Maybe free to play is a good thing

[spectreclees]

Free to play is good. Look at Guild Wars they kept that game pretty alive for many years. The model works, it has to be done correctly though. Look at guild wars content dished out. Tons of content patches and huge expansions.

[Khaki]

$15 a month? in the grand scheme of things, its not even that much

 

Especially since full games are like 60 bucks, and most games are like 6 hours max, then it ends up collecting dust

 

This is why free to play is becoming a big thing, but i guess if this game went full free to play people would bails hip thinking the game has failed.

[danniel]

Well, I think it is a extremly superbad move. Based on a survey carried out by market research firm VGMarket in July 2011 for global payments company PlaySpan, owned by Visa Inc I present these numbers:

"...More notable statistics, however, were focused on the gender split. For both MMOs and casual games, women spent more money on virtual goods than men. On average, women spent $111 a year in MMOs and $62 a year in casual games, while men spent $74 and $28 respectively. Another significant statistic was the change in spending from the previous year. For MMOs and console/PC games, the average amount spent was up 20% to 90% year-on-year, depending on category. However, for casual games, the average amount spent was down in all categories, by between 20% to 60%. Overall, all types of virtual content experienced an increase in average spending year-on-year, while average spending on virtual gifts dropped from $30 to $23 per year."

 

How the hell do they think they will survive on those numbers? 111dollars per year is LESS than a year worth of sub (179,88dollar). They will gain even less if everyone is a male!

 

BAD MOVE!

[Mallorik]

Since GW1 is out and GW2 is its sequel and made by the same company, it's a logical conclusion to draw. If the model they use is drastically different from its predecessor then I'll recant my statement.

 

Valk-Thank you. You beat me to it.

 

It was also logical to think bioware was capable of making a successful game.

[Blanchard]

I play LOTRO and this game.. And i actually prefer the f2p route.

 

Granted many won't like the idea; but in my humble opinion, it's the way to go. For example, in LOTRO at the moment, you can get the steeds for the various professions for your Turbine points, or cosmetics.

 

Would be nice to see some store only items in TOR, like some cloaks or boots.. or even perhaps a proto-lightsabre (the one with the cable attached to a power pack).

 

In every game, there is a knee-jerk reaction to change. But if Bioware make sure that there are enough incentives, more now story quests, I'm staying.

 

Also, in LOTRO, i purchased a lifetime sub, so I only pay for the big expansions.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Blanchard

[Crash-X]

How is paying $15 for over 6 months (100 dollars plus) to fund for a team to make Makeb better than paying $10 when Makeb releases?

 

The people vehemently against F2P is going to have to explain this to me.

[Crash-X]

Free to play is good. Look at Guild Wars they kept that game pretty alive for many years. The model works, it has to be done correctly though. Look at guild wars content dished out. Tons of content patches and huge expansions.

 

One thing with GW2 is that they design the game with F2P in mind.

 

When they say you don't need to pay for anything they mean it...because there is no end game gear progression and PVP is on equal grounds it makes it difficult for them to even pull it off.

[danniel]

How is paying $15 for over 6 months (100 dollars plus) to fund for a team to make Makeb better than paying $10 when Makeb releases?

 

The people vehemently against F2P is going to have to explain this to me.

 

You lost me. 10 dollars (f2p) is LESS than 100dollar (6month worth of sub)

[AlyxDinas]

All this might mean for future content provision is a change in scope. Adding in small quest chains. Maybe a simple flashpoint here and there like Athiss, etc. If the focus is on breadth of content and the rate allows for fair provision, things will be fine. Because you can delegate your team. One team focuses on smaller content "packs", let's call them. The bulk focuses on wider expansions like operations, etc.

 

Done properly, the game expands at a pace that is reasonable, maintains interest, and is financially sound.

[Crash-X]

You lost me. 10 dollars (f2p) is LESS than 100dollar (6month worth of sub)

 

That is exactly what I am saying.

 

Say the tihngs you want are HK57 and Makeb. Say these are the two things you are most looking forward to.

 

Now just guessing here obviously, say HK57 is a $5 object, Makeb $10 one. It's taking some time for these things to release, lets say...3 months. Sub wise that is $45 and F2P wise that is $15.

 

Say all you are interested in is end game PVE, than you just pay for the FPs and OPS. Which I am guessing will be a lot cheaper than the $180 annual price for a sub game.

 

Now they can get greedy. That will ruin it. Say if instead of single buying a OPS (like you would a map in COD) they make it so you pay $10 for 5 runs of a OPS $5 for a FP. I think that would be over doing it.

[danniel]

That is exactly what I am saying.

 

Say the tihngs you want are HK57 and Makeb. Say these are the two things you are most looking forward to.

 

Now just guessing here obviously, say HK57 is a $5 object, Makeb $10 one. It's taking some time for these things to release, lets say...3 months. Sub wise that is $45 and F2P wise that is $15.

 

Say all you are interested in is end game PVE, than you just pay for the FPs and OPS. Which I am guessing will be a lot cheaper than the $180 annual price for a sub game.

 

Now they can get greedy. That will ruin it. Say if instead of single buying a OPS (like you would a map in COD) they make it so you pay $10 for 5 runs of a OPS $5 for a FP. I think that would be over doing it.

 

Well, what you are saying is that F2P is good, because BioWare/EA will be LOOSING money? Great.

AS a subscriber you WOULD be getting those things too! And Bioware/EA will earn MORE MONEY on your subs, instead of micro-transactions,

 

So, again, how is 10dollars (F2P) better than 6months sub (100dollars)? THIS IS WHY F2P IS BAD (well, one of many things really) (didnt you read my post on the 2nd page? on how F2P will actually make the company LOOSE money compared to a monthly sub based system?)

Edited August 1, 2012 by danniel

[Crash-X]

Well, what you are saying is that F2P is good, because BioWare/EA will be LOOSING money? Great.

AS a subscriber you WOULD be getting those things too! And Bioware/EA will earn MORE MONEY on your subs, instead of micro-transactions,

 

So, again, how is 10dollars (F2P) better than 6months sub (100dollars)? THIS IS WHY F2P IS BAD (well, one of many things really) (didnt you read my post on the 2nd page? on how F2P will actually make the company LOOSE money compared to a monthly sub based system?)

 

Yes, because most of the people seem to think that F2P is bad for them! I am trying to tell them (and I am unsubbed any ways and do not plan on playing gear grind MMOs...) trying to convince them that it is not! It actually is cheaper, unless you just feel the need to buy everything they throw at you.

 

Yes I did read that, good information.

 

One thing you are not realizing though is that you can sell things cheaper if it means you can sell it to more people. That's pretty much how F2P works. Usually more people play a game when it goes F2P.

[master_endymion]

I look at it this way.

 

I would end up paying $15+ to go to the movies for ~2 hours.

 

I pay $15 here, and get over 40 hours of gametime a month (and that's not even 2 hours a day).

 

I think I get my $15 worth of entertainment.

 

^Someone give this guy 10 Internets!

[Crash-X]

^Someone give this guy 10 Internets!

 

What about the people who don't spend that many hours a week on the game?

[Comstrike]

This change is golden for my guild. We have a lot of LOTRO players who were never going to try SWTOR until it went Freemium, and we all figured it would at some point. Likewise, a lot of our many SWTOR members weren't going to come back for $15 a month. Now they can, and still RP and participate.

 

Should be good for most of us.

[master_endymion]

What about the people who don't spend that many hours a week on the game?

 

Enter the F2P system. I think it would really work for working people and the others who can't hardcore-play.

[SithEmpress]

This could be a good or bad change depending on how it done. For one it could bring in some new people, get some to come back, and also those who simple weren’t will to pay the subscription fee. Which mean more people to play with which is a win in my book.

 

I’m slightly worried about the Cartel Coins (cash shop). Obviously we don’t know what thing will cost, but what I am given a month should count for something. They should allow me to buy some things nice for my characters; I’m not saying I should be able to buy everything. I just don’t want to have to save for months to buy one thing or fork out more cash on top of the sub to buy these perk/items. This could real be a turn off for me. Simple make sure those of us who continue to pay a sub feel reward for doing so.

 

Also please don’t put all the best/coolest items in the cash shop. That can get old quite fast. There should be a good mix of stuff added to the game and things added to the shop.

 

Please remember the crafter and don’t obsolete them with the store.

 

Most of all don’t make anything in the store a must have to play, such as elite lightsaber that are more powerful than those in game. Stay with cosmetic, fluff items, and xp boost.

 

PS It would be nice if you give a little something to those of us who bought the deluxe edition (half the amount of coin or an item), after all we did spend more too. Nice to see the CE getting some love, my sister will be happy.

I love the game and hope this will help the game see future expansion.

[Nokeh]

This is a bad move on their part. I can name plenty of F2P games out there that never to rarely update their content. Swtor has a brick wall of it. Once you're out of story mode you're in the traditional character progression. People interested in putting time and effort to get around the same bored repetitive feeling will just leave knowing there wont be updates. Casuals rarely put in money for a F2P, so overall they will lose even more money. Bioware isn't an mmo dominate company, so the F2P has no game to really feed off of to push more devs onto Swtor and make it much better than what it already is.

[Arkerus]

I don't think there is anything wrong with it. I think it's awesome they offer an option for those who just want to play 1 to 50. If you want to whine and moan about it, you have serious issues.

[Arkerus]

This is a bad move on their part. I can name plenty of F2P games out there that never to rarely update their content. Swtor has a brick wall of it. Once you're out of story mode you're in the traditional character progression. People interested in putting time and effort to get around the same bored repetitive feeling will just leave knowing there wont be updates. Casuals rarely put in money for a F2P, so overall they will lose even more money. Bioware isn't an mmo dominate company, so the F2P has no game to really feed off of to push more devs onto Swtor and make it much better than what it already is.

 

Research has proven casuals spend money, a lot of it.

[Nokeh]

Research? I for one could tell you that casuals do NOT pay money on a F2P. Especially ones that will cause problems with their game play. Did you not notice they did a server crunch and they have stability issues across the board? You think F2P will make it better if the casuals log and make the already scarce dev team work harder to fix it when they can't now?

[danniel]

Research has proven casuals spend money, a lot of it.

 

Oh look! A post I made earlier... about just the thing you are trying to prove! Read it, and then tell me that casuals spends money, a lot of it.

 

Based on a survey carried out by market research firm VGMarket in July 2011 for global payments company PlaySpan, owned by Visa Inc I present these numbers:

"...More notable statistics, however, were focused on the gender split. For both MMOs and casual games, women spent more money on virtual goods than men. On average, women spent $111 a year in MMOs and $62 a year in casual games, while men spent $74 and $28 respectively. Another significant statistic was the change in spending from the previous year. For MMOs and console/PC games, the average amount spent was up 20% to 90% year-on-year, depending on category. However, for casual games, the average amount spent was down in all categories, by between 20% to 60%. Overall, all types of virtual content experienced an increase in average spending year-on-year, while average spending on virtual gifts dropped from $30 to $23 per year."

 

oh thats right, this actually proves you wrong!

Edited August 1, 2012 by danniel

[Cathest]

I wouldn't compare gw with other f2p games

Gw truly is how f2p should be, the $$ stuff are just cosmetic

But games like silk road, conquer online, lotto, ddo,

Those are totally pay to win and not like guild wars model.

 

I heard when lotto went f2p, they increased xp requirements per level, and then had the xp boosters that u bought that lasted x amount of hours or whatever

 

That's just awful

[RikHar]

Personally $15 bucks a month is starting to feel like alot of money for a game which implements changes so slowly.

I was thinking maybe $15 for two months would be more reasonable.

 

Far more likely though is the prospect of free to play. I like to think those who already spent their $60+subs will get full access and those who never paid would have to buy unlocks. I feel as customers who already bought the game we would save money. Bioware would also benefit, gaining more money from the free to play system.

 

The only negative is that the games development would probably take a nose dive, but things are happening so slowly, it feels like it already has.

 

Thoughts?

 

Free is never free.

 

You may think it's free if they go that route but it's not free. Not by a longshot. If anything, it'll cost more, a lot more then what you pay now. What they charge now is nothing.

 

Game goes "free." Everyone gets same basic stuff. But as you level up, they'll put out things you'll want, things you'll need for different prices. And unless you want to lag behind everyone else, you'll buy them, making it more expensive then if you just paid the monthly 15 bucks.

 

So in the long run, you either pay more or you stay behind the big boys of the game.

 

How free is free, now?

[RikHar]

Oh look! A post I made earlier... about just the thing you are trying to prove! Read it, and then tell me that casuals spends money, a lot of it.

 

Based on a survey carried out by market research firm VGMarket in July 2011 for global payments company PlaySpan, owned by Visa Inc I present these numbers:

"...More notable statistics, however, were focused on the gender split. For both MMOs and casual games, women spent more money on virtual goods than men. On average, women spent $111 a year in MMOs and $62 a year in casual games, while men spent $74 and $28 respectively. Another significant statistic was the change in spending from the previous year. For MMOs and console/PC games, the average amount spent was up 20% to 90% year-on-year, depending on category. However, for casual games, the average amount spent was down in all categories, by between 20% to 60%. Overall, all types of virtual content experienced an increase in average spending year-on-year, while average spending on virtual gifts dropped from $30 to $23 per year."

 

oh thats right, this actually proves you wrong!

 

Don't believe everything you read.