I really wish

[Rivenshield]

Originally Posted by Valkan

I guess the part where a hacker gets banned and loses 50 bucks

They can't lose the fifty bucks if Sony doesn't charge for the client. Which they need to do, IMHO. It'll harden the target.

[OnexBigxHebrew]

I'm fine with F2P now that sub games are charging for items - that's the real ripoff.

I put 90 dollars into TERA just to have them sell a mount for $25 instead of actually making endgame content.

Now THAT game will die.

[Liwen Diamond]

Originally Posted by OnexBigxHebrew

I'm fine with F2P now that sub games are charging for items - that's the real ripoff.

I put 90 dollars into TERA just to have them sell a mount for $25 instead of actually making endgame content.

Now THAT game will die.

Is the mount actually better or just a comestic change? Sad about lack of endgame updates too.

If you had asked me what I thought of F2P one or two years ago, I'd probably laugh at you for even considering playing a game with such a buisness model. And back a few years ago, most people on this forum might actually have backed me up on that.

That's because until very recently, what we had on the F2P market was a bunch of shameless quick money grabs that sold you power knowing some people are crazy enough to spend thousands of dollars to remain competitive, mostly inspired by eastern market standards, where microtransactions have become the norm.

The problem is the companies making the first "generation" of western F2P games one could say, went about it all wrong, selling power items and boost and restricting content to the point that games felt more like a extended crappy demo and if you really wanted the good stuff, you had to shell out more money than on a traditionnal sub or one time purchase of the game. On top of it, most of these games were uninspired, buggy, had terrible servers and customer support. Customers aren't that thick and dumb to not notice they were getting ripped off and F2P got a really bad name. Hackers were just the icing on the cake.

But in today's world F2P is making a crazy comeback, rising in popularity because of a new line up of companies who DO understand that the best money to be made in F2P is on the long term, and for any game to last long enough to generate massive profits, they not only have to produce a good game but also offer fair microtransactions. Example of this done right include Leagues of Legend and Tribes : Ascend. The later especially for me is a ton of fun (Not much of a Moba player, but LoL is great regardless).

The only things you can't get in these games without paying real cash are cosmectic. Sure you can buy items, runes, etc instead of farming them if you don't want to grind (which can take a while I'll admit, but as long as your having fun in the process it's alright) but then it's just a matter of deciding : Do I want to pay money to get X thing now or can I pay in play hours? People with money to spare usually won't mind paying a few bucks for a gun or a set of runes, while people with no money can just grind it. Most people with no money tend to have a lot of free time anyway. (Because they have no job .)

And from what I heard from the developpers of this game, they know their stuff. They know what players fear and won't accept in terms of microtransactions and they will limit it to comestics and boosts that make you progress faster but don't outright make you more powerful because people will catch up to you at some point, and hopefully everything that you are unlocking faster is just sidegrades anyway. We all know every game has some balance issues. Likely some of these sidegrades might be a little overpowered and some underpowered but that's what patching is for.

Another good point that makes PS2 a good candidate for F2P model : Gear and Certs doesn't matter as much as in other MMOs like TERA. A newbie in PS2 will not come across someone wearing +12 endgame armor and weapons against which he can do bugger all and get horribly one shotted everytime. In PS2 you can kill anyone, even the oldest players of the server, on your first day of play. Personnal skill and good Team Play is much more important than having gun X or a leopard skin. It might seem counter intuitive at first : "Gear and certs don't matter, why should I pay to get them anyway?"

Some people will pay for the cosmetics.
Some people will pay because they don't have much free time, dispoable income and they want to try shiny stuff they otherwise would not have time to unlock by grind.
Some people just can't wait, they want shinies now.
Some people will just regonized this is a great game and sort of donate some spare money to encourage the dev team to continue onward with the project. Sort of like giving a good tip to the waitress who did her job well at the restaurant.

It is likely most people who still see F2P in a bad light today are either misinformed, or are the type who will never pay one cent on this game and are wondering why anybody in their right might would, coming to the conclusion the game will not generate enough profits with a fair F2P model, at which point the devs or men in greedy suits will attempt to rip us off and the game will die because we aren't idiots and we will leave.

Me I'm the type to give money away on a job well done. I'll probably buy a few cool looking skins with some of my spare cash. Don't expect me to put much more than 20-30$ in microtransaction per year on this game. But multiply that 20-30$ by 10 millions + players and there you have it, viable buisness model where everyone pays exactly what they want and are willing to spare with and everyone can enjoy an awesome game on a equal playing field (IF the actual game delivers the pure liquid awesome it appears to be made of )

/ wall of text, wall of text, I like to write, walls of text.

[Piper]

A subscription system is, to me, and always will be better than micro-transactions.

Despite what the claims are made by companies MT's can lead to "mission creep". If revenues aren't expected, then sell stuff that people will really want to buy more than the other stuff that's been offered. Pay to win by degrees.

I'm just a grumpy old gamer. A subscription is 50 cents a day. It's akin to putting 50 cents into an arcade game machine. Everyone's 50 cents buys them the same possibility from the game. What you can't do with an arcade machine is put a dollar in and buy X amount of time with frills.

While no payment method stops hacking, making accounts free (to create and to use) does only exacerbate it.

[Tuoweit]

Originally Posted by Piper

A subscription system is, to me, and always will be better than micro-transactions.

Despite what the claims are made by companies MT's can lead to "mission creep". If revenues aren't expected, then sell stuff that people will really want to buy more than the other stuff that's been offered. Pay to win by degrees.

If nobody wants to buy what's in the shop, it's not because they want something else in the shop - it's because the game sucks, period.

The solution isn't to add i-win buttons to the shop (which will kill the game for sure), but to improve the game so that people want to buy what's already available.

[PhoenixDog]

Why are we complaining so much about hacking!? I'll be hacking the day beta hits. How else do you take over bases?

You're all stupid

[Gugabalog]

Sarcasm ftw XD

[Crator]

No, you're actually supposed to try and hack (find exploits) in beta. So they can fix it right?

[Sunrock]

Originally Posted by PhoenixDog

Why are we complaining so much about hacking!? I'll be hacking the day beta hits. How else do you take over bases?

You're all stupid

Hehehe. I don't think they are talking about the game mech hacking but the hacking of the game client or server to cheat in game.

[ArmedZealot]

Originally Posted by Sunrock

Hehehe. I don't think they are talking about the game mech hacking but the hacking of the game client or server to cheat in game.

Whatever faction you are playing I won't be on it. My bet is NC. They take on people like you.

[Sunrock]

Originally Posted by Crator

No, you're actually supposed to try and hack (find exploits) in beta. So they can fix it right?

Hacking is not finding exploits. Hacking is using 3rd party programs to alter the game code or enable things that you're not suppose to have access too on the game server.

[Crator]

NC takes anyone!

Originally Posted by Sunrock

Hacking is not finding exploits. Hacking is using 3rd party programs to alter the game code or enable things that you're not suppose to have access too on the game server.

Hmm, guess you're right. I always kind of put them in same bucket. But in regards to both aren't you supposed to find them things and report them to make so they can't be used?

[Sunrock]

Originally Posted by ArmedZealot

Whatever faction you are playing I won't be on it. My bet is NC. They take on people like you.

I really hope we are not... I really don't like to play with stupid players.

[ArmedZealot]

Originally Posted by Sunrock

I really hope we are not... I really don't like to play with stupid players.

[Sunrock]

Originally Posted by Crator

Hmm, guess you're right. I always kind of put them in same bucket. But in regards to both aren't you supposed to find them things and report them to make so they can't be used?

Well cheating is cheating no matter how you do it so yea...