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depain
Member Posts: 263
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depain
Member Posts: 263
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The producer of AoC have said that they are considering but they want to wait and see how LotrO, EQ2 etc are doing first. So it's just a matter of time untill AoC will get some kind of F2P option. Hopefully Funcom is smart enough to not be stupid like SOE with EQ2 and instead do something simillar to LotrO/DDO/CO
Looking forward to it
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
I agree I think it would be great. Or at least a Pay-As-You-Go option.
Well, Anarchy Online (also Funcom) is F2P already, so I don't see it as a big jump.
Of course, in-game advertising would be pretty strange in Hyboria.
Even though the three games on that list are crap, I like this trend.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
Outside of SWG & EQ2 (my two past favorites), I've played Vanguard, Age of Conan, Warhammer, Darkfall, Star Trek Online, and Aion...
I honestly had a great time with Age of Conan. I loved the graphics, the music, the story, the combat, the mature content, etc. However, there was something about it that didn't want me to go full subscription.
If AoC went FTP, I'd be all over it - so long as the matrix was like LotRO. Heck, I'd even buy items via Item Shop.
Yea and AoC is known for it's great quality...
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
If they are waiting to see how those did I hear that LoTRO had a HUGE boost in revenue from going f2p just like DDO did. Not too sure how EQ2 is doing since there are so many limits on the f2p server as opposed to p2p. SOE needs to take some pointers from turbine and not gimp f2p so much.
PoTBS is now going f2p in november as well, the 22nd if I remember correctly.
AoC would probably benifit a ton by a f2p switch. They could just sell deco and fluff items and make a killing. I would play around in it again. Played at launch and then stopped after my free month ran out.
F2P for games that tend to be PvP-centric will be a very tricky bird...
LotRO and DDO, for example, provide cash based stuff that speeds up vertical and lateral advancement. Not a big deal for PvE, but PvP players won't like that one bit.
So, WAR and AoC will probably need a different model than games that have previously offered F2P.
Put them on the loading screen and not inside the game in itself and it is fine.
But it makes sense to see how Lotro and EQ2 actually makes money or lose them after a while, like 6 months or a year before deciding something similar. And while your at it you can learn from those 2 mistakes, they have probably done a few they will fix in due time.
Eastern MMO's are generally big into PVP and are almost all F2P and they seem to do fine. I played Jade Dynasty until I couldn't take the grind anymore and the PVP seems to work fine in that game.
Are they doing fine in America?
I think its highly possible to see AOC go F2P. It seems to be a current trend for P2P games to do so instead of fixing the problems that keep people from subbing.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Well the best solution is to do both like Turbine have done with DDO and LotrO
Better business model+better game make people try the game and then keep them playing.
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
LOTRO's implementation of F2P is way worse than eq2. You can level to 80 in eq2 and have access to all quests and not once spend a cent. In lotro you have no quests past 20 without paying. How could you think that lotro's way is better? There's no game but grinding in lotro and the sparse story quests, whereas eq2 you have the whole game minus a few items and the broker. The classes and races are irrelevant as you can at least still play a game.
What, what? CO is F2P ?
haha..
The thing is though, both DDO and lotro ARE good games! not only that they've had years and years of development meaning they are deep, polished, thought out, balanced... the f2p model works because when people play these games, they like them!
Often the only thing preventing people from playing an MMO is the fact that they have to pay for them.
CO and Conan are hardly any of these things. People dont play them because they are crap, not because they cost.
One correction:
EQ2 did NOT go free to play. EQ2 X (Extended) is free to play. It does not share servers with the paid subscribers, and has different item shops, etc, and therefore.....EQ2 (proper) is NOT free to play. And if you saw all the restrictions on EQ2X....you would easily agree that EQ2 itself....is NOT free to play.
Champions Online doesn't surprise me. LotRO, like DDO, did actually go free to play. The free players are on the same servers as the paid players, so the game itself went free to play.
I know it sounds nitpicky....but it's true.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
That's your opinion but not alot of people seems to agree with you, but that is another topic.
I agree that PvP makes it harder to make AoC free, funcom need to be creative with this.
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
Yes ive heard about how willdly successful LOTRO has become wihtout adding anything to endgame. Thing is with F2P games there is no way to verify how many actually play, how many actually pay and how many accounts one person makes. Free Realms claims huge numbers as well but I dont find it plausible that they are a huge success.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
This might just be me being somewhat bitter, but what gives companies the right to make a game F2P and not compensate original consumers of the game? I bought CO and AOC for full price, and now they are free. I sort of feel cheated (not that I subbed to either one of these for more than 2 months). There should be some law/mandate that gives people who originally purchased the game a free 3 months of "gold" subscription when a game goes F2P. Sorry if this is a semi-hijack of this thread, but i'm curious to hear your thoughts.
I'm not quite sure I follow, what tells you free realms isn't a success. If there's no way to actually verify how many play, how many pay and how many accounts one person makes?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Well to be fair, your completly wrong about this. LOL
Also, how much you charge for a product scales (almost perfectly) with what its worth.
EQ is cheaper because... well, because its a cheap product.
People need to break away from the "I should be rewarded" mentality. You should welcome this instead, as it might make it possible to actually see another player in the game.
Did you buy AoC when it was new for 50 bucks? So what. It sells brand new for $10 at Gamestop. Should you be rewarded 40 bucks worth of subscription?
...
The other thing is you never did really buy the game. You bought a cardboard box, 1 or 2 disks with some basic programing on it and the option to pay a monthly sub.
No sub, no play. If you only did a couple of months worth of sub's than you put $30.00 or so into the game. If you paid $50.00 for the box, than you didn't get your money back on the deal in the first place.
Instead of being bitter, you should be glad they're going to give you a chance to make up the difference at no further cost.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
I pretty sure the players that have played the game for a long time notice the difference in the pop.....and not relying on some "company head" spewing out numbers.
/snip quote
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
In all fairness we don't know what CO is going to look like as a free to play game and thankfully Turbine is not Cryptic so there is no guarantee they will use the same model that Turbine does, but I do agree that the Turbine model is light years ahead of EQ2X as a "viable free to play option".
But honestly I don't expect Cryptic to go as far as Turbine did (specifically with the Turbine points) I am willing to be Cryptic will charge for everything with no option to earn things in game for free.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Let's see here LOTRO you earn Turbine points as you level up to level twenty, at level twenty you can then purchase quest packs which generally include that entire zone but you do not have to spend money on these packs but Turbine points which you also earn through normal gameplay means.
My question for you is what is locked in EQ2X that is accessible without spending money on the game? to my understanding the answer is nothing, what is locked away in EQ2X which include races,classes, items can not be unlocked without spending money. Then I love how those who argue that EQ2X s free to play don't ever make not of the fact that EQ2X takes place on a server seperate from the normal EQ2 servers so you aren't playing with everyone in game.
Then my last point is EQ2X feels like a welfare free to play game with all the constant pop ups you are forced to deal with (unless of course you sub) they are constantly advertising to you with no end to it.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....