Last week, Mark Jacobs, formerly of Mythic, announced the foundation of City State Entertainment. City State is a company that will focus on casual games, though no specific game information has been revealed. In today's Free Zone column, MMORPG.com's Richard Aihoshi talks with Jacobs about his new venture and about the F2P trend in today's games. Read on and then let us know what you think in the comments.

Starting off, he noted that versions of F2P have been around since before many people think. As an example, he cited AOL in the '90s. "A number of years ago," he recalls, "I sat on a GDC panel where I took the position that the market is robust enough to support multiple models, and that other than the ever-cyclical, rollercoaster ride that is our industry, no single model will rule them all. My opinion really hasn’t changed on this. I'm all in favor of having multiple options for players and developers."

Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The Free Zone: Talking F2P With Mark Jacobs.

The guy in the back left is at least Mark Jacobs. So I guess he talked to Mark Jacobs alright.

But the start of the article is flawed and confusing the least with both Morrison and Jacobs being thrown around.

LOL.

Looking at that pic makes me want to never game again. Those are some seriously choice specimens. It's like the twin tables of tards. Wow.

Focus on developing games and avoid cameras at all costs would be my advice ;)

Traitor.

And backpedalling on the F2P thing, oh yes.  I can guess that his next title will be an F2P no doubt.

He sold out, I hope he reaps what he sows.

Let's emphasis the most important part of this article shall we?

Mark Jacobs said that TWO of the LARGEST factors for people "wanting" PayToWin is the LACK of interesting MMOs, and the economy. This is the ONLY thing i've ever agreed with in terms of PayToWin. HOWEVER, lets be clear that Richard Aihoshi's "F2P" bias does NOT end anywhere in this article. 

Mr.Aihoshi seems to be trying his hardest to find ways to claim that his precious "Free To Play" (PayToWin) system is "gaining vantage in the Western market". Even though it's been set clear that there's NOTHING "free" about these games except for maybe the login process.

A company is a company is a company, they're here to make MONEY. MMO's are planned, developed, and launched by COMPANIES looking to make money. Their ENTIRE plan for a PayToWin MMO is to find ways to make you eventually PAY for something in their product so they make MORE money than a Subscription model.

What isn't a "PayToWin" model you might ask, well it's most certainly NOT "FreeToPlay", but an amagamation of the "FreeToPlay" model & the "PayToPlay" model. This ends up creating a model that Planetside2 is currently planning. Essentially, it's an EXTENDED FREE TRIAL, where you cannot progress past an EXTREMELY low rank, but you can still play with paying members. Addtionally, we've been promised UP & DOWN by, SOE CEO, John "GameKiller" Smedly that the ONLY items that will be in their version of a "Cash Shop" is a premium subscription (comperable to $15/month), and COSMETIC only Armor & Clothing. 

This is a GREAT idea IF they stick to what they say, because then the population never varies based on the economy, and subscribers ALWAYS have hoards of enemies to slaughter as long as it's done right. Think of it as what Planetside did with their "Reservists" program.

To summarize:

-PayToWin is losing a foothold in the Western Market.

-PayToPlay has been making a VERY strong resurgance in the past year or two.

-Hybrid Models that are essentially extended, or unlimited, "Free Trials" are gaining foothold in our Western Market.

Something to Remember:

-If anyhing else, keep in mind that the current MMO market has been abused left & right by horrible shadey companies just trying to make money without respecting their customers. SOE has been one of these companies for quite awhile, but seem to be making ACTIVE attempts at fixing this viewpoint. 

edit edit

I like sub based games.  I wish game developers who found the need to go F2P would also extend an 'all inclusive' subscription model to players who want that.  I don't want to be interupted every 10 seconds in game to spend a few more dollars on another aspect of the game I 'can't have'.  I hate the feeling of being nickeled and dimed.... Let me have everything included... time, items, quests, cosmetics... here's 20 bucks a month... now don't bug me.

Originally posted by Rinna

I like sub based games.  I wish game developers who found the need to go F2P would also extend an 'all inclusive' subscription model to players who want that.  I don't want to be interupted every 10 seconds in game to spend a few more dollars on another aspect of the game I 'can't have'.  I hate the feeling of being nickeled and dimed.... Let me have everything included... time, items, quests, cosmetics... here's 20 bucks a month... now don't bug me.

 

 

 

+1

I agree 100% with you.

I like the idea myself of a subscription with a cosmetic cash shop (yes I know several games do this and it isn't new).  Pay a monthly sub for unlimited maps/content and have a cash shop for cool stuff like clothing or hair dye...just consmetic stuff, NOTHING that give an advantage.  You have to remember us western gamers do not mind parting with cash so long as we look cool when we part with it :P

Well I hope Mr Jacobs is enjoying himself with his new company.  We will just have to wait and see if he is a one hit wonder like many others in his field of if he has learned from all his mistakes.

I do think he is right about the f2p marketplace, many of the successful conversions kept the freemium model which still has subscriptions as it's base.  Most of the f2p games without any subscription usually end up alienating all those without deep pockets.

This whole free to play scheme is very funny.

Is shows when you cant make a product customers will actually pay for,the next step is to find someone else to pay ,thereby lowering the bar of "acceptable" that much more .

It too will fail in the long run,just as the vast majority of the pay to play games have.

So, how did his last ultra-casual game go?

Guy has no clue whatsoever. Destroyed DAoC, failed the WAR franchise, and whatever "casual" scheme he has in the works will also fail.

mark jacobs completely ruined Mythic and is one of the people to blame for the pos state of the mmo genre. i hope his new company burns in hell just like he did to mythic. scumbag

That pic...it's...I....they...I need a shower...

I wonder if the name "City State" refers to EA's description of their subsidiaries as city states.

I can agree that there has been "a lack of really interesting MMOs," and his attitude towards gold farmers. With SW:TOR, GW2 and TSW, we have at least three games with potential on the horizon. If those three tank, I have no idea what to look forward to next.

Originally posted by Cecropia

LOL.

Looking at that pic makes me want to never game again. Those are some seriously choice specimens. It's like the twin tables of tards. Wow.

Focus on developing games and avoid cameras at all costs would be my advice ;)

 

As someone who is really not photogenic, I want to respond to you by saying: if your mum took a quick picture of you at a big family dinner, and you're in the middle of talking and eating at the same time, do you think you'd look like Fabio? Probably not. Give some normal looking people a break. We can't all be hunks like you.

Originally posted by atticusbc

As someone who is really not photogenic, I want to respond to you by saying: if your mum took a quick picture of you at a big family dinner, and you're in the middle of talking and eating at the same time, do you think you'd look like Fabio? Probably not. Give some normal looking people a break. We can't all be hunks like you.

Lol, good point.  I thought it was a funny picture, developers are everyday people... I guess the poster was expecting a glowing halo around each of their heads with fuzzy light eminating from their aura as they hovered a few feet off the ground.

I'd ignore the hate though, seems that the negitive posters are bringing a lot of baggage into it.  I wish this new team well and look forward to seeing what they're gonna give us.

Same Mark Jacobs that fucked up DAOC with Trial of Atlantis? Yeah I expect a lot out of this new venture if that's the case.

Originally posted by idgarad

Same Mark Jacobs that fucked up DAOC with Trial of Atlantis? Yeah I expect a lot out of this new venture if that's the case.

At least in the end he was a big enough man to admit that Trials was a mistake and would have never happened had they had the metrics system in place that they later had in other expansions, as for the steaming pile that warhammer turned into I am not sure he is totally to blame for that there were others involved in that fiasco as well.