The future of F2P

[indira]

F2P need to die its not free anyways cost alot more if your serious about the game pay to progress or pay to win no thanks.
i rather pay monthly then thats the end.

[Alfortis]

Personally i'm not for or against free to play games. But I do notice that this community is one sided when it comes to free to play games. Personally I have been playing a few free to play games and I don't really see the whole pay to win concept.

Pay to win isnt the only form when it comes to free to play games. The game industry is actually moving away from that. Take a look at rusty hearts, spiral knights, DC universe and so on. Rusty hearts is mainly xp boost, extra inventory, and even clothes for your character. Here is DC universe pay plan LINK. Though some parts of the legendary and even free plan may seem a bit unbalance, I don't really see an issue with their plan. Those that want to pay 15 dollars a month get what they pay for, as well as the free to play. Even the 5 dollar deal doesn't seem so bad.

If SE wanted to do a free to play model, I would like to see something like the DC universe plan. Players get extra inventory, auction house slots, early access to content, and their own personal housing for 15 dollars. Basically nothing would change for already paying players and the free to play guys get demo mode with more restrictions such as no access to advance classes, limited slots in AH or inventory, no player housing and so on.I cant really see them implementing a vanity store since making armor/clothes takes a lot of time due to the variety of races.

The reason why I am not really against free to play games is because a large variety of players now get to experience the game. The main content when it comes to MMORPGs is the players. If you think about it, most players play other MMOs because their friends simply played the game along with them. I ended up leaving FFXI simply because my friends stopped playing and couldn't justify the 15 dollars a month deal.

Though I doubt that SE will do a F2P model any time soon. I really don't see the issues with it as long if it is done right. It wouldn't be a bad move in my opinion since the majority of games are now going F2P and there are a lot of players that are fans of the final fantasy franchise, but they simply wont play FF14 due to the fact that they have to pay 15 dollars a month. Something that will also work is not purchasing the software and paying a monthly fee instead, but that is for another thread i guess.

TLDR; free to play isn't bad as long if it is done right. The game industry is changing and the whole pay to win model is actually dying out.