Free to Play or Subscriptions?

[LateX'Dog]

When you have virtually no micro-transactions but a stable sub-fee, the focus of your company is a mix of keeping current subscribers via content, and recruiting new ones via marketing. As long as your sub-fee covers overheads including server costs and the wages of the content creation team then your game is successful from a profit point of view.

But when your games revenue comes from micro-transactions alone, the focus of your company is a mix of increasing the average revenue per customer and recruiting new customers. If the cost to acquire a new customer is less than the average revenue they bring then you have a successful game from a profit point of view.

Only one of those models will result in a "good" long term game for the players when talking about a MMORPG. The other just burns through jaded customers to pray on the gambling addicts that find their way into the game.

Opinions?

 

[Tombstone]

I don't really have an opinion either way, I've played some very very good MMOs which had a sub (UO, Daoc, EQ) and I have played some very very good MMOs which were F2P (GW2 etc). Conversely, I have played some very very bad MMOs which had a sub (many of which have now gone f2p) and I have played some very very bad MMOs which were F2P.

In terms of long term play for me as a player, the MMOs which I played for the longest length of time were UO and Daoc , which both were subscription games. However the fact that I played them for the longest isn't necessarily down to their subs, but because after playing MMOs now for the last 18 years, I find that I tend to have burn out much faster than I did back in those very early years when the genre was new.

 

[Sleepery]

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

There's no straightforward answer. I've seen f2p models that are absolutely awful, and ones that I hardly know are there, they're that unobtrusive. SWTORs one springs to mind as one that is just a device to annoy you into subscribing. TSW or Rift, on the other hand, I almost feel guilty playing for free, because I hardly know the cash shop is there.

I think the bigger issue is publishers insistence on €15/£12 as a monthly fee. Games are so cheap now that that seems like an awful lot of money every month, especially if I want to sub to more than one mmo. I wish they'd experiment with pricing the sub lower and see what kind of numbers they get. I'd happly sub to a £5 a month game forever.

 

[elmarko]

I wish they'd experiment with pricing the sub lower and see what kind of numbers they get. I'd happly sub to a £5 a month game forever.

This tbh.

I've got a feeling a cheaper sub will get the balance of decent numbers & a stable income.

I don't like ingame micro-transactions - I find them incredibly immersion breaking & really detracts from the depth of a game, not only that but they usually end up ruining the sense of achievement for obtaining X, Y & Z.

Guild wars with the pay up front method seems one of the few I'm able to stand, but I've yet to play a full 100% F2P mmo which isn't horse manure.

 

[Sasso]

ahhhh I remember when UO used to be like £3 a month or something xD

but yeah micro transactions are annoying and seem to pop up quite a bit in the games I've played with them; SWTOR and Neverwinter spring to mind

just need MMOS to charge just say £5 a month EvE being the most expensive sub game I've played... I enjoy it.... but not for what they're asking as I spend most of my time trying to get to places and killing things slowly UO being the cheapest which was amazing! how ever they now charge like £9 a month and it's just not quite the same anymore the f2p servers are ....ok but most have microtransactions/donation rewards so on some server you literally get people dumping cash ingame and then have everything... where's the fun sense of accomplishment? I've done it but I did it to get some ingame gold so I could place a house and have a base so then was broke again haha but having fun

 

[Deewon]

I'm pretty happy with the way League of Legends does it.

Its not pay to win, just pay for extras.

Usually with any micro transaction game, if I find myself spending less than £9 a month then I prefer it over a subscription based game.

 

[Tombstone]

ahhhh I remember when UO used to be like £3 a month or something xD

Hehe, it was never UO which hit my pocket, it was that back in 1997 when I was playing UO, there was no broadband, just dialup, and charged hourly dialup at that ! Considering how much you play an MMO, you can believe me when I say that my monthly phone bill was something like £150 a month because of all the hours I put in playing UO lol.

Online gaming was damned expensive in the days before broadband !!!

 

[MonkeyBasher]

I'm pretty happy with the way League of Legends does it.

Its not pay to win, just pay for extras.

Usually with any micro transaction game, if I find myself spending less than £9 a month then I prefer it over a subscription based game.

This links to what the other guy said I think.
A cheaper sub would be more attractive.

At one point I was paying for the PS2 sub (a f2p game) and also spending cash on microtransactions, but very quickly the sub became not good value.

WoW is another game that would see a boost in player numbers if the sub was half the price, and the new elder scrolls game got removed from my wish list because it has a sub that is too expensive.

Paying 8-12(15) pounds a month on a sub in some ways forces you to play that game in order to feel your getting value for money. If your part of a gaming community and want to play other games, with other people then the sub game they don't play becomes less attractive.

If you could sub to a game for 3-4 pounds a month, you would be more likely to sub, and be more likely to sub to multiple games Or more likely to sub to 1 game and be willing to also spend cash on microtransations.

One thing a sub does is create player investment and a small amount of loyalty. At the moment I am finding that my core group of gaming friends are all playing the throwaway style of games (and not spending a penny).

LoL, WoT, Warframe, PoE. etc etc. They change game from day to day, don't feel bad about sucking, delete char and starting again or even if the Servers are down, they just go play something else.

Whereas when we had a big WoW guild, the server being down was the end of the world and they would spend hours and hours grinding the same content for a small stat boost.

I like the way PS2 has done it.
Its a free to play game.
It has a sub option.
It has a cash shop.
All the weapons you can buy with money you can also earn in game.
You cannot upgrade the weapons with money.
All cosmetic upgrades and boosts you can only buy with money.

 

[~>Dg<~]

if it works for the game it works. let the business men decide . if they get it wrong they go bankrupt

 

[LateX'Dog]

One thing a sub does is create player investment and a small amount of loyalty. At the moment I am finding that my core group of gaming friends are all playing the throwaway style of games (and not spending a penny).

LoL, WoT, Warframe, PoE. etc etc. They change game from day to day, don't feel bad about sucking, delete char and starting again or even if the Servers are down, they just go play something else.

Can you see how that is a problem for MMOs though? If a game has a community with no commitment, then the community generally becomes hostile. Characters they don't care about, trolling and general dickish behavior as there is no consequence for their actions if they can just delete or drop the game at will?

I'm not saying subscriptions fix that issue, but it does help.

 

[Sasso]

Hehe, it was never UO which hit my pocket, it was that back in 1997 when I was playing UO, there was no broadband, just dialup, and charged hourly dialup at that ! Considering how much you play an MMO, you can believe me when I say that my monthly phone bill was something like £150 a month because of all the hours I put in playing UO lol.

Online gaming was damned expensive in the days before broadband !!!

oh god yeah xD using my parents credit card to pay for the sub then begging to be allowed to tie up the phone line for the whole evening with the 56k dial up think on our phone bill it was something like £30 a month just for 30 hours of off peak internet :O needless to saw we usually accidentally went over

but then it was bt surftime which allowed unlimited off peak. then it became bt 24/7 where you could just use it any time of the day.

untill recently (parents got a 3g dongle) they were still using the 56k dial up funny thing is. some years ago (probably quite a few...) the 56k internet just stopped showing up on the bill.... guessing with everyone on broadband they just stopped charging for 56k as no one in their right mind wants to use it as it's so slow..... still worked though, checked on the 2011 or 2012 christmas when I went home with my laptop free interwebz!!!


thinking of another few games. world of tanks, war planes, the other one with thunder in the name. these are all fun games but.... the micro transactions can kill it being able to buy a premium tank is a nice idea so you can spend a little but then always have it and use it to get more moneys and such.... but then people just go mental, buy loads, spend loads on premium ammo and it then is pay to win also I hate how grindy it gets!!! Like after T5 in WoT...unless you get premium you'll probably (average player like me) start losing money. even when I'm premium and get the bonuses... if you have a bad round on a high tier you can end up losing money. which just sucks!

 

[Puppetmaster]

I much prefer sub based games rather than FTP ones. When its sub based, your paying that £9 a month and then that's it, no extras. I would probably say that I spent more playing World of Tanks in the 3 years than I did on wow subs since I started playing in 2005 simply because there is more to buy.

 

[Newbie007]

Firstly you have to distinguish between the types of micro transaction games. You have the straight up "pay to win" games with their fremium models, not sure many of us that post here play those?

Then you have the varying degrees of Buy to play games like GW2 with no sub and cosmetic purchases and quaility of life improvements like additional charector slots/bigger bank space/more bag slots - aslong as the standard game doesnt have rediculously small starting figures this type of micro transaction is fine (imo).

Then you have the sub based games with a f2p aspect that are straight up cash grabs for the non subscriber to try and funnel you into paying a sub or buy the quaility of life improvements *cough* ToR *cough* or LotRO to a lesser extent.

And then you have sub based games with a cash shop like WoW, that sells mounts/pets or certain account services like race/name/faction change. The old excuse/justification for a sub was for server/maintenance costs, however both these are now pretty negligable in terms of expenditure for a company (there's plenty of articles on the net showing how server costs have come crashing down in price for companies) and account services are all automated these days so the cost to provide these are nominal.

Companies are more than capable of producing a MMORPG without a sub cost with a cash shop that isnt pay to win (generally what people think/go to when talking about sub-less games with mico transactions). WoW for example brought in $250 million or thereabouts through their cash shop last year, thats more than enough to cover server costs and development costs for the next 5 expansions.

Sub based games also produce some of the most toxic, slef indulgent, whiney brats going "I pay for this game, give me!!!"

Additionally since the MMO genre 1st came onto the scene we've had an explosion of alternative 'online' gaming: better multiplayer experiences in FPS gaming, Legue of Legends and similar that give a f2p experience, mobile gaming on phones and tablets. The new generation of gamers dont want to feel oblidged to pay a sub to access their content, why would they?

In short, subs are outdated. Better alternatives need to be explored.

Edit: Ignore the horrendous spelling, I can’t be ****** to correct it though

 

[Panos]

I don't really have an opinion either way, I've played some very very good MMOs which had a sub (UO, Daoc, EQ) and I have played some very very good MMOs which were F2P (GW2 etc). Conversely, I have played some very very bad MMOs which had a sub (many of which have now gone f2p) and I have played some very very bad MMOs which were F2P.

In terms of long term play for me as a player, the MMOs which I played for the longest length of time were UO and Daoc , which both were subscription games. However the fact that I played them for the longest isn't necessarily down to their subs, but because after playing MMOs now for the last 18 years, I find that I tend to have burn out much faster than I did back in those very early years when the genre was new.

Quoting Tombstone because represents fully myself also (minus the GW2 part).


And looking forward to TESO after 2 years buying games and trying various F2P that have cost me more than 15 years of subs

 

[MotherMayI]

For MMORPG's I favor the 'traditional' subscription method massively over Free 2 Play. It ensures all players are on a level playing field, there is no 'pay 2 win', there is no 'double dipping', it allows the game developers to concentrate on real content production, etc. For me, the benefits are endless. I like to pay a fee to enter the world of an MMO, that should simply be a ticket price to enter.

Free 2 Play ruins this.

Free 2 Play is however a great model for MOBA's and I'm sure other non-persistent world games such as World of Tanks, etc. League of Legends is probably the best Free 2 Play model I have ever seen.

Does anybody else remember the days of paying for MMO's by the hour? In the old days of WarBirds and other MMO's the 'ticket' was $1.99 USD/hr, in addition to internet and telephone costs - Crazy how far we have come :lol:

 

[Deewon]

Paying 8-12(15) pounds a month on a sub in some ways forces you to play that game in order to feel your getting value for money. If your part of a gaming community and want to play other games, with other people then the sub game they don't play becomes less attractive.

Yeah I agree with this. When paying for my WoW sub I was subconsciously forcing myself to always play it over other games to get the most for my money.

Only problem with halfing subs is they would need to double the player base and with WoW as old as it is I doubt they could manage that.

Surprised ESO went with a sub, even more so as high as £9. They may drop it down if they don't see many people stick around for long or go freemium like SWOTR turned.