There is no such thing as FREE and yes players are entitled to something if a developer promises something they do not deliver.
You can't use misleading moniker's like FREE and misleading cash shops and come off scott free,you can't have your cake and eat it too.
If players are lied to or mislead they will lash back expecting the proper recourse.If players are spending money it becomes a part of real life.A business offers a service ,the customer pays for that service and BOTH sides are suppose to end up happy.Gaming is the one area where a developer can take your money but scoff at any notion you should be happy.
Well don't make false promises and don't try to mislead people into spending money on your product or service.Yes i understand that is called advertising and marketing but as i said you can't have your cake and eat it too.
Bottom line is both sides have to live up to the bargain,players spend their money,that is cut n dry nothing misleading,where is the developers honest cut n dry side of the deal?
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The so called great free2play games of today all started with subscriptions. (LoTRO, EQ2, SW:TOR etc.
I'd counter that none of them would have lasted more then a few months had they started as F2P. In most cases after these MMO's had years of fairly steady subscription income that allowed for expansions, improvement and paid off their development cost as well as being in the black for sometime (SW:TOR probably being the exception with its only 1 year of subscriptions before f2p) that allowed them to be able to convert to F2P and exist off cash shop without nickle and dimeing their players to the normal; F2P game extremes.
GW2 was B2P and did ok but obviously from the state of the living story these days their cash shop model is not bringing in enough money for decent , tested content. (yes you get what you pay for. Free content in this case being buggy, short, and lame. Sorry GW2)
Neverwinter suffers much the same fate. it started with what 4 classes and has gained a whole 1 and some moderate fluff content? Once again its free and what you get is what you get, it might be subpar like most f2p content but one can't complain really because its free. Personally I'd rather pay a sub for a game and play when I want to rather then feel forced to log in twice a day everyday to get coins, and bonuses that you loses if you miss even 1 day out of the week logging in. I won't even get into how it artificially level ones characters so you might well soon reach max level while still having little monwey only first level items and having never really played thus having no real idea how ones class/skills should really be played/used for decent effect.
In the end players have even less control over content in F2P games as most cash shops sell items not content, thus 90% of all development in these free to play games is directed toward making flashier mounts or snazzier item skins, and lock boxes rather then actual content.
Saying that the average "I'll wait till its F2P" gamer here that will generally follow up and admit they never pay a dime in their games and why should they when there are whales to support the game, aren't entitled is plan crazy.
While the entire post is correct, i highlighted the most relevant part for OP.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
People are whiny an entitled. Also, as is often the case, they have unrealistic expectations about what MMORPGS are.
I'm currently playing ESO. The game isn't perfect by any means, had a box price and has a sub. And had a fairly obvious cash grab welfare mount cash shop gate. (although going forward they've seemed to ignore their cash shop)
Entitlement isn't being upset that a game launched with some bugs. or broken skills, or whatever. Those are legit complaints.
The sense of entitlement comes into focus when set against the background of the break in reality/expectations. ESO isn't a fully fleshed out game yet. Some things about the game, are rough around the edges. Some of this is mitigated by the addon community, other things that are lacking, are just the bare bones nature of a new game.
WoW is 10 + years old. That's a lot of time(and millions/billions of dollars of sub fees), and expansions to tweak and refine game systems. Hell Paladin had broken skills up until TBC came out. ESO has more dungeon content than WoW vanilla did, but people went ape shit over cut and paste dungeons. ESO had lag spikes and FPS drop issues for 2 weeks. a known issue, the devs repeatedly gave updates on. Message boards were lit up with endless harping and whining about this and that.
Games take awhile to evolve. You can't look at a game and say... it has this feature, but it'd really be cool if it also had this thing another game has and make that statement in a vacuum. (ESO has a feature, where... when something sells on a guild store you get a mail item... it has your gold in it, and says. you sold something. doesn't say from whom, or what item sold, or from what guild store... that feature is somewhat bare bones. ...and addon fixes this. and provides this info, but as a game feature, it's lacking... people that complain about this feature don't really understand... in the grand scheme. yes, it'd be better if the game had a fully fleshed out mailing system that provided data points to use to fine tune trading. but in the short term, of a new game... trying to stabalize it's not a priority. ...and long term, would probably be something that gets added in later)
Payment models. Is the least of this entitlement issue. Whether a game has a sub, or is F2P are pretty clear lines in the sand.
I personally hate F2P games. When i still playeed SWTOR. I subbed even though it had a freemium model. I think LOTRO is a shitty game. It has tired and sad graphics, and tired sad mechanics. Only thing it has is the LotR lore.... and that's not enough. Guild Wars, for being a good game... feels way to asian to me. I just can't get into it.
but if you look at a game that has a cost. And say... waaaahhh why ins't this game free... XYZ game is free. that's entitlement. You can't know why a company chooses to do it's payment model one way or another. You can choose to engage or not engage/give business to that company based on it's model. but they don't owe you anything.
And in general the level of service we do get. From Dev posts, to dev/community interaction, official boards, support ..either CS or technical, games being at Cons, community outreach events. Are all much higher than they were for older games.
and it's really bad out there some times. The naked entitlement and whining, the nerd rage, the just ignorance, and hate the blaming, and butthurt. it's mind boggling sometimes.
There is of course middle ground, and can be rational discussion about how games should be, best practices, and whatnot , but more often than not this is flown right past on the way to RAGEQUIT attention whoring through the gateway drug of entitlement
When developers start releasing titles that of high enough quality that they are actually worth players dropping 15 bucks a month on, the problem goes away. Many of F2P crowd have just been burned so many times they just want to make sure they are getting a value before they drop coin. Just look at the threads from those crying for F2P. They aren't opposed to paying at all. They just don't want to buy into the next big "Ho-Hum" MMO.
when we see small indie MMOs made with a handfull of underpaid developers create features that the larger camps do not touch its no wonder we start to demand some features.
its not like we are pulling these ideas out of our ...
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Today's generation is the most entitled generation in history. Thanks to the internet, our youth (primarily), just EXPECTS everything for free. Then, they get angry if it isn't. I can't wait till these people join the workforce and try to earn a living.
I'm a principal software engineer, and my code isn't free and never will be. It's how I make my living. Giving my work away is equivalent to me giving my income away.
If gamers really had ANY idea of what is involved with making a game, maybe they would think twice about bitching about subs.
Do you know how much it costs to JUST host and maintain MMO servers in one country, let alone worldwide?
Why should ANY game be free? I can't walk into home depot and walk out with a new fridge without paying for it, or any other product I can think of from any store or service provider.
The whole concept of F2P is broken. Only a handful of people pay, and only those people keep the game "free" for all the freeloaders who don't pay, and never will.
Again, why should YOU get to play any game for free? I don't get why game developers are scorned because they want to feed their children and afford their mortgage.
Oh yeah, the same people who bitch because game devs want players to PAY for their work, also bitch because there are ads on You-tube. What? You-tube isn't supposed to make money? They're just gonna host mega servers around the world and store and stream thousands upon thousands of terabytes of data, and give you that for free????
Wow. This whole article didn't have any point whatsoever other than to defend the f2p model and berate people for using the word "entitled" if they like f2p.
I am a big fan of the subscription model! Fifteen dollars a month is cheap entertainment, heck you can't go to the movies or buy a large pizza for that much, so not sure why it's such a big deal these days??
I know. It cracks me up that they whine that they can't afford $15 a month, because they 'have a life' or they're 'in university', yet they can afford their weed, cigarettes, beer and starbucks every day. Then they whine that they feel they should have the same access to the game as those who pay the $15, and that F2P restrictions are 'unfair'.
Skip those overpriced latte's a couple of times a month, you've paid for the subscription.
Cash shops work, but I don't like playing games with them. Why do I want to pay $20 for a fucking mount? $10 for a pet? $10 for an armor set? No, just give them to me by a drop or something, and if I don't want to spend the time getting it, THEN it's okay to buy it with real money.
However this a fine line, as I don't want low drop rates to force people to buy them
Well, I personally have a problem with people who basically ask for a game to be F2P. But then want them to only sell things they wouldn't want to buy. Basically:
"I'm fine with F2P as long as the cash shop only sells minor cosmetic stuff I don't care about anyways. And it should all be obtainable in the game some how too."
As far as complaining about the actual game goes and wanting it to be more their style. I think it's fine to be upset that a game isn't for you. But the way people word things can just come off bad.
I'm often disappointed a game didn't end up being right for me. But I voice my opinion as my opinion and then move on. I don't militantly proclaim the game sucks and is a failure because it's all about hardcore PVP and I don't like pvp. That's so silly. People too often voice their opinions as if they are fact and it comes off really childish and entitled.
Call it entitlement but if that shoe doesn't fit I will go with FREELOADER.
It is all well for the author to "claim" that "Personally, Im fine with paying a subscription to get a whole game experience." I would love to see a account for each month of the past 10 years of subscriptions she has paid. I suspect it won't be as much we one might expect.
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
Comments
We are "entitled" to games worth paying for, or people won't pay/play.
And the same old, shallow, recycled, gear grind game mechanics, MMO players have seen 100x before ain't that.
There is no such thing as FREE and yes players are entitled to something if a developer promises something they do not deliver.
You can't use misleading moniker's like FREE and misleading cash shops and come off scott free,you can't have your cake and eat it too.
If players are lied to or mislead they will lash back expecting the proper recourse.If players are spending money it becomes a part of real life.A business offers a service ,the customer pays for that service and BOTH sides are suppose to end up happy.Gaming is the one area where a developer can take your money but scoff at any notion you should be happy.
Well don't make false promises and don't try to mislead people into spending money on your product or service.Yes i understand that is called advertising and marketing but as i said you can't have your cake and eat it too.
Bottom line is both sides have to live up to the bargain,players spend their money,that is cut n dry nothing misleading,where is the developers honest cut n dry side of the deal?
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
While the entire post is correct, i highlighted the most relevant part for OP.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
People are whiny an entitled. Also, as is often the case, they have unrealistic expectations about what MMORPGS are.
I'm currently playing ESO. The game isn't perfect by any means, had a box price and has a sub. And had a fairly obvious cash grab welfare mount cash shop gate. (although going forward they've seemed to ignore their cash shop)
Entitlement isn't being upset that a game launched with some bugs. or broken skills, or whatever. Those are legit complaints.
The sense of entitlement comes into focus when set against the background of the break in reality/expectations. ESO isn't a fully fleshed out game yet. Some things about the game, are rough around the edges. Some of this is mitigated by the addon community, other things that are lacking, are just the bare bones nature of a new game.
WoW is 10 + years old. That's a lot of time(and millions/billions of dollars of sub fees), and expansions to tweak and refine game systems. Hell Paladin had broken skills up until TBC came out. ESO has more dungeon content than WoW vanilla did, but people went ape shit over cut and paste dungeons. ESO had lag spikes and FPS drop issues for 2 weeks. a known issue, the devs repeatedly gave updates on. Message boards were lit up with endless harping and whining about this and that.
Games take awhile to evolve. You can't look at a game and say... it has this feature, but it'd really be cool if it also had this thing another game has and make that statement in a vacuum. (ESO has a feature, where... when something sells on a guild store you get a mail item... it has your gold in it, and says. you sold something. doesn't say from whom, or what item sold, or from what guild store... that feature is somewhat bare bones. ...and addon fixes this. and provides this info, but as a game feature, it's lacking... people that complain about this feature don't really understand... in the grand scheme. yes, it'd be better if the game had a fully fleshed out mailing system that provided data points to use to fine tune trading. but in the short term, of a new game... trying to stabalize it's not a priority. ...and long term, would probably be something that gets added in later)
Payment models. Is the least of this entitlement issue. Whether a game has a sub, or is F2P are pretty clear lines in the sand.
I personally hate F2P games. When i still playeed SWTOR. I subbed even though it had a freemium model. I think LOTRO is a shitty game. It has tired and sad graphics, and tired sad mechanics. Only thing it has is the LotR lore.... and that's not enough. Guild Wars, for being a good game... feels way to asian to me. I just can't get into it.
but if you look at a game that has a cost. And say... waaaahhh why ins't this game free... XYZ game is free. that's entitlement. You can't know why a company chooses to do it's payment model one way or another. You can choose to engage or not engage/give business to that company based on it's model. but they don't owe you anything.
And in general the level of service we do get. From Dev posts, to dev/community interaction, official boards, support ..either CS or technical, games being at Cons, community outreach events. Are all much higher than they were for older games.
and it's really bad out there some times. The naked entitlement and whining, the nerd rage, the just ignorance, and hate the blaming, and butthurt. it's mind boggling sometimes.
There is a simple solution to this issue.
When developers start releasing titles that of high enough quality that they are actually worth players dropping 15 bucks a month on, the problem goes away. Many of F2P crowd have just been burned so many times they just want to make sure they are getting a value before they drop coin. Just look at the threads from those crying for F2P. They aren't opposed to paying at all. They just don't want to buy into the next big "Ho-Hum" MMO.
It is less about entitlement to me than it is about value. I want something worth my time and I will pay for that.
I pay close to 60 bucks a month for my cell phone, and similar for a high end internet package, and similar for a family gym membership.
If there was a good MMO out there I would drop $60 a month on it in a heartbeat.
when we see small indie MMOs made with a handfull of underpaid developers create features that the larger camps do not touch its no wonder we start to demand some features.
its not like we are pulling these ideas out of our ...
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I'm a principal software engineer, and my code isn't free and never will be. It's how I make my living. Giving my work away is equivalent to me giving my income away.
If gamers really had ANY idea of what is involved with making a game, maybe they would think twice about bitching about subs.
Do you know how much it costs to JUST host and maintain MMO servers in one country, let alone worldwide?
Why should ANY game be free? I can't walk into home depot and walk out with a new fridge without paying for it, or any other product I can think of from any store or service provider.
The whole concept of F2P is broken. Only a handful of people pay, and only those people keep the game "free" for all the freeloaders who don't pay, and never will.
Again, why should YOU get to play any game for free? I don't get why game developers are scorned because they want to feed their children and afford their mortgage.
Effing crazy.
WHAT?! Seriously, what's wrong with people?
Wow. This whole article didn't have any point whatsoever other than to defend the f2p model and berate people for using the word "entitled" if they like f2p.
What a total waste of time.
I know. It cracks me up that they whine that they can't afford $15 a month, because they 'have a life' or they're 'in university', yet they can afford their weed, cigarettes, beer and starbucks every day. Then they whine that they feel they should have the same access to the game as those who pay the $15, and that F2P restrictions are 'unfair'.
Skip those overpriced latte's a couple of times a month, you've paid for the subscription.
Cash shops work, but I don't like playing games with them. Why do I want to pay $20 for a fucking mount? $10 for a pet? $10 for an armor set? No, just give them to me by a drop or something, and if I don't want to spend the time getting it, THEN it's okay to buy it with real money.
However this a fine line, as I don't want low drop rates to force people to buy them
Call it entitlement but if that shoe doesn't fit I will go with FREELOADER.One definition from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/freeloader is:
verb (used without object) Informal.
1. to take advantage of others for free food, entertainment, etc.
It is all well for the author to "claim" that "Personally, Im fine with paying a subscription to get a whole game experience." I would love to see a account for each month of the past 10 years of subscriptions she has paid. I suspect it won't be as much we one might expect.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
If you aren't "entitled" why still play while complaining?
There is an entitlement mentality in some gamers. Those gamers are the same people that feel entitled in the real world. They are known as Liberals.