Should FFXIV go permanently F2P ?

[GrandTickler]

i rather p2p for the game instead of it becoming f2p AKA: pay to win/look good.

[Korbei]

I'm inherently opposed to F2P models as they open the door to 'pay to win' models which defeats the purpose of playing a game to begin with.

With that said, I have severe doubts that FFXIV will ever succeed with a front-loaded entry fee of $60 in addition to a monthly fee. One of those things has to change. I would prefer it to be the $60 price.

The game should be a free download on both PC and PS3 with 30 days free full access up to rank 20.

[Jdog]

If they made it P2P alot of people would quit, i know i would, with it being F2P people who wouldn't give the game a chance for it to get better..will. Word of mouth gets out, people tell their friends about how much it's changed, and ff14 is able to restore their dead community. It being F2P for now until it gets better is a VERY smart move by SE...expecially since they botched the release and put such a sore taste in peoples mouth most people quit, i just came to the game after having quit a couple months after release *yes i was one of those idiots who pre-ordered the collectors edition* i noticed the game community was WAY less...it saddens me, i hope they can save this game since im totally done with World of warcraft etc and im in search for a good new game to invest my time in.

[RogueDK]

Reading through the replies here I sense a latent "fear" that going F2P might reduce quality of content and make the game less able to compete with the P2P alternatives. "This game is F2P and thus must be crap".

I gotta say that I find this very interesting. I would never try and change peoples minds about this topic. I was only curious as to how people would feel if FFXIV went F2P. That said, I can't help remind you all that FFXIV is in real trouble as it is. Sure tons of stuff have been changed, and yes the game will be close to a completely different game once SE manages to implement most of the stuff they have planned.
The sad fact is however that MMO's rarely get second chances. And once released, have a very small window of opportunity to attract new players. I don't have to remind you all of how most reviews went for this game, and its not likely that they will be revised, no matter how much work SE put into it. New MMO's hit the market every day, why should they return to re-review an "old" horrid (in thier minds) game, when they have others and newer ones that need their time and effort. (Not to mention attention got from info-starving people waiting to hear news about their favorite games. They just attract more people by reviewing new games instead of old ones.)

Fortunately for SE, FFXIV will get a second chance once the PS3 version of the game get released. I would just hate to see it populated by primarily console-owners. I have nothing against them as such (lie! :P) but if FFXIV gets a rep as a console game, then SE might, just might, favor them once it comes to expansions. And most PC people and console people simply wants different things from their game.

Then theres the fact that allot of once-P2P games have turned F2P. And doing better for it honestly. I heard Age Of Conan got a nice little comeback when they turned F2P. So did EQ2 and lots of other games. Ok so they did not all go completely F2P, but imo if your going F2P, might as well do it right.
Going F2P might just get some more people to check FFXIV out.

Oh and the most successfull MMO ever, if measured by accounts is a F2P game. Last I heard Maple Story had like 300 million players. Most of them Korean and Chinese, but 300mil. I think thats really impressive for a F2Pgame. An old school side-scrolling one at that. ^.^

Keep them opinions ticking in. If SE should start thinking this over, (although most of you don't want them to it seems ^^), they need to do so asap.

[Zemeckis]

This game is really good it's just the grind to 18+ is the learning curve and a true test of patience.

[Medura]

If it becomes p2p i will quit, oh and i have only posted two times btw.
If you want it to be worth playing, tell them what you want, for one thing is sure, it will go p2p, maybe not today, maybe not tommorow, but we all know it will be.

[PanTone]

But that would lead to most players quitting because they don't see why they should pay for a broken game, and they are kind of right.
Charging fees NOW of all times when the game is just starting to get better could break it's neck.

A "donate" option would be nice though, so we can support the process if we want to

I agree with this 100%... and even with the donate button. I would like to support the efforts of the creatives behind FFXIV. I mean I have Deus Ex pre-ordered (next week yay!) and am looking forward to the new Tomb Raider but... am I really supporting the part of S-E that is behind this game?, I doubt it.

but ya, F2P = nooooooo

[Arondight]

No, no, and no.

F2P measns low budget which means weak content.
With that you also get a bunch of annoying kids playing because they don't have to ask mommy or daddy for their credit card.
Even worse, a cash shop could ruin the game. For cash shops to be of any use to the devs, they need to provide overpowered items you just can't play without otherwise you would only get the free stuff in the game.

I've played F2P before and I don't want to see FFXIV going down that path.

Oh and yeah charging now = suicide. I'm all for a donating system though. I want to thank Yoshida and his team for their work without loosing half the playerbase (that's what charging now would mean).

[roxasora]

I think you people are to worried about kids invading its not a easy game with a ton of combat and bears don't drop swords they drop bear meat i think the nature of ffxiv will drive them away a bit.

[Darrkness]

I'm against this as while we don't have a great community at times, all the F2P games I've tried have had much worse.
You generally just Pay to get the best, so little/no reward for putting in the and effort.

I think the term here is "You get what you pay for" which is very evident in this game. the graphics are some of the best i've seen in a while, along with other factors as the quickness of patches and whatnot. There is also the fact that when it dose become P2P you pay for individual character slots which is a new concept for me as i'm more used to at least 5-10 character slots per server such as CoH and WoW.