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[Brainstorming] Free-to-Play versus Premium

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Mara Rinn
Cosmic Goo Convertor
#21 - 2012-01-30 12:44:37 UTC
Mara Rinn
Cosmic Goo Convertor
#22 - 2012-01-30 13:11:40 UTC
Misanthra wrote:
Lifetime trial you are looking at some very high powered and free combat alts. Alts that can run along side your pay accounts as well if you have more than one computer. I have no problem with dual boxing....paying for 2 accounts by plex or rl money do waht you want. the game however does not need every pirate, alliance blobber, empire ganker with 2 computers spamming a free uber alt for life.


If a free to play option was available, do you think that the game really would see an influx of "uber alts" flying T1 fitted T1 cruisers? Sure, Zhek Kromtor would have a lot of fun, but how many people are actually prepared to spend the time and money setting up a collection of PCs capable of multi boxing EVE to that level?

At present, if you are capable of multi boxing you're likely to be paying for game time through PLEX and using the multi boxed accounts to spam missions or incursions or mining in order to raise the funds to pay for PLEX. Well, that or you just whip out the credit card to pony up a few hundred dollars a month for your hobby.

So here you have a bunch of people who wouldn't spend €17/month on EVE, and won't spend 4 hours a month running incursions specifically to pay for the account, but they could be tempted to spend the equivalent of €2 to unlock EVE for the weekend. Is the prospect of having more people to pew pew with really that horrible?

Day 0 Advice for New Players
Seismic Stan
Freebooted Junkworks
#23 - 2012-01-30 13:43:49 UTC
I think that a free-to-play model running concurrently with the existing subscription model could have huge benefits for EVE Online if implemented correctly.

With the right concept, it could dovetail well with the existing world, attracting a whole new demographic of casual players. Established EVE players would rightly have little to gain from F2P (balance/exploitation considerations would be paramount) and they are already in their gameplay comfort zone, so most won't be prepared to see beyond that for the potential benefits to the future of their gameworld. Hence these ideas tend being rejected by the status quo (see above comments). so don't be disheartened Amaroq.

I wrote an article on this same subject a few months ago. I'd like to see the introduction of non-capsuleer accounts with MT-purchasable skill-specific command crew enabling throttled access to aspects of EVE Online gameplay.

For those interested, I go into more detail on my blog here. I'd cut-and-paste it but Wall o' Text posts tend to make people cry around these parts.

EVE Online: The Text Adventure --- GameSkinny Correspondent --- Freebooted Blogger
Raid'En
#24 - 2012-01-30 20:11:47 UTC
Mara Rinn wrote:
More discussion of Free-to-Play options here: http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/29/eve-evolved-could-eve-online-go-free-to-play

some interesting idea, but i consider there's still too much holes to make this safe enough to be allowed.

and allowing PI is ridiculous ; price would drop so much that we paying players would lose the use of it.
Zyress
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#25 - 2012-01-30 22:10:39 UTC
Valea Silpha wrote:
I think you would find it would not particularly increase the number of players, but would increase the number of people with drake and maelstrom alts to bulk out fleet sizes. Cuz, seriously, why wouldn't you ?


Not that I in any way endorse this idea, (Free to play is the last resort of a game that cannot compete in its genre), but BattleCruisers are not trainable on a trial account
Zyress
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#26 - 2012-01-30 22:19:01 UTC
Amaroq Dricaldari wrote:
The reason I am suggetsing this is because it would make the game more accessable (obviously), and it might even make it more popular. I don't see anything wrong with my restrictions, with one or two exceptions. How would you be able to get all of that done on a standard 14-day Trial Account? That is why I'm limiting that kind of stuff to 'Premium' Accounts.

And PLEXs take alot of money to purchase in-game. Not only that, but they don't magically show up in the game. You have to buy them with real money first. So when you are buying someone's PLEX, they are practically spending their money for your account.

Besides, who the hell makes 450 Million ISK in 14 days? And I don't mean a 14-day timespan after playing for several months, I mean when your account is less than a month old. As far as I am aware of, the only legit way you can get that much ISK in 14 days is by running Level 4 missions non-stop.


You could get that much isk in 14 days salvaging level 4 missions
Hans Momaki
State War Academy
Caldari State
#27 - 2012-01-31 00:16:04 UTC  |  Edited by: Hans Momaki
TheBlueMonkey wrote:


Free to play is a horrible business model that's just been brought about but investors wanting a better return on their money at the expense of a game being fun or engaging (99% of the time).


you have absolutely no idea..

Basically, every game which converted his payment model to F2P had a grow in playerbase after that.
The Problem with EvE is, that those F2P-players need something to pay money for. And you need viable payment options besides PLEX. (I.e Premium-SmS etc.)

Subscription based is working well with a huge playerbase. EvE's playerbase is so small, it's not even worth to be called a successful game .. A really good one, but successful? Nah..

On a side note: Ignoring the potencial of F2P is pretty much epic fail.
EvE could benefit so much from it.. it's stupid to ignore it.

Edit2:
Quote:
You could get that much isk in 14 days salvaging level 4 missions


Ofcourse you can do. But it requires a lot of effort, patience and the know how. Really new and casual players don't have this.
And they are not asking for advice on forums/Ingame that often either.
Gerrick Palivorn
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#28 - 2012-01-31 02:29:46 UTC
After reading the Massively article there are some points that I would like to see addressed.

F2P would be viable if there were heavy restrictions on what can and cannot be done while an account is on F2P mode.
-Implants cannot be utilized
-Cannot initiate agression, anything that results in a GCC
-PI, Research, and any passive system cannot be used and do not accrue while on F2P (PI stops harvesting, etc)
-T2 equipment cannot be used
-Skills will be restricted to trial account skills and if you do have those skills trained, those skill are reduced to level 0
-Restricted to Level 2 agents and below
-Cannot Run a F2P account at the same time as any other F2P account or paid account
-Cannot Jump Clone
-Skills train at 60% speed
-Any other suggestions to prevent abuse

Now as far as the Payment systems
-PLEX's would work the same
-Ability to split PLEX's into week and day long increments, can be sold on market
-MicroPLEX's sold on Eveonline.com, allow you to pay for daily access or for longer, players choice. MicroPLEX's cannot be redeemed ingame
-Ingame MicroPLEX's can be collected and combined to create a full PLEX which is treated normally
-Ingame MicroPLEX's cannot be redeemed for AURUM

I have changed my mind about the F2P model, but it would need to be heavily restricted. Only the above restrictions are acceptable for me, or possibly even more strict.

MMOs come and go, but Eve remains.  -Garresh-
Jint Hikaru
OffWorld Exploration Inc
#29 - 2012-01-31 09:27:33 UTC
Gerrick Palivorn wrote:
After reading the Massively article there are some points that I would like to see addressed.

F2P would be viable if there were heavy restrictions on what can and cannot be done while an account is on F2P mode.
-Implants cannot be utilized
-Cannot initiate agression, anything that results in a GCC
-PI, Research, and any passive system cannot be used and do not accrue while on F2P (PI stops harvesting, etc)
-T2 equipment cannot be used
-Skills will be restricted to trial account skills and if you do have those skills trained, those skill are reduced to level 0
-Restricted to Level 2 agents and below
-Cannot Run a F2P account at the same time as any other F2P account or paid account
-Cannot Jump Clone
-Skills train at 60% speed
-Any other suggestions to prevent abuse

Now as far as the Payment systems
-PLEX's would work the same
-Ability to split PLEX's into week and day long increments, can be sold on market
-MicroPLEX's sold on Eveonline.com, allow you to pay for daily access or for longer, players choice. MicroPLEX's cannot be redeemed ingame
-Ingame MicroPLEX's can be collected and combined to create a full PLEX which is treated normally
-Ingame MicroPLEX's cannot be redeemed for AURUM

I have changed my mind about the F2P model, but it would need to be heavily restricted. Only the above restrictions are acceptable for me, or possibly even more strict.


If you have to put so many rules and restirictions into something, you have to ask yourself is it really an idea that will work?

All I can see is people creating FTP swarms of suicide alts for griefing. Can you imagine if Goons decided to each make a couple of FTP accounts and go suicide spawning Concord in Jita, or swarming up the noobie starter systems......

Jint Hikaru - Miner / Salvager / Explorer / SpaceBum In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Gerrick Palivorn
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#30 - 2012-01-31 10:22:46 UTC  |  Edited by: Gerrick Palivorn
Which is why F2P account wouldn't be able to agress anybody that would result in CONCORD action or GCC in lowsec

I wanted to make it known what would need to happen in order for F2P model to be supported by me.

MMOs come and go, but Eve remains.  -Garresh-
Taint
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#31 - 2012-01-31 10:33:51 UTC
Would quit Eve if it became free to play, isk sellers x 20 in every station isnt me.
Tbh i realy dont want any more Players in the game berøre more space have been added to the game.
But free to play is so fail in every aspect.
Hans Momaki
State War Academy
Caldari State
#32 - 2012-01-31 17:05:17 UTC
Taint wrote:

But free to play is so fail in every aspect.


can you explain why please?

Chjna
the Goose Flock
#33 - 2012-01-31 20:39:01 UTC  |  Edited by: Chjna
Taint wrote:
Would quit Eve if it became free to play, isk sellers x 20 in every station isnt me.
Tbh i realy dont want any more Players in the game berøre more space have been added to the game.
But free to play is so fail in every aspect.



Agree, i would quit the game the day it become free to play / pay to win

If you need any reasons for this:

The number of bots would incrase,
value of ISK would go down,
the PLEX market would be affected, (could be both good / bad)
Skill point value of characters would decrease.

What would CCP gain from this? ...less subscribers.
And what does free to play MMO:s gain there money from ...pay to win.
If I remember correctly, ther were quite the commotion regarding this matter a little while ago...

Remove T2 BPOs
Hans Momaki
State War Academy
Caldari State
#34 - 2012-01-31 21:25:42 UTC
Chjna wrote:
[quote=Taint]
And what does free to play MMO:s gain there money from ...pay to win.


Good lord, do your homework first. Ty.
Olive Juice
#35 - 2012-02-02 13:21:56 UTC
Chjna wrote:

Agree, i would quit the game the day it become free to play / pay to win


Today you can take your paycheck, buy a bunch of PLEX, sell those PLEX for isk. Use the isk to buy a highly skilled character. Use the left over isk to fit a ship.

How is Eve not pay to win already?
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