Free to Play vs Pay to Play Ideas

[Jynx]

Well, in my original post I had nothing about buying gear that gave you any stats of any kind. Also, I never mentioned holding back any content and forcing them to pay for it. (Even though, technically that is what an expansion is and that is what we will have in a pay to play game.) It's really not that different.

Then you have the fastest failing F2P MMO on the market. They need to make massive ammount of cash from microtransactions to run a F2P MMO. They need to charge for almost ANYTHING fun, becuase otherwise people don't pay and you end up bleeding money.

Sorry I assumed you tried to pitch a actual F2P model, becasue the one in your OP would bankrupt anyone stupid enough to try it. If anything it sounds more like something a Pay 2 play game would implement to supliment cash flow.

IE: WoW and it's many vanity items.

[Eldaena]

LoL is not an MMO and from what I've heard there is often a wait to log on, because it's free 2 play and servers are limited.

Hm, I see. I didn't know that. My free to play game experiences are limited, as so are my pay to play ones. I never liked the idea of paying for a game constantly, especially with things that you don't actually own. Any day they can simply close servers and your character is gone. Everything you did is gone, and all the money you paid (free to play or pay to play, either or) is gone. I was just thinking that a cash shop, temporarily or otherwise, could be something fun to play with while we are still playing and server are still alive that also helps pull in some money to fund the project as well as HOPEFULLY get things moving in a direction where they feel they could make a pay to play game, if that is more profitable for them and the players.

[Krausus]

Wealthy or not, I can say with confidence that a large portion of players and ex-players had issues with the development and what felt like rushed or lazy content of this game. The idea of the cash shop would be something that could be fun to do whilst trying to help promote a better game overall. You're right, that they are wealthy, and it should have produced a stellar game. But right now, it's not. And other than making suggestions here, what more can I really do to help? I can't just donate to them. They won't start charging to play until it's really ready for it. So...why not a cash shop? IF it doesn't unbalance the game, why not?

well a few reasons,

1. FTP have a certain reputation that could turn a lot of the pro P2P players away and could also bring in a lot of the rabble that flood FTP games. (dont try and deny it FTP MMOS are flooded with idiots, though there are exceptions such as some FTP that started out P2P).

2. Thining out the development team. Currently the team is more then likely way to busy to be adding in a cash shop, cash shop UI, cash shop Items, creating visuals for said items, balancing said items.

3. Tacky, FFXIV is quite a serious game it is heavily lore influenced and styles are set up a certain way, I certainly dont want to see a bunch of people running around with wings that do nothing or modern clothing.

4. Its a business model. Im not a business professional but Im willing to be that switching up business models is no small task.

[Kam]

1. Not everyone is saying no.

Recall 3.

2. Some people are convinced a free to play system here would be like <insert their bad experience or rumor they heard about some game that happened to be free to play.>

You are misreading

3. At least others are polite. You need to stop trolling my thread.

Opinions on a forum.

[Eldaena]

Then you have the fastest failing F2P MMO on the market. They need to make massive ammount of cash from microtransactions to run a F2P MMO. They need to charge for almost ANYTHING fun, becuase otherwise people don't pay and you end up bleeding money.

Sorry I assumed you tried to pitch a actual F2P model, becasue the one in your OP would bankrupt anyone stupid enough to try it. If anything it sounds more like something a Pay 2 play game would implement to supliment cash flow.

IE: WoW and it's many vanity items.

Well, I'd have to disagree with free to play games having to make their 'fun' content only accessible with real money. Again, I turn to Vindictus, which is an enjoyable, action, mmo, that I haven't had to spend a dime on to enjoy. The combat is fun. It has a decent story. Pretty graphics and is fun to play with others, etc. I did do free surveys to get some NX, but just to get hair, inner armor, and dyes for gear. Nothing I really needed, but just fun to do. Everything else is simply what the game has already that I've done. And they've been updating pretty regularly too with weekly maintenance for fixes and such.

[Eldaena]

well a few reasons,

1. FTP have a certain reputation that could turn a lot of the pro P2P players away and could also bring in a lot of the rabble that flood FTP games. (dont try and deny it FTP MMOS are flooded with idiots, though there are exceptions such as some FTP that started out P2P).

2. Thining out the development team. Currently the team is more then likely way to busy to be adding in a cash shop, cash shop UI, cash shop Items, creating visuals for said items, balancing said items.

3. Tacky, FFXIV is quite a serious game it is heavily lore influenced and styles are set up a certain way, I certainly dont want to see a bunch of people running around with wings that do nothing or modern clothing.

4. Its a business model. Im not a business professional but Im willing to be that switching up business models is no small task.

All your points are right on the mark, I wouldn't want any of those things either. But that's why SE could do it differently and not the way people have come to think it works. They don't have to call it "F2P" or "Cash Shop." It could just all have it's own flavor and so and so forth. I don't want ridiculous wings or glowing weapons either. But, I wouldn't mind more stylized gear, hair, etc that fit in Final Fantasy.

Right now, the game has a bad reputation. And even if it becomes wonderful, it's hard to see people flocking back to it after being heartbroken, so I agree whatever they decide to do payment wise will most likely lose some of their current base. There are pros and cons to both sides of this coin and that's why I opened this thread to talk about it.

[Kam]

But, I wouldn't mind more stylized gear, hair, etc that fit in Final Fantasy.

There have been many threads about the lack of character options. Why does a cash shop need to be involved...

[Ava]

I vote for a hybrid model. Free to play but subscribers have everything unlocked as long as they continue to pay the monthly fee. For free players, features are unlocked one by one via "cash shop", such as retainers, character slots, advanced jobs (if applicable), certain quests, holiday events, etc. This way people can still play for free, and people who want to pay can pay and have everything unlocked from the start.

Microtransactions are incredibly profitable. I hate F2P games but it would only be logical for them to include some kind of microtransaction model. If it was flat out F2P without a subscription option, I probably wouldn't continue playing because I feel flat out F2P is bad.

[Krausus]

All your points are right on the mark, I wouldn't want any of those things either. But that's why SE could do it differently and not the way people have come to think it works. They don't have to call it "F2P" or "Cash Shop." It could just all have it's own flavor and so and so forth. I don't want ridiculous wings or glowing weapons either. But, I wouldn't mind more stylized gear, hair, etc that fit in Final Fantasy.

and all this could be added to the game without switching to a free to play business model, I dont think you are really PRO FTP business model, you said it yourself your experience is limited, I think you are just anti monthly subscription. Which is fine but take it from the folks with more experience, FTP MMOs are subpar when it comes to quality when comparing to P2P.

[Eldaena]

I vote for a hybrid model. Free to play but subscribers have everything unlocked as long as they continue to pay the monthly fee. For free players, features are unlocked one by one via "cash shop", such as retainers, character slots, advanced jobs (if applicable), certain quests, holiday events, etc. This way people can still play for free, and people who want to pay can pay and have everything unlocked from the start.

Microtransactions are incredibly profitable. I hate F2P games but it would only be logical for them to include some kind of microtransaction model. If it was flat out F2P without a subscription option, I probably wouldn't continue playing because I feel flat out F2P is bad.

That's a good idea that I think people could get behind. I will edit my original post to include an "Or Both" option. lol