Free 2 Play still being considered?

[M00NChild]

Actually, I don't get what you guys are so upset about. I played tons of those hybrid f2p like guild wars, age of conan, DC universe to name a few, and yes in the beginning there where massive amounts of trolls and idiots who just wanted to get stuff for free and try it out. The thing is some weeks down the line, they were gone and just the guys who had a genuine interesst in the game. You see, FF14 isn't like for example DCU were you can easily get to your lvl cap go through the whole story and be done with it. This game encourages you to have more than one character. But with 14, well it's still time consuming at times and pretty intricate to learn all it's ways and I think this alone would keep trolls at bay. For example I played since release but didn't really know what I was doing. I was rarely in a party or in a LS and needed weeks for 1 or 2 lvls. It discouraged the crap out of me so I stopped palying for like a month. Later I found better ways to lvl and got into some communities who helped me out a lot and learned the ways of the game. Those trolls just logg in run around and wouldn't know what to do other than going outside the city and grind. I know I did in 11 I was totally lost there too in the beginning until I learned the game. All Im saying is that 14 has a kinda steep learning curve and it'S pretty unconventional for lets say wow players, so this fact alone woud discourage jerks to keep on playing. Instead just the "hardcore" noobs would be left, the ones who stuck it out and want to continue to play. So, I don't really think a hybrid would model would actually hurt.

Oh and btw subscribtion users can be tools, too. so just because we don't have a hybrid model doesn't mean we keep jerks at bay.

And one can argue, that this game because of it's intricacies scared of people who were willing to play it just because they couldn't get the hang of it and didn't want to pay for smth they don't know how to use. More often than not I found Noobs in front of cities not knowing where to go or what to do. One didn't even know how to attack or how to use a map. Just stood there in front of the gates of LL and screamed on the shout channel for help, because karnak is such a desolat server, all players are in UL. And this person bought the game new. For a 6th of the price when it released but still, he invested this money and would have to keep on investing to use this software he bought even though he didn'T know what he was doing and the server was sooo empty he couldn't ask anyone or find anyone on their merry way to help him. It's true, we need a strong and good community but there has to be room for casual players as well, ppl who just want to see what the fuss is about. From a marketing and monetary perspective, SE should really show itself innovative and embrace this model to really show ppl this is a good game now, please come back. Because if they can't manage that, someday our beloved Eorzea might be no more if there are not enough ppl to pay for it and not enough ppl for you as an individual user to get enough ppl to play. My work is game related and from a buisness point of view they should implement and embrace it and not be afraid of it.

I love 14 too, and I want whats best for it: that it will continue for a long time

Times change ppl. Not may MMORPGs can't compete with WOW (and even WOW altered their subspcription model) and not be swallowed by it. Companies, which make MMOs should consider other possibilities than monthly subscribtions so that their games can stay viable as long as they possibly can.

Sorry for this rant it's gotten longer than I expected

[Khal_Drogo]

Yes, but it still ends up costing less than f2p. It's the difference between paying 30-40 for an expansion, or paying 100+ [to acquire] every bit of content within that expansion...

In p2p, over the course of a year subscribing, you pay 200 dollars -[assuming] you get an expansion release [that year].

In f2p, to get the same experience, you can pay upwards of 300+ depending on how much they charge for things; and, to top it off, they [tempt you to pay] even more through things that [reward] you [with] in game bonuses.


Looking at promathia as an example, 1 year of play in it:

200 bucks for the xpac + expansion

...or if it was a f2p deal, youd have paid probly 10 per area for the first 3 dungeons(the promathias)
then you'd have paid 10 dollars per zone you unlocked as the story progressed, which [would add] up to ALOT.

Sea itself woulda probly cost 20-30 bucks...

...fyi: i have played several f2p games and seen what happens, its not pretty

I understand where you're coming from, but you have to consider things from a different perspective...what about the countless others out there, who never set foot in Dynamis, Salvage, Sea, or Nyzul Isle, and so on.

Some people just want access to all the free-roaming areas to explore, exp, and maybe camp some NMs. Why should we have to pay $160 +/- a year to play a game we already paid for; not to mention the drain it has on the life-expectancy of our console/PC.

I, personally, had tons of friends (RL ones too) who never once accessed Salvage, Sea, or Nyzul Isle; and some of them didn't set foot in Dynamis until, about, the last 6 months or so of their 7-year long, intermittent gameplay... Does P2P sound fair for them?

[Mireille]

I, personally, had tons of friends (RL ones too) who never once accessed Salvage, Sea, or Nyzul Isle; and some of them didn't set foot in Dynamis until, about, the last 6 months or so of their 7-year long, intermittent gameplay... Does P2P sound fair for them?

Yes. They signed up for a game that had that payment model. The fact that they choose not to try all the content in the game is their choice, and has nothing to do with SE charging them a monthly fee.

Consider also that many of those free roaming areas, job abilities, quests that are in the game today didn't come with the game DVD they were added to the game as a part of version updates financed by subscriber fees.

[MicahZerrshia]

I understand where you're coming from, but you have to consider things from a different perspective...what about the countless others out there, who never set foot in Dynamis, Salvage, Sea, or Nyzul Isle, and so on.

Some people just want access to all the free-roaming areas to explore, exp, and maybe camp some NMs. Why should we have to pay $160 +/- a year to play a game we already paid for; not to mention the drain it has on the life-expectancy of our console/PC.

I, personally, had tons of friends (RL ones too) who never once accessed Salvage, Sea, or Nyzul Isle; and some of them didn't set foot in Dynamis until, about, the last 6 months or so of their 7-year long, intermittent gameplay... Does P2P sound fair for them?

Well its their choice not to do something they paid for and frankly they missed out on alot of the fun the game had to offer by choosing not to set foot in those areas. That being said just because a small minority of ppl dont wanna bother with some of what turned into core aspects of the game should not mean those of us who take full advantage of what the game has to offer should have to pay more in the long run.

And really I still cannot believe someone who played xi didnt bother with salvage, sea, nyzul or dyna. What exactly did they do? Those 4 things alone were time consuming morsals of fun.

Overall the game cannot go f2p if they really want to keep it fun and interesting. All the f2p games I have played have been boring and left alot to be desired.

[Risx]

Rau I just have to ask

do you know what F2P even means?


blahblahblah

Sorry I'm going to have to clear some things up.

What's been said is how F2P shouldn't be done, If you want to look at how it should be done I'd suggest playing League of Legends or Team Fortress 2. F2P isn't about buying content like that. The problem is people's idea of a F2P is stuck in the "pay to win" Korean MMO model (aka how it shouldn't be done). It's about paying for an aesthetic or decreasing the time to do something.

For example, one F2P model that would be OK would be them selling far more powerful EXP Bonus scrolls for crafting/leveling. Another really good one is being able to buy G.C. seals instead of farming them. These two things alone could probably sustain a F2P model alone. Would anyone mind them? I'd hope not since they don't hurt you and you'd hardly notice them.

[Kiote]

For example, one F2P model that would be OK would be them selling far more powerful EXP Bonus scrolls for crafting/leveling. Another really good one is being able to buy G.C. seals instead of farming them.

^ is pay to win.

[Risx]

Kiote, are you implying that it's in anyway hard to do? If so you're an idiot.

All it is is time consuming.

[TheVedis]

Kiote, are you implying that it's in anyway hard to do? If so you're an idiot.

All it is is time consuming.

pay to win refers to being able to buy anything that lets you do things faster then those who dont pay

sounds like you are the one out of touch with the problems people have with f2p models and dont understan d them to me


hell you even skipped my entire post and quoted me as "blablablablabla" cuz you clearly dont know what this is all about

[Dreamer]

Rau I just have to ask

do you know what F2P even means?


all it means is no subscription, but paying more then subscription content games for the same ammount of content to play everything


so in the end p2p > f2p if you want to actualy pay less for your content


we do not want that


while Yoshi may be looking into it, every game is looking into it on some level, the problem is going over to it once your so far established because then it becomes a hassle.

Can you imagine games like 11 and wow going f2p at this point? the ammount of stuff theyd have to nix and put a price on in order to do it? imagine losing ALL your dungeons in wow and then having to rebuy them if you dont subscribe to the game. then imagine losing every bit of content in 11 and having to pay for it all again in order to continue to do it.

wanna do dynamis? thats 20 bucks down in order to unlock the classics, and another 20 to unlock the promathia ones.
wanna do salvage? thatl be another 20 bucks
wanna do the cop storyline? 5 bucks per chapter


thats how free to play works, its not free, not in the slightest and alot of people do not understand that

I agree with everything here. F2P is only 'free' in a loose, general sense. Also, keep in mind that with the F2P model, the development focus shifts from creating quality content that will draw more subs to creating inconvenience and carrots on sticks to convince people to fork over an ever increasing supply of cash.

The quality of LotRO nosedived after they went F2P. I don't want to see the same happen here.

[Natabant]

I agree with everything here. F2P is only 'free' in a loose, general sense. Also, keep in mind that with the F2P model, the development focus shifts from creating quality content that will draw more subs to creating inconvenience and carrots on sticks to convince people to fork over an ever increasing supply of cash.

The quality of LotRO nosedived after they went F2P. I don't want to see the same happen here.

I'm sure SE could find a way to balance it all out. Honestly, with the way things are going now, F2P may be the only option left for them to pay off their development costs.

And, F2P doesn't always have to work the same way. They don't have to make F2P such a tedious process; and quality of gameplay doesn't always have to suffer as a result. They could use special services to compensate for their losses, like:

~Registration Codes: $10
~Server Migration: $15
~Name Change: $35
~Race change: $25
~Extra Character: $5

Another example would be to also increase the prices for expansions. Using XI again as a template:

~Rise of Zilart: $45
~Chains of Promathia: $85
~Treasures of Aht Urhgan: $85
~Wings of the Goddess: $85
~Abbysea: 75 cents lol .........lvl 80+ ruined XI.

They should've taken limits off all merits: imagine having your attributes and skills @999, and recast timers on special abilities reduced to a few seconds...shoulda, coulda, woulda

and so on...I don't know exactly what they could/should charge, but there is no reason to make people pay $100+ a year just to access content for a game they bought.

I understand that a lot of time and money goes into maintaining their equipment and developing content. However, there are a lot of ways to balance out the prices w/o making people pay these ridiculous prices.