Would you still play if this game went free to play?

Loxy37

Yes

you missed out Maybe. I would have selected that.

I would still play but if they started to nickel and dime in the cash shop or took the SWTOR approach then no, absolutely no! If they took the STO model and allowed us to play all the content pretty much unrestricted then yes. In STO, I have had a sub since the start but I can and have earned Dilithium, enough to buy almost everything in their cash shop and that's how it should be. I wont hear any of this "How do they make money" Bull because STO is one of the most profitable of all Perfect Worlds games, they make money from people who normally buy from RMTs and want it NOW instead of grinding out the currency themselves. Its a win win situation and the best model I have seen in a FTP game.

raglau

No

No, F2P games have horrific communities and micro-transactions are an annoyance from the outside world and a breach of the escapism.

Turelus

There needs to be a "Maybe, I'll explain..." option as well.

It depends how they do the F2P aspects, if it's the way SWTOR did with a cash shop which devalued all the item drops in the game (the only good looks were paid for) then no I wont, I will walk away.

Elloa

No

Do you imagine the number of bots and morons that would join this game if it went F2P?
It would make ESO unplayable.


I'd rather they implement a way to buy gametime with in game gold. This system usually provide a nice alternative for players, and break the market of gold seller.
Players that have lot of RL money but not enough time to play can buy the gametime in the Gameshop, and sell it for gold to other players. Players that are not rich but have plenty of time can buy gametime from those players with gold.
I think this system is a win-win situation for everyone.

Catflinger

No

Nope. I'd be out of here immediately.

cazlonb16_ESO

david271749 wrote: »

I know it's sad

No, it's not. The elitist attitude displayed by the subscribers of [ insert current fotm sub MMO ] is bs and the conversion to b2p/p2p improved pretty much all the major titles that did it. In several cases it actually prevented a complete shutdown.

As for the often alleged effect on the community - Looking at some threads on this forum, including this one, it can't get much worse anyway.

YstradClud

No

Hell no. I left swtor when it went ftp because the community just went to garbage.

steveb16_ESO46

No

Nope. Seen what happens when that happens. Having said that I'll be stunned if it isn't ftp in 12 months time.

Phantax

No

NO !
Apart from GW2 I've never played a FTP game that felt good to play. Too many casuals, no community spirit. When a game is FTP you have no 'investment' in it and that comes through in the feel of the game !

dodgehopper_ESO

Free to play games do have that cheesy used car salesman feel to them don't they. There's honor in selling a product without gimmicks and trickery. I've seen some F2P do it better than others, but usually they do rub me the wrong way, and I find that F2P games tend to promote a form of grinding that robs the player of the joy and purpose of the game, pushing them to do repetitive activities that have absolutely nothing to do with the reason they log in in the first place. I've often been of the opinion that if MMO designers keep doing this, that the genre itself will die out.

DireKit

No

No. F2P is a game killer, We're honestly fed up and sick of every game being this ridiculous F2P pay to win cash-grab. You can only get ahead if you've got TONNES of money to sink into the game, it's absurd.

Maverick827

Yes

It depends on how it's done. if it's anything like SWTOR, then I'm on board. Things were shaky in the beginning, but they've settled into a nice groove.

I'd gladly pay some real life money instead of gold to expand my bank, for instance. It would take me many many hours to farm the hundreds of thousands of gold to expand it fully, but only a single hour of work to pay for it. That's a good deal for someone whose time is valuable.

phairdon

This game would be buy to play if the subs disappeared. My guess is they would need to introduce something a long the line of the gem store you see in gw2. The gem store works well and does not give players an advantage.

Do not see it happening anytime soon.
Undecided.

dodgehopper_ESO

Loxy37 wrote: »

you missed out Maybe. I would have selected that.

I would still play but if they started to nickel and dime in the cash shop or took the SWTOR approach then no, absolutely no! If they took the STO model and allowed us to play all the content pretty much unrestricted then yes. In STO, I have had a sub since the start but I can and have earned Dilithium, enough to buy almost everything in their cash shop and that's how it should be. I wont hear any of this "How do they make money" Bull because STO is one of the most profitable of all Perfect Worlds games, they make money from people who normally buy from RMTs and want it NOW instead of grinding out the currency themselves. Its a win win situation and the best model I have seen in a FTP game.

I have to agree here, that STO is probably the best F2P I've run into.

ttomaxneb18_ESO

No

NO!

Arreyanne

Yes

twistedmonk wrote: »

if it went F2P they would have to get rid of most of the development team because they couldnt' afford them anymore. software engineers in DC area typically make 120k-150k if they are even halfway decent.

that's part of the reason the updates from F2P games are like every 3 months.

and then the cash shop..you would end up paying the same, if not more than the monthly fee.

And the two F2P games I play, i also have a sub to, to support the dev's. The updates and/or patches for those 2 games I play are not a bug riddled mess.

PVT_Parts

Yes

david271749 wrote: »

Many people are expecting this game to go free to play. Will it happen? How soon do you think it will happen?

I'm confused. Why did so many people vote no? I'm assuming you play right now. So basically you are saying, "I rather set $15 on fire once a month than play a free game?" Shouldn't it be 100% saying they would play if free since they aren't even losing any money to play? Very confusing indeed? Are people against playing a free game? I like free games, they are free, I am poor, what is the negative side effect? More cosmetic things on sale for people to buy, so what. It isn't any different than buying the imperial edition to get extra crap.

PVT_Parts

Yes

Mendra wrote: »

No i will stop the game in that case.

Free to play mean free to play for some, but the sub is bought anyway by someone to sell it in the game currency.

That means new currency (or some kind of item) between the real one and the game one.

I believe too that Free to play communities are the worst ones.

I've seen free to play where they sent you every week emails to tell you to go to the cashshop for new offers and all. Quite annoying. And many other bad things...

I want pay my sub and be quiet in the game, i want free DLC every 6 week, i want a staff with a salary so they are proffessionals, not some random, keep it like that !


"Free to try first" could be a great idee instead.

What? You rather pay $15 than delete 4 emails a month? I wish I had that kind of money.

Nikki_Mond

Yes

Don't know why there has to be a poll to everything nowadays.

zeuseason

No

I would stop playing and move onto a different sub game if I could find one as fun as ESO. I hate monetized games (f2p models).

Dev

No

I couldn't care less about the monthly fee, but as for micro-transactions and spending more money on anything that ZOS or Bethesda related... now that I do not know...

at this point they should consider themselves lucky I haven't canceled my sub, but make no mistake as for options it is still on the table.

Hell they should create a new game model:

Bribed to Play

Where they pay us to test the garbage they call RTM code.

Cogo

No

No, even though I am liking ESO almost more then sex right now, if they go free to play, all the reasons why I play a game like this goes away.

Free to play games are unable to pay a good staff to do a good job. And forget fast fixes, long term plans. TRUE balancing.

Free to play needs to be as cheap as possible. And to give an example. If ESO was free to play, Most of these forums would be empty because a quick fix to for example the vampire kill 50 people at once bug, is not to fix the bug, but boost everyone else.

So, no. I don't see this game going free to play at all. Ask me again in 3 months, and we'll see.

And to add how serious I look at a subscription based game. I am on a 6 month Sub.

If this wonderful game went free to play tomorrow, I would stop tomorrow. Not because the game isnt fun right now (They fixing the bugs), but it would be a waste of time to play a game that will stop developing and be able to do what Zenimax have stated in their roadmap.

Also. free to play games must have a store where you buy in game items for real money. No thank you. I'd like to earn what I get in the game myself. Not pay for it....

Swordguy

No

aside from the fact that it would take a probably a year to get the game turned over to a fap-2-play model, It would likely mean that development would slow to a crawl, and new content would be mostly vanity crap.

Banumu

No

No, played a few games that went that rout and it turned into crap. Granted I still paid the mothly fee, but the "rewards" were not great. The game lost it's charm after the move. Not into pay to win games. Not into pay to have cool neat clothes either. I pay to play the game.

Cogo

No

Nox_Aeterna wrote: »

probably not.

Then again , i would see first decide later.

So Nox....what about our alts. Miss ye!

JKorr

No

phairdon wrote: »

This game would be buy to play if the subs disappeared. My guess is they would need to introduce something a long the line of the gem store you see in gw2. The gem store works well and does not give players an advantage.

Do not see it happening anytime soon.
Undecided.

If this goes f2p I'm gone immediately.

As for no advantages? The "pile up experience" boosts don't give someone an advantage? Buying a pass for air travel doesn't give someone an advantage? Having a private merchant instantly accessible doesn't give someone an advantage?

I guess I don't understand the idea of "advantage".

1 Box o' Fun
5 Dye Packs
5 Black Lion Chest Keys
1 Recovery Package
1 Tradesman's Package
5 Experience Boosters
5 Speed Boosters
1 Minis 3-Pack (Series 2)
1 Black Lion Trading Satchel (18-Slot Bag)
1 500-Point Essence of Luck

Gain entry to the Havoc's Heir Airship.

• Quick Travel to All Cities
• Crafting Stations
• Bank and Guild Bank Access
• Mystic Forge
• Merchants
• And more! All within easy reach, for those who enjoy the ultimate convenience.

Allows you to summon a Black Lion Merchant anywhere. This merchant has some basic items for sale and will buy any items you have. The merchant is usable by anyone and remains in the world for five minutes.

Gathering Boost (1h): Gain 10 seconds of swiftness when gathering.
33%% chance at extra resources when gathering.

Contains boosts to increase karma gain by 50%, experience gained by killing enemies by 50%, and chance to find magic items by 50%. All boosts last one hour. Use them all at once or each one individually!

Improves your chance to earn bonus experience from crafting items by 50% for one hour.

Gain an additional 50% experience from kills for one hour.

There's more, but I'm not going to post about it.

phairdon

JKorr wrote: »

phairdon wrote: »

This game would be buy to play if the subs disappeared. My guess is they would need to introduce something a long the line of the gem store you see in gw2. The gem store works well and does not give players an advantage.

Do not see it happening anytime soon.
Undecided.

If this goes f2p I'm gone immediately.

As for no advantages? The "pile up experience" boosts don't give someone an advantage? Buying a pass for air travel doesn't give someone an advantage? Having a private merchant instantly accessible doesn't give someone an advantage?

I guess I don't understand the idea of "advantage".

1 Box o' Fun
5 Dye Packs
5 Black Lion Chest Keys
1 Recovery Package
1 Tradesman's Package
5 Experience Boosters
5 Speed Boosters
1 Minis 3-Pack (Series 2)
1 Black Lion Trading Satchel (18-Slot Bag)
1 500-Point Essence of Luck

Gain entry to the Havoc's Heir Airship.

• Quick Travel to All Cities
• Crafting Stations
• Bank and Guild Bank Access
• Mystic Forge
• Merchants
• And more! All within easy reach, for those who enjoy the ultimate convenience.

Allows you to summon a Black Lion Merchant anywhere. This merchant has some basic items for sale and will buy any items you have. The merchant is usable by anyone and remains in the world for five minutes.

Gathering Boost (1h): Gain 10 seconds of swiftness when gathering.
33%% chance at extra resources when gathering.

Contains boosts to increase karma gain by 50%, experience gained by killing enemies by 50%, and chance to find magic items by 50%. All boosts last one hour. Use them all at once or each one individually!

Improves your chance to earn bonus experience from crafting items by 50% for one hour.

Gain an additional 50% experience from kills for one hour.

There's more, but I'm not going to post about it.

Karma is super easy to obtain without any boost whatsoever
50% experience from kills for one hour. Whats the problem being able to level chars a bit faster? This is obtainable by any player choosing to gain the boost. boosts can be randomly obtained through achievements.
Black lion merchants help you & everyone else in the vicinity (especially world vs world) only advantage is not needing to travel to a location containing a merchant.
A gathering boost. How much does this impact on the game? Unlike eso the nodes are available to all players and do not disappear once one player harvests the node.
Black lion chest keys are obtained through certain quests too and seem to contain a lot of junk these days (just look at the selling price).
Mini's give no in game advantage.
You can travel to crafting stations for free without using the air ship.
Mystic forge is available to everyone without using the airship.
Anyone can purchase gold/gems or convert gold into gems & visa versa.
All mats in game can be harvested or bought by any player.

Dye packs. You can change the color of your armor which does not aid in combat or any other aspect of the game

Boxes of fun are just that. No one gains an advantage from them.

The game is b2p.Not f2p.

Striken7

Yes

Cogo wrote: »

Free to play games are unable to pay a good staff to do a good job. And forget fast fixes, long term plans. TRUE balancing.

You don't have any of that now.

Buck

No

where would my sense of entitlement go if I wasn't paying ...50 cents a day?

Bryong9ub17_ESO

No

From my experience of the MMOs I played that went F2P they turned into trash. Not the game it's self, but the player base. If this game goes free to play it is going to do nothing but bring in all the ignorant kids and trolls. And then /zone will be filled with children and idiots saying crap like "Wow was the first mmo"....No thanks and I will not continue to play.

Oh and it also will just turn into pay-to-win