Is this the future of online games?

[Yellow Beard]

An online game that had started to nosedive came to life with a 40% instant rise in membership by allowing players to download their client for free. The free client allows you to play a limited game but you can upgrade ingame.
Heres how it works. Anyone can download the client and create a character and start playing. As you level up, you can buy everything from hair dye to new adventures and dungeons using Turbine points, which can be bought with either real money or earned in the game. You can still subscribe, which gets you more character slots and a monthly allotment of Turbine points, as well as some other perks.

Sound familiar? Me thinks that online games maybe getting a "Second Life"

 

[Mitzlplik_SP]

F2P is nothing new. The problem I`ve found with F2P games is some of the restrictions made on the RL money items. Like the ability to recall/gate for example. No way to get that ingame but can be bought for 7 days/a month or 3 months for RL currency.

While ya don`t hafta buy your easy travel...you could walk everywhere which is a royal pain when ya got guildies waiting on ya etc,etc. It looks good on the outside but once in,you`ll soon realize it is pretty damn hard to compete without paying out of pocket for certain things.

I`ll stick to my monthy pay games. Nothing good comes from F2P (free to play) games in my experience.

 

[Uvtha]

F2P is nothing new. The problem I`ve found with F2P games is some of the restrictions made on the RL money items. Like the ability to recall/gate for example. No way to get that ingame but can be bought for 7 days/a month or 3 months for RL currency.

While ya don`t hafta buy your easy travel...you could walk everywhere which is a royal pain when ya got guildies waiting on ya etc,etc. It looks good on the outside but once in,you`ll soon realize it is pretty damn hard to compete without paying out of pocket for certain things.

I`ll stick to my monthy pay games. Nothing good comes from F2P (free to play) games in my experience.

Instead of paying for the privilege to play at all, you pay for the privilege to play better or easier. In the end it all boils down to the same thing.

One thing I like about F2P games (which are absolutely the wave of the future, especially for indie developers) is that the RL equivalent of RL payments (tokens, gold coins, etc) are readily available and tradeable, so that people who know what they are doing can avoid paying money all together and have acess to the goodies.

The main problem I have experienced in F2P games is that they just happen to suck. But then again so do most all of online games I run across. That wont always be the case. Eventually people will be able to make more cost effective production wise online games, they will very likely use this pay model, and will come up with some good games.

 

[Fluffi]

... It looks good on the outside but once in,you`ll soon realize it is pretty damn hard to compete without paying out of pocket for certain things.

I`ll stick to my monthy pay games. Nothing good comes from F2P (free to play) games in my experience.

I currently play one "free for the basic, but subscribe for the bells-and-whistles" game, and one game completely free of monthly fees.



Consider the free game:

Bad points:

All areas except towns are instanced.
No stealing.
No looting.
No random PvP.
Rigid class-based structure.
No real crafting.


Good points:

It takes about a week to build a top-level PvM character (skill-wise).
All armour is equal: There are class-differences, but my warrior will have the same base stats as your warrior, etc.
All items are available to all players (given a couple of weeks of earning gold)
All PvP is between equal numbers: No ganks.
A fully-equipped PvP character can be created in about 20 minutes: This character will have access to all the armour/weapons/upgrades that a 5-year player will have. Skill beats time and/or RL money.



Don't get me wrong; I think UO is wonderful, but at the moment I don't see any reason to pay for an irrevocably broken game, when I can get a not-as-good-overall, BUT entirely balanced game, free of charge.

 

[Xenobia]

F2P is nothing new. The problem I`ve found with F2P games is some of the restrictions made on the RL money items. Like the ability to recall/gate for example. No way to get that ingame but can be bought for 7 days/a month or 3 months for RL currency.

While ya don`t hafta buy your easy travel...you could walk everywhere which is a royal pain when ya got guildies waiting on ya etc,etc. It looks good on the outside but once in,you`ll soon realize it is pretty damn hard to compete without paying out of pocket for certain things.

I`ll stick to my monthy pay games. Nothing good comes from F2P (free to play) games in my experience.

I'm with you. I don't mind paying for what I have at all. That's why I have a job My son plays one of the Sony games online and begs me to pay the monthly for that one to be upgraded but I already pay for a WoW account for him and refuse to do more then that. He gritches constantly about wanting what all the other paying customers have. I tell him to get a job or forget it.

 

[Yellow Beard]

I currently play one "free for the basic, but subscribe for the bells-and-whistles" game, and one game completely free of monthly fees.



Consider the free game:

Bad points:

All areas except towns are instanced.
No stealing.
No looting.
No random PvP.
Rigid class-based structure.
No real crafting.


Good points:

It takes about a week to build a top-level PvM character (skill-wise).
All armour is equal: There are class-differences, but my warrior will have the same base stats as your warrior, etc.
All items are available to all players (given a couple of weeks of earning gold)
All PvP is between equal numbers: No ganks.
A fully-equipped PvP character can be created in about 20 minutes: This character will have access to all the armour/weapons/upgrades that a 5-year player will have. Skill beats time and/or RL money.



Don't get me wrong; I think UO is wonderful, but at the moment I don't see any reason to pay for an irrevocably broken game, when I can get a not-as-good-overall, BUT entirely balanced game, free of charge.

Life is not equal and neither is UO. Except for the 3rd party cheats that hurt pvp I wouldn't change it. A new player that just created a pvp character and a vintage character should not have the same advantages. UO is all about the long term and longevity should have advantages.

 

[Fluffi]

Life is not equal and neither is UO. Except for the 3rd party cheats that hurt pvp I wouldn't change it. A new player that just created a pvp character and a vintage character should not have the same advantages. UO is all about the long term and longevity should have advantages.

Yes, and No...

On the PvM side, yes (ish)...

I've been here years.

I can solo most of the non-named critters on UO, and a couple of the named ones.
Maybe I should have an advantage over Joe Newbie, but it shouldn't take Joe months and months to get to the same level as me.
Of course, the fact that I've been here a while, and know some of the "how to get multiple valorite hammers" tricks can be ignored, because after-all, logevity should have its' advantages.


On the PvP side, no...

I can only speak for my shard, but UO PvP is currently dominated by the "I'm going to spend daddys' money buying stuff" / "I'm going to run stump-hack, field-hack and speeder" players.

I don't want to compete with them. I don't need to compete with them.


I have been killed by players who were better at UO than me; and by players with "bugged" items, client mods, and speedhacks.

I long for the days when I got killed by better players.



You want to fight me in another game; fine - login, and within 20 minutes you can create a character with all the options that I have.
You might win the fight, I might win the fight, but the result will be based on which of us is better at the game; not the depths of our RL pockets, or which cheat engines we run.

 

[Nexus]

I believe that we are saying the same thing. It isn't UO that is the problem with PvP or PvM it is the third party cheats. If UO could block those then it would certainly level the playing field. It is my opinion though that if the developers ever were able to stop third party character builders, they come from the same places as the other hacks, A lot of people would quit. They fail to see UO as a long term game and want characters with 120 skill in hours not days or weeks. Lol I have been working on my tamer for years and am still less that 114.

On the same note you get rid of the cheaters and you open the door for better enjoyment of honest players, and open up competitive game play. Players if they were all honest, would be more evenly balanced in PvP and PvM. New players would appreciate this more and help the longevity of the game.

 

[CaptRex]

The problems in F2P MMO is the botters itself.. Anyway.. macro users is a part of MMO games nowadays.. I hate gold selling companies..

 

[Xenobia]

On the same note you get rid of the cheaters and you open the door for better enjoyment of honest players, and open up competitive game play. Players if they were all honest, would be more evenly balanced in PvP and PvM. New players would appreciate this more and help the longevity of the game.

Not trying to be hateful here but ummm don't be naive? You get rid of the cheaters and you won't have a UO. This was already posted. It is a pipe dream to think that you can just cut all the cheaters out of UO and go about your merry, rosy way, playing a totally cheat free game. It ain't gonna happen cowboy.

 

[Elaysia]

I actually posted the same thing. I think that system could definitely benefit UO, but I think the system for UO would be best suited for free up to a certain expansion not excluding gates and the like. With a sub you would get the perks of having a house, vet rewards and the other playable races.

Reasons why it would benefit UO...

1. There are already free UO private servers that take away from players
from the real UO.

2. Many returning as well as new players would after playing and
experiencing all the things UO offers, would more than likely get a sub. They could also
offer more things to purchase for cash for non-subs.

3. It would fill up the empty lands and shards.

4. Players would see a boost in sales from their vendors and just an overall boost in the economy.

I'm sure there are many other good reasons on why, but those are a few.

Downside would be more advertising for gold sells and such, but it's not like everyone doesn't know where to get it as it stands now.

Cheating and macroing has been a long part of UO, so that wouldn't be a new issue either.

Of course having a nice world chat system to go with it, would really help out alot.