Will we be able to recruit friends / invite to try?

[infestation871]

I have alot of friends that are interested in the final fantasy saga as much as i am. However- they do not want to pay 40 bucks for the game + 15 dollars a month.

I would like them to play, but almost all of them play WoW as their MMO + cant be bothered to pay 30$ a month for two games.

My question is this;

Are we ever going to get a recruit a friend feature like WoW has or some sort of free week long trial where they can go like level 1-25 or something free?

I feel like a starter edition of this game, or making it free to play with cash shop ( non pay to win, like tera how its all mounts and vanity) would make this game soar. Not sure why everybody likes to pay, and what the big deal with going free to play is. I for one know i wont be resubbing soon because almost all of the people i know have quit already. They want to try it again but wont pay 15$ a month to see the new stuff out.

Any idea what i can do to get my friends back?

[AmyNeudaiz]

Not sure why everybody likes to pay, and what the big deal with going free to play is.

The "paywall" effect deters a lot of trolls/annoying brats. The paywall may not be perfect, but this community would be TERRIBLE without it.
I saw this effect first hand when 1.0 became pay-to-play and the difference is a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

[infestation871]

yes but there are such less player counts now, from when i started. I know a ton of friends and people that dont want to pay, and im sure many others are in the same boat. Also, It would be alot more conveinant to transfer etc and pay those fees if i didnt have a 15$ a month fee already.

[AmyNeudaiz]

yes but there are such less player counts now, from when i started.

That's going to happen if it was pay to play or free. This is just what happens to all online games period.

[infestation871]

yes, but i mean if other companies out there can turn such a huge profit, by going F2p , and gain such vast subscribers why not do it? "How can it hurt "? I guess i just see things differently. I really didnt expect this game to be at such a low interest rate already . It just came out and other's dont even know its out, but wont pay 60 $ to get started and try it. I wouldnt either. Hence demos existing;

[AmyNeudaiz]

Again, like I stated. People like the paywall effect. People also like the stability of pay to play games. I am one of those people.

[infestation871]

What stability?

Do you know how many Free to play MMo's are out there with as much content as this game? With even more content then this game?

TONS.

You know what stability to me means? Being able to play this game for the next 5 years knowing it is worth time n energy put in , that the team will keep creating content + that the players will always be the top concern for the company.

Right now, they are losing subscribers rapidly, more n more are unsubbing like i will be probably as soon as i hit 50 on my second job. You know why? Because all my friends quit. You know what will bring them back? Free to play. You know why? Its the current gen model for a MMO of this caliber. I can see WoW charging 15$ a month, 10 years of content added, tons of new patches, expansions etc. This game so far though isnt worth it. A horrible release; then remade into a great product still makes this game not relevent sadly + i cant see the current content being paid 15$ a month for.

[Enkidoh]

And those 'free-to-play' games turn out to actually be 'pay-to-win'. A proper subscription model is far better and works out cheaper to the player in the long run.

Also you're once again unfairly comparing a game that is only five months out from launch to a game with over ten years worth of content. WoW or FFXI never launched with their current content either. No MMO does. I'm sorry but your arguement is basically coming across as nothing but a "ZOMG, I want everything for nothing and SE are stupid for making me pay!" F2P rant.

FFXIV will never be F2P - Yoshi already stated ages ago he'd rather shut the game down than make it F2P. Subs are here to stay I'm afraid.

[Figgleleaf]

Yes to a free trial or buddy pass. No to free to play.

[ReiszRie]

yes, but i mean if other companies out there can turn such a huge profit, by going F2p , and gain such vast subscribers why not do it? "How can it hurt "? I guess i just see things differently. I really didnt expect this game to be at such a low interest rate already . It just came out and other's dont even know its out, but wont pay 60 $ to get started and try it. I wouldnt either. Hence demos existing;

F2P revenue are not recurring, as such, you can get 1 month of amazing gains and 6 more months of losses, without the ability to forecast, a game studio cannot request for more resources to develop content from top management as it would be too risky.

F2P games tends to have content that are exceptionally repetitive, they might fit what many players want (action packed, fast paced, competitive, kill kill kill) but the content have little to no substance, there are no lore, no continuation of the saga, its just rehashing of content to sell more cash shop powerups

P2P on the otherhand allows accurate revenue forecasting, therefore allowing studios to request for more funds to develop content based on actual forecast-able revenue, they also will not be compelled to release multiple re-iterations of cash shop money grabs in order to turn a profit to pay for work done by developers. P2P almost always ensures a better, more consistent game with scheduled expansions, patches and content that aren't shoddy or designed to be cash grabs.

F2P games tends to have a certain boom period where you'll get throngs of players but those same players rapidly die off as they go in search for the next game, F2P makes it easy for players to get in for a short while and get out, it doesn't create loyalty. You get WoW players who had been subscribed for years literally, you get players in FFXI that did the same but majority of the F2P games simply do not possess that level of longevity and player loyalty.

There are more negatives to the F2P model than there is on the positive, the reason why most games these days are F2P is simply because the studio is working on invested money, money that isn't their own and they need to generate large amounts of revenue in the shortest period of time available to return the investment and pay their workers, they are not choosing F2P model because it is better in the long run but simply because it is best for short term money grabs.