Official OS General MMO Information Thread

[Valdarez]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

Not really sure I'd quantify the new Marvel Heroes as a true MMO. It has a limit of 50 people per area at any given time according to the forums, and the areas are pretty small before a single player/party instance loads or transitions to a new area through various warps.

[ubernoob]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

Probably has to do with how much money they're making on micro transactions on the F2P games. I say this as someone who's probably opened 60 Nightmare boxes in Neverwinter.

The thing is, sub models are better in the long term for games.

Normally when things go f2p it's because the publishers want a fast return on their money as it's not normally the developers decision (if I'm remembering this properly.)

SWTOR was sub, but when EA saw how bad they were dropping subs the decision was made to go F2P so they could get their money back.

FFXI - Developed and published by SquEnix.
WoW - Developed and published by Blizzard.
Rift used to fall in this category (developed and published by Trion.)

Aside from EQ/EQ2 after years and years of being sub they finally went f2p. I think they were the first MMO from same developer/publisher to go F2P.

I don't know, I'm just against F2P MMOs as I think it's one of the worst decisions possible for gamers.

It's alright for other games (World of Tanks, League of Legends, Path of Exile) but for MMOs it just reeks of failure, which is why RIFT going surprised me. I hadn't even heard of them potentially doing it, so I'm a bit caught off guard by this.

They say RIFT isn't going pay-to-win, but the bonuses say it still is.

Bonus XP, Bonus money, bonus mount speed and bonus prestige/favor/tokens/notoriety (for subscribers) with boosts purchasable in the cash shop is the very definition of P2W.

I'm against this change.

[bghost]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

Probably has to do with how much money they're making on micro transactions on the F2P games. I say this as someone who's probably opened 60 Nightmare boxes in Neverwinter.

how do you get the keys for those things?

[mestevo]

how do you get the keys for those things?

Buy them in the Zen store, either by selling your astral diamonds for Zen or by buying Zen for real money.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

[Chrisksaint]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

Yeah i'm not a fan of F2P MMOs at all, sure it's free to play which nice but usually the game itself sucks in the long run. The best MMOs i've played over the years(WoW, early SWG, EQ, etc.) have been subs.

[mestevo]

And I've paid for all of those too, I just don't stick to MMOs like I used to, and don't mind paying reasonable amounts of money for things in the games that are free.

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[Chrisksaint]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

And I've paid for all of those too, I just don't stick to MMOs like I used to, and don't mind paying reasonable amounts of money for things in the games that are free.

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Yeah I think that's the problem, if i'm going to play an MMO I want it to be worth it in the end with decent end game, etc. However I don't see myself playing many if any MMOs in the future as that was mainly a HS/Middle school phase of my life.

[MachoMyers]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

I actually resubbed to Rift a month ago and earned a free month from Rapt. Don't think I'll continue to pay now that it is F2P.

I am really enjoying Neverwinter. It is a very linear experience so far (only level 15) but there is definitely a lot of attention to detail and keeps me coming back. A definite F2P winner.

[mestevo]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

Yeah I'm 27 in Neverwinter, starting to tinker with alts, have Leadership up to almost 11, a handful at 4-5 or less.

Supporting the game with the $60 guardian pack... worth it just for the mount and companion for all alts, and the OP weapon you get.

Games can be a ton of fun, but Everquest and to a lesser extent WoW set the bar so high for me. That group of people is gone, the social experience I get with MMOs can't be replicated due to those relationships no longer being there and no time to develop that same camaraderie. I basically skipped the entire PS2 console generation playing Everquest, and put nearly that much time but not as concurrently into WoW over a couple expansions.

Now I just log into EQ every so often to go mach 10 on my bard around Plane of Knowledge once a quarter or so, and enjoy other F2P games as time permits. I've paid for my fair share of now F2P games (lifetime member of STO, paid for over a year or Rift, etc) and enjoy what I can now.

The industry is changing, hopefully the games that stick are a nice balance of F2P and pay to win. Perfect World / Cryptic are really going nuts with the lockbox stuff, wonder if that will stick around. It sure is hell works on me.

[ubernoob]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

Meh. As I've said before, I'm waiting for FFXIV:ARR.

Beta has been a decent social time, considering phase 1/2 were limited to one tiny area. I also have a good guild and group of people to play with.

I'm absolutely done with f2p MMOs, save for the ones I already have characters in. Maybe I'm an elitist that way, but every single sub game I have played is leaps and bounds better than any free-to-play.

EQ, WoW, SWG & FFXI > Every other single MMO combined.

[mestevo]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

Maybe I'm an elitist that way

This would appear to be an accurate assessment

[ubernoob]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

This would appear to be an accurate assessment

Can you honestly name me a free-to-play MMO that you've enjoyed for 6+ months without paying either a sub, or the equivalent of $20+ monthly (be it a 100 dollar purchase once, etc.)?

I'm willing to bet most people can't.

[mestevo]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

Can you honestly name me a free-to-play MMO that you've enjoyed for 6+ months without paying either a sub, or the equivalent of $20+ monthly (be it a 100 dollar purchase once, etc.)?

I'm willing to bet most people can't.

The quality of the game isn't why I've quit any MMO in the last few years (with very few exceptions), it's the quality of the people I play with. Your previous generalizations about 'all combined F2P games' etc are what make your own assessment of being elitist true. The social aspect is where I really enjoyed MMOs and absent that I tend to play them very casually and have very little attachment. At some point my gaming ADD kicks in and I just stop logging in.

There's no doubt quality is/will take a hit as we are pelted with a torrent of F2P options, but if you have the people to go along with it, the gems in the bunch are more than adequate, and more are on the horizon with Neverwinter, Wildstar, etc.

[ubernoob]

I didn't say the game quality was bad.

When you have a subscription based game, the community as a whole is actively invested in the game and they speak with their money. After all if they didn't care or didn't enjoy it, they wouldn't pay and cash speaks to developers.

Seriously... Do the math on a game with a sub base of 500k (highly doable these days if the quality is there.)

500,000 * 14.99... That's 7.5 million per month. Obviously there are running costs that knocks it down but there is still great profit to be made. The catch is that you have to have a complete game. SWTOR was a blast from 1-49 (even if it was very restricted) but once you hit 50 it was a streaming pole of buggy raids, horrible PvP and general complaints. They started bleeding subs, badly and knew that when the slower leveling crowd stated hitting 50 they'd lose them too.

Ffxiv was free to play (without a cash shop) when it bombed so bad on release for a long time. I'm pretty sure the subs from XI made that possible even when they were dumping more money into developing ARR.

The community at large that f2p attracts takes a whole lot away from the game. They also tend to move around from MMO to MMO and you rarely get a true established community, especially at low levels because everyone that is sticking around is already maxed out.

Too many games get caught in chasing WoW numbers which will never happen again, Blizzard just came around at the right time and caught lightning in a bottle.

If the companies focused straight on developing a fully fleshed out game with ample content, difficulty and a decent rate of new content (maybe a new raid every 6 months) they could easily be more than sustainable. Publishers are too focused on why isn't this game making WoW-money to see that vision through (also why games are quick to go f2p - quicker return on investment while sacrificing it for the long term potential.)

[Chrisksaint]

Re: Official OS General MMO Information Thread

Community is probably the biggest factor to me in these MMOs, I stuck with the same server on WoW for awhile and was in the same guild for years. Our guild had a reputation as the best on the server and I recognized most of the other good/bad players on the server, same thing with EQ.

In some of these F2P games I have probably talked to no one, have had no desire to really group, etc.