F2P or SUB poll speak your mind

[lycrates]

F2P is here and staying if you like it or not look at almost all the SUB based games that started this year where are they now some form of F2P most of which SUCK.

Its true that a lot of Subscription games of 2011 and 2012 sucked big time. The reason was not the subscription model though. It was because those games were nowhere near Primetime quality.
Lets look at them really quick:

Tera: Combat and graphics where excellent. Beyond that there was nothing there. It was so bad, that I would have to call that game a "money-rab" instead of a real and complete game.

SWTOR: Released with terrible bugs and missing key features. It was also created using the cheap "Hero" engine. Ultimately it was just a lower quality version of WoW so it was no suprise that it went F2P

The Secret World: Not a polished game (not by a long shot) and nowhere near ready for primetime. I kinda of feel sad for them because Funcom really put a lot of love into making it.

Overall all the new MMORPGs for 2011/2012 where all a huge disappointent. At this point I am pretty sure that their business model from the very beginning was the following:

1) Invest barely enough for an incomplete, unpolished game.
2) Hype it up.
3) Recover the investment and make a profit from selling the boxed game.
4) Charge a Subscription.
6) Fire almost all developers, but maintain a skeletal development team to periodically release small content patches in order to string customers along as long as possible.
5) After most suckers..err.. customers leave, turn the game into F2P and continue milking it until it dies.
6) Rince and repeat.

I think that is a fair description of the laterst MMO models. Great for the companies, terrible for the gamers. Only Rift and WoW have been different, but now I hear that Rift has fired almost all of its development team casting doupts into the quality of future updates.

I hope Defiance will be different, but the nature of the payment model will dictate if this is a game that Trion Worlds shows an interest in investing for the long haul or to just cash in and move on.

[Shadinaxx]

I think the largest problem in MMO's lately, is that they push for a xmas release, doing alot of hype there and launching an incomplete game just to meet a deadline for xmas. Trion hasnt ever bought into holiday hype and the result is devs that arent fried out in coding around the clock during an already stressful holiday season.

F2P is a great modal, dont get me wrong, but Subs arent obsolete either, and therefore, dont need ALL games to reformat to a F2P system. My main point (comparing gas to game wasnt the best, but I was cooking dinner, so slightly distracted) is that subs keep everyone having an equal shot at greatness. Dont make a marketting system where someone that never leaves their beanbag in front of their xbox/ps3/pc and is the ayatolla of all shooters the ones that profit the most from a f2p system. Or, alternately, someone that drops the price of a new house into the game and it's mall system, the one no-one knows, but cant touch because of teh glowy boomstick of leet walletness they possess. (extreme scenarios, but you KNOW where I'm coming from on this).

I agree, 2011-2012 MMOs were all sorts of floppy. Defiance is a compeletly differant machine, Trion has a good track record of free AND paid for games (altho short list), and we even have a hybrid model mentioned for defiance. It was said that the game is a luxury. All luxuries I've ever experianced were paid for, either by myself, or someone else, but never by the person(s) providing the luxury (unless you count a demo).

[Thayl Ruttgar]

OK Now I am with you I understand that a SUB might make money right off the start but I still think that a F2P model will sutain the game better in todays economy. Take me for instance I work two jobs and some work on the side when ever I can. I work my main job in our local ER and a second job at one of the plants around town as a Security/EMT I make enough money for myself, my wife and two children and I am more than happy to buy content and other store items but a SUB just does not work for me. I am sure I am not the only one this will effect and some that can SUB can also buy content so keep the numbers high I say.

[Night Hawke]

OK Now I am with you I understand that a SUB might make money right off the start but I still think that a F2P model will sutain the game better in todays economy. Take me for instance I work two jobs and some work on the side when ever I can. I work my main job in our local ER and a second job at one of the plants around town as a Security/EMT I make enough money for myself, my wife and two children and I am more than happy to buy content and other store items but a SUB just does not work for me. I am sure I am not the only one this will effect and some that can SUB can also buy content so keep the numbers high I say.

Man that's a lot of work! out of curiosity how much do you spend monthly on f2p games?

[Thayl Ruttgar]

Most of the time not much like I said I do work but the way my schedule works makes it better you would have to know my schedule to understand but I put in when I can.

[Suun Brakur]

F2P there is no free it seems that the serious gamers will get nickle and dime so they can enjoy the game in its entirety. I would like SUB and I get the all the bells and whistle that goes with it. But if both is to exist hopefully SUB have all access to events and activities and F2P limited.

If I have to break out my credit credit every time to keep up with the events and activities, defiance will be a short lived experience for me.

[Thayl Ruttgar]

I really think think they should look at DDO's model that would great. everyone should check it out and talk to players on there that do both.

[smashasaurus]

heres an option go buy to play and have a cash shop, this way you avoid the spammers and somewhat negate hackers by making it more pricey when they get banned while drawing in the f2p crowd by having that one time basic price and cash shop. If thats not your cup of tea then go subscription but be warned most sub games iv seen are struggling nowadays so it may be a bad idea.


You have to weight the options

F2P:

pro's:

- High starter playerbase
- Usually easy to pick up and play
- Game usually has a longevity

Cons:

- hackers plague these games as theres no way to keep them out
- they can fail if the cash shop items are useless or too highly priced
- the lack of starter funds because the game is initially free can make updates or expansions take awhile to come out


B2P (w/ cashshop)

Pro's:

- High starter playerbase
- Usually easy to pick up and play
- Game usually has a longevity
- the starter money gives the producer and devs alittle breathing room
- The initial price deters some of the hardcore hacking you see in f2p games

Cons:

- they can fail if the cash shop items are useless or too highly priced
- the f2p diehards of videogames hate paying for games and may revolt



Sub's

Pro's:

- buy the game and the sub and you get all content
- usually with this type of game hacking is minimal
- when a game is in its early stages this allows devs/producers the largest amount of breathing room

Cons:

- high base price for the average user especially console users (xbl + monthly fee + base game cost)
- Sub based games lately have taken a downward spiral and most seem to be going f2p or bankrupt

My money is on buy to play it has the best of both worlds

[Black_wraith]

one other thing id like to add in, Planetside 2 is a F2p game is being to suffer from population issues. So its pretty safe to say none of these will work in the long run. both ideas will kill the game one slow one quick.

[Firebrand]

In my opinion, I would safely suggest the Buy to Play model with an optional subscription fee would be the most ideal. A subscription could increase exp gain, in-game currency and possibly even add monthly funds of cash shop currency for the subscriber. I would also suggest a Lifetime subscription to be made available for those who really enjoy the game.

The main reason to utilize the Buy to Play model is due to various console players (mainly the 360 users) already having to subscribe to even utilize the online services of said consoles. Having an additional subscription fee to play the game may cause console gamers to think twice about purchasing the game.

Secondly, I would say the overall Guild Wars style model has been working out a lot better for the companies switching to it. The company can acquire initial funds from customers purchasing the game and the cash shop increases the income based on the sustained player base.

To me, required subscription fees ideally work, but they also may have a minor psychological effect on customers. These subscriptions fees can cause people to feel like they need to play the game for a large amount of hours during the subscription time, otherwise they feel they wasted money. Overall, the longevity of a game's life is based on sustaining a player base.

Required subscription fees can negate the sustainability of a large player base by causing burnouts for a portion of the player base. Many players will easily burn out on the content, get bored and remove his or her subscription before the first month's paid subscription timer is up. Those fees also do not cater as much to casual players as much since a majority of casual players tend to have a limited amount of time to enjoy a game. I am fairly positive that a large majority of casual gamers enjoy their video games but shun the idea of paying $10-15 a month for a game they can only play at an average of an hour a day.

Sidenote: Someone mentioned The Secret World earlier in this thread. The Secret World seems to me that it is actually thriving more now that it went into the Buy to Play model. I log in and I now see a large community of players in that game on the various servers I have characters on rather than it being somewhat deserted. I personally have a lifetime subscription to TSW due to the fact that I like the type of mythological lore they added into the game through various means.