They'd probably be panicking, actually.
That many new subs would mean they'd have to open four to six new servers to support the new players. Which costs money.

And they'd have to (edit: hire, not fire) hire new people. Which costs money.

And all BEFORE they found out whether the new players were going to (a) stick around, and (b) spend money....

 

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Oh sorry for not clarifying that before, but yes I entirely agree with you on this. I stupidly assumed everyone knows my stance on this, but I said in the past that the model I'd expect to see would be limited. I absolutely agree they would not want to lose current customers, but rather use F2P to attact new players solely in the hopes that they activate a premium subscription, and that maybe through some micro transactions are at least able to get enough revenue from that to make the effort of implementing a F2P model pay for itself.

Absolutely they want to keep and expand the subscription base, not implement an entire F2P experience that has existing paying customers swap over to play for free...that would clearly be suicidal for an old game with a hardcore paying base.

My entire argument was from that PoV, sorry for not clarifying that.


I doubt we'd see anything as drastic as purchasing levels or top-end gear for straight up cash, that's suicidal as it won't sit well with existing players. Integrating F2P into the current end-game is IMO a daunting task and a huge risk for Mythic in upsetting the existing paying player-base. Although scales & glass make perfect targets for micro-transactions and Mythic could easily sell these on the side without making anything F2P about it, I actually think the F2P model that Mythic would most likely push would be to make the game free to play until a certain level & BG.

As I said in the past, and based on testing the new user experience, I expect something like F2P until roughly level 39 since that's where the new user experience quest hubs end. At that point you could either force F2P players to cap out of Molvik and either hit a hard cap at level 40 and remain there until you subscribe (or delete and make a new char), or maybe even allowing true F2P in Molvik and hope they will eventually tire of the limited & repetitive nature of BGs and want to join big-boy RvR.

The fact is that the amount of free players that DAoC is likely to attract will probably not overtax Ywains resources, especially when they mostly inhabit the BGs and PvE zones. It's almost a win-win because it makes the game better for everyone to have more action in the PvE zones and BGs, without flooding NF with a buncha new people who aren't even paying a subscription fee. (As you can see, I don't expect that this limited F2P would draw 100s of thousands of players to an old game such as this. I think it would perhaps attract a few thousand early on, and hopefully a consistent trickle after that, and maybe end up in 2-5% of them actually becoming premium subscribers.)

 

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Sorry, I sometimes connect past posts to existing comments but not always.



I agree with your post and I agree that it is a win-win but in another way it is sad that such a great game is in such poor shape that it would not explode





The free account that I am thinking of would have enough restrictions that most existing players would not cancel their existing account and opt for a free account. They would not be able to use their existing accounts as a free account. They would need to start a new/special account if they wanted a free account.


The free account would have:

A limit of 2 characters only.

No bot characters available

No money transfers between characters available, but they can make money and sell/purchase from an NPC.

No transfers of gear between characters available.

No housing available.

No CLs available

No personal horse available, though a horse taxi would be available.

No port stones or tin hat

No respec stones

Limit RA to level 5 or 4.

Crafting limited to 200

As Meddyck24 said, limit RP that can be earned per week

And when the servers are full the free accounts get a warning that they may be auto logged off to make room for subscription accounts.


This would allow new players to help fill the frontiers a bit and yet most existing players would not want to be restricted to a template of only quested or dropped or NPC gear without any gear gained from crafters or from raids.


Also, most existing players would hate the loss of port stones or the loss of a tin hat or the lack of a personal horse or etc. . . .



In a few ways.


1) If the free account is designed correctly it will attract some noobs to the game that would not have otherwise spent money trying out an unknown/old game and a small percentage will subscribe.


2) If the free account is designed correctly it will not be attractive to existing players who have grown used to having the benefits of a subscription account.


3) Clustering happened only because of the frontier population shrinking. Ywain was created only because the frontier population kept shrinking and the game needed a final cluster. While the frontier does have a viable population, based on the frequency of past clustering the frontier population will soon have trouble. The game population is still in decline and there are no other clusters to cluster. In the near future the game will need both:

A) A method of attracting noobs that is different than the methods Mythic has been using in the past and

B) The frontier is going to need an influx of fodder or the frontier will die and with the death of the frontiers the game dies.


So “so how is this going to benefit bioware/mythic?”

It keeps the game alive

It provides for a new, and not yet used, method of attracting noobs

It will have minimal negative impact on existing accounts

It will provide fodder for the frontiers and help keep the frontiers population viable.





You are correct that it is not actually a F2P model in the purest form that is used by many games, it is a modification of the F2P system. It is F2P with some restrictions on the account. You are also correct that many who want to “enjoy the free game is still going to pay a regular subscription fee”


With this version of the free account, where a player can level to 50 and become fodder in the frontiers, the free account is a bit more substantial than WAR’s unlimited free trial up to level 10, or WoWs free trial up to level 20.





I really do agree with you here. The typical MMO player is PvE centric and DAoC needs to beef up its PvE and make it have a bit more of a point.


While the experience gain of PvE in DAoC is mostly pointless, Mythic could change things and create quest chains, PvE questing that would provide good gear (almost top level gear) for F2P accounts. This would make PvE have a point for the free account because it would be one of the few ways for a free account to be able to get good gear.


This way PvE would once again have a point but the change would not drag frontier-ready-toons back to PvE to get them once again outfitted for the frontiers. This would be a PvE alternate way for new F2P players to get good gear.


It could make PvE viable enough for the noobs who love PvE, without destroying the existing experience system that Mythic has in the game that so many existing players love.


In the end though you are correct about the horrible changes Mythic has made to DAoC's PvE is a road block to the future of a F2P system. This modified F2P system would be a band aid to try and slow the decline of a great game.

 

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i dont think f2p is the answer, but its close to the answer, here is how i see it. 1.the economy is broken, its far to easy to generate plat out of the game mechanics which is driving inflation, you cant just print money forever. you have to get the stagnant plat out of circulation, so you add items for plat, like 30 days play time tokens, 24hr xp/rp bonus tokens, add house upgrades that a. cost plat and b. increase your rent for the more upgrades you have, etc. what did you say? game time for plat will make them go broke? nope, because you sell game time as in game tokens that can be traded or sold. you want to buy plat and dont want to break tos, buy a game token from ea for cash and sell it in game for plat. sell buff tokens for cash, npc buff is still sold for gold but you can buy capped buffs for cash from ea in the form of a token or potion. what? i already pay too much for an old game, ok, so drop the price to subscribe to 9.99, you will make up for this loss in cash sales of in game items.
2. pve is broken, so upgrade the items dropped, make mobs drop items that if collected make a complete suit, kind of like, oh i dunno, ML10 items, collect all the armour and weapon for suit and summon a cloak. draw some new armor skins, make the suits unique so everyone who sees the player will recognize where its from, turns it into bragging rights as well. titles, wow has shown us people like titles and acheivements, again, its bragging rights. so add a title to correspond with the major pve boss mobs. upgrade crafting, make player crafted jewelry items, rings/necklace/etc, and make them sc'able.
3. make unlimited access to classic regions free to play, only sub'd accounts can access rvr and expansions past classic, make housing accessable to the f2p crowd so they can shop but no houses owned by unsub'd accounts, and shorten repo timer on houses.

just some random thoughts, flame on.

 

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