starting to charge at SW: TOR release is a horrid idea

[Bigglesworth]

since when do games get their investments from players though? What game is like "Ok we are making a game but need money so send us $12 a month now to play the beta and hope the end product is good"

don't call it investement then call it cash flow then. Excuse the comparison, but if you invest in a movie theatre, you can't keep letting people in for free forever without eventually running out of working capital. If you also own a car wash and a laundry map, you can "borrow money" from those businesses for a little bit, but eventually you will want to see your theatre in the green.

Another more related example is that of the Nintendo Wii. In terms of graphics and such, the Wii is obviously a little behind, but who was Nintendo marketing to? They new that the "hardcore gamer" was going to buy the Wii regardless, meaning, the hardcore gamer has all the systems etc. What they did is market their games to the non-gamer. In otherwords, stores in the U.S were sold out of the Wii for months and months because not just gamers were buying the system, but also moms, grandparents. everyone.

Now let's tie that in with the gamer and FFXIV. The people left in this game are the hardcore FFXIV fan. If those people leave now because they don't want to pay a subscription, I'd put a fair amount of money down to say that when 2.0 is released and is awesome... those people will be back. Square Enix has one shot to hit this project "out of the park" and that is at PS3 release. At that point they will have a chance to market this game to the "general gamer" with a system (PS3) that is widely owned. If they lose players now, at least they will have a little cash flow from the remaining base, so that when the time comes for judgement day, they can save this project.

[Lerris]

SW TOR has an incredibly awesome and very positive community. not saying FFXIVs is bad but yeah.....

And yes, the fact that they are re-releasing this game is proof its a beta because IT WONT EXIST IN THIS FORM IN A YEAR. I would go so far as to call this an alpha now since its being completely overturned.

No. If we were playing the new client on a new server, that would be a beta. This is playing a completed game with our characters transferring into a direct sequel.

[Vesper]

I am very much looking forward to TOR, art style or no the game looks fun to me and several friends who tend to have very similiar tastes are enjoying the beta. I pre-ordered the CE and can't wait to play it.

I think the timing for SE to charge is a bad plan. I think 2.0 is a better time, mainly because the game is going to continuously go through drastic changes until 2.0 hits.

Note even though I am going to be playing TOR I will be playing XIV as well. FFXIV is shaping up to become awesome soon and I want to be there for that, but I am looking forward to TOR as well.

[Cycloptichorn]

SW TOR has an incredibly awesome and very positive community. not saying FFXIVs is bad but yeah.....

FF14 has an incredibly awesome and very positive community, who is unfortunately weighed down by a bunch of negative nancy's who like to complain a lot. <Cocks an eyebrow your direction>

And yes, the fact that they are re-releasing this game is proof its a beta because IT WONT EXIST IN THIS FORM IN A YEAR. I would go so far as to call this an alpha now since its being completely overturned.[/QUOTE]

You could say that, but you'd be wrong. So, yeah. Not correct.

[Roaran]

It doesn't matter really what other games are doing. People have had plenty of time to get to know FFXIV. If they don't like it by now, they won't subscribe.

Someone on the fence MAY go buy starwars and try it. At that point, the better MMO to the person will win. That said, NOONE is going to go BUY another game because the one they already bought is going to start subscriptions... ESPECIALLY when the subscription cost is less than the cost of buying the new game + their subscription.