed the devs had to work to keep you paying. Look at GW2, there has been very little post-launch content added to that game and the majority of it has been very poorly received... B2P means the devs can get lazy as they already have everyone's money.
In less than 6 months the following content has been added to GW2:
Increased dungeon rewards
Ascended gear
Fractals, which are essentially 10 whole new dungeons
Various dynamic events, jumping puzzles, and mini-dungeons
Mad King Day, Wintersday, Lost Shores Event, and the new Flame and Frost event. 2 of these events came with dungeons and jumping puzzles, as well as greatly effected various areas of the game
Improved karma rewards
Rebalance of some dungeons (especially last patch)
Additional crafting recipes
Additional mini pets, town clothes, and other events
Costume Brawl
I don't know of any MMO company (Trion comes close) that added this much content in 6 months without bundling it in an expansion and charging us (usually full price) for it. I think the very notion that B2P and F2P won't have as much content as a subscription fee is silly anyway, because in order to get people paying for microtransactions you need to keep a good amount of content rolling in for "whales" to spend money on and you need an active player base of players who aren't spending money in the cash shop as well. The payment model shouldn't effect the rate of content at all, though it may effect the type of content (more development time being invested to cash shop items versus free content).
For all those talking about f2p has no long term viability you have no idea what you are talking about.
Fact - f2p with a cs has been around longer than p2p. Therefore it has just as much if not more long term viability than p2p.
You can talk about individual games all you want, however the model has been around longer.
For people talking about subscriptoins as a gold mine, for the most part (not all) f2p has generated more revenue than subscription.
For people stating that p2p games are better quality. In that past that may have been true, in the last few years the f2p is just as high quality as p2p and no p2p quality has not gone down, it is leaps and bounds better than the quality of games in yesteryear. We are all just used to the mechnics so we are bored of them but the quality is way better.
For all those stating that p2p means that developers have to put more and better content to keep someone paying and playing, that is the most rediculous of all claims. When you sub, they have you at minimum for a month, yes they do need to have quality and conent to keep you for another month. F2p and b2p is no different. If the game isn't fun, you won't play, if they there is nothing in the cs you want, you won't pay. IMO f2p has a much greater dependance on making the game fun and at the same time attactive enough to buy. Too much of a grind, they won't play or pay, too much of a gap in power between f2p and cs, they won't play or pay.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been-Wayne Gretzky
Originally posted by Briansho Wow I thought World of Warcraft was supposed to bypass 14 million subscribers by now. I never thought they would be down to 10. I think people are starting to move to F2P games to get their 2 hour fix.
WOW is an old game. I quite back in Dec. It was fun for a few years .. and that is phenomenal, but everything gets boring after a while.
And even at 10M, it is still the biggest sub MMO (although if you count active players, LOL is bigger).
Comments
I think you also have to consider a sucker may be just a person who has a different preference than you.
You, and I probably won't spend $200 on a virtual starship .. but for a trekkie (and i am kind of one, so i do see the logic), being able to drive a Galaxy (or whatever .. fill in the blankhere) starship is a dream come true, and $200 is a steal. So why is he a "sucker" when he is spending money he can afford, and he is enjoying every min of it?
I can't find the rest of the P.T Barnum quote, but when he made that famous quote he was talking about the sideshows in the circus that featured things like the strong man and the bearded lady and other oddities and outright falsehoods like a one horned goat as a unicorn.
And he said something along the lines of he would rather get a penny from everyone who came to walk the grounds then the nickel from the people who bought tickets for the big top. Thus the sucker quote. I didn't mean it to come off as derogative.
More people means more money I guess is what it comes down to.
Oh and I totally get the whale thing. No argument, i just don't think the whales alone can sustain the games.
City of Heroes allegedly had some very large whales.
( Note to self-Don't say anything bad about Drizzt.)
An acerbic sense of humor is NOT allowed here.
But not market share in hard $$$ signs. For those doubting: look at the figures of Zynga. Zillions of players, around 80.000.000 million for Farmville alone, dozens of games ... and they need to resort to poker gambling sites to ensure income.
Zynga is no surprise really as most of these games tend to hide behind non stock rated companies. The moment Zynga went public it went down like a rock.
Also these macro figures don't say much about profitability for single games. Sure the market went crazy with IPad apps, but what is the final revenue for each product ? What is the final turnover for the average F2P MMO?
TLDR: free to play is much about % instead of dollars and I don't see anyone moving 1 billion dollars on a yearly basis like WOW does.
In short: MMORPG's (more than other games) need long term play to become interesting. Hopping from one free dud to another isnt going anywhere.
It will be interesting to see if P2P can hold steady in these rocky times of "everything for free".
As I said, I was most surprised a site like MMOdata.net has now become meaningless.
For all those talking about f2p has no long term viability you have no idea what you are talking about.
Fact - f2p with a cs has been around longer than p2p. Therefore it has just as much if not more long term viability than p2p.
You can talk about individual games all you want, however the model has been around longer.
For people talking about subscriptoins as a gold mine, for the most part (not all) f2p has generated more revenue than subscription.
For people stating that p2p games are better quality. In that past that may have been true, in the last few years the f2p is just as high quality as p2p and no p2p quality has not gone down, it is leaps and bounds better than the quality of games in yesteryear. We are all just used to the mechnics so we are bored of them but the quality is way better.
For all those stating that p2p means that developers have to put more and better content to keep someone paying and playing, that is the most rediculous of all claims. When you sub, they have you at minimum for a month, yes they do need to have quality and conent to keep you for another month. F2p and b2p is no different. If the game isn't fun, you won't play, if they there is nothing in the cs you want, you won't pay. IMO f2p has a much greater dependance on making the game fun and at the same time attactive enough to buy. Too much of a grind, they won't play or pay, too much of a gap in power between f2p and cs, they won't play or pay.
Barnum never said that phrase, he was only remembered for saying it
P. T. Barnum Never Did Say "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute"
http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html
EQ2 fan sites
good thing people with fucked up theories are no dieing breed, as you have just proven
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Yes, it is.
http://www.newzoo.com/insights/the-global-mmo-market-sizing-and-seizing-opportunities-2/
"in 2009 the percentage of F2P MMO game spending was about 39% in the US, it is now 50%" .. note that it is spending. And this does not include farmville, which is classified as social games.
Apparently the whales are sustaining the games now. And of course i agree that we cannot project how long that will be so. But many F2P games are making more money than they were with P2P. That itself is a fact.
I think MMOS that have to covert to it are really the ones that are hard pressed to survive. If TOR does'nt produce revenue we all know it will coast in limbo, so in truth they really needed F2P to survive. without it they would have run the risk of just shutting down or, coasting along in limbo land. I'm not sure i'm sold on the idea F2P means poor quality. indeed with the economy in the tank for the middle class, I can see it as a viable way to be able to find a game you can play.
I know that if people can aslo afford cable internet and a 100 month smart phone and turn around and bitch about subscriptions, I really just want to facepalm when I hear them complain.
Not sure yet, but hey I will read the opinons here see if it can help solidfy my own.
Interesting subject for sure.
"Not even a cray super computer can make this game run well. Thats what happens when you code an MMO in pascal. " - miglor
It is seldom about affordability. It is about competition and comparison. I will (and have) drop $900 for a meal at the French Laundry because that is the ONLY place in CA for a michilin 3-star Thomas Kelly meal.
However, why should i pay a sub when a F2P game gives me roughly the same amount of fun? It is not like any sub game is providing me with a unique experience i cannot get anywhere else.
I think that is the key .. competition. If you want someone to pay a sub, there better be no F2P alternative. And games, while they are not truly identical, many can provide similar level of fun.
I knew someone was going to bring that up, but I didn't feel like explaining it all. Thanks for posting the link.
Edit - I guess I should have read a little further in that link, because that story is not 100% accurate either. Actually about a half dozen people have been attributed to that quote, but Barnum never denied saying it either.
There is no way to tell anymore who really said it.
Those prices in the story you linked seem a little inflated for the time period as well.
( Note to self-Don't say anything bad about Drizzt.)
An acerbic sense of humor is NOT allowed here.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
I agree with you. For sub. games the devs have an incentive to develop the game as they rely on people staying subbed. For B2P games, they already have your money so the incentive for them to continue to develop the game is much less.
Finally F2P games are just bad for most gamers as devs will spend most of their time adding things which are either directly or indirectly sold from the cash shops and actually improving the game will be a secondary objective.
In the end I think that sub. games will find its nische of players who are willing to pay a montly fee for quality content which is not tied to a cash shop. But for that to happen they need to stop releasing ThemePark garbage and go back to creating virtual worlds and evolve it. Only people doing that are indy devs and unfourtunately they dont have the resources for creating a quality MMO but hopefully there will be a big company finally creating a proper sandbox MMO and not more ThemePark, cash shop, pay to win tripe.
My gaming blog
In less than 6 months the following content has been added to GW2:
Do people just make this stuff up?
good game will hook you anyway and you will pay for it somehow.
what is difference if you pay sub or just spend X on item shop - you payed anyhow.
bad game will die as nobody will sub or use shop, just because it's bad and not fun.
so may be answer is not a payment model but game quality itself.
try before buy, even if it's a game to avoid bad surprises.
Worst surprises for me: Aion, GW2
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
WOW is an old game. I quite back in Dec. It was fun for a few years .. and that is phenomenal, but everything gets boring after a while.
And even at 10M, it is still the biggest sub MMO (although if you count active players, LOL is bigger).