Elder Scrolls Online and Rumors of a move to FTP

Cryyo

Cryyo

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6 month subscribers have been terminated, and everyone is talking about this game going free to play. What do you want to see NOT happen when the game turns free to play (if it does)? I worry about microtransactions as a subscriber myself. But a large surge of new players could be welcome. Thoughts?
 
Microtransaction is the general worry when something goes f2p. I'm surprised ESO made it this long without going F2P to be honest, so I don't know what they could put behind a paywall if they do go f2p.
 
It's been a while coming because of the fact that the game didn't live up to what it promised. I don't mind micro transactions as long as they take the GW2 approach with lots of vanity items and account enhancements such as more bank slots, character slots, exp boosters for leveling, ect. Also the ability to exchange in game currency for the store bought one that way both parties benefit. It's when they do pay to win kind of stuff that makes me not want to play a game.
 
A move to FTP would almost certainly spell microtransactions, how else would they make money? The closest and least damaging model I could think of would be like Wildstar or Runescape, where you can buy ingame premium game time for either virtual currency or real money.
 
Oh man, I'd love it if they made it F2P. I'd actually give it a shot then.
I tried the beta a little bit but didn't think it was all that impressive. Not bad... but not impressive at all. Not enough to drag me into another MMORPG (which is really hard to do to me).

I hope they don't ruin it and make it pay2win though.
 
I'm not worried there are rumors of ESO going F2P. It was a mess at launch and it was obvious back then that it won't be a success. All they can do now is damage control, which is actually sad, because I hoped it would be a decent game.
 
They can go two ways... SWTOR and the worst possible implementation of F2P where you continually feel choked by not spending money.. or DDO where you get to play the game for a long time completely free, learn to love it, and then pay money for extra content, or new classes or races.
 
Theres a number of ways they could go F2P. As mentioned above they could offer it "free" with limitations like STWOR and Runescape. This will get a few people to try the game, along long term it will depend on the limitations and what the playerbase steer to.
The other way of course is microtransactions. We have all played the Korean MMO style games where you can pretty much level up with $$$. Someone mentioned GW2 Model, which I feel is pay to win due to the options to buy gold and items needed to make certain weapons/armor. However the majority of GW2 cash shop is based on cosmetic items. Path of exile is a game where they charge only for cosmetics and custom servers, which has no pay to win at all. The problem is that is most passive and for a large team won't be viable.

I think ESO will look at games such as PS2 and focus on time saver and cosmetic items. The issue will be converting the subscribers to cash shop, so they may keep the subscription and provide them with cash shop bonuses or something.
 
DDO does it the best, they give you a leveling path from lvl 1 to endgame, but that path is very narrow. Some f2p players will be happy to do it a second or third time with alts, but most people will want to explore sideways a bit, so they will be content packs that allow them to skip the f2p straight path and do alternative leveling instead.

SWTOR feels horrible. It took me only a few hours in that game to realize that the game would be unfun unless I spent money.
 
I think this will be a really great thing. Elder Scrolls is one of those games that can scare a lot of people off, especially when they learn how involved you can get with the game. I think making it FTP would draw a lot of people to the game that would look the other way otherwise.
 
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