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Would you see free to play as a failure?Follow

#1 Sep 17 2013 at 3:30 AM Rating: Sub-Default
I'm curious how players would react if this game did actually go free to play.

Would you see it as a complete failure and leave the game or see it as simply an inevitable part of an mmos life cycle these days and carry on playing?

Almost every mmo has gone free to play so there is at least a fair chance it might happen here too, I'm curious how it would be taken if it happened.
#2 Sep 17 2013 at 4:31 AM Rating: Excellent
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i don`t remember any game that got better by going f2p

so...yeah
#3 Sep 17 2013 at 4:47 AM Rating: Excellent
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It would definitely be the end of content development and the beginning of vanities and xp potions, etc, so I can see nothing that would make me even want to stay around at that point.
#4 Sep 17 2013 at 5:40 AM Rating: Excellent
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Yoshi has already said they'd shut the game down before they went F2P.
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#5 Sep 17 2013 at 5:45 AM Rating: Good
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garethrogue wrote:
Yoshi has already said they'd shut the game down before they went F2P.

And he is wise to feel that way.

There's no such thing as F2P. F2P is just a doorway for P2W: Pay to Win. Players in XIV and especially XI will not sit well with that at all.
#6 Sep 17 2013 at 6:42 AM Rating: Excellent
Smiley: deadhorse
#7 Sep 17 2013 at 7:07 AM Rating: Good
How many F2P MMOs are popular in Japan?

In the end, it doesn't matter so much what the NA crowd thinks. If Japan considers F2P a sign of failure, it will never go F2P.
#8 Sep 17 2013 at 8:13 AM Rating: Decent
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Wint wrote:
Smiley: deadhorse


I'm collecting this one!
#9 Sep 17 2013 at 8:17 AM Rating: Good
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Wint wrote:
Smiley: deadhorse

This.. lmao
#10 Sep 17 2013 at 8:21 AM Rating: Good
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Wint wrote:
Smiley: deadhorse


LOL! LOVE IT.
#11 Sep 17 2013 at 8:24 AM Rating: Excellent
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10+ years strong and FFXI is still P2P. Don't hold your breath if you expect FFXIV to go F2P.
#12 Sep 17 2013 at 9:05 AM Rating: Decent
TwilightSkye wrote:


There's no such thing as F2P. F2P is just a doorway for P2W: Pay to Win. Players in XIV and especially XI will not sit well with that at all.


^^QFT

I don't need to say anymore, Twilight sums up my feelings on this issue.
#13 Sep 17 2013 at 10:22 AM Rating: Default
garethrogue wrote:
Yoshi has already said they'd shut the game down before they went F2P.


I don't think he did, he outlined some posibilities of how he would offer a free to play system in a recent interview infact (if he was forced to do it).

Quote:
"We stuck with subscriptions because we wanted a stable amount of money to pay developers to develop patches on time. We didn't want to get into a situation where we couldn't afford to make a patch," he continued. "As a producer, I of course will be watching how the money flows and will evaluate the situation. If we had to change to a free to play model, we would probably offer a hybrid model with free to play servers and subscriptions servers, but it's not something we have planned right now."


Quote:
How many F2P MMOs are popular in Japan?

In the end, it doesn't matter so much what the NA crowd thinks. If Japan considers F2P a sign of failure, it will never go F2P.


I only know of one (there are probably more) PSO2 and it's very popular over there, I think it had close to 1 million players for Japan alone.



Edited, Sep 17th 2013 12:26pm by preludes
#14 Sep 17 2013 at 10:31 AM Rating: Decent
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I see nothing wrong with ftp, although i cant see 14 doing that, at least not for many many moons, if at all.

The only reason games like 11 isnt ftp is that there is a very small loyal base that will pay regardless of what they offer........ or dont offer, and really they couldnt sustain a ftp model, they have nothing to offer in the way of making money , ie mounts, wardrobes, potions, boosts etc

Ffxiv is already very well designed for that possibility one day...but will it happen? idk, and really idc, as long as its around in any model, then cool :)

A few games i have subbed for have turned ftp and i still enjoy them as much as before,if not more tbh.

Way too early to even mention ftp though,jumping the gun a tad. <--- understatement
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#15 Sep 17 2013 at 10:36 AM Rating: Default
v1.0 was F2P for awhile, but for other reasons. The Japanese culture would not allow this I think. One, in Japan it would be seen as a failure and defacing there is a big deal... Two, FFXI had some of the strictest RMT countermeasures in an MMO, while everyone else is capitalizing on getting peeps to make micro transactions on F2P games.

I'd be SHOCKED if they went F2P, even if it turned in more revenue.
#16 Sep 17 2013 at 10:39 AM Rating: Decent
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TwilightSkye wrote:
garethrogue wrote:
Yoshi has already said they'd shut the game down before they went F2P.

And he is wise to feel that way.

There's no such thing as F2P. F2P is just a doorway for P2W: Pay to Win. Players in XIV and especially XI will not sit well with that at all.


That's the alarmist/uneducated view tbh. A good F2P model (of which there are many) is not P2W in the least. GW2, SWTOR, Rift are all good examples of models that do not offer much more than exp boosts and cosmetic upgrades/mounts. Doesn't mean I support it for this game at all, but it is getting tiresome to see people misunderstand how most F2P works nowadays. It's not the devil. It's just another business model that, when done well, is enjoyed by many players . Again, I'm not a fan for my own reasons, but my reasons are based in reality.
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#17 Sep 17 2013 at 10:51 AM Rating: Good
I mentioned a long time ago I wouldn't mind a F2P model that was based on time rather than in-game items (sort of like EVE), capping at a max of the formal sub rate. So if someone only wants to play a game for 5 hours a month, they could pay no money and get 5 hours free. If they go over 5 hours, they could buy another 5 hour chunk for $5, continuing in 5 hour chunks. At 20+ hours they've paid $15 and get unlimited access. Or subscribers could just prepay their $15 and not worry about keeping track of hours.

The only difference between the subscriber and F2P accounts would be nag messages once an hour of playtime reminding them how much time they have left in the account.

Edited, Sep 17th 2013 12:51pm by Catwho
#18 Sep 17 2013 at 10:58 AM Rating: Good
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FFXIV looks like its well surpassed FFXI's peak. The only way I can see these going F2P is if they're on their last legs.
#19 Sep 17 2013 at 11:05 AM Rating: Good
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I see the "free to play" model as less a payment option and more of a means of trickery. It depends on spur-of-the-moment purchases for worthless digital boosts and accessories. It faces players against certain time-demanding walls or instills desires for new equipment and then presents a means to circumvent or achieve these things through instant-gratification purchases. And then for a couple days you can feel like Mr. Hot Stuff for spending $15 on a digital trench-coat. Smiley: rolleyes

It's still a game, yes, but when it's working as intended it plays you more than you play it.
#20 Sep 17 2013 at 1:36 PM Rating: Good
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F2P would be a failure IMO, and I would not want to see it.
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#21 Sep 17 2013 at 1:42 PM Rating: Decent
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KaneKitty wrote:
I see the "free to play" model as less a payment option and more of a means of trickery. It depends on spur-of-the-moment purchases for worthless digital boosts and accessories. It faces players against certain time-demanding walls or instills desires for new equipment and then presents a means to circumvent or achieve these things through instant-gratification purchases. And then for a couple days you can feel like Mr. Hot Stuff for spending $15 on a digital trench-coat. Smiley: rolleyes

It's still a game, yes, but when it's working as intended it plays you more than you play it.


totally agree. its a pretty lame system, even when it's not "pay to win". lots of players still enjoy the model despite that. seems like some people in this thread are weirdly adverse to accepting that reality.


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#22 Sep 17 2013 at 2:02 PM Rating: Excellent
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Allestra wrote:

The only reason games like 11 isnt ftp is that there is a very small loyal base that will pay regardless of what they offer........ or dont offer, and really they couldnt sustain a ftp model, they have nothing to offer in the way of making money , ie mounts, wardrobes, potions, boosts etc


Not only are most of us FFXI players loyal, we're also it seems more mature, and with that we have deeper pockets - I would definitely support FFXIV even if I barely played per month.

This is a stark difference to, a lot of younger people have the understandable stance that if they are paying a certain monthly fee for a game they expect to get that value of enjoyment out of it - in which case they can only play a certain number of these types of games, so they prefer F2P since they can try many games and choose the one they like the most.

It's as if they made the assumption that all MMO players are the same type of people I mentioned in the latter, but there are a lot of mature players in WoW that pay their subs and here in FFXIV too, we're a separate player base and we are what support P2P. In the recent past though I guess a lot of us were either in WoW, FFXI, took a stab at SWTOR or lurking like me waiting for FFXIV while playing some offline game in our busy lives.

A lot of people are betting that FFXIV goes F2P like every other MMO, because they put WoW as an anomaly, I would argue that FFXI and FFXIV are anomalies too.




Edited, Sep 17th 2013 4:08pm by SyniteonReflux
#23 Sep 17 2013 at 2:20 PM Rating: Good
I would quit in a heartbeat if it went free to play
#24 Sep 17 2013 at 2:33 PM Rating: Decent
garethrogue wrote:
Yoshi has already said they'd shut the game down before they went F2P.


Source?

That doesn't sound possible. If P2P failed for them, they would go F2P. Shutting it down is throwing money out the window.

Not saying they will go F2P, seems like P2P is working for them. But they would go F2P before they shut down altogether.

Edited, Sep 17th 2013 4:34pm by LucasNox
#25 Sep 17 2013 at 2:37 PM Rating: Excellent
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I think you underestimate the importance of "saving face" in Asian culture - it's the reason why SQ sunk so much money into revamping FFXIV, to save face, in the face of investors and as a company.

With that said, shareholders may think otherwise since it is their money, I'm sure some investors would like to see F2P as better than nothing since money trumps all. But as a Japanese company I'm sure they'd hold out as long as possible, even consider another revamp, but it seems they don't need to because they do have competent people still, go Yoshi!

Edited, Sep 17th 2013 4:40pm by SyniteonReflux
#26 Sep 17 2013 at 2:39 PM Rating: Good
Catwho wrote:
How many F2P MMOs are popular in Japan?

In the end, it doesn't matter so much what the NA crowd thinks. If Japan considers F2P a sign of failure, it will never go F2P.


There are some very popular F2P games in Japan right now, such as PSO2 (and some of the same ones that are popular in NA are also popular in Japan - Maple Story, Mabinogi, Aion, etc).

But I guess Japan has more interest in the P2P model than NA at this point, because on top of ARR, Dragon Quest X and Monster Hunter Frontier are quite popular subscription MMOs.

I don't think F2P is considered by Japanese gamers as "shameful" or anything though, if that's what you're thinking. PSO2 has been making tons of money.

Edited, Sep 17th 2013 4:43pm by LucasNox
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