I did that for a while too.

This game isn't worth 15 dollars a month when weighed against its free competition.

The only problem is that there are people who have roots with this game. Friends, guilds, toons they have leveled to rr10...

Free to play would make Mythic money, but as for most things, Mythic is too incompetent to capitalize.

If everyone currently hoping DAoC went f2p, mythic wouldn't make a dime. Because all you ever is hear is, "well ill only play daoc if it is f2p. 15 dollars, lol."

So here's the deal. If everyone currently playing DAoC would still pay 15/mo for the perks you know theyd have, and all of the f2p whiners played daoc for free and never spent anything, how are they making money? New players? Lol, I don't think so. DAoC doesn't have the goods to keep an mmo player who expects everything. And who's to stop those new players from playing the free trial, certainly it's not 15 dollars, because the trial is free, hence the name free trial.

To all those people who think daoc isn't worth 15 bucks a month, take a hike. DAoC is well worth the measly 15 dollars.

Even if daoc went f2p, you'd all be whining still because the people who are paying are more l33t than you because they get more stuff. You'd have to pay to unlock expansions, probably pay to unlock NF and DF, and maybe pay some more to unlock the BG quests, and def pay to unlock the new classic zone quests. That's how I'd do it. You'd basically be playing DAoC classic for free, everything else you'd have to pay for lol. Hell I'd charge you peckers just to get into RvR/BGs lol.

 

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Mordred: Fun if and only if there are others rolling at the same time with the intention of running the same numbers as you. Otherwise, any infusion of players into it will die down as dominant players emerge. Players that are looking to roll characters there are deterred by the bored/worse players that will kill them while pveing because they can't hang with the top competition. It's mostly an American mentality where people care about winning* and won't bother with even-numbered fights if they don't think they have a significant chance of winning. Because of this, the pyramid scheme of fights on Mordred dies more quickly than on other servers.

Gaheris: /shrug, don't really care.

*defined as outliving, and not regarding how many players/npcs one needs to accomplish this.

 

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This article about Zynga shows how difficult it is to make money using F2P. The article states that Zynga had 152 million unique monthly users and only $12.5 million in actual profit in a quarter. That works out to less than 8 cents profit per user per quarter (per 3 months).


With DAoC having about 20k players each paying $45 per quarter, and with the typical F2P user bringing in only 8 cents profit per quarter, DAoC would need to attract millions of players for the game to equal what it is already doing using the subscription model.


Then there is another challenge. DAoC already has all the players that like the kind of twisted game that DAoC is today. DAoC, as it is today, is not the kind of game that the typical MMO player wants to play. There is ample proof through WoW and other games that the typical MMO player is PvE centric. While many PvE centric players also PvP/RvR, for a game to be attractive to the typical MMO player the game needs good, viable and cohesive PvE (Which DAoC does not have. Most of the PvE in DAoC has been made pointless). In its greatest times DAoC maxed at about 260k subs and that was back when the games PvE had not been made worthless for the typical MMO player. It is an untenable position to think that a F2P game model of DAoC (the twisted, negelected, buggy, game that DAoC is today) would attract many millions.


That F2P may get “a lot of people playing” makes little difference because “a lot” is a non-quantifiable/obscure/abstract quantity. What is not an abstract quantity are the Zynga numbers where their average for the F2P model shows the typical player brings in only 32 cents a year in profit. DAoC today is generating about $3.5 million. Using a F2P model DAoC would need a HUGE number of subs to equal the profit DAoC is already producing using the subscription model.


Given the information that is available there is only one form of F2P that would be viable for DAoC. That would be to keep the subscription model that they have now (which keeps their existing income stream as it is) and to add a limited access F2P account (2 characters max, no bot type characters, secondary queue access for login, no access to a home, no mount, etc. . . ) which has already been discussed on many other threads.


Unless Mythic/Bioware were to make extensive changes/fixes/upgrades to DAoC, most standard forms of F2P would not be viable for DAoC at this time.


For more F2P information please see the following F2P threads:


Jan 09, 2012 Topic: Decouple Pendragon and Hector; make Hector f2p.

Nov 06 2011 F2P closure, launches and more - not a path that DAoC will be taking

Jul 25 2011 Topic: What would make u return?? mostly it is the last page of this link that is the discussion about F2P

Jul 10 2011 Topic: *Article* GA, AOC, and other MMO's go F2P - Record Profits!!!

Jun 30 2011 Topic: Make it free

Jan 04 2011 Topic: Some Type of Free to Play?

Oct 8 2010 Topic: F2P model success

Jun 05 2010 Topic: Should DAoC become free to play?

Feb 25 2010 Topic: Mythic - Watch and Learn

Mar 20 2009 Topic: We need a Mythic run F2P server

 

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Great post Semi4, I especially like the thread you linked...

http://vnboards.ign.com/daoc_general_board/b5176/115202892/p1


Citing how all of these struggling games went F2P, and made record profits.

I think the population numbers speak volumes at how the playerbase feels about the pve/pvp rulesets

 

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Yes, thank you for linking to that thread where people kept repeating the stupidity of the reporters. When others read that thread they will see the explanations of how the companies reported record REVENUE and the reporters misreported revenue and stupidly called it PROFIT.


Example: In the article I linked to about Zynga, it states Zynga made over $300 million in revenue but only $12 million in profit. Zynga actually reported both profit and revenue so people could see the reality of how little Zynga was making per customer. There is a huge difference between profit and revenue.


While the thread you link to is a good example of how people should not believe everything they read, and it is a good example of how people should have a bit of knowledge about subjects so they are not taking in by reporters that misquote or misstate things, in the end it is moot.


It does not matter at all how anyone twists the stupid statements of the incompetent reporters. The facts of the Zynga numbers stand.


32 cents profit per user per year means that DAoC as F2P would need to attract many millions of players for DAoC to collect the same profit that it has now. Another point of fact, the largest number of subscribers that DAoC every attracted at one time was 260k. Also, most players that would like what DAoC has been twisted into are already playing DAoC. Another point of fact, the vast majority of MMO players want good PvE and DAoCs PvE has been gutted and made pointless. (This all should be self-evident.)


The facts all point to DAoC being a total flop if it should go F2P using the standard F2P model (unless many millions were dumped into the game to totally revamp and fix all the stupidity that Mythic has inflicted on the game).

 

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There are millions of things people could pay for.


Let's not throw the F2P model out the window, because Zynga is only making $12 million/year.

Let's look at some things a little more comparable.


-Global Agenda
-Everquest
-Runes of Magic
-Allods Online
-Age of Conan


Why are all of these games going free to play? Obviously there is money to be made. Otherwise, they'd all be running on the DAoC model.

Who's going to pay for them? Subscribers won't because they'd probably still be subscribed like in LOTRO.

You baby whiners won't spend 15 bucks a month on the game so LOL at you spending any money at all. So who's gonna buy stuff? I'm curious.

 

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If daoc did go f2p, here's what it would break down to.


F2P clients:

Classic Zones/Tutorial Area
Restricted to original classes, no healers/bot classes
2 character slots

P2P clients:

Unlocked everything


Purchaseable merchandise for F2P clients:

-DF
-NF
-BGs
-Housing
-BG Quests
-NF Quests
-Classic zone quests
-Classic zone dungeons
-SI
-SI dungeons
-TOA
-TOA glass quests
-Catacombs
-Task Dungeons
-Updated Character Models
-Dragon scale drops (the ability for mobs to drop scales)
-Champion Levels
-Champion Weapons
-Glass drop unlock
-ML unlock
-TOA dungeon unlock
-Class unlocks, Each class requires money.
-Character Slot unlocks


there's more I just don't feel like typing it. So as long as they did this, I'd be up for F2P. I'd lose nothing, and you F2P fanboys would have to pay monies to be able to do anything fun in daoc. Which is how it should be.

 

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