Should Elite Dangerous move towards a free to play model?
- Thread starter C Royle
- Start date
No skin off my nose, I'm playing in a private group. If it can improve the survival chances of the 10 year plan then I'm for it.
Suggest those masochists that play in open but have no interest in pvp find a less populated system to hang around in.
Suggest those masochists that play in open but have no interest in pvp find a less populated system to hang around in.
Ever notice how F2P games are full of squeakers, trolls, hackers, toxic players and other digital riff raff?
Even if those people made it outside of the gank-free scrub zone, whats to stop them from infecting the rest of the bubble?
Free 2 Play games don't keep the lights on, the servers running, the developers paid and the studios paid for. And even if they do, the wallpapers if peeliing off, the lights flicker, the High intensity Zumba class on the bottom floor distracts you and there's a homeless guy that never goes away.
I guess for the reason we pay for the games we want to play is the reason we DON"T want to play something that's F2P funded by microtransactions: We don't want crap!
How pretty would ELWs look if we paid for a full priced new Horizons-style DLC, a half priced Horizons DLC and a 75% off base game?
Now how pretty would it look if ELWs were paid for by $1.99 ship skins an $4.99 temporary module boots?
Even if those people made it outside of the gank-free scrub zone, whats to stop them from infecting the rest of the bubble?
Free 2 Play games don't keep the lights on, the servers running, the developers paid and the studios paid for. And even if they do, the wallpapers if peeliing off, the lights flicker, the High intensity Zumba class on the bottom floor distracts you and there's a homeless guy that never goes away.
I guess for the reason we pay for the games we want to play is the reason we DON"T want to play something that's F2P funded by microtransactions: We don't want crap!
How pretty would ELWs look if we paid for a full priced new Horizons-style DLC, a half priced Horizons DLC and a 75% off base game?
Now how pretty would it look if ELWs were paid for by $1.99 ship skins an $4.99 temporary module boots?
I think it could have been..
Had frontier been less greedy in terms of pricing to non GBP currencies and released offerings as good as the community mockups id say the ratio of cosmetics to new accounts sales would be significantly different.
Lets call it lucky for us though that in this case frontier can't see outside their own ivory perfection. They went for years without ARX and I paid hundreds under this system. Lucky arrow there. Most people I think would ask why they current system doesn't work before rewriting it
Had frontier been less greedy in terms of pricing to non GBP currencies and released offerings as good as the community mockups id say the ratio of cosmetics to new accounts sales would be significantly different.
Lets call it lucky for us though that in this case frontier can't see outside their own ivory perfection. They went for years without ARX and I paid hundreds under this system. Lucky arrow there. Most people I think would ask why they current system doesn't work before rewriting it
Going free to play can be a boon for a dev IF it is handled correctly. A good recent example of this is how CCP took Eve Online to a semi-F2P model. According to CCP's Hilmar, the game has reached a 5 year high in concurrent player numbers since rolling out their new semi-F2P model, along with some lone overdue gameplay changes and polishing. So, in and of itself, F2P can be a smart move for a dev if they have carefully thought the move through.
Right now, I would say it is much, MUCH too soon in ED's life cycle for even contemplating a move to F2P. At a minimum, the game needs LOADS more polish to fix the games various (and obvious) bugs, glitches, and placeholder content. If Frontier were to go F2P right now, I suspect a lot of people would flood the game, quickly become disenchanted by the experience, and give the game a bad rep that would doom the F2P move. Nah, we don't want that.
Now, making the non-Horizons base game F2P, along with the CQC module....that could work! It would give CQC the player numbers it desperately needs, and the base ED game would make for a fine gameplay demo of sorts.
Right now, I would say it is much, MUCH too soon in ED's life cycle for even contemplating a move to F2P. At a minimum, the game needs LOADS more polish to fix the games various (and obvious) bugs, glitches, and placeholder content. If Frontier were to go F2P right now, I suspect a lot of people would flood the game, quickly become disenchanted by the experience, and give the game a bad rep that would doom the F2P move. Nah, we don't want that.
Now, making the non-Horizons base game F2P, along with the CQC module....that could work! It would give CQC the player numbers it desperately needs, and the base ED game would make for a fine gameplay demo of sorts.
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This proposal has a #fryefestival-ish pitch to it TBH.......
edit: then again, when putting this in the perspective of the $300M+ the CIG fan base has rained on SC to date (to include the current micro transaction pricing of DLC items in the SC store), this doesn't seem like such an unreasonable proposition after all....
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ED has a niche fan base by default of being a space sim. The learning curve is initially steep (despite the huge improvements FDev has made with bringing the tutorial into the game and making it n00b friendly with the n00b space system. The game's genre and fact ED takes path of the serious space sim (with serious Newtonian physics/graphic realism etc) has constrained it's mass appeal. Especially when compared to the easy to learn, arcadish and cartoony style of NMS.
Also the popular features that have given other space sims broader mass appeal are the ones with space legs, EVA, atmospheric planets, and/or underwater open world exploration capabilities (the likes of NMS, Space Engineers, Subnautica, X4, and Empyrion Galactic). Or one with dedicated PvP spaceship combat features (the likes of EvE Online which has a significantly larger Twitch following than ED to date).
The attraction for a F2P space only base game wouldn't appeal to potential players who like being a space Privateer. But who also want to experience the transition between space to planetary atmospheric and/or underwater worlds. Players who prefer features like space legs/EVA which enhances their planetary landing experience, and lets them personally interact with other players (both PvP & PvE), and planetary world content. So if the base game/space only component were to be made F2P, it's likely the learning curve and lack of these features wouldn't significantly increase the fan base numbers in ED. Which means CQC would remain a ghost town by default.
You are free to play all you want.
Buy the game. That wasn't very hard to figure out.
FTP. What a joke.
Buy the game. That wasn't very hard to figure out.
FTP. What a joke.
Especially given the technicalities of the server load nightmare that was Salomé's Formidine Rift. A fiasco that leads one to speculate FDev appears eager to completely forget about.
Sure lets just alienate thousands of Backers, Full Price Buyers, and Pre-Order Customers including those who hit jackpot with the juicy Steam Sales for the sake of letting thousands of snot-nosed kids play a Triple-A profile game, further ruining the Steam side of the game and subsequently flooding the Frontier Forums with thousands of "I KEPE GETITNG GNAKED!!!11" threads and god knows what other childish threads that we see daily in other Forums for Free Games...
To make it worse, when a game goes Free to Play, it generally means the Developer needs to find new ways to generate money, we have cosmetics as a way to help support FDev, if ED went Free, we can expect those prices to increase and we'll have a high chance of seeing "Premium Ship Insurance" for example, not to say FDev would do this, but when a developer makes a game for free the quality usually suffers because employees aren't being paid enough to give a chaff and they get desperate for funds, we see this time and time again.
I apologize for being too harsh but this is the sad reality of what happens when you make a high profile game that's been well established for a good part of 5 years Free to Play.
One Word: Demo <-- this is the term you're looking for or as one user mentioned "Starter Systems are Free" the Runescape concept, Fully Playable to an extent, the Runescape concept is something I'll always vote for, the idea of a Second Bubble being "Free Zone" wouldn't be a bad idea, it lets people try the game, and to enjoy it further, they buy it, the full game being free? yeah no, get a job and buy it like the rest of us.
To make it worse, when a game goes Free to Play, it generally means the Developer needs to find new ways to generate money, we have cosmetics as a way to help support FDev, if ED went Free, we can expect those prices to increase and we'll have a high chance of seeing "Premium Ship Insurance" for example, not to say FDev would do this, but when a developer makes a game for free the quality usually suffers because employees aren't being paid enough to give a chaff and they get desperate for funds, we see this time and time again.
I apologize for being too harsh but this is the sad reality of what happens when you make a high profile game that's been well established for a good part of 5 years Free to Play.
One Word: Demo <-- this is the term you're looking for or as one user mentioned "Starter Systems are Free" the Runescape concept, Fully Playable to an extent, the Runescape concept is something I'll always vote for, the idea of a Second Bubble being "Free Zone" wouldn't be a bad idea, it lets people try the game, and to enjoy it further, they buy it, the full game being free? yeah no, get a job and buy it like the rest of us.
Not sure if this is still the case since the tutorials were moved inside the cockpit but you used to be able to download and run the tutorials indefinitely without creating a CMDR save. That model, plus CQC as a way to populate the lobby for people who did buy it but have nobody to play with might just bridge a gap.
In short though, NO! At least not until the initial 10 year projected dev cycle is completed.
[I would however, obsolete the base game and roll it into Horizons prior to the 2020 DLC]
I think games like Team Fortress 2 and more recently CS:GO are good examples (feel free to add). In a world dominated by capitalism (not sparking another debating here, that's just how it is. sorry) there's virtually limitless ways to make money in a video game, especially in todays environment. Could you imagine the damage of implementing a lootbox for modules or something? forget shooting yourself in the foot, thats is Saw level sadmasochism suicide with a game like ED.
Demo? idk...maybe 20Ly diameter section of space for players with less than 24 logged game hours (not launcher/steam counter) for open play including SP and PG. PVP is turned off and once you're out of 24 hours you cant go back (with all the bells and whistles to prevent spamming n abuse n stuff) Maybe F2P expands to 50Ly diameter with PVP enabled and temporary permits to enter the "Scrub-zone" for the purpose of completing missions (any kind). PVE gets turned off once you jump in. So not so much a watered down or "limited" version. F2P can be monitored more closely for hax, exploiters, unnecessary nonsense. Then once you purchase the base game you get let out of the pen...so to speak
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Certainly not. Be thankful that it's not a pay-to-win and that it doesn't have a monthly charge, like a lot of MMOs nowadays.
It's already a free to play model. You buy the game and you're free to play it online as much as you want with no extra charge.
