Ok - another one . . . why restricting custom ATs is bad

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OK – I have read a lot of posts on these boards about the whole move to F2P and I see a lot of misunderstandings, and people use these misunderstandings to support their view (ie: for restricting custom archetypes).

When an MMO moves from P2P to F2P, they know their per-person revenue will drop, but they are hoping the number of people who play the game will increase to the point where they make more money than they did with P2P.

In P2P, the per-person revenue is (for simplicity’s sake) $15/mo. In the F2P, it will be somewhere between $0 and $15 – and exactly where it is depends on what features require payment and how popular those features are. Let’s say it drops to $6 (40% of $15). This means the number of players needs to increase by 150% to reach the P2P level.

My numbers may not be quite right, but in DDO, their P2P population was sub 100K – let’s call it 60K. After they went F2P, they broke 1 mil. That is an increase of more than 1600%. If we use the revenue numbers above, that would mean their monthly revenue increased to more than 600% over the P2P levels.

Admittedly, a fantasy/loot based MMO has a lot of little things they can charge real $$ for, there is a lot of potential there, so this model was very successful for them. What does Champions have to charge for?
- custom archetypes
- custom power tinting
- mission content / contacts
- action packs
- additional costume pieces
- character slots
- enhancements

Note that DDO did not limit multi-classing – a very significant portion of the play experience. They could have. But that restriction was too big. It would have reduced their population significantly (IMO). DDO went the route of charging for some of those other things (slots, content, loot, costume pieces, etc).

I believe, if CO goes F2P and restricts custom archetypes, they will not see the success that DDO saw. Their F2P population will not increase over the P2P population as much as they hope. But what level they are shooting for, we can only guess.

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But, if I remember right, DDO limited certain races / classes, meaning you couldn't multiclass yourself as a monk-turned-paladin dark elf, or a warmachine-golem-thing... uh.... monk? (I tried it once after the free-to-play switch.) So, while they didn't restrict you to dual-classing as a warrior / thief, they did restrict your option in dual-classing. They also restricted your choice of character options - the equivalent being choice of superstats and traits (which I think they're letting you choose traits in the free CO.) They also restrict your level to... I think it's something like level 4, or level 10? I know there's sub-levels in DDO, but after hitting level 1.2 or something it just literally didn't hold my interest.

So.... I know they restrict you a good bit in what you can do in that game for the free version. I think Champions is giving you a good bit more options for this one - you just can't make your claw-fighting, gun-toting, fire-and-ice chucking hero.

[Archived Post]

But, if I remember right, DDO limited certain races / classes, meaning you couldn't multiclass yourself as a monk-turned-paladin dark elf, or a warmachine-golem-thing... uh.... monk? (I tried it once after the free-to-play switch.) So, while they didn't restrict you to dual-classing as a warrior / thief, they did restrict your option in dual-classing. They also restricted your choice of character options - the equivalent being choice of superstats and traits (which I think they're letting you choose traits in the free CO.) They also restrict your level to... I think it's something like level 4, or level 10? I know there's sub-levels in DDO, but after hitting level 1.2 or something it just literally didn't hold my interest.

So.... I know they restrict you a good bit in what you can do in that game for the free version. I think Champions is giving you a good bit more options for this one - you just can't make your claw-fighting, gun-toting, fire-and-ice chucking hero.
Close.

Yes, they restricted classes. They also restricted level progression - gated it at a few levels (8, 12?). I don't recall any restriction on character traits/superstats.

Of the things they restrict, they still have pricing to manage. For example, the cost to get past level 8 was rather small (in "points") to the point where you could buy it with the points you earned getting to level 7.

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So - it is not a case of gold = $15/mo and silver = $0/mo. Silver will be somewhere in between. Where it hits depends on what they charge and for what features.

If silver is given custom archetypes, silver can still be paying for other things, like retcons, one-use boosts, costume pieces, blah blah. If silver cannot use full custom archetypes, instead of subbing, many people will just not play at all -

and the reason is because custom archetypes is such a core component of this game.

[Archived Post]

So - it is not a case of gold = $15/mo and silver = $0/mo. Silver will be somewhere in between. Where it hits depends on what they charge and for what features.

If silver is given custom archetypes, silver can still be paying for other things, like retcons, one-use boosts, costume pieces, blah blah. If silver cannot use full custom archetypes, instead of subbing, many people will just not play at all -

and the reason is because custom archetypes is such a core component of this game.

The bottom line is this: if silver gets full access to the open power system, gold loses almost any appeal it has, and Cryptic loses a huge amount of potential revenue. Not to mention how furious lifetimers would be due to their now totally worthless gold membership.

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The bottom line is this: if silver gets full access to the open power system, gold loses almost any appeal it has, and Cryptic loses a huge amount of potential revenue. Not to mention how furious lifetimers would be due to their now totally worthless gold membership.
I disagree. With this way of doing F2P, gold will still have the appeal of not having to pay for other stuff.

And they may not lose anything. They may gain - as in gain a greater game population.

Of course, this still all depends on what they will have 'for sale" and how much it will be.

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The bottom line is this: if silver gets full access to the open power system, gold loses almost any appeal it has, and Cryptic loses a huge amount of potential revenue. Not to mention how furious lifetimers would be due to their now totally worthless gold membership.

heh, talk about ignorance.....
golds don't have to pay there 160000 points worth of content, they get it all in.
golds have no restrictions whatsoever, even adventure packs, something they could get a lot of money from even trough gold, is completely all-in.

the reason why games, who are going F2P, have such a success is because they gain a lot more money trough allowing players to play the base game and let ppl purchase additional features.
also, P2P>F2P with a optional sub still gives a lot more to the payed subbers, even with the base game active the free players still have to deal with restrictions like characters slot, inventory space, crafting progress, max gold held, etc...
if a game lures ppl to pay for gold just to unlock the basic game, it will only backfire and scare ppl away.
you will get responses like "why should i play this game if i can't even play the basics" or "this game sucks, even the crappy asian games have more choices then this"
it's maybe harsh, but it's the plain and painful truth.

we now know the game the way it is now, knowing the basics and even recommended everyone about the best part of the game.
now they strip just that away and what leaves them to do, see how long this game is gonna live until they have no other choice but too close the servers.
not because there are no golds, but simply because the more they remove from the game, the less interest is shown.
and for what i have seen lately, that interest is falling like a 10T concrete block.

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I disagree. With this way of doing F2P, gold will still have the appeal of not having to pay for other stuff.

And they may not lose anything. They may gain - as in gain a greater game population.

Of course, this still all depends on what they will have 'for sale" and how much it will be.

Think about the rate we get new content at. Why would I ever, ever stay subbed for $15 a month to play adventure packs and get the occasional new costume for free, when I could just go silver forever and buy the stuff once every few months? Cryptic needed something to restrict. Personally, I think it's pretty damn generous that they're including the Nemesis system and Revelation with silver membership. People who play for free do not have the right to complain about being limited to archetypes. If WoW went F2P you can bet that Arenas and end game raiding would be reserved to subscribers. Why? Because those are the two strongest pulls in that game. In CO, the strongest pull is the total customization of your character. If that's free, then all other content is just fluff that a silver member could happily do without.

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It only takes a day for a word to get abbreviated to two letters.

Goodbye, literacy!