EVE General Discussion

oh wow. its almost as though this was a

hypothetical.

remember the question here was if it COULD go F2P tomorrow without ANY changes. which means that the magic wookie monster gives CCP all the money they need. or maybe the almighty AUR store makes 10 billion dollars in immediate revenue when all the worlds richest people decide that they need 10,000 monocles for their toons.

the purpose here was to address the stigmas and considerations of a F2P player community and its potential growth and change under a hypothetical situation.

this was not an argument that suggested that CCP actually can go F2P tomorrow

any thoughts on why?

EDIT: how?

She just explained it to you?

The core of the economy is built on PLEX which has value only because the game costs money to play.

Remove the subscription fee, PLEX becomes wothless, economy collapse overnight.

the word could is lost on you i see

There's three reasons off the top of my head why EVE would suffer or be closed if it went F2P.

1. Because the current PLEX model would imbalance the economy I'll leave that to brighter minds to break it down in detail, but in terms I understand it think SWG broken insano inflation rates (if you ever played SWG you know what I mean).

2. Because F2P would only benefit a few players (i.e. those who value their time more than their money). To see why this would be the case, just look at the various 'freemium' (aka western F2P) models like LOTRO. They've often succumbed to giving away power to players rather than access to convenience and vanity items. And they still charge for expansions... So, there's no really good way to win with that being a major downside.

3. Because it would tie CCP's hands in terms of implementing new mechanics. Essentially, CCP's funding model allows it to experiment with things and get feedback from players who have already committed themselves to the game. In terms of F2P games two things fight against this experimentation: the inherent drive to grow MT and the need to keep more players happy. People got mad at CCP over Incarna and CCP got it's licks (maybe not enough, but who am I to say?), so they backed off that front a bit. With a F2P, it would have to take primacy over everything, even balancing existing mechanics, because any change in the way the game is played can mean either more players stay or more players go, thus throwing their entire projected budget out of whack.

Ultimately, people who stump for F2P models are either ignorant of the nature of business models or are sycophants looking to have their interests as "experts" met (i.e. getting hired by firms like CCP at exorbitant salaries). Most folks just fit in the former, but it just really irks me that the latter pretends to be objective or honest in respect to market shares of MMOs or any multiplayer title now. If anything, I expect the coming years to see F2P implode rather than maintain dominance. Freemium and hybrid models will prevail due to their more flexible approach to monetization versus pure F2P (aka cash shop).

The point is EVE is F2P already for lots of players,

In this game you invest your ISK to give you more time to play. (PLEX)

F2P games also tend to unbalance things.
ie - Items which can only be purchased with RL cash and give you an advantage.

EVE system is much better, if you have lots of RL cash you can sell plex so you don't have to grind ISK
For those that have lots of time and no RL cash they purchase the Plex.

CCP is also happy cause even with Plex there is somewhat of a steady income or at least predictable income.
Everyone is on a 30 day clock.
YEs it might surge now and again but I bet it is fairly constant on average over time.

Everyone is happy.

It's not a proper F2P model, though, as you don't buy power. The's nothing in the NeX which will get you All V Skills. You have to train just like everyone else. Sure, you can buy more ships and modules than me (I'm purely a subscriber at this point), but I'm pretty sure that for any newbie that takes the PLEX route I can still out fight them in any frigate, cruiser, or battlecruiser hull since I have more support skills train and almost all the weapon skills trained for sure. Plus, PLEX != connections, friends, or knowledge. PLEX simply equals PLEX. The isk you get from one is just a side effect of CCP trying to create more sinks for their faucets.

Not worried about this possibility, but just to voice my vote: No to F2P. That would be my queue to move on.

No.

F2P = failed MMO, especially when they were subscription based.

Subs are ideal due to the steady monthly income. Micro transactions are spotty income streams and it's kin to playing the stock market.

What's with all the pants-on-head threads about PLEX and FTP in GD today?