Possibility of Premium Servers for PS2?

[Bravix]

Just...stop....

If they handle the hackers fine, there's nothing wrong with playing with those who don't pay. SOE wouldn't do premium server, because then you'd get free cosmetics and what not. I'm assuming that even if you're a premium member, you'll only get so many credits for buying stuff per month. Thus, encouragement to buy more than just your subscription.

By making everything free on the premium servers, people could just pay 15 a month and never have to buy the extra stuff. Less money for SOE.

[Figment]

Originally Posted by HELLFISH88

Premium server players get to swap Cell number's with DanB for prompt getting yourself banned/muted/made into a BO or get some other event when you just said you don't want to after which a CSR broadcast says YOU asked for a specific hated event like Rabbit on Cyssor.

Fixed.

[SKYeXile]

Originally Posted by Tasorin

I am going to have to disagree on this one. F2P model with the Cash Store enabled vs Premium with the Cash Store disabled. Same game, same client, the difference being no cash store interface on the premium servers. Now would or could this be a freaking nightmare to manage internally. Of course it could be, and why would SOE expend the additional overhead to support two business models? The answer is anyone worth their BS in Business is going to take a giant steamer all over this business case.

Here is the thing, every competitive PvP based gamed that has tried the Cash Store F2P model has failed miserable. I mean absolutely miserable, to the point that quite frankly I can't trust the bean counters at SOE to not fuck this up once they get a chance too sell the revenue potential to someone far enough up the food chain that it just happens and there isn't a damn thing Smed's can do about it.

Then lay over the top of the Cash Store slippery slope the fact that SOE's track record is not the greatest and they have crapped the bed more then once due to downward pressures from Sony Entertainment their parent PL.

Personally I would prefer a paid monthly subscription even if it was only $4.99 a month. It would significantly cut down on the hacker accounts and the ability to easily have multiple F2P accounts and being running multiple instances of PS2 having someone logged into the other faction(s) and watching troop movements as a spotter.

Did you think about that Higgles in your F2P business model with no cost for the client and the ability to speed up game play with beach heads? I know I will personally be running multiple clients if you are going to let the game be free and will be spotting for my faction on a 2nd and/or 3rd account...

Except for League of ledgends and world of tanks and probably many more that im unaware of that i havnt played. perhaps they're not cash shop per say...but is PS2?

[SKYeXile]

Originally Posted by Crator

Just an FYI, DC Universe online does utilize paid subscriptions along with F2P subs all on the same server... SOE is probably going to do something similiar....

DCUO Gameplans: http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/free/

yea, that looks pretty reasonble, though i have to wonder how much of an incentive they can give to people to sub for PS2. I know some possibilities, but i guess it really depneds on how this resource, offlinleveling and what not really works.

[Crator]

Originally Posted by Bravix

Just...stop....

If they handle the hackers fine, there's nothing wrong with playing with those who don't pay. SOE wouldn't do premium server, because then you'd get free cosmetics and what not. I'm assuming that even if you're a premium member, you'll only get so many credits for buying stuff per month. Thus, encouragement to buy more than just your subscription.

By making everything free on the premium servers, people could just pay 15 a month and never have to buy the extra stuff. Less money for SOE.

Yeah, but you're argument is weak. If that is the problem then just make the cash shop cosmetic stuff not be available to the in-game content, so even though you pay-to-play you still have to spend money to get the extra goodies that don't really affect game play....

[Effective]

A F2P model does not mean the game is going to fail. League of Legends is a perfect example of a very successful F2P game, with an in game store where you can buy characters and skins for the game. Characters can also be bought with points you earn in game.

Levels and runes can not be bought with real cash, though you can purchase XP boosts (though I would not recommend it).

Stop demonizing F2P, it should work for PS2 as long as anything that can be obtained with real cash (excluding cosmetic changes) can be obtained through regular unpaid gameplay.

[Crator]

It is iffy, I give you that... Hard to imagine what they will sell since it is a FPS game and they aren't selling power in the shops...

[SKYeXile]

Originally Posted by Crator

It is iffy, I give you that... Hard to imagine what they will sell since it is a FPS game and they aren't selling power in the shops...

well im sure they will have a premium sub, looking at DCUO it will include:

character slots.
expansions
forming an outfit
unlimited chat

wtih the possibilty to:
gain more XP
offline train faster
hold more resources
have more bank slots...real questionable
only have some certs or classes avalivle to premium...its not power, its versitility. (seen on free realms)
getting rewarded or bonuses each month(free realms)
having priorty que loggin in, zoning to conts and getting vehciles out.

cash shop:
new skins, for sure
bypass offline traning and buy training, possibility.
buy weapon mods.

theres plenty more.

[LongBow]

No, While a premium shard may seem perfectly valid there is little to no reason for it, as if SOE did decide they want this "everything for $15 a month, stop paying and it disappears" payment model they can simply add it to the list of payment models that exist.

as for scaremongering that PS2 will need to resort to selling power to turn a profit, its unfounded ... the F2P income model is not the leap of faith it once was.

A note to those railing on the OP for "splitting up the community":

While it is true planetside will contain massive battles in a persistent battleground, the environment will still be sharded.
Sifer2 is suggesting that one or more of these shards follow a differing business model than the rest. They are not then, implying that SOE should split up the community in any additional way.

For anyone confused by this a "shard" is causally called a 'server' and in the MMO defining WoW is called a 'Relm'.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by Tasorin

Here is the thing, every competitive PvP based gamed that has tried the Cash Store F2P model has failed miserable.

TF2 made £2million last year from selling hats, it's a 5 year old game

Originally Posted by Tasorin

Personally I would prefer a paid monthly subscription

Fairly irrelevent, most people won't pay subs, i can think of zero FPS's that require subs, there's a handful of MMORPG's that require them but even they are struggling, a lot of people won't pay for more than one sub at once, that instantly limits your players i.e wow just lost 2 million subscribers to swtor, those people didn't suddenly realise they hated wow, they just wanted to try the other, if they were F2P a large chunk would play both.

Originally Posted by Tasorin

Did you think about that Higgles in your F2P business model with no cost for the client and the ability to speed up game play with beach heads? I know I will personally be running multiple clients if you are going to let the game be free and will be spotting for my faction on a 2nd and/or 3rd account...

You are free to do that, the other people spying will just vent or whisper friends on the other team, like they always have. Seriously, unless you think SOE can limit people talking to eachother they're no way to stop it.

[SKYeXile]

Originally Posted by Redshift

TF2 made £2million last year from selling hats, it's a 5 year old game

Fairly irrelevent, most people won't pay subs, i can think of zero FPS's that require subs, there's a handful of MMORPG's that require them but even they are struggling, a lot of people won't pay for more than one sub at once, that instantly limits your players i.e wow just lost 2 million subscribers to swtor, those people didn't suddenly realise they hated wow, they just wanted to try the other, if they were F2P a large chunk would play both.

You are free to do that, the other people spying will just vent or whisper friends on the other team, like they always have. Seriously, unless you think SOE can limit people talking to eachother they're no way to stop it.

Sif you need to spy to know what whats going on anyway, the zerg is predictable.

[Furret]

Originally Posted by Sifer2

have to pay monthly but may get extras like more customer service reps.

more like it.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

Sif you need to spy to know what whats going on anyway, the zerg is predictable.

Right. We're talking early PS1 numbers of players or greater, not modern Planetside. I can see how gaining unfair intel may be a bigger problem in Planetside nowadays, but back when there were hundreds of zerglings clashing against each other, it wasn't as big a deal. All of the important intel was contained within the ranks of various outfits. Even if you had a spy in one, there were a half a dozen other outfits that you probably had no ears on.

[Quovatis]

Totally disagree with the OP, but I too would prefer at least a small monthly fee. It would keep the kiddies out. That's one thing I enjoyed about PS1 is that most of the playerbase was somewhat mature, unlike other games. The faster pace and free nature of PS2 will likely attract a much younger playerbase. SOE keeps saying they have hacking under control for PS2, and I really hope they do. I'm sure SOE has a better idea on their business model than we do, but for now I'm a little doubtful of how well FTP would work. They've already said you can't buy anything that would give you advantage that you can't earn in the game by other means. So that leave largely cosmetic items, which I don't see how that can sustain a FPS game. Maybe there are far more players out there willing to pay $10 to have a special hat than I think, so maybe I'm completely wrong.

[Rumblepit]

well if there was a prem server they will be using the same hack prevention as the f2p.and it was already stated this is not a pay win item shop. xp perks so on so forth, nothing that will effect gameplay. funny little tip too , most games with this payment model make more money then they would have if they had subs. why? people will spend more then 15$ a month in the item shop.

just because its f2p dose not mean hackers will flood the game. they have to buy the game first. then they can try to hack, but they will get caught. and they have to buy the game again if they want to play. if they want to continue to hack they will have to buy a new copy of the game every time they get caught. thats gonna be 40 to 60 a month.

if they are using the hack prevention program i think they are then there is know way around it. you will be caught for hacking. this program is top of the line right now ,and it has a massive data base to cross check in game data. also this hack prevention program updates its data base every month when new hacks are released. so lets say some script kiddie thinks he gonna get some hacks ,but hes just using gps/ radar hack somthing very hard to pickup on. well some other script kiddie downloaded his hacks from the same site and wants to test out his speed hacks or is using cof or he just red flags the hack prevention program. well then everyone who has ever download anything from that site that plays ps2 will be banned. this happens all at once. these bann waves tend to happen every 2 to 3 weeks.

as for hackers in a f2p ps2. i welcome the fools. they are gonna help clean house and they dont even know it.