Whether we like it or not F2P is coming to this game. Or at east a version of it. Like it has to nearly every other recently release mmo.

Subscriptions will eventually dip below the threshold (this is a normal occurrence in new mmos) and ZoS will see not having a F2P option as leaving money on the table and will make it happen.

So if you think F2P is terrible, that you pay more (which someone in this very thread has posted articles showing that is not the case for nearly all players), or that it will ruin content, I suggest you get use to the idea because I can guarantee you that ZoS is already looking at it, as subscription numbers fall.

All this arguing over which model is best ignores the more important argument; which model is more profitable?

I prefer a total remake of this game(like final fantasy 14)
let's it face guys, eso is a bad game, has some good ideas but it was done by incompetent
F2p is not quality and eso need a totally rework .

Honestly any one who feels like a F2P game is crap can have the opinion but I have been playing MMO's for 15 years and most of which I have played have been F2P, now there are some that leave out aspects of the game unless you pay for it those I choose not to play, but there are many games that allow anyone in the game to acquire the same things as anyone else in the game the cash shop is more or less for lazy people who decide to pay for something to help them lvl or to give them an increased chance to upgrade something or to not have their item break with an upgrade failure most of which items that are bought from cash shop can be sold for in game money to other players aswell so really 75% of F2P games are not P2W and to base every single F2P game as such is just being foolish, I have played many many many F2P games and still compete with the best in fact I was ranked top of the server back when I used to play EudemonsOnline and that game was a P2W game and I didn't pay a dime I simply bought everything I needed with in game gold I made for myself or worked hard to earn it just like any other game.

Ninnghizhidda wrote: »

P.S. Forgot to mention one more important fact, about the F2P model. You do get all sorts of "idiots" around, quite simply because, you know it is... free.

Awfully true. But the very worst game for this is the ArcheAge alpha for which people have paid over $100 for the Early Access pack. Open world PvP attracts the very vilest of people to judge from the chat channel, the court channel and the endless griefing and destruction for the sake of it.

But still a great game despite that.

Yasha wrote: »

ruze84b14_ESO wrote: »

When you can get a $2 coffee at McDonalds, and a $20 coffee at Starbucks across the street, why do people still want to go to Starbucks and complain that they are paying too much? Why don't they just go to McDonalds?

Ahh, because they specifically WANT the coffee that Starbucks made. Well then, I guess if they have a valuable product that people want and are willing to pay $20 for (even if they do a little grumbling), then Starbucks must be doing something right!

If Starbucks was charging $20 and nobody was buying? That would be a completely different issue altogether.

Yes that's right no one with any common sense would go to starbucks for coffee if they charged $20 (or if they wanted a good coffee for that matter). They would go to a good coffee shop or café and get one for $3-5. That is actually one of the things that is worrying.

Similarly people would complain about the high price of what is already a sub-standard product. No doubt the starbucks forums would be full of white knights defending the pricing by saying how $20 is so cheap compared to their new porsche, or that starbucks should actually charge more.

But what you are getting at is essentially correct, people pay for the flavour. A better, less obviously biased example than yours would be to compare Starbucks with Gloria Jean's Coffees, since they are both in the same line of business (chain coffee shops). If one of those chains started charging half the price for their coffee and yet continued to run a successful business the other store would start to look expensive and people would start to question why it kept prices relatively high- even if they liked the flavour better.

That is essentially what is happening in the mmo industry. People like myself have played b2p or f2p mmos of similar or better quality than sub-based games, and have started to realize that the quality of a game is not determined by whether or not it has a sub.

But they aren't giving the same product. They are giving half the updates, half the development focus. Far less content than subcription games. There IS a noticable difference.

But everyone has different priorities.

One coffee tastes just like another coffee to me ... crap. Coffee is a bad analogy for me to jump on. But you put two steaks in front of me (I'm a butcher), and I know which one is better, will be more flavorful, and will make a better meal. While it's not necessarily ALWAYS the expensive one, there is a cost to taste, and Walmart's shelved cuts just don't make it no matter HOW pretty the packaging is. I know what they put in their steaks, to keep them red and make customers THINK they are fresh two weeks after they are cut.

Worse, to reference your remark on one competitor halving their price: check yourself. All that time and energy and work into bringing that beef to the table doesn't just magically disappear.

If it's too good to be true, it often is, and free-to-play is too good to be true. I mean, who WOULDNT argue with a full-featured game with a dedicated development team focused on bringing rapid content updates and bug fixes to an in-depth multiplayer game world?

Put two MMO's in front of me (say, ESO and Star Trek Online), and I can immediately tell you which one is better. In my opinion, of course. I know what developers put in front of players to make them THINK they are getting content. I know how often subscription games release patches (every two weeks) versus free-to-play games (every two months).

I know a subscription game focuses on pushing out new stuff to keep their subscrbers entertained and playing, and wanting to resubscribe next month. I know they focus on bringing in NEW players, and returning players.

I also am well aware that in a free-to-play game, keeping someone entertained for the entire month, and looking forward to next month, isn't the goal. It's more important to draw their attention to the cash shop, and convince them to buy something new. It's more about keeping the game afloat and the cash shop churning, than about keeping the player entertained.

Not that STO is a bad game, per se, but it's my opinion as someone who's played MMO's for over a decade, the ESO is by far a better game, all the way around. I have played several bad subscription games in my day, but I'd choose any one of them over one of the pure free-to-play games on the market, and most of them over the converted f2p games out there.