ESO went Free to Play

Subtomik · January 2015

thelordoffelines wrote: »

You said $1400? Was that a typo?

Dats a lot O.O"

Nope warlord undead priest with the best pve gear available. Had 120 ish days played though so it was like pennies per hour played

RedTalon · January 2015

I am liking the 10 percent extra xp for staying sub...sorry for paying for the membership...will let people grind out champ points faster

JamilaRaj · January 2015

jrkhan wrote: »

@roechacca if $potions are account bound, then it would be difficult to exchange for gold. I think the rest of your argument was based off a theoretical $ -> potion -> gold -> gear exchange. They could probably also add the 'unusable in Cyrodil' tag to the potions...

They could, but they won't. There is no point in buying anything in cash shop, beause everything could be (made) obtainable by playing, by having fun, while just waving with credit card is not fun. You would be effectively paying for having less fun. Nonsense.
Unless...there are, alognside paying players, players who do not pay, then it starts making sense, because you are buying advantage over another player. That is very basis of whole cash shop scheme. There is no way out, they can assure players it's cosmetic only, not really pay2win, try hard to make it look inconsequential, but in the end it boils down to...Advantage. Over. Another. Player.

jrkhan · January 2015

@JamilaRaj‌ Like I said previously, Path of Exile handles it quite well. Buy your extra bag space, buy mount armor! Actually better example, Leauge of Legends - has a cash shop, but has the most popular competitive pvp of any game currently. I'll spend $10 to get the new ADC and a nice costume (or I could buy the character alone with in game currency).
I do dislike the idea of cash shop consumables that are otherwise hard to acquire in quantity (e.g. stacks of tripots) being usable in Cyrodil.
I'd also agree that more often then not, these systems tend to produce a meaningful advantage for paying players. However, I disagree that it is an inevitable consequence.

OrangeTheCat · January 2015

Lava_Croft wrote: »

booksmcread wrote: »

woodsro wrote: »

I will say this.

This whole B2P/F2P thing to me just screams of a knee-jerk reaction. In business, you have to lose money to make money. You look at any small business, its not uncommon to lose money in the 1st two years, its why most small businesses that survive for 3 years make profit and go on to survive.

TES is supposed to be a "long-term investment" being ZOS should have been projecting the game would make X amount of money over say 7-10 years. Instead of weathering the storm of the 1st two years, perhaps losing a little money, while investing in creating a superior product that would have reaped them much profit in years 3 through 10, they knee jerk and went for the quick fix in going B2P in less then 1 year.

They figure console players won't pay a sub, which isn't true, create an excellent must have game, and they will pay trust me. However, they figure they don't want to or not willing to invest that kinda time, so they will go B2P in hopes of selling lots of console copies to make up for common short-gain initial product investment losses.

What happens after the initial influx of cash from console sales? Then what? It seems they are focusing too much on shorterm and not enough on longterm profit.

Going B2P in less then a year is telling, ZOS shoudl have stayed course, if they were not turning an acceptable profit by quarter 3 of year 3, then they could have maybe gone this route, but they didn't give the game a chance to grow. You can't plant seeds in a garden and expect them to be ready to harvest in two days.

Quarterly profits. Quarterly profits. Quarterly profits. Quarterly profits.

Most people don't have the ability to think twelve months out, let along three or ten years.

And ESO's development has taken nearly 7 years...

Just like X3 Rebirth. Another disaster.

I canceled my sub. Probably makes some people happy.

All this talk about selling accounts sounds interesting; and I have a guild full of all sorts of goodies. At least I'd get something back for the time I paid to beta test this travesty of a game and it would hit ZOS in the only place where it hurts.

Urai · January 2015

Ok hold your breaths.............aaaaand the winnerrrrrr...........isssssss.......

Blizzard Entertainment ! once again this beast knocks them all out of the park with there yay high active players and there way old subscription system! well how about that Phill.

Telel · January 2015

Couple of things The Batkhajiit would like to add.

1) EQ2 has had a cash shop for a while now. While it does have things like XP potions, death penalty removal tokens, etc, etc none of that is essential to 'winning' and any well equipped guild can likely acquire many of the same items easily.

Mostly it's just a source of new cosmetic toys such as costume armor sets (no stats but over rides the real armor's appearance), or exotic mounts. Telel purchased a flying cow, and a giant war rabbit from it for example.

Almost none of the equipment in that store has any real PVE/PVP value. It just makes you look different, or is for your house.

If that is how this will work it will not be so bad.

2) In regards to tripots.

One reason they're so expensive now is because of the gold farmers monopolizing the columbine nodes, and refusing to pick anything else. If they suddenly find themselves without anyone willing to pay their extortionist rates (as you could now buy them with your 'free' monthly stipend of crowns) then prices may go back down.

For those of us who aren't scum this may also result in more nodes being available thus letting us bring our own prices down to a sane degree once more.

Roechacca · January 2015

Telel wrote: »

Couple of things The Batkhajiit would like to add.

1) EQ2 has had a cash shop for a while now. While it does have things like XP potions, death penalty removal tokens, etc, etc none of that is essential to 'winning' and any well equipped guild can likely acquire many of the same items easily.

Mostly it's just a source of new cosmetic toys such as costume armor sets (no stats but over rides the real armor's appearance), or exotic mounts. Telel purchased a flying cow, and a giant war rabbit from it for example.

Almost none of the equipment in that store has any real PVE/PVP value. It just makes you look different, or is for your house.

If that is how this will work it will not be so bad.

2) In regards to tripots.

One reason they're so expensive now is because of the gold farmers monopolizing the columbine nodes, and refusing to pick anything else. If they suddenly find themselves without anyone willing to pay their extortionist rates (as you could now buy them with your 'free' monthly stipend of crowns) then prices may go back down.

For those of us who aren't scum this may also result in more nodes being available thus letting us bring our own prices down to a sane degree once more.

Youre gonna get trolled to hell for role playing in Alliance War Telel , by the F2P kids . It's gonna take a miracle to get back the low but at least existent respect these forums have had . It's not the shineys as much as the people that bother me . It's innevitable . An that's what I hate most ...

Telel · January 2015

The best thing about being The Batkhajiit is having their wonderful super power.

This miraculous skill, which surpasses even that of Mary Sue lad, is the nigh infinite temperance needed to ignore trollkids.

Also , mute functions FTW!

KBKB · January 2015

Oh those fanbois so wrong as usual!

Bouvin · January 2015

Hermod wrote: »

Buy to Play

Which will change to F2P as soon as they want to inflate the player base to make money off the cash shop.

That'll happen the second cash shop sales start to approach subscription revenue.

Fordd · January 2015

Yep. Just cancelled my Subscription. 16 days left on my Sub and then im on to another game. Disappointing...this game had such potential.

Rylana · January 2015

Fordd wrote: »

Yep. Just cancelled my Subscription. 16 days left on my Sub and then im on to another game. Disappointing...this game had such potential.

But now who will run all of our scrolls

KBKB · January 2015

I should be sad for the game, but Im more happy all those douchy fanbois have been proven wrong.

Fordd · January 2015

Rylana wrote: »

Fordd wrote: »

Yep. Just cancelled my Subscription. 16 days left on my Sub and then im on to another game. Disappointing...this game had such potential.

But now who will run all of our scrolls

Know of any other games where there is scroll running? I may need to try those out.

Rylana · January 2015

KBKB wrote: »

I should be sad for the game, but Im more happy all those douchy fanbois have been proven wrong.

Proven what exactly? That a prediction made on literally every single game that comes out the pipe, guaranteed to occur at some point because the model is more profitable, that happened to stick one time, somehow makes you the winner of the argument?

Thats like telling someone "youre going to die" and then showing up at their funeral 50 years later to rub it in that you said it.

Just saying dude. All MMOs flip models eventually, corporate suits found out long ago that theres more money to be had there.

That being said, us "fanbois" werent proven wrong, the game did not go free to play. You must pay for it still.

KBKB · January 2015

Rylana wrote: »

KBKB wrote: »

I should be sad for the game, but Im more happy all those douchy fanbois have been proven wrong.

Proven what exactly? That a prediction made on literally every single game that comes out the pipe, guaranteed to occur at some point because the model is more profitable, that happened to stick one time, somehow makes you the winner of the argument?

Thats like telling someone "youre going to die" and then showing up at their funeral 50 years later to rub it in that you said it.

Just saying dude. All MMOs flip models eventually, corporate suits found out long ago that theres more money to be had there.

That being said, us "fanbois" werent proven wrong, the game did not go free to play. You must pay for it still.

It's a form of F2P and obviously you haven't been into the general forums in the last 3 weeks to witness the venom in which they defended ESO would never change it's sub system because the zones were alive and the population was booming anyone who thought otherwise was dropped on the head at birth.. all you have to do is check friends/guild lists to prove that wrong.. Idiots, blind idiots -_-

Rylana · January 2015

KBKB wrote: »

Rylana wrote: »

KBKB wrote: »

I should be sad for the game, but Im more happy all those douchy fanbois have been proven wrong.

Proven what exactly? That a prediction made on literally every single game that comes out the pipe, guaranteed to occur at some point because the model is more profitable, that happened to stick one time, somehow makes you the winner of the argument?

Thats like telling someone "youre going to die" and then showing up at their funeral 50 years later to rub it in that you said it.

Just saying dude. All MMOs flip models eventually, corporate suits found out long ago that theres more money to be had there.

That being said, us "fanbois" werent proven wrong, the game did not go free to play. You must pay for it still.

It's a form of F2P and obviously you haven't been into the general forums in the last 3 weeks to witness the venom in which they defended ESO would never change it's sub system because the zones were alive and the population was booming anyone who thought otherwise was dropped on the head at birth.. all you have to do is check friends/guild lists to prove that wrong.. Idiots, blind idiots -_-

I am a realist, but I did strongly defend what has been released by ZOS in the past. My venom is restricted to LOLBLOGGERS that repost reposts of other bloggers reposts. I tend to believe the publisher long before some disgruntled angry guy with a keyboard.

Technically this is the first time Zenimax has said anything on the subject since July, so we are talking six months in the making. The hostility is reserved for armchair quarterbacks/reporters trying to be "that guy" to stroke their e-peen and get more views on their blog.

KBKB · January 2015

We all saw it coming, If you recruit for any guild you would know there is a steady trickle of players leaving and really not that many coming in, the MMO crowd is fickle at best if games don't make it within 6 months fair chance they won't . I'm not a pessimist I'm a realist the two often get confused.

Game was plagued with way too many bugs (talking mainly cyrodiil mind you there were a lot else where) to maintain a health PvP population for any amount of time most decent players moved to greener pastures because paying for a game where you have to dodge roll to so you can weapon swap so you can open a door is borderline *** ***. don't even get me started on the lighting patch which saw unplayable pvp for 2 weeks without a whisker of an apology or free time from ZOS could have saved atleast 25% of the people that left PvP during 1.3 but pride and greed got in the wat..

OrangeTheCat · January 2015

KBKB wrote: »

I should be sad for the game, but Im more happy all those douchy fanbois have been proven wrong.

You, sir, are a very, very small person.

KBKB · January 2015

OrangeTheCat wrote: »

KBKB wrote: »

I should be sad for the game, but Im more happy all those douchy fanbois have been proven wrong.

You, sir, are a very, very small person.

I do enjoy being right though, What's smaller happy to be right or completely blind to facts around you and having unquestioned faith that some inevitable is not going to happen? If you couldn't guess I'm also not religious

Aminals · January 2015

My friends are far more likely to play if the game is free, but I'm not sure I fully understand these changes. The only advantages are in crafting, exp and cosmetics? It's still possible for anyone to max out, it's just pay to win quicker.

Zed · January 2015

So now that the we've started down that long, dark cash shop slope, does anyone have any alternatives? CU is looking good but is still a long way off.

Roechacca · January 2015

Predicting CU goes F2P first year of launch now .

Galalin · January 2015

Camelot unchained... but still a ways off

Vorpan · January 2015

Did they mention whether or not there will be a priority queue for subscribers? The waiting time since they lowered the population cap sucks enough as is. It'll be a nightmare when they start B2P. $:\$

Telel · January 2015

Aminals wrote: »

My friends are far more likely to play if the game is free, but I'm not sure I fully understand these changes. The only advantages are in crafting, exp and cosmetics? It's still possible for anyone to max out, it's just pay to win quicker.

Any expansion content such as new classes, skill lines, quests, zones, etc etc will be free for subscribers. If you're a leech you have to buy them piece by piece.

Also the 'free' stipend of crowns every month should prove useful. Hopefully it'll also be as much, if not more, than you'd get buying them the normal way.

Columba · January 2015

So I will pay the same amount that I pay today and get more content than I get today? Said content won't really give me an advantage in pvp. It will largely be cosmetic (I already make the best pots, and soul gems are cheap). Not a problem for me.

Davadin · January 2015

if Imperial City a purchasable add-on, I'll be...

otherwise, i think i'll be fine.

just have to see all these new "content" that won't be available to the free users.

and yes, i just cancelled my sub. 22 days to go. then i'll see you guys when it's free.

*** this ***.

update: just to clarify, not that i'm unwilling to pay. but coming from LOTRO, the attitude of dev milking every single content makes me want to throw up. at first, it's just a couple dungeons. then some new weapon functionalities. then a whole region. in a year, you can't level, you can't access, you can't quest, you do *** unless you buy them.

so yes, i'll flip if they convert everything to buyable content. i just don't want a game with such a gap between payee and freeloaders.

Soulac · January 2015

As long I don't see other items in the shop as Pots, soulgems, pets, mounts and costumes, it's good.

In the stream they confirmed no money to gold exchange, everything is bound.. Also they said this won't come in the future either, hope they won't change their mind again.

Pots are not as good as crafted Pots and they said that in game items are always better than shop items, something I look forward to.

Me and many players in my Guild will continue to play, cause basically nothing changes for us, we just see non paying users in PvP to farm!
Atm we pay and get something like pet rewards and updates for free, now we continue to pay and still get the same, except that we basically choose our reward.

In my eyes far away from p2w and many ppl are still willing to pay monthly. Let's hope it don't go the wrong way way..