The Elder Scrolls Online

[Bubbles]

There aren't a lot of MMO choices on the Xbone, that's their niche.

 

[7/10]

The business mavens at Kotaku and some kid with a Forbes blog hath spoken... THE GAEM WILL PHAIL OMG!

Oh wait... It won't, because games like that never fail, as they'd never get made if there was a serious possibility of bad sales. A shit game ≠ failed game. This is a multiplatform release and Skyrim sold 20 million copies. They'll probably recoup their budget from account sales alone.

 

[Xenich]

The business mavens at Kotaku and some kid with a Forbes blog hath spoken... THE GAEM WILL PHAIL OMG!

Oh wait... It won't, because games like that never fail, as they'd never get made if there was a serious possibility of bad sales. A shit game ≠ failed game. This is a multiplatform release and Skyrim sold 20 million copies. They'll probably recoup their budget from account sales alone.

Make no mistake, I am not under the delusion that this enterprise will "fail". I grew up during the "Boy band" days and as you said "A shit game ≠ failed game". I am sure they will become filthy rich peddling off this ass munching garbage. There will be plenty o' fanbois coming up for air in between their corn searching escapades of the shit tunnels they face surf to slobber on about how this is the "Gweatist Gam eva!". The only thing that will become continuously confirmed in this venture is that there is not enough bullets to remedy the idiocy of the world.

 

[Gerrard]

Only good model is subscription ONLY.Otherwise you know that one part of the dev team (if not all) is working on shop crap and not on new content.You know that they can't make budget for future work on expansions and updates.Why they fail have nothing to do with the payment model been sub,mostly it's coz shit developer.

It's cute that you think a subscription somehow excludes the possibility of there being a cash shop. WoW does it as well.

 

[Bubbles]

The concept of "whales" spending thousands of dollars per month of cosmetic items is very well known at this point. All new MMOs are going to have a cash shop system on release unless the devs are either non-profit or criminally stupid.

 

[Black_Willow]

Not much of an MMO guy, but I can't see why a subscription model is outdated.

Well, this model is stale, but only because for some uknown reason EVERYBODY who makes a subscription based mmo must charge you $15 a month , and not, let's say, $10. Also, you have to pay entrance fee of $60 for the game.
P2P model is still viable, the problem is that:
a) companies are Jews (see above)
b) devs can't really come up with a good post-WoW MMORPG...
c) ...but they insist on banging their heads against the wall by targeting the player base of WoW (EVE doesn't and it's doing fine)

 

[Xenich]

The concept of "whales" spending thousands of dollars per month of cosmetic items is very well known at this point. All new MMOs are going to have a cash shop system on release unless the devs are either non-profit or criminally stupid.

Oh for sure those who build MMO's today will do as such. Why, there is a plethora of fucktards out there to bank off of. You know them, the fucking idiots who go on about how this or that isn't cheating, that their time is valuable, that to have to put effort in after they have flipped burgers all day is a crime, you know... because they "wurk hurd" and all, and can't be bothered with "puttin" "ne" effort into the games they play. Why these are the very people that deserve the care givers that provide for them.

I would rather see them all shoved into a fertilizer mixer, but hey.. what do I know? Others have figured out how to make a living off them. Them there sure be smurter than me!

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Only good model is subscription ONLY.Otherwise you know that one part of the dev team (if not all) is working on shop crap and not on new content.You know that they can't make budget for future work on expansions and updates.Why they fail have nothing to do with the payment model been sub,mostly it's coz shit developer.

It's cute that you think a subscription somehow excludes the possibility of there being a cash shop. WoW does it as well.

I even type it in caps man...ONLY subscription.

 

[Gerrard]

And I'm telling you there is no ONLY subscription anymore.

And it died for a reason.

The only reason WoW hasn't gone F2P yet is because people are willing to pay to use a chatroom. They'd have to make using chat an extra feature you have to pay for.

 

[Night Goat]

Let us have a moment of silence for this already-doomed game.

The business mavens at Kotaku and some kid with a Forbes blog hath spoken... THE GAEM WILL PHAIL OMG!

Oh wait... It won't, because games like that never fail, as they'd never get made if there was a serious possibility of bad sales. A shit game ≠ failed game. This is a multiplatform release and Skyrim sold 20 million copies. They'll probably recoup their budget from account sales alone.

Counterpoint: SWTOR. Zenimax is making the same mistakes Bioware did.

 

[Black_Willow]

And I'm telling you there is no ONLY subscription anymore.

And it died for a reason.

The only reason WoW hasn't gone F2P yet is because people are willing to pay to use a chatroom. They'd have to make using chat an extra feature you have to pay for.

Nope, WoW has its own merits and can be very fun (with the right company on Team Speak). I bought it a few days ago and (after playing more than a year on WotLK private server) I'm pretty much enjoing it.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Xbox users who want to play this will have to pay 60€ for the game, then pay for xbox live and the game monthly subscription, not sure how much traction they will get on consoles with that business model.

 

[Caim]

At least the Eternal Crusade guys get it right: after the game purchase you don't have to pay 15 bucks per month to play. Buy the game and you're in for life.

 

[markec]

And I'm telling you there is no ONLY subscription anymore.

And it died for a reason.

The only reason WoW hasn't gone F2P yet is because people are willing to pay to use a chatroom. They'd have to make using chat an extra feature you have to pay for.

Subscription is not outdated concept, when you look at big recent MMORPGs like Age of Conan, Warhammer, or SWTOR all of them sold around million copies at launch and players who spend money on it would still pay monthly subscription. Problem was that all those games were just awful and not worth the money.

 

[Echo Mirage]

Also many of the newer MMO's have been carbon copies of WOW. But the developers failed to factor in that the people playing WOW won't leave to play a barebones copy of what they are already paying for. And those who are leaving WOW in droves are sick of MMO's in general.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

And I'm telling you there is no ONLY subscription anymore.

And it died for a reason.

The only reason WoW hasn't gone F2P yet is because people are willing to pay to use a chatroom. They'd have to make using chat an extra feature you have to pay for.

Nope, WoW has its own merits and can be very fun (with the right company on Team Speak). I bought it a few days ago and (after playing more than a year on WotLK private server) I'm pretty much enjoing it.

every game with the right company is fun. hell, even no game with the right company is fun. that argument is totally invalid.

 

[Delterius]

Only good model is subscription ONLY.Otherwise you know that one part of the dev team (if not all) is working on shop crap and not on new content.You know that they can't make budget for future work on expansions and updates.Why they fail have nothing to do with the payment model been sub,mostly it's coz shit developer.

It's cute that you think a subscription somehow excludes the possibility of there being a cash shop. WoW does it as well.

The cash shop is irrelevant to the game.

 

[Zeriel]

Also many of the newer MMO's have been carbon copies of WOW. But the developers failed to factor in that the people playing WOW won't leave to play a barebones copy of what they are already paying for. And those who are leaving WOW in droves are sick of MMO's in general.

It doesn't help that WoW went supermegacasual (it started casual, but went even further downhill from there), and all its competitors have tried to outcasual it. So you've got the droves of people who quit because they're just tired of the same game/MMOs in general, but also the other droves who quit because WoW abandoned what it used to be.

 

[Xenich]

And I'm telling you there is no ONLY subscription anymore.

And it died for a reason.

The only reason WoW hasn't gone F2P yet is because people are willing to pay to use a chatroom. They'd have to make using chat an extra feature you have to pay for.

Subscription is not outdated concept, when you look at big recent MMORPGs like Age of Conan, Warhammer, or SWTOR all of them sold around million copies at launch and players who spend money on it would still pay monthly subscription. Problem was that all those games were just awful and not worth the money.

That or they tried to appeal to everyone and so naturally, nobody liked it. There is also the problem with them thinking that an MMO that doesn't reach the level of subscribers WoW has is somehow a failure. EQ in its height was never anywhere near WoW's numbers and yet it was profitable as a subscription game for many years before it decided to go FTP.

 

[Spectacle]

I still haven't really understood why free2play is a thing in the first place. Who are all these people who are unwilling to pay 15$ per month but are still interested in spending dozens if not hundreds of hours on a game? Especially the vast numbers of seemingly identical Asian f2p MMOs completely baffle me.

I agree with Forbes that ESO will fail hard. The brand will get them sales, but only gameplay will let them keep subscribers, and from what I've heard ESO has nothing really new in that regard.

 

[Caim]

I still haven't really understood why free2play is a thing in the first place. Who are all these people who are unwilling to pay 15$ per month but are still interested in spending dozens if not hundreds of hours on a game? Especially the vast numbers of seemingly identical Asian f2p MMOs completely baffle me.

Why pay for something you can have for free?

And I think that the asian market is big on f2p because internet cafés are a big thing there, and if you had to pay for both your playing time AND your game, you'd be looking to cut on either of those.

 

[Zeriel]

I think the idea behind F2P is basically that you are looking to grift the player--it's criminal behavior behind a veneer of "the customer benefits!". You lower the cost of entry to nothing so tons of people play... then you shadily pull them aside and say, "Hey, buddy. Want to be ten times better than everyone else? Just open your wallet."

With of course the associated design where everyone is shit without paying, and the base experience is watered down. It's pretty rare to find a F2P game where that isn't the case.

A smart player will quickly figure out that it is cheaper to pay a lot upfront to guarantee a quality experience and that they will actually pay exponentially more for the same experience under a F2P model, but smart players are not the target audience. Kind of like casinos... casinos hate people who are good at gambling. They love the schmucks.

 

[Xenich]

I still haven't really understood why free2play is a thing in the first place. Who are all these people who are unwilling to pay 15$ per month but are still interested in spending dozens if not hundreds of hours on a game? Especially the vast numbers of seemingly identical Asian f2p MMOs completely baffle me.

Why pay for something you can have for free?

And I think that the asian market is big on f2p because internet cafés are a big thing there, and if you had to pay for both your playing time AND your game, you'd be looking to cut on either of those.

Free is a gimmick word as it concerns these games. FTP games are designed with hooks, carrots, inconveniences, hardships and many other aspects to lead people to the store. The games design if then focused on that. It becomes a used car sales lot which is why you either have morons who dump hundreds of dollars a month into the game or you have the fly by night types who hop from game to game or play multiple ones at the same time like a bored teenager. There is an old saying "You get what you pay for" and FTP games are just that.

As for the asian MMO's, the reason FTP evolved there is because they already pay by usage of bandwidth. It is very difficult to convince someone to pay a monthly fee for a game that uses bandwidth that you have to pay for itself.

 

[Bubbles]

Lol, they sent me a beta key despite the fact that I gave my name as "asdfgh jkl". Don't even know if it's worth downloading this garbage.

 

[Caim]

Lol, they sent me a beta key despite the fact that I gave my name as "asdfgh jkl". Don't even know if it's worth downloading this garbage.

From what I have read: no.