Tribes F2P Business Model - PS2 Impact

[Tasorin]

Having played Tribes Ascend for a while now I can tell you that if the SOE business model follows Hi Rez it's not going to be a bunch of people telling Higgles and Smed's "I thought you said it wasn't going to be pay to win more?"

Even if you play TA for a while if you don't purchase the VIP bonuses for Gold and XP you just extended your play time to achieve the same unlocks to factor of around 5 or 6. I originally purchased a VIP pass for TA when it was in a earlier Beta Cycle. 20 bucks wasn't that bad of a "Donation" to get some decent perks. I found that when I played without the benefit of the VIP XP and Gold bonuses I left more XP and Gold on the floor from the bonuses then I was making in a map, even when I would have a monster game on base defense.

This is where PS2 comes in and I cross my fingers and hope that Higgles and Smed's stay true to all the smack talk about PS2 setting the standard for AAA Titles using the F2P model. It's a slippery slope and selling packs that accelerate your rate of gain is fine and all, as long as it doesn't totally distort the time sink in favor of those who "pay" to reduce the unlock time sink. I really do hope that SOE sticks to look and feel upgrades in the Cash Store and its about customization that doesn't alter game play.

Premium Accounts paying a monthly Sub are the other layer to this topic as well. They are going to have to figure out how to reward PA's without unbalancing game play or the time sink to unlock and still return value for the monthly sub price.

As always, without having a real Beta Cycle yet, we don't know what we haven't been told or seen. I would bet my 401k that this topic is going to be discussed for quite some time well past live launch.