Originally posted by InFlamestwo No, i hope they fail and learn the hard lesson of choosing P2P. It's time to move on.
You say that because that's how you feel, but on the other side...being I like P2P, I know tons that would never play a F2P game. Just depends on who you talk to. I personallyl was so excited to see that it's P2P and with the ability to do things in game to pay for your sub...who cares? This is the most diverse sub idea I've ever seen for a game at launch, everyone is getting what they want. Well done guys...I'm totally not interested in the game as I want full owpvp with no instancing, but well done on the payment model.
Incognito www.incognito-gaming.us "You're either with us or against us"
Right on the mark. Any subscription model has a chance at success if... the game is worth playing. Don't confuse F2P with a failed business model. It is simply for failed games. You don't innovate, don't build something with depth and choices,and don't offer a quality product you fail have an epic fail on your hands and go F2P, where paying 0 is what your game is worth to play.
GW2 was genius because they realize theme parks are mainly limited single player experiences with little depth, and new frequent content is required in theme park games. Before I get flamed, I do play Guild Wars 2 actively with friends in a guild while I wait for a quality Sandbox that fits my ideals comes along.
GW2 with its updates is definitely worth the $60.00 (not really much more). Without new content every 2 months I would be taking even longer breaks from it than I do now.
Quality Gameplay and depth > free garbage. Glad to see developers are finally seeing that EQN, archeage, wildstar, FF, ESO, ect.
It amazes me to see such hate towards a model that gives the player the opportunity to play a game first and then decide to support the developer through a cash shop. So instead of getting into a game free and seeing if its a good fit for you, you would rather pay 85 dollars up front (box price plus sub) ?
This will just be another game on my list that I won't try out because of a ridiculous mindset that a subscription is worth it.
While I am enjoying the two week content cycles from GW2, y'all enjoy renting your game month to month waiting on more content.
Ermahgerd! Finally someone who sees it as I do! I have played a lot of F2P games, a lot, and they can't hold my attention for very long. I'm not saying that it is because they are F2P, I'm saying that there is a reason they had to switch to F2P.
Now I'm broke as F@$& right now, but I can at least afford $15 a month seeing as it is the only thing I really indulge in.
I know there are a lot of people who are like /whiny voice "But playing video games isn't my whole life, I have a real life off of the internet!" Not saying you don't, but if you are really going to hold such an immature attitude about the whole thing, saying things like "I will wait till it goes F2P" or "I hope it fails so I can play it when it goes F2P. " Then you probably don't want to play the damn game that bad so stop your bickering. There are a plethora of F2P games on the internet to play have at it. Seems like there are plenty of people who are willing to spend the cost of 15 Bigmacs a month to play these games.
Originally posted by AlistairBalister
I don't understand why so many of you believe that charging a monthly sub will keep the brats of this game. Most snot nosed little brats are guaranteed to have a parent with a credit card that will hand over a few bucks a month to keep their pride and joys out of their faces. If this wasnt the case then how do you explain the WoW community? You also say it will improve the quality of the game... then how do you explain WoW's epic decline in gameplay quality? I'm not buying this P2P argument anymore.
I like to compare LoL vs WoW. Sure they both have whiny kids, elitists, and good ol' fashioned trolls, but LoL's community is 300% worse than any game I have ever played. I have a suspicion that everyone who plays LoL spends the same amount of time on 4chan. Didn't you know though? Most noisy little brats with their parents credit cards play Battlefield lolz.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks F2P is just a ridiculous term. I much prefer subscriptions as well, but that's mostly because I dislike the 'micro-transactions'. They often just ruin a perfectly good game, so I'd rather pay monthly for a high quality game. B2P is an acceptable alternative to me, if they actually manage to handle it well enough. Sure, GW2 had no subscriptions, but I quickly grew bored of it, and the fact you could buy in-game gold with real money annoyed me as well. *Puts on the Mettool helmet and prepares for impact*
Originally posted by Nephaerius Game will go f2p within a year. Same with eso. Anyone that thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.
I am actually waiting for the announcement of lifetime subs and deluxe edition pre orders. Thats where the real money is The cool part is that the people who buy these will defend the MMO like crazy, even if it is just meh.
Let's not forget about Wildstars alternative to the sub fee, the in-game items you can purchase with in-game currency. Those who can afford to pay but have less play time will purchase the items for a good pay out ingame, and those you can't afford to pay but have lots of play time will be able to cash out cause of their play time.
It's a smart system, I'll be the middle man and only pay for my sub. If I happen to get rich in-game it's all going towards my character progression.
As far as hardcore, real mmo'ers go, I can see the value of subbing. Me? I am a causal player or maybe its just the ADD, but I hop around mmos. I can count the number of mmos that I have hit max level in on one hand. For me it wouldn't be a question of 15, more like 45+.
Like Grak, I like Btp. Neverwinter is ftp, but I have gotten so much use out of the $60 pack it was well worth it.
Here is the problem with sub only AAA games. There are none. I don't count WoW or Eve, since they are special cases and not likely to be repeated anytime soon. That isn't to say there aren't games you can sub to. Secret World, DDO, SWToR just to name a few have a sub option.
So why aren't there tons of sub only games? A couple of reasons. One is oversaturation. There are to many choices. You can't split a limited pool of people an infinite number of times. Another is, money. AAA titles cost a great deal to make, so there is without question an X number of subs a game must have and retain for a long period of time to turn a profit.
Even among pro-sub people I read a lot of comments that said to effect "I'll be subbing this game until this other game comes out." That right there all ready means the game has failed. A sub only game needs subs long term. But with so many choices all ready out there and so many more coming, holding onto that large number of subs is just unrealistic based on available evidence.
Oh but wait, recent past sub failures and non-sub successes were due to the quality of the game. Certainly how good or bad a game was/is has an effect on playerbase size, but funny thing is, those sub games that opened up some sort of ftp option are doing okay. The ones that never required a sub are doing well too. What does that suggest? Maybe that just being a good game isn't enough or maybe they should charge $30 a month, since their base won't be around for as long as it use to be.
I think most new AAA mmos are all around the same quality level. That is to say all of them are going to release with problems, exploits, bots, patches you don't like, etc. Its more a question of being able to overlook a game's flaws which determine whether a person likes it or not. There are enough people that like Tor to pay its bills. If the past mmos couldn't hold enough subs and the new games aren't going to be perfect doesn't that imply they won't be able to hold large sun numbers, long term?
Its easy enough to add a mount or piece of clothing to a cash shop. Its a heck of a lot harder to add new content to a game to keep people around and subbing. Smaller, niche games can sub just fine I believe, but big expensive ones with lots of VO and ADs everywhere are going to find their subs declining sooner rather than later.
For AAA titles it might be in their best interest to start sub and go "ftp" later. That would give them two launches and a lot of solid cash up front. I have to think ESO and Wildstar might to do this. But is it the right thing to do? Its one thing to be slow to change with the market like SW or ToR, since mmos are made so far in advance, but the new games should know better. Is it fair to the customer to pull this kind of thing?
I sit and wonder why ppl who are so adamant about F2P and how it's the future and so much butter than its P2P counterpart. And in my thinking Ive reached these conclusions:
1) maybe they honestly arent paying more money than we are in a P2P. Maybe they are a full-time-whatever and dont progress in a game as fast as us in a sub and would prefer to stay on the same map for two weeks. And to that I cant see any wrong. Its no ones fault that we are crunching through content as blazing speeds, AND its not anyones fault that you like to take your god given time on that game that you play for the lack of skill, money, time, etc. Im not throwing shots, IJS.
2) at the same time, there is NOW WAY IN HELL a given person who progresses as fast as I do in a P2P in a F2P is spending less money. I will put my right had on the MMO bible and go on record to say Ive play 99% of the most popular F2Ps on the market. In the ones Ive actually wanted to be good at, I spent, on avg 10-20 bucks a WEEK on bs like extended bag space, faster mounts, gear upgrading via gems or whatever, a fucking nother currency to buy something I needed to kill a mob on the next map, lotto boxes on something ELSE I need to up gear with.....listen the list goes on. So to this I scratch my head a lil more thinking, "what the fuck was wrong with me and I honestly had half the fun WITH my friends as opposed that that sub game we used to play."
2) at the end of my pondering I thought to myself, well tbh all these models work for what type of game it is:
More content than Im used to?! A rich and detailed UNinstanced world?! Bugs being fixed on the regular?! Rewarding crafting system?! Challenges that await me and my friends around every corner?!....I MUST be playing a P2P (or B2P)
Feeling like Im in a tube-like world?! The only thing I have to look forward to in endgame is PVP?!?!?!? Boring as 2-5 person dng runs?! gimpy market with exploited bugs?! 50 bucks dropped this month and Im still not half way to max lvl?! Buy this to buy this to buy this progression via CS?! Content updates every 6-2 years.....hahah This MUST be a F2P
Semi good to very good lvling experience?! Sandboxy feel?! Large WvW pvp?! Sure some content updates?!...aaHHhh, This feels B2P-ish
Hey man, those models FIT those games! I cant argue with that. So Ive decided to cease with my usual outlook on either model and just put tags on them in my thoughts stead. Because at the end of the day, its our money and how we want to spend it. I just am not about to spend more for fun than I have/should to.
So to that I say good luck in you alls gaming endeavors. And thank God P2P still holds it worth in time and effort put into it.
so...one day.....i read on up neverwinter...watched some videos, it looked pretty cool....i donwloaded it...started playing....not even 5 min in, i loot a monstor I just killed, low and behold, a chest!...awsome!.....wait what?...I cant open it unless I buy a key from the item shop?....ya....fuck F2P...
This is prob the best article iv ever read on this site....
This is just the current model. You launch with subscriptions. Everything is great for a month, then the studio does massive downsizing to cut costs. The game starts losing subs, then they go F2P to get a second "relaunch".
While I much, much prefer subscription models, I have lost all faith that they won't transition to F2P within a year. When that happens, the players who plopped down $60 for the game, plus another $100 or so for 6 months of sub, feel ripped off. I'm with a previous poster in wishing Wildstar would have no box fee or a very low box fee plus subscription. We have all been very burned recently, and are hesitant to trust that this time it will be any different.
People don't appreciate what they don't pay for, that is evident in the community and exploiters rampant in the F2P titles. You want more F2P games, help the P2P camp not use "community" as a reason to exclude people. P2P players, yes, even WOW players have more to lose for behavioral bans than F2P players.
F2P players always seem to use it as an excuse for broken things in the game- "Well what do you want for free?" I want a game that effing works...
The OP is exactly right- you do get what you pay for. Even if these games go F2P in a couple years, until then I have faith that devs will be actively employed and working on the game and the community will be far less hostile and more loyal to a game they're paying for. I'd be willing to pay more per month to keep it P2P.
Just hate to see a company set themselves up for failure. At this stage in the MMORPG game you have to get it right the first time. There are too many mmorpgs out here that have failed at subscription and then went f2p. Obviously this is the path Wildstar is going on, and I can bet this part played in their decision. What they aren't seeing is that a year from now it will be a differnet ballgame. The games that are f2p (with established IPs and reputations) will dominate too much of the market for Wildstar to attempt to take these folk away.
Unless you're an established IP (Elder Scroll, Final FAntasy, Warcraft, Eve) Subscriptions are a death sentence for your game . And I don't see the switch to F2P being the life preserver that Wildstar thinks will be there a year from now.
Any game these days with the audacity to demand a sub fee to play the game better at least match the content output ArenaNet is providing through Guild Wars 2 at no additional cost. There are no excuses. You can be successful and make a ton of money with a B2P model and a non-intrusive cash shop while providing content additions every two weeks... this has been proven now.
The bar has been raised from the archaic P2P model and wait until expansions for new content paradigm.
F2P really goes against what the MMORPG genre is about. And in a way, it's like the old style arcade machines. That business model died out years ago.
"Welcome to level 34! Please insert 50 cents to continue."
GW2 is what it is and offers a great experience without a subscription. However, their world is not open and the zones have population limits. Their content updates, while fast, are small. Without a stable income, they can't risk big updates. It's like living paycheck to paycheck.
Subscription games give developers the money to go crazy and make awesome content. If they don't, you just unsubscribe until they do.
Sub games also give the whole game to the player with out pay gates or inconveniences. Go wherever, do whatever, get anything... It's all open.
I for one enjoy millions of dollars of content for $15 a month.
P2Play does not cause the game to fail. Bad gameplay causes the game to fail. One of the most successful games of all time was pay to play. If you make a good game people will pay for it.
Other games have failed not because of payment model but lack of features and things to do.
Swtor-- great game during the leveling process but once you hit the level cap and did your story, there was nothing really to do except run one or two bugged raids or go pvp in a bugged pvp zone. No other character progression other than raids.
TSW-- another game that thought outside the box and made a great game experience, but once you finished the zones what was left. Same old dungeon grind (lengthy grind btw) for gear. Had other character progression but was just sideways progression as your character could not use the new abilities you unlocked and didn't get more powerful but was able to just do different stuff. The only power enhancement came from gear. Too lengthy of a grind for signets and other stuff and lack of new content in a timely manner hurt the game. Just recently went back after nearly a year and was doing the same stuff I was doing when I left the game, nothing was added to the endgame.
All the other games had some of these same problems, only type of end game progression which gets boring. Wow is the only anomaly that has offered just one type of endgame but they made that game more of a social experience so it worked. There has been no innovation in end game design since wow, wildstar appears to be trying to change this so they just might succeed.
GW2 is what it is and offers a great experience without a subscription. However, their world is not open and the zones have population limits. Their content updates, while fast, are small. Without a stable income, they can't risk big updates. It's like living paycheck to paycheck.
That's not entirely accurate. The teams building the "big" content are completely different teams than those four teams that provide the monthly content (in two week increments). They raked in 25 million or so last quarter... hardly paycheck to paycheck.
The biggest problem with the subscription model these days is several factors:
1. Most new MMO's are crap. At least with a no box fee and cash shop you spend what you believe the game is worth. Whether that is nothing or $15 per month (most F2P has subscription options still).
2. There are NUMEROUS MMO's to choose from that are free. If I had to choose between a free game that is entertaining and one that cost $60 plus $15 a month I am going the free route every time UNLESS the game in question is something of the next evolution of MMO's which 99% are not.
Quote me now.. WildStar will offer a F2P option within a year. For that matter ESO will be F2P within a year. Why? Again, because there are so many other F2P options and MMO's coming out there is no brand loyalty anymore unless you are WoW and even they are dwindling rapidly.
Let me state this to. I am not a F2P fan. I think the type of community it draws is not as.. mature or committed as a subscription based game. BUT I've been burned too many times to trust game companies these days that are out for the almighty dollar instead of delivering a good and stable product. So I will only try MMO's if they have some sort of free trial or are F2P. Again, unless they are something evolutionary which WildStar and ESO are simply not.
Comments
You say that because that's how you feel, but on the other side...being I like P2P, I know tons that would never play a F2P game. Just depends on who you talk to. I personallyl was so excited to see that it's P2P and with the ability to do things in game to pay for your sub...who cares? This is the most diverse sub idea I've ever seen for a game at launch, everyone is getting what they want. Well done guys...I'm totally not interested in the game as I want full owpvp with no instancing, but well done on the payment model.
Incognito
www.incognito-gaming.us
"You're either with us or against us"
GW2 was genius because they realize theme parks are mainly limited single player experiences with little depth, and new frequent content is required in theme park games. Before I get flamed, I do play Guild Wars 2 actively with friends in a guild while I wait for a quality Sandbox that fits my ideals comes along.
GW2 with its updates is definitely worth the $60.00 (not really much more). Without new content every 2 months I would be taking even longer breaks from it than I do now.
Quality Gameplay and depth > free garbage. Glad to see developers are finally seeing that EQN, archeage, wildstar, FF, ESO, ect.
This will just be another game on my list that I won't try out because of a ridiculous mindset that a subscription is worth it.
While I am enjoying the two week content cycles from GW2, y'all enjoy renting your game month to month waiting on more content.
[PvX]Tempest - Check us out
Ermahgerd! Finally someone who sees it as I do! I have played a lot of F2P games, a lot, and they can't hold my attention for very long. I'm not saying that it is because they are F2P, I'm saying that there is a reason they had to switch to F2P.
Now I'm broke as F@$& right now, but I can at least afford $15 a month seeing as it is the only thing I really indulge in.
I know there are a lot of people who are like /whiny voice "But playing video games isn't my whole life, I have a real life off of the internet!" Not saying you don't, but if you are really going to hold such an immature attitude about the whole thing, saying things like "I will wait till it goes F2P" or "I hope it fails so I can play it when it goes F2P. " Then you probably don't want to play the damn game that bad so stop your bickering. There are a plethora of F2P games on the internet to play have at it. Seems like there are plenty of people who are willing to spend the cost of 15 Bigmacs a month to play these games.
I like to compare LoL vs WoW. Sure they both have whiny kids, elitists, and good ol' fashioned trolls, but LoL's community is 300% worse than any game I have ever played. I have a suspicion that everyone who plays LoL spends the same amount of time on 4chan. Didn't you know though? Most noisy little brats with their parents credit cards play Battlefield lolz.
Steam: Neph
I am actually waiting for the announcement of lifetime subs and deluxe edition pre orders. Thats where the real money is
The cool part is that the people who buy these will defend the MMO like crazy, even if it is just meh.
"Now before you start looking for where I live with torches and pitchforks at the ready"
Haha.
"I want to play a subscription-based game again."
I'd like one too. But not one that's double or even triple (?) dipping with any kind of μTB on the side.
Let's not forget about Wildstars alternative to the sub fee, the in-game items you can purchase with in-game currency. Those who can afford to pay but have less play time will purchase the items for a good pay out ingame, and those you can't afford to pay but have lots of play time will be able to cash out cause of their play time.
It's a smart system, I'll be the middle man and only pay for my sub. If I happen to get rich in-game it's all going towards my character progression.
F2P == Free to Play
FTP == File Transfer Protocol
As far as hardcore, real mmo'ers go, I can see the value of subbing. Me? I am a causal player or maybe its just the ADD, but I hop around mmos. I can count the number of mmos that I have hit max level in on one hand. For me it wouldn't be a question of 15, more like 45+.
Like Grak, I like Btp. Neverwinter is ftp, but I have gotten so much use out of the $60 pack it was well worth it.
Here is the problem with sub only AAA games. There are none. I don't count WoW or Eve, since they are special cases and not likely to be repeated anytime soon. That isn't to say there aren't games you can sub to. Secret World, DDO, SWToR just to name a few have a sub option.
So why aren't there tons of sub only games? A couple of reasons. One is oversaturation. There are to many choices. You can't split a limited pool of people an infinite number of times. Another is, money. AAA titles cost a great deal to make, so there is without question an X number of subs a game must have and retain for a long period of time to turn a profit.
Even among pro-sub people I read a lot of comments that said to effect "I'll be subbing this game until this other game comes out." That right there all ready means the game has failed. A sub only game needs subs long term. But with so many choices all ready out there and so many more coming, holding onto that large number of subs is just unrealistic based on available evidence.
Oh but wait, recent past sub failures and non-sub successes were due to the quality of the game. Certainly how good or bad a game was/is has an effect on playerbase size, but funny thing is, those sub games that opened up some sort of ftp option are doing okay. The ones that never required a sub are doing well too. What does that suggest? Maybe that just being a good game isn't enough or maybe they should charge $30 a month, since their base won't be around for as long as it use to be.
I think most new AAA mmos are all around the same quality level. That is to say all of them are going to release with problems, exploits, bots, patches you don't like, etc. Its more a question of being able to overlook a game's flaws which determine whether a person likes it or not. There are enough people that like Tor to pay its bills. If the past mmos couldn't hold enough subs and the new games aren't going to be perfect doesn't that imply they won't be able to hold large sun numbers, long term?
Its easy enough to add a mount or piece of clothing to a cash shop. Its a heck of a lot harder to add new content to a game to keep people around and subbing. Smaller, niche games can sub just fine I believe, but big expensive ones with lots of VO and ADs everywhere are going to find their subs declining sooner rather than later.
For AAA titles it might be in their best interest to start sub and go "ftp" later. That would give them two launches and a lot of solid cash up front. I have to think ESO and Wildstar might to do this. But is it the right thing to do? Its one thing to be slow to change with the market like SW or ToR, since mmos are made so far in advance, but the new games should know better. Is it fair to the customer to pull this kind of thing?
Here here!
/raises ale horn
I sit and wonder why ppl who are so adamant about F2P and how it's the future and so much butter than its P2P counterpart. And in my thinking Ive reached these conclusions:
1) maybe they honestly arent paying more money than we are in a P2P. Maybe they are a full-time-whatever and dont progress in a game as fast as us in a sub and would prefer to stay on the same map for two weeks. And to that I cant see any wrong. Its no ones fault that we are crunching through content as blazing speeds, AND its not anyones fault that you like to take your god given time on that game that you play for the lack of skill, money, time, etc. Im not throwing shots, IJS.
2) at the same time, there is NOW WAY IN HELL a given person who progresses as fast as I do in a P2P in a F2P is spending less money. I will put my right had on the MMO bible and go on record to say Ive play 99% of the most popular F2Ps on the market. In the ones Ive actually wanted to be good at, I spent, on avg 10-20 bucks a WEEK on bs like extended bag space, faster mounts, gear upgrading via gems or whatever, a fucking nother currency to buy something I needed to kill a mob on the next map, lotto boxes on something ELSE I need to up gear with.....listen the list goes on. So to this I scratch my head a lil more thinking, "what the fuck was wrong with me and I honestly had half the fun WITH my friends as opposed that that sub game we used to play."
2) at the end of my pondering I thought to myself, well tbh all these models work for what type of game it is:
so...one day.....i read on up neverwinter...watched some videos, it looked pretty cool....i donwloaded it...started playing....not even 5 min in, i loot a monstor I just killed, low and behold, a chest!...awsome!.....wait what?...I cant open it unless I buy a key from the item shop?....ya....fuck F2P...
This is prob the best article iv ever read on this site....
where new games have issues is being able to offer more than 1 month of content
it takes more than "endgame raiding" to keep most players satisfied beyond 30 days
time well tell
EQ2 fan sites
F2P players always seem to use it as an excuse for broken things in the game- "Well what do you want for free?" I want a game that effing works...
The OP is exactly right- you do get what you pay for. Even if these games go F2P in a couple years, until then I have faith that devs will be actively employed and working on the game and the community will be far less hostile and more loyal to a game they're paying for. I'd be willing to pay more per month to keep it P2P.
No bitchers.
Just hate to see a company set themselves up for failure. At this stage in the MMORPG game you have to get it right the first time. There are too many mmorpgs out here that have failed at subscription and then went f2p. Obviously this is the path Wildstar is going on, and I can bet this part played in their decision. What they aren't seeing is that a year from now it will be a differnet ballgame. The games that are f2p (with established IPs and reputations) will dominate too much of the market for Wildstar to attempt to take these folk away.
Unless you're an established IP (Elder Scroll, Final FAntasy, Warcraft, Eve) Subscriptions are a death sentence for your game . And I don't see the switch to F2P being the life preserver that Wildstar thinks will be there a year from now.
Any game these days with the audacity to demand a sub fee to play the game better at least match the content output ArenaNet is providing through Guild Wars 2 at no additional cost. There are no excuses. You can be successful and make a ton of money with a B2P model and a non-intrusive cash shop while providing content additions every two weeks... this has been proven now.
The bar has been raised from the archaic P2P model and wait until expansions for new content paradigm.
Oderint, dum metuant.
"Welcome to level 34! Please insert 50 cents to continue."
GW2 is what it is and offers a great experience without a subscription. However, their world is not open and the zones have population limits. Their content updates, while fast, are small. Without a stable income, they can't risk big updates. It's like living paycheck to paycheck.
Subscription games give developers the money to go crazy and make awesome content. If they don't, you just unsubscribe until they do.
Sub games also give the whole game to the player with out pay gates or inconveniences. Go wherever, do whatever, get anything... It's all open.
I for one enjoy millions of dollars of content for $15 a month.
P2Play does not cause the game to fail. Bad gameplay causes the game to fail. One of the most successful games of all time was pay to play. If you make a good game people will pay for it.
Other games have failed not because of payment model but lack of features and things to do.
Swtor-- great game during the leveling process but once you hit the level cap and did your story, there was nothing really to do except run one or two bugged raids or go pvp in a bugged pvp zone. No other character progression other than raids.
TSW-- another game that thought outside the box and made a great game experience, but once you finished the zones what was left. Same old dungeon grind (lengthy grind btw) for gear. Had other character progression but was just sideways progression as your character could not use the new abilities you unlocked and didn't get more powerful but was able to just do different stuff. The only power enhancement came from gear. Too lengthy of a grind for signets and other stuff and lack of new content in a timely manner hurt the game. Just recently went back after nearly a year and was doing the same stuff I was doing when I left the game, nothing was added to the endgame.
All the other games had some of these same problems, only type of end game progression which gets boring. Wow is the only anomaly that has offered just one type of endgame but they made that game more of a social experience so it worked. There has been no innovation in end game design since wow, wildstar appears to be trying to change this so they just might succeed.
That's not entirely accurate. The teams building the "big" content are completely different teams than those four teams that provide the monthly content (in two week increments). They raked in 25 million or so last quarter... hardly paycheck to paycheck.
Oderint, dum metuant.
I dont know what is the big deal if a game goes B2P at launch.
Buy the game get the month out of it . And if you think its great sub for another $15. If not dont sub. only cost you the amount you pay for the game.
If you dont want to buy try to get into open beta or something.
ASUS G74sx
i7 quad core
16gb ddr3 ram
3gb ram Nvidia 560M
240GB SSD & 750GB
The biggest problem with the subscription model these days is several factors:
1. Most new MMO's are crap. At least with a no box fee and cash shop you spend what you believe the game is worth. Whether that is nothing or $15 per month (most F2P has subscription options still).
2. There are NUMEROUS MMO's to choose from that are free. If I had to choose between a free game that is entertaining and one that cost $60 plus $15 a month I am going the free route every time UNLESS the game in question is something of the next evolution of MMO's which 99% are not.
Quote me now.. WildStar will offer a F2P option within a year. For that matter ESO will be F2P within a year. Why? Again, because there are so many other F2P options and MMO's coming out there is no brand loyalty anymore unless you are WoW and even they are dwindling rapidly.
Let me state this to. I am not a F2P fan. I think the type of community it draws is not as.. mature or committed as a subscription based game. BUT I've been burned too many times to trust game companies these days that are out for the almighty dollar instead of delivering a good and stable product. So I will only try MMO's if they have some sort of free trial or are F2P. Again, unless they are something evolutionary which WildStar and ESO are simply not.
Peace!