Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Elder Scrolls: Online

I think it's more like sensible investors, stupid consumers. For a start i very much doubt any investor in this day and age will be expecting a wow killer or wow rival. But a themepark mmo, either subscriptionless or quickly dropping subscription after first rush of sale, is the only sensible way to invest the $100 million it takes to make a AAA mmo. Despite the self induced amnesia of the mmo play base there's pleanty of sandbox mmo's out there, including fantasy sandboxes. The problem is they all die on their arses, struggling to get more than 10k subscribers reduced to a skeleton development team or closing a few years after launch. The 1 exception to this - eve online - manages to get the subscription levels of a middling mmo themepark game. It just makes no sense for an investor to spend in a way the consumer has repatedly shown they have no interest in playing.

The problem is it much more fun to talk about sandbox mmos and imagine the possibilities of what you could do, than play them. Case in point, i was reading website for sandbox enthusiasts which had a public poll "which sandbox mmo are you currently playing?"- the top answer (arround 60% of total) was "i'm not currently playing a sandbox mmo" and that's amongst people who read website extolling the virtues of such things.
 
From what I managed to see (the video was refusing to load properly earlier) it looked utterly uninspiring, thoroughly mediocre, and... well, old. :(
 
I hoping that the content will be its savior. Lets not forget that Elder scrolls has 20 years of gaming lore to fall back on!
 
ffsear said:
I hoping that the content will be its savior. Lets not forget that Elder scrolls has 20 years of gaming lore to fall back on!
Click to expand...

That's very true. But they're not off to the greatest of starts with that considering the alliances they've decided upon. They'd better have some convincing reasons for it all.
 
Graphics aren't really the important aspect of a game although they help agreed. I doubt I can go to another MMORPG after Warcraft. They're ridiculously addictive and become ridiculously boring and repetitive for a long time before the addiction wears out. Also I think I prefer the solo offline RPGs more than the online ones.
 
TSW went free to play very quickly. I don't think they can hang about these days. It costs more and more to make the games with every passing year, so the shortfalls in subs are going to be keenly felt, since they can't put the subs up to match.

Unless it cost them pennies to make it, then fuck 'em.
 
Shippou-Sensei said:
it's an odd one. i've heard people call it buy to play to distinguish it from actual free to pay.
Click to expand...

I've heard it called buy to play as well. I guess it depends. With TSW, it was originally a case of buy the game, then pay a monthly sub, and when it dropped the sub most people referred to it as 'going free to play' - it might be that if you already own the game, then it is changing to 'free to play' because you've already bought it. If you don't own it yet, you could perhaps say it's buy to play. It's relative, in that sense. I don't think it particularly matters.

What it isn't, though, is freemium. Freemium refers to a game that is free, you don't need to buy it at all to purchase it, no up front buying of the disc or the key to download or whatever. It's completely free to download and play, but you essentially would have to grind for the rest of your life to get any kind of decent experience from the game, which encourages you to buy items or packs or whatever in-game/in-app to speed up that process. I've only really heard freemium used in relation to apps on tablets/phones, or the facebook game-tyle thing, and not in relation to your bigger MMO type games.
 
I rate the TSW model, I think they did it really well. The things they sell in their store are either cosmetic, or of little consequence - like 10% extra XP potions and so on. I believe if you went all in as a super awesome chief sparkly woo-hoo member with a really expensive version of the game when it was released, you get an allowance of all that stuff for free, plus free upgrades to the expansions and so on. But the main game itself plays identically for someone who doesn't spend any money in the store. The full game is the full game.

Compare that with SW:TOR. Their model is bullshit. Sure, you can play the game for free, but you're effectively playing a cut-price, cheapo version. You don't get half the choices in character customisation as someone who chooses to take out a sub, you don't get access to certain missions/flashpoints, etc.

There's a very basic difference here, and it's in how they view their customers. The people at Funcom want people to enjoy the game, and while they still want to be able to make money to employ the few staff they have left, they don't want to be dicks about it. The staff responsible for the subs at SW:TOR don't give a flying fuck about the people playing the game, their priority isn't making a game they love but raking in the cash as much as possible. And it really, really shows. They exhibit a disdain. These days, that kind of thing is becoming more and more important. People tend to stay loyal to companies that show respect and greater regard for their customers/audience. The sad thing is that those who shit all over people from a great height still get the sales because principles tend to mean shit in the face of 'ooh, shiny!' when it comes to the majority of people who play games. As with any other media or product, I guess. But there are tiny little shifts here and there. It's why we've seen so much back peddling by the XBOX180 team of late (although I'm not convinced they didn't plan it this way, so as to seem to be all conciliatory and shit- "see, we're awesome, we listen to you guys and let your views shape our decisions!").
 
the level of freemium-ing in SW:TOR is fucking ridiculous


that being said the story content is quite good. and if you don't mind grinding you can have some fun.

i think i did buy a few things....

usually with freemium the main buy is bag space. at least it is for me.

although in terra i did pay quite a lot to get the sukumizu outfit for my foxgirl mage.....
 
Just seen that WAR died last month, sad news - its still probably the closest anyone has ever come to knocking WoW off its perch, and was in several areas a much better game.
 
Shippou-Sensei said:
the level of freemium-ing in SW:TOR is fucking ridiculous


that being said the story content is quite good. and if you don't mind grinding you can have some fun.

i think i did buy a few things....

usually with freemium the main buy is bag space. at least it is for me.

although in terra i did pay quite a lot to get the sukumizu outfit for my foxgirl mage.....
Click to expand...

I played TOR for a while, but since it went freemium or whatever I've become grumpy and refuse to. The stories are absolutely excellent, and I did have a great deal of fun playing it though. I still have all my characters languishing on what appears to be the sole European pve server, but I can't bring myself to reinstall it knowing that half the bloody content is now locked off, when previously it wasn't. Profiteering cuntfucks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

platinumsage
Elder Scrolls VI
Replies
6
Views
400
Epona
Epona
dessiato
Online backgammon sites? Anyone play?
Replies
28
Views
940
ska invita
ska invita
ffsear
Elder Scrolls VI - Speculation Thread
Replies
18
Views
819
Magnus McGinty
Magnus McGinty
Orang Utan
Would it be foolish to buy a 2nd hand console online?
Replies
26
Views
1K
iamwithnail
iamwithnail
passenger
Online stratigic war games
Replies
3
Views
496
fractionMan
fractionMan
Back
Top Bottom