FF14's path hauntly similar to SWTOR

[Kerowyn]

The biggest issue with SWToR was on release we were promised a story driven game with story driven Content Updates. However after the release of the game the executives at EA in their boundless stupidity canned or forced out most of the original game designers and turned it into a F2P Game cause that's what EA likes. Buy a game then milk the players for all their worth with DLC or Cash Shop purchases in order to have all the new shinies.

[ZephyrAM]

Lets not forget that it isn't really considered that unhealthy for players to take breaks from a MMO, even repeatedly, so long as they come back at patches or just over time. Yoshida himself said in an interview that he was okay with it, and believed it was actually better for the overall life of the game.

People play other things, they don't need to stay in one game for years in order for the game to be considered 'good', or even successful.

[Kaze3434]

before anyone else posts, please, look at OPs post history.

[Tharian]

I don't know about that...I feel like western MMO pretty much pushed for F2P model because F2P was trending in Asian MMO so strongly. I've been trying out F2P MMO on and off since my FFXI WOTG days and all of them have been an Asian MMO (Korean and Japanese). I don't know a single Asian MMO that thrived on sub model beside FFXI and recently FFXIV:ARR.

Also, I believe online gambling is still illegal in some form in the US. One of the Japanese F2P MMO I played had to remove any casino themed setup to comply with the law. Just my 2cent.

That is actually incorrect. All of your Asian Free to Play Games are generally the American Ports of Asian MMORPG's such as Perfect World International. For example, Perfect World Beijing is still a subscription based MMORPG, even though the American version of the game is Free to Play. This is because the majority of the American version's cash shop items are actually illegal in China. I am uncertain on Korean Games, as I have not played very many of them. Meanwhile the only really notable Japanese MMORPG (notice I said notable, not that it is actually the only one to get across the pacific) that has made it over to the United States before Final Fantasy XIV, was in fact Final Fantasy XI, and that is still a subscription based game. So stating that Asian Games are largely Free to Play is in fact a fallacy.

Online Gambling for the most part is illegal in most of the United States, though most of the states in which that holds true, do not consider the Mystery Boxes that you can buy in most Free to Play MMO Cash Shops to actually be a form of Gambling. Asia is another matter entirely though.

[Kerowyn]

before anyone else posts, please, look at OPs post history.

Just did and it s quite funny. Nothing but QQ threads. LOL

[Namasu]

snip

Well I'll presume that your experience is mostly with Chinese MMOs, mainly PW but I still don't think that it's wrong to say most Asian MMOs are F2P nowadays. Out of the 15~ F2P MMOs that I've tried, roughly 10 was Korean, 3 Japanese, and 2 Western. I've also played two MMOs made by Korea and Japan but hosted in China and they were both also kept as F2P by the Chinese publishers. So from my experience yes. Most F2P games came from Asia. Some were a big success and Western market tried to imitate. So yea if you are an MMO researcher and have the statistic on hand then it's your win. Otherwise, I'm just giving my thought and gonna stop before I derail the thread.

[Tharian]

Well I'll presume that your experience is mostly with Chinese MMOs, mainly PW but I still don't think that it's wrong to say most Asian MMOs are F2P nowadays. Out of the 15~ F2P MMOs that I've tried, roughly 10 was Korean, 3 Japanese, and 2 Western. I've also played two MMOs made by Korea and Japan but hosted in China and they were both also kept as F2P by the Chinese publishers. So from my experience yes. Most F2P games came from Asia. Some were a big success and Western market tried to imitate. So yea if you are an MMO researcher and have the statistic on hand then it's your win. Otherwise, I'm just giving my thought and gonna stop before I derail the thread.

Like I said, I don't have much experience with Korean MMO's. But I will assume we are talking South Korean Made MMO's. In which case, it is entirely likely that they could have a thriving Free to Play MMO industry. Afterall South Korea is just as much a Democratic Nation as the United States is, and as such is just as driven on Capitalism as the United States is.

As to your experience with Japanese Free to Play MMO's? Well, I won't really comment except to say that of all the Japanese MMO's the only ones that are really well known, and pulling in big numbers of customers (that I am aware of at any rate) are Final Fantasy XI, and Final Fantasy XIV: ARR. Other than those two, would any of the others actually qualify as an AAA game? I suppose I could be missing some by Nintendo, but I never took Nintendo for the type of Company to go into the Free to Play Market...

And I would be willing to agree to disagree. I am personally now living by the catch phrase "Everyone has an opinion, and they're all wrong." and since my views on this matter are largely opinion based, I am in a 99% chance of being wrong.

[Jamez82]

I played swtor when it was released. I had a lot of fun woth it until I hit level 50 and found my jedi guardian job which was supposed to be a tank ended up with (irrc) one taunt and one aoe taunt on large reuse timers. I remember trying to do groups (forget the name, flashpoints?) and being completely unable to hold aggro for long encounters. It was ridiculous.

Would have made a damn good single player game with continous expansions.

[SDaemon]

I played swtor when it was released. I had a lot of fun woth it until I hit level 50 and found my jedi guardian job which was supposed to be a tank ended up with (irrc) one taunt and one aoe taunt on large reuse timers. I remember trying to do groups (forget the name, flashpoints?) and being completely unable to hold aggro for long encounters. It was ridiculous.

Would have made a damn good single player game with continous expansions.

I remember taking a break for awhile and coming back to a completely ruined sith sorcerer healing playstyle totally ruined the groove! lol

[Tharian]

They have by and large fixed the problems with Sith Sorcerer (all tree's) and Jedi Guardian not having good taunts.