Flying Lab recently announced that Pirates of the Burning Sea would be going free-to-play with the arrival of the next major patch cycle. The announcement generated a lot of questions and the team has taken time to answer some of them, though a lot of detail is still missing. It's a start and includes questions about what F2P means for the game, for individuals and what "Treasure Aisle" might encompass.

What I discussed above is what it means for PotBS to switch from a subscription-only to a free-to-play model, but I haven’t yet touched on why you should be looking forward to micro-transactions. Our in-game store is called Treasure Aisle and the main thing it will offer is availability.

No matter what port you are in, you now have goods available to you ranging from consumables and xp/loot/faction buffs to shoulder pets and clothing. We are even adding a number of new and unique items including follow pets and NPC allies for PvE content. We’ll be releasing more devlogs talking about some of these items in depth in the near future.

Read more here.

Yet another game that was circling the drain only to be kept on life support by a cash shop. I still enjoy the pro-PayToWin crowd saying F2P is betta than AAA P2P when, in fact, the only good thing PayToWin is good for is keeping games from the graveyard.

No, Other, Reason....

Well, that isn't always true.  Turbine used that strategy for D&DO, and it worked so well that they decided to follow the same model for a very successful subscription game, LOTRO.  I think you will see most games go this way, as it is more profitable in the long run.  Not WOW, because why mess with it, but I bet EVE does it soon.  It makes so much sense for their game, and their obsessive fanbase.  Essentially, going F2P with a store means the money going to gold farmers now goes to the publisher.

As much as I rather pay the monthly subscription rate over F2P, I see most games going to the latter.  People want the monthly fee games to be perfect at release and have evrything possible from the start and be bug free.  Lets be honest no game including WoW was even close to that at release and I don't see that happening ever!  To even come close the developer would need 5 years or so and no one is willing to pay for that much development time,  period!  So by going F2P the base seems more tolerant as they aren't paying the monthly fee and they can add material and bug fixes as they go.  We gamers (at least at this site) have become intolerant to any game we feel doesn't cater to our needs, release bug free, or hasn't got all the content and polish of WoW in its present state.  When the new release fails to meet those impossible standards, we take it as a personal affront, curse the game to eterinity and make sure it does a ugly death!  All in the quise that by doing so the next producer will make the perfect game.  Guess what not going to happen lol!

Cleary you guys have not actually read anything about the way in which FLS is going to implement this.  They clearly state that there are no ships, outfits, etc that can be bought in the shop that make a ship superior to one that can be obtained for free. 

It appears it is going to be things like quest packs, aesthetic items, loot/xp boosts, etc.  So in effect, this negates all "PlayToWin" arguments.

I really wish people would read up on the details of a games F2P model, and make informed counter arguments to it, instead of just screaming they don't like F2P and immediately assume this means it is going to be PlayToWin.

I myself like these models - I work, have a side-business, have other hobbies, a wife, etc that do no allow me to spend tons of hours gaming (though I wish I could!).  Therefore, this allows me to play when I want, and if I think I will have extra gaming time available, then I can purchase things that would suite me (additional quests, time-based XP boosts, etc).  I hope this brings a large influx of players to this game, as it was fun before, but just needed a slightly larger population - that and it will make the economy aspect that much better! 

Originally posted by Hardcoreksig

Cleary you guys have not actually read anything about the way in which FLS is going to implement this.  They clearly state that there are no ships, outfits, etc that can be bought in the shop that make a ship superior to one that can be obtained for free. 

It appears it is going to be things like quest packs, aesthetic items, loot/xp boosts, etc.  So in effect, this negates all "PlayToWin" arguments.

 

I really wish people would read up on the details of a games F2P model, and make informed counter arguments to it, instead of just screaming they don't like F2P and immediately assume this means it is going to be PlayToWin.

I myself like these models - I work, have a side-business, have other hobbies, a wife, etc that do no allow me to spend tons of hours gaming (though I wish I could!).  Therefore, this allows me to play when I want, and if I think I will have extra gaming time available, then I can purchase things that would suite me (additional quests, time-based XP boosts, etc).  I hope this brings a large influx of players to this game, as it was fun before, but just needed a slightly larger population - that and it will make the economy aspect that much better! 

Didn't Cryptic make similar promises, only to break them? I mean I hate to seem cynical here, but what's to stop the PoTBS guys promising this and forswearing that and then - one by one - breaking those promises and doing exactly that?

Originally posted by Malcanis

Originally posted by Hardcoreksig

Cleary you guys have not actually read anything about the way in which FLS is going to implement this.  They clearly state that there are no ships, outfits, etc that can be bought in the shop that make a ship superior to one that can be obtained for free. 

It appears it is going to be things like quest packs, aesthetic items, loot/xp boosts, etc.  So in effect, this negates all "PlayToWin" arguments.

 

I really wish people would read up on the details of a games F2P model, and make informed counter arguments to it, instead of just screaming they don't like F2P and immediately assume this means it is going to be PlayToWin.

I myself like these models - I work, have a side-business, have other hobbies, a wife, etc that do no allow me to spend tons of hours gaming (though I wish I could!).  Therefore, this allows me to play when I want, and if I think I will have extra gaming time available, then I can purchase things that would suite me (additional quests, time-based XP boosts, etc).  I hope this brings a large influx of players to this game, as it was fun before, but just needed a slightly larger population - that and it will make the economy aspect that much better! 

 

Didn't Cryptic make similar promises, only to break them? I mean I hate to seem cynical here, but what's to stop the PoTBS guys promising this and forswearing that and then - one by one - breaking those promises and doing exactly that?

 

Agreed - they could do that.  FLS always seems to do a pretty good job of really listening to the community and trying their best to implement suggestions, or finding the happy medium.  That being said I think (or at least hope) that if they do say they are going to make a change that leans more towards PlayToWin, that the community would express their concern and come up with alternatives, etc to dissuade FLS from implementing such items.

Here's to hoping anyway!

Cryptic has nothing game shattering on their store other than the refit ships and you get that in game on promotion.  All the rest is basically cosmedic.  I think most F2P games are shying away from the P2W models.

If they pull this off right I will go back to the game in a heartbeat. I enjoyed the ship combat and the robust economy a lot, I wouldnt mind playing it as a side distraction casually, just not willing to pay a sub (much).

The thing I find most entertaining is that the PayToWin crowd are generally new to the genre, or simply can't rational the price of a pizza/month to genuin quality.

The Facts About sustained online games:

-Servers cost money to keep up, this includes datacenters that are saving your character's stats in real time.

-Customer Service costs money to keep people on those phones, or behing the desk, willing to help YOU the "customer". Even if there isn't live support, the server hosting the call center's AI STILL requires upkeep.

-New content requires X number of developers to produce, and that yet again costs MONEY.

Nothing is EVER free, and neither are PayToWin games. The ENTIRE profitibility margin behind PayToWin games is that a MAJORITY of people are willing to fork out $XX.XX for an "edge" over other players. Developers of PayToWin games know this, and the ENTIRE emphasis behind games to souly survive off games with "Cash shops" is to create content for said shops that people will desire like dogs in heat. In today's market an MMO, PayToWin or not, is a BUSINESS. In a BUSINESS they are trying to make MONEY.

At the end of the day paying a fixed amount per month, that doesn't even equate to a pizza once a month, to play with EVERYONE ELSE on a level playing field will always trump PayToWin games. This is a fact, and the current "F2P" trend will die out in a couple years once players start learning the evil that runs them. Additionally, I don't forsee P2W games dieing out COMPLETELY, I think it may end up being some kind of hybrid business model that will be adapted for business flexibility in the future, but it will not maintain it's threat over the current MMO genre.

-Rj

Sooo I wonder if any other SOE games will be going F2P.... Hopefully SWG?

Originally posted by Erikmicheal

Sooo I wonder if any other SOE games will be going F2P.... Hopefully SWG?

Seems to be a trend with SOE atm doesn't it? From what I'm told, Lucas Arts denied SOE's request to turn SWG into a cash shop driven MMO.

Additionally, SOE is in talks right now behind closed doors to take EQ1 "PayToWin" with optional "Premium" subscription ($15/month) for all the best features of their cash shop.

Planetside, was denied PayToWin, as was Planetside:Next(#2). Cash shops just wouldn't work in that game, unless they added some sort of temp ultimate "cert" that allowed cross-empire weapon & vehicle use. This, of course, would defeat the entire purpose of the game and would go down in flames.

PS: I forgot to mention that they're waiting to see how EQ2X does with it's PayToWin model before making EQ1X.

Faded, what is your definition of PayToWin? I'm curious.

Any game souly focused around a Cash Shop in order to keep it's doors open. You might say to yourself "that's very short sighted of you Faded", however bear with me for a second. You must think of "Cash Shop" games as a business model. So, with that in mind, what does a business try to achieve? PROFIT! A business is there to do ONE thing for it's investors, or producers, and that is to make as much money as possible.

How does a P2W game, supported 100% via cash shop, make money then to become a successful business? Simple, they make items that people are interested in via their cash shop in order to produce results for them to have a successful business. Do you honestly think only "fluff" is good enough for a business to put inot a cash shop to make money? The simple answer, No. The long answer, is that "fluff" items are generally either a one time purchase, or a limited duration use item. The VAST majority of players will look at said fluff item and go "Nah, that won't really help me", and pass said fluff item up.

Using this mentality, we see that only WORTHWHILE items in a cash shop are REALLY the major focus of a Pay2Win cash shop. You could see this in P2W titles such as 9dragons (as for the longest time has been the most generally copied cash shop). 9 Dragons, in this example, had an item you could buy for XP increase for a month ($20 I believe it was?). The XP increase was so generous that people who purchased this large XP bonus would easily overtake non-cash shop buyers, and garnish that edge we see over another player in P2W titles.

Cash shops, no matter the circumstances, are there to make MONEY. In some AA titles (note the missing 3rd A) such as Champions Online know that their title isn't good enough to garnish them a LOT of players. What does Cryptic do? They add in a "fluff" cash shop in addition to their $15/month sub in order to rake in additional cash from people with extra cash to throw around. Now, you might go "but wait!!! none of that stuff is Pay2Win!!.....it's all fluff!!", and you'd be correct. Champions Online is NOT a P2W title, however they are still taking their legit subscriber's money in order to develope CONTENT that they've already paid for via a subscription, and then demanding X amount of ADDITIONAL money in order to obtain already paid for content. Most, if not ALL, content in Champions Online's Cash shop (note: I said MOST) is NOT obtainable by normal means, such as questing or lootable. Although Champions Online is NOT a Pay2Win title, it is still a disgusting way to do business.

Hope I answered your question :)!

So many companies promise not to implement "overpowered" items. My favorite example is MapleStory: before and in early stages of the Cash Shop, MapleStory was a pretty amazing game with a good community. When "Pay-to-Win" was released, MapleStory was flooded by children and general a**holes.

The only company to successfully be "F2P" long term is Guild Wars, but that has 3 campaigns (and 1 expansion and 1 bonus pack) as well as aesthetic options. I've no doubt NCSoft makes enough money off Guild Wars.

Note: DDO hasn't been F2P for an incredibly long time. MapleStory under Wizet and early Nexon lasted a year and a half or so (where there was no Pay-to-Win) but were never Pay-to-Play. DDO has been F2P for only a year and were P2P before, which means Turbine isn't running out of money soon.

LOL i guess this means I will finally get to sail the ships i made for them :-)