Before the Austin Game Developers Conference, back in leipzig, Jon Wood had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Peter Cesario, the Director of Product Development for K2 Networks. The two talked about Sword of the New World, and what's been going on since the game launched.

Now that we have added our AGDC Sword of the New World interview, I wanted to go back in time a little bit to uncover an interview that I did with Peter Cesario, the Director of Product Development for K2 Network previous to the show.

We had a fairly interesting conversation about what's happened with this game since its launch. The biggest news being that when the game launched, players had to pay a monthly fee (subscription model) whereas now, the game is entirely Free-to-Play (they did have a limited Item Shop before, which was populated with cosmetic items only).

Read the whole article here.

" according to Cesario, they didn't run head-long into this decision without discussing it with their players. They ran polls of their player base, and the free-to-play model won "overwhelmingly"

~ That is not true! Go to the Sword of the New World official forums and look at those polls. You'll see that the majority wanted SotNW to be P2P.

"That being said, and going back to the fact that you really can't please everyone all of the time, K2 had also decided to compensate their players for such a large shift in the way that things are done, offering players 1,000 gold each, which is equivalent to about $10 per unused month that had been paid for."

~ What a joke! I'm sorry, but when I spend $30 for a P2P game and they make it F2P I want my RL money back, not some In-Game gold. This, IMO, is a form of fraud that we shouldn't put up with.

"Whether you like Sword of the New World, or you don't, or whether or not you approve of the "free-to-play" model you have to admit that, with opinions like that, K2 is certainly doing something right."

Something right? Defrauding and spewing forth lies to it's customers is NOT Right. This company has no business being in, well, business. Everyone gets on SOE and Turbine because of past mistakes, and both of those companies have learned from those mistakes. K2 on the other hand just doesn't care.

If your a SotNW player, who feels like K2 has cheated and lied, I suggest you file a report with the BBB. Don't let gaming companies get away with screwing us over!

I have to agree there was absolutely NO discussion with the player base before they went F2P. The community Lead Melisande thought the F2P announcement was going to be about UPC Nerfs. This was a surprise that was sprung on everyone.

There were no developer run polls to the community, only player run polls AFTER the fact, and they were 80 - 90% for going BACK to P2P.

Not to mention they waited till a few days AFTER the auto billing cycle completed again, so they got everyones money once again. There were very few refunds given when requested.

Most of us who complained (with out profanity, or open hostility) were banned from the forums, and I personally was informed my game account would be terminated if I continued my anti-k2 posting habits on other websites.

Those anti K2 posting habits were simply requests for information on why this was done, why we werent informed, and if in the future they would tell us.

There was a QnA with Cesario after the F2P event when the forums went postal. People asked if in the future we would be told what was going to happen in advance. He said that yes they would be filling us in as they valued our input. However... on monday the new QnA now run by the Community lead and not Cesario found here.

http://forum.swordofthenewworld.com/index.php?showtopic=10937

She had this to say.

"Q: If another big change to the game comes up, what are the chances that you will at least warn the player population of the impending change before it is part of the game?

Melisande: We have previously tended to not release specific details of upcoming changes and realize this upsets some in the Community. I would personally love to be able to give out our estimates and tentative plans, and will continue to try to release “heads up” announcements and the like. We don’t like giving out information and then being in a position where we might have to change our stated plans and risk upsetting the Community though."

K2 doesnt tell us what they are working on, doesnt tell us when we will have patches, and doesnt give us patch notes till AFTER the fact.

Maintenance is done Every tuesday... but we have no clue if there will be fixes or not.

Last week was the first bug fix patch we have gotten since July.

A lot of you might think Im nuts and flipping out, but head on over to the K2 forums, take a look at whats being said there, Im not the vocal minority.

www.vespanola.com is also where those of us who are no longer allowed to post on the main forum go.

The article is totally bullshit. K2 went f2p without telling anyone and decreased the number of channel from 3 to 1, increased the price for the cash shop which they have only a FEW sucky items that no one would buy 2 weeks after. The game is almost dead atm, most of my friend either quit, sold their account, went inactive or afk from time to time. The K2's staff doing nothing to help the community besides the promising word "SOON".

p/s: people also can get their account banned ingame for talking bad about K2 in their forum or maybe even here. Many people get banned without knowing the reason. And yeah you are so easily to get banned in this game. The GMs dont care about it

The Free to play model came at a poor moment imo. Making the game free to play AND cramp everyone in one channel!? what the hell were they thinking? Cramping everyone in one channel was already a bad move, but doing it at the same time from switching the model from pay to play to free to play is just downright rediculous.

  I love Jon Wood and his fluff pieces.  THEY MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT !!???  Game didn't go free to play from people doing something right :)

Well we know the main reason they HAD to put it F2P.. IAH (GE).. like I said if two companies released the same game (yea be it one is 'localised' to US, the other to Easten markets) and one with a P2P option and the other F2P yet both accessable... what one would you play, I've always said GE would get FAR more more busness then Sword, it's Archlord all over again..

Rule #1 when 'converting' an easten title to a westen title - DON'T CHANGE THE PAYMENT OPTION IF THE GAME ISN'T MENT FOR IT

At least Tales of Pirates, 2 Moons and some others got it right...

whats the point of complaining when its simple...would you rather have to pay for a game, which later regret it by calling it crap OR not pay for it...finding out that its crap without spending money, OR not paying for crap or playing free crap at all.... Complaining about it is like constantly running into the wall, you know its dumb and its going to hurt you yet you still do. the sad thing is no one cares what hurts you, business is business i guess.

Well to start with it is K2, they are well known for screwing the playerbase.  They have done it before and will do it again.

Anybody dumb enough to provide a credit card number to a K2 supported game certainly has not done their homework.

One thing K2 is not is reputable.

Originally posted by gamerman98

whats the point of complaining when its simple...would you rather have to pay for a game, which later regret it by calling it crap OR not pay for it...finding out that its crap without spending money, OR not paying for crap or playing free crap at all.... Complaining about it is like constantly running into the wall, you know its dumb and its going to hurt you yet you still do. the sad thing is no one cares what hurts you, business is business i guess.

You have to remember... this is money involved, real life cash someone has actually worked for. When you actually invest in a company you have the open right to protest many things and as much as you want until you are heard.. our society didnt get where it's at by saying nothing. Break bottles, hold signs... do what you have to do. That company has to live up to its investors and the simple fact that they are lying to an actually MMO site in an interview is 3x more then bad.

I never pay'd for SotNW. I never like it.. felt to repetitive to me but the graphics were on a whole nother levels as well as the 3 player control system which i thought was wonderful but far from a Paying for type of game due to the lack of "content" ...things like indetph crafting system, built in social society threw trade and economy, player housing(rare for some reason) and mini-games which oddly enough are JUST NOW being added, why people ignore the simple stuff is beyond me.

Anyway... if any MMO lacks those key elements, dont pay for it. 9 times out of 10, it'll go free. Any 90~100% grind games wont sell and companies will rethink what they have done and you might end up paying the price.

Lord of the Rings is making sure to make thier P2P game exactly what it is... throwing in all those key elements so you're not just getting a grind game or a some pvp game where ppl just kill noobs for no reason... you're getting a Massive RPG world to actually interact with.. another game I love is NeoCron which also hold all those elements.

Gamerman98 -

  I played the closed beta, open beta and well into retail. I enjoyed the game. I did not, however, enjoy getting screwed over by the company that is licensing the game. Nor did I enjoy seeing those outright lies by Mr. Cesario in that interview. When K2 changed from the P2P model to the F2P model they gave no warning at all. I think most of us MMOers know what happens to a game when it goes F2P. If most of us would have known this was going to happen we wouldn't have spent any money on the Retail box or the monthly subscription.

Also, I've been playing MMOs since 1997 (UO!) and I have never heard of K2 prior to Sword of the New World. I guess I don't pay attention to F2P games and game companies as I stay as far away from F2P as possible. I guess it's partially my fault for "not doing my homework", but at the same time it's the companies responsibility to provide the services they say they are going to provide.

Vaden hit it right on the head. Why would you want to sit back and say nothing while people, companies, governments, etc bend you over and have their way with you? Wouldn't you rather tell them how you feel regardless of how loud you have to be? And honestly, the only ones hurting themselves are the ones who say and do nothing.

Originally posted by Rebn77

Gamerman98 -

  I played the closed beta, open beta and well into retail. I enjoyed the game. I did not, however, enjoy getting screwed over by the company that is licensing the game. Nor did I enjoy seeing those outright lies by Mr. Cesario in that interview. When K2 changed from the P2P model to the F2P model they gave no warning at all. I think most of us MMOers know what happens to a game when it goes F2P. If most of us would have known this was going to happen we wouldn't have spent any money on the Retail box or the monthly subscription.

Also, I've been playing MMOs since 1997 (UO!) and I have never heard of K2 prior to Sword of the New World. I guess I don't pay attention to F2P games and game companies as I stay as far away from F2P as possible. I guess it's partially my fault for "not doing my homework", but at the same time it's the companies responsibility to provide the services they say they are going to provide.

Vaden hit it right on the head. Why would you want to sit back and say nothing while people, companies, governments, etc bend you over and have their way with you? Wouldn't you rather tell them how you feel regardless of how loud you have to be? And honestly, the only ones hurting themselves are the ones who say and do nothing.

 

 

There are A LOT of players spewing incorrect information. 

1. How does a game going F2P change what you think of the game.  This seems to be a common prejudice in the west.  Honestly, I played SNW since beta and I played sGE since last Oct.  I love this game.  It is a lot of fun for what it is.  It launched $30 cheaper than any other game and was only $9 a month.  The change to F2P was shocking to me (to say the least).  However, that really wasn't the change that upset me.  The change that upset me was the reduction of channels and the fact that I don't feel K2 clearly communicated the change happening.  That is one place in this interview that Mr. Cesario is CLEARLY off the mark.  But maybe he is not involved directly with what is happening with the community, I don't know.  Other than that the game is still the same.  People are making it out to be crap now that it is F2P and that is just not true.  It's the same game.  Now if you thought the game was crap before, then it still is.

2. K2 Network in my personal experience has always at least tried to go above and beyond.  There were DEFINATELY posts and polls on the forums during beta asking for the game to be F2P and the OVERWHELMING majority of the players ask for it to be F2P.  According to Melisande the CM that is what the company was going off of when they made the decision to go F2P.  That said, they have been listening to the players.  They are doing weekly Q&As to inform the player base of what is going on and why, they are returning channels AND they gave a firm date and time WHEN that is happening.  They are adding new GM events with a POSTED schedule.  The have ENDED the farmer spam.  They are working on ways to stop botters.  They are unnerfing UPCs.  They reduced the prices in the cash shop. Pretty much anytime someone complains they fall all over themselves to handle it.  I haven't seen ANY other company be as responsive with their games as K2.  And I have played more than just Sword with them.  I have played Global MU Online for almost 2 years and I have played War Rock since its release.  I never played KOL... the Turks scare me...

3. K2 was giving refunds to players who asked for one.  I know for a FACT 5 of my clanmates got them.  So, basically there are a LARGE number of players (here and abroad) who have been WHINING, but not really asking for a refund.  That seems like a YOUR bad.

Reading comprehension for the win!

First - I never said the game was crap, why don't you re-read my posts. What is crap is free to play! I play MMOs for enjoyment and I don't enjoy the F2P crowd, I never have. For every one legitimate gamer that joins you get ten botters, spammers, griefers, and dreges of MMO society sign up.

Second -  Take a look at their statement on the BBB website: "This company offers on-line MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) to paying and non paying customers. According to the company, paying customers pay for a better gaming experience. The company offers some games on a 14 day free trial." It sounds to me like K2 Network has no idea what it wants to be. Also their overall rating is a C, with 376 complaints filed. 376 complaints! And the company only runs F2P with item shop mmos ... they must be doing something wrong to have that many complaints.

Third - I did in fact ask for a monetary refund, to which K2 never responded! I then filed a complaint with the BBB to get my money back. K2 responded to the complaint by saying "We compensated those that purchased the retail box, and paid any monthly fees with in-game gold". The complaint is still open. So while K2 may (or may not) have given your five guildies their money back they didn't give me mine.

Wow, so much love for this game and one person claiming everyone else is lying.

Either way, I'm glad I decided to avoid this one.

Still so sad. K2 might have actully had a good game until they were sucked in by the almighty dollar. Now the gold farmers and bots are there. But are buying enough from the scam shop that K2 will never do anything about it. Then get on here and blantly lie. What's odd is that MMORPG.com kinda put the interview up and didn't bust them for liying. Kinda odd

I wanted to try it, but keep reading nothing but poor responses except for a few odd balls in the park. I don't know wtf to do by now, but I noticed the download size and said no way. I'm on satellite internet and have a bandwith limit.. that kind of download would shut my internet down for 2 days easy.

I think i'll stick to Rappelz.. from the sounds of it.. it's much better.

I like F2P games, because I don't have to make a stupid commitment and wonder if my money is going to good use or if i'm playing enough to get my moneys worth. If I don't want to play a week.. on F2P games.. no biggy.. on P2P.. that costs me cash.. not a lot of money, but we are talking long term here, which is what MMOs are about. With item shops I can slap down 5 bucks and get a few things and be happy, but it's nothing game breaking at all.. just nice things to help.. exp bonus.. costumes, etc. Nothing to major.

The way I look at it is this:

P2P = You pay monthly for "JUST" the game.

F2P = You pay nothing for "JUST" the game PLUS you get extra from item shop feature.

So tell me? Which sounds better now...

Even this game is f2p but you actually have to pay to buy items from the cash shop to continue playing the game, sucky ha? Many craftable items required cash shop items and when u get to 100, u have to buy the cash shop item called veteran scroll to continue to level and have extra bonus ar & dr.

And no they wont refund even if u ask them to.