Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Would you pay for extras in a F2P WoW?
by Josh Rose 
Nov 11th 2010 at 8:00AM
Lord of the Rings Online went free-to-play. "Free" is a questionable term, since they charge you for a fee for features you can technically live without but are still fairly important; things such as the gold cap, the ability to gain rested XP, and certain instances and PvP options require a fee. You get an enhanced version slightly above a trial, but you are still limited in what you can do in the free-to-play version of the game.
While playing a game, I want to play the whole game, have the entire experience, and not feel as if I have been shortchanged by being on a limited version. Personally having purchased some of the Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age DLC, I would still have to pay for the added functionality. Not being able to fully advance my character and see large amounts of content would irritate me more than the cost would. Not being allowed to make use of content would make me feel like I was missing out.
I want the choice of whether or not I do this instance, raid, or battleground. Could you imagine attempting to zone into Icecrown Citadel and seeing a message that says, "Requires a V.I.P. membership"? WoW has sold us a few items for extra money that are not required, but not having a Lil' XT or a sparkle pony doesn't affect your game functionality.
LOTRO offers things like more bag spaces and removing the gold cap and even priority login for those with V.I.P. accounts. So if World of Warcraft decided to follow the LOTRO model and go semi-free-to-play, would you just play the free portion? Would you pay for the V.I.P. portion? Would you buy the other nickel and dime upgrades they have on top of that? Or would you quit WoW altogether, feeling as if Blizzard had shortchanged players by making us pay for things like bag space, PvP and raid availability?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 9)
Grovinofdarkhour Nov 11th 2010 11:12AM
@ Bionic Radd
The idea that everything would stay the same is brutally incorrect. You'd keep paying $15/month for an environment that would now include a massive influx of people who only showed up because it was free - in large part gold sellers, "powerleveling services" and assorted scam artists - who couldn't give a rat's ass that their appearance just destroyed an experience that you thought would be sacred if you agreed to keep paying for it.
Rodrigo Nov 11th 2010 8:08AM
Haha for those that paid the "lifelong subscription" that LORTO had^^
SunGod228 Nov 11th 2010 8:24AM
They are still offering this for unlimited access. Otherwise you have to fees to keep things unlocked.
Leroy Nov 11th 2010 8:26AM
The lifetime people are still getting value from their investment. They receive the highest tier membership (essentially a subscription) that gives them access to everything and points to spend in the store for perks.
Bionic Radd Nov 11th 2010 8:28AM
Educate yourself before you run your mouth. You just look as ignorant as you obviously are.
Urza Nov 11th 2010 8:51AM
And how many times have you paid your monthly subscription? I'd venture you've paid a lot more for WoW then the life long crowd has for LOTRO.
Ste Nov 11th 2010 9:09AM
Why was Bionic Radd voted down? Pretty sure he was responding to Rodrigo (and therefore what he had to say was apt).
dwarfish Nov 11th 2010 9:30AM
I believe the reason he got voted down was for the personal insult. Disagree with opinions as much as you like but when you start flinging insults you lose all respect.
Bionic I am disappointed. I enjoyed your reply to Nathaniel which was an informed intelligent comment, but to then completely blow away any respect with a cheap shot about someones photo - sad.
Big Shoe Nov 11th 2010 9:33AM
LotRO offers a lifetime sub for less than the cost of 14 months of WoW. That sub continues to offer terrific value, as lifetime subscribers get most every perk the game offers and then some, including a monthly stipend of points to buy extras. Every LotRO expansion also includes a month of game time, a nice bonus that the greedy bean counters at Blizzard would never consider giving to their "valued customers." Both games have their pros and cons, and in the end, it's a matter of preference, but a player can easily enjoy both rather than making apples to oranges comparisons.
Eberron Nov 11th 2010 9:48AM
@Urza
Oh gawds yes when you put it that way it makes WoW look like highway robbery.
Deal Blizzard: WTB lifelong wow sub for $120 bucks.
zach.l Nov 11th 2010 8:09AM
TBH i would just carry on paying but if they charged the V.I.P more money then the norm subscription i would jst leave the game...i dont think that the subscription based model is bad at all but if they gave somebody who didnt pay the same rites as some 1 who pays e.g allowed to go in all the heroics and raids and stuff like that it just wont be fair for a V.I.P person
Josin Nov 11th 2010 8:09AM
Safe to say, I'd be done.
Hal Nov 11th 2010 8:12AM
I think I would require a few things:
-Forewarning of what content is premium
-Pricing that doesn't exceed what a normal subscription model would cost
-Pricing that wouldn't have us completely subsidizing the players who don't buy said content
Probably packaging of content would be better as well. Let's say Blizzard would sell specific raids or instances. Finding groups for those instances would instantly become more difficult; I'm thinking along the lines of finding groups for the BC Caverns of Time dungeons. What if your 10m raid couldn't go on because one guildy hadn't bought access yet? What if a dungeon is unpopular, and thus unpurchased, but has gear you need to move forward?
Candina@WH Nov 11th 2010 8:39AM
Here is a scenario.
Free play, pay to raid. All leveling content, crafting, dungeons, heroics, etc are part of the game 'out of the box'[you still pay for the game, i.e. $38 for Cata].
But raiding content is by subscription only.
This would keep the casuals playing and buying upgrades. And the raiders paying for the additional content that raiding requires.
And perhaps another split. Arena combat as a separate tier.
To recap;
Base Game: Free to Play
Arena PVP: Either subscription or one time per expansion fee
Raiding: Monthly Subscription [would include Areana PVP also].
That is how the game basically breaks out now. You wouldn't include BGs in the Arena subscription, because you want players to experience that play style, get hooked and pay for the Arena aspect. You might include RATED BGs in the premium PVP experience tho'. Same logic applies to why you include heroics in the base game -- to give the players a taste of the upper tier gear.
And as far as Nickle/Dime fees... I'd pay $$ to convert my personal bank to the capacity of a guild bank.... or something like 40 slot 'bank only' bags... for the love of god, I need someplace to stash all these tabards....
Leroy Nov 11th 2010 9:25AM
@Candina: And what would be Blizzard's motivation to do that? If they can currently get raiders AND casuals to pay monthly/buy expacs, why would they turn around and give it to casuals for free?
Candina@WH Nov 11th 2010 10:07AM
@Leroy,
I agree. I didnt' say it made sense for Blizzard today.
but if they saw their subscriber base dropping. Or their next expansion doesn't fly off the shelves... etc.
The business model I outlined makes more sense for a new game, rather than an established, successful game.
Vogie Nov 11th 2010 10:10AM
I think it could really work. But only if Blizzard is going sacrifice profits. Which I doubt would happen.
Because the only way that F2P WoW would work is something like League of Legends - all of the content is gated based on amount time you play on your account (called Level Points or LP), and the ability to buy Blizzard points (BP) for vanity items, different personalizations options, as well as noncombat bonuses. The closest thing WoW had to such a system is the now-scrapped Path of the Titans.
Level Points would be different than the current badge-point system as they would effect your account, not just your character. They're points for simply playing the game.
For wow, that would be all content would be gated by something other than just gear. You'd gain LP as you level, additional points for participating in Dungeons & Battlegrounds. As a secondary attunement process, you'd probably get some introductory raids & heroics for free, then the ability to unlock later tier heroic dungeons & raids for LP. The only reason you wouldn't be able to get into newer content is because you didn't do older content... kinda like it is already.
You could also burn you LP for nice-but-not-necessary items - Old gear (2-3 tier levels below current badge gear), reskinned mounts, buffs to secondary professions, and Farmed materials.
On the IRL $$ side, purchasing Blizzard Points could get you subtle, non-combat bonuses. Additional XP for alts, re-skin items of old season tier gear (one-button, and you're in Pally tier 2 or warlock tier 5), bonuses for profession-leveling, double-honor days, and whatnot, in addition to the things they're already selling - companions, mounts, and the TCG card bonuses, which are technically microtransactions in themselves, just not to Blizzard. The other thing that you can use BP to buy is LP, so if you're away from the game for a period of time and quickly run out of LP to unlock things like the new heroics, you can just buy what you need to gear.
It could work. But right now, Blizzard has a $12-$15 monthly tax on a playerbase larger than some sovereign nations. So they probably won't go that way, because the F2P or "Freemium" system is based on getting people who wouldn't pay for the game to play it, and then pay what they want to for what they want when they find 'hey, I enjoy this'.
Until WoW takes an unexpected nosedive, it will most likely not happen.
thegatherer Nov 11th 2010 8:12AM
All the MMOs that have gone F2P that I have seen were either trying to keep going (losing players due to either bad game play lack of players). I do not see WoW going F2P any time soon. But if it does go that way any time soon, it would only be for a limited number of realms.
As for the questions presented here, I would likely find a different game that either started as free to play (similar to Guild Wars) or find something else to occupy my time.
Elrandir Nov 11th 2010 8:13AM
This "free to play" sounds expensive lol.
onetrueping Nov 11th 2010 8:34AM
Let's see here. A WoW subscription costs $15 a month for access, and assuming you started playing when the game came out, you've paid something like $130 (minimum) in one-time fees for the software itself. Then there are the current perks, like realm transfers, name changing, race changing, etc.
That's about six years of playtime, at about $180 a year, for a total in fees of (approximately) $1080 to date. Add the one-time fees, and that comes to $1210, with a still-continuing recurring cost of $15 a month.
To permanently unlock everything up to the point where the game went F2P in LotRO, you paid $200 (plus the one-time fees for the game and expansion, assume another 90 dollars or so). All the content you paid for you can still play for free, but you still have to buy the new content as it is released. OR, you start from a F2P account and pay the one-time unlocking fees for each feature you actually want to pay for, while ignoring the rest.
Yeah, that F2P game sounds really expensive.
--------
Of course, this was a purely economic argument, and doesn't take into account things like the quality of the game and/or gameplay, the quality of the community, and the like, all of which are subjective matters. But, if WoW went F2P, where you kept everything you had before it went F2P, could continue to play as if it weren't F2P, and could instead opt to not pay recurring fees for a few months if times were tough but still play your characters? Yeah, I'd probably play that. Because, in a well-designed F2P model (and let's face it, if there's one thing Blizzard is GENERALLY good at, it's design), you keep what you pay for.