Free to play plans?

[nyheen]

If they are not willing to pay 12.95 right now they are not going to pay anything when it goes FTP, they will just be leaching off of the people that are willing to pay more. Good riddance.

this is so true.

[Zarchery]

Hmm. I think I understand the theory behind a player who would be attracted to the free to play model.

1) Buy gil to save time making it yourself.
2) Buy into leech parties to save time levelling on your own.
3) Use the /yell channel to try and find people who will sell you lotting rights to Rare/Ex items.
4) Complain that there's nothing to do.

[Umichi]

as a matter of fact free trials is RMT 101: abuse them

[Arcon]

Dungeons and Dragons had their revenue go up by 5 times and Lord of the rings online went up by triple.

Have a source on that? Other than the one you posted, which contradicts what you said here and is from 2010?

See, people don't look at the big picture. When people think a mmo goes ftp that their sub base stays teh same. The idea is that you increase your players dramatically so that the real money purchases end up more then the current subscriptions.

FFXI is perfectly setup for FTP because of its incredible time sinks. Want a new Weaponskill, well you can do the nyzul path, get to 100 then do quest, or pay $10. Want an emp weapon, well here is 50 chloris buds for $20.

People would buy that stuff. The people that didn't could do it the old way.

You don't look at the big picture. What works for one game may not work for another. FFXI already had a lot of players leaving because they didn't wanna spend 15 bucks a month for the fee, due to content release slowing down. How much do you think the remaining people or the people coming back would spend on things they can already do or get as they are now? For that scheme to work, first you need lots of content, something this game is massively lacking right now, and second a player base that isn't as set in their ways as this one. This may work on a newer game where people are used to this from the start. Right now, if you made an empyrean buyable all the people who invested months in it would feel betrayed and angered about a bunch of rich kids buying them because they can just afford them. These are people who invested years in building their characters. And the few rich kids who would actually do that would not be enough to make up for the lost market.

To make this a viable business idea you'd need new content tailored to precisely this business scheme. And seeing how SE goes about updating content, it would not work out with any kind of profit for anyone involved, least of all the players.

Finally, you have one thing going for newer games that also doesn't apply to FFXI: advertising. When a MMORPG goes free to play, new players try it out which gives a boost in subscriptions. That way they get to see the game and can decide to invest money into it if they want to. But who would try out FFXI if it goes free to play when there are several games over a decade younger that are also free to play? Why choose a game that resorts to a free to play scheme to stave off its own death due to lack of content over any of the other alternatives?

Right now FFXI is still shitting out money for SE, because it provides just enough attraction to keep a core group of players interested, and even many of those are just there because of the break from XIV before the final ARR release and the promise of SoA looming on the horizon. But who would actually buy things for this game if they don't intend to play it for long or just wanna check the waters? New players certainly wouldn't. That would be something catered almost exclusively to older players, but they are the ones that least of all need it.

It's not paranoia if it actually has those level of effects on a game.

There are and always have been better ways to deal with RMT, just like there are better ways to deal with cheating and botting, but SE has demonstrated that they like to punish everyone just to make it slightly harder for the bad guys to operate freely. Not that it's really having any effect.

You are wrong, people would do it the old way and not quit, some would but they are babies that think they are special and entitled. Many people would play the old way, and many people new to the game would pay for some of that content.

You have no way of knowing that, just like I can't know for sure that you're absolutely wrong, although I'd be willing to bet you good money on it. I know how I feel and I know how all of my friends feel, and we can barely stay interested in the game as it is. If they let us buy everything we currently have to play the game for, most of us would quit, and statistics say we won't be the only ones.

Not sure if you know this, but a lot of people bought gil with real money, and the majority of people didn't quit because so many people were buying gil, in fact, many of them bought gil and lied about it.

You really like to just say stuff without any proof or evidence if you feel like it'll support your argument.

Guess what? I heard DDO shut down because Turbine, Inc. is completely broke, and the producers of LotR say their free to play scheme gave them cancer. Also, it reportedly causes abortions.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

People have listed examples of successful free-to-play MMO's (for varying degrees of "successful"), but how many FFXI players play those games currently, let alone have spent money in one?

It seems to me that if the playerbase would love a free-to-play system, they'd be doing so already in another game. FFXI is only ten years old, after all...

(And I'm still in favor of an unlimited free trial.)

[Solonuke]

If you calculate in inflation, for me the game has become a lot cheaper to play over the years (depends on where you live of course). Other games that do use subscription models today have a subscription fee of 15 dollars.

[Zarchery]

The monthly fees I spend on this game save me money that I would otherwise spend on other video games or other forms of entertainment. It's cheap if you ask me.

I've had times when I didn't think the game offered me anything to do and wasn't worth the money. What did I do? I suspended my content IDs and stopped playing. I didn't say "this game is not worth the money, make it free!" I said "this game is not worth the money, I choose not to pay and choose not to play".

[Toadie-Odie]

The monthly fees I spend on this game save me money that I would otherwise spend on other video games or other forms of entertainment. It's cheap if you ask me.

I've had times when I didn't think the game offered me anything to do and wasn't worth the money. What did I do? I suspended my content IDs and stopped playing. I didn't say "this game is not worth the money, make it free!" I said "this game is not worth the money, I choose not to pay and choose not to play".

Yeah, as a mother of three children I gladly dropped my pool hall playing days to play this game instead as my entertainment. I don't need a babysitter just to play the game and it costs me a crap ton less a month then what I was shelling out weekly at the pool hall, because of course you don't just pay for the table. You go there and you end up buying drinks, snacks, mess with the jukebox, etc. I still love a good game of 9-ball even if I stink at it, but I love feeding my kids more.

I don't mind paying a monthly fee for this game. I believe in supporting companies I wish to see continue to operate and produce the products I want. This is how you vote with your dollar. Granted sometimes they do things to the game I don't agree with or don't fully understand but so far they haven't ruined my overall enjoyment factor. If they had I would have gone somewhere else already.

[Rezeak]

While some people don't feel $12.95 is alot, i feel it's that the content released is not worth the cost. Before ya say it, i have shifted into paying for once every 2-4+ months for this game cause it's not worth it.

Example...

I spent about $13 on Steam and got Dead space 1 and 2 and Bioshock 1 and 2 (steam sale \o/)

When i spent $39~ on FFXI i got meeble burrow (which i was only allowed to play for 10 mins a day) and redone Limbus/odin.

Really as value for you money goes FFXI atm is terrible it may be better when we get SoA but ofc you'll be paying +$30-40 as well.

That said, if you do get 30 hour+ enjoyment of FFXI a month via exsisting/new content then it's worth but for alot of people like my self money can be better spent.

The biggest thing with me is that it feel that SE knows it's puts small amount of content and slap in a ton of time sinks which kinda ruins the fun (at least in my opinion) which i wish it didn't cause i'd love to spend a month w/ Meebles and be at the stage were i can just be social and help others out with things like nyzle but it just feels i'm stuck in time sink after time sink.

As for f2p, i really think SE need to listen to the commuity before they changed anything that major cause they'd prolly just hit us with more time sinks which you could skip for cash /shrug

[Bizniztyme]

While some people don't feel $12.95 is alot, i feel it's that the content released is not worth the cost. Before ya say it, i have shifted into paying for once every 2-4+ months for this game cause it's not worth it.

Example...

I spent about $13 on Steam and got Dead space 1 and 2 and Bioshock 1 and 2 (steam sale \o/)

When i spent $39~ on FFXI i got meeble burrow (which i was only allowed to play for 10 mins a day) and redone Limbus/odin.

Really as value for you money goes FFXI atm is terrible it may be better when we get SoA but ofc you'll be paying +$30-40 as well.

That said, if you do get 30 hour+ enjoyment of FFXI a month via exsisting/new content then it's worth but for alot of people like my self money can be better spent.

The biggest thing with me is that it feel that SE knows it's puts small amount of content and slap in a ton of time sinks which kinda ruins the fun (at least in my opinion) which i wish it didn't cause i'd love to spend a month w/ Meebles and be at the stage were i can just be social and help others out with things like nyzle but it just feels i'm stuck in time sink after time sink.

As for f2p, i really think SE need to listen to the commuity before they changed anything that major cause they'd prolly just hit us with more time sinks which you could skip for cash /shrug

Really? then why are you paying and playing? do yourself a favor and just cancel and never look back because you're too cheap to pay...good riddance....