Like many of you I read through our threads often and have seen a lot of talk on the announced P2P model. I fully support a P2P model based on my past of mainly playing P2P games. It seems I usually get more involved with P2P games then F2P or B2P. I find P2P games have more content and better communities. I've never played a B2P or F2P MMO for longer than a month whereas I have played the same P2P game for years.

Someone in another forum questioned how long TESO could remain a P2P MMO. A huge factor that has been discussed at length is the future competition. This question made me want to do some research on Blizzard's vague next-gen MMO which is held under a very secure lock and key. After doing some reading this morning I've come across some pretty interesting information regarding Blizzard's next-gen MMO that gave me some insight on the future of TESO and the future of P2P MMOs.

First interesting find:

Mike Morhaime the CEO of Blizzard Entertainment had a blue post discussing Project TItan.

http://titanfocus.info/#

We're in the process of selecting a new direction for Project Titan and re-envisioning what we want the game to be. And while we can't talk about the details yet, it is unlikely to be a subscription based MMORPG.

I also want to reiterate that there has been not been an official announced or projected release date. What I can say is that the commitment to quality has always been at the core of Blizzard values and we've gone through this type of iterative development process several times in the past on our way to creating genre-defining games.

As we continue our assessment, we have shifted some of the resources from the team to our other franchises including WoW and Blizzard All-Stars which we believe will add immense value to those projects.

Obviously nothing is set in stone but this made me think. If Blizzard's next-gen MMO isn't going for the P2P model that's big news to me. This really makes me reconsider the future of P2P which I have never questioned. I do personally think TESO will be able to pull off P2P but not for as long as I initially thought. For those of you that don't know Titan has been rumored to have been in production since 2005-2006. They recently pushed the expected date of release from 2013-2014 to around 2016 or later.

Some interesting things I have read in the past talk about in-game advertising. The MMO is focused around earth and space and is realistic. Like in some movies, they make lots of money on product placement. I could see lots of revenue ideas coming from this in regards to billboards In game, commercials playing on random tvs / varias ads. Trash on the streets (coke cans etc.). I for one hate product placement and subliminal advertising but it wouldn't stop me from playing the game.

Questions I walk away having are:

If Titan does release in 2-3 years with a revolutionary revenue plan how would TESO's retention last through that if TESO does make it 2-3 years with the P2P and/or changed to B2P model?

Will the next-gen Titan be the killer to the P2P MMO model?

Will TESO's niche features separate it from other MMO competition enough and/or is the TESO fan base large enough to sustain the future of the game if huge revolutionary games come out in the near future?

What are your thoughts?

Below is the full article and a good compilation of details in a youtube video about Titan.

http://titanfocus.info/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VagkCjerzg

TESO will be free to play within months to a year. Le fin. They all fall, no one learns. No one is humble enough to realize their MMO's will all fail in the P2P market because people don't want it anymore.

To each their own opinion but please... I don't want this to be a discussion on when/if TESO changes their payment model. If you like you can respond to some of my other questions.

1. Well it depends on what Titan is exactly and how good it is. I can't mind read an entire populace for people, as much as they would like the great and might mentok to do that. If it has anywhere near the success of WoW though then TESO players will be gobbled up fast. Very few games have a loyal fanbase or a large enough one to stick around after the casuals leave. It could happen, but is unlikely.

2. I doubt it, as the P2P market finally collapses it will allow newcomers to use the system without needing such large budgets. I doubt the model will ever straight up come to an end. I do feel its prominence will be greatly diminished.

3. Not even close. TESO is pretty much the exact same mold with every other MMO, minus some minor tweests like a crappy M Night movie.

This cycle has happened before. It will not be the last. Developers fumble incapable of understanding. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnDp2mWU7ic

To me, statements like this tend to be followed in the not too distant future by 'Nevermind, nothing to see here, move along, move along...'.

One wonders if someone at Blizzard didn't look at the current progress of their shiny new toy and realized it wasn't so shiny or new after all.

No More than 6 months is my guess.

Throw rocks at the other questions as they are unknown like asking when Google Fiber will deploy Nationwide.

oOooOoo google fiber. That is what forums are about, speculation and discussing what could be. Say what you will though. There wasn't anywhere that I brought up how long you think TESO will be P2P but thanks for your response anyway.

Titan , earth and space? Sounds futuristic maybe something like global agenda, remmber me?

If so, then why would ESO be affected? They're diffrent, it would be like comparing star wars and LOTR movies...

They are compared in the sense that they are both I would assume to be MMOs. In the same sense you can compare star wars and LOTR in the fact that they are both movies. If LOTR and SW came out with a movie at the same time there is a good chance people who just like science fiction movies would pick one or the other to see, (or maybe both in some cases). Though SW fans would see SW first or only. and LOTR fans would see the LOTR movie first or only. Box office sales would be affected though.

In this same scenario TESO could be affected with people who are a fan of MMOs and not necessarily ES fans. These casuals/MMO enthusiasts would shift to the more entertaining/next-gen MMO if hype lives up to it.

Well, we're currently seeing another shift in MMOs other than payment models as well. Most upcoming MMOs are going more towards the "sandbox" route than themepark after last year and the recent failures of pretty much everything that was launched in themepark mode, even a game with the "reported" large buget of TOR, the BioWare name, and one of the largest IPs out there.

SOE scrapped their themepark version of EQN and is coming out with a more sandbox variation (looks like 2 games in one to be honest), Bliz has scrapped Titan and going back to the drawing board as well. I wouldn't be all that surprised if Blix even tries sandbox as well now.

Sandbox just doesn't lend itself to a pixel store the way themepark does. Having crafters building, and a player made economy, the best gear in game kinda leaves out the endgame "raid" gear treadmill and the store selling for real money if you can't or don't want to run the treadmill. F2P games like STO have no problem with selling power (P2W) but that would crush a total sandbox games as well with nothing more than the month to month power creep as it has in STO. It's not all that good for a themepark model as well, either. NPCs mean almost nothing via their P2W store now and PVP is so screwed up a dev comes to the forums and says "we could take PVP out of the game and no-one would even notice". In my experience, that's exactly what happens in a F2P/B2P game that has to sell power to survive. (and for all the people who believe that cosmetics sell, Cryptic tried that as well with the updated Sov ship, no1 bought it and they won't unless there is "more power" attached so they went right back to selling power the next month.

Bliz probably made a good decision with waiting to see what happening in the market with Titan. All it will take to get totally back on the old MMO track is just 1 MMO coming out that ends up successful in the sub model.

Will TESO be that MMO? Who knows at this point as ALL of that will depend on the game and how good people think the game is. We all pretty much know from last years failures that that next large game isn't a WoW clone themepark.

Both Titan and EQ next are going this route its nothing new. But what the general person fails to realize is both of these projects are hundreds of millions of dollars. do you actually think they are goingt o go "Heres you free game kiddies enjoy we love !!!!!!" . both of these games are going to charge you out the eyes for everything from Character slots, Level tier unlocks, inventory space, content unlocks, guild formation, real estate in game, Races, advanced classes, skill upgrades, in game Monetary limits, mounts, character models, and you guessed it Time do not think for a second they are not going to charge you for time I guarantee both will have sub options it just wont be required and for all you guys thinking you'll get the game for free think again. they are going to charge you to start early , up to 90 days before official release. I am baffled by peoples logic in the market place, the only reason they are going this route is because they can charge you more for [censored] you used to get for free.

Well hopefully there is a pay to play option of the sort, I can't stand all the [censored] you mentioned. Since we don't know anything about Titan it would be silly to assume what their revenue model will be.

You need to look at the statement as a whole. What his statement actually sounds like is that it may not be an MMO at all. It may be another RTS or even a starcraft FPS. Anyone'sguess.

Nothing is F2P buddy. you obviously have not played any of these so called F2P MMO's too end game, and most of them offer you a subscription options. I have played quite afew of these so called F2P games at end game and they cost far more to play then a subscription and alienate the population in game even more. It creates pay walls that casuals who would pay 15 bucks a month, wont pay the 25 to 30 it costs them to enjoy end game on a regular basis.

Remember we are talking about blizzard, they are EA's little brother.