As a long time MMORPG Fantasy player, I have seen many things come and go. As a real life anolyst with a Masters in International Business, I thought I would share some points about the decision of going subscription base that is clearly overlooked by the mass of so called reviewers out there, and many fans alike.

First, there is really no 'Free to Play' (F2P). Yes, it is true that you can play a game that doesn't cost anything to access, but no production company is in it to entertain out of the goodness of their heart. There may be some offshoots that don't take much money at all, like SyFy uses, but the money flow is somewhere. As is the Syfy examples revenue streams of promoting televisions series. Throughout this article I will use the example of Neverwinter Online (NWO), which I have been playing since closed beta, as a prime example for the most current method of F2P. NWO is F2P? Hardly. My personal budget in that game was targeted at 20 dollars a month (gee, that means I will save money in ESO) but in reality I believe it ended up being north of 30 dollars a month for the year. This was modest in reality, because all that really got me was 1 mount and a buffing companion for 4 toons. I have had guild mates, and contacts in the game that I now spent thousands - yes thousands of dollars on the game in under a year! Through all of this, it is well known that if you don't spend some real life cash in NWO you will be left out. That means you cannot compete in PvP period, you are likely going to be a burden to your guild in dungeons because you die too easy, and if you try to group externally, forget it. You may get in inexperienced groups geared like you - but you won’t be able to finish a dungeon. Thus the moniker Pay2Win (P2W) has been born - and really is more aptly applied to models like NWO.

For my next point, there is a lot of whine in chats about P2W. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it. My friends that did and could spend thousands on that game I respect their decision, and hope no one ever experiences financial difficulty from it! Interesting phenomenon in the NWO model (and several others I dabbled in over the last couple years) is the F2P model was addressed to allow access from the greater markets of Third World Countries where unemployment is rampant and social systems actually view virtual worlds differently. Prime examples of this are Korea, China, Turkey, Baltic States, and several Latin countries, but enough examples. What this brings to the table is a whole myriad of micro revenue streams to a developer due to 1) more free time for these people, or 2) the conversion rate of their home countries money to the Producers home country makes it viable to make their own employment by 'farming'. While it is true, most producers employ methods to limit the harmful effects of farming the economy in current games, I have yet to see a current game completely successful in it. NWO, whose partner parent company is based out of one of these foreign nations, has started to embrace it and has implemented things to ensure the companies 'cut' in the farming community. What this means, is that in the end game process, you cannot advance without buying certain things that ensure the Parent company gets a share in the effort. This is clearly seen in the build process of end game gear and artifacts of NWO. So, here we are again on the revenue stream for the producer.

Now let’s talk about the dark side. NWO has a robust language/text support for foreign languages, with one server for all (except Russia - but that’s really recent and Russians play the common one). This has allowed the ability to track behaviors of social groupings in aspects of the game. Since Cryptic (the production company) of NWO is pretty incompetent in terms of code and hashing out bugs, Cheats and Exploits are common. So much so, it is expected game play now. Examples of this is the debacle of 'free money through the auction house' that went live about 3 months after release of the game. On a personal note, I am still amazed when I call out a player for a cheat or an exploit and get the response, 'it is so easy to do how it can be an exploit?' Well, my friends, the terms and agreements that so few read when they download stipulate this in detail. We know how the lawyers love details. These agreements are meant to protect the Producers revenue streams in this convoluted world of jurisdictions and laws. Over the year of playing NWO it was obvious who was exploiter/cheat in the game even if you never saw them in play. I mentioned the thousands spent, those friends did not even have maxed end game gear over the year, so any time I ran into a person that did - pretty obvious, that was ill gotten gain. To help those that don’t play NWO there is a definite grind to get maxed gear, and as the days tick by, there is a point that exists in time for legitimate, low pay volume players to get maxed gear. I don’t have hard numbers for it, but I am certain that would be a minimum of two years for a toon to get maxed gear by grinding in NWO.

SO JUMP HERE IF YOU WANT JUST THE POINT OF THIS ESSAY:

I firmly believe one of the magic things about subscription is it is the base step in combating cheats and exploits. The mentality of most of these users has been harassment of other players, through anonymity. There are so many games out there where these people don’t have to pay a dime and get their goal achieved. If the goal is not to harass/be better, then most likely the exploit/cheat is seen as a tool to maximize the efficiency of the the farmers employment. Second, as we see with WoW, a solid, predictable stream of revenue allows for the Producer to pay for Game Masters to police these areas. An employee of NWO is a friend and guild mate, and through conversations and observations of my own I seriously doubt there is a single person online at any time in that game that we would define as a Game Master. I believe this stems from the fact that the revenue stream cannot be sufficient enough to post 'guards' 24/7. If you might say well I personally have seen a Game Master in Protectors Enclave - well those are actually the community forum moderators, who are volunteers, and are only in title. They themselves admit they have no ability to do anything.

Furthermore, the predictable revenue stream allows the Producer to address areas of issue in the game. In our NWO example I have been saying since beta how targeting in that game has issues. You can actually see the animation, you know you targeted right, but the logs and the opponents’ health show ZERO effect. Not text, no errors, nothing. I truly believe they don’t have the cash flow to address issues since they are more concerned about the appearance of content. They try to provide new things every couple/three weeks. To truly do all this, the model of subscription works much better. Example, you could break it down to 5 dollars of everyone game price goes to fixing/policing, 5 dollars goes to expanding and 5 goes to general overhead. If the player base is strong enough, say the 3 million bandied about on the web about WoW subscription, that’s 15 million dollars a month to pay people to do a job in those areas. That can provide enough money for a robust game! F2P models can’t really do this, because it would be after the fact - we took in X last month so we can do X this month. Trust me; no business model thrives in that mode.

People, please, I know if you like me are on a budget, you don’t want to pay much for your entertainment. But really, for a true quality MMORPG to run, subscription is the better model. Bethesda/Zenimax, I am putting my faith in you to be good stewards of my share of the pie and bring me decades of fun.

Astaria Dodfurstinna

Hunter Community Lead DAOC (fmr)

Generally speaking...you wont find many here who don't agree with you

Beating a dead horse. People complain about 15 dollars a month. If they are hurting so much about that then maybe they a more less expensive hobby like basket weaveing or jogging

Well said!!!!

And what if you're playing 20 different MMOs? Are you supposed to say, yeah its just $300 per month, no problem! They're individually cheap!

Thing is, you're right. Its not much. But look at the whole picture. You're paying for an entire new game ($45) every 3 months. Does the content that ESO devs add really add up to that much? Is the running cost of every online B2P game sold so high that it only allow them to keep servers up for a couple of months? You would cut at least half the complaints if they had said $10 monthly. Almost eliminate the complaints if they had said $6-8 monthly. And had the applaudes of the community if they had implemented an ingame store like in GW2 not to mention ensured no discussions about inevitably going F2P ever happen. Hell I've probably payed more than the eqvivalent of a years subscription in GW2 now and I wanted to give them that money. I could have paid even more.

I dont mind the monthly cost. Not really. But they havent proven themselves worthy of it. I dont like being forced to pay them to prove themselves to me. I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one thinking that I'll give them a chance to hook me during the first month, but staying after that is still very iffy due to monthly cost.

Considering we got day 1 DLC we dont get a brilliant start here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjoMQJf5vKI

We know. I skipped the rest as superfluous.

If you are playing 20 different MMOs you have too much time and a sizable bank account.

See, if I don't have enough money for my hobby I think of another hobby. If I can still cut a little something of less priority from my budget to afford the current hobby and I'm really enjoy then I might try to do that. But most forms of entertainment have costs associated with it. This is no different than paying a yearly fee for being a member of the quilting club and still having to buy material and supplies or paying for faster internet or goring to a movie once a week, paying dues at the Salsa club or a hiker's group.

And if you can't afford it then you stop going. You weight your budget, your desires, your willingness to adjust your budget and ability to earn a bit extra in some way and then if you can't afford it, you walk away. If you can and think it worth it, you stay and pay the fees.

If I buy this game I have 30 days to play as many hours as I like or can for that 30 days and if I enjoy the game, I'll pay for another month. If not, I'll cut my loses and walk away. I've walked away from some games in less than a week.

And if after feeling the game worth continuing for 6 months, I'll pay the sub. But if I get up one day and decide to save that $15 a month so I can buy a day at the spa after a year, I'll save it up in my spa fund jar. But I won't complain it's to expensive of a hobby/entertainment because if I decide it is, I'll not torture myself by lusting after it.

Real life forces people to make decisions. You give something up to get something else. If you can't afford something you want, you give something up to get it if it's worth it to you. That doesn't mean people or corporations should reduce the cost, that just means a person is either unwilling to pay price of admission or I'd unable to give something to get something.

This is especially true if the demand for the item is able to sustain the price. Whether or not ESO can sustain the price remains to be seen, but if somebody is upset they can't get something because they are unwilling to give up something else then I question their desire for the object in the first place.

I have had quite some disappointments the last years. I am not optimistic about ESO either, but I am not worried. I am very sure that the first month will be enough to see if I sub on this game. But unlike many on this forum, I refuse to complain before the game even launched.

Currently this forum is no fun. People are already asking for nerfs before the game is finished already. It's sad really.

There is a whole lot of bad things to say about paying an subscription, but believe me that "free to play" is not all it is cracked up to be. Game developers seems to have lost contact with their roots. Actually, they are trying to shake off their roots. Maybe I'm old, but I find games much harder than they are used to be. More stress and less fun. You can't do a dungeon anymore with regular drops. Your mates will reject you, and from what I have experienced even with elite gear dying is part of the strategy. You can't finish a dungeon without having died at least 3 or 5 times.

You don't play 10 MMO, anybody playing more than three has a problem. They require time if nothing else to keep contact with in game friends and guild.

Yes you can conformable play two like doing causal raids with old friends in WOW while leveling in ESO. You can test number three but even playing three a lot will be hard.

Try playing 10 multiplayer shooters at once. Yes they are buy to play all of them, many are cheap. However you will feel pretty strange trying to play all 10 each week.

About the monthly cost, have you have played the beta, did you enjoy it? if you do, buy the game and play, say after an month you are bored and drop it, well few games offers an month gameplay.

TES is an exception, I'm even more weird I have just played Skyrim and Kerbal space program the last two years. Yes the game publishers send me free condems.

Anyway if you like it you continue the subscription, if not you drop it. You might pick it up again later then more content is added.

Best case you like it a lot, you play for three years then starting getting bored you still subscribe to chat with old friends. In short you risk nothing. Its not like you buy an timeshare apartment

I'm skeptical to F2P as the OP I have also burned myself, have plenty of money but spending $200 and finding that the endgame is pretty not none existing is pretty boring.

Spent far less on WOW and it was much more entertaining, yes I dropped it after a year, guild fell apart again and Skyrim was released. I was getting bored, did pretty much only raid with guild.

I don't usually do this but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIwK7nykfCQ

I've been trying to explain this to someone all day...

Subscription model is great...honestly don't see why people complain about it when a lot do more expensive things they shouldn't (smoking, drinking, ext.) I just wish more companies offered more options for people that won't be able to get the bang for their buck they should. Let me roll over some days or a discount next month if I only have XX number of hours for the whole month, heck even x number of logins that count for the day and limited days for the month...I'll keep paying, geez. lol

But yeah, you get better games out of a subscription. It's been proven, but the GAME has to grab people to keep forking over that money. A lot of people are out of work, prices are rising on...everything physical and medical, and some are going homeless. Why fork over $15 a month (that could be for a "rainy day") for something that is just "meh" after the first three months? Lets just hope this game sells and grows well...content, fun, and all.

3rd world countries like some of the LATIN countries and KOREA and Turkey!!! where unemployment is rampant?! ok!

first of all the economic condition in korea and turkey is much better than in EU right now(with Scandinavia and Germany being the only exceptions) and Latin countries(if you are talking about countries like Italy-France , Spain...) are not considered 3rd world countries

You sir win a prize for most idiotic argument against a subscription based MMO of all time. Now, it's time for you to leave mommies basemant and go get yourself a job.

I agree with the OP, I have Spent lots of money in games that call themselves F2P. And thats around $20 - 30 per month normally, sometimes its alot more, I would be saving money playing ESO as P2P.

If someone doesn't have a job or is homeless, not being able to afford a video game is the least of their worries.

This is NOT an essential item. If you can't afford to play you should look at your priorities a little better.

The sub model is going to get the blame one way or the other, but for me it is more about whether the game is worth investing the time into playing or not. If I'm playing SP/MP games instead of an MMO, I'm spending a lot more than $15/month on games each month.

Wish all I had to pay to play ESO was the box price + monthly sub. Of course that pesky ISP wants much much more just to let me connect to the internets haha.

For the last time the complaint about $15 a month is not about money. When will you people get it.

It is about having so many other options out there that are either free, a one time box cost, or another $15 a month MMO that happens to be better.

Just like I did with swtor as a CE owner soon as f2p hit I left, F2P mmos are a cash grab, with grinds instead of content see gw2 though b2p,
FF14 is doing well and it's and old school mmo, wildstar though a WoW clone is sub, rift would still be subbed base if Tiron didn't over reach and needed cash fast.


Teso f2p want to join thieves guild 5￡ want a new horse? 10￡ want instant max level 60￡ want armor 5￡.


I'd rather pay 29p a day than get robbed blind by F2P, granted some games do it well warframe, Poe, but they aren't mmos.

Wow still has 7 mil subs it's 10 year old, mmo games that's not great launch f2p IMO.

I agree and I don't understand why they are whining about it either.

If you cannot afford to it.. then you should fix the other things first and then consider the paying subscription to fantasy world a thing. I disagree though on the comment about companies should offer things.. I think that one model that could make it "flexible" is to offer payment

• One month
• Three months
• Six months

that way those that are tight "time-to-time" could f.e. get straight six months sub.

Except all other options out there svck donkey balls.

Work benefits in ISP - I get a good "price" on my net.