» Fri Aug 23, 2013 1:47 am "By Azura, by Azura, by Azura! A $60 upfront fee!"
First of all, before accusations start building up, let me clear up a few things: I like the P2P option. Sorry F2P & B2P players, I am totally cool with 15$ a month. I did it for over half a year on SWTOR and I'm willing to do it again. But it's not the P2P I am here to rant about specifically.
Where my problem lies is with this: Making people pay $60 for the game and then charging them MORE to be able to play it. That's bad business. You have to pick one or the other if you don't want to alienate your customers and make the majority of them feel ripped off. Think of it like shoes. You go to a shoe store, find a pair you like and you purchase them. But you're not allowed to put them on your feet until you give the store more money. Doesn't this seem silly? You've already paid for the product. Why shouldn't you be allowed to use it? Like I said, it's bad business.
I know they've advertised that the 60$ purchase will come with a "free" month, but when you think about the price, that's not ENOUGH free months. That 60$ could cover 4 months of subscription costs. That's 1/3rd of a year. You're being ripped off 3 months of gameplay because the company made you buy just the INSTALLER. That's what you're paying half a hundred dollars for. A disc with an installer that will install a game you can't play until you feed more money into the pockets of the company. Some people may ask, "Well smartypants, what would you do?"
I would put the installer on the website for free download; afterall, people STILL can't play without a subscription plan, but they're not having to pay 60$ just for a measley installer. This is fair to the players who will inevitably do their best to support the game and the company. I've also heard that there will be an in-game cash shop, yes, you heard me right, a pay to win cash shop is perhaps being implemented that will destroy the in game economy and eat a hole in your wallet (however this is for now, a rumor.) If you alienate the consumers, the game will fail.
As someone that majored in business administration and ethics, I've got a saying: "What's bad for the customer is, in the long run, even worse for the company." This means you must provide a quality service to the players and make them feel like they're getting their money's worth and that the company isn't just trying to milk them for every last cent in their pocket. Now, this IS an MMO. That's what these games exist for. They're money sinks. But I haven't seen any of them ask "Pay a large amount of money so that you may pay smaller increments of money on a regular basis for something that will also prompt you to spend even more money in game." This is greed in its purest form, plain and simple.
I've got experience playing all sorts of MMOs over the years; P2P, B2P, F2P, F2P with a P2P option, with and without cash shops, etc, and I know what kills these games and what helps them stay alive. I want this game to succeed, and I want to be one of those guys that sticks with the game for years right at launch, but right now I can't see this game lasting more than a year, mainly due to the fact that people are being required to spend at least 60$ before even spending a second in the game and the sheer greed tactics that I'm seeing put so valiantly on display by the company. What's good for the consumer is good for the company. I'm going to use SWTOR as a primary example because it is a very popular recent game. With any P2P MMO you've got to expect from the getgo that you're going to lose about half your subs right after launch. Let's face it, not every game is going to meet your expectations enough to want you to pay for it. This happens with nearly any moden MMO with a P2P plan as the primary system. Let's say 100 people subbed to a game. Well, almost IMMEDIATELY after launch, maybe 40-50 of those people will be disappointed and unsub. This is just how MMOs work. MMO players are fickle friends; if we don't see a promising game, we don't spend our money on that. Simple as that.
So, right now, TESO has about 1.3mil fans on facebook. SWTOR has more than double that. I've seen a lot of negative comments on this system, so let's assume a chunk of these people won't even TRY the game because of the 60$ base price. Realistically, I'd estimate 400k. A little less than 1/3rd of the possible playerbase is gone. So you've got 900k players left. Well, let's put into effect the typical "half of the playerbase unsubs" thing that happens so frequently with P2P games. You've got about 450k people left. For an MMO that's just gotten out of the gate based on a hugely successful franchise such as The Elder Scrolls, that's not a lot. Another thing that should be remembered as an MMO dev is the old saying "It's all downhill from here."
Rarely do MMOs go UP in player numbers as time passes. As the months go by, more and more people will become bored with the game, or realize they're spending money they don't want to spend, etc. and numbers will inevitably and steadily drop; even at a slow pace, this will still put the game to rest. Cancer is often very slow, but it usually does end up resulting in death.
Now for suggestions, and this is the IDEAL situation:
- Make the installer free. That's basic. It's ludicrous to ask people to pay 60$ just for this.
- Implement a short trial period so that players can get a feel of the game, like WoW has. Allow players to do a couple quests, test out some basic combat, run around the starter area a bit, and figure out if this is a game that they would like to pay for. How you prompt them to sub is up to the company. I would make it so that after say, level 5, they are prompted to sub if they want to keep playing.
- For the love of god, get rid of micro transactions and cash shops.
These 3 things alone can really raise the current state of bad health I am seeing this game in. Again, I WANT this game to succeed. I LIKE the subscription option. I love TES and I have been eagerly awaiting this game since it was announced. I'm still excited for it. But to ask people to spend in order to be able to spend MORE? That's a bit ludicrous and is very seemingly driving a lot of players away.
So far I have said 2 things that are very important for any MMO dev or publisher to remember:
- What's bad for the customer is, in the long run, even worse for the company.
- It's all downhill from here.
And I have a third to close this little rant, and this applies almost exclusively for MMOs: "The players are the only ones able to keep the game alive, but the developers are the only ones who can make them WANT to keep the game alive."
Too oft forgotten by companies, the playerbase & gaming community are the heart and soul of an online game, and without them and their full support, online games are basically banished to Oblivion.
I suppose I've said all I have to say about this, so share your thoughts & comments below. 
