FF14 stay Pay-To-Play please! (F2P = No thanks!)

[myerg]

hell no , FREE TO PLAY ALL THE WAY !!!!!!!

tramp!!!!!!!!!!!

[Preypacer]

Free to play generally (even though it is perhapps erroneous) refers to any MMO without a subscription. If FFXIV "went" f2p, you'd still have to buy the software so it won't technically be "free." to pick it up and play. DDO and LOTRO both "went free to play' but many people originally paid money for the software, making them technically not free to play.

You're trying to devise your own definitions here, but all you're doing is mangling and mixing already well-established ones.

F2P has always referred to a game - MMOs in this case - that you can download for free, install for free and play for free. There is zero monetary output required to get in and begin playing, hence it is "free to play" (technically speaking).

Here's a great and quite thorough article about it.

Revenue is derived 100% from Cash Shop/microtransaction sales that are "optional", but typically highly compulsory, with cash shop items created and sold based on research of what kinds of things people are most likely to spend more money on - namely convenience, power and anything that makes them "competitive", or makes them "stand out". Occasionally a developer will get bold (or stupid) and dip their toes into the "pay-to-win" category by selling items that give a clear advantage to the buyer. That has been the definition of it since long before the idea was ever introduced to the Western market and it was still exclusive to Eastern MMO markets.

GW1, GW2 and others like that already have their own term, which is "Buy To Play". It's a much newer term than P2P or F2P, but like the other two, it describes the revenue model perfectly. You buy the game, and then you do not pay a subscription. However, you will have to buy expansion packs to access their content. Also, B2P games typically also have a Cash Shop, which is basically just an alternative to charging a sub fee.

LoTRO and DDO switched to a so-called "hybrid" model, where you could either download and play a heavily restricted version of the game for which you'd have to purchase additional content with either cash or a shit-load of in-game grinding. Sometimes it's referred to as freemium.

[Preypacer]

GW2 is Free to Play. You Buy the Game, You Play for Free. XIV You Buy the Game, and you Pay to Play.

Wrong.

Free To Play has been an established term with a very specific application/meaning for years now. Your "common sense" does not override that. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Here. Go educate yourself a little.

Ignore precedent and established definitions all you like. Stick your fingers in your ears and scream "lalalalala I'm right and you're wrong". You'll just look like a willfully ignorant jackass in the process. But hey, if that's what you wanna do... I won't stop ya.

As for the rest of your post... it's a bunch of baseless conjecture, spin-doctoring, ad hominems and back-pedaling. But I will comment on a couple interesting bits...

To say someone is "trying to get away with something" implies that the party involved is doing something shady with the intention of "not getting caught". That's the classic and standard usage of that phrase. Using it with regards to SE charging subscriptions implies that "SE is trying to pull something over on their players without their players knowing it". If you didn't mean that, then you chose your words poorly and should choose more carefully next time. Unless you're going to try and argue that your own personal meaning of that phrase is the right one, and the established one is wrong?

FFXI is losing subs over time because it's a 10 year-old game. And yet, it's still maintaining ~300k players and making them a solid profit. You're sitting there typing up all this info about "why FFXI is still sub-based" as though you actually have a clue; as though you've some kind of insider info of the goings-on at SE HQ or something lol. Think before you type these things, viion.

Am I angry at you? Nope. Not at all. I don't even know you, and I don't get angry at anonymous people on the internet. Not worth the energy. Do I get passionate and caught up in the topic at times? Sure. Ignorant misuse of established terms and phrases is a personal pet peeve of mine because it needlessly complicates and confuses what would otherwise be an otherwise straight-forward discussion. But that's still not anger.

Oh, and before you tell others to get their head out of their ass, you'd best try taking your own advice first.

[Norack]

I wouldnt play it if it was F2P. I played F2P games before, not as in depth and fun, and I dont have enough money to play a F2P game anymore these days. I say a F2P game not a TF2P game so dont freak out on me XD

[-S-a-g-e]

GW2 (GW1, it is a great game, like XI)
TERA (soon)
SWTOR
DCUO (not really fantasy but it is still an role playing game + its on PS3)
APB (kind of pay to win tho, but its still Free to play)
Aion
War/Battle of Immortals
RaiderZ
Crystal Saga
Bless (Up coming, not out yet)

I also expect ArchAge and Blade and Soul to be F2P, at least in the west.

At least half of the above have a bigger player-base than XIV and likely earned more money than XIV has so far.

You might not think they are great, good or polished mmo games, but thats your personal taste. WoW, World of Tanks, even Minecraft show graphics mean nothing these days so long as it has substance for the player.

What does XIV have to offer that you cant get for free else where? The only real thing is its World and Story, that is the only thing unique to this game because its unique by default, all other systems are in every other game. If the World and Story doesn't interest the person for 13$ a month (which is a lot to some people), thats losing players.

Now some say numbers dont mean anything to success, they kind of do. If you look at SWTOR it was all good, then people started leaving, and numbers was the first thing the media notice, it happened with XIV (thats why they took it out of the party menu). And if you and your friends dont play X MMO, there is a huge chance you wont either. If no one is playing the game, there's less likely to be new customers.

Now I am not saying F2P is the way to go, I am saying people need to stop living under a rock and being scared of it because it is a serious market and it is growing rapidly fast.

I dont think SE will ever go to it, not because of what it is, but because they believe in some sort of moral code and do things the way they want, not what everyone else does. XIV1.0 had huge loss, was free for a long time and they still made it pay 2 play, this proves that no matter what happens in the economy, XIV will do what XIV wants.

You can knock a few titles off your list as good titles that are F2P.

I would've said Aion but it is just barely able to make the cut.

SWTOR- It is F2P for all intents and purposes but is severally lacking and limited to what you can and cannot do in the F2P model and I am severely disappointed. It isn't good enough to make the list and just went F2P a few days ago.

TERA- Not F2P yet so that doesn't count because like Aion was P2P to start but lacked at being truly successful so they had to go with a F2P model. Tera is actually a great game just lacks in certain areas and I imagine it's F2P model will be much like SWTOR.

Rest of your list is okay but I wouldn't call them very good or polished and I have tried nearly all of them. (nor would anyone who has played these titles)

Main problem with F2P MMORPGs you literally end up spending more than 10-15$ a month on them for content etc and that is something that you should never have to do. With a monthly sub you are guaranteed content, patches, hot fixes and many other things that you may have to pay for separately. Like having the ability to mail items to people. In the end you do not have to pay for said content if you don't want to but if you want to have even remotely the same experience as you get from a sub based MMO you will end up spending more.

[Tatsuguy]

Someone had to make this thread jussayin

[Laraul]

F2P does *not* have to have cash shops or short cuts. You can do what WoW does. Why do you people object against that?

Everyone on these forums is LVL 50. Why would new people want to start this game if everyone else is 50 and they are 1? You people have it easy. You already got your year of free to play. New players may feel cheated.

Wait I have an idea. You get a subscription, you are 50 automatically. You don't, and you can't get past 30. I think that's fair.

[Riv]

Stating a F2P MMO's "active" accounts is like stating how many people are on Facebook. Stop trying to prove F2P games are good based on this "hard evidence".

All the F2P games listed suck.

ARR should definitely have a 30 day free trial, just like XIV did from the start and just like XI always did IIRC. With the speed of lvling you could have multiple classes to 50 by that time and be experiencing pretty much anything in the game i think. Outside of that, nothing should be free.

P2P plz.

[Aenarion]

F2P does *not* have to have cash shops or short cuts. You can do what WoW does. Why do you people object against that?

Everyone on these forums is LVL 50. Why would new people want to start this game if everyone else is 50 and they are 1? You people have it easy. You already got your year of free to play. New players may feel cheated.

Wait I have an idea. You get a subscription, you are 50 automatically. You don't, and you can't get past 30. I think that's fair.

There are so many things wrong in this post it's hilarious.

1. WoW is not F2P, in fact, it's the largest subscription MMO.
2. Not everyone on these forums is Lv.50
3. New player join different games all the time for a myriad of different reasons. By your logic, nobody would ever join any MMO unless they were signed up during launch.
4. Have it easy? Have you played the game at launch? just GTFO, the free period was the minimum SE had to do to keep some semblance of a player base, else the game would've died long before.
5. This game is not a F2P game, I don't know what kind of twisted logic would compel a new player to feel "cheated" that they didn't get a free year to play, other than it probably belongs in an asylum.
6. Automatic lv.50 if you have a sub huh? can your idea be more terrible if you tried? wait, don't tell me, I don't want to know.

Moral of the story, take your ideas, and kill it with fire.

[Yellow]

As someone who was semi-excited for GW2 I was really disappointed by how boring each class is.. and the battle mechanics to begin with.

I was surprised that I picked FFXIV over GW2 due to the fact that GW2 was so damn boring.

I'd rather grind monsters in a party than repeat the same events by myself over and over until I get to the next area... in which I do the exact same thing.