Would you like to see ESO go free-to-play?

Flynch · December 2016

No

Nerouyn wrote: »

Flynch wrote: »

Isn't GW2 B2P?

Originally but not any more.

GW2's effectively much cheaper B2P model forced many other previously subscription only games like ESO to go B2P to compete.

Then GW2 went F2P. About a year and a half ago.

Ah ok! Good to know, thanks!

Cogo · December 2016

No

When ESO goes free-to-play, bye.

wenchmore420b14_ESO · December 2016

No

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Mirelurk wrote: »

@attackjet troll farming forum status?

Who'd have thought it possible?

Best to wait a few days before weighing in again if you want to keep cover.

To make it even more clear for everyone : OP declared openly in here, on Dec. 9th (2 weeks ago...) that this game sucks and that he doesn't play it anymore for 73839 reasons.

Now he wants the game to go free to play so that he can invite more friends to play with him.

Go figure.

Shades of Volstik..lol.. The troll is strong in this one...
But seriously, NO! I have subbed since release. If OP "thinks" the game sucks now, it would be a disaster F2P.
I too would be happy if it went back to mandatory subs and no crown crates.

Some_Guy · December 2016

No

Look at all the NOs!

Abeille · December 2016

No

Flynch wrote: »

Nerouyn wrote: »

Flynch wrote: »

Isn't GW2 B2P?

Originally but not any more.

GW2's effectively much cheaper B2P model forced many other previously subscription only games like ESO to go B2P to compete.

Then GW2 went F2P. About a year and a half ago.

Ah ok! Good to know, thanks!

@Flynch Just so you know, the free accounts have several restrictions, mainly to social activities like chatting and trading. Probably to try to minimize the impact of trolls and gold sellers.

You can read up on the full list of restrictions (they are not few) on the wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Account#Free_accounts

ChuckyPayne · December 2016

No

Iluvrien wrote: »

Nebthet78 wrote: »

I'd rather it go back to requiring a full sub and no Crown Store.

... I still have dreams about this happening.

This

Some_Guy · December 2016

No

This

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Mirelurk wrote: »

@attackjet troll farming forum status?

Who'd have thought it possible?

Best to wait a few days before weighing in again if you want to keep cover.

To make it even more clear for everyone : OP declared openly in here, on Dec. 9th (2 weeks ago...) that this game sucks and that he doesn't play it anymore for 73839 reasons.

Now he wants the game to go free to play so that he can invite more friends to play with him.

Go figure.

Shades of Volstik..lol.. The troll is strong in this one...
But seriously, NO! I have subbed since release. If OP "thinks" the game sucks now, it would be a disaster F2P.
I too would be happy if it went back to mandatory subs and no crown crates.

mad0ni0n · December 2016

Yes

But surely they make most of their money from the crown store and ESO plus. I mean, the game can be bought so cheaply I would imagine it makes up a relatively small part of total revenue, no?

Sigtric · December 2016

No

attackjet wrote: »

I know a lot of people who would play this game if it was free to play

I'm sure you do too also.

If they won't buy the game for 10$, they probably won't support it at all. Do not want

Danikat · December 2016

No

Nerouyn wrote: »

Flynch wrote: »

Isn't GW2 B2P?

Originally but not any more.

GW2's effectively much cheaper B2P model forced many other previously subscription only games like ESO to go B2P to compete.

Then GW2 went F2P. About a year and a half ago.

I think of GW2 as a B2P game with a free trial mode. Although there's no time or level limit on free accounts that's basically what it is.

Free accounts aren't locked out of any of the actual content that was in the base game, they can reach the level cap, go to all the maps, dungeons etc. But they have a bunch of restrictions to make it impractical to play them long-term and to stop them being used by gold sellers: they can only have 2 characters, can't leave starting maps until they're level 10, can't use most chat channels, can't buy or sell most items and have a bunch of other restrictions.

But the key difference to me is that in a free to play game you have to buy access to each of those features individually, and they may drip feed you the currency in-game to pretend you could get them without playing.

Whereas in GW2 the only way to lift the restrictions is to buy the game, then they're all gone and you've got a fully functional account.

I suppose in theory you could just play a free account forever, I played a 3 level demo of an RTS for about a year as a kid. But in practice I think anyone with a free account will either buy the game or quit. (Or have a paid account and a free one like I do, but I rarely play the free one.)

lehran · December 2016

No

The base game price is a low barrier to entry as-is, but the important thing is that it is a barrier to entry. If caught doing bad things such as botting, gold selling, harassment, etc. you are out some amount of real money to spent to get that account. This fact alone deters many from doing those activities, which in turn makes the community a much better place. It doesn't deter everyone, but there are far fewer of those people now than there would be should the game be F2P.

Cash-shop wise, expect prices to go up and basic features starting to be locked in the crown store should F2P ever be a thing. You'll start out with one free character slot (maybe 2 or 3 if ZOS is feeling really nice), need to buy the rest. Starting a guild will cost millions of in-game gold, or you can buy it from the crown store to avoid the expense. If you think costumes and mounts are expensive now, they'll get even more expensive. Expect more recolors as well rather than unique mounts with special animations and sounds. All of the best cosmetics will be locked in crates. None of what I mentioned would be considered P2W, but it is far more predatory than what ZOS is currently doing with the crown store.

The fact is that more people will be playing if it is F2P versus B2P. However, very few of those new people will actually be willing or able to spend money in the crown store. This means that in order to support the increased load on the servers as well as other staffing needs to accommodate more players, those that do spend will need to somehow be milked to spend more, and those on the fence of spending will need to somehow be convinced that they need to spend.

AhPook_Is_Here · December 2016

Yes

Then i could recommend it to my friends.

Stovahkiin · December 2016

No

Noooooooooo!!! Do you have any idea how expensive crown store items will be if the game went f2p?? And not to mention that the game's lifespan would almost certainly drop if it went free to play

*Smacks OP on the head*

Elsonso · December 2016

No

AhPook_Is_Here wrote: »

Then i could recommend it to my friends.

Whatever.

mad0ni0n wrote: »

But surely they make most of their money from the crown store and ESO plus. I mean, the game can be bought so cheaply I would imagine it makes up a relatively small part of total revenue, no?

They do make the most money off of the Crown Store, but that is not the whole picture. They also make money off of the sale of the initial license, and as long as that continues to happen, there is value to staying Buy to Play.

I guess that catch with the Free To Play model is that you need a lot of free players in order to make it work. They don't want to buy anything (it's FREE!), so you need to pressure them to buy stuff. Constantly. This is the part of the Free To Play model that I don't like. I don't want to be pressured to buy stuff in the game because ZOS and Bethesda want money from people who don't have to pay anything.

EZgoin76 · December 2016

No

Isn't the Op the same person that went on a rant a short while ago about how bad this game is and they were going to quit?

Edit: nvm I should have read past the first page. I would have gotten my answer.

Phinix1 · December 2016

No

Pretty much the only people that want to see an MMO go F2P are people who intentionally seek to see the game destroyed for whatever sociopathic reasons, or children who are too young to have experienced how games are inevitably destroyed shortly after.

As soon as everything in the game starts requiring you to whip out your credit card for "micro transactions" in these so-called "free" games, they'll inevitably change their tune.

Pretty soon everything is plastered with advertising and gambling and the only content developed is to that end, and once you can no longer be competitive or even enjoy the game without spending more on these micro-transactions than you would a monthly sub to unlock all the "quality of life" features that even let your character move around, you begin to realize that "free" is just a marketing scam to take advantage of fools and compulsive gamblers.

I get it that to a child "free stuff good" makes sense, but here's a life lesson though bub:

NOTHING in life is free.

mad0ni0n · December 2016

Yes

lordrichter wrote: »

AhPook_Is_Here wrote: »

Then i could recommend it to my friends.

Whatever.

mad0ni0n wrote: »

But surely they make most of their money from the crown store and ESO plus. I mean, the game can be bought so cheaply I would imagine it makes up a relatively small part of total revenue, no?

They do make the most money off of the Crown Store, but that is not the whole picture. They also make money off of the sale of the initial license, and as long as that continues to happen, there is value to staying Buy to Play.

I guess that catch with the Free To Play model is that you need a lot of free players in order to make it work. They don't want to buy anything (it's FREE!), so you need to pressure them to buy stuff. Constantly. This is the part of the Free To Play model that I don't like. I don't want to be pressured to buy stuff in the game because ZOS and Bethesda want money from people who don't have to pay anything.

Well it all comes down to exactly what proportion of revenue they make from games sales. Only ZOS know that and so are the only ones placed to make a decision on whether going f2p would be financially beneficially. I personally think revenue from games sales must be small (and getting smaller) and so I would imagine that f2p would be the way to go (but again only ZOS can know).

Bouldercleave · December 2016

Other

I would prefer it to go back full subscription personally. It may limit total population, but I feel the game and the community would be healthier in the long run.

TheShadowScout · December 2016

No

I know just the kind of griefers, scammers and spammers who would jump at the chance to bring their brand of aggrivation to a game, if they could make free throwaway accounts.
Considering that kind of scum... I am pretty happy with there being an BtP purchase price telling them:

Stovahkiin · December 2016

No

Games that go free to play ALWAYS have a spike of bots and gold farmers, as well as your average trolls and cheaters. Do people seriously want to have all of that in this game??? If so, then you can find those things in plenty of other games (they just so happen to be f2p, hmmm).

Ffastyl · December 2016

No

Going free to play means more hackers. The pay wall keeps a significant portion of the dishonest folk out of our community. The ones with disposable income, of course, still play.

Riejael · December 2016

You want farming bots? This is how you get farming bots. The quality of poster in the forums would drop pretty bad too.

Call me elitist, but I prefer retail boxes AND P2P used together. The quality of player is much higher. For two reasons. Those that can afford it typically on average have better attitudes. Those with poor attitudes are kept in check due to having invested in their accounts.

For ESO I'd love to see megaserver clusters where only ESO+ members play. We're paying $14.95 a month for paltry benefits, being able to reduce input lag and such would be a great boon. We'd still be matched with general population in dungeons (to reduce queue times), as well as when we group with someone from those realms (unless the entire group are members). But the pings would improve out in the regular world.

JKorr · December 2016

No

attackjet wrote: »

I know a lot of people who would play this game if it was free to play

I'm sure you do too also.

I'd be happier if they brought back the required sub and got rid of the rngesus boxes. Keep the crown store for the people who want all the bling. Update content that isn't clown crate exclusive stuff. Fix problems that aren't clown crate related. Get rid of the monetize everything as much as possible person; there have got to be other games out there that can be ruined. Work on new "real" content that hasn't been in the works from before the marketing person was hired.

Doctordarkspawn · December 2016

Other

I dont want for this game to become free to play.

But I dont think it will have a choice if the designers continue on this path of no focus they keep troding on.

Weasel_Tunneler · December 2016

No

No, for the love of god! F2P is a massive downgrade! B2P games is a big filter for kiddos that ruins F2P games with their toxic habits. Altho the game already have a bunch of toxic people already, imagine it F2P?

Not to mention the Clown Store, if the prices are already high with this game being B2P, I do not want to imagine if the game turned into F2P. 10.000 Clowns mounts everywhere!

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Prabooo · December 2016

No

Seriously? TF's wrong with ya?

LadyNalcarya · December 2016

No

No.
It means more farming bots, cheaters (ok, ZOS doesnt care much about them even now, but at least there's a risk of losing an account they've paid for... In case of f2p they wont have such hesitations) and p2w perspectives.

alexkdd99 · December 2016

Lol what I think alot of people are not realizing, is just how cheap you can actually buy this game for now. We are practically there.

I don't think it should become completely f2p and don't think it will. But it is so cheap right now it is almost irrelevant, besides then it would just be classified as f2p which some people think spells doom.

It could be 1$ and some would believe them going f2p by making it free would spell death for the game.

Dev · December 2016

No

While i would prefer that it didnt go f2p/p2w, i can see it happening. It is the unfortunate side effect of a game with too many nerfs, relies too much on polluted loot tables and has too many mistakes at the management level.

The reason many companies think that F2P is a good thing: There is a 'Low risk customer' market that will not take the chance upfront for my product, but the product is good enough to get revenue from them once they're hooked.

It works, and in some ways shows where a product is in its life cycle: Going from B2P to F2P means that the company thinks they can make more money tapping the low risk customer versus the current base game revenue amount. When you get to the point where you're giving away your base product in hopes of micro-transactions, it speaks volumes.

Elsonso · December 2016

No

Riejael wrote: »

Call me elitist, but I prefer retail boxes AND P2P used together. The quality of player is much higher. For two reasons. Those that can afford it typically on average have better attitudes. Those with poor attitudes are kept in check due to having invested in their accounts.

I am not an elitist, but I prefer buying my games and then paying to play them. I have very little respect for the "free games" that I have played. They might be entertaining, for a while, but they always fail to close the deal. It does not matter to me what the intentions of the developers are, they simply fail to make a game that deserves my attention. If they are not confident enough of their abilities to be able to make a game that people will buy, why should I be interested in that game?

Play a game that is so bad that they cannot get people to pay for it, in an environment where they expect the players to simply volunteer to pay money to them.

Somewhere in there is a definition for a mental illness.