My Turn To Disagree With Syn...

SynCaine posts, someone disagress… 'tis the way of the nets. Today is my turn.

Check out this recent post in which Syn attacks the Free To Play model, treating it like the model will forcefully steal all your money if you even dare approach it. The post is about Allods Online specifically, which is the current "it" F2P title, both people excited about it (or regaining excitement for it since the price cut) and people who dislike the whole F2P shebang. And, of course, he takes the concept and gives it the whole Fox News treatment.

Honestly, I understand why some people are not attracted at all to the F2P model. I also understand why others are attracted to it. I happen to be one of those that is attracted to the model, but not necessarily attracted to Allods. Really though, I can't even make that a definitive statement because I haven't played the game long enough yet where the Cash Shop has become a real concern of mine, but at least I can say that I haven't gotten to that point instead of trying to use some comment on some blog somewhere on the internet because, as we all know, if it's a comment on a blog, it must be true.

Putting that whole piece of his article aside, which is the majority of his article and the basis of his argument in this particular post, I'll take umbrage with a few other statements he makes:

People FEARING upcoming patches? People calculating how much they will need to spend to just get by? People hoping the cash shop is not abused by other players and balance is somewhat maintained? Really, THAT"S how you want to play your MMO? Living in fear of tomorrow? So so backwards.

People FEAR patches all the time! Every time a new patch is announced for a game, there is a surge of posts across the blog world and forums about how a particular nerf will ruin their character or spec, or how that buff to some class will make the game unplayable, or that they'll /ragequit immediately if the developer doesn't change their mind. It's the way of the gamer, and the MMO gamer specifically. We overreact to change because it scares us, but then we see that change in action and most people continue happily playing while those who truly can't live with the change move on.

Then there's the fear of calculating how much you'll have to spend to get by. As if that doesn't happen in Subscription games? If a game changes how it structures its loot distribution, players will spends hours calculating the fastest way to get item X, and then completely adjust their play time to do it. If it takes them 2 months to get the new items, there is a direct correlation to how much money they've spent getting those items, which is money AND time. At least in some F2P games you can circumvent one of those issues if you so choose.

I like the idea of F2P model, or as some of the smarter publishers are calling them nowadays Subscriptionless Games (I think that's far more accurate). I'm not sold on the idea that the revolution is now, mainly because I think very few, if any, games have the model just right. But that time is coming and there will be Subscriptionless games that rival Sub games in both popularity and active playerbase soon. Fighting the idea seems silly to me. Will it take over the market completely? I don't think it will, but it will be a viable alternative pricing model, with or without Allods. They got it wrong in some areas, but that doesn't invalidate the model wholesale.

- Dickie