5 Reasons Why Final Fantasy 14 Will go Free to Play
As many of us already know, Final Fantasy 14 had a bit of a disastrous launch. The pay to play MMORPG from Square Enix, which released in late September 2010, received largely negative reviews across the board, with an average aggregate score of 48.64% on GameRankings (as of this writing). I personally had a chance to play FF14 in its beta testing phase and aside from a terrible interface, I was largely impressed with what the game had to offer. The purpose of this piece is not to bash on Final Fantasy 14, as I personally think the game has a lot of potential, but to explore the possibility of the game relaunching as a free to play title. I personally think it’s not only possible, but likely in the future. Why do I think Final Fantasy 14 will be free to play? Read on.
Final Fantasy 14 – Gorgeous Graphics
#1 Free to play would Revive the Playerbase
Although Square Enix hasn’t officially released any subscription numbers for the game, it’s easy to estimate the game’s popularity by simply looking at the total number of players online at any given time. Looking at these figures, it’s easy to notice that fewer players have been logging into the game since release. On October 4, 2010 Final Fantasy 14 had about 43,000 players online at once across all of its servers. On October 25 it only had 36,345 players online. For a game that just launched, these numbers are incredibly disappointing. One easy way for Square Enix to turn these numbers around would be to drop the monthly subscription fee and embrace free to play. Players who bought the game could be compensated with premium credit in the game’s new cash shop. Going free to play would act as a much needed phoenix down for the declining playerbase.
Final Fantasy 14 Players Online in October
#2 Free to play would Increase Revenue
Pay to play games dropping their subscription fees isn’t exactly a new concept. Dungeons and Dragons Online originally released back in Feb 2006 as a pay to play MMORPG, but relaunched as a free to play game three years later. Since going free to play Dungeons and Dragons enjoyed a huge surge in playerbase and their revenues increased over 500%. Since The Lord of the Rings Online dropped their subscription fee, their total concurrent players increase 300% with total active players surging over 400%. Revenues for the game also doubled since going free to play. These are just two exmaples of pay to play games going free to play; there are many more. By dropping its subscription fee, Final Fantasy 14 would not only increase revenues, but also reach a much larger audience the same way The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online did.
The Lord of the Rings Online Enjoyed a 300% Increase in Playerbase Once Going F2P
#3 Players are Upset with the Current State of the Game
As is, many Final Fantasy 14 players are upset with the current state of the game. This doesn’t mean the game can’t change later, but those extremely frustrated with the game today will likely quit, and getting those interesting in the game to give it a second try later in the future could prove to be difficult. Final Fantasy 14 has a lot to offer, but many players don’t want to pay monthly given the current state of the game. Realizing that players are upset, Square Enix extended the free month of playtime that came with the game from 30 days to 60 days, meaning Square Enix hasn’t even collected a dime of subscription revenues as of Nov 10. What’s going to happen when players are asked to fork over $14.99 a month to continue playing? Going free to play would give players an incentive to stick around while Square Enix adds new content and irons out all of the bugs.
Final Fantasy 14 Has Beautiful Graphics but limited content and numerous bugs
#4 Japanese Developers Aren’t New to Free to Play
Even though most free to play MMORPGs today are either from China or South Korea, Japanese game developers aren’t new to the concept. Uncharted Waters Online is a successful Japanese developed free to play MMORPG available on both the PC and PS3. The game has proven to be a success in Japan and launched in English on the Netmarble portal in late 2010. The game is available in the West only on the PC, the PS3 version is Japan only. Techmo Koei, the Japanese developer behind the Dynasty Warriors franchise recently launched Dynasty Warriors Online as a free to play game world-wide through Aeria Games. The game has been available in Japan since the middle of 2006. If Final Fantasy 14 did go free to play, it most certainly would not be the first Japanese developed free to play MMORPG.
Dynasty Warriors Online – A Free to Play Japanese Developed MMORPG
#5 Free to Play is the Future
Let’s face it – free to play is the future of MMOGs. New free to play MMOs and MMORPGs are launching each and every month, with many of them being extremely high quality games. On top of this, more and more pay to play MMORPGs are dropping their subscription fees. Sony Online Entertainment already released a free to play version of EverQuest 2 while Pirates of the Burning Sea and Champions Online announced that they would be going free to play in early 2011. North America has always been the biggest market for subscription based games, but with so many of these games in dropping their subscription fees, it will be difficult for Final Fantasy 14 to justify its fee.
Pirates of the Burning Sea is Dropping its Subscription Fee
Final Fantasy 14 is an interesting game with a lot to offer. As a big fan of Final Fantasy franchise, FF14 is a game I would personally try getting into if it went go free to play. What are you thoughts on Final Fantasy 14? Would you consider playing it if were to goes free to play? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
November 24, 2010
#
Have everyone forgotten about ‘dofus’, yeah that 2D MMO. I personally think that EVERY MMO shuld copy what dofus does which is there a specific amount you have to pay to subscribe to the game depending on the duration of subscripton and you can pay it anytime. not paying to the game meaning you are not subscribed and there will be some services in the game locked.
In Dofus, no matter how rich you are in real life, you still can be poor in the game, because every part of this game requires skill, yeah skill to make money, skill to win in a battle and skill to socialize in this game.
now back to FFXIV, I honestly think that F2P is bad because of its overpowered cash shop and i think everyone think the same. while P2P games is bad becuase you need to pay the same specific amount/month no matter how long you play in that month. sorry i just repeating the same thing. Now i suggest that FFXIV should follow what dofus does, becoming FREE 2 PLAY WHILE YOU STILL CAN PAY TO PLAY. and you can pay it casually depending on when you want to play.
this will solve the problem what happened both in F2P and P2P games. that means FFXIV players need todepend 100% towards the ingame currency while they still need to pay to be a subscriber. So that means NO CASH SHOP AND NO MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION. pay whenever you want to play….
and it has been proven will still bring many playerbase towards the game, In France only there is estimated almost 10 MILLION ppl playing dofus…. check wikipedia if you dont believe me….
last but not least, SE has produced many great games. and i hope FFXIV will become one of those …
END
November 30, 2010
#1
hazimondo if most mmorpgs went like dofus it well be terridle dofus only has like 10% for free to play players and mmorpgs shoucd never copys off dofus ways
November 30, 2010
#2
Dofus isn’t free to play. Dofus is on our free trials section for a reason =p
December 2, 2010
#3
i never said dofus is free to play, you can play for free, but there is some services locked. but everybody pays the same amount to get 100% of dofus. not like any item shopped based game… you still can play dofus without paying a cent if you want too.
December 2, 2010
#4
ok i know dofous is in the free trials but im saying 95% off mmorpgs are free to play or like runescape have some stuff for free players and have all of it for pay to player members
December 2, 2010
#5
Runescape is on exception, 95% is a stretch. Wizard101 does the same thing, but 95%+ of free to play games give FREE users access to ALL of the game’s content and make money by selling exp scrolls / convenience items.
December 2, 2010
#6
so what are you suggestin, all game to become “item shopped” based, so that ppl with a lot of money can pwned anyone who spend less than him.. is that what you suggestin, or all mmo should become 100% P2P and you have to pay monthly eventhough you only play for 1 hour in that month? what are you suggestin else? real gamers play with skills more than they play with money
March 8, 2012
#7
Not to bash on anyone here, but I play games such as 9 Dragons which is Shop based, and I have seen MANY people who buy stuff in shops get owned by 100% free players… While ti does offer a handy advantage, it doesn’t always mean that it will in the long run. Also, people who earn their things by themselves, opposed to getting boosts from shops hold more value and know how things work more. I am sorry if this made little sense, it did in my head…
March 8, 2012
#8
Not to mention the fact that i bought my copy of the game for $50 at a store, why the hell would I have to pay more money on a monthly basis?
November 27, 2010
#9
Unfortunately for Square Enix, transitioning this game to free to play isn’t going to save it. Going free to play is not the last resort guaranteed win to save your game. They will have to learn the same lesson quite a few American mmorpg developers have had to learn the hard way. If you release a game that is not ready for release, it is going to initiate a chain of events that will lead to failure. When a game like this releases with no real content, people become bored and disgusted and decide to leave saying: “I’ll check back in a few months and see if it’s better.”
The problem with that is people leave and when they come back to see how the game is doing they find out the population is incredibly low and most people that are still playing are the ones that stuck around and are now at the level cap. So who wants to play an mmorpg that feels like a single player game. Very few. So the game just slowly dies. This is what will happen with this game.
They have given us 2 additional free months of play time and yet the population continues to dwindle. It’s obvious why if anyone has actually played the game. It lacks content and all that we have seen so far in patches are tweaks to things that should have been polished at release, like the faster UI that came with this recent update. We still have no content, and the content that is scheduled to be released next month is quite slim from what they’ve revealed. Perhaps there might be more waiting for us than what they’ve shown. I doubt it. This game had five years of development and millions of dollars to finance it.
Instead of a beautiful polished game with enjoyable content, we’ve been handed an empty shell with some pretty graphics. No depth. So if five years of development and millions of dollars resulted in this poor excuse for an mmorpg, what exactly can be expected in a year? Financially they (Square Enix) is hurting in regards to this game. It’s the reason it was released early. Too early. Which is the undoing of an mmorpg.
If this game goes free to play it’s not going to help it. The PC requirements alone will discourage a large amount of free to play gamers. The lack of content will as well. This game has less content than probably any Korean grinder you can find on this site, even the really, really, bad ones.
November 27, 2010
#10
Free to play shouldn’t be look at as a last resort. LORTRO didn’t go free to play as a “last resort” and since going F2P increased its playerbase by over 300% and monthly revenues by more than 200%. Also I agree with many of your criticisms about the game, I just didn’t like how you worded the “last resort” bit. I think the game sort of shot itself on the foot by making itself so demanding on the PC. Only like 10% of gamers can even play FF14 even if they wanted to because of the requirements.
November 28, 2010
#11
My point was this game isn’t going to do well even as a free to play. Square Enix has said they don’t want this game to go free to play. That would be a last resort wouldn’t it? I think you took my comment and inferred something that wasn’t intended.
November 28, 2010
#12
Well you did say that the game could go free to play as a last resort, but I don’t think they need to do it as a last resort. I think regardless of the game’s current status and prospects, the game would do BETTER as a free to play game than as a pay to play game.
November 29, 2010
#13
I beleive FF14 will go F2P i think the game that really started all this F2P was Guild Wars it was succesfull evan the 2nd on is going F2P i beleive there will be alot of F2P games in the future years to come.
December 13, 2010
#14
Guild Wars isn’t free to play. It’s buy to play. B2P. You gotta buy the box (client) in order to play it. So no… GW didn’t start the f2p movement. It was probably some Asian game company.
November 29, 2010
#15
Let us review:
1.) Lack of content. Self-explanatory.
2.) Major patches consist of tweaks. Self-explanatory.
3.) Still no content. Self-explanatory.
4.) Horrible UI. I appreciate something that requires a little intelligence, (I.E. something that’s more difficult than WoW’s toddler friendly UI.) however I’m not looking to rack my brain just to remember how to exit the game.
5.) F2P isn’t terrible. So far, Vindictus has kept it’s CS to a minimal gain. Nothing that would be of major notice in P2P etc. and we all know how Nexon loves their money. As long as they stay away from game breaking items like PWE’s Perfect World International, then we’ll be ok.
6) F2P doesn’t mean that the items have to be game breaking. They could simply allow ease of leveling etc. Exp scrolls etc. But nothing to really give one an advantage over the playerbase.
7.) Blizzard has hinted at going F2P after the release of Cataclysm. So it’s not impossible.
8.) Going F2P will not save FF XIV.
9.) FF XIV doesn’t really tax the common gamer’s PC. Most gamers who are willing to pay a subscription (not have their mother pay for it) have decent PCs. Most of my acquaintances (be it co-workers or friends) have computers that could easily run FF XIV and most of them aren’t into HQ, HD, or even gaming. The common gamer now-a-days runs a 3.0 GHz processor or better, with atleast 6 GB of DDR2 or better, and a 4800 series radeon or 9000-200 series Nvidia, which again can all easily handle FF XIV. Vindictus’ specs are higher than FF XIV if I’m not mistaken.
10.) The closest thing to a respectable game that Square Enix has made since the merger is Kingdom Hearts, unfortunately. I miss games likes FF 5-9.
Summary: Square died 7 years ago. Enix is the Anti-Christ. MMOs are a dying breed. The Final Fantasy we all know and love is a thing of the past. Today’s games are more about flashy graphics and less about quality, content, and re-play value. Hand me a Emulator and a copy of Anthologies or Legend of Dragoon and I’ll play it any day over the crap Square Enix is attempting to whore out.
December 13, 2010
#16
I love how you guys like to recruit pay to play games into your free to play collection. Okay, Blizzard has said before that they will release one 5 lvl expansion every year. So tell me now how they have changed their mind and (I quote): “Blizzard has hinted at going F2P after the release of Cataclysm. So it’s not impossible.”
Since Cata is the first 5 lvl xpac I really don’t see how they would waste their time with free to play when they can make more money off of subs. Sorry guys. I know free to play gamers love to get our sloppy seconds but Blizz isn’t going free to play until Blizz kills it’s own titan MMORPG WoW.
November 30, 2010
#17
I agree totally with what the user above has posted about Square Enix. As for the FF 14 I am sad to see that the community is dying but this is all there fault.
December 2, 2010
#18
I am on the border of buying this game, but I’m wondering how worthwhile it will be to purchase when current users online dwindles even in the holiday season. I looked at about an hour of YouTube gameplay footage from 2 months ago to 1 week ago, and I still don’t know.
December 13, 2010
#19
If you want a learning curve, customization, and a challenge, I’d suggest going with Dungeons and Dragons Online. It’s a system with more flexibility than cookie cutter build games like WoW or anything else out there. It has a steeper learning curve but it’s well worth the time.
December 10, 2010
#20
Here’s a cookie before you go and scream “Called it”.
It seems FF14 will be going Free to play for quite some time until they revamp it.
I think it’ll just stick with f2p even after trying to revamp it though.
December 13, 2010
#21
Probably not a bad idea. There isn’t much potential for this game given what they’ve done. I’d rather waste my time grinding in Martial Heroes.
March 6, 2011
#22
I’d play final fantasy 14 IN ITS CURRENT STATE if it were free. But there’s no way I’m shelling out $50 for the game and then $15 a month for that sorry excuse of a game.
April 12, 2011
#23
Completely agree with #13, the last good replayable ff game that came out was 10, personally i played ff11 4 a 3 months and deleted it, played 12 and because i was bored i used my gameshark and beated it that way, and played 14 thought it was as good as what flyff is, and hell its 100% free
What i really wish Square would do is STOP trying to recreate the RPG and the MMORPG but look in the past and try to recreate that, Personally I liked random battles, look at lost odyssey 4 360 if they had a half way decent story line we’d all consider it the FF killer, because it had everything that made a FF game great and its the only rpg that i truely have played more then a few times
Anyway If i was square i’d first take a page from WoW, how i got into WoW orginally was their FREE trial game which had me till like lvl 20 which i loved because you got a feel 4 it, while playing with the upper class so you can feel how your char could come out to be, I think they should do that and if player base doesnt rise take some time out put out a FREE new bunch of updates to thank players and if that still doesnt work just do F2P which i think still wouldnt work because everyone right now sees negativity in FF14
April 12, 2011
#24
FF10 ftw. =]
June 7, 2011
#25
i personally want the game to go free to play because i wanna play it. What about the other gamers that lack the money for a pay to play subscription.
All my life ive boycotted p2p games mainly because i always got pissed about all these monthly fees.
We need free 2 play! and we need it now!
that is all
July 6, 2011
#26
i’m thinking that once the smoke clears,everyone will see that the problem with the gaming industry is the fact that creators do not remember the roots of gaming.games ought to be completed (actually done)first.but ThE most important factor is enjoyment.i find little enjoyment with the same ‘kill your buddy’ over and again to compile a nearly imaginary status resume.as with utterly stupid achievement /trophy marks that force you to stay in their games for insane amounts of time so that you have no time for a competitor’s title.35 hours for 20 points……..i m o,pc games are even worse.they only serve as meeting places with a setup requirement.nothing more.i’m using a console for this even.when creators of games stop trying to keep up with the jones’ while forcing us to do this also( you Do want to be seen),and get back.to.the.basic.fundamentals,we’ll have no shortage of games actually worthy of the name.most will play AnythinG to climb higher and be seen.oblivious….ff14 needs to be filtered,distilled,and remastered.i long for the days of norath.
July 17, 2011
#27
Actually, FF14 is sorta F2P right now, more like B2P atm. I bought the game recently (I am a huge Final Fantasy nerd.) and Square Enix is NOT charging a monthly subscription until they are satisfied and the customers are satisfied with the game’s state.
I am enjoying it (Don’t really see all the hate about it. :S) and am glad it’s technically B2P at the moment. I’d recommend FF14 to people, I got the box for $15 at my local gamestop also.
July 18, 2011
#28
So if I bought an original copy of this game I could play this for free without having to worry about an upcoming announcement that the game will be a pay to play?
July 25, 2011
#29
I Really Hope they take this measure in the future and make it free to play. i enjoy playing the final fantasy games but i wont spend money for on a sub fee.
September 2, 2011
#30
I don’t want to play some cheap free to play game. I want a subscription fee, but until FF14 takes off, I don’t want to pay to play. Free to play permanently… no thanks.
September 16, 2011
#31
Asian companies are also accustomed to scratching a fail and starting all over again with a new engine, new concept and accepting feedback from their players (RO 2???) I’m just saying… and please correct me if I’m wrong but, Gravity < Square-Enix … So it's a no brainer right?
We pay monthly subscriptions to set a projected budget, to set a high quality update schedule. F2P MMORPG's are like working a cash tip only job. You only know your income based on projections and past booms in sales.And you get a slim income from copy sales (in some cases). I still play P2P MMORPG's – Why? If you're asking that… go back to your F2P games.
Games that have converted from subscription to free are on a slow course to shut down (take note of the fact they are mostly 3rd party emulated also). Just like the game companies want money now, many players want max level, god like items and free roam NOW…. its a catch 22 my friends.
October 29, 2011
#32
I haven’t played the game yet, but i’d rather do. I do resent Square’s latest final fantasy releases, not because they are bad games but because they don’t have that final fantasy feeling from past games; personally i liked FF13 and i’m even looking forward to Versus, but i can’t bring myself to see them as Final Fantasies.
I often come across playing MMORPGs with absolutely no story, lacking content, etc… Come on ! i played (and still do) Ragnarok Online, that absolutely has NO story, but i enjoy it because i play with friends and even when i am solo playing. Aion, absolutely crappy, is one of my favs because i love it’s graphics, battle system, backgrounds, etc. When i come across these awful games i couldn’t care less about the content because i’ve never really cared for the content of any game, i let my imagination be whatever content i desire. Going back to FFs, i liked probably one of the worst, which was FF12 (i felt pity for this one, because at the beggining i still had hopes for it, but later i realised that the story had just gone somewhere else and lost it’s point).
So again, i’d still go for FF14, even if i were to drop it later. I just need new material to satisfy my imaginative desires.
P.d. I’m absolutely aware that i’m the geekiest person ever on earth.
November 12, 2011
#33
They just officially announced a revamp to a new map structure and game engine, calling it build “2.0″. The second part of the announcement was officially beginning billing. So much for this theory. Squeenix is stubborn and I’m afraid after the slurry of games most recently released and their recent found love for sequels, this might be the thing that puts them behind all other developers in terms of sales and subscription.
It seems to me that the inclusion of Enix has mangled a company that I used to be most fond of. I realize this as an excuse but the timing of their merger coincides with their pumping out hasbro figure-esque titles from the assembly line. Final fantasy used to mean something, literally. It was the last artistic “hurrah” of a design team. They put all they had into one last game as they saw no future for their failing company. You can’t expect that type of unbound determination in their current position, I realize. however, mark my words. They will find themselves right back in that position soon enough at this rate. I do own this title, by the way. I played it for one day and uninstalled it. The only way I will ever play FFXI is if it went F2P.
November 16, 2011
#34
FF series will never die. It will continue even after we are all gone. Final Fantasy 11 I <3 it and still do. FFXIV needs work but it has fanboys and die-hard fans like myself that will play it, and wait on it to grow and flourish like the infamous FFXI.(It will happen) As for F2P never, Final Fantasy will never go F2P….why would they lol? We are talking about Final Fantasy here lol. They have not charges us for one month why would they go and smack us in the face and dis-respect their dedicated fan base in that manner….Ridiculous total malarkey… this entire thread is Marlarkey go play LoTRO, AoC, or even WoW but leave final fantasy out of it. Sorry about the grammar imcomplete sentences and poor structure but this post didn't deem worthy enough for it……Final Fantasy for life……
November 16, 2011
#35
FFXIV can be a little misleading at times, if you look at the roadmap you will see, that FFXIV plan to start charging us sometime this month, but the actual 2.0 revamp isn’t coming until almost a year later November 2012. I think this is because of the big bonus they are suppose to recieve if they have the game up and running by the close of this year. I also think the lack of subs after they start charging may force them to release 2.0 earlier,
January 21, 2012
#36
I’m a huge Final Fantasy fan, you won’t find a bigger fan than me. Although I haven’t played the online games yet due to money issues, can’t afford them at the moment, I do not believe that FF14 should or even will go free to play. If they do, they won’t make any money. Charging users to play is how they keep their servers up and running, it’s how they keep the games going good and online. If anyone wants everything for free, then no one will get anywhere in this world.
January 28, 2012
#37
SE will never live done when a million players had the accounts compromised and treated thep2p players as the hackers
January 31, 2012
#38
If you want a great game that isn’t like WoW or pretty much not like any other game i’ve ever played… Go with Eve Online! Learning curve is the most difficult out there but the game and the content of the game are great and well worth $15 a month. Plus they keep coming out with new content, last year they came out with 2 expansions. But, i’ve played alot of MMO’s… nothing compares to Eve Online! F**K WoW before and after… the only other game i would consider playing would be FFXI!
February 7, 2012
#39
Honestly, i havent played FF14, mainly because i did some research and found out about the charge. I think that asking people to buy the disk and the again pay for membership is a little stupid, not many people are willing to do that and i dont blame them, but i am a huge fan of the Final Fantasy games, and im going to be getting a Final Fantasy keychain when i get my car, so if/when they go F2P i am willing to give it a good shot, as it is i am doing my best to finish FF13 in order to get FF13-2 when im done. anyway i hope your right about the going F2P thing. thanks
February 8, 2012
#40
If FF14 dropped the monthly subscription fee, or even lowered it by $10 a month, I would totally buy it. But with the monthly subscription fee as high as it is I have not and will never buy it…I will just stick to Guild Wars and the hopefully releasing this year Guild Wars 2 (which you have to buy the game, like any non-mmo game, but there is no monthly subscription fee)
February 23, 2012
#41
i have always been a fan of Final Fantasy…if it goes free to play i will be all over it..and play everyday all day if i can.
February 26, 2012
#42
ok this is gonna cover on all your guyses “suggestions, thoerys and thoughts”……ok if you had a job an you liked this game you would pay the petty 10$ monthly fee…yes yes it would be better as an F2P but we all know its not gonna happen there just gonna want your money an thats it. dont think there not gonna make you pay becuase you think the game is crap. i like the FF too an i want alot of poeple to play this one cuase i think it might have great potential. but by the sound of the number of the people play on all servers 45k……thats nothing…the game is probably just gonna go down under.
March 15, 2012
#43
I don’t play FFxxiv because I can’t play game’s on my pc. I would like to see a console ff game with online multi-player content. I only play game’s on my ps3. I just got done with ffxiii-2 and loved it.
April 11, 2012
#44
While I think fp2 is the way of the future their is still a baseline of what makes a f2p game worth while. For instance eq2 (haven’t tried eq yet in its new f2p) They claim we’re giving you all this content free, and then they charge you to unlock your classes, charge you to wear gear you get commonly in game, charge you to sell on the ah, charge you to create a guild, charge you to use a master version of a spell that drops in a chest. It’s such a f****n ripoff it’s blatenly sick.
Then you have something like dc universe or better yet turbines games ddo and lotr. Classes and content is free to a certain point. Then you can basically choose what’s worth it to play. Wait and spend 50 bucks (price of a 3 month used game) get the coin, then wait for the content to go on sale 25 30 sometimes 50% off, then you buy. And you own, none of that rent to play shit.
I’m really hoping gw2 doesn’t follow down a shit greed path like soe. And if ffxi (I wish) or xiv were to go that path, id hope they’d take a page or the whole god damn book from turbine and the like.
April 23, 2012
#45
I also hope that Square Enix does NOT go Free to Play. I have played a number of “Free to Play” games, and they all cost much more than any Pay to Play game. They all have “Premium Features” that are the equivalent of a “subscription”, but they also sell items more powerful than anything you can get in game normally which unbalances the game. Everquest now has this mount which you can only get by buying it from them which doubles your HP and MP after completing an in game quest. In other words there is no point earning quests in game anymore. I spend the same amount as I did before (Gold Account), only now I also have to spend even more money if I want to keep up with the rest of the game and I am about ready to quit over how insane that is.
Free to play produces a surge in revenue because it lures users in with the promise of free, and then bills them somewhere else. In reality the “free” aspect only appeals to casual gamers, while the serious gamers end up spending much more for the same services.
They already made too many changes to FFXI as it is when they went to appeal to casual gamers. I spent 5 years getting up to level 75, and then they just say “Guess what! Now there is no point forming a party anywhere other than Abyssea because you can get from level 1 to 90 in a week!” and so now everyone and their dog is at the highest level. It completely cheapens the game for everyone who were there first. Worse than that all the other zones were deserted. I quit over that.
I was also in the Beta for the new final fantasy. I got as far as killing a single monster, and then the game said “You killed you” and then I was dead. There was no respawn option, no anything. Just face down in the dirt. Making that game free to play won’t lure me in. I wouldn’t play that piece of junk even if they paid me.
Right now I am thinking of checking out Final Fantasy XI again, but they changed the account management completely. Now I can’t even log into play online viewer without paying a subscription, and while they call it a stramlined process, I consider it a step back because now I can’t handle any account features from within the viewer anymore.
*shakes head* I’d accept a game I love going free to play if and only if they NEVER sell any items that has any in game benefit (cosmetic only) and if premium features end up being identical to what is currently what you would get from being a paid member. Anything else would push me away.
May 6, 2012
#46
I pearsonaly think the free to play consept on FF14 should copy the way dc univers has its free to play option where u have free premium and legendary but no matter what the whole game would be free just(if you have played DC universe ) you can’t have to many ho idk item slotes or can’t have a lot of money but you can
Level up as high as u whant and the whole
Maps open to the player for free plz right back beacouse idk if what I’m saying makes any sence at all
May 13, 2012
#47
With ffxiv 2.0 comming out soon, XIV subscription is supposidly free if you have a XI subscription. The idea of XIV being f2p would never happen seeing as how XI never went f2p. As long as the playerbase in japan is high, SE will never make XIV nor XI f2p (one reason why ffxi isn’t f2p is because of the japanese playerbase, it’s pretty high). I believe FFXI and XIV are the only p2p games that would never go f2p.