Seems like alot of people want this game to become Free 2 Play. >.>

[A5ko]

Games like Planetside 2 are about to shake up how F2P MMO's are made. The engine that has been made for it is phenomenal and it's completely F2P. It blows engines like Frostbite out of the water.

Guild Wars 2 is only a stone's throw away from being F2P. It will be the future of MMO's, it doesn't mean the game won't lack polish. I mean compare GW2 to FFXIV. At it's release, i'd have assumed FFXIV was the F2P option.

[Volfield]

Games like Planetside 2 are about to shake up how F2P MMO's are made. The engine that has been made for it is phenomenal and it's completely F2P. It blows engines like Frostbite out of the water.

Guild Wars 2 is only a stone's throw away from being F2P. It will be the future of MMO's, it doesn't mean the game won't lack polish. I mean compare GW2 to FFXIV. At it's release, i'd have assumed FFXIV was the F2P option.

And to some degree GW2 is the better MMO experience, more hassle free, plays less like a job. Less PC demand = wider audience. Most of the comments i've seen on GW2 trailers is that it would kill "crappy" MMOs like XIV and another MMO i forget the name.

[Lirion]

MMO games that are built from the start with free to play in mind are in my experience better than games that start as pay to play and then go free to play because of whatever reason. Like GW2 vs TOR. And people shouting they wont play this unless it's free to play are probably the same ones that would never pay to play any MMO game, or they're already playing another MMO and don't want to pay for another one.

[Platinumstorm]

If you look at all the MMOs that released with a p2p business model that flopped you'll also see they all have 1 thing in common. They reskinned WoW, maybe made it a little flashier, and made it easier because casuals like easy things. But...easy gets boring quick and why play a dumbed down WoW clone, when the original is still up and running and doing what it does better than the copy-cats? I played SWTOR. Literally felt like WoW with a face-lift, lightsabers, and robots. THAT's why I left the game, not because of the subscription fee.

This is spot on. I think companies see Rift as the game that copied WoW and created a subscriber base, so they think they can do it to and find success at a larger degree. It just isn't true. WoW has so much combat polish, so much UI polish, and is balanced between both casual players and hardcore [although it skewed too far to casual in Cataclysm by making old content completely obsolete] that nothing can compete with it in its very own sub-genre.

Also, seriously guys, World of Warcraft released in 2004. It's made on a modified 2001 engine that has seen some significant, but not completely over the top graphical revamps. They put out beautiful and attractive environments.

Honestly with the variety of games that we have today on different technologies today it surprises me that some people still demand only the highest polygon count.

World of Warcraft:
2012
http://thekots.com/Platinumstorm/WoW...eternity02.png
http://thekots.com/Platinumstorm/WoW.../uldumport.png

2008
http://www.thekots.com/Platinumstorm...gardewoods.jpg

2004-2006
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18930059/Mi...stratholme.jpg

Xenoblade Chronicles [480p stretched on a 40-42" tv]
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18930059/Mi...hots/xeno2.png

Some people really bother to trash these because of polygon count? pfft.

[RoyalSibby]

I honestly Don't get why people can't Sacrifice 2 Value meals at Mcdonalds/Burger King/ KFC whatever. I mean come on.. every time Something new goes up on FFXIV People say "F2P"? or "F2P or no play" idn why but nothing in this world is free even F2P, and some people say F2P gives Regular Updates just as a P2P would, Is that true?

Also, Isn't F2P games Generally have Crappy Graphics? ( Low Quality because its F2P?) Just something that's been bugging me lately and I'm not sure why people just want this kind of thing just because it has the word "Free" in it. >.>.

FFXIV will go F2P after people stop complain about simple things. Hahah like how bad jumping is. XD

[Levian]

MMO games that are built from the start with free to play in mind are in my experience better than games that start as pay to play and then go free to play because of whatever reason. Like GW2 vs TOR. And people shouting they wont play this unless it's free to play are probably the same ones that would never pay to play any MMO game, or they're already playing another MMO and don't want to pay for another one.

That's because the ones that were built around a subscription then jumped to a f2p format were failing miserably and went F2P to try and slow down the hemorrhaging. Only time will tell how well that tactic will work.

[Platinumstorm]

Games like Planetside 2 are about to shake up how F2P MMO's are made. The engine that has been made for it is phenomenal and it's completely F2P. It blows engines like Frostbite out of the water.

Guild Wars 2 is only a stone's throw away from being F2P. It will be the future of MMO's, it doesn't mean the game won't lack polish. I mean compare GW2 to FFXIV. At it's release, i'd have assumed FFXIV was the F2P option.

Planetside 2 is definitely a high quality for F2P games and MMOs [Tribes Ascend is another great one]. The big challenge here is if it will sustain a community with its "metagame] that didn't work out well in Planetside 1.

I wouldn't put down Frostbite, but the two were made with different goals in mind.

[Momita]

People say "F2P"? or "F2P or no play"

Who? >_>


/10char

[A5ko]

You have to get over what F2P actually is now. It's not just another shoddy Pay to Win grinder with terrible graphics. They are fast becoming triple A titles.

It is the future, whether you want to accept it or not doesn't matter.

[Levian]

I think companies see Rift as the game that copied WoW and created a subscriber base, so they think they can do it to and find success at a larger degree. It just isn't true. WoW has so much combat polish, so much UI polish, and is balanced between both casual players and hardcore [although it skewed too far to casual in Cataclysm by making old content completely obsolete] that nothing can compete with it in its very own sub-genre.

This is worth expanding on. When FFXI, WoW and Everquest II were released there was room for error and forgiveness for lack of polish. I mean what was their competition? EQ 1 Ultima Online, and Dark Age of Camelot? So if I didn't like FFXI, WoW, or EQ II at launch it was wait for them to fix the game, or go back to Dark ages of screw it, let me just go slit my wrists and get it over with.

That isn't the case now. There are a lot more polished games available. If you're going to release an MMO now and expect it to succeed, it needs to be polished on the same level. I don't mean will be playable within 6 months after release, with content worth doing coming in a year or 2 down the road. You really need to deliver from day 1, because the MMO playerbase has become quite unforgiving.

You wanna pander to WoW's crowd you need to do everything better than Blizzard does. Everything to the most minute detail. And even then I think you'd be lucky to get a solid user base. We've played World of Warcraft, if we still wanted to play it, we would be. A lot of us are looking for something different.

Look at AAA titles in any other genre. Halo isn't popular because it reskinned Call of Duty and threw some aliens in the mix. It's a whole different game. Battlefield doesn't have a large playerbase because it copied CoD's playbook either. They already realize it would be suicide on multiple fronts. Same can be said for RPG's. Mass effect didn't reskin FFX. For the love of God, FFX-II didn't even reskin FFX. Totally different games with different mechanics. Why the MMO-RPG genre doesn't seem to get this I will never understand.

As to the future...if you can predict it well enough to say that monthly subscription based games are definitely out please feel free to look into your crystal ball and send me a PM with the Mega Millions lotto numbers for this Tuesday's drawing. When I'm a millionaire, I'll happily lend creedence to your inclinations as to what the future is. Until then, all I see is the subscription based MMO market learning the hard way that you can't re-skin an old game or release a bag of crap with promises to fix it later and expect people to pay for it.