This week's edition of Richard Aihoshi's Free Zone looks forward. There are some things on the horizon that Richard has a close eye on in the free-to-play category and this week he shares those things to watch out for with you.

It's undeniable that there's significant, even huge superior potential in other themes and genres. This is instantly clear if we look at the leading edge in this regard, which is Korea. When we do, we see shooters, strategy, sports, music and more. And turn-based isn't considered abhorrent either.

Here though, we have yet to see how much impact these other categories will have. In the case of shooters, the few we've seen haven't achieved much prominence. Ndoors' Atlantica Online, a turn- and NPC squad-based strategy MMOG, has apparently fared well, but it has only been out since late 2008, plus it's only one title.

Read his column here.

Is articles are decent... but when I read them, I get the feeling he is lightyears behind... it's as if he as wooken from a deep slumber --

Most if not all the stuff he  writes about... people know already, it's nothing new.

He talks as if FTP MMOs are a new discovered jem -- and he has found it.  FTP are not new... he should right with the times... his articles seem out of date.

I'd add to this list indie one-man projects... Which could really be part of self-published but with little budget compared to what we usually see.

* Enter shameless plug mode *

Like mine: http://www.golemizer.com/

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Originally posted by Dana
This week's edition of Richard Aihoshi's Free Zone looks forward. There are some things on the horizon that Richard has a close eye on in the free-to-play category and this week he shares those things to watch out for with you.

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It's undeniable that there's significant, even huge superior potential in other themes and genres. This is instantly clear if we look at the leading edge in this regard, which is Korea. When we do, we see shooters, strategy, sports, music and more. And turn-based isn't considered abhorrent either.
Here though, we have yet to see how much impact these other categories will have. In the case of shooters, the few we've seen haven't achieved much prominence. Ndoors' Atlantica Online, a turn- and NPC squad-based strategy MMOG, has apparently fared well, but it has only been out since late 2008, plus it's only one title.

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Read his column here.

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You forgot to mention "Runes of Magic". Quite successful F2P MMORPG where you can see a LOT of WoW refugees. Its not only free to play but offers almost similar graphics (I'd say better than in WoW though, nice shaders work etc). Of course like any other F2P RoM is not without an Item Mall. It offers great customization options when you get to level 50. You can aggregate items, take the view from one item and apply the stats from the other.

That way you can for example buy a costume on Item Mall and then apply the stats to it of the max level equipment you get from raid etc. You can also "tier" equipment there, by creating runes and merging them *enchanting?* with equipment. But thats considered to be waste of money until you get to cap level also. So basically game is about grinding your way through to cap level and then you may wanna use some item mall items, if you want.

Several items are kinda useful, 50%XP boost and 70%XP boost potions help to make leveling grind not so tedious. Of course there are a lot of quests but most of them are about killing 10-30 mobs, which end up being a grind just through a quest tasks. I play it on PvE server so I am not involved in all the griefing that is going on PvP server. People with cash tune up their gear to max possible and then just dominate those who play for free and they cry of course a lot :).

Good article.

Oh yes, there are also Aeria Games, one of which is fun if you like MMO racers. But its quite unbalanced. You can of course have some fun, graphics are good etc. But game is too small. Needs a lot more modes, more balanced reward system and just as versatile as future GT5 for example. Then it would make sense to play it and spend money on their Item Mall. At this point its not worth it.

The worst thing I hate about Item Malls are the items that you spend money on, sometimes pretty big money (15$+) like EXP charms and what not, and then they are gone. Like you just wasted 15$ and won't see them ever again.

Originally posted by Over00

I'd add to this list indie one-man projects... Which could really be part of self-published but with little budget compared to what we usually see.

* Enter shameless plug mode *

Like mine: http://www.golemizer.com/

 

Wanted to say I love indie games and would love to see some these creative folks start building MMORPGs. If you want to find game with heart, usually the furthest you have to look is indie games.

Let's talk about Korean F2P games.

Since the entire free to play category doesn't have good visibility in the game media, it's not surprising that many people, even within the industry, know little about what's going on within it.

They're already far too visible as it is, especially at MMORPG.com. It may seem like they have less visibility "in the game media", but how is that a bad thing? Most people simply don't care about bad games and wouldn't pay a monthly fee to play them, which is why they're free. I bet the industry doesn't give two craps about all the cookie-cutter clones either, and why should they?

Save for a few exceptions, all the Korean MMO-s are exactly the same. Four classes, similar lore, similar art, same type of gameplay, same grind. After you play one, you know them all. When you take a look at all these games it kind of makes you appreciate our western EQ/WOW clones...

Why would you mention lobby based games in an article about MMO-s, on a site about MMO-s? It really doesn't make sense for you, of all people, to perpetuate the same mistake people make when they lump every game with multiplayer mode into the MMO genre. Was Diablo considered an MMO when it released? What about Diablo II, was it considered an MMO around the time of its release? No, of course not. They are RPG games with multiplayer mode. Then why would you classify a racing game or an FPS with a lobby (closely resembling battle.net) as an MMO? The only people that call them MMO-s are either clueless or responsible for promoting/selling them in Europe/US. And what's the best way to promote a lobby based multiplayer game with shoddy gameplay? Slap an MMO sticker on it. MMOFPS sounds a lot more appealing than multiplayer FPS, same goes for every other genre.

While we're on the subject, could you please give us an option to filter all the Korean clones out of the news? I'm so sick of all this regurgitated crap covering most of the site nowadays.

Originally posted by khaelf

Let's talk about Korean F2P games.

Since the entire free to play category doesn't have good visibility in the game media, it's not surprising that many people, even within the industry, know little about what's going on within it.

They're already far too visible as it is

Agreed.  (to be fair it seems to me MMORPG.com has toned down the coverage of these games.)

Many people, both within and outside the industry, wish these trash games would become completely IN-visible.

$10 Million budget?  For what?  It can't cost more than a few Hundred dollars to churn out this trivial garbage.

What do you mean there's less coverage of F2P games on here? I'm looking at 3 different ads right now for F2P games on this page alone. They might not review them or go in depth on what the game has to offer, but they come out so often it's gross.

There defiantly an marketing effort for Korean style F2P/RMT’s to break the ‘western’ market. I too mostly see this on this website, not in the gaming magazines or other gaming sites.

I am happy to see that F2P is heading to China rather than here, though I do feel some sympathy for the Chinese who have done nothing to deserve such a fate. :)

There is huge potential for free to play games, but it's quite sad to hear that Ys Online was a big budget title, because it has poor graphics, cookie cutter gameplay and a mindless grind. They've taken all the bad things from free to play games in the last five years and stuck them in one package with a name that some older gamers will recognise.

What a waste of a good budget.

  Korea is not a good place to measure how things will do in the west.  Sorry asian guy who pretends to know what he is talkin bout.  Different mentality different society.

  On a sidenote of budgets, it is very clear they spend most of that money on advertising heavily than the actual game. Last high budget title I know that actually looks like money went into it is Granado Espada.

There are no real trends in the F2P sector, the income model works for MMO clones; it follows the trends established by successful P2P games.

The reason why P2P sets the trends is that the return on investment starts at launch, even with a game that subsequently fails. Few investors would consider putting money into the development of an innovative game with a F2P business model when investment in a clone offers the predictable return.

Players (and Richard) may think that a particular F2P has been innovative, but that’s only because they haven’t been exposed to the source game.
 

I was surprised to see no mention of Three Rings' Puzzle Pirates or NCSoft's Exteel and Dungeon Runners as they've been around for a while.

The cool thing is that, as a result of this thread, I have now been introduced to Golemizer.  :) 

Originally posted by Airspell

  Korea is not a good place to measure how things will do in the west.  Sorry asian guy who pretends to know what he is talkin bout.  Different mentality different society.

 

  On a sidenote of budgets, it is very clear they spend most of that money on advertising heavily than the actual game. Last high budget title I know that actually looks like money went into it is Granado Espada.

That is not entirely true. Whilst in Korea free to play is a mainstream financial model for MMOs, in the west that will never happen, but that doesn't mean there isn't a massive market for it in the west.

What you need to do is seperate the financial model from the game genre. Most really successful free to play games in both Korea and the west are not actually MMOs, they are casual games, they are simple online games that do not offer the persistant world element that many of us believe is a core part of an MMO.

Unfortunately the point is going to be lost, mmorpg.com is not the place to promote free to play games whether they are MMOs or not. MMORPG.com's residents just aren't the right target demographic for the business model and as most veterans of a genre, are all more than a little jaded by their bad experiences and time spent in it.

I agree with most of the things the other posters are saying here:

1)  F2P's all seem to have similar lore, classes, artistic styling, etc.,...

2)  Grinders

3)  They are advertised to death, especially here at MMORPG.COM.

Most F2P games feel cheap to me... probably with good reason, tbh.  They feel 'fly by night', as if they might be here today but could pretty much disappear overnight.  I mean, without paying for something... it's as if they have less responsibility to me as a customer, afterall, I don't have a monthly contract/subscription with them.

The fact that these games are apparently paid for via RMT is the second major setback, imho.  When I log in, play, and finally get to a fairly high level... I realize that no matter how much more I play, I wil not compete with people that are willing to pay for items and such.

People pay for bag space, for special crafting components, for armor, for mounts, for weapons, for access to skills, and in some games higher levels.  They may even have access to dungeons/instances that players that don't pay will not have access to.

So, for me, RMT = remove my toon.... now. 

I really haven't seen a good quality F2P game out there.  I just haven't.  And for those that play them and enjoy them, great for you.  I'm glad you do enjoy them.  But I just can't get into them, tbh. 

Originally posted by BlackWatch

The fact that these games are apparently paid for via RMT is the second major setback, imho.  When I log in, play, and finally get to a fairly high level... I realize that no matter how much more I play, I wil not compete with people that are willing to pay for items and such.

Not completely accurate. Let us look at two games often mentioned as good F2P - Perfect World and Runes of Magic. In both of them, you can simply grind ingame currency and exchange it for cash-shop gold. This way the very idea of F2P games works perfectly - you either spend time OR money. So, if you do play "much more" you still can buy all that items that "pay customers" get for real money right away.

Originally posted by Mirandel

Originally posted by BlackWatch

The fact that these games are apparently paid for via RMT is the second major setback, imho.  When I log in, play, and finally get to a fairly high level... I realize that no matter how much more I play, I wil not compete with people that are willing to pay for items and such.

 

Not completely accurate. Let us look at two games often mentioned as good F2P - Perfect World and Runes of Magic. In both of them, you can simply grind ingame currency and exchange it for cash-shop gold. This way the very idea of F2P games works perfectly - you either spend time OR money. So, if you do play "much more" you still can buy all that items that "pay customers" get for real money right away.

Again, who wants to have to 'grind' like that?  Obviously there are 'grinds' of some type in nearly every game... I get that.  I would need to grind in most of these games anyway, then to have a secondary grind for currency just to exchange for RMT currency just to exchange for the items.... bah.

Well, the quest that is to move the mmo genre or even the whole game industry from something that is made for kids to something that is considered a respectable past time activity also for adults, gets a set-back in a way with the coming of the influence of these asian productions that are so clearly infantile in so many ways.

With that in mind, Aihoshi certainly got a lot of flack coming his way, as the responses to his blog entries clearly show.

That said, I think we should be able to consider the ftp model isolated from eg actual Korean titles and discuss to what degree if any, the business model in itself shapes the content and game mechanics of any mmo.

Granted, Aihoshi himself points to specific asian productions in this article, but I'm much more interested in an analysis of the ftp model as it could be applied to a game that was a solid production aimed at a much more critical playerbase.

Visibility? There is your column, and 90% of the ads from this website are for F2P games. I don't see a P2P column though.

And most of the budget from F2P games is focused on advertising the game and generating content around the endless money sinks, the bad RMT kind.

The F2P games depend on the new young gamers and they noticed it, you can't really tell someone that has been playing P2P for years that a game with an item mall is not risky to get addicted (the veteran gamer knows what addiction to a game is, and what it can force you to do) when they know it's pretty safe to pay $15 a month for unlimited enjoyment in that game.

One thing the western P2P MMOs lack, however, is the Pay-For-Hours model that is seen in Asia. Otherwise it gets too heavy on your budget to play multiple P2P MMOs at a same time.