More Australian Stores Pulling the Elder Scrolls Online

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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According to reports from Kotaku Australia and Games.on.net, ZeniMax Online Studios is pulling the copies of The Elder Scrolls Online along with related pre-paid cards and having them sent back to ZeniMax, fueling speculation that a free-to-play version is on the horizon. Both denials and confirmation of the move are circulating and it may take a while to sort out all of the facts. Meanwhile, sales in the US continue unabated.

An unnamed Harvey Norman source said that the only reason a company would remove a game and all related items would be due to the publisher making the game free to play.
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This is what happens when a game has a monthly fee but does things that are very free to play like. The whole Imperial race thing hurt them big. Anyone looking to make an MMO should forget about monthly subscriptions because it almost always leads to bad game design. Things like gating by limiting things you can do by limiting things with days or weeks.

But more than likely they have an expansion which nobody will buy unless it's subscription free. Elder Scrolls Online should have its head removed and stuck onto a pick for all other game developers to see how not to make an MMO. Guild Wars 2 is how to do it right.
 
F2P leads to *worse* design decisions. The idea behind monthly subscriptions is to keep you wanting to pay the subscription. The idea behind free to play is to keep you wanting to BUY THINGS. When the game is designed to keep you buying various things, it changes the whole dynamic between the player and the game, worse, it allows some people to "skip" content by paying for it, or it gives them an advantage by paying for it which defeats the whole idea that all players must follow the same rules.

I'm not surprised this is going F2P as I thought it was a bad idea to begin with. I played it for a few weeks then quit: it just wasn't able to hold my interest.
 
Madoc said:
F2P leads to *worse* design decisions. The idea behind monthly subscriptions is to keep you wanting to pay the subscription. The idea behind free to play is to keep you wanting to BUY THINGS. When the game is designed to keep you buying various things, it changes the whole dynamic between the player and the game, worse, it allows some people to "skip" content by paying for it, or it gives them an advantage by paying for it which defeats the whole idea that all players must follow the same rules.

I'm not surprised this is going F2P as I thought it was a bad idea to begin with. I played it for a few weeks then quit: it just wasn't able to hold my interest.
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There's a difference between free to play and you buying the game. Like I said Guild Wars 2 is not free to play. You buy the game, log in, and play. It's no different than Minecraft or Titanfall.

Free to play means a free game like Team Fortress 2. What's the incentive for games you buy but no monthly fee? Expansion packs which also cost money and require very little work from the developers. Keep pumping those out.

As it is Warcraft now has you pay for the expansion, and monthly fee, and they only release one content patch per expansion. Your not getting your money's worth so they might as well forget monthly fees and make the game work like Diablo 3. It works for Diablo.
 
Marvel Heroes feels like its doing F2P right. Lots of new content and you don't have to pay.
 
I wouldn't even play The Elder Scrolls Online for free. That game is terrible.
 
Ashbringer said:
There's a difference between free to play and you buying the game. Like I said Guild Wars 2 is not free to play. You buy the game, log in, and play. It's no different than Minecraft or Titanfall.

Free to play means a free game like Team Fortress 2. What's the incentive for games you buy but no monthly fee? Expansion packs which also cost money and require very little work from the developers. Keep pumping those out.

As it is Warcraft now has you pay for the expansion, and monthly fee, and they only release one content patch per expansion. Your not getting your money's worth so they might as well forget monthly fees and make the game work like Diablo 3. It works for Diablo.
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How is 50 cents or less a day not getting your money's worth?
 
The unstoppable force of WoW, even in its twilight years, notches another victory (deserved or not).

The number of MMORPGs WoW has laid waste on is too many to count. The amount of money lost has to be staggering.
 
The reason is no one wants to put in enough content to do. SWTOR entered a ton of content, but it was equally divided among the different classes. You gave to add content, wow opened up with a lot of content, and did a Damn good job of trickling in more content or reusing old content.
 
DDO still rules for me. Download it for free, play it for free, earn points in game to buy additional content. Nearly all content can be earned by simply playing the game.

And they have a premium paid subscription if you must have everything in the game right here right now, but it's only an option, not a requirement.

They guys that love to play will support the guys that don't want to pay. This model brought the game from the brink of death back in 2009.
 
Ashbringer said:
There's a difference between free to play and you buying the game. Like I said Guild Wars 2 is not free to play. You buy the game, log in, and play. It's no different than Minecraft or Titanfall.

Free to play means a free game like Team Fortress 2. What's the incentive for games you buy but no monthly fee? Expansion packs which also cost money and require very little work from the developers. Keep pumping those out.

As it is Warcraft now has you pay for the expansion, and monthly fee, and they only release one content patch per expansion. Your not getting your money's worth so they might as well forget monthly fees and make the game work like Diablo 3. It works for Diablo.
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In GW 2, you can purchase all sorts of things using Gems, which you can buy using gold *or* using RL cash. The drop rates of items varies to maintain a desired Gem exchange rate. Drop rates for rare materials needed to create high level objects are also set to be variable in order to achieve desired Gem exchange rates. This is how NC Soft makes money and pays for those expansions you were talking about.

I don't want a bunch of hidden or obfuscated fees attached to my playing. Give me clear charges: $X/mo + $Y/expansion, and THAT'S IT. Have it so that NO ONE can pay for any special advantage in the game (I don't care about cosmetic items).

Nothing you said, Ashbringer, addressed any of the above. I've played GW 2. I got 2 characters to max level. It's a reasonably fun game. I've played a lot of different MMOs, including some that are purely P2P with an item store and the whole bit. And, of course, I've played fully subscription-based games. I know the type I preferred the most, and it wasn't free to play... all of those games are going to make money off of you one way or another, I just prefer it to be up front and the same for everyone.
 
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