What will be cheaper? Buy as needed or pay monthly?

reften

So, I have a V14, I don't need a 10% boost to xp, gold, whatever. I sure the hell don't need some goofy mount or a costume. I have plenty of soul gems and can make tri-pots.

Want to enjoy all the content.

Sounds like I just cancel my subscription, and just pay when new DLC comes out? (and if it's just Craglorn like PvE stuff i'll just pass)

To me, these crowns are worthless...

Amsel_McKay

If its like LoTRO for the first half a year subscription was better... then after a while F2P is better.

Amsel_McKay

Amsel_McKay wrote: »

If its like LoTRO for the first half a year subscription was better... then after a while F2P is better.

I should add "after" they added the shop

Elsonso

The subscription rewards are definitely geared towards the people leveling their characters. People at max level will be more likely to drop the subscription and leech off the rest.

Now, not only does ZOS need to find a way to keep end-game people around, which they were pretty much failing at, they now need to figure out how to get end-game people to stay around and get them to pay for it.

Honestly, I expect fail on both counts and kill the game trying, but we will see.

For me, I expect the biggest change will be the Cash Shop metagame (is there anything worth buying in there) and an increase in traffic in common areas. For at least the next 6-12 months, the game will be largely unchanged outside of that.

After that, the free people will have gotten enough whining in that the softies at ZOS will start to implement things to attract more people who will not pay. ("We listened to you...")

Aidantwab16_ESO

Well in my experience with F2P conversion, it will start out that subscribing is the better option, (actually that either will be pretty viable and not too costly). After a while there will be a couple things that you can only get from separate transactions (apart from your sub) but they aren't really big things. Basically just keeps slowly transforming as the opposition dies out until Subs are for XP/gold boosts and you purchase everything else separately anyways.

Is ESO going to do this? I don't know. I do know the last game I followed assured us that (two steps ahead) will never happen, and then two steps later, and two steps later, and two more steps later, we are sitting in a flood of $50 per unique-cash-shop-weapon transactions.


EDIT: That's not saying Zenimax WILL do this, this is just my experience with converting to F2P.

Slurg

Not sure until we see it but it sure sounds like unless they're going to push out a DLC expansion immediately and continue to crank out new premium DLC at a fast pace, people who don't need the 10% boosts and don't want all the vanity items might be better off paying for DLC as they go.

Until ZOS loses too much money from that and switches to P2W.

technohic

They should add priority to locked campaigns for Cyrodiil and group finding for PvE.

McDoogs

I'd imagine the 10% boost applies to champion point accrual as well.

Amsel_McKay

Cyrodil is sub only. Unless you buy it with crowns.

NobleX35

Amsel_McKay wrote: »

If its like LoTRO for the first half a year subscription was better... then after a while F2P is better.

Lotro F2P was never the less better option...they had/have a completely awful model set-up.

daneyulebub17_ESO

>> What will be cheaper? Buy as needed or pay monthly?

You forgot the best option. Unsub. Fast.

reften

Amsel_McKay wrote: »

Cyrodil is sub only. Unless you buy it with crowns.

What?

AssaultLemming

My bet is that DLC will cost the same or slightly less than if you subbed and saved the crowns you get, or close to it. 1500 crowns for a $15 sub, assume DLC is $45 to $60 and comes out every 3 to 4 months.

technohic

AssaultLemming wrote: »

My bet is that DLC will cost the same or slightly less than if you subbed and saved the crowns you get, or close to it. 1500 crowns for a $15 sub, assume DLC is $45 to $60 and comes out every 3 to 4 months.

Pretty sure you get the DLCs with the sub.

EDIT: its in this graphic

Divinius

technohic wrote: »

Pretty sure you get the DLCs with the sub.

But only while subbed. If you cancel the sub, you lose the DLCs, unless you bought them separately as well.

{edited to fix quoting mishap}

someuser

oren74 wrote: »

So, I have a V14, I don't need a 10% boost to xp, gold, whatever.

you do know when the champion system is released we will all be level 50 right? VR are going away.

The xp bonus will certainly apply to the champion system points which is the new "carrot" with 1000s of hrs of possible progression.


So, if you're like a casual player who doesn't care about being ranked in PvP, yeah dude you can like just buy the DLCs you want and play for free.

Zershar_Vemod

Stay a sub if you want to spend less.

knightblaster

Zershar_Vemod wrote: »

Stay a sub if you want to spend less.

Depends on how they price the DLC. If they price it such that it equals the cost of a month's worth of sub per each elapsed month since the last DLC, then it's a wash. If it's cheaper than that, then if you're the kind of player, like the OP, who doesn't want the shop stuff at all, you'll be saving money with no sub and just buying the DLCs.

The other factor is CP accrual, which is likely impacted by the bonuses, but 10% bonus is expensive for $15 I think.

firstdecan

Zershar_Vemod wrote: »

Stay a sub if you want to spend less.

That really depends on the DLC available. Unless the DLC offers something you can't get in the regular game, there will be almost no incentive for many players to buy the DLC. Of course, the moment they offer something in the DLC you can't get in the regular game, the game is effectively buy to win.

Looks like Zeni shot themselves in the foot.

kongkim

Same i keep sub going

UrQuan

knightblaster wrote: »

Zershar_Vemod wrote: »

Stay a sub if you want to spend less.

Depends on how they price the DLC. If they price it such that it equals the cost of a month's worth of sub per each elapsed month since the last DLC, then it's a wash. If it's cheaper than that, then if you're the kind of player, like the OP, who doesn't want the shop stuff at all, you'll be saving money with no sub and just buying the DLCs.

The other factor is CP accrual, which is likely impacted by the bonuses, but 10% bonus is expensive for $15 I think.

You've hit the nail on the head here. The key factors really are how they price the DLC in combination with the frequency of the DLC.

Korah_Eaglecry

Divinius wrote: »

technohic wrote: »

Pretty sure you get the DLCs with the sub.

But only while subbed. If you cancel the sub, you lose the DLCs, unless you bought them separately as well.

{edited to fix quoting mishap}

The Subs worth is really dependent on how much 1500 Crown Points equate to in real cash.

someuser

knightblaster wrote: »

The other factor is CP accrual, which is likely impacted by the bonuses, but 10% bonus is expensive for $15 I think.

Depends. If you play several + hrs a day, then 50c a day for 10% bonus CP could start really adding up. If one CP = 1 hrs of time then you are saving 6 mins per hrs... if you play 2 hrs a day that's 60 hrs a month or 6 hrs bonus, or 6 cp extra per month... And that's at a very conservative 2 hrs a day... many player will do more then that. And if you can farm CP it may even be more.

If you add that ontop of free DLCs (depending on how many they release per year and what price point they are) and free crowns, a sub would make sense.

knightblaster

someuser wrote: »

knightblaster wrote: »

The other factor is CP accrual, which is likely impacted by the bonuses, but 10% bonus is expensive for $15 I think.

Depends. If you play several + hrs a day, then 50c a day for 10% bonus CP could start really adding up. If one CP = 1 hrs of time then you are saving 6 mins per hrs... if you play 2 hrs a day that's 60 hrs a month or 6 hrs bonus, or 6 cp extra per month... And that's at a very conservative 2 hrs a day... many player will do more then that. And if you can farm CP it may even be more.

If you add that ontop of free DLCs (depending on how many they release per year and what price point they are) and free crowns, a sub would make sense.

I suppose if you play that much the 10% may be intriguing as a bonus.

Natjur

Looks like crowns are a $1 = 100 crowns.
(there is some discount for buying large amounts)

So the sub which costs $15 and gives you 1500 is the same as buying 1500 crowns with cash. So if you plan to buy 1500 crowns per month, then the sub is the better option.

What will be the real changer, will be how often they plan to release DLC's and for how much.

Dymence

someuser wrote: »

oren74 wrote: »

So, I have a V14, I don't need a 10% boost to xp, gold, whatever.

you do know when the champion system is released we will all be level 50 right? VR are going away.

Not initially when the system hits.

Ackwalan

If f2p brought in less revenue then a monthly sub, marketing would get rid of f2p. A lot of people don't catch on that spending average 5$ a week for little fluff items or potions is more then paying for a sub. And the cash store never stops at just cosmetic items that can't be traded and have no affect on game, it always expands to include "must have" items, or short cuts.

Natjur

The potions that remove 1 min off trial runs will sell well.

UrQuan

Ackwalan wrote: »

If f2p brought in less revenue then a monthly sub, marketing would get rid of f2p.

I don't disagree with the rest of you post, but as far as the part I've quoted above goes, it's not as simple as that. If the monthly sub costs $15, and the average person without a sub spends only $5 per month on the game, it's still worth having F2P if those non-subscribers are people who wouldn't be customers at all if the game was subscriber-only. At least, that's the case if the people who were previously subscribing continue to subscribe, or if the influx of people spending only $5 per month is more than enough to offset the income lost from people who cancel subscriptions.

Emencie

Subs in this setup are always more expensive for the simple fact that you don't own anything. Purchasing unlocks for every part of the game will save you more money in the end, if you plan to play for a long time.

You can play for a year and spend $180.00 in subscription fees, and after that year still need to spend $15.00 to get access to all your content the next month.

Or you can spend that $180.00 unlocking all the content (or all the content you want to do) and spend nothing that next month because you have what you want.

The longer the game goes, and the longer you play the more price effective it is to just buy the DLCs and options instead of getting them through the Sub.

Also it is highly unlikely that $15.00 = 1500 crowns. Generally in these games the fee sub currency is about 1/3 what you would get when you purchase them outright. So it should be more like...
$15.00 Subscription = sub bonuses + 1500 crowns.
$15.00 Crown purchase = 4500 crowns.

nexusguardianb14a_ESO

well unlike most games it doesn't matter if you pay for the 90 (3mth), or 180 (6mths) ... the coins you get are the same. the main question you have to ask when what subscription and for how long is when you want your crowns. also the sub pricing is not much difference 30 day costs $14.99 and 90 cost $13.99, so a dollar isn't much difference, they don't have pricing for the 180 day just yet.

I read that some people question to pay for subscription or just buy the content. I think it would overall be cheaper to continue the subscription. 1 because that allows for better quality in game content, and 2 buying each DLC or new chapter to new areas, content and the like will over time cost more then if you gave a continuous subscription.

I personally will go and continue to pay a sub fee because its in my budget. and also I would like to say kudos for actually making items bought from crown store bound to account or pickup. I like this because it means people cant just outright buy things and then charge outrageous amounts of gold or whatever to players that either cannot afford or choose not to be a subscriber. I saw this in SWTOR when they went free, people would put things in the exchange (AH for swtor) from the cartel market just over the F2P players credit (their ingame currency). I know ESO doesn't have a AH or exchange, but we do have open trade and guild store merchants. which is more like a flea market setup then an AH.

i not sure what all is planned for the crown and if you get everything from it to go to f2p and then only sub to later buy the content. theres so much to ask, and answer at moment. but do remember subbing can help the game just as much.
i am a lifetime member of STO (star trek online) and even though i get a monthly stipend, i still buy extra zen and what not and even expansion packs to help further and show my support. so even though its going free don't forget the game is only as good as its players and feedback on all areas. that is why World o Warcraft is still so big, and why everquest 2 has over 15 or more DLC expansions. EQ2 has made a lot of good expansions due to support of ingame store, and the subs, as well as people buying the new content. so in good faith please support in every way one can.