(05-15-2014, 08:02 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote: I am going to straight up say that I loathe FTP with every fiber of my being. (...) The day the subscription model dies is the day I'm quitting MMOs.
I quit Champions, SWTOR, and EQ2 when they went F2P. In fact, I was enjoying SWTOR but quit specifically because it went F2P. IMO, F2P brings two horrible things: a desire for monetization at all costs, and a terrible community. The first is pretty easily seen by looking at the Champions and especially SWTOR cash shops. Both games swore subscribers would never need to lay out actual money to get new content, but both games have carefully calibrated their "subscription credits" so that you ultimately need to plunk down cash if you want to get content as it's released. While EQ2 has resisted this, it has a pay to win element (XP potions) that rubs me the wrong way. In the end, the game gets a variety of roadblocks designed to annoy you into paying money (SWTOR's limit on hotbars, anyone?) -- even if you're a subscriber.
The community aspect is rather more subjective, but in my experience, F2P games have particularly ugly communities, both in and out of game. Since there's no barrier to entry to play, players have basically no "skin in the game," so to speak. If their account is banned, they'll just make a new one. They have little attachment to the game, so they troll and otherwise act horribly, feeling that the game's but a trifle. Not all players of F2P games are like that, certainly, but in my experience, it's enough to make the games no longer fun to play. The increased activity of trolls and the reduced support free players get also seems to wound the RP community. As bad as it sounds, subscription fees keep out the riff-raff.
That said, I'm not opposed to cash shops for appearance items only. I think TSW did that quite effectively. In fact, I think TSW actually has one of the better business models from a player's perspective. You have to invest in the game, ensuring you have at least some commitment, but if you subscribe, you get all content at release "for free" (i.e., from your subscription token credits) and usually have spare credit available for other purchases. I can't speak to how effective the model is at funding the game itself, however, though as I periodically get e-mails from them announcing new content, it must be working fairly well.
The Freelance Wizard
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
