[Discussion] Free-to-play vs. Pay-to-win

[WarpedAcorn]

I'm not sure if because its the "shiny new" or not, but F2P has the strangest connotations these days. I understand the consumer appeal of being able to try and play a game for free, but I am wondering why the market jumped directly from P2P to F2P being the MMO norm. What happened to B2P? Sure there are a few out there, but it seems whenever an MMO is transitioning away from a P2P system they jump immediately into the F2P pool.

Although I'm no financial guru, I'm not sure that its the best idea. I remember a time of expansion packs for games, when I would buy a core game and then come back to the store much later and purchase content updates at a much cheaper rate. I'm curious why so few MMO companies try this approach. The B2P model is certainly well established, but very few actually sell content like expansion packs. In my mind, this would promote companies to develop real content and deliver it to players in regular intervals.

I do like the way TSW handles their "Story Packs", and can't figure out why more companies don't do this. My only guess is that companies are afraid they won't attract a large enough audience when there is so much out there that is F2P. But I truly believe that players value content and have no problem paying $10-20 for a legitimate chunk of new content to play with. And if the developer could deliver these content chunks every few months, their revenue would be similar to a P2P model. The only difference would be that players would be allowed to choose to buy the content as they would any other product instead of "pre-payment" like a P2P model.

Of course, I could be way off and the income from QoL, vanity, and cosmetic items in a F2P might totally outweigh the income of producing legitimate quality content packs.

[Deleted]

It is odd how it has started to happen en masse recently, but there must be a good reason for it I guess, I suppose companies must see some benefits from going F2P or they wouldn't do it.

From a consumer point of view, I am surprised at the ammount of fun I can have from some F2P games, I like that I can jump into something new, give it a try for a few months and not really feel like I'm missing out on too much.

[Deleted]

F2P game mechanics tend to end up in boring grindfest to achieve goals.
Which on its turn creates to urge to spend cash to achieve said goals faster.

but there are exceptions like Path of Exile f.e

[Hulari]

I have no idea. I have preferred and probably will always prefer a sub based game. That's just the way I am and right now I'm running out of sub based games to play; rift, which I am enjoying very much having just got it will be going free to play. Which disappoints me greatly.

[RoninaThorstone]

F2P as a model has made developers a LOT more money than they did on subscription models because they can make money off the people who were willing to pay 5 or 10 dollars but not 15 dollars, the people who don't want to pay two subscriptions, and make money off of whales who are willing to drop several hundred dollars a month on a video game. The flexibility of the model is what gives it power.
Those of us who have seen how the model can be used to revitalize MMOs that were slow in realizing the benefits of a flexible payment model know that the initial loss of players due to the initial demand of a subscription and then the loss of players due to an awkward payment model switch feel that it is best to skip that phase.
B2P works well too, however the initial investment might leave some people hesitant. With f2p both the developer and the players benefits in that the player can pick and choose what they want to invest their money in and the developer has many more potential customers.

From the developers stand point, the model gives they more potential customers and the ability to milk each customer at a level the customer feels comfortable with, as in the player has choice over what they buy.

edit: Also, f2p takes advantage of the reciprocity norm. By offering something for free, and hopefully with the added illusion that it is free, the player will be more willing to open their wallet.

[Valeron]

I have no idea. I have preferred and probably will always prefer a sub based game. That's just the way I am and right now I'm running out of sub based games to play; rift, which I am enjoying very much having just got it will be going free to play. Which disappoints me greatly.

You will basically only have 2 games to play if you want a sub based games.

[Gnarz]

when there is great games that are free like Planetside 2 and Tera

that is the fascination atleast for me that free games can be a lot better than most games u buy or pay 2 play

[RoKPaNda]

People like it because they think they're getting something for free, developers like it because they can milk people without them realizing it. However recently I've seen a lot of people talking about how they know that they're spending tons of money in the cash shops like that's a good thing instead of failing at free to play.

[Hulari]

You will basically only have 2 games to play if you want a sub based games.

Yeah I know, which sucks. I can't stand micro-transaction based games because most of the time the content is half-arsed. But, I can't do anything about it so I'll probably stop playing MMOs in the near future.

[RoninaThorstone]

Yeah I know, which sucks. I can't stand micro-transaction based games because most of the time the content is half-arsed. But, I can't do anything about it so I'll probably stop playing MMOs in the near future.

Pretty much yeah.

When titan comes out WoW will probably go F2P so... The P2P mmo market is pretty much dead. If you don't like b2p/f2p the mmo genre won't be fun.

[Gnarz]

wow is the only mmo that can get away with the subscription model, its been around too long and has such a loyal following

even if they go down a lot more in subscribers i doubt they will ever go F2p

[Valeron]

Well EVE has been around longer than WoW and still has a sub

[Gnarz]

ur right i thought eve was free to play

is the sub the same cost as wow

[RoninaThorstone]

Well EVE has been around longer than WoW and still has a sub

Yeah. And they don't charge for expansions and let you pay your subscription with in game currency. Which is pretty cool of them.

---------- Post added 2013-05-14 at 08:32 PM ----------

wow is the only mmo that can get away with the subscription model, its been around too long and has such a loyal following

even if they go down a lot more in subscribers i doubt they will ever go F2p

And a lot of people who forgot that they have a reoccurring subscription being billed to their credit card.

[Migey]

RIFT gets away with a sub model.

That model isn't completely dead, just not that popular these days.

[RoninaThorstone]

RIFT gets away with a sub model.

That model isn't completely dead, just not that popular these days.

No it doesn't. It's going f2p in june.

[Deleted]

People just jump on the "IT'S FREE" train. Everybody loves free stuff. But the sad truth is - that free stuff will never offer proper quality. It's like irl. Nothing you get for free will ever be good. So people just enjoy a piece of .... only because it's free.

[Hulari]

So.. a little off-topic but is there a list of MMOs that are still Sub-Based? I mean proper sub-based and not the "subscribe to get all these benefits!" Google just comes up with the typical F2P/B2P/Sub arguments.

[RoninaThorstone]

So.. a little off-topic but is there a list of MMOs that are still Sub-Based? I mean proper sub-based and not the "subscribe to get all these benefits!" Google just comes up with the typical F2P/B2P/Sub arguments.

Yeah. There is a list.

WoW
Eve

The end.

[Hulari]

Yeah. There is a list.

WoW
Eve

The end.

I need to win the euro-millions and make the MMO-RPG I've had planned in my head for the last two years. D: