SE consider a free to play option

[dragnorak]

I assume all you "Pay to Play" people use American Express and gladly pay it's yearly fee when paying for your MMOs? It clearly superior to Visa and MasterCard right?

no i use eorzian express

but on another note you could just pay for subs using ultimate game cards

[Neptune]

What you don't get by asking for F2P is the shallowness of that. How much exp does it take to level? Multiply it by 2 and sell exp boosts. How tough should this fight be? Multiply the damage by 1.5 and sell potions in the cash shop. How should you obtain some nice looking gear? Sell it in the cash shop instead of it relating to game content or being tied to progression. How hard is it to progress through the story? Buy a bunch of items and don't worry about it.

When everything boils down to microtransactions there's no way for the developers to control what kind of experience you are going to wind up having. And instead of a well-crafted, cinematic, elevated art form, you're going to get a cheapened, purposeless, hamster wheel of a way to spend your time. I mean this is Final Fantasy. It's known for its substance. People take pride in making it. If you don't have any pride or substance in your life, maybe this isn't the game for you. If you want to be as mediocre as the games you want to play, go play Aion or some other Korean game that exists purely for that purpose.

[Endigiont]

It's true you never see normal patches, they'll make some content updates rarely like once a year maybe a "Big" content update but generally all you see on their main sites are "OMFG CASH SHOP SALE!!!! OMFG CASH SHOP TIERED EVENT!!!! OMFG NEW CASH SHOP ITEMS~!!!"

I mean I'd play Allods because it's a decent game but.... Meh.... It really is pay to win at end game...

[GreyJorildyn]

Where do you come up with this stuff...

[Ralos]

I've played very few games that are F2P but my limited experience with them has been of low quality which is why I hardly ever make my way back to them. A very limited trial version I can understand, it helps pull in players and build a community, but the monthly fee isn't that harsh. Overall I think the general feeling is that F2P isn't worth the decrease in service and game quality that would probably follow if SE opened that option up. What's more is I don't mind paying a monthly fee but it would bug the crap out of me if I had to watch other people enjoy "1337" gear they bought instead of earned. I like that every item in the game can be earned.

[odintius]

No thanks to f2p rather p2p.

[Tsuga]

I feel like people tend to behave more when the game has a monthly subscription, and based on my experience it would also make sense that paying over time creates a financial investment in the game, and so people are less likely to jump between p2p games. You may get a smaller influx of players when the game launches, but the game will maintain a more steady/loyal fan-base if it is worth playing.

Part of the reason that WoW is so successful is because it is p2p. People not only invested serious amounts of time into the game, but money, too. The other part is that the game was (ghasp!) good at the time that it came out, and very addictive, so the combination of the addictiveness, plus the guilt of leaving behind an investment is what has helped that game maintain its community. No other game has seen that success because honestly no other game has been AS good, while boasting the amount of content to keep people who migrate from WoW entertained past the free month - which to their credit is not easy to do, since WoW has been around for ages.

Free to play attracts a totally different kind of player, and usually they don't stick around for very long. It can work for keeping a game alive, but usually at the cost of sacrificing the community and consistent content updates.

[Reitsu]

If this was F2P it would be another Vindictus all 15+Gear in FFXIV;ARR case all +5Melds and i dout anyone wanna see abunch of ppl running arounds OPing the game like that.

[Messenger]

I like p2p so when i don't have anymore money, i'll be forced to quit and catch up with console games xD

[Warlock]

Can't express the level of "WTF" in this thread without been banned lol but this community can be overwhelming at times...