Lyrailis wrote:
Okay, fine, to end this discussion about F2P vs P2W, I'll say this:
Maybe not all F2P games are P2W, maybe that has changed.
However, let's look at simple economics:
1). A game needs IRL MONEY to survive.
2). Players have to pay this IRL Money to the game company.
3). A F2P Game does not make this money through monthly subscriptions.
4). Something in-game needs to make players want to spend money.
Older games went the P2W way -- you paid money, you got special little perks and things that highly tempted you to open your wallet and plunk $$$ on the table.
Newer games might not be P2W, but instead they seem to be (at least in Warframe and from what I read in this thread, EVE), "Pay 2 Fun".
And a whole lot of anecdotal stuff.
It's really not about creating grinds, it's about making things faster for people who want it to be faster.
You need remember the absolute base premise for a successful F2P game:
people need to want to play it. You don't just get a free population of players because you went F2P, you need to be offering a FUN free to play experience. No game revolving around grinding is going to do well. If the base experience, without paying anything, isn't fun, they aren't going to have an audience, period. Because F2P's greatest strength is getting people in love with the game so that they use the microtransactions or, even better,
subscribe. Every single F2P game I know of still has a subscription model on top, which essentially acts as a master unlock for as long as it is active.
Let's use TOR as an example. You are a new F2P player. You go to create your new character. As F2P, your only race option is human - everything else is a purchased unlock. But that's fine - humans are really the best racial option to be your first 50 (getting a human to level 50 gives +100 presence, a stat that buffs your companions, to all other characters on that server, making leveling much easier). You're on the first world and... your experience is pretty much identical to what it was as a subscriber's at launch.
Subscribers making a new character, on the other hand, can elect to choose ANY race, can get their sprint (movement bonus out of combat, and I think F2P get it later instead of at level 1).
But the actual content - the questing and such - is pretty much the same. F2P players do earn less experience for everything, but that just means they actually have to do the bonus parts of a quest, instead of skipping 25% of those. To be clear here, most quests in TOR have your main objective, and then 1 or more bonus objectives (which are often a series of objectives). Completing those bonus objectives nets you more credits, more experience, etc. But they're additional tasks, and more typical MMO fair.
Even if you aren't F2P, it's a good idea to complete those objectives, because they're one of the best ways to make money while leveling. All subscribing realistically does is give you the option to skip more of them, if you're actually just interested in racing through content.
Because the way the game is structured now, F2P is built around maximizing the leveling experience, where subscribing is meant more for people trying to access endgame content.
They didn't put in additional grinds, because additional grinds aren't fun. They need people to play the game to make money off them.
The way they're making money?
1. Account unlocks. Things like buying more storage space, buying new race options, buying the ability to use a speeder or access the sprint skill sooner (things they added to the sub model WHEN THEY WENT F2P, cosmetic options, etc.
2. Booster. Typical F2P fair--items that increase your experience or honor gains per hour. Targeted at both subscribers or F2P, though subscribers have a higher base threshold to begin with. Basically, if you know you're going to do an intensive 3 hours of leveling, you might as well use a booster to make it 25% more effective.
3. Cosmetic items. Things like new armor skins, lightsaber colors, vanity pets, speeder models, etc. They just added a new dye system, and new cosmetic option packs.
4. Content "unlocks." Right now, if you're F2P, you can only get full rewards from 3 flashpoints (dungeons) a week, and can't enter operations. Full rewards means you cam get the loot from the final boss, btw, nothing else is restricted. Buying a weekly pass removes that limit for 1 week. It'll let you raid for one week. Etc.
If you plan to do this every week, Subscribing is cheaper. If you only intend to do it occasionally, F2P is cheaper. And since you're only paying for the loot from the final boss, it doesn't make sense to even bother unless you're going for a specific item.
That is basically the core essence of
every F2P game on the market.
The idea that they create additional grinds to keep players busy is absurd. It makes literally no sense. This isn't some kind of guaranteed market. F2P is them SELLING THE GAME TO NON-SUBSCRIBERS, in the hopes that they'll subscribe (best case scenario) or toss them some money for other things (worst case scenario).
And @Cobra, as for EQ, it went F2P because there just wasn't a good reason to keep it on a sub model anymore. It probably wasn't bringing in new players at all, and most of the subbers would likely keep their subs, rather than pay to unlock things they're used to having. It's win-win. They possibly get new players, who might give them more money. More likely, they gain back old players who wouldn't have paid for a sub anymore, anyway, who then unlock some options. Maybe they stay for a while, maybe they don't.
Either way, it's a net profit.
[EDIT]
Oh, and also, I somehow spazzed and rated Lyr down. If someone could toss him a green arrow, it would be appreciated.
Edited, May 21st 2013 8:29am by idiggory