I've read that after lvl 20 you have to pay for basically every quest to advance. Thanks, but fuck off Kinda beats the purpose of all of this.

"greed-driven"

I think you misunderstood his statement. Profit motive versus doing something you love for a profit. It's ok to get paid for something you are good at for something someone needs, but when you model that to solely get money then there is a problem.

Say designing a car to be reliable for 10-15 years of normal use vs. designing a car that must be highly maintained every 6 months to get recurring income.

Surf wrote on Oct 8, 2010, 21:09:
Good for them. I just avoid MMORPG's because I like my games to have an ending. Fallout 3 and Stalker are more my style.

LOTRO will have an ending though...eventually.

I'm more likely to pay for an extra or 2 if the game itself is free as a way of rewarding the creators since it's the only way of doing so. Unfortunately, the monthly fee is only one of many reasons I'd rather sort my sock drawer for the thousandth time than play an MMO.

I actually downloaded the 10 gig client at a friends behest because he wanted to adventure together, despite my repeated protestations that I hate MMO's. So far, we haven't hooked up yet, so it remains uninstalled. But I say good for the devs that they are be rewarded for a smart business decision, even if the entire genre in which their game was created is inherently and irrevocably flawed.

There is a reason why they did not give numbers. Maybe it was 2 people and jumped to 4? To be honest with you, I tried this game for 5 mins and uninstalled it.

Beamer wrote on Oct 8, 2010, 13:18:
In fairness, everything every company every does is greed-driven...

You mean the desire to make a living and be able to eat and feed your family? You'd call that "greed"?

Only thing I have to say to that is if you can find a nation without corporations it will also be without computer games. I mean, check out Cuba and get back to me about all of the marvelous computer games the Castro brothers are putting out these days.

TheWhistlingPig wrote on Oct 8, 2010, 12:20:
I had a friend who got banned for 30 days a few minutes after she received purchased gold. They're watching gold traffic seriously, looks like. (This happened before F2P, too.)

If you can't cut the supply, annihilate the demand.

What sort of an idiot would spend real money to buy fake, in-game gold? That has to be the nuttiest thing I've ever heard...;)

Good for them. I just avoid MMORPG's because I like my games to have an ending. Fallout 3 and Stalker are more my style.

I thought that for the first 15 hours or so, but then I found that all the quests outside the starting starting regions are locked away. While it's possible to earn enough turbine points to unlock the quests without paying a dime, grinding for the turbine points is absolutely tedious and time-consuming.

I still consider it a better pricing model than the monthly subscription. I like to have a lot of games installed on my PC, and ironically have only few minutes a day to try out some of these games. I can't justify paying $10-15 a month to even a single MMORPG. Having free to play games let me continue on my own pace and if needed, a *one time purchase* can open up more content. I don't have to look back after an year and see that I spent $180 on a game that I hardly played for most parts.

Besides, it is the only way, where multiple MMORPGs can all survive simultaneously.

More power to Turbine, Sony and other free-to-play MMORPG developers.

Yeah when they announce "Free To Play" there is a flurry of activity immediately as 100s of thousands of people check it out. If it only "doubled" in the first month I'd be really worried.

Cutter wrote on Oct 8, 2010, 17:12:
I just got a copy of MoM from Amazon for 10 clams and it's so worth it. I'm really surprised about how good this game is. Anyone playing on Crickhollow?

I'm on Brandywine. I actually got my copy of SoA+MoM for $10 from my local thrift store (still unopened), but didn't load it up until recently.

Over the years I've found a bunch of deals in that store - NWN2, STALKER, and even recently a copy of ToEE (good stuff once thoroughly patched).

I think that part of the problem we're having here, and so many other threads, is the definition and perception of the word greed...

Companies are not greedy... Greed, to most people, has a negative connotation, and the merriam-webster definition is "a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) that is needed".

There are two problems with that definition i see right away. First off, technically, companies can't make an excessive amount of money, because they're not stagnant/static entities. The 'extra' money is used for future projects. Secondly, how much is 'needed'? To pay current expenses? To pay back owed employee income, publisher 'loans', re-filling the coffers, etc?

Now, some of the people here think that greed is just wanting more money, and then they can say that all companies are greedy, because even if they're 'not for profit', they want more money.

Others, may get offended when the companies they like, are called greedy, because they attribute it to the definition above.

Anyhow... Companies aren't thinking objects... They're run by people, and just like YOU, those people want as much money, and stuff, as they can get : )

I'm stop ranting now : )

-Alamar

kimbambaman wrote on Oct 8, 2010, 13:49:
I am one of the 20% that returned and am having an absolute blast. The F2P is implemented really well, where you get a huge amount of content for free and only really need to pay for convenience items. As a guy who plays off and on its way more content than I could ever want, it will be long time, if ever, before I need to buy an expansion.

I thought that for the first 15 hours or so, but then I found that all the quests outside the starting starting regions are locked away. While it's possible to earn enough turbine points to unlock the quests without paying a dime, grinding for the turbine points is absolutely tedious and time-consuming.

I knew there had to be a catch. Love getting nickle and dimed to death.

"Nickle and diming" is hardly the case here... I've probably put in over 40 hours on the F2P version so far (a perk of working from home) and have spent *maybe* a grand total of $10, and even that was only to get a few fast-travel perks that made travel easier. It was in no way necessary to enjoy the game until you get way up in levels-- and at that point the time you've put into the game means you're likely one who would either be subscribing or buying a full-priced game in the first place. But there's plenty to do without paying a penny.

It's a fun game, even more fun that it's free. Turbine deserves the revenue it's getting.

Longswd wrote on Oct 8, 2010, 17:13:
So, according to the news blurb, infrastructure (population) costs has increased x4 while revenue has only increased x2? More players are great, but only if you can monetize them.

Depends how much are the relative values. If revenue has gone from $5 million to $10 million whereas infrastructure has increased from $100,000 to $400,000, then net profit has jumped from 4.9 to 9.6.

No idea what the actual numbers are but I'm guessing the equation makes sense to the accountants.

So, according to the news blurb, infrastructure (population) costs has increased x4 while revenue has only increased x2? More players are great, but only if you can monetize them.

I just got a copy of MoM from Amazon for 10 clams and it's so worth it. I'm really surprised about how good this game is. Anyone playing on Crickhollow?

Beamer wrote on Oct 8, 2010, 15:31:
I'd also doubt anyone there could get a job at a hedge fund or Goldman.

Not so sure about that. My college roommate majored in theoretical physics and went to work for GE, but after a year he quit and joined a blue-chip merchant bank. That was back in 1991. These days, he's 41 and retired, and has more money than he knows what to do with.

It's really just a career choice. If a theoretical physicist can do that, I'm sure the folks heading up development at Turbine could have done something similar. So could Gabe Newell. Or Randy Pitchford. God knows they're smart enough. They just chose not to.

Bhruic wrote on Oct 8, 2010, 14:28:

How do you get more revenue when the game is free?

Only the absolute minimum of the game is free. Many of the areas/quests in the game require "points" to play. While you can get points from playing, it's faster to purchase the points.

I knew there had to be a catch.

Love getting nickle and dimed to death.

People like free stuff? People are willing to pay small amounts of money over time to enhance their free product?

WHO KNEW?