This, but F2P with microtransactions that aren't totally gamebreaking would be fine for me.

EG house rents being $5/month instead of ingame currency. Labyrinth access being a once-off fee of $15 per account. Dyes at $1 per pottle. Extra character slots $5 each. The kind of "useful but not mandatory" stuff.

F2P has already been hashed out, argued, discussed. . .


F2P threads:

Topic: Make it free

Topic: F2P model success

Topic: We need a Mythic run F2P server

Topic: Some Type of Free to Play?

Topic: Should DAoC become free to play?

Topic: Mythic - Watch and Learn

Topic: F2P

 

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At this point the only way I would ever return is if they could fix all, or at least most, of the bugs and lag issues that currently undermine the entire gameplay mechanic so often that its not even recognized by most of the playerbase they have been putting up with it for so long. When I played all the time I never realized how often things broke down and failed on a basic level but every time I take any time off then come back its insane just how often things don't work as intended.

 

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To the people saying less abilities = more challenge, I would have to disagree. As long as your class is balanced, if you have more skills to manage and know when to use, it takes much more skill. Think of who is easy to play . . tanks like warrior, armsman, hero have lower number of abilities and spells, while classes like bards, minstrels, sorcerers and some of the casters/supports have all kinds of skills and abilities that they need to know when to use.

But I have to say too many skills has gotten out of hand in daoc, especially with ToA's items and MLs. There is no real class distinction or balance when it comes to abilities anymore.

Age of Conan went F2P with microtransactions and Funcom claims to have doubled their revenue. Same story with D&D Online, and Lord of the Rings Online. City of Heroes is going F2P and I'm sure they'll do well.


Seriously Mythic...wake up.

 

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Pabulum gets put into some article by a gullible reporter that should ask questions, but doesn’t, and then the article gets picked up and repeated over and over.


Profit = revenue – cost to generate revenue


Double revenue does not = double profit

Double revenue could = reduced profit (if expenditure rises enough)

Double revenue could = 2% increased profit


Whenever some company spouts pabulum about increased revenue, rather than talking about actual profit, it is usually because they do not want to disclose their actual profit but want to make things sound more rosy than it actually is (so they talk revenue instead of profit).


Don’t get sucked into the silliness.


Edit:

There are some F2P games that discuss revenue, profit, numbers of subscribers, etc. . . and in general what is found when looking at the numbers is the typical revenue from subscribers using the F2P model is $3 to $6 per month per subscriber (average).


I am not sure what the cost of operation per subscriber is, but the cost is much greater than zero.


Mythic currently gets $15 per subscriber. If DAoC were to shift to F2P, just to break even with revenue (not profit) Mythic would need to increase subscriber numbers between 3x to 5x but that increase in subscribers would overload the existing Ywain server. Mythic would need to add servers, which would increase cost. Mythic would also need to code the new F2P model and continually add gear that players would need to continually pay for (or the F2P model generates no money) and creating all that gear and coding to keep some kind of balance also costs money.


Then there is the problem that DAoC is not what the typical MMO player (who is PvE centric) wants. Then there is the old and clunky UI. Then there is the . . . basically DAoC is a hodgepodge, eclectic combination of broken code that desperately needs about $15 million of expenditure to fix it. Would players come to it if it were F2P, yep but because the PvE has been broken most would not stay.


Free shards are available yet most would rather pay to play other games than play DAoC for free (as shown by shard population.)


Don’t get sucked into the silliness.


Other F2P threads:

Topic: Make it free

Topic: F2P model success

Topic: We need a Mythic run F2P server

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

Topic: Some Type of Free to Play?

Topic: Should DAoC become free to play?

Topic: Mythic - Watch and Learn

 

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You say this like its a bad thing. Mythic overloading the server and adding new servers is a GOOD thing. Mythic needing to code and add new content is a GOOD thing. These arguments are only bad for Mythic if their goal is to let the game die.

Mythic might not be what the typical MMO player wants, but DAoC used to have a lot more MMO players than it does now, and F2P would be a huge incentive to bring people who enjoyed the game back to playing it.

In the end, there are a lot more opportunities and possibilities for both the company and its players than what there is now with the status quo.

Spending money without increasing revenue will lead to decreased profit. When DAoC's profit starts approaching zero EA/Bioware will shut down DAoC.


Yes, I think that increasing expenses to maintain exactly the same revenue is a bad thing.

 

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I just think that all the increases in expenses you mentioned would also increase revenue. Companies who are going f2p aren't in it to lose money. How has every online game ever made profits? By offering content, and a place to play. Once either of these stagnates, you will just enter a cycle of losing customers, which we have very clearly seen for DAoC. Yes, you have to invest to grow, but that is true for every company to flourish, and so I don't see where you have a valid argument unless you get into speculative specifics such as value and demand of DAoC in today's market. The only argument that it would not generate revenue is if it is a bad product or not competitive, and judging from previous success, current subscribers who pay $15/mo, and the general f2p market, DAoC can still compete.

The content that most F2P games are offering is actually much lower risk and cheaper to produce than what games used to have to provide(huge patches and expansions) to maintain subscribers. Furthermore, many of these F2P games offer a premium subscription/grandfathering of old users such that they can still maintain their current business model in parallel with the new; take Heroes of Newerth for example.

Also, Mythic has already taken this approach somewhat by making the game and its expansions free to download after charging people large amounts of money for many years prior to this, and it significantly reduced the barrier to new players. A F2P model would be a much more significant contribution in this direction.