F2P on the way.

Vatter · January 2015

As tempting as it is to say I told you so or to fill this entire post of me hahaha'ing, I won't. It is deeply satisfying that zos has shown its true colors to it's supporters though.

With the announcement that eso is going b2p with a cash shop, its only a matter of time before it goes ftp. Eso is in my opinion is copying lord of the rings online's business model. how lotro's model works is like this.

1. completely FTP. you can create a character and roam middle earth free of charge but with restrictions. can't send gold in mail, only get to create 3 characters and are limited to certain classes because some are locked until purchased, and every town you run to has npc quest givers with turbine icons above their head indicating you have not purchased that quest pack and are unable to do the quests.

2. PTW cash shop. all quest packs and expansions are available for purchase including dungeons, raids and skirmishes. every advancement item is also available for purchase. i.e. potions, food, crafting material, dyes, passives, traits, xp boosts, mounts etc etc. to boost sales lotro's shop will have "specials" i.e 50% off items.

3. you have an option to go "VIP" which means you pay a monthly sub and get all access to all content as long as your sub is still active and you also get 500 turbine points to spend in the store a month. However if your sub runs out you will not be able to continue with vip material until sub resumes or content is independently purchased.

whats all this mean? if eso follows this model sometime this year you will see similar circumstances. you will be able to buy tempers giving you full legendary gear and be able to buy fully buffed mounts, tri-pots, purple food, etc straight from the store.
Really the sky's the limit on what can be offered.

There will be grind spots going 24 hours a day for non paying players in order to get to max level (better hope you don't have quests required in that zone).

gold sellers will come back because they can just create infinite free accounts.

I can make this list go on and on but you get the idea.

Vatter · January 2015

oh forgot to mention that pvp in lotro has to be purchased with a vip subscription. you cannot access it without the sub.

Bouvin · January 2015

Vatter wrote: »

oh forgot to mention that pvp in lotro has to be purchased with a vip subscription. you cannot access it without the sub.

And that the runes (or whatever they are called, i forget) in LoTRO you can't get the best ones except from the cash shop.

Also with the items that have 0.001% drop rates in game, but you can buy on cash shop.

Cash shops always turn into Pay 2 Win as soon as the game company starts getting greedy and wants to squeak out more money from it.

Cash shops that offer purely cosmetic items and such don't make money.

zen22937b16_ESO · January 2015

Yeah, P2W is coming. I cancelled my subscription today, still have 21 days left but after that I'm uninstalling and I'm out of here.

I've seen exactly what happens to an mmo when it goes from paid to p2w, I do not want to go through it all again.

I'm sure Zenimax will lose quite a few long time subscribers like myself but no loss to them, they'll get a huge influx of the typical people that play P2W mmo's. god help you all.. INCOMING!!

marcmyb14_ESO · January 2015

LOTRO has the most pay2win system I've ever seen. You have to pay for trait/skill slots, and then you have to pay for zones/questpacks/expansions so you can even level. You can't PvP at all before level cap so you HAVE to pay. On the creep side, you have to buy your classes and skills for each of them. It's not just pay to win. It's pay to play 90+% of the game.

Vatter · January 2015

yep its really bad

Mandragora · January 2015

Another MMO unplayable for me and for many others who supported them just because they didn't want to have those FtP features in MMO and they failed them

If it would be just BtP... but BtP with an online shop?

And I know what kind of players will come with FtP, I have played LOTRO and left because of that

And if they think in game shop will help them - comparing to LOTRO: it has similar setting - big world of different races that should looks realistic - but they are nowhere near to LOTRO.
1. they have no functional social features like festival, raids
2. landscape feels small - the factions there have small space around them and they have no centre where you could roleplay - so it doesn't feel real
3. they have no cosmetic gear
4. they have no features which would allow you to develop/refine your character - a lot of ppl spend hours by that - in LOTRO there are deeds, in ESO there could be ranks within NPC guilds/small factions - but they threw that idea away loosing one of their main benefit of Elderscrolls series that would fit perfectly in MMO system and I wonder what they would add instead so players would be forced to grind for things in their shop?
5. not to mention they don't have a content big enough to keep you interested for long time

But there is a hope it will be like Guild Wars and not like LOTRO.

EQOAnostalgia · January 2015

Wow... so negative lol, we don't know it's going to be P2W, you were wrong about it being F2P so you can be wrong about the cash shop features as well. It's B2P.

Iago · January 2015

EQOAnostalgia wrote: »

Wow... so negative lol, we don't know it's going to be P2W, you were wrong about it being F2P so you can be wrong about the cash shop features as well. It's B2P.

all the bonuses they give their premium members makes it pay to win already

Belidos · January 2015

Vatter wrote: »

As tempting as it is to say I told you so or to fill this entire post of me hahaha'ing, I won't. It is deeply satisfying that zos has shown its true colors to it's supporters though.

With the announcement that eso is going b2p with a cash shop, its only a matter of time before it goes ftp. Eso is in my opinion is copying lord of the rings online's business model. how lotro's model works is like this.

1. completely FTP. you can create a character and roam middle earth free of charge but with restrictions. can't send gold in mail, only get to create 3 characters and are limited to certain classes because some are locked until purchased, and every town you run to has npc quest givers with turbine icons above their head indicating you have not purchased that quest pack and are unable to do the quests.

2. PTW cash shop. all quest packs and expansions are available for purchase including dungeons, raids and skirmishes. every advancement item is also available for purchase. i.e. potions, food, crafting material, dyes, passives, traits, xp boosts, mounts etc etc. to boost sales lotro's shop will have "specials" i.e 50% off items.

3. you have an option to go "VIP" which means you pay a monthly sub and get all access to all content as long as your sub is still active and you also get 500 turbine points to spend in the store a month. However if your sub runs out you will not be able to continue with vip material until sub resumes or content is independently purchased.

whats all this mean? if eso follows this model sometime this year you will see similar circumstances. you will be able to buy tempers giving you full legendary gear and be able to buy fully buffed mounts, tri-pots, purple food, etc straight from the store.
Really the sky's the limit on what can be offered.

There will be grind spots going 24 hours a day for non paying players in order to get to max level (better hope you don't have quests required in that zone).

gold sellers will come back because they can just create infinite free accounts.

I can make this list go on and on but you get the idea.

ESO isn't copying anything like LOTRO, there is no similarity whatsoever, if they're copying anyone at all then it is TSW, which is a good thing because TSW did it right.

zaria · January 2015

Yes, game will go F2P, the initial purchase price is to get the console players to pay.
I don't know how the purcaseable DLC will work but as i posted elsewhere it will be an bug trap with players don't having the same dlc.
In short the system will be clunky compared with an free demo and an sub game with an cosmetic cash shop much like wow do today.

Spottswoode · January 2015

Bouvin wrote: »

Cash shops that offer purely cosmetic items and such don't make money.

As much as I don't like this current change, this statement is not true. Path of Exile has, in fact, made a commitment to never offer advantages in their game. It can be done but it requires a steadfast commitment. I'll be the first to say that I don't think ZOS would stick to any, however.