October here on MMO Fallout is all about free to play (a topic I intend to touch upon this month) vs pay to play, but I wanted to start this month off by giving an analogy between the two systems. By this point, I don’t think anyone takes free to play verbatim, as in not having to pay to play the game. Nowadays, free to play generally means supported by some form of VIP subscription (freemium), cash shop, or combination of the two. There is something to be said about the real meaning behind free to play, but that is a discussion for another day. Today, I want to make the food comparison between free to play and pay to play, to give a better understanding as to why both systems can coexist in a game like Lord of the Rings Online or Everquest II.
When thinking of free to play, the first thing that comes to mind is likely cash shops. A free to play game is more akin to entering a restaurant with a free entrée coupon. You are enticed because you’ve always wanted to try that chicken souvlaki, and this is your perfect opportunity. Now, unless you go the cheap route and ask for a glass of water, odds are you’ll be getting a drink. I hear nothing washes down souvlaki like a good glass of red wine, but some of you might go for a soda, or perhaps a glass of milk (who drinks milk with dinner?). Either way, you’re up to a couple bucks on the table. The cute waitress asks you if you’d like an appetizer, and you are rather hungry thanks to your breakfast/lunch of the leftover lasagna someone left in the fridge, so you opt for the endless soup and salad bar. Finally the waitress gets your souvlaki order, and asks you if you would like to add any side dishes. Before you know it, your free Souvlaki entrée is now a meal consisting of soup, salad, red wine, roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus, that free cup of water, and a nice strawberry mousse for dessert. You walked into the restaurant preparing to be a cheap-ass, and now you’re looking at a $20+ bill. But the souvlaki was free.
That is essentially free to play in a nutshell. If you find a game you truly enjoy, odds are you’ll find yourself spending cash on it faster than you can even keep track. A few dollars here, a few dollars there, and suddenly you’re paying more than subscribers are paying on their pay to play games, only they don’t have the core game to go back to once they stop payment, and you’re having fun while you do it.
Subscription games, on the other hand, are like an all you can eat buffet. You throw the guy at the counter your ten bucks and sit down to four long tables of ever-replenishing food. Sure you would never pay money to eat those tiny octopus that are on the table, but why pass up the chance now? In the mood for chicken? You can have your choice of chicken, honey chicken, sweet and sour chicken, chicken wings, chicken fingers, barbecue chicken, roasted chicken, and that’s just one section of the table. Grab a slice of pizza, then a bowl of soup if you feel like it. Fill up your plate with barbecue ribs and crab legs, then head back for roast beef and potatoes. Just don’t leave anything on your plate, or you’re in for a long talking to about starving children in China. All in all, the buffet may not have your souvlaki and a drink like red wine will cost more than the included soda, but overall you can fill up whether you are among the sampler (try a little of everything) or the “the world is going to end tomorrow, I’d better store some body fat,” kind of person. The only difference is that here the tray of crab legs isn’t bum-rushed and cleared out in two seconds.
Subscription games allow you to try it all without having to pay extra. For the most casual of the bunch, you might be paying more than you are getting out of it, but the choice and availability of options makes paying the extra bit worth it. The hardcore will feel like they are eating like kings for the cost of eating like a peasant, and will clean their plates sucking down each and every bit of content that can fit into their gaping maws.
Neither system is intrinsically better than the other. With the free to play option, you are able to get your core gameplay, and still spend a few bucks on extras tailored to what you want, and can even save money over the monthly costs of a subscription game. On the other hand, subscription games offer you extras you might not have considered on the free to play game, and can open your eyes to features you may have missed out on or brushed off as unnecessary because they cost a few dollars.
Now: Does anyone know a good souvlaki restaurant in New York? This article is making me hungry.
Follow MMO Fallout on Twitter (@mmofallout) or subscribe in the upper left hand corner to get update notifications delivered immediately via email.
It’s been over a month since Earth Eternal shut down, following Sparkplay’s demise. Even though the game was sold off during an auction back at the end of August, there hasn’t been much word out of Earth Eternal’s Facebook or Twitter pages. MMO Fallout is still looking for news on this ongoing story, including just who bought up the game to begin with!
Speaking of delayed action, although Lord of the Rings Online in North America launched its free to play turnover on September 10th, its equivalent in Europe, hosted by Codemasters, has yet to follow. Going off of claims of lack of preparation, Codemasters is still giving no concrete date on when the transition will take place.
Speaking of free to play titles, Sony’s Pirates of the Burning Sea announced its transition to free to play, following Everquest II Extended and Lord of the Rings Online. There is no set date, but Pirates will be following the formula of its predecessor from SOE, Everquest II, with the cash shop.
Generally we’ve had some sort of prior notice to a game shutting down, usually between one and four months, sometimes longer. When Realtime Worlds announced that All Points Bulletin was shutting down, they gave us one week’s notice, with no real date given at the time. All Points Bulletin shut down just 90 days after it launched, making it the shortest lived (launched) mmo in history. Exteel, the mech-based MMO, was NCsoft’s latest MMO to shut down, a free to play venture with a cash shop and, as some players referred to it, a “pay to win” system. Exteel’s shut down, unlike APB’s, was rather unsurprising due to NCsoft’s past actions with the title.
Cryptic Studios revealed why the Klingon faction in Star Trek Online will not be pumped full of content to the point where it rivals that of the Federation: Because there aren’t enough people playing Klingon to justify setting resources on it. Of course, few players play Klingon, in a grating circular motion, because there isn’t enough content for the faction.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Adventures launched this month, to an odd reaction. Disregarding the idea that this is technically a kids game, much of the reaction appears to be from people far outside this game’s intended audience. As I pointed out in my article, there’s a very good reason you don’t see professional journalists going out and reviewing Imagine: Party Babyz.
Mortal Online’s Henrik claimed that the upcoming Epic Patch will be so big and change the game so drastically that it will be like Mortal Online 2. The so-called Epic Patch is set to go live at an unconfirmed date, but will contain everything including a new patcher, higher resolution, new inventory, new AI, new game master capabilities, and more.
The lawsuit between Quest Online and David Allen is finally over, with both sides wiping post after post off of the internet. Following the recent settlement, a few MMO Fallout viewers noticed that both Derek Smart and David Allen have had blog posts and comments on third party websites wiped clear, perhaps part of the settlement.
Final Fantasy XIV launched at the end of the month to mixed reactions, but luckily with Square Enix backing the title there is no chance of FFXIV heading underwater by the end of next month (November). The latest installment into the Final Fantasy MMO franchise won’t be making Aion or World of Warcraft flinch, but it will maintain a health population for many years to come. Those who would like to check out the game can do so via buddy invites.
