Then please change the title as Novo Mundus suggested, because that is not what you originally posted.
Should Elite Dangerous move towards a free to play model?
- Thread starter C Royle
- Start date
It is interesting. I just feel that it's bound to have an effect on how the game get's developed if at least some portion of the money comes directly from "it's only cosmetic" microtransactions, to me that makes sense.
It's a very good sign that ARX will allow you to get cosmetics by just playing the game though.
So you don’t want free to play, you want the base game to be discounted
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ok so you meant as a teaser to then sell the DLC such as horizons or "2020 update" for proper cash? in which case am not so appalled
however there is an issue imo which would need significant work for FD to fix. Right now it is comically easy to cheat in ED. (i mean proper full on nasty cheat not exploiting loopholes). Right now there is not much to put people off doing it, but one reason is a potential account ban. At the very least "some" money goes to the FD coffers as cheaters have to buy the game again. its not much but it is something.....
if the base game went free i fear you could multiply the number of cheaters 10 fold. so in principle i would not complain if base game was free but horizons dlc was kept at £14 or what ever the deluxe edition goes for in a sale these days but practically i think it would be bad.
in an ideal world where the game could sustain itsself without doing it, then the game would 100% be better for it because earning skins and other cosmetics in games IS game content in and of itsself. perhaps it is weak psycholagy but i would enjoy working to get allied in as many random factions as i could if i knew that allied cmdrs got a free skin for a certain ship for doing it for instance.
for me that would be a huge increase in fun without FD actually making any new content at all. Back in the day DB voiced how he was surprised and a bit dissapointed that players found a small group of systems, got allied and never moved beyond them..... The reason i think is because really objectively every system is the same so once you have a good A B C trade route witha decent res, regular CZs and a good station for gearing up there really is no point for a lot of players to move on.
however i think we would get players migrating far more if once you were allied and got your skin you needed to go elsewhere to get another, or if once you had got X number of 1st discoverds or what ever you got a bobblehead. etc etc etc. of course you would then need a (room in bigger ships once we get legs) panel in the game somewhere where we could see models of all our stuff we earned, a sort of trophy cabinet... again not for all players but myself and i believe others would love trying to get them all.
so from that view, monetising cosmetics DOES harm the game. earning coin for them in game is a step forward but imo still wont give the kind of thing i am talking about. As a non competetive player this is why i preferred the original KSer pitch of everything gettable in game but with a cash shop for credits... but i totally respect why FD changed it to what it is. a necessary evil perhaps.?
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Deleted member 182079
D
Then your thread title is misleading - F2P means some or all of these bits, usually.
Taking your sale example above, a fiver is still a fiver, and it's only temporary anyways - from FDev's viewpoint it would be silly to forfeit that to attract a certain clientele - the ones unwilling to spend even just a beer's worth on a game like Elite, and who are therefore unlikely to spend any more money on full price extensions, let alone cosmetics. FDev doesn't gain anything from people playing it for free and then abandoning it a couple of weeks later (word of mouth is an argument but at this stage Elite Dangerous is a pretty well established brand anyways so I doubt the effects will be that noticeable).
What I think FDev should do is combine the base game and Horizons into one, thus removing player fragmentation, charge full price for future DLC and they can continue selling cosmetics as they do now (not a fan of Arx myself but will reserve judgement until the pricing model and in-game Arx rewards are clarified).
Not to mention the cheating concerns if Elite were to be free as others have already stated.
indeed. now Mac support is gone there is no reason at all that i can think of why they cant all be rolled into 1 and i actually believe it will happen after 2020 update. at the very least 2020 will come with horizons bundled.
They barely figured out how to handle expansions. I lost track on the repackaging of base game and expansion. They promised a bonus for buying expansion which I never saw. LEP buyers arent so sure what their investment really got them.
Their plus side is having a delivered kickstarter project. On the post launch side it's not been that rosy. A F2P model wont change that. You have to offer value consistently. That's not magically created by go7ng f2p. Also the ppl you draw in with f2p are gone with the wind easily because they have no investment. Once they smell the reek of engineer grind expect a lot of them to put the game down.
Their plus side is having a delivered kickstarter project. On the post launch side it's not been that rosy. A F2P model wont change that. You have to offer value consistently. That's not magically created by go7ng f2p. Also the ppl you draw in with f2p are gone with the wind easily because they have no investment. Once they smell the reek of engineer grind expect a lot of them to put the game down.
Paige Harvey
Community Manager
I'm with the No to p2p.
But I have lots of ship skins and will be likely to buy more, so am a bad example for OPs argument.
I can recommend bobble heads. These can be used in any ship
But I have lots of ship skins and will be likely to buy more, so am a bad example for OPs argument.
I can recommend bobble heads. These can be used in any ship
Thank you for supplying some information about the currently planned future direction of the game.
The Official Word from On High is a very definitive “No”.
So back to mowing lawns with you, so you can buy a copy like everyone else.
So back to mowing lawns with you, so you can buy a copy like everyone else.
"Currently have no plans" does not equal to "Will never...", just sayin'
What shocking revelation, that they only make have plans (or not have plans for something), but can not completely rule out things to happen in the future, if the need arises. Perhaps the game remains strong till 2035. Perhaps SC actually at some time releases and ED has to take new steps to keep their player base.
Only time will tell, as my crystal ball for some reason doesn't.
I would rather pay more than less if that meant that the game would be improved. Free to play is a cancer in the gaming business in my opinion.
Yes, you can get closer to free to play, 7.5 € closer to be exact.
I am not supporting a F2P model for ED, but please stop trying to water down definitions here.
ED is a B2P game.
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Buy to play?
Elite is a service and when servers will be down it will vanish. It's not even a buy.
It use to be. It was called Arena, and no one played, and it was discontinued.
I've read the OP and the OPs responses. Also it is free to play. You buy it, you play for free. (joke.... sort of)
It's a no from me. Its on offer ALL the time. One less takeaway in a month and you can buy ED and horizons. It's extremely cheap most of the time.
(joke.... sort of)It's a no from me. Its on offer ALL the time. One less takeaway in a month and you can buy ED and horizons. It's extremely cheap most of the time.