Funcom's Struggling Secret World MMORPG Now F2P Too

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The_Trutherizer

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To be honest MMOs are becoming a bit boring. Either something in the spirit of the thing has changed (I suspect the blatant greed that permeates the industry... cough-cough... Blizzard... cough ) or people are just plain moving on.

Truly though once you have become disenchanted with the amount of time and effort you have to put into these things then its pretty much the end of your interest in mmo's in general.
 

lpedraja2002

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Wow so many MMO's changing to free 2 play, I can't believe developers still haven't gotten the message. If your games sucks, no one will pay to play it for long!

This game seems interesting I might check it out.
 

Gundam288

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[citation][nom]Pherule[/nom]Or I could just play Path of Exile. Pay 0 times, play forever.[/citation]
It's a great game. I gave them some money for one of the kiwis/beta supporter packs and got it a week or 2 ago. They typed out a letter and the lead dev printed his name with a pen. You don't see that to much anymore these days, people signing letters to their supporters that is.

Can't wait for Act 3.
 
If you have to buy the game, is not a F2P model. It's not a subscription model either. It's a regular "multiplayer" option of the likes from CoD and BF with no "offline single player" model. It's not a Pay to Win like LoL, either.

It's called "Buy and play" AFAIK. You buy the game, install it and go online, period.

Cheers!
 

Marcus52

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[citation][nom]lpedraja2002[/nom]Wow so many MMO's changing to free 2 play, I can't believe developers still haven't gotten the message. If your games sucks, no one will pay to play it for long! This game seems interesting I might check it out.[/citation]


What you don't understand is that most of these games were quite profitable without F2P, - but it has been demonstrated that the average person the uses a "free to play" account actually spends more month than a subscription player. And, adding the F2P brings in players that wouldn't otherwise play the game. These kinds of players tend not to stick around, but they spend more money when they are playing, on average. Adding F2P to a failing game might save it, but that's not why most publishers are doing it, they are doing it so that a game that is already profitable makes more.

So, the plan today is - release your MMOG with subscription-only terms, get the game paid for quickly through initial sales and steady payments, and then go F2P in order to rake in more cash for a game the subscription players paid for.

My recommendation is that any player looking to play a new MMOG simply wait 6 months; no point in buying the game if you don't have to, and some of the bugs will be worked out by then, too.
 

godfather666

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Nice, I might actually pick it up.

Can we not call it free-to-play though? We are paying up front, so it's really the opposite of F2P if you think about it.

"Pay once, play forever" is much more accurate.
 

bllue

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[citation][nom]lpedraja2002[/nom]Wow so many MMO's changing to free 2 play, I can't believe developers still haven't gotten the message. If your games sucks, no one will pay to play it for long! This game seems interesting I might check it out.[/citation]
I've come to find that the issue seems to be more about $14.99 a month. Few people can justify paying that, especially those who wouldn't play much every week. 6 years when I played WoW the reactions in the internet towards subscription weren't as severe as they are today where new MMOs that require subscription end up failing because a good portion of people avoid them like the plague. Just look at SWTOR, it's a decent games to mmorpg standards but I'd say that one could hardly justify a subscription in its early months. I don't think I could even justify paying that for WoW nowadays.

In the early days of WoW and in the older MMOs it would take a guild months to clear content. Nowadays in all MMOs that can be done in like a week. When you have a subscription model and you aren't putting out new content too often, you're bound to fail and people will start to let their subscription lapse. If a dev won't be putting out new content every month or so, they might as well make the game B2P or F2P from the start.
 

yeesh

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[citation][nom]Yuka[/nom]If you have to buy the game, is not a F2P model. It's not a subscription model either. It's a regular "multiplayer" option of the likes from CoD and BF with no "offline single player" model. It's not a Pay to Win like LoL, either.It's called "Buy and play" AFAIK. You buy the game, install it and go online, period.Cheers![/citation]
I know, right? I don't understand why F2P seems to confuse journalists so much. For example, by the logic of the article the entire Diablo series has been F2P since the beginning. And so has Torchlight, Borderlands, etc...
 

maestintaolius

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I initially wrote the game off when it first came out as I thought it was exclusively pvp and after being so disappointed with AoC. I decided to give it a try after seeing a few LP episodes on youtube. I've actually come to really enjoy the game and its the closest thing I could find out there to my beloved CoH that NC axed a few weeks ago.
 

Bean007

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Problem with there game was that it just wasn't fun. Even though WoW is old it can still attract players back to the game and keep a good constant subscriber base. I was in the beta and even though after the beta they make changes the game just wasn't all that great. Heck even Rift and EvE Online are still gooding good.
 

robochump

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Another MMO that suffered because the studio doesnt have a clue regarding PvP. Any MMO that does PvP even partially well will succeed. Glad I waited and will give TSW a chance since I had a blast with AOC; even though FC has a history of not being able to push out their own games reliably.
 

brettms71

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Glad this has happened. I play on a lifetime subscription, and don't lose out because it's gone free to play. But it also means i can grab it for my 3 kids, and they can now game with me. But they (or me more likely) don't have to pay $45 for monthly subsriptions for my kids to join me online. Couldn't be happier.
I wish more games would cater for familes. If i want to game wth my kids i have to buy 4 copies. At least The Secret World is reasonably priced to do that.
 

heero yuy

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someone needs to take tera online and remove the quest grind and make the leveling process fun
dont make it stupidly easy just make it more fun

do that and you are on to a winner as that combat system tera has is the best thing i have experianced in any mmo (combat based on player SKILL not RNG (random number generator) like wow) but the leveling is just quest after quest after quest fetch this fetch that
if i was to level up like i did with my druid just sitting in thunderbluff doing dungeons all day (i stopped at level 59 cause flight form) i would still be at level 30 as you get so little xp from killing monsters (bam soloing you get loads but at 15 mins per solo?) but so much from quests (but if you skip some quests you are going to have a bad time later)
 

heero yuy

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hell if wow was to make a radical change up their graphics to teras level and change to the action combat system of tera blizzard just got a subscriber back


but no...
i doubt they will do that because this is how they like it easy and boring (also radical change will driver alot of people away because they will think its sucks etc)

also tera is fun after the quest grind its just getting there (pvp and nexus events (need a good computer here) are awesome)
 

maestintaolius

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[citation][nom]heero yuy[/nom]someone needs to take tera online and remove the quest grind and make the leveling process fundont make it stupidly easy just make it more fundo that and you are on to a winner as that combat system tera has is the best thing i have experianced in any mmo (combat based on player SKILL not RNG (random number generator) like wow) but the leveling is just quest after quest after quest fetch this fetch thatif i was to level up like i did with my druid just sitting in thunderbluff doing dungeons all day (i stopped at level 59 cause flight form) i would still be at level 30 as you get so little xp from killing monsters (bam soloing you get loads but at 15 mins per solo?) but so much from quests (but if you skip some quests you are going to have a bad time later)[/citation]
The problem I have with TERA is lvl 1-58 are skill based with decent progression, lvl 59-60 progression is severely restricted by RNG. Drop rates off the two endgame dungeons is horrible (clear ACHM and MCNM half a dozen times and maybe get 1 decent drop) and the enchant rate of t14 gear is horrible resulting in you having to farm gold for dozens of hours (no skill involved, just a mindless slog) to afford the stupid scrolls and fodder so you can get geared up to do MCHM which too involved and endless grind of faction and components to craft the 'final' gear.
 
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While I really like the change to Buy2Play I cannot help but feel that the lifetime sub holders are getting the shaft. While some seem ok with their money going to the support of the game, the majority of those who purchased the plan are not investors, bought into a plan that was to cover a $15 a month subscription and now are being told that they will get $10 a month in points with a 6 month expiration date in lieu of the former plan. What a kick in the teeth to those who supported them.
 
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