You won't get intelligent or non-biased opinions. What you're asking for is something none of us will know the answer to.

Will it go F2P? I hope not but honestly only time and the developer know that for sure. I'm not against F2P games in theory, I am against games that seem to shun their subbing customers for F2P things (SW: TOR for example). Right now I enjoy ESO quite a bit. I don't play any game obsessively so I can imagine that I'll be enjoying it for quite some time to come. It's been my experience that with my playstyle I usually hit level cap right around the time they raise it which gives me lots of new content. If I play 8 hours a week or so I consider that a pretty good week

As for bugs, it's been said before that all MMOs are buggy at launch. All of them. Anyone who thinks that this game or that game wasn't is simply viewing with the rose colored glasses of hindsight. I haven't encountered any game breaking bugs but I'm only level 20 in Grahtwood. Not to say they're not there because they obviously are. I have faith that Zenimax is doing everything they can to fix them and one thing having 3 kids has taught me...patience

I'll definitely be here after the month and the one after that and the one after that. I've never been one to let other people's opinions sway me (I stuck with SW: TOR long after my friends and guildmates left) and as long as I'm having fun, that's really all I care about.

No one knows the actual answer to those.

If current trends continue it may end up going free to play. It all depends on how many subs they need to remain profitable and how many people stay on and subscribe.

Besides the doom and gloom, the game seems to have a healthy population from what I see but i'm no expert.

I've played a hell of a lot of MMO's since 1996 but I have no clue as to the business side of things.

It does have issues. The issues lay somewhere between "rawr this is a broken unplayable mess" and "everything is perfect, nothing is wrong". Somewhere, between those, is where the game is at. It has bugs and it has problems, it's up to Zenimax to show how fast it can rectify those.

Sadly, no game is ever going to be perfect for everyone. Even Wildstar, a game some people seem to hail as the second coming, is going to have problems.

Eternal Crusade will be the only perfect game ... SHUT UP ... after the last disaster of a Warhammer MMO just let me have this moment.

Joking aside, it's a good game with problems. I don't think it "deserves" to go free to play but we don't always get what we deserve.

Only time will tell.

Inversus wrote: »

- Will ESO go F2P, and if so when?

Nobody knows. Anyone who say they know are either lying or stupid.

I think he was asking for opinions, not definitive answers.

As a business decision, allowing a F2P model simply extends the game's footprint to other subscribers.

People can still get access to everything with a $15 a month sub, while people who want the Free to Play model can pay for particular features, content, and services directly.

However... every F2P model inevitably puts in "extras" that the subscription members don't automatically get. Costumes, potions, pets, etc...

Maybe the $15 subscribers get points/currency to buy those things with, but it is usually never enough to get EVERYTHING. Forcing them to pay more money, or grind outrageously simply to get those holiday/special items.

Or XP potions which would simply become a MUST for VR content.

On top of the $15 a month, I do not like these types of systems. No matter how many points/currency they give me.

The game changes... the people change. It becomes something else.

Using SWtOR as an example, they still had close to 1 Million subscribers at the time they went F2P. That is $15 Million dollars a month... I can't imagine an MMORPG costs THAT much to develop and maintain.

It was the GUARANTEED extra cash flow from subscribers and F2P members that encouraged them to do it.

Zenimax WILL MAKE more money going F2P, but the game itself will turn into something different. It won't be the same.

As a business decision, F2P is a smart move. But I don't believe it is the BEST move for the future of this game.

To keep it an Elder Scrolls game that helps build on the franchise. That type of attention to detail, consideration of the community, and development of ideas and content only comes from a subscription based model. That understanding of what you have, how it works, and what you can do to improve it with the resources you have available to you.

In a way, an MMORPG is much like a garden. While many would say it is better to simply buy the plants and save yourself the time and energy... working on it yourself creates a deeper understanding of the garden and the resources you have at your disposal to make it what you want. You'll figure out what grows best, and what your garden wants and needs to flourish.

Maybe you'll be able to make it a big garden... or maybe you can only make it a small one... but you'll be able to make it YOUR garden.

With the F2P model... it stops being a garden. You've tapped into some external resource and rather than try to develop around what you have, you start to develop around that external resource. Whatever causes more of those resources to come in.

That becomes the only thing that matters. You've stopped developing a garden, and simply opened up a flower shop. Providing whatever happens to be popular at the time.

There are a lot of flower shops around, but people always admire a well-tended garden. Even if it doesn't contain the flowers they prefer.

Which is what Zenimax needs to ask itself... Do they want to have a garden, or do they simply want to have a flower shop?

Johnny_NO_skillz wrote: »

So a few questions continue to linger on the communities mind:

- Will ESO go F2P, and if so when?

- Will the developers be able to fix the current bugs and issues in ESO in a timely manner that would allow ESO to recover from the initial average to mediocre reviews?

- How many will be left after the 1st month culling?

I'm curious to hear some intelligent, and non-biased opinions.

It seems like in every MMO community - there are either those who dance around their subscription and swear by their grave that they hate the game with a burning passion and herald in the next "Big" MMO... as if it will be the VERY ONE to be perfect on launch and have ZERO problems (look at you, Wildstar people...)

Or those who have fallen helplessly in love with the game that will blatantly deny any issue, regardless of how obvious, and shout for dissidents to return to WoW and GW2, regardless if the person has ever even touched those games before.

I am enjoying ESO - I'm not sure if I'll be enjoying it 2 years down the road, but I can reasonably see myself playing it for at least five to six months ahead from now. It's a good game, and I've been burned out on GW2... and haven't touched WoW since Cata - no reason to go back now.

Besides - I'm a sucker for ES Lore.

Let's be constructive.

Wait let me get my Magic-8-Ball....

- I cannot see through the fog
- Probably
- Yes

Seems my Magi-8-Ball isn't working properly...

I don't think it will go F2P for at least late 2015, if indeed it does at all.

I think we will have at least one player staying (me) after the first month...

As we don't have any information from Zeni about player numbers now, how can we possibly discern how many will be left?

But I think if Zeni keeps 500k here and gets another 2 million from consoles the game is going to be around for a while.

Both are easily doable IMO

Odds are good that it will be F2P. The issue is when. That depends on how many people are here at 30, 60, 90, 120 days, and none of us knows the answer to that question.

The subscription model only works long term for games that offer something that players can't get in another game. WoW works because people have so much invested there in terms of time and money, and because people have close guild/friend connections there, and because it offers the most mechanics-oriented endgame multiplayer experience -- people are willing to pay for it for those reasons. EVE works, because no other game offers the internet space ships PvP sandbox MMO niche game -- it's a niche of one game. So people who are into that will pay for it because there is no competition.

I see this game as being primarily appealing to TES fans -- much moreso than the broad MMO market. I think it does appeal, for the time being at least, to some of the old skool MMO market, but that's also pretty small, and smaller than the TES fans market. I think that the TES fans market will probably be able to sustain a subscription model for the game for several months, especially with the small, but incremental, old skool MMO player market. I doubt that these, taken together, will be enough to sustain the subscription model long term, however -- by which I mean longer than year-end or so. That would be my guess at least.

Right now ZOS is sitting on their haunches. Whether that's because they are gearing up for the console launch or not is debatable, but they don't seem to have the fire under them that they should. I think the suits at Zenimax think the console ports will save them and are depending on that for long-term subscriptions and avoiding F2P. That may be a successful tactic, the game could fail miserably on PCs and MACs and still be a success. This is the first mainstream AAA MMO to launch on multiple next-gen consoles so it's hard to read the future there.

http://youtu.be/NzthXKu8lJw

Here is a good review on the problems with the game industry today.

They want all the money. Every last bit of it.

Lets hope Zenimax doesn't follow this approach.