Was the Free To Play Weekend secretly a test for going Free to Play?

Flynch · November 2016

RinaldoGandolphi wrote: »

If the game ends up going F2P then I'll most likely pull out shop for good because I simply will no longer be able to afford to play.

Bruce Schriener, one of the worlds leading security experts and cryptographer (he was part of the groups helped design all security protocols and encryption used in https, ssl,tls,etc) in other words he helped design all the crypto that's used today on the internet.

Anyways he wrote a long article about FTP games on his blog, you will have to look back in the archives, but long story short is F2P MMO end up costing you considerably more money then sub based games..you get nickeled and dimed here and there to the point they are sucking 25-30 bucks a month instead of 15. They will put certain things in the cash shop you gotta buy to be competitive, they will have them drop in the world too but the chances being so low(0.0000001%) that literally less then 1% will ever see them drop so you will be forced to buy them to be competitive this can range from a wide variety of things...it doesn't have to just be gear

In the end all F2P games end up P2W in some fashion because the only way they make money is from a cash shop and they have to have things you need to sell else they won't make no money

Let's hope the game stays B2P as much as I don't really like that, I can live with it

I doubt they will ditch the optional monthly fee if it goes F2P. For all intents and purposes, the game is running on a F2P basis right now, if we ignore the 'entry' fee.

catsgomeow · November 2016

The moment eso lets in the free to play rabble im out of here, some things ive learnt over the many years of gaming, never prepurchase, dont go anywhere near anything that is an mmo and says free to play, especially if it comes out of korea and dont believe anything you are told by a gaming company. They have hired people that are hired to maximize profit so they will pull every free to play trick in the book, starting with rng crates, they have to do this to satisfy all the share holders etc, us gamers are nothing more than cattle. Now i know thats a harsh comment but its difficult not to be pessimistic when youve seen this time and time and time again in other games weve loved and enjoyed.

FLuFFyxMuFFiN · November 2016

The goal is to get more sales on the game. They do a free to play weekend to get potential buyers the weekend before Black Friday. Then the Gold Edition goes on sale for $24.99 (at least on console) on Black Friday and everyone who enjoyed their time in the game during that weekend will be more inclined to purchase it.

catsgomeow · November 2016

I should of stayed more on topic, i dont think it was a test, it was just a sales push.

RinaldoGandolphi · November 2016

Yeah they have done free weekends before

I don't think we're quite to F2P yet. I think they just trying to promote the game for upcoming shopping season.

JD2013 · November 2016

Overwatch did it. Have they gone free to play?

GW2 have done it. Are they going free to play?

WoW have free to lvl 20. Going free to play?

You see where I'm going with this ....

I mean, the base game goes cheap enough anyway. I can't see that being a thing.

Acrolas · November 2016

Shadowstep2003 wrote: »

I feel like there is always a bigger picture for the reason these companies do these types of things.

There is.

For people who don't want to do the sweepstakes mail-in entry, they have a small window of opportunity to create an account, play, and enter with no purchase necessary. That's why both blog entries explicitly mention the sweepstakes.

http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2016/11/15/eso-free-play-weekend--playstation-4-and-pcmac
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2016/11/21/eso-free-play-weekend-on-xbox-one

But that window's over for PC and PS4, so at this point anyone eligible by region can print a postcard and enter the sweepstakes until December 16, even if they've never played the game.

https://esossl-a.akamaihd.net/contest/postcard-en.pdf
https://esossl-a.akamaihd.net/contest/postcard-de.pdf
https://esossl-a.akamaihd.net/contest/postcard-fr.pdf
https://esossl-a.akamaihd.net/contest/postcard-ru.pdf
https://esossl-a.akamaihd.net/contest/postcard-mx.pdf

Abeille · November 2016

JD2013 wrote: »

GW2 have done it. Are they going free to play?

GW2 actually has a free to play option, and while it has limitations especially regarding social features, someone can access to the entire game except for the Expansion Pack contents with a trial account as they level up.

But I agree that offering free to play weekends and going free to play are completely unrelated. I still think the reason ZOS is doing this is most likely because of the legal limitations regarding contests like the one they are running right now, since they did the same for their last contest.

JD2013 · November 2016

Abeille wrote: »

JD2013 wrote: »

GW2 have done it. Are they going free to play?

GW2 actually has a free to play option, and while it has limitations especially regarding social features, someone can access to the entire game except for the Expansion Pack contents with a trial account as they level up.

But I agree that offering free to play weekends and going free to play are completely unrelated. I still think the reason ZOS is doing this is most likely because of the legal limitations regarding contests like the one they are running right now, since they did the same for their last contest.

I hold my hands up, it has been a LONG time since I played GW2 and legitimately did not know that haha. Today I learned!

Runs · November 2016

They have done 3 free weekends in the time I have played. I think this was more about getting new players, and thus new $$$, than anything.

I just cant envision them going F2P, not with them allowing us to have multiple accounts. I imagine they would really have to crack down hard on people for using them at the same time. Look at all the accounts standing in stealth at leather drop grind areas now and imagine how much worse it would be F2P with the same lack of enforcement.

Abeille · November 2016

JD2013 wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

JD2013 wrote: »

GW2 have done it. Are they going free to play?

GW2 actually has a free to play option, and while it has limitations especially regarding social features, someone can access to the entire game except for the Expansion Pack contents with a trial account as they level up.

But I agree that offering free to play weekends and going free to play are completely unrelated. I still think the reason ZOS is doing this is most likely because of the legal limitations regarding contests like the one they are running right now, since they did the same for their last contest.

I hold my hands up, it has been a LONG time since I played GW2 and legitimately did not know that haha. Today I learned!

Yeah, they changed their business plan when they released the expansion pack. They have three kinds of accounts, now.
The first one has access to the entire game, including the expansion pack, and is the one that is up for sale now.
The second one is only the base game, without the expansion pack. It is not up for sale, only older players who did not buy the expansion pack have this one.
The third one is the free account that I wrongly called trial account on my previous post (the trial accounts were the ones for the free weekends only, and are not a thing anymore). Only two character slots, smaller inventory, can't use map chat, can only send mail to mutual friends, have level restrictions to enter maps... The list goes on. It is a pretty huge list of restrictions.

I think this is a path that ESO can go down eventually, with different kinds of accounts, if ESO releases an Expansion Pack like GW2 did. When you see the restrictions GW2 put on free accounts, it seems like they were trying to prevent people from making a bunch of them and using them to disrupt other people's gameplay, since most of the restrictions are on interactions with other players and the market. While I wouldn't like to see ESO going F2P, if it must eventually happen then I would prefer if ZOS did something similar to what GW2 did rather than just dropping the box price.

JD2013 · November 2016

Abeille wrote: »

JD2013 wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

JD2013 wrote: »

GW2 have done it. Are they going free to play?

GW2 actually has a free to play option, and while it has limitations especially regarding social features, someone can access to the entire game except for the Expansion Pack contents with a trial account as they level up.

But I agree that offering free to play weekends and going free to play are completely unrelated. I still think the reason ZOS is doing this is most likely because of the legal limitations regarding contests like the one they are running right now, since they did the same for their last contest.

I hold my hands up, it has been a LONG time since I played GW2 and legitimately did not know that haha. Today I learned!

Yeah, they changed their business plan when they released the expansion pack. They have three kinds of accounts, now.
The first one has access to the entire game, including the expansion pack, and is the one that is up for sale now.
The second one is only the base game, without the expansion pack. It is not up for sale, only older players who did not buy the expansion pack have this one.
The third one is the free account that I wrongly called trial account on my previous post (the trial accounts were the ones for the free weekends only, and are not a thing anymore). Only two character slots, smaller inventory, can't use map chat, can only send mail to mutual friends, have level restrictions to enter maps... The list goes on. It is a pretty huge list of restrictions.

I think this is a path that ESO can go down eventually, with different kinds of accounts, if ESO releases an Expansion Pack like GW2 did. When you see the restrictions GW2 put on free accounts, it seems like they were trying to prevent people from making a bunch of them and using them to disrupt other people's gameplay, since most of the restrictions are on interactions with other players and the market. While I wouldn't like to see ESO going F2P, if it must eventually happen then I would prefer if ZOS did something similar to what GW2 did rather than just dropping the box price.

Agree. If they do go f2p, a multiple account tier type system would work best, I think.

Katahdin · November 2016

The tin foil hats are strong with this one.

Rohamad_Ali · November 2016

Nestor wrote: »

Why is that every time ZOS sneezes, or blinks or even breathes, someone thinks the game is going to F2P?

The Free Weekend was a marketing event, nothing more, nothing less. They don't need something like this to decide what Financial Model the game is going to be, they can just look at the numbers and other factors and decide one way or the other.

It's the same people that listen to AM radio late at night .

dday3six · November 2016

There really isn't enough cash shop options yet to suggest going free to play in the near future. It's likely just a marketing gimmick. If it was meant to test anything it would've simply been to stress test the servers.

Mojmir · November 2016

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Why is that every time ZOS sneezes, or blinks or even breathes, someone thinks the game is going to F2P?

The Free Weekend was a marketing event, nothing more, nothing less. They don't need something like this to decide what Financial Model the game is going to be, they can just look at the numbers and other factors and decide one way or the other.

It's the same people that listen to AM radio late at night .

What's wrong with George noorey? Lol

JamieAubrey · November 2016

Currently £6 on Steam, may as well be free at that price

Panda_iMunch · November 2016

I doubt they will give the game away, but they will make it cheap to enter. MMORPG player retention is low, so getting those few bucks in early will most likely increase the payoff.

However, if sales stagnate too much, they may end up going f2p. That said, they have their higher player count in ESO (on steam) just this past weekend and were near the top of the sales charts, so f2p may never have to be a thing. What they're doing now seems to work for them!

Belicourt · November 2016

RinaldoGandolphi wrote: »

If the game ends up going F2P then I'll most likely pull out shop for good because I simply will no longer be able to afford to play.

Bruce Schriener, one of the worlds leading security experts and cryptographer (he was part of the groups helped design all security protocols and encryption used in https, ssl,tls,etc) in other words he helped design all the crypto that's used today on the internet.

Anyways he wrote a long article about FTP games on his blog, you will have to look back in the archives, but long story short is F2P MMO end up costing you considerably more money then sub based games..you get nickeled and dimed here and there to the point they are sucking 25-30 bucks a month instead of 15. They will put certain things in the cash shop you gotta buy to be competitive, they will have them drop in the world too but the chances being so low(0.0000001%) that literally less then 1% will ever see them drop so you will be forced to buy them to be competitive this can range from a wide variety of things...it doesn't have to just be gear

In the end all F2P games end up P2W in some fashion because the only way they make money is from a cash shop and they have to have things you need to sell else they won't make no money

Let's hope the game stays B2P as much as I don't really like that, I can live with it

Not that i disagree with youbut drop quality is not exactly great right now anyway. Lol

Synfaer · November 2016

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

Honestly I think the quality of the design is more important than it's F2P possibility. What's the point of the game if it's just a mess to play?

If they fix the ballance, but add F2P, I'll take it.

You do realise that if the game goes F2P then PvP will become P2W...

Lukums1 · November 2016

Without seeing exact figures on profit and loss I couldn't tell you.

What I can tell you as a subscriber I don't see myself cancelling anytime soon for any reason.
The One TAM patch, the constant updates and DLCs keeping the game "healthy" after years is good to see.

The news about houses for me is exciting and will surely bring old players back and keep new players interested.

Even if it went F2P, they are still selling DLC's they will have better gear hidden behind DLC's in the future much like they do now for that matter.

The cash shop for appearance still interests players with costumes and mounts also contributing to income.
I honestly can't see a F2P move within the next 12 months in all honesty. But I've been wrong before so we shall see.

Elsonso · November 2016

catsgomeow wrote: »

The moment eso lets in the free to play rabble im out of here, some things ive learnt over the many years of gaming, never prepurchase, dont go anywhere near anything that is an mmo and says free to play, especially if it comes out of korea and dont believe anything you are told by a gaming company.

When I am looking for serious games to play, I have two criteria. First, it absolutely cannot be Free to Play. As @RinaldoGandolphi said, I really can't afford to play a free game, and one top of that, the game quality tends to be poor.

The second thing I look for is what sort of stuff they sell in the cash store. If it is widely recognized to be "pay to win", then I stay away. This is a game where i might not be able to reasonably control how much the game costs. It might be a game I cannot afford to pay.

ConeOfSilence · November 2016

Different games have been doing F2P weekends for years now they are just a way of getting new customers. This game will more than likely never be F2P.

Rohamad_Ali · November 2016

Mojmir wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Why is that every time ZOS sneezes, or blinks or even breathes, someone thinks the game is going to F2P?

The Free Weekend was a marketing event, nothing more, nothing less. They don't need something like this to decide what Financial Model the game is going to be, they can just look at the numbers and other factors and decide one way or the other.

It's the same people that listen to AM radio late at night .

What's wrong with George noorey? Lol

You would be great friends with Roechacca if you like that weird show .

DHale · November 2016

I would cancel my sub and be gone five minutes later... good thing that would never happen.

Mojmir · November 2016

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Mojmir wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Why is that every time ZOS sneezes, or blinks or even breathes, someone thinks the game is going to F2P?

The Free Weekend was a marketing event, nothing more, nothing less. They don't need something like this to decide what Financial Model the game is going to be, they can just look at the numbers and other factors and decide one way or the other.

It's the same people that listen to AM radio late at night .

What's wrong with George noorey? Lol

You would be great friends with Roechacca if you like that weird show .

It makes the drive home entertaining,area 51 isn't really that far away from me.

Skcarkden · November 2016

If it was a test the results came back negative.

Lag was just exposing how crap the servers are.

SantieClaws · November 2016

Khajiit is concerned yes that this might be a way of testing the ground.

How many people travelled in Tamriel? What impact did this have on the dwemer engines that turn the wheels of our world? How many of these travellers then decided to stay a little longer? How many of them bought extra crowns?

This one she thinks maybe no firm decision has been made yet but that this may be a way of determining the way forward.

If we open the borders how many will run through the gate and how much will they bring with them?

However they might also wish to consider that this one she saw far more bad language, verbal aggression, really filthy names and general not so great behaviour this last weekend. If you wish to open the doors then you will need to introduce some in game enforcement to prevent Tamriel becoming a great stinking cesspool.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Bryanonymous · November 2016

As the price for the base game continues to go down, the difference between buying and trying is negligible. PC version is almost f2p already, and ESO will soon be in the console bargain bin. As long as they continue to add content worth buying, I really don't care if the base game is free. And they also need to keep banning the bots. However, I hope a minimum paywall remains to limit the number of credit cardless kids from spamming zone and unlimited bot accounts killing the gold mat market.

Birdovic · November 2016

Sorry for going off topic but:
Not everyone has a good enough internet connection to pull off the download in that short time frame, to enjoy playing after its done downloading, we shouldnt forget ESO has become a HUGE game (73GB)!

@ZOS_GinaBruno
A little idea:
Maybe next time you do these free play weekends, offer 2 days ahead, for "pre-downloading", just like games offer, which you pre ordered or something!
Just some thoughts