Quote Originally Posted by Wicka View Post
I read the first post and didn't bother reading the rest of the thread.

I don't understand what people have against free-to-play games, especially if you have paid for a copy of the game. Nobody gets all up in a dander when Nintendo has no subscription for a metroid game. There are a huge number of games that are F2P, and it is for a reason. It generates income and widens player base.

People have this bad taste from badly done F2P. That does not mean F2P is the plague. Look at GW2, LoL, practically every Facebook game ever, several steam games. As long as gameplay (the entire point of a game) is solid people will play. If you can do away with the archaic subscription system and attract more players then why not do so?

People seem worried about SE not being able to make enough money without subscriptions. That is a bit ridiculous. SE has such a powerhouse of an IP in FF that they would make a killing with vanity micro-transactions. The initial cost of the game is also huge. The development team can be cut in half with the half that doesn't stay with xiv going to work on some other SE project (which makes more money for SE).

The only situation in which subscriptions make sense, is if updates stream in on like a bi-weekly basis with bug fixes and balance patches AND all subsequent expansions are free AND you got all available character slots for the base sub price.

I have a decent job and i can easily afford my legacy sub, and if the game stays sub based i will continue to pay and play because i enjoy the game. But if the game went free to play you would see many more players that simply can't or won't pay subs. Those who have no problem paying for subs will also have no problem buying baby behemoths, and bomblets. Those who won't or can't pay subs will simply add to the player base and may be inclined to drop a one time fee of 5 bucks for a little bangaa statuette that they can place on their desk in their free company complex as a quaint reminder of another FF game without a sub that they played and enjoyed.
I make enough money to pay 20+ subs a month if I wanted to.. it doesn't mean I want to pay real money for better shit each time I want to upgrade.

I also like having GM support and regular updates, something I've been told GW1 did very poorly.