Adjust the Monthly Fee

[Scuro]

I'm pretty sure the Census has proven the above account of this game being dead anytime soon, to be false. People will continue to play this game, regardless. However, what I will agree on is that if SE wants to see more people play, they have to come out with a new expansion of new content, new areas, new mobs, new quests, missions, storylines. The players are getting restless, but if SE went to a free to play model.... that would not do anything good for the game. That would basically be SE admitting defeat, because if you can tell me games that go to free to play and then come out with massive expansions to entertain its customers. I'll be shocked.

People whine about Abyssea killing the game and such, yet as I've told my friends before, the sooner you accept that this content is what the game is now, much as the transition from CoP content to ToAU content, the better. The problem is a lot of the hardcores originate from the ToAU era, and have no idea how much of a change that content inflicted on the game when people would say "ToAU killed the game! Booo hooo me this game is going to suck and no one will play it!" Yet look.... the game is still around. The more you want to gripe about the game, the more you will be unhappy, but if you suck it up and deal with it as many of us hardcores that have been playing since NA release have, you'll find that AByssea can be enjoyable. Times change, and so does the manner in which things are done. The game is still challenging, and still takes a massive time commitment (I'm sorry but if you've tried to skill up defensive skills and 3-5 weapons.... you know that Abyssea doesn't remedy every hardship of this game). So again, this game by no means should be free to play, and if it is, then people advocating for it will realize how much of a folly they have aided in when they realize this game die in terms of new content and receive treasure casket revamps, and mob distribution revamps from that point until the end of the servers. Thank you.

[Catsby]

Subscriptions are kind of becoming a thing of the past anyways. Most online games are going free to play/microtransaction. It's just that some publish/developers know what they are doing(riot, valve, nexon) and some do not(CCP, Bethesda, Activision(didn't say SE because that's against the forum guildlines! ~.^)).

[Scuro]

I could not disagree more =)

[Romanova]

Most online games are going free to play/microtransaction.

which is terrible.


Fee is fine. not nearly enough low subscriptions to justify free to play or lower rates at this point.

[Scuro]

Now this is something that actually makes sense and oh idk.... is true haha.


If you want a payment method as you stated, then go play games that have that type of payment method. SE has already stated that they will not go free to play, and they will not do micro-transactions because the model for it was crap. Because well.... its a terrible idea haha.

[Catsby]

Now this is something that actually makes sense and oh idk.... is true haha.


If you want a payment method as you stated, then go play games that have that type of payment method. SE has already stated that they will not go free to play, and they will not do micro-transactions because the model for it was crap. Because well.... its a terrible idea haha.

Well, you're wrong about it being a bad idea. Short of "I don't like it T_T" there are nearly unbeatable arguments for why F2P is the superior model. The increasing prevalence of free to play games supports this. Also, point me to where SE said they wouldn't go F2P since I'm interested in reading about it.

[Scuro]

I said they wouldn't do microtransactions because of an interview with the directors stating that the models were a failure for such things. Also due to SE's current state as well as the state of its 2 leading games FFXI and FFXIV, Do you honestly think a F2P model will be coming out anytime soon? Cuz I sure as hell don't. They are hurting to get that money back, to kick it over to a F2P is stupid, and practically business suicide. F2P is for games that are not going to be expanded on further and are hoping to make a bank off of software copies and sponsors. Games with fees actually come out better, while one can argue some of these new F2P's, alot of them are short term successful but won't last as long as a 8 year giant like FFXI has. So my reason for saying no to F2P, is because it should be blatantly obvious how bad of an idea that is lol.

[Catsby]

I said they wouldn't do microtransactions because of an interview with the directors stating that the models were a failure for such things. Also due to SE's current state as well as the state of its 2 leading games FFXI and FFXIV, Do you honestly think a F2P model will be coming out anytime soon? Cuz I sure as hell don't. They are hurting to get that money back, to kick it over to a F2P is stupid, and practically business suicide. F2P is for games that are not going to be expanded on further and are hoping to make a bank off of software copies and sponsors. Games with fees actually come out better, while one can argue some of these new F2P's, alot of them are short term successful but won't last as long as a 8 year giant like FFXI has. So my reason for saying no to F2P, is because it should be blatantly obvious how bad of an idea that is lol.

This is tremendously incorrect.

F2P business model has proven to expand a game further much faster than a subscription model. With F2P you have a much higher potential to reach more customers because the barrier to entry is a couple steps lower. People are more willing to try something when there is no obligation to pay up front and willing to stay if there is no cost to do so. How the game generates profit is of course the tricky part.

Earlier online games struggled with this because the items you bought enhanced performance and were generally unobtainable to those who didn't pay the premium. This is where the term "pay to win" came from and why many people still think F2P is a quality standard and not a business model (because it often acknowledged the fact that the game sucked and you could buy your way to the parts that didn't...maybe). This is what happened with FFXI and abyssea in my opinion. When released the non pay content that came with them was bland while abyssea content provided players with crazy benefits (amazing gear, blazing fast exp, a new tier of ultimate weapons etc).

Let's imagine for a second that FFXI is already F2P and visions of abyssea is about to come out. It's free so when that update hits you will have access to those first 3 abyssea zones without paying. On the FFXI main page you see an advert for a limited offer $10 abyssea booster pack, what could it be? Ideally, it would look something like this;

an additional 10 traverser stones
a voucher for one of the new cruor armor sets
a voucher for one of the new job emotes
a stack of temp elixirs while in abyssea
a clionid or limule costume belt
a level 1 hooded cloak body piece with a gilgamesh, shinryu, or abyssea decal on it

Now look very carefully here. All of the enhancing items you would receive are accessible to a player regardless if they paid or not. This basically a premium for early adopters but you also get unique non game enhancing items to distinguish yourself. If this package came as a non rare item that activated once you used it then you could give it as a gift to friends or trade it to players in exchange for something else allowing you to buy multiple boosters. I can guarantee you that this would have sold as well if not better than abyssea add-ons as they were since you could buy multiple boosters on one character. As it stands now there is way or reason to buy an add-on more than once unless you are activating it on separate accounts. If you were unable or unwilling to pay for the booster pack then you miss almost nothing.

edit: I would appreciate it if you could link me to that interview you mentioned.

[Scuro]

No point in responding to this further, doesn't make sense too. This post is dead, because its pointless for good reason, so later.

[Catsby]

whatever bro. still waiting for that link. :3