Then the question becomes, is the sub based gaming not profitable enough to keep the game running OR are the game designers afflicted by "greed creep" and only care about money and not a decent game?
It's actually both but lately it's all greed creep. They've already said all their decisions are based on metrics which is just another way of saying "will this make us money?
If you want more you have to buy their ever increasing number of expansion packs (10 Euros/Dollars each) or subscribe. Me and my friends quit because of that.
Do they put them on sale? Because I know I have the Green Lantern and Flash ones, and I could have sworn I got them for five bucks each? Maybe it was from a sale? I haven't played it in quite some time.
I played DCUO along with some friends until we hit the endgame. If anyone thinks STOs endgame grind is horrible I dare him to test DCUO. It's a ******n nightmare.
Furthermore I don't like their model of splitting up their playerbase. As F2P you are stuck with a tiny number of endgame missions. If you want more you have to buy their ever increasing number of expansion packs (10 Euros/Dollars each) or subscribe. Me and my friends quit because of that.
Their Open World PvP Server is pretty cool though. I wish STO had something like that.
I quit DCUO not because of that, but because of their account server getting TRIBBLE, and my not being able to login again... ever, despite trying to contact customer support.
It would appear to be the first one. The sub based model gives you a restricted audience simply because loads of people will never even think about playing the game if they have to pay first.
Didn't WoW go F2P? :P
EVE is a sub game and is still going strong. Though that makes two. All the others I have been involved in have gone freemium like STO, LoTRO, DDO, SWTOR, Rift, hmm I wonder if it is my fault:eek:. It's obvioulsy a profitable model and it keeps those games alive. The only other game I played has shut down for good.
I started playing STO at the end of Jan 2014 because it was F2P without many restrictions. Which is nice because that meant tryout the game at not cost. If I liked it, then great, I would continue to play. If I didn't like it, then... DELETE...
Although I has initially grinded dilithium to convert to Zen to buy Doff Slots for both my Fed and KDF toon, I recently decided to support Cryptic through buying Zen with real cash over the weekend. I didn't buy a new starship or an "exclusive" BOff, I simply bought additional DOff slots and the EC cap remover (... at least until you get to 1 billion ECs).
I'm not here to tell you that this game isn't Pay-to-Win, I'm not even upset or annoyed at all the anti Pay-to-Win talk. What I'm here to tell you is that this game is very pay-to-win, and it makes total sense.
The truth is that a lot of people whining (and no, I'm not whining about other people whining, I'm just simply making an attempt to hit people with the reality stick, I can ignore whiners, they don't bother me) don't seem to understand that us Pay-to-Win players use real world cash to pay for the things we have. We use hard earned cash that we work for, so when we say "You can grind for dilithium and trade it for z-points" the appropriate answer isn't something along the lines of "It's not fair that we have to work for those same items!"
You don't work for those items, playing a video game for tons of hours isn't work unless you're a game tester and even if you do play this game to test for bugs and what-not, it's still not work because you're not pinned with that responsibility by a supervisor - You're simply testing a game because you feel like it, there's no pressure.
Again, I'm not upset and I'm not looking to upset or argue with anyone, you can take this however you want. I'm simply trying to offer some people some perspective of why paying SHOULD be advantageous.
I get my rear end handed to me by Jemmy ships in PvP all the time, it does get frustrated, but I'm sure that person used real world money that they truly worked for to get that ship - I didn't nor do I choose to because I'm rather comfortable in my Avenger.
Bottom line: You can play this game 100% for free, we didn't have things like this about ten years ago - Maybe you should be grateful enough for something like that.
If I paid for something that was only cosmetic and I found no difference in the performance of said items, ship, etc. than the stuff I could simply get for free I wouldn't pay for it. And no offense, and I'm sure this will upset a lot of people and make me sound very arrogant - Players like me are more important than players like you.
I can't stress enough that I'm not upset, I just thought maybe this would make some people feel a little more comfortable with how this game is set up as far as the cash shop setup goes.
couldn't agree more most people seem to feel this forum is somewhere to vent their frustrations
Do they put them on sale? Because I know I have the Green Lantern and Flash ones, and I could have sworn I got them for five bucks each? Maybe it was from a sale? I haven't played it in quite some time.
You probably paid 10 for the one for the lightning (Flash) and got Fight for the Light (Green Lantern) for free. They gave that one away free as part of their make good offer for being TRIBBLE.
They do have a pack for 30 dollars but one of the four included is Fight for the Light which again was free as part of the make good so anyone who logged in when their servers came back up already has that one. And looking now it seems they stopped selling the 4 pack which the Flash one was the second of the four so you really wouldn't have done that 30 dollars.
___________________
"There is no problem in the universe that can't be solved with a bribe, a paid assassin, or an overpowered fighter." - Chubain from Jumpgate Evolution
I started playing STO at the end of Jan 2014 because it was F2P without many restrictions. Which is nice because that meant tryout the game at not cost. If I liked it, then great, I would continue to play. If I didn't like it, then... DELETE...
Although I has initially grinded dilithium to convert to Zen to buy Doff Slots for both my Fed and KDF toon, I recently decided to support Cryptic through buying Zen with real cash over the weekend. I didn't buy a new starship or an "exclusive" BOff, I simply bought additional DOff slots and the EC cap remover (... at least until you get to 1 billion ECs).
That is what i did the first 2 months i started playing. Buying some stuff every month, to "support" cryptic.
But i stop doing that a few months ago. Because i considered that the game is bugged enough to not give cryptic a cent anymore. They dont deserve my money. Not until they do their job and fix 75% of the bugs around the game. If they think, they are doing their job just releasing new content every 3 months, and forgetting about everything else, they are mistaken. Too bad they will never realize since there are a lot of players that keep giving real money to em.
After 2 months, i realized that in fact, i dont need to spend real money on the game. Just to have a little patience. So, i play the game slowly with patience, saving zen every day and buying things only with that saved zen.
If one day cryptic changes, i will support them, but until then, they are lucky that the theme of the game is star trek. If not, i dont think so many people will be playing it lol.
Comments
It's actually both but lately it's all greed creep. They've already said all their decisions are based on metrics which is just another way of saying "will this make us money?
Do they put them on sale? Because I know I have the Green Lantern and Flash ones, and I could have sworn I got them for five bucks each? Maybe it was from a sale? I haven't played it in quite some time.
My character Tsin'xing
EVE is a sub game and is still going strong. Though that makes two. All the others I have been involved in have gone freemium like STO, LoTRO, DDO, SWTOR, Rift, hmm I wonder if it is my fault:eek:. It's obvioulsy a profitable model and it keeps those games alive. The only other game I played has shut down for good.
Nope they have changed that to a starter account. It has all the restrictions of the old trial but it never ends.
Now that is a lie. Battlechest gets you everything upto Cata, then you need to buy MOP.
Although I has initially grinded dilithium to convert to Zen to buy Doff Slots for both my Fed and KDF toon, I recently decided to support Cryptic through buying Zen with real cash over the weekend. I didn't buy a new starship or an "exclusive" BOff, I simply bought additional DOff slots and the EC cap remover (... at least until you get to 1 billion ECs).
couldn't agree more most people seem to feel this forum is somewhere to vent their frustrations
You probably paid 10 for the one for the lightning (Flash) and got Fight for the Light (Green Lantern) for free. They gave that one away free as part of their make good offer for being TRIBBLE.
They do have a pack for 30 dollars but one of the four included is Fight for the Light which again was free as part of the make good so anyone who logged in when their servers came back up already has that one. And looking now it seems they stopped selling the 4 pack which the Flash one was the second of the four so you really wouldn't have done that 30 dollars.
"There is no problem in the universe that can't be solved with a bribe, a paid assassin, or an overpowered fighter." - Chubain from Jumpgate Evolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3RNsZvdYZQ
"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. It's got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it."
That is what i did the first 2 months i started playing. Buying some stuff every month, to "support" cryptic.
But i stop doing that a few months ago. Because i considered that the game is bugged enough to not give cryptic a cent anymore. They dont deserve my money. Not until they do their job and fix 75% of the bugs around the game. If they think, they are doing their job just releasing new content every 3 months, and forgetting about everything else, they are mistaken. Too bad they will never realize since there are a lot of players that keep giving real money to em.
After 2 months, i realized that in fact, i dont need to spend real money on the game. Just to have a little patience. So, i play the game slowly with patience, saving zen every day and buying things only with that saved zen.
If one day cryptic changes, i will support them, but until then, they are lucky that the theme of the game is star trek. If not, i dont think so many people will be playing it lol.