Take note S.O.E What is actually Free to Play

[Masterofthisgame]

<p>So i decided to check out the current affairs of previous mmo's that i have played and to my surprise Aion is going free to play.</p><p>Actually Fully Free to play with the in game store,No restrictions whatever.So i am patching Aion now i decided to write this post.</p><p>No more loggin into my account only to suddenly be feeling chilled in the lower regions, lookind down to my surprise finding my pants being looted.Eventually checking my containers to find every piece of fable gear in my overflow, what a chore.</p><p>Hope you actually take example to this S.O.E , you will be surprised how many people would rather no restrictions to their account and will still spend more money on the marketplace.(so you will still make more than a subscription per month)</p><p>Me personally, i have grown as an mmo gamer, i like variety and flavor, i get bored after a few months of a new game.</p><p>I would rather have a free to play game that i can spend money on the market place instead of loggin in for few days and paying a whole monty subscription.</p><p>I really hope you guys open up your eyes.</p>

[SOE-MOD-16]

This post has moved: <a href="/eq2/posts/preList.m?topic_id=514444&post_id=5743118" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">/eq2/posts/preList.m?topic_id=51444...post_id=5743118</a> Trolling

[Stuez]

<p><cite>Masterofthisgame wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I would rather have a free to play game that i can spend money on the market place instead of loggin in for few days and paying a whole monty subscription.</p><p>I really hope you guys open up your eyes.</p></blockquote><p>And I wouldn't.  I rarely purchase anything from the marketplace because I have no need for fluff items.  Game enjoyment does not mean I need to "look cool."  It's all about the content for me and I would rather keep my monthly sub and not be required to continually purchase items from a marketplace to continually advance myself in the game.  </p>

[General_Info]

<p><cite>darwich wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>they dont need to open their eyes, you can play free with restrictions, you dont like the restrictions, pay a monthly fee, easy enough to understand, tired of hearing all the cry baby attitudes of gimme gimme gimme im poor, i dont want to play blah blah blah blah..</blockquote><p>This. That's like winning tickets for a football game and then complaining that they didn't give you a ticket to the VIP area.</p><p>The whole point of F2P is to lure people in and those that like the game ether live with the restrictions or subscribe, SOE doesn't care about people who aren't coughing up cash.</p>

[Mohee]

<p>I wish they would go back to making people have a subscription to play, and remove the station store entirely.</p><p>Alas, it is only a dream.....</p>

[General_Info]

<p><cite>Mohee wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I wish they would go back to making people have a subscription to play, and remove the station store entirely.</p><p>Alas, it is only a dream.....</p></blockquote><p>on the upside those that play without a sub can boost sales of armor and weapons and other craftables</p>

[Nightshade]

<p><cite>Mohee wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I wish they would go back to making people have a subscription to play, and remove the station store entirely.</p><p>Alas, it is only a dream.....</p></blockquote><p>Quoted for excellence.</p>

[redwoodtreesprite]

<p>Well I got curious after reading the first post in this thread, and skimmed over the <span>Aion forums.  Seems they are being plagued with gold spammers and also some sort hack involving deliberately pulling every mob in a zone to a corner somewhere, and the mobs just follow the character without attacking, like the obvious hacker is some sort of pied piper.</span></p><p>Sounds like the game is riddled with hacking and griefing by gold sellers there.  And the company seems unable to stop much of it, nor seems to even care about it.</p><p>No thanks as far as I am concerned.  Lower restrictions does not mean anything if the fun of the game gets ruined by such people.</p>

[apwyork]

<p>It's always amusing to me to read a post by someone who wants "free to play" games but has no freakin idea how they really operate.  There is NO such thing as a completely free to play game.  The games that are supported by cash shops tend to charge for every little thing that eases gameplay or powers up your characters.  Do you want to pay a dime every time you say something in chat?  Maybe a quarter to teleport somewhere as opposed to spending 30 minutes to run there?  Want the best weapon in the game for a thousand dollars?  Hate being one-shotted by the person who spent a thousand dollars on that weapon?  That's what "free to play" offers.</p><p>Free to play as a continual game model sucks for most people.  It really only works to lure people in.  Either to lure them to subscribe or to lure them into spending much more than they would if it was a sub. </p><p>If you want to try a long running free to play game. Try something like perfect world and see how much money the top players spend to stay on the top.  It costs them thousands a year.  Just to get the best top-tier weapon requires the purchase of almost $15,000 in cash shop items to make it.  Yes, 15,000.  Not a typo.  Of course, that was a couple years ago and the prices go up every so often.</p>

[Neiloch]

<p><cite>Masterofthisgame wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Actually Fully Free to play with the in game store,No restrictions whatever.So i am patching Aion now i decided to write this post.</p></blockquote><p>Your right, its actually worse. Instead of restricting what is already available to all players, they make the basics free and it's 'pay to win.' So if you don't care about leveling at a reasonable pace, standing a chance in PvP or that you are a detriment to your groups in PvE, and CONSTANTLY out classed by people who cough up ridiculous amounts of cash, yeah, Aion's F2P model is great.</p><p>Aion is free to play, and pay to win. I much prefer EQ2's style of 'pay to play, play to win'</p>

[Michayla]

<p>Aion is going F2P because it's another Korean grind fest with no real substance for content. The big draw to the game was "flying" which turned out to be extremely underwhelming. It was slated to be a "WoW killer," and turned out to be another Korean gimmick, much like all their MMOs.</p><p>Their customer support is horrid. If you think this game's customer support is bad, have fun with Aion. God help you if your account gets hacked. You'll never see it again.</p><p>The only redeeming factor of Aion is the soundtrack, in my opinion, but even that is subjective.</p><p>As others said, their model is "pay to win." If you want to pay to win, where you're shelving out more money to experience half the content, go right ahead. Don't say we didn't warn you. You want to experience 80 levels comfortably of no restrictions, 90 levels of crafting, endless quests, free access to dungeons? Then play this game.</p><p>Honestly, people complaining about the restrictions in this game are looking to get everything for free. The world doesn't work that way. Pony up the cash, or get out.</p><p>F2P brings in the moochers, I swear.</p>

[Stuez]

<p><cite>Michayla@Najena wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>brings in the moochers, I swear.</p></blockquote><p>Yup!  Since going FTP, I've noticed a sharp increase of people asking for SOE to dumb down the game or asking for free stuff on the forums.</p>

[Ciara52]

<p><cite>redwoodtreesprite wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Well I got curious after reading the first post in this thread, and skimmed over the <span>Aion forums.  Seems they are being plagued with gold spammers and also some sort hack involving deliberately pulling every mob in a zone to a corner somewhere, and the mobs just follow the character without attacking, like the obvious hacker is some sort of pied piper.</span></p><p>Sounds like the game is riddled with hacking and griefing by gold sellers there.  And the company seems unable to stop much of it, nor seems to even care about it.</p><p>No thanks as far as I am concerned.  Lower restrictions does not mean anything if the fun of the game gets ruined by such people.</p></blockquote><p>Really???  I haven't seen a gold spam in ages on Aion.  And for what someone else said on this thread the store isn't pay to win. </p><p>I play Aion a lot more than EQ2 lately since all my friends left Splitpaw. </p><p>And GW2 is going to be the big winner. </p><p>I honestly think F2p for EQ2 is to restrictive even though I pay by the year</p><p>@Michayla  I've always gotten excellent support from Aion and EQ2</p>

[wullailhuit]

<p>If you want to see what a true free to play on-line game should be like, go look at the model world of tanks uses.</p><p>You don't Ever need to pay anything to play, as you get in the higher tiers of play it's 'advantagous' to pay for a gold account ( the equivalent of our monthly subscription ) , you CAN pay to gain a small advantage in combat , but you don't have to, with skillful playing,  the advantage to using gold ammo is moot.</p><p>It takes slightly longer to level by not paying , but it is more than possible to do so.</p>

[Oparis]

<p>Free-to-play is a great option for casual MMO players. And the SOE model works fine for this. Yes, you need to buy the silver account, but I think this is necessary to avoid gold farmers.</p><p>After that you have access to enough content and quests from level 1 to 90.</p><p>And if you don't want to be a casual player anymore, you can buy two expansions and a gold sub to join hardcore raids two times a week.</p><p>I my opinion a good way to start with a game and learn to love it. </p><p>I hope you know, that SOE needs to earn some money with its games. Today the deficitary mother company announced to fire about 10,000 employees.</p><p>Happy easter from Germany.</p><p>P.S. If you find some wrong words or spellings you can keep them.</p>

[Katz]

<p>Well, what is SOE's goal in the f2p model?  If it is to attract hordes of people so that the games are populated enough to look like they have a healthy player base, then they need a f2p model that attracts and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">keeps</span> people playing.   If the f2p models is so restrictive that it runs people off due to frustration then it won't keep them in game.</p><p>If their goal is to attract people because it is f2p and then just keep a few willing to subscribe, then perhaps it might work.</p><p>A friend of mine just yesterday downloaded EQ2 to look at starting back to play it.  He said "well, I logged in, off popped my legendary gear, and there I was, left to the wolves. Guess I won't be playing."  </p><p>We can argue back and forth over our opinions that its 1) a great wonderful fabulous f2p model, or 2) the f2p model stinks.  None of that matters. Our opinion doesn't matter.  What matters is the results.</p><p>What matters is this.... do you have enough people playing EQ2 to sustain it?   If  you have a lot of people playing then you will have some of them with enough income to decide to go subscription or to spend tons of money in marketplace.  If you don't have enough playing to sustain it, then you need to re-evaluate your f2p model.</p><p>Sometimes the people making the decisions don't step back, survey what others are doing, see what is successful and what isn't, and then make the best decision possible.  Learn from other peoples successes and mistakes. </p><p>This game has more content available to play than any game I've ever played.   That is a huge strength that needs to be focused on.</p>

[Neiloch]

<p>That was quick.</p><p><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/04/09/wings-over-atreia-clean-up-on-aisle-four/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/0...-on-aisle-four/</a></p><p>Aion ALREADY selling high grade weapons for cash in their store. Didn't take long at all.</p>

[Tempted]

<p><cite>Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>That was quick.</p><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/04/09/wings-over-atreia-clean-up-on-aisle-four/" target="_blank">http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/0...-on-aisle-four/</a></p><p>Aion ALREADY selling high grade weapons for cash in their store. Didn't take long at all.</p></blockquote><p>was a one week promo if did a pre-order ya got a weapon thats from 1.5. (way out dated)</p>

[Neiloch]

<p>Still more of an impact EQ2 has ever done gameplay wise with their shop. Plus it's NCSoft, only MMO company that has more stigma around it than SoE.</p>

[Ciara52]

<p><cite>Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Still more of an impact EQ2 has ever done gameplay wise with their shop. Plus it's NCSoft, only MMO company that has more stigma around it than SoE.</p></blockquote><p>In some people's opinion.   I happen to like Aion which is neither here nor there for this topic.</p><p>But for f2p  I'm having a great time and the current "shop" there is nothing there I need.  My sub here is until 2/13 so I still play but would never play the f2p.    And NC soft never drove my friends away like the Splitpaw issue did.</p><p>Today I prepurchase GW2  <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  so we will soon see how it goes with that f2p.  Looking forward to it as I still play GW after all this time.</p>

[Gaarysal]

<p><cite>redwoodtreesprite wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Well I got curious after reading the first post in this thread, and skimmed over the <span>Aion forums.  Seems they are being plagued with gold spammers and also some sort hack involving deliberately pulling every mob in a zone to a corner somewhere, and the mobs just follow the character without attacking, like the obvious hacker is some sort of pied piper.</span></p><p>Sounds like the game is riddled with hacking and griefing by gold sellers there.  And the company seems unable to stop much of it, nor seems to even care about it.</p><p>No thanks as far as I am concerned.  Lower restrictions does not mean anything if the fun of the game gets ruined by such people.</p></blockquote><p>If you were reading the eq2 forums for the first time you'd get an even worst impression. The reality in Aion there's a whopping 1 gold spam every 3 hours unlike this game where instead of bots you get every noob player who went to walmart spamming to essentially buy plat with their station cash cards. As far as hacking its not like people everywhere are godmode one shotting epics its one or two people just like every game has only reason someone complaining about it is because a whole zone is being pulled, that's quite noticeable.</p><p>Side note to everyone else reading. There's nothing in the cash shop that necessary to purchase it is mostly appearance related. Mostly everything is tradeable as well so if you actually play the game you could buy the stuff off the broker. The best thing from the cash shop that would have any effect on gameplay would be the dungeon reset scrolls but they are on a twelve hour reuse so it really only lets you do the zone one extra time per day.</p><p>I don't understand why soe decided to keep a bronze and silver level. They can't be making very much off the subs with everyone stocking up on time during double and triple cash days. It has just become an anoyance to make sure I pay a few thousand plat every year to sub both my accounts for the next year.</p>

[General_Info]

<p><cite>Gaarysal@Permafrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I don't understand why soe decided to keep a bronze and silver level. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">They can't be making very much off the subs with everyone stocking up on time during double and triple cash days.</span> It has just become an anoyance to make sure I pay a few thousand plat every year to sub both my accounts for the next year.</p></blockquote><p>The point of double/triple SC is to get people to buy things from the marketplace they otherwise wouldn't buy at full price.</p><p>If the events weren't profitable SOE wouldn't be doing them in the first place.</p>

[Gaarysal]

<p><cite>General_Info wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Gaarysal@Permafrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I don't understand why soe decided to keep a bronze and silver level. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">They can't be making very much off the subs with everyone stocking up on time during double and triple cash days.</span> It has just become an anoyance to make sure I pay a few thousand plat every year to sub both my accounts for the next year.</p></blockquote><p>The point of double/triple SC is to get people to buy things from the marketplace they otherwise wouldn't buy at full price.</p><p>If the events weren't profitable SOE wouldn't be doing them in the first place.</p></blockquote><p>For items yes this is exactly true it will make people buy when they otherwise would not. But when a large portion of the population pays for a full year which month to month is $180 or $120 in advance for $30 with 2 walmart cards they've defeated the purpose of the subscription. It just becomes a hastle. Remove the free restrictions, more people will be inclined to play and the people who are used to and willing to pay can buy the same amount they'd spend on the sub on SC. Its a win win for everyone. As it seems now SOE's revenue stream is more than covered by SC sales alone.</p>

[entrailsgalore2]

<p><cite>General_Info wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>darwich wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>they dont need to open their eyes, you can play free with restrictions, you dont like the restrictions, pay a monthly fee, easy enough to understand, tired of hearing all the cry baby attitudes of gimme gimme gimme im poor, i dont want to play blah blah blah blah..</blockquote><p>This. That's like winning tickets for a football game and then complaining that they didn't give you a ticket to the VIP area.</p><p>The whole point of F2P is to lure people in and those that like the game ether live with the restrictions or subscribe, SOE doesn't care about people who aren't coughing up cash.</p></blockquote><p>Basically. It's amazing how some people still don't understand the F2P model. If someone handed you a car and said " you can drive it, but only to and from work" would you turn it down? I know I would gladly drive that free car, even if it's only too and from work. If I wanted to continue driving it I would purchase the car, then I would have unlimited access to it.  Probably a bad analogy but i don't know how else to explain this to someone. These threads are always amusing lol.....</p>

[DamselInDistress]

<p><cite>entrailsgalore2 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><strong><em></em></strong></p><p>Basically. It's amazing how some people still don't understand the F2P model. If someone handed you a car and said " you can drive it, but only to and from work" would you turn it down? I know I would gladly drive that free car, even if it's only too and from work. If I wanted to continue driving it I would purchase the car, then I would have unlimited access to it.  Probably a bad analogy but i don't know how else to explain this to someone. These threads are always amusing lol.....</p></blockquote><p>It's funny when even supporters of F2p don't understand how it works.</p><p>Try to understand this : F2p does not exist. When you realise that move on and understand it is actually a trap to get to spend you more than you would with a subscription.</p><p>It's like someone giving you a car and saying .,. your wheel only turns left, if you want to turn it right as well, you ned to pay double the price of the car. This is a better definition of F2p than yours.</p><p>The masses bite and end up paying more for an inferior product. </p>

[hansomepete]

<p><cite>Masterofthisgame wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>So i decided to check out the current affairs of previous mmo's that i have played and to my surprise Aion is going free to play.</p><p>Actually Fully Free to play with the in game store,No restrictions whatever.So i am patching Aion now i decided to write this post.</p><p>No more loggin into my account only to suddenly be feeling chilled in the lower regions, lookind down to my surprise finding my pants being looted.Eventually checking my containers to find every piece of fable gear in my overflow, what a chore.</p><p>Hope you actually take example to this S.O.E , you will be surprised how many people would rather no restrictions to their account and will still spend more money on the marketplace.(so you will still make more than a subscription per month)</p><p>Me personally, i have grown as an mmo gamer, i like variety and flavor, i get bored after a few months of a new game.</p><p>I would rather have a free to play game that i can spend money on the market place instead of loggin in for few days and paying a whole monty subscription.</p><p>I really hope you guys open up your eyes.</p></blockquote><p>LOL I odn't know about you but I've been here 7 yrs. You have just self admitted you get bored after a few months and leave. How do you even expect to be taken seriously?</p><p>I'm fine with them dropping everything and going full f2p but I don't buy that stuff so they would never make a dime off me. Evidently your saying you buy more then $170 worth of stuff on the SC market per year? WOW how about you go play the game there kiddo.  It's more then just fluffy house items and gaudy cloaks. You can also get free mounts as well, just have to play the game is all, one at 50 is a carpet. If your a shadow knight you get a cool horse at 20, with the mount speed changes you never have to buy a horse other then for looks. I still use that horse to this day. Also got the horse of another color for free, just did a quest for it... Got my flying mount for free too, just did the flying mount quest and whoa I have a flying mount.</p><p>EQ2 is a great game that has alot of mix to it. Crafting is great and a mini game as well as function, questing is the game not sit around 1-9 chat and talk all night. I've done the other MMOs always come back here.</p>