My "article reply" to an article on F2P games and Subscriptions...
I wrote what seemed or started out as a reply to PCGAMERS article with the title:
Star Wars: The Old Republic’s free-to-play restrictions tweaked, Bioware stress “an ongoing dialogue"
and it quickly escalated to an actual article length piece that I thought I hold on to.
It was mostly in response to those supporting the idea that "if people want the full game they should subscribe" and that they shouldn't complain about the f2p model in SWTOR.
I myself having looked at it (the f2p model) see how flawed it is and, well, it reminds nothing of a proper free 2 play model. I support the idea of subscription games simply not existing at all (take a look at my older article posted here called "Free For All - Challenging Life Itself" to get an idea of my thoughts on this matter generally and how I believe it should work) and so I had my two cents to add to it all.
The amount of tolerance we have as gamers, or even human beings, allows for such things as these (e.g subscription based games) to keep gong on when clearly they should be stopped.
I thought it would be a shame to leave the reply there alone (I would end up forgetting about it myself) and so here it is:
(readers beware, the content is less formal than my usual posts, but I think still worth posting as a cry to gamers to simply STOP with their ignorance on companies taking advantage on them)
....
My two cents on subscription and f2p games
(this is gonna be long, get a beer, a smoke, or whatever will make it more enjoyable... or simply dont read at all, lol.)
This game was never worth paying a subscription fee for.
The only reason they got any money from me for about 3-4 months was that I love SW and I liked the content for the game (classes, armours, weapons, planets/maps, ships, mounts and so on). Loved the story too.
However the gameplay itself is no where near as satisfying as it should be for me. It is a great game, but is it worth paying a subscription for it? Hell no!
You should all also do some research on other successful f2p titles, they ended up making more money when done right than they ever did on a subscription model.
F2P gaming is not ruining games like many like to say, it is finally fixing them. Subscription games have been ruining games for the past decade.
I still have not seen a single title that is worth HALF the money they made or I payed on subscriptions. Paying around 180 euro or dollars a year for a game should mean we are getting that much content in return. Even by paying a yearly package of even 50% off is still not good enough, the content we get in that time does not suffice.
By 4 months I had payed the price of the game twice and more and got what for it? Nothing near the value of my money.
Server maintenance is also a joke, whoever believes that must really have no clue how these things work in todays world and technology. Im guessing the yearly fees from 10 subscribers alone are enough to pay for them, an amount easily made on a F2P model.
I say no to subscriptions, they are robbing us blind! Pay to play is the best way to go about it (a fee to get the game and play it) and in-game shops with access to things that wont ruin balancing to keep some ongoing profits rising. The idea is to make good content, and make the players feel as though they are enjoying the money they pay for something!
New players would always check the game out after that if it is good too, adding to profits, and developers should take more time into making content that actually deserves to be payed for in forms of expansions and in-game shops.
As for the silly remark "they make it subscription free but they take all your money on expansions" is retarded.
Anyone saying that obviously doesn't know the simple basics of addition in math.
Even 2 expansions a year (hell, even 3 expansions) are less than most sums payed yearly on subscriptions, and the content is obviously A LOT more.
Not to mention that sometimes 1 expansion a year is all it takes.
So honestly, how are they taking their money back from you in that way? And here is the funny part, you are not FORCED to pay for it. Don't like it, don't buy it.
Some expansions make it mandatory to be bought so as to play the game the way it should be. At those cases, you simply ask yourself if it is worth paying for as content. If it isnt and you don't like it well here's an idea, dont pay!?
You still would have ranked up to around 6 months of play without subscriptions, so even then, even if you quit, mathematically it is worth it.
How many games do people pay subscriptions for and quit anyway? Some of them even a year later once getting the feeling that it isnt worth the cash any more. (that's called the realization it was never worth the money, it's just that you wanted to play because you liked it, hence justifying the subscription fee to yourself for it.)
Been there done that with AoC. It was never worth it, and I knew it, but like SW, I am a sucker and big fan of Conan, and love RPG's, and like mmo's, hence I justified to myself the whole idea so I could keep myself paying for it from my salary.
One year down the track I quit. I always knew it wasnt worth it, but I loved the lore, they where simply taking advantage of my Conan fandom since we all know it was never worth those subscriptions. And that is how subscriptions work.
Back to the whole thing about expansions. No one forces people to buy them, and if they do by making content with the expansions rendering previous versions less enjoyable then simply quit. You still saved a hell lot of cash and enjoyed the game during that time as well.
Or, if you like the game... you can simply buy the expansion. It will last you at least another half a year, and you would have counted up to a year easily without spending unnecessary cash on the whole process. What you pay for, you get. That's it.
With sub games, what you pay for you don't get, you are scammed into paying so you can enjoy what you payed for in the 1st place! They don't even give you at the least 3 months of free play to start you off for having purchased the game! Your money more than covers for it so why not? wtf? And people are cool with this?
SWTOR forced me (quite literally) to pay more than the initial price. I bought the game, then the vendor tells me I need to buy a subscription card too to play (so it was his fault as well for not telling me before). Im like, well, I payed 50 bucks for it already, its gonna go to a waste. They are cheating me now, but I really want to play this game. So, there goes another 25 for 2 months.
75 bucks just to even get into the game? Really? And people are cool with this? Why do I even give a sh@t about the three months time I get? (two months of which I payed for even though I didn't want to. so that's just 30 days free.... wow... I am as moved from this as I would be for buying an overpriced shirt. In other words I am not moved at all!) So what happens if I get in and hate the game? Thats a great way to rob me of 75 bucks and slap me in the face too. Luckily, I enjoyed it, but it was not worth it. I simply turned the other cheek instead of getting my refund!
Sub games are a scam, end of story. And they should simply burn away from memory. Developers taking advantage of someones love for a game or lore is something that has been done for too long.
They do not need that much money to keep a game running, and the cash they make from initial purchase more than covers for this as do expansions (provided they are good enough for people to buy)
About time all developers started thinking about changing their strategy. About time they started making good content to keep people interested. About time they looked into making quality!
Nuff said.
