Posts like this remind me that one of my friends said that rift is "dead" a few days ago.
Playing the rift free trial and the swtor world event atm.
Way more alive than the crowd flying circles in stormwind.
edit: just so its clear. I'm embarrassed when people i know think 350k to 1 million players is "dead"
Last edited by Bardarian; 2012-08-15 at 11:49 AM.
(Warframe) - Dragon & Typhoon-
(Neverwinter) - Trickster Rogue & Guardian Fighter -
Having restrictions on the game is a part of the F2P process. SWTOR is taking a much more rewarding approach to their game by allowing subscribers what 'sounds' like unlimited access now and in the future, but also allowing F2P to choose what parts of the game they want to pay for.
This isn't LoL. The development team can't eat ramen noodles and design one new character and some art every couple of months. They are responsible for an MMO. Attitudes like this are a sign of one thing: Wanting everything for free...cheap cheap cheap.
More than likely as a F2P player you would be able to buy the ability to do operations (probably some restrictions on say the time period in which you can do operations or something). So as a non-sub paying person you can pick the content you want to pay for. The game isn't completely F2P, it's more (as others have pointed out) Freemium... though a lot less people are familiar with that term.
Freemium is a good word for this I feel...I certainly hope that I will be able to "purchase" raids that I can do. I certainly don't need ALL the options that being a full paying member are but if I like the look of a raid I would certainly enjoy being able to do it.
“The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it.”
I understand that they need revenue, but come on... they are dividing their playerbase. That's a big mistake on their part.
Ranked Warzones and Nightmare modes being Sub-only I'd be quite fine with. But no access to even the first tier operations, limited warzone and flashpoint access?
Well I guess we'll see how it turns out in the end.
Eh.
Not dividing their player base so much as picking up / keeping the people who think the game isn't worth 15 dollars.
The people who play right now, the current base, are paying 15 dollars a month and will probably have to continue doing so in order to keep playing the way they are now.
Whereas the F2P players will most likily be people who weren't willing to risk the initial box price or just feel like swtor isn't worth 15 a month.
So its more adding a group to the current base than anything.
(Warframe) - Dragon & Typhoon-
(Neverwinter) - Trickster Rogue & Guardian Fighter -
If you don't take in to account people downgrading, quitting over not wanting F2P and so on sure.
It's still all very redundant to discuss as they don't give us the whole picture of what the exact restrictions are and what the shop will sell in terms of opening up restricted content.
I don't know. I don't have experience with games that make their raids pay-to-access (I don't even know if games like that exist, I know DCUO has something like that but are the raids really like WoW/SWTOR raids where you go back every week for gear upgrades/progression?)
But, with that said, I really don't understand how this would be beneficial at all for the raiding population. People who want to raid seriously will have much difficulty finding and sustaining a group of people who pay to raid. The people who want to pay will be very much outnumbered, and every time someone quits in their group it's much less the problem of "now we have to find a new member with amazing talent" but "now we have to find a new member with amazing talent and who is willing to pay". It's segregating the playerbase even more in a pool of already limited players, and when those who are willing to pay for the hardest content get fed up with not being able to find people, they'll just stop too.
I don't see this working out very well for the serious raiding community, but maybe I'm wrong.
Then again question is how many ppl are actually interested in serious raiding in the first place. In WoW before LFR only very small % consumed raiding content yet raids were where most of the development time went into.
If after f2p switch raids won't be a good motivator to subscribe, maybe BW should come up with content that will be better motivator.
My part in this story has been decided. And I will play it well.
It's a bit too late to make that decision, though. The game has already been built off of that same WoW/EQ raiding foundation, they can't just suddenly turn it all upside down. Making a raid-focused game no longer about raids would piss off the few that have stayed loyal and confuse everyone else, because it shows Bioware/EA has no idea which direction they wish to take.
Last edited by vizzle; 2012-08-16 at 06:56 AM.
So even if most won't find it compelling, BW should keep their original concept, because change could piss off somebody ? That's one of the things that I hate about p2p. Instead of making what ppl would pay for, developers gets stucked in some predestined path crossing fingers the subscriptions won't start dropping. Even dinosaur like WoW is able to move on from their original concepts. Adapt or die.
And who considers TOR raid focused game anyway. In my mind it is story driven MMO. Raids are pretty suboptimal way to deliver that.
My part in this story has been decided. And I will play it well.
That and because you can't change a game that is built one way to be completely different. The game is already built the way it is, right from the foundations up. It's a raid game whether you accept it or not -- the endgame is built for raiding, progressing, gearing up. It's the hook they've built; other games, like GW2 for example are trying to hook with PvP and dynamic events. We're talking about the endgame here when we talk about the focus of the game, story isn't what makes people stay subscribed (which shows from the 1.5million who left the game in 6 months).
In the end, we're looking at the gameplay, because that's what makes a game. Graphics, story, lore, everything is all just the skin, but it's the type of gameplay that defines what a game is. And SWTOR is a raiding game. Drawing it away from raiding to something that it was never built for would make it weaker than what it already is; I'm not saying they can't add other features, but the game will never be different, it'll always be a raiding game with other things, not a <other things> game with raiding.
Last edited by vizzle; 2012-08-16 at 08:19 AM.
Pretty sure the hook for TOR was fully voiced story driven MMO. Not game that will beat WoW and Rift in raiding. Also story is what would have kept me subscribed. TSW does monthly issues and TOR should do monthly story updates. That fits TOR premise oh so much.
BW can see what ppl are playing or not. If there is sizable raiding base then it makes sense to make raids. But if 50k players are raiding and 500k players don't get new content because BW is working on raids ... well lets just say I can see why raiders fancy p2p. Non raiders paying developer to make content raiders can play through.
That works nice and well untill other MMOs offers better service to non raiders.
Last edited by Repefe; 2012-08-16 at 09:25 AM.
My part in this story has been decided. And I will play it well.
And that is one reason P2P is good, there is no need to alienate any part of your customer base, it doesn't matter if you are a hardcore role player, a hardcore raider or anything in between content is created as a whole, or at least is if it's done right. This pick and choose, only developing for the majority and so on will eventually just kill F2P or theme park MMOs altogether, and yes I know it works right now and all those arguments, the fact that people like free stuff remains though and the more free stuff they get the more they will want, I would say Piratebay is evidence of that if anything.
And they lost me as a subscriber because they went Free2Play. Does that mean that the game is crap? No it means I do not like the Free2Play model. Everyone has preferences and you apparently have a strong dislike for the game and that's cool. But try not to sound like a ranting child people will take your posts more seriously if you stay calm & logical even if the reason is your personal preference or opinion.
If you're wondering you got a warning not because you believe SW:TOR was a huge letdown but you never stated why or discussed how that lead to the decisions made by EA/BioWare to go F2P.
All the people who raid 3 different encounters with varying difficulty levels on multiple characters every week. Not to mention everyone who came to this game from any other MMO. If you don't think raids are a way to deliver a story, you should try reading the intro quests that send you there and then extrapolate that on to the experience you have completing it.
Each dungeon/fp/raid/op has a reason for people to be there. Even a game where all you do is kill things and smash objects for loot with *seemingly* no motive has to be framed with a story, regardless of whether you think it is weak or not.
BAD WOLF
Who does the p2p right ? Pretty sure it's not BW or Blizzard. The price/content updates ratio in both games is hilariously low for non-raiders. And it's not about getting free stuff imho ... it's about getting good service for your money. Be it from MMO that is p2p, b2p, f2p with vanity stuff or otherwise funded.
I know that there can be stories behind raids, I welcome them. Is it the best way to deliver continuing story ? I don't think so. And if TOR raiding is widely popular by all means BW should start dishing out raid after raid. But if it is some 1/9 split between raiders and non raiders maybe spending half the development budget on raid creation is not the best idea to go by.
My part in this story has been decided. And I will play it well.
Rift comes to mind, the price/content ratio for everyone is hilariously low in most other games, not just for raiders, or do you consider 9 months of DS to be more content than 3 dungeons, daily quests and what not. I never said it was about getting free stuff as a concept, people like to get free shit though and when they see that they can get free shit they want more of it and as long as some one is willing to give more free stuff than the next guy it will get harder and harder to run a working business based on that model, especially when the market becomes more and more saturated.
This is the basis of my theory that F2P will eventually fail, might not be today nor the next couple of years but eventually F2P as we know it today won't work as people love free if it's available, again Piratebay was very small and used mostly by people in the know, attention the entertainment industry gave them made them grow for every time they made headlines through lawsuits and such, once people started getting free stuff through them they didn't stop, something proven time and time again as people bypass obstacles put on them in form of internet censorship.
Last edited by Redblade; 2012-08-16 at 05:55 PM.