F2P and augs

Either we pay a subscription: <$14.99 per month (for 1-6 accounts)

Or:

P2W Loot Boxes: $10 per pop
P2W Feature (updated regularly): $20 per feature
Cosmetic Loot Boxes: $10 per pop
DLC Pack: $15 every 3 months
Marketplace Potions (buff required for T2 zones or raids): $10 per pop
Cosmetic Bundles: $20 per pop

I'm sure EG7 would make a killing with this new F2P model. I'd expect each player to shell out at least $1000 a year to remain competitive on 1 character. Nevermind the good ole' days of $15/month to keep an entire account competitive (prestige gear).

ads don't cost s4!t.

content is still free

<derp>

lol

and popup ad in game doesn't change my character or account ability in any way. Argument makes no sense.

Game companies make more off engagement metrics.

Even World of Tanks and others are dropping the sub model because sales are off.

Engagement FTW

Gotta be in it to spend.

Making returning players irrelevant over a level 70 aug discourages them. ( (Deep Sky / Deepsky stone, that I factioned for, I'm looking at you.)

Taking away their already earned and accrued Loyalty means they can't even snag the plat to remove the augs.

Yeah, that'll boost marketplace sales and sub sales for sure.

and saying they must be P2W is a strawman.

Keeping augs we earned isn't P2W,

I have a bridge to sell you in Alaska.

and for itemizations"

Toon with all but 3 slots unusable due to hot zone and otherwise earned augs being prestige and a net cost of 5k in aug distillers =

/camp

I'll deal with this later.

=0$ spent, ever until the toon is playable again.

and certainly, not a sub until I can get a Krono because I'm not removing 13 augs to play, just to put the augs back in once I can afford a Krono by slaughtering noob zones for cash.

Specifically why 4 of our 10 accounts in the family have zero engagement for the past year.

lol

https://blog.popcornmetrics.com/5-user-engagement-metrics-for-growth/

I am very much interested in your bridge, if you are referring to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knik_Arm_Bridge

What does that prove?

It is a logical fallacy to think a more generous F2P leads to greater engagement, and that greater engagement leads to greater monetization.

What if I told you Daybreak/ EG7 saw a decline in revenue due to the elimination of subscription? They had to cut staff and end development (go into maintenance mode). Where is the engagement there?

Or, what if Daybreak/EG7 eliminated subscriptions but instituted a nickel-and-dime strategy of loot boxes to make up for lost revenue? Don't you think it would turn people away?

Or, what if Daybreak/EG7 put Coca-Cola ads in the game? I'm gonna love the "Brought to you by Fly Emirates" banner at the end of a raid or "Roto-Rooter" billboard in Plane of Knowledge. It would definitely help with immersion.

The issue isn't the subscription model in itself hurting player engagement. It's how you optimally monetize the game because other revenue models can be even more destructive.

?? Umm no.

Even with commercials and the "forced" meme buzzword, it's still FREE. (even capitalized it for emphasis)

Maybe you misunderstand, FREE means no money changes hands.
some free to air television and gaming may have ads, sure, yet still be... you guessed it, free.

as in wallet closed.

IMO they should eliminate prestige as a status, all it does is attempt to shame people by taking away what they already earned fairly.

Want max level cap and max AAs, Sub up.

Otherwise let the players KEEP what they already own. Taking them away is treating them like shirt.

This thread has gone seriously off the rails. The OP's suggestion was specifically limited to a handful of augs from 4-5 expansions back. It's not an unreasonable request, and is fully consistent with the current F2P model. Unlocking certain older Prestige items as part of the expansion window has been neglected in the last few years, instead it's come down to "when will the next expansion be unlocked" and that's it. Nobody is asking or expecting to play current content for free.

People who earned augs should be able to keep them.

I agree, but someone here is vehemently against this for some reason and keeps throwing unrelated arguments into it. Joe Player doesn't deserve to keep his deep sky aug that Joe worked for because the account went free to pay, even with 5700 loyalty crown.

There ARE expansion aug vendors, melee and otherwise. Many are flagged prestige as if a level 70 aug was game breaking.

The average American spends 4 years of their lives watching commercials.

That is not "free."

People gladly pay to bypass ads.

So I am better understanding your position. You do not mind Emirates, Coca-Cola, Roto-Rooter, Intel ads popping up in the game as long as you get the pop in 6 augments for free. lol.

The F2P model is already generous. The devs have likely decided it is not worth the labor and time taken away from paying players (development of TLP or current content, lag fixes) to reward free riders. Or, they have decided that the subscription model has evolved.

But I agree that this thread should be locked. It is best that I stop responding to opinions rooted in a logical fallacy.

This is reality and is actually industry standard.

I didn't make up MAU / DAU, they did.

dafuq? lol You make up the most outlandish correlations.

F2P players retaining earned augs and cohesive paths to relevance as a character shouldn't be derailed by "Prestige" when all the other mechanics are specifically added to shepherd returnig players to where they might actually BUY the new expansion, which they never will if they can't gain relevance.

Free the F2P augs entirely already. They paid devs for defiant gear, hot zone XP and so on and so on, yet then turn and barrier to entry by way of level 70 etc augs.

There are many revenue models out there, not all will work for all things. As far as I know, the addition of F2P was to get more people to try out the game. If their F2P model doesn't lead to more subs, or more spending in general then it should probably be revisited.

However, since they have both subscriptions and F2P access, they have to balance them to ensure they aren't losing revenue from having that split. That will probably take some reviewing and revising that they may not have time to do. It's the old "you have to spend money to make money" thing, and in this case the money they need to spend is on capable bodies to reinforce their team.

If DPG had the resources to look into and act on half the things players have pointed out as issues they would be sitting pretty right now. Imagine an EQ where they rebuilt the client with a modern engine. Imagine all the itemization got reviewed with an eye on multiple different problems. You'd be imagining a game where we weren't as worried about Heroic boosts or catching up. You'd have communities spread across the level ranges, it'd be like the old days again.

Or maybe it wouldn't. Maybe we're just a bunch of die-hard old a-holes who can't let go of nostalgia and sunk-cost fallacies, and they are sticking around until we won't pay them anymore. Who knows. But I do wish for a day where the team could have the opportunity to go back and future-proof the game. That's when you would see issues like F2P/Sub balance get addressed, and other QoL changes that could modernize the game.

You spend the majority of your posts preaching: subs =/= profitability.

Then, when you get called out and Captain Video brings up the derail, you revert to the OP's more narrow position on low-level augments.

I suspect that goalposts with regard to F2P features will move as fickly as your forum positions.

Is "pay2win" even a profitable scheme nowadays? I would imagine a very large portion of otherwise interested gamers are strongly put off with blatant P2W.

F2P players retaining earned augs and cohesive paths to relevance as a character shouldn't be derailed by "Prestige" when all the other mechanics are specifically added to shepherd returnig players to where they might actually BUY the new expansion, which they never will if they can't gain relevance.

seems on target

You seem to be hostile to the idea.