• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Final Fantasy XIV |OT| ARR: Alpha Closed. Beta mid-Feb

Status
Not open for further replies.

Ravidrath

Member
Question: let's say they do go F2P, and they're able to keep the game good despite having some of the MTX nonsense people expect.

What if subscribers stayed on their own servers, and the F2P people were quarantined to other ones?

And not every MMO has turned to shit after going F2P, has it? Maybe it wasn't very good to begin with, but Star Trek Online stayed mostly the same, didn't it? And you could still subscribe and get the stuff?
 

Jijidasu

Member
Like most of you I don't think I could enjoy or even stick with 2.0 if it were free to play. I prefer to pay a premium and I enjoy knowing that I'm on equal footing as everyone else to make the most out the game, from 0, like everyone else.

F2P models often encourage the developer (providing that the publisher and investing side want an immediate return) to generate profit out of the pay-to-win/pay-to-look-nice market. I can't stand it.
 

Jinko

Member
Question: let's say they do go F2P, and they're able to keep the game good despite having some of the MTX nonsense people expect.

What if subscribers stayed on their own servers, and the F2P people were quarantined to other ones?

And not every MMO has turned to shit after going F2P, has it? Maybe it wasn't very good to begin with, but Star Trek Online stayed mostly the same, didn't it? And you could still subscribe and get the stuff?

As odd as it sounds, I think P2P keep the riff raff out, that may sound counter-intuitive in terms of success but I really don't want to play a game full of idiot 12 year olds.
 

Ravidrath

Member
As odd as it sounds, I think P2P keep the riff raff out, that may sound counter-intuitive in terms of success but I really don't want to play a game full of idiot 12 year olds.

Right, but what if the riff-raff are quarantined to other servers, away from the subscription people?

Then their increased revenue is supporting the game, without the negative community aspects on the more "serious" players' servers.

I'm just trying to figure out what a reasonable balance is, because I'd like the game to succeed, and remaining completely subscription-based forever is a longshot.


Also, say, what if they had a real-money AH for F2P folk, and P2P folk had unlimited, free AH privileges? That would sidestep much of the need for MTX stuff, if done right.
 

Allard

Member
Right, but what if the riff-raff are quarantined to other servers, away from the subscription people?

Then their increased revenue is supporting the game, without the negative community aspects on the more "serious" players' servers.

I'm just trying to figure out what a reasonable balance is, because I'd like the game to succeed, and remaining completely subscription-based forever is a longshot.


Also, say, what if they had a real-money AH for F2P folk, and P2P folk had unlimited, free AH privileges? That would sidestep much of the need for MTX stuff, if done right.

Everquest II did exactly what you are suggesting and it crashed and burned because of community segregation, all servers are F2P now because friends who wanted to play for free couldn't play with their friends in established communities. The reason companies go free to play is so that players who they know will pay to play (subscription) will have enough players to actively play the social content but F2P also tends to ignite disenfranchisement of communities with various forms of segregation/pay walls which ultimate leads to downfall of communities with people constantly jumping in and out, getting what they want and never coming back because of the pay structure (or lack there of).

The AH Change you highlighted is accentuates the problem I mentioned; community segregation, you should be trying to eliminate it not enforce it. MMO's live and die by constant and established communities and the nature of the content given. Artificial barriers need to be done away with completely. The only way I would be ok with a Free to Play is something closer to the structure employeed by the 'initial' premise of Guild Wars where the games revenue only came from large scale content purchases twice/once a year in expansions where you knew exactly what you were getting, everyone else had to do it to get anything done but it came with so much content it felt like you were just buying a new game and nothing from your old purchase was closed off to you. Anything other then that and I want just a monthly fee to get EVERYTHING, or nothing. I don't want nickel and diming monetazation of any feature that could/should be employed through the game world without any extra hidden cost.

Personally I think F2P is a plague of the MMO world and its a crutch employed by people to explain why an MMO fails, an MMO fails because it just isn't good enough to keep people around for longer then a month and the players don't see themselves having a future in that world for the long term. If you like the world, you like the vision of the game and like both the current and future content in development and feel confident the developer will continue to get it right, people will stick around. SWTOR for instance didn't fail into F2P because of subscription, it failed because the games structure/bugs/lack of content just couldn't satisfy its buyers, it didn't live up to the promises, and we still don't even know the path it wants to take now and in the future. Development turmoil is the true death of MMOs.

Edit: And I will say one other thing, subscription fees don't bother me, I won't turn an MMO down because it has that but I will completely forget about an MMO that has a sanctioned RMT system for in game items. I refused to buy Diablo III once I heard about the idea, I bought Guild Wars 2 and when I realized that a good deal of the decent cosmetic gear required going through the RMT/In game system I have since shut the game out completely from my mind. I know you can spend credits to convert into the amount needed to get the items on that market, but it forced you in a decision to pay more in real money to get stuff quicker, and that kind of stuff is one the things I hate the most about F2P. No sanction RMT of any kind into the global market or I won't even bother to look up what content the game has.
 

omlet

Member
Let's not forget that some people such as myself who tried XIV originally (beta, launch, etc.) and ran screaming would not have come back and gotten engaged enough to pay a subscription when they reinstated them if not for the fact that XIV was F2P for months (though I guess one could argue that in 1.x's case, the bad rep was an even taller barrier of entry than the idea of a sub fee for some people lol).

F2P does not automatically mean bad, but it definitely means different.

It does means very different, because the target audience for F2P and P2P MMOs are completely different kinds of players.

Which could mean bad, and does mean something I'm likely to not want to stick around for, because I think that an MMO's design, content philosophy, and community are all so integrated that you really can't look at them individually. I'll scratch the surface below.

The most obvious advantage of F2P for a playerbase, and perhaps the only one that bears consideration, is that F2P entices people curious about the game to try it when they otherwise might not have. If they like it and get engaged, there is a good chance they stick around as an active and productive member of the game community. Even if they never pay a cent, their presence helps keep the game active which in turn encourages others (who may pay) to try the game, too. If they don't care for it and they leave, no big deal--it's not like the company lost a sale or a month of subscription money or anything, because that person wasn't going to pay that in the first place.

Naturally, the huge con to this pro is that it opens the proverbial floodgates for people who are caustic to the community, such as people with no respect for the community (or at best simply no desire to engage with the community) and the type of MMO player who has grown up on theme park MMOs hopping from game to game and sees MMOs as something to "beat" before moving on to the next. I'd like to underscore that the community really is the most important thing for an MMO to stay afloat (I'd place immersion [everything from lore to graphics to world design to animations, etc.] right behind that, even ahead of gameplay itself). MMOs are social games (or they should be). As a developer, you cannot control the community, but you can do things to influence it. The game needs to be designed to foster it. By removing the P2P barrier of entry, any and every casual* can get into the game.

*(Poor game mechanics knowledge, lower playtimes, weaker gear, etc. are all possible results of being casual, but do not themselves make someone casual. Casual means someone who asks not what they can do for the game, but what the game can do for them (note that I am referring to the instant gratification mentality of players here, not basic functionality like a sensible GUI, etc.). Casual means lack of or distaste for long-term investment or commitment (to the community and even to their character) and/or refusal to accept that they can't have everything handed to them.)

Causal is a mentality tied closely to game design (that the game design can either encourage or discourage), and I don't give a shit if it sounds elitist, but, in high concentrations, casuals kill MMOs. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say MMOs that cater to casuals kill themselves because casuals by definition aren't going to stick with the game for long, so if you alienate your (smaller number of) players who want the game designed for the long term in favor of your (larger number of) players who will be gone in a few months, nobody wins. The "theme park" design itself, as a response to casuals, is a paradigm better suited for offline games (games with an end); a paradigm that I think undermines what a good MMO should be because it reinforces the "do what there is to do and then move on" mindset. And then, once these players have been conditioned to expect an MMO to cater to their casual mindset, we get a self-fulfilling feedback loop where these people drag an MMO down to their level, get bored, and move on.

I can't speak for everyone else, but to me having a subscription model on an MMO is a good way to keep that flood out. You can't keep all the kids and whining casuals out, but at least those willing to jump the up-front subscription hurdle are typically those who are far more supportive of the game and playerbase (in-game friends at minimum). This in turn is a way to define the kind of content released. Content that is designed for everyone equally. As Jijidasu mentioned, P2P model also gives everyone equal access to everything in the game. The only limit is yourself. Income model heavily influences the content development, because things are balanced with cash shop in mind (in F2P; or not, in P2P), even if P2W is heavily downplayed (like how EME is saying it's going to be in TERA). Even putting P2W aside, the existance of a cash shop period creates a rift in the playerbase.

If MMOs want to stay relevant, they need to pay attention to how failed games handled design and content issues that impacted the sense of community and immersion. Content finders, global economies, gear scores, encouraging alt-itis; these and more are cancers that really cripple the ability of the playerbase to form communities. They demolish the feeling of interacting with a living world. I'm not gonna sit here and say that my sense of immersion is so fragile that I want the game to force everyone to travel everywhere on foot like some retards on the OF, but immersion is important. If an MMO doesn't feel like a living world, then I'm going to lose interest very quickly. F2P models do not work as well with sandbox game design, and sandbox game design is something that can give a ton of life to an MMO. F2P is not the problem with today's MMO scene; the problem is mismanaged expectations and a saturation of games that don't foster a strong cooperative community.

People who say they want an MMO to go F2P are basically saying some variant of "I don't want to be emotionally invested in this game and I want its community to collapse so the company has to fall back on shallow pseudo-content and gimmicks to keep the game running on an unstable revenue flow from a revolving-door playerbase." And honestly why are you playing an MMORPG if you don't want to be part of the community?

A subscription based MMO is like any other group with membership dues.

Call us snobs, call us exclusionary, call us whatever you want, but P2P MMO players are paying for a service that we like, including keeping trolls and kiddies out of the game, and if that is taken away or if the boat is rocked too hard, people will leave.

For the record, I played TERA for several months last year and I'm playing it again now and I'm a filthy casual in that game. Why? Because the game is designed to encourage me to be that way when I play it (and also because I'm just killing some time until ARR). I don't feel like I'm in a living world with a community when I play TERA (no sleight meant to gaf guild there). I feel like I am just playing a game. An MMORPG should never just feel like "a game" or it is already doomed. Has nothing to do with P2P or F2P. Yes, I realize the irony. Grab a spoon, it's delicious.

Question: let's say they do go F2P, and they're able to keep the game good despite having some of the MTX nonsense people expect.

What if subscribers stayed on their own servers, and the F2P people were quarantined to other ones?

I think quarantined servers sounds good on paper but in reality it would probably cause a lot of problems. It would hurt the community. Honestly, TERA is a great example of good ways to do things--their launch subscription methods were priced reasonably and the Chronoscroll thing was a good compromise. Their transition to F2P is looking to be pretty sensible, too; at least as much as possible considering they're going to be halting the majority of their sub cash flow. Subscriptions will even still be a thing in TERA, because it gives you some extra (non-essential) perks.

The TERA playerbase is pretty small right now but it's not because of its subscription model, it's because the game was launched with a casual target audience who zipped through its stale questing "content," consumed its small amount of level cap content, and realized there was not really anything else to do besides level alts (which really wreaks havoc on a game's sense of community) or click menus to piss away money rolling the enchanting dice so they let their subs run out.

The main issue really is that F2P necessitates a shift in design philosophy in order for the game to remain profitable. Historically, this shift has often been towards P2W, dumbing down of content, or overpriced cosmetic things. These things are anathema to people like me.

This has been tl;dr with omlet. Tune in next time.
 

Nakazato

Member
As bored as i am. Im kinda happy 14 went down it have given me time to focus on doing thing productive for me. I work out everyday. I just started power 90 which is kicking my ass and i hurt everywhere. So thank you based yoshi p. You help me break addiction and better myself in the process.
 

Allard

Member
As bored as i am. Im kinda happy 14 went down it have given me time to focus on doing thing productive for me. I work out everyday. I just started power 90 which is kicking my ass and i hurt everywhere. So thank you based yoshi p. You help me break addiction and better myself in the process.

I wish I could say the same, I broke one addiction only to go back to one I thought I quit, damn FFXI ; ;. There was a surprising amount of people from my FFXIV shell that went back to FFXI during beta/client downtime and also getting ready for the expansion so my social shell while not nearly as full as it was when I quit like 2 years ago has enough people to get things done, plus I dual box so I can always find something for me to do to progress.
 
I just couldn't get back into FF11. I hadn't played since Chains of Promathia, and coming back to it now, it feels so dated. I play plenty of old games, don't get me wrong - but it just felt cumbersome. The fact that the low levels were a pretty lonely place to be didn't help matters, I'm sure.
 

Jijidasu

Member
I exchange tweets with Soken occasionally, today I though I may as well ask about different BGM's at night since it's a common topic lately.


@jijidasu それはサービスインまでお待ちを。@SOKENsquareenix 聞いちゃダメかもしれないけど、英語のフォーラムに「夜になるとBGM変わるのかなとか、旧14のBGMは夜に遣うとか」って色々発言されています。ソケンさんどうですか?

I said I probably shouldn't ask up front like this but there's a lot of mumbling on the (EN) forums as to whether or not the music will change at night, or if the old version music will be used in place at night, etc.

His reply didn't go into details but basically just said "For that you'll have to wait until launch!".

Might get a 'demo' of some new music this upcoming week, too. Soken mentioned he wanted to throw something out too now that the blog is being updated more often. He did a brief poll while exchanging some amusing tweets with Foxclon. People wanting the new Limsa theme demoed had a landslide victory.
 

Kokonoe

Banned
Lord.

I read this stuff and it makes me feel like we've already seen the ultimate future of F2P... and it is Nexon.

;_;

Nexon? FFXIV? The game would be approximately 999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999x worse.

As for F2P, in all of those games you end up having to spend more just to get by after the initial few levels, especially so if you want top play end-game with other people who don't want a 'gimped' person in their party for such events. P2P is always nice because you spend far much less than you would on a few potions, armor that gives you certain stats and are temporary, bank storage, and tons of items and more, and at the same time the content is far more richer and you get nice customer service for GMs in-game.
 
Nexon? FFXIV? The game would be approximately 999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999x worse.

As for F2P, in all of those games you end up having to spend more just to get by after the initial few levels, especially so if you want top play end-game with other people who don't want a 'gimped' person in their party for such events. P2P is always nice because you spend far much less than you would on a few potions, armor that gives you certain stats and are temporary, bank storage, and tons of items and more, and at the same time the content is far more richer and you get nice customer service for GMs in-game.

My comment has very little to do with XIV!F2P and everything to do with Nexon's production strategy, which is "testbed a lot of barebones concepts to the public, then sell the successful ones with minimal support and full-on monetization; ramping that support up to fit popularity".

It essentially approaches the risk elements associated with launching an MMO from the opposite direction and has clearly made the company absurd amounts of money. But like you said, their games are largely subpar-to-awful, and the decent ones don't receive the support they truly need to be great.

And the crown jewel of what makes that model work is F2P-style monetization. I see embracing F2P monetization as a major first step towards business models like Nexon's, and if that becomes widely accepted the genre will undoubtedly suffer.

EDIT: That came off weird, but I agree with you if it was unclear.
 

Jijidasu

Member
Had a glance at Connect! On. Some nice details in the rather long interview:

There are about 40 mini pet things (like the Baby-Behemoth) ready. We'll know exactly what role they serve in phase 1 of the beta. The 3 things in the Year of the Snake illustration are included in that 40. (For what purpose exactly has got me thinking. Some people on 2ch are thinking they might have some kind of retainer role!)

Gear-sets have a completely new system from what was shown, I guess they didn't like how it had some restrictions. Will get to test in phase 3.

Housing will be released immediately after launch.

2013 will bring in Housing and PvP (certain). There's no certainty that the long raids will be concluded in 2013 though. There should be 1~2 primal battles implemented too.

They're in talks regarding the advancement of raids and so on via Live updates. They're not sure if it'll happen (Perhaps just Yoshi-P's thoughts) but something to do with the recovery of Alamigo.

The place where you'll find Odin is indeed the black shroud. I'm guessing it's a place we've not yet seen. He's described as not being a normal interactive primal, he is one who has no recollections, having forgotten the meaning of his existence. It won't be a normal battle.

It wasn't shown clearly in the opening movie but actually an alarming amount of people survived the 7th Umbral era (Bahamut's attack). To these survivors we, the adventurers who were transferred into the future, are known as "hollow beings".

Behemoth will be tackled via the FATE system. There'll be many steps to go through in the fight to defeat him. Made it so it'll be fun with a large number of people. Will be in at launch.

You won't be able to just "walk" right into Crystal Tower. (I'm assuming this means there are pre-requisite quests)

Sahagin's will be in at launch.

As regions expand they will probably add more primals per new beastman tribe or something.

As for changing jobs in dungeons being possible or not, they're thinking it'll be good to be able to change in between content.

Players who have come from 1.0 and new players will be treated differently by NPCs. It's not a big difference and it will even out at later stages in the story. Legacy players will kind of be having the "stronger new game" kind of thing going.

Some other stuff was talking about the functions of the smart phone application.

Oh, and a question was asked about DRG having a pet, which was replied to with "Not just Dragoons..." (Hmm. )

Edit: some other stuff I forgot:

Regarding keeping in touch with the users: For In-game purposes the development team are going to establish a free company. He encourages players to come give them a belting in PvP. As for out of the game, they're considering some kind of small round-table events and so on a.la Vanafest I suppose.

When are flying mounts coming? - If the Ahriman is good, it's just a matter of being on the stand-by list for implementation. (I'm not sure this means it's a "real" flying mount)

Any other secrets from A New Beginning trailer? - The warrior left something behind 5 years ago (Bravura lol)

Urianger was a temporary NPC and is taking a brief break.
 

Jijidasu

Member
Might just clarify about the expansion of the Lodestone too:

It's going to take on a Wiki type of characteristic with recipes, quest details and who the clients are.
 

Shamdeo

Member
Housing will be released immediately after launch.

2013 will bring in Housing and PvP (certain). There's no certainty that the long raids will see completion in 2013 though. There should be 1~2 primal battles implemented too.

They're in talks regarding the advancement of raids and so on via Live updates. They're not sure if it'll happen (Perhaps just Yoshi-P's thoughts) but something to do with the recovery of Alamigo.

iIKmbK65nu9Iu.jpg
 

Jijidasu

Member
Just want to point out that the the raid completion thing means "there's no certainty that the raids will be concluded in 2013" - either completed/concluded work in this situation but depending on how you interpret the word complete may turn the meaning around a bit.
 
Thanls for the new info!

Housing immediately after launch is awesome.

That is a big thing for me. Makes me smile. I didn't realize so much content was going to be there.

I hope this works in a way that feels natural if we start from level one of the new class.
 
Housing? That's great, but what really stands out to me is:

They're in talks regarding the advancement of raids and so on via Live updates. They're not sure if it'll happen (Perhaps just Yoshi-P's thoughts) but something to do with the recovery of Alamigo.

Taking back Ala Mhigo? Oh, man. Man, oh, man. Please deliver!
 

Shamdeo

Member
Just want to point out that the the raid completion thing means "there's no certainty that the raids will be concluded in 2013" - either completed/concluded work in this situation but depending on how you interpret the word complete may turn the meaning around a bit.

Wasn't there an earlier comment about Crystal Tower and the Great Labyrinth of Bahamut being raids that will be continually added to over a year and a half?
 

Jijidasu

Member
Wasn't there an earlier comment about Crystal Tower and the Great Labyrinth of Bahamut being raids that will be continually added to over a year and a half?

Yeah. That's what the comment about it not being finished in 2013 points to. It's going to be gradually opened up over time. I'd prefer it that way, too. Gives them more time to deliver quality content in each update.

The taking back Ala Mhigo thing isn't a concrete plan, it's just another idea from what I read. Would be nice though.

I noticed someone on the BGforums posted the translation over there and someone wasn't sure about what the flying mount thing means. It's a bit ambiguous in what it's going to serve as. I, personally thought it was more of a humorous thing - As in, well you want something that can fly? The ahriman mount is ready for implementation!

I doubt this is a "flying" mount - merely something that has wings and hovers a few feet above ground.
 

Ala Alba

Member
I noticed someone on the BGforums posted the translation over there and someone wasn't sure about what the flying mount thing means. It's a bit ambiguous in what it's going to serve as. I, personally thought it was more of a humorous thing - As in, well you want something that can fly? The ahriman mount is ready for implementation!

I doubt this is a "flying" mount - merely something that has wings and hovers a few feet above ground.

If flying mounts do sometime get added, Black Chocobo better be one of the options.
 

Skyler

Unconfirmed Member
Choco's Gold form in FFIX can also fly.

Like Jijidaus said, I'm sure it's just something that hovers a few feet above ground. It wouldn't make sense to have a flying mount for such small environments.

They could do it on a smaller scale, like in FFX and FFXIII, where they do a little hop and flutter to an out of reach location.
 

Jijidasu

Member
Not that I'm counting but 2ch has reminded me that there are only 13 days left until the "middle" of February (Japanese understanding of the middle of the month = middle 10 days).

Should be getting some juicy stuff roll out starting this week. We already have hints of Soken dropping some musical leaks via the blog. I need sustenance!
 

Munba

Member
About music, i'm listening again the entire Chrono Cross ost right now. Some tracks give me a real 'exploration' feel. Man, i would extremely love to hear some Mitsuda works in the Realm Reborn.. maybe in an 'sea' expansion in the future.
 

Jijidasu

Member
About music, i'm listening again the entire Chrono Cross ost right now. Some tracks give me a real 'exploration' feel. Man, i would extremely love to hear some Mitsuda works in the Realm Reborn.. maybe in an 'sea' expansion in the future.

Pretty certain he's involved in ARR. He did a few select tracks in old FFXIV, too.
 

Riposte

Member
Heh, just wrote up some ideas for the OT, when I accidentally backspaced into the "logging-in" screen which loaded a new page and promptly wiped everything I typed. I'll post it later tonight. Basically what's most essential: While I used to be pretty damn decent with photoshop (took classes on it years ago, also forum sigs were BIG man) I'm no longer confident in my ability to actually execute the ideas I have in my head. I want it to be some real flashy stuff. So that's probably the biggest barrier.

Yuck. All images, not searchable, looks like shit on mobile.

They had the foresight to include a "mobile" version at least. I would likely do the same.
 

notworksafe

Member
They had the foresight to include a "mobile" version at least. I would likely do the same.

That's fine until the website it's hosted on gets forgotten or goes offline. Mostly informative text with some images for flavor and/or as video links is the best kind of OT imo.

EDIT: But as long as it is out there, that is what's important. The best OTs are the ones that convince people to check out good games.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom