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

[NefGP]

Let's be fair - I'm not knocking F2P entirely - there are some pretty fun, well made F2P games.

However I just don't think you can really make and sustain an MMO of this size & quality on an F2P model - especially if you want to preserve game balance. That's why Blizzard refuses to raise the level cap beyond 20 for WoW, and just look at how badly SWTOR is tanking.

Some people just can't come to terms that you might actually have to pay for quality goods.

[Antipika]

I just don't think you can really make and sustain an MMO of this size & quality on an F2P model - especially if you want to preserve game balance.

Yeah you "just don't think", while the majority of the companies out there (and their trained staff of professional in the field of business management) think otherwise. I wonder who is right. A bunch of players on forums or the people in charge of designing these business model and generating profit for the company they work for.

As for Blizzard and WoW, it's completely irrelevant. It's like saying why SE doesn't make XI a F2P. WoW is an old generation game, it has its own audience, it will keep it for a while now. Absolutely no reason to go F2P when you still have ~10M sub on an 8 y/o game. Just like XI have no reason to go F2P while it still generating an amazing stable income for SE.

If it was one or two companies making this choice we could always say "yeah they are probably wrong etc.", but it's almost everyone now. Even Yoshida said that SE is ready to explore alternative business models in the future but that for now, XIV ARR was announced as P2P and will be delivered as P2P and then they will see. At least he isn't as stubborn as some people in here, completely closed to all alternative.

Because there are a lot of whiny, spoiled, entitled brats out there who can't grasp the concept that severs need maintenance and keeping 24/7 GM and other support for the game doesn't come cheap either. And don't forget about those regular updates we all love.

Because Diablo 3 doesn't have any servers. Bandwidth costs for MMOs represent only a tiny part of the monthly fee you pay. What cost the most is the manpower (DEVs and not Customer Support). CS is one of the cheapest manpower with QA... One DEV cost as much as 5~8 QA/CS employee. Most of CS is outsourced nowadays as well.

Updates cost a lot because it requires dev time, hence why MMO without sub usually try and sell expansions on a regular basis in order to generate income through product sales.

[Rannie]

Because Diablo 3 doesn't have any servers. Bandwidth costs for MMOs represent only a tiny part of the monthly fee you pay. What cost the most is the manpower (DEVs and not Customer Support). CS is one of the cheapest manpower with QA... One DEV cost as much as 5~8 QA/CS employee. Most of CS is outsourced nowadays as well.

Updates cost a lot because it requires dev time, hence why MMO without sub usually try and sell expansions on a regular basis in order to generate income through product sales.

you know if you call Se's na customer support line you're contacting California one of the most expensive states besides Alaska and Hawaii for Cost of living and they're in the LA Region as well... their Area code is 305. Also it's why they work on pst hours which are 9-5 so 12-8 est or edt whatever you want to call it at this point in time. So I doubt they're being paid cheaply

[Mijin]

Hey I have a great Idea! How about we add a RMAH to FFXIV when we go free to play! I hear it works great for diablo III.

/sarcasm

[cylia]

i vote for subscription system.
but it should be 8 euros / 10 $ by month to be attractive

for casual players a one day subscription should be available : around 0,25 euros / 0,30 $ by day
it could also be a pay by hour system : so 0,02 euros / 0,03 $ by hour.

Not sure if this model have been used in a lot of MMO but it looks fair no ?

but i think if a pay by day / pay by hour would be done, the compagny will ask for a higher price, it wont be proportional to month subscription that will be cheaper

it wont be like the example i gave earlier but more expansive, sadly : 0,50 $ /day and 0,05 $ / hour

[Rannie]

i vote for subcription system.
but it should be 8 euros / 10 $ by month to be attractive

for casual players a one day subcription should be available : around 0,25 euros / 0,30 $ by day
it could also be a pay by hour system : so 0,02 euros / 0,03 $ by hour.

Not sure if this model have been used in a lot of MMO but it looks fair no ?

actually with the plans that they're going for for subs here on the game isn't that bad to begin with

Legacy players for america pay 9.99 a month and can have up to 40 characters 8 max per server

entry sub will be 12.99 a month with a limit of 1 char per world max 8 and then there's the other one for

standard 14.99 and it's the same as the legacy but 5 dollars more which isn't that bad of a price

[Antipika]

you know if you call Se's na customer support line you're contacting California one of the most expensive states besides Alaska and Hawaii for Cost of living and they're in the LA Region as well... their Area code is 305. Also it's why they work on pst hours which are 9-5 so 12-8 est or edt whatever you want to call it at this point in time. So I doubt they're being paid cheaply

Yeah right, people not being paid cheap in a call center . You should start and look for a job in this sector and see how much you will get out of it Even if you take a "decent" salary for someone in a call center is California, try and compare it to the one of a developer in Tokyo...

Also protip: the number you dial means nothing. You can dial whatever area code you want, your call could be redirected anywhere without you knowing about it. You cannot determine where a call center is located. I'm not saying that SE support itself it outsourced (no way to confirm it from where we are), but it's just a common practice in the industry nowadays. All major companies outsource their support. They only keep a handful amount of employee on their company HQ just to supervise the whole thing.

As for the time you can call, seriously in which world are you living? Ever heard the word globalization? I can call my ISP support during daytime while their call center is in India. Are you aware that you have people working 24/7 everywhere around the world for that? Some employees in these call center even receive "culture training" in order to know more about the country they are supporting. They also listen to the news and keep themselves informed about anything such as the weather so the customer feel like he is talking to someone nearby and the agent can hold a conversation about any kind of recent event happening 10,000km from where he is.

DEVs cost can hardly be reduced. If you want a quality game, you need good devs, that cost lot of money. And you cannot easily outsource all your devs. It's just not convenient and you don't save that much either. However for things like CS, you can save money easily, without impacting much customers

Not sure if this model have been used in a lot of MMO but it looks fair no ?

Pay by day or even per hour of gameplay is a model that is widely used in Asia (just like for internet back in the day, you can purchase bundle of 20/50/100 hours etc.). For some reason it never made in it the West. At least I'm not aware of MMOs using this system. Closest I know is Dofus that allows 1 week subscription. But that's mainly so young people can pay using their (parents) phone.

[Rannie]

Yeah right, people not being paid cheap in a call center . You should start and look for a job in this sector and see how much you will get out of it Even if you take a "decent" salary for someone in a call center is California, try and compare it to the one of a developer in Tokyo...

Also protip: the number you dial means nothing. You can dial whatever area code you want, your call could be redirected anywhere without you knowing about it. You cannot determine where a call center is located. I'm not saying that SE support itself it outsourced (no way to confirm it from where we are), but it's just a common practice in the industry nowadays. All major companies outsource their support. They only keep a handful amount of employee on their company HQ just to supervise the whole thing.

As for the time you can call, seriously in which world are you living? Ever heard the word globalization? I can call my ISP support during daytime while their call center is in India. Are you aware that you have people working 24/7 everywhere around the world for that? Some employees in these call center even receive "culture training" in order to know more about the country they are supporting. They also listen to the news and keep themselves informed about anything such as the weather so the customer feel like he is talking to someone nearby and the agent can hold a conversation about any kind of recent event happening 10,000km from where he is.

DEVs cost can hardly be reduced. If you want a quality game, you need good devs, that cost lot of money. And you cannot easily outsource all your devs. It's just not convenient and you don't save that much either. However for things like CS, you can save money easily, without impacting much customers

Pay by day or even per hour of gameplay is a model that is widely used in Asia (just like for internet back in the day, you can purchase bundle of 20/50/100 hours etc.). For some reason it never made in it the West. At least I'm not aware of MMOs using this system. Closest I know is Dofus that allows 1 week subscription. But that's mainly so young people can pay using their (parents) phone.

here's a protip. I've called up Se Customer service center already and spoke and talked to them about being in California. Second of all I'm already in a customer support job already and the number you have to call for my job is a 1-800 number. There are a lot more call centers here in the states than you realize and they get paid more money than you realize. No Se Na's hours of operation for calling are a set time from 9 am to 5pm pst/pdt try calling outside of those time frames and you get a recording saying they're closed. I also know places say open for 24/7 I WORK IN A CALL CENTER. There are different ques that are open different hours My que closes at 11pm EST/EDT and sometimes earlier due to certain holidays. You don't need to preach to me about it because I AM in that type of business.

PS. I've been working in customer support for almost 5 years now with the same company.
PPS: I get paid well above minimum wage at my job. The only issue I'm having with money is Fmla and not being able to work a full 8 hours without losing my voice to laryngitis. Otherwise for a Single woman who has no children I make damn good money at my job. tyvm

[Starlord]

*sigh* I'll wait until it goes free to play.... assuming that it goes f2p

Youtuber comment, its like half the world is in Debt or something x.x meh .

[Elexia]

Youtuber comment, its like half the world is in Debt or something x.x meh .

This is technically true lol, but yes most hate paying for good things..thus why DRM plagues us all.