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The next big mmorpg! Pay to Play? Buy to Play? Free to Play?
bcbully
Member EpicPosts: 11,843
What would you want the monetization method to be?
Personally I'm a pay to play guy. I dislike cash shops and hate cash to gold conversion systems even more.
How about you?
Comments
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I didn't see my preferred option, (I want them to pay me to play) so I went with Pay to Play, someone has to get paid in this scenario.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
It does not matter what people want but what they are actually willing to pay for.
People pay more for newly released games, less for games that are already established, and companies follow.
People talk big about subscription games, but only a AAA budget for polish and unrealisticly awesome design is going to satisfy them.
By 'unrealisticly' I mean, that no large budget company can take risks with original, non WoW style game design. The investors won't let them, design by committee ( looking at you SOE ) won't let them, it just does not happen.
All the new and interesting games will be from indy devs, will launch with bare bone features, and you are lucky if they have decent polish. They will take time to grow, but it seems players are not interested in funding such games, not in the manner required for AAA, or anything beyond bare bones. And not from new or unknown devs, who are going to be the source of original ideas.
This is why you will get cash shop games for the most part.
Plus I want free pizza delivered to my door, whenever I log in, as well as the words "GAMING GOD!!" in flashing neon next to my name.
For this I will grace their game with my presence.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/I don’t know what the next “BIG” game will be, so far I’ve seen success and failure stories from all aspects of the monetization aspect (P2P, F2P, B2P and so on) to think that what decides whether a game succeed or fails has to do more with the game itself than how the company decides to get money from it.
What I do know, however, is that the next big MMO I will play once I’m bored of my current one (GW2) will be either F2P or B2P. I’m currently (and in the foreseeable future) playing GW2, playing since release, and rather happy with it so far and the direction it’s taking. It’s not perfect, of course, far from it, but it’s a good match to what I want and expect from a game currently. If, or when, I get bored of it, I still have The Secret World that I enjoyed a LOT back when I played it (only left when GW2 was released), and a backlog of other games I enjoyed playing and I’d like to revisit (Age of Conan, Rift among others) plus few that I’d like to try like TOR, all without spending a cent. I don't mind someone having an advantage over me if they pay, as long as it doesn't limit my enjoyment of the game in the first place.
I don’t think P2P is dead, dying, or in any immediate or long term danger at all, it’s a very valid and very popular form of monetization, that has its advantages and disadvantages (and forum defenders and detractors… AKA white knights and haters) just like F2P and B2P have them, I’m just saying what works for me personally. Of course, it might also be that being in Venezuela I’m limited to how much I can spend online (currently at $300 a year, google CADIVI and CENCOEX for more information if you want).
What can men do against such reckless hate?
For me models from best to worst:
1. B2P + no cash shop besides cosmetics.
2. P2P +no cash shop at all
3. P2P + no cash shop besides cosmetics
4. F2P
5. B2P + full cash shop
6. P2P + full cash shop
[I'm assuming any F2P MMO will have a full cash shop and any B2P one will at least sell cosmetic items.]
GW1 was also B2P, the cash shop had cosmetics and skill unlocks for PvP (you had to buy and unlock skills on PvE, they sold them all onlocked if you wanted to jump straight to PvP).
TSW became buy to play after release. The cash shop, at least last time I saw it, sold only cosmetics and unlocks for the newer releases. It was originally P2P with cosmetics only cash shop.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
With free to play, there is really bad customer service, as free players needing CS are just a drag. With b2p, at least everyone in the game is a paying customer, and there is money for CS. At least, that is how I look at it, others may as well.
It puts a small dent in the number of gold farmers and spammers, they are not eliminated, but just a tad limited.
Your first statement has been true for at least the last 8 years, pretty much only games that brought a big budget and a big IP could afford to launch P2P much less stay P2P.
Your second statement hints at the real question for the future: Will the handful of games that can actually support the subscription model actually be able to resist also adding a cash shop? The only games I can think of that are currently not offering a cash shop are FFXIV and Wildstar.
The company that works out how to do a flat box price that doesnt have a cash shopis gona bring on the golden age of mmorpg gaming.
It's always the same question though: how do you make your product sustainable doing that?
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
But how do you pay for your data, devs and support staff?
I don't believe there would be enough "service sales" to support such a model.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Pay2Play would be the best. But it won't be that way.
You will first have founder packs that reach into the triple digits, and people will buy them despite the game still being under construction. Since the founder packs will give people ingame advantage, it will be clear at this point already that it will be another pay2win game.
Then the game itself will of course has a cash shop, where you can buy more pay2win items. Whether the game will be free 2 play or buy2play is more or less random.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
The only free to play game that I have played, that did what they said they were going to do was LotRO. They went free to fill up the game with people playing the game. Most just use it as a method of advertising the over price cash shop and offer people no reason to stay if they don't want to pay upwards of $5/hr in premium items. Most cash shop games today make feeding old arcade games with quarters look cheap.
That said, I prefer the subscription style games. If I am going to play a free game, like LotRO I want a freemium option. Even ArcheAge and the like, they didn't anticipate success and are where they are. That can't be blamed on free or subscription because FF14 also tried the limited edition, grind your guts out content route and I left that game as a result.
It's circumstance and planning. Few games get it right. Payment model exempt.
100% correct, but it's just filled with delicious nostalgia. Remember back when the gw2 hype train was going full steam ahead and there were so many people that believe that nonsense?