126076-wildstar-is-going-to-a-hybrid-free-to-play-model-in-august-what-are-your-thoughts-page-4

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It's the five stages of grief. We've had denial and anger, now we're at the bargaining stage. Some folks have moved past that and into depression. Soon we shall have acceptance, and the Makers will be praised!


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Actually, I don't agree. LJ is testing whether or not the game's staff is willing to punish him for making a statement that is factually accurate even if it remains officially under wraps, and you are trying to give them an out by trying to give them the alternative excuse to lock the thread of "this discussion has run its course". I'm happy to issue a counterpoint to your efforts and say that I think the discussion's just now getting pretty interesting. I'm very keen to see where it goes next, and I'm happy to contribute to it by noting that the game's staff is no longer willing to confirm that the game is going to stay P2P, even though they have done so in the past. It seems to me that this point adds considerably to the discussion surrounding whether or not it is a fact that the game is going F2P. Discuss.


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I think CRB would have to have their heads in the sand to not think that F2P would open the floodgates for this game, at this point at least. People have been demanding f2p for months, and this game has virtually no subscribers to write home about. Even if things are on the upswing, Quarterly Reports are a tool for investors, not speculating forum posters. If the quarterly reports show a stable trend that still doesn't warrant resources and money, then an alternative model should be pursued, in lieu of fully axing the game. There is no grand conspiracy here, and for thus of that closely follow Carbine's actions--- the leaker isn't really telling anything new. Even though I do think and hope f2p will come, I do not think that the leaker has shown any legitimate proof of being a current Carbine employee. Either way I hope CRB just openly announces their model change for drop 6.


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Actually, that's a really good point. Just this morning I came across a really interesting article about how completely non-representative forum users are of the general playerbase in other games. So maybe taking the advice of the forums instead of doing real market research isn't such a good idea after all. Excellent point there.


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If I remember right from some research Valve did back when they had control of a bunch of different forums, they found that the forum populace was usually comprised of roughly 4-5% of a game's population. So yeah, making decisions off of the forums is generally a terrible idea.


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I believe it. It was the average across all of their games, before the integration of the discussion board system they have now, so games like TF2 where a lot more of the population tended to use the forums for trading and such probably bumped it up a lot. Obviously type of game and such will influence who uses the forums (Presumably less people will use the board for a single player shooter compared to an MMO, for example), so take the percentage with a grain of salt. Regardless though, the point stands between both of our posts: The population of the forums is most definitely not indicative of the game's overall population. :P


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... wait.


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{| style="width: 100%;" ^lol.

Poor guy haha. I dont care what it goes Wildstar is my s*** atm.


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Except not because they're not paying for it.

So basically you're saying "Okay this entire thread is fake but no really it's still gonna happen guys for real please believe me!!!" :/


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Huh? At this point I think the number of people who think the game is going F2P significantly outnumber the people who still don't believe the leak. Even Forbes.com is reporting on it.


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If I am, it's not intentional, but players feel screwed by games all the time. It's not that the game is out to get them, but things change and players don't like it. Their class got nerfed, that pretty shiny is being sold for real money, or this that and the other thing. There's probably a few players that would feel screwed by the options you're proposing. But that's fine because they're "not pulling their weight"? What does that even mean?!? Who is the Grand Arbitrator that player X's feelings are valid but player Y's isn't? I've seen a couple people in this thread try, but they've failed miserably. Speaking of failures, how about that Wildstar? Seriously, by conservative estimates they're not covering their payroll. That's not even REMOTELY sustainable. Not that a payment model plan will change it, because it isn't a silver bullet, cure-all for everything that ails Wildstar. But at this point, I'd be surprised if they weren't willing to try ANYTHING.

As a kind reminder, I didn't chose the word screwed. I merely reflected the feelings Naunet expressed.


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Because a F2P MMO with game content behind a pay-gate is not going to fare well in a market where it is competing with other MMOs that boast about how good their F2P experience is. Plain and simple. The customers they fail to get with a move like that would not be made up for by "but we offer more cosmetic items for free". Market research has shown that many people are willing to buy cosmetic items, so they sell cosmetic items. What are they supposed to do? Most hybrid MMOs have some way that subscribers can afford cash shop items without spending extra money, but even that's met with "but I want to earn it in-game". Some people have also argued that roleplayers are "screwed over" by having limited character slots - or having extra character slots cost money, since it limits the number of characters they can roleplay or forces them to pay extra money for character slots to roleplay peripheral characters. I mean, people were literally arguing that not allowing people to create at least a character of both genders of all classes on both factions was discrimination against them.


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Not at all. You end up there, but the content comes before then. All of the skippers don't do the paths, don't do crafting, don't do harvesting, don't do dungeons, don't do challenges... that's on the players. If they skip that to end game, that's totally on them. And that's wy it's bad for Carbine or any studio to facilitate that. WoW has already been flushed down the toilet, lets not let that happen to WildStar.


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I'd love to see a good sandbox MMORPG that focuses more on trade and building and doesn't devolve into a PK gankfest. I mean, it's fine to have open world PvP because it's more realistic to allow anyone to attack anyone else. It's totally another when the game becomes Sociopath Simulator 2015. ;)


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Oh, I fully get the feeling of wanting the shinies. I've spent the past two days debating whether or not to use a Luminous Equivar mount I got from a boombox because I've wanted it for a very, very long time now, but selling it would also pay for several months of CREDD. I also fully get the appeal of costumes and such, I have 5 on my spellslinger that I constantly swap between, sometimes even multiple times mid dungeon. That said, I also understand that if the game goes F2P, I get the benefit of all of the gameplay, even if I won't be able to get every single costume I want without coughing up a few bucks. (Or, hopefully, purchasing it off of somebody else) That is okay. The alternative is locking actual game content behind a paywall, which is not healthy for the game.


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Omg... *tries to not get excited* Bookmarking it.


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I don't agree. The ways to get amp/ability points are time gated and can only be conveniently done on one character at a time unless you want to spend your in-game time logging in and out of alts for dailies and contracts. There is a need for them to drop.


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And you can also unlock the Amp and Ability points on them. I'm an altoholic myself, but I accept that time spent on an alt is time taken away from a main. Things like costumes, dyes, pets, etc. Yeah, they should be account bound, but unlocks based on character achievement should be for the character, not the account IMHO. Something like Heirloom Gear, that you can work for on a level capped character, to make leveling alts faster, I'm all for, though.


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Obviously, none of us know. And obviously, Carbine isn't talking right now. So...no one can accurately answer your question. But if you want me to speculate, sure. When WS goes F2P, there will still be a sub option, that will offer more perks than playing free. Likely more character slots, inventory space, and probably the industry standard of $5 worth of game store currency each month. CREDS could simply allow people to get those sub level perks, the same way it currently serves in place of a normal subscription.


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The Steam DB information is different from the "WildStar is going F2P in August" reddit post. Both Wildstar and Lineage II appeared on Steam DB at the same time, with packages with Billing Type (Free on Demand) and License Type (Single Purchase).


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In fact, that PC Gamer article just recently posted doesn't even mention the whole reddit thing, only the 1Q financials and the Steam DB postings. Not that either of them "prove" anything yet, but still.


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