tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post6390325581090363013..comments2023-06-19T10:45:56.724-04:00Comments on Player Versus Developer: F2P Business Model RundownGreen Armadillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15564045048380177626noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-18811968034332344322011-12-28T14:35:33.156-05:002011-12-28T14:35:33.156-05:00Currently playing: LOTRO, Pirates of the Burning S...Currently playing: LOTRO, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Star Trek Online (10-day access code from Alienware, it hasn't gone f2p yet but will at unspecified date)<br /><br />Have on the system but not currently playing: City of Heroes, Champions Online, Fallen Earth, APB: Reloaded, possibly another game I'm forgettingSnickering Corpseshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11207827630539622815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-45182822120948352662011-11-09T17:40:31.485-05:002011-11-09T17:40:31.485-05:00@Yeebo: Good data point, but I suspect that W101 l...@Yeebo: Good data point, but I suspect that W101 likely gets more expensive as you get to higher levels - costs appear to be based purely on level, though I can't say whether the amount of content included also increases. <br /><br />By contrast, the majority of DDO's content, including all of the stuff that has come out since F2P, is sitting in the same middle-of-the-road price point of 450-650 TP, and many of these new packs contain epic modes that can be repeated at max level.Green Armadillohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15564045048380177626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-25381853088600163672011-11-09T16:24:21.071-05:002011-11-09T16:24:21.071-05:00@Greenarmadillo: I'd say it's on par with...@Greenarmadillo: I'd say it's on par with DDO in terms of content to cost ratio. The last time I did the math I had sunk around $30 into the game and unlocked all of the first second and third worlds. <br /><br />However, unlike DDO you don't do much backtracking at all, the game is pretty linear. It's not like DDO in that missions can be repeated at different difficulties. You can repeat boss battles for rare loot drops, but that's about all the reuse of content you'd want to do on a given character.Yeebohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08028940396189544294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-77216202310642755862011-11-08T15:03:28.693-05:002011-11-08T15:03:28.693-05:00Excellent overview and comments. The problem, if y...Excellent overview and comments. The problem, if you can call it such, is the sheer number of really good F2P/Freemium options these days.<br /><br />I love the EQ2X model. It's had a lot of criticism from EQ2 players used to subbing but from the people I've talked to in-game who are playing EQ2X as their first experience of EQ2, the package works very well. <br /><br />You can play as long as you like for absolutely nothing and have a ton of content to explore. If you find you're enjoying yourself, a single one-off payment of $10.00 gets you Silver status and with that the average non-hardcore player could easily play indefinitely without having to spend another cent.<br /><br />If you get into it so much that you hit the level cap, then you'll probably be more than happy to buy the expansion and either sub or buy the necessary unlockers for your gear. Indeed, after the recent revamp of all items from level 20 to 80 you can get treasured (free) gear in Sundered Frontier and even Kunark that's plenty good enough to skip you over the first level of Velious gear.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-79817561887996292822011-11-08T07:05:32.843-05:002011-11-08T07:05:32.843-05:00@Yeebo: Curious since you're a W101 player, wh...@Yeebo: Curious since you're a W101 player, what was your impression of the amount of time content lasts versus cost? <br /><br />They are very opaque with their pricing model, but it looks like you will pay $2-4 per unlock, with 6-10 unlocks per "world". Meanwhile, how often do you ever backtrack if you don't decide to roll alts? My concern with this model is that you're potentially paying way more to "buy" content that you would have been better off "renting" unless you are an extremely infrequent player. <br /><br />Of course, paying for a month of sub, letting that lapse when you hit the cap and buying just the endgame zones or whatnot is still a better plan than paying the full sub every single month on pain of losing access to your character.Green Armadillohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15564045048380177626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-39614313782974218692011-11-08T04:05:36.911-05:002011-11-08T04:05:36.911-05:00If I may I would like to paraphrase the original c...If I may I would like to paraphrase the original comment that sparked this off: <br /><br />"I played Lotro for 18 months and paid about $30. I enjoyed it but now I would like to try another game"<br /><br />This is the most sensible thing about mmorpgs I have read in a long time. Forget about WoW fanboys and EVE fanboys. Play a game for a while if you enjoy it and then move on to something else when you get bored. I really think that this is a much more sustainable way to play mmorpgs and if free to play supports that style of play (I think it does) then whoopee.mbphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09037758442729422620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-17121837175233213212011-11-08T00:06:24.342-05:002011-11-08T00:06:24.342-05:00@Anonymnous: there is very little content you can&...@Anonymnous: there is very little content you can't do in DDO without a hireling. That used to be a crapass solution because money wasn't all that easy to come buy. However, with the addition of the crafting system selling greater essences on the Ah will now net you more money than you will ever be able to spend. Cretainly enough to have a pocket healer on you at all times (the NPC that most classes tend to need). In addition to that, solo difficulty has been added to most of the dungeons. <br /><br />The "soft cap" at level six-nine has largely disappered. My highets being level 12, and that character a group specialist, I'm not at all sure if you can make it o the cap solo now. However, I'm sure that you could on a lot more builds than it was possible for 6 months ago.<br /><br />@Greenaradillo:<br /><br />Brief thoughts on some other high prfile FtPs it doesn't seem that you have played much:<br /><br />Allods Online: polished entertaining fun at low levels, easily on par with WoW. It's been improved a lot since it launched, issues I had with it the last time I played have been alleviated. For example, the 24 slot bag you used to have to pay $10 you now get for free if you can make it up to level ten or so. <br /><br />Having only made it to the mid teens in my latest romp, I can't tell if the "soft cap" where you practically have to pay to advance at a decent rate past the mid 20s remains. However, word on the street is that the soft cap is a lot softer than it used to be, and word on the street has been accurate about the improvement to the low level game that I've seen so far.<br /><br />Great game at least until level 20, and no need to pay at all until then. May still crap out in the mid levels, but a weekend of fun for free is hard to complain about.<br /><br />Wizard 101: much like LoTRO and DDO, you only pay for the content you want. That content gets added to your account forever. It's also pretty new player friendly, my 56 year old mom liked it OK. I personally petered out about half way through the game, but I can' complain one bit about what i got for my cash. <br /><br />Play the free part of the game. If you dig the strategic card based combat, you are in for a treat because the game gradually gets deeper and deeper the longer you play. If you don't (and many hate it), not the game for you. But a net loss of maybe an afternoon of spare time.Yeebohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08028940396189544294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-51770905528272544182011-11-07T23:49:32.912-05:002011-11-07T23:49:32.912-05:00@Straw: This list is purely games that I have actu...@Straw: This list is purely games that I have actually played as F2P. I don't really think I have a lot of value to add to news coverage people could find anywhere else for games that I personally haven't played. Meanwhile, with all the free to play switchovers, time to play the game is actually a bigger limit for me than the non-cost - thus the list of high quality games which are now F2P that I still haven't tried. <br /><br />As to COH, I did a free trial back in 2007 or so, and was underwhelmed. By the end of the first night I was feeling like every mission pointed to either the warehouse map or the office building map, and the immersion of stopping random muggers had been buried out of sheer boredom of stopping to one-shot yet more petty criminals who don't seem to grasp how many heroes there really are in their town. <br /><br />@Mikel: DDO is one of the few games that still allow you to make a permanently gimped character. Even paying for 32 point builds and premium classes/races won't save you from mediocrity if you don't make the right choices. I gave up on original ideas and made a mostly cookie cutter build, and I've also taken to running with a healer NPC hireling. The difference in survival is huge, I was right there with you struggling to survive at level 6, and I haven't had serious issues with survival since rerolling.<br /><br />As to the hacking incident, there's nothing strange about it. If you are running a blogroll app that displays the little icons by the blogs (which Gevlon is currently), you are displaying remotely hosted images on your blog, and your security is as weak as the weakest link on your blogroll.Green Armadillohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15564045048380177626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-61175398770676184922011-11-07T23:11:28.297-05:002011-11-07T23:11:28.297-05:00Thank you so much for such a post! Been reading th...Thank you so much for such a post! Been reading the blog for quite awhile (btw Chemist by trade). I especially like your philosophy about getting what you want from games. (hence why I subscribe to WOW for only 2 months a year).<br /><br />But yes, you are dead on with LOTRO, it's just that I've done FtP for a year or so on it, and I've hit max level with nothing else (I love the epic story line and isengard quests). <br /><br />I tried DnD online but I lasted to about level 6 or so, the mid level content required seriously competent grouping, grinding levels out, or buying easier solo content, but it was good on low level.<br /><br />Thanks again for the post, I really appreciate such a detailed response for an anonymous comment.<br /><br />Thanks!<br />"Mikel"<br /><br />P.S. You were taken off of Gevlon's blogroll after that werid google virus bug thing on your blog.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-52912240796138716202011-11-07T22:30:51.436-05:002011-11-07T22:30:51.436-05:00I'm surprised you didn't add City of Heroe...I'm surprised you didn't add City of Heroes to the list, though to be honest it's a favorite of mine so of course I'd be surprised.<br /><br />Though I have an account decked out with veteran's rewards from my previous time in the game, I reloaded a previously made trial account and you get quite a bit for nothing. A tremendous amount of powersets, nearly the entire character builder, all of the original content including the end-game raids and Task Forces (excluding the Incarnate stuff, which is reserved for sub members.)<br /><br />It even has the lowest barrier of entry to unlock more features, in which buying 5 bucks worth of points will open up the chat functions fully, and you can use those 400 points to unlock the invention system and auction house at 160 points each. The unlocks are only for a month though, but 5 bucks a month isn't bad if you really want it, and the game was built without them to begin with so they are pretty much optional.Strawfellowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01575682856487531183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-5446831431330619902011-11-07T20:22:48.048-05:002011-11-07T20:22:48.048-05:00Fair enough, edited to add LOTRO, might as well ha...Fair enough, edited to add LOTRO, might as well have all of them in one place for future reference. :)Green Armadillohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15564045048380177626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-74396659308265959742011-11-07T19:44:22.264-05:002011-11-07T19:44:22.264-05:00This is a great post, thank you.
Since quitting...This is a great post, thank you. <br /><br />Since quitting WoW, and being of a bit limited funds right now, I've been thinking of getting into some sort of F2P MMO. This post was really helpful, though I'd love to hear (or get a link to) your thoughts and details on exactly how LOTRO works.Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12892367633984292438noreply@blogger.com