Via MMO crunch, Pirates of the Burning Sea is gearing up to go FtP. A bit of research reveals that PotBS is not nearly as mainstream in it's design as other recent sub-based games to make the switch, less so than even DDO. In fact, according to reviews, it plays a lot like a EVE Online with a pirate theme. Not a game I'd be willing to try if the purchase of a client was involved, but for free? Yeah sure. Why not? It will be really interesting to see how they decide to monetize the game. PoTBS is also targeted at a somewhat niche audience (the Pirate Sim crowd?), which could work for or against it competing against LoTRO and EQ2X.
I personally hope that it does well because I have the attention span of a humming bird (at least by MMO gaming standards). The more full featured MMOs I can mess around with that don't require an entry fee, the better from where I stand. Regardless, it looks to be a really unique entry into the FtP MMO market.
Edit: Ethic over at KTR, My moment of zen, and Jaydub over at Dub's Diatribe all also have posts up. It also occurs to be that PoTBS is a SOE game. Does this mean that EQ2X is doing well?
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
The great FtP experiment is upon us
With Lord of the Rings FtP going live this weekend, we now have three major MMOs (LoTRO, along with Dungeons and Dragons Online and Everquest II extended) that have switched from sub based to FtP. Besides those of us that obsess on MMOs as a hobby, I imagine a lot of industry folks are going to be watching these games closely.
I suspect that the success or failure of LoTRO and EQ2X in particular will have a big impact on the pricing structure of future and current MMOs. To be sure, DDO seems to have been an unqualified success. But it hardly counts because the game was in dire straights before. Any change of fortune that let Turbine justify keeping the servers running would have been deemed a success.
In contrast, if EQ II and LoTRO, two already modestly successful sub based MMOs, also manage to permanently double or triple their revenue just by "turning on the [FtP] newbie fire-hose" (as Ian put it when we were chatting last night), I think a lot of existing sub based MMOs are going to try it as well. For example, why wouldn't Age of Conan, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, or Vanguard try the same thing? On the other hand, if either EQ II or LoTRO experience a brief spurt of attention, but then go back down to normal revenue levels in the next few months, I don't think much is going to change.
A month in EQ2X does not seem to be slowing down. At the very least the newbie channel had such a huge volume of chat last night at ridiculously-late-o'clock a.m. that it was spamming half the chat from my guild away before I could read it. If SOE figures out sooner rather than later that most of the FtP players will never-ever sub and gives silver and bronze accounts more options, I suspect they will see a big jump in revenue.
I also bopped briefly in to LoTRO last night, and it seemed to be hopping. It took me a good long while to log in to my server, and I don't play on one of the more popular ones. I had 4500 free Turbine points, and relatively little worth spending them on. But then I'm a lifer, I already have all the quests, classes, bag slots, and such. About all the points are good for to me is expanding my bank (which is not to be sneezed at I will allow), at least for the time being. As an aside, I also noticed that Captains have gotten a major overhaul. They are a heck of lot more fun at low levels now.
I'm watching LoTRO with special interest, because I as much as I dig it personally I really don't think it's for everyone (as Jaydub has also pointed out). It remains a somewhat slow paced MMO with a very restrained feeling setting. There will never be more than four races or a class more flashy than a Runemaster. There are certainly a good number of Tolkien lore geeks out there, but I suspect the majority of those that were in to MMOs had already at least tried LoTRO. Who the legions of new players flooding the servers right now are and whether they will stick around, much less spend money, is hard to say.
I suspect that the success or failure of LoTRO and EQ2X in particular will have a big impact on the pricing structure of future and current MMOs. To be sure, DDO seems to have been an unqualified success. But it hardly counts because the game was in dire straights before. Any change of fortune that let Turbine justify keeping the servers running would have been deemed a success.
In contrast, if EQ II and LoTRO, two already modestly successful sub based MMOs, also manage to permanently double or triple their revenue just by "turning on the [FtP] newbie fire-hose" (as Ian put it when we were chatting last night), I think a lot of existing sub based MMOs are going to try it as well. For example, why wouldn't Age of Conan, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, or Vanguard try the same thing? On the other hand, if either EQ II or LoTRO experience a brief spurt of attention, but then go back down to normal revenue levels in the next few months, I don't think much is going to change.
A month in EQ2X does not seem to be slowing down. At the very least the newbie channel had such a huge volume of chat last night at ridiculously-late-o'clock a.m. that it was spamming half the chat from my guild away before I could read it. If SOE figures out sooner rather than later that most of the FtP players will never-ever sub and gives silver and bronze accounts more options, I suspect they will see a big jump in revenue.
I also bopped briefly in to LoTRO last night, and it seemed to be hopping. It took me a good long while to log in to my server, and I don't play on one of the more popular ones. I had 4500 free Turbine points, and relatively little worth spending them on. But then I'm a lifer, I already have all the quests, classes, bag slots, and such. About all the points are good for to me is expanding my bank (which is not to be sneezed at I will allow), at least for the time being. As an aside, I also noticed that Captains have gotten a major overhaul. They are a heck of lot more fun at low levels now.
I'm watching LoTRO with special interest, because I as much as I dig it personally I really don't think it's for everyone (as Jaydub has also pointed out). It remains a somewhat slow paced MMO with a very restrained feeling setting. There will never be more than four races or a class more flashy than a Runemaster. There are certainly a good number of Tolkien lore geeks out there, but I suspect the majority of those that were in to MMOs had already at least tried LoTRO. Who the legions of new players flooding the servers right now are and whether they will stick around, much less spend money, is hard to say.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Still obsessing on EQ2X
First off, I think the blogging community needs to decide what the abbreviation of Everquest II Extended is. Hell, even here you can find EQ2X, EQIIX, and EQII ex in various posts. There is also some movement towards EQ2E on some blogs. Forget unemployment, this is serious business ;-)
My new pixie death mage is definitely going to go tailor. After a bit of research, I realized that I was insane and tailoring is the crafting line that makes bags, not a separate crafting line. As a tailor you get cloth armor, leather armor, and bags. It seems like a solid production profession, and with all three of my silver characters being cloth wearers I think it will be a lot of fun to level it. I doubt I'll be wearing a lot of what I can make given how good quest drops are, but I'd be surprised if I can't fill in a slot here and there with some of the high end rare recipes.
The thing I always enjoy about the crafting in EQ II is everyone can gather everything. That means that one high level lead can gather enough mats for several alts to blow through their crafting tiers. If you gather everything in sight, you soon end up with more raw materials than you will ever be able to use, short of a crafter that makes consumables.
I was surprised to discover that the new auction house tokens are per character, not account wide. This is a bit of an annoyance, but ultimately not a big deal if you are silver and have a shared bank account. I have one character that almost never leaves the crafting hall in Neriak, he has become my designated auctioneer. After messing around with it for a night, I have to concur with Stabs that tokens aren’t worth using for anything but occasional single purchases. If you can’t sell drops and crafted products in bulk, it’s not worth the bother of selling anything. Certainly, it isn’t worth 15 cents a pop (the cost of a token) to list most items.
Finally, based on a tip from Green Armadillo and Stabs in the comments of my previous post, last night I hunted down the quest “A Gathering Obsession.” It led me to a continent I had never set foot on before, and the quest was so easy and rewarding that I ended up doing it on all three of my characters. 17-18 gold is a lot of cash for 20 minutes of work. I plan to do part II with all three of my characters eventually for another 17 gold each. To find the quest, hit a travel globe at any dock and choose “Island of Mara.” When you arrive cross the river nearby and look for Qho Augren, a little boy swimming around in a pond. He’ll be the only quest feather on your map at low levels, making him really easy to find.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Restricted classes and broker tokens now for sale in EQ2X
Today at around noon SOE released a small patch and an update to the item shop in Everquest II extended. Now silver and bronze players can buy access to restricted classes for $7.50 each, and can buy broker (auction house) tokens in stacks of ten for $1.50.
On the announcement I bought another $20 in station cash, bringing my total in EQ2X up to $45 since I started playing. I’m planning to buy access to the Arasai race and necromancer class, because I find the idea of playing an evil pixie delightful (along with half the players of EQ II it seems, based on what I remember from my days on the regular servers). That will still leave me with a bit to spend on AH..erm “broker” tokens. Each token allows you bid on or sell one item or stack of items.
At this point, unless more features are added it doesn’t look like I’ll be spending much more on EQ2X. I will soon own every race I like (I will have bought three packs after tonight), I own silver, and I won’t be buying any more classes unless more character slots become available. I’m also not going to get tricked into buying $6 worth of broker tokens every month, I’ll be using the broker sparingly. For what I’ve spent I have a heck of a lot of game in front of me, I feel like I’ve gotten a good value. However, if SOE doesn’t offer options like spell upgrade tokens, bag slot unlocks, or extra character slots I just don’t see anything else I’m going to want to buy. And even those options would have to be pretty inexpensive to lure me in.
As it stands, I plan to start leveling up a necro tonight who will focus on making bags. With the inventory restrictions in place currently, big bags is a huge priority. So far I haven’t had any other real issues with my silver account. Gear upgrades come in quickly from quests, and I’ve so far had more money than I need just from vendoring drops. Given the gold cap on silvers, it also doesn’t make a lot of sense to try and stockpile tons of cash.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
EQ II extended: great game with a sub-par FtP model
Apologies for the radio silence, I was at a conference last week and playing catch up early this week.
The first thing I did when I had some spare time was try out Everquest II extended. Everquest II is one of those MMOs I have dabbled in a few times, and like quite a bit, but have never subbed to for more than a month or two. I tend to get bored with it in long doses, despite the fact that it's overall a very solid game. Because of that, I was really excited about the announcement of the FtP variant of EQ II, EQ II extended. The idea of being able to stick my head in whenever the wild hair strikes, and yet not have to sub, is appealing. I've worked my way up to 9 and 7 in two different starting areas on two different classes, and thought I'd share my impressions.
First I should start with the good. EQ II remains a solid game, X or no. It has a character customization system that is flexible without being overwhelming, has a very solid crafting system, a full featured housing system, a good appearance slot system, and a great guild leveling system. The latter is only rivaled by DDO among MMOs I have played.
Character progression is very quick. You will hit level 5 within an hour of logging, and have roughly twice as many abilities by then as you would in the great bulk of MMOs. Questing in Timorous Deep and New Halas also gets you gear upgrades extremely quickly. You can expect to have a full set of gear with solid stats by the time you hit ten, and that's a time commitment of perhaps three hours.
The tech behind this new version is also amazing. I hit the EQIIX website and was playing the game within less than ten minutes, on a fresh install. The time barrier to entry for a new player is now practically nil. It runs considerably better than I remember from the last time I played, but then again this is by far the best PC of the three I've played EQ II on. It's hard to say whether the client has been streamlined or average PCs have finally caught up to their poorly optimized client. I'll give SOE the benefit of the doubt and assume there are some improvements to their to their engine in this version.
Finally, there is a ton of content available on a free account. There are months of quests available to a new player whether you ever decide to pay or not. Rumor has it enough content to get you all the way to 80. That's kind of insane.
To summarize to this point: mechnically and technically EQIIX is an extremely solid MMO. There is no reason it could not become the best FtP MMO on the market.
Unfortunately, without changes to their current pricing model, it never will because FtP accounts are gimped no matter how much you spend on them.
This has been covered elsewhere, but to summarize Bronze/ Silver players (i.e., non - sub accounts) will never be able to access the following features no matter how much they are willing to pay:
-most of the classes [Edit (update): this afternoon it was announced that classes will be available in the future]
-the auction house
-the ability to set up a merchant in their house
-more than three character slots
-the ability to send mail
-the ability to change the amount of XP that goes AAs versus levelling
...in addition to other features. I may spend the ten dollars to upgrade to a silver account. It gives you an extra character slot, shared bank slots for passing items among alts, some extra bag slots, and better abilities. But at this point, knowing that I will never be able to play the classes that I really want to play or access the auction house, I'm really not inclined to invest much money into the game.
I could always sub up for $15 a month (i.e., go gold) and remove most of those restrictions....save that I'd still have to pay for extra races beyond the base four and for the most recent expansion. Or I could buy the most recent expansion for about the same price that it costs on a gold account, and get the entire game and all the races for free with a $15 sub to any of the regular servers. Any way you slice it, EQ II extended is a poor value. The sub options are a worse value than subbing to their normal game, and a silver account is so restricted as to be extremely annoying to play. It's about on par with a completely free account in most FtP MMOs.
I really don't think SOE gets the whole concept of FtP MMOs. They give away access to 90% of the content for free, but then refuse to sell most of the classes to anyone that doesn't sub. Those are both enormous potential revenue streams that they are setting on fire. Anyone prone to sub would be foolish to do it in a gold account that charges extra for races. In addition, anyone prone to sub to EQ II likely already is subbing on one of the regular servers. This isn't a good strategy for getting new subbers, and it's a horrifically bad strategy for retaining and monetizing FtP accounts.
I have had decent fun the last two nights in EQIIX. However, even after the few hours I've played, the restrictions on the FtP accounts have me so frustrated that I'm likely putting this game on my back burner as soon as I get through the new starter area. DDO, Wizard 101, and soon LoTRO all provide a much better FtP experience. Until SOE pulls their head out of the sand and makes FtP accounts viable long term investments, I honestly can't see spending a lot of time or cash in EQIIX.
That isn't to say EQIIX is a bad game. It's a great game. It just isn't a very good FtP game with the payment options that SOE has chosen. If you have never played EQII, want a FtP game with a lot of content, and don't mind being cutoff from the in game economy and most of the classes; it's a decent choice. However, if your idea of a good FtP game is being able to buy lifetime access to a full featured MMO piecemeal (ala DDO or Wizard 101), it's not really an option. FtP in EQIIX is really an extended trial that can be gimped or severely gimped depending on whether you go for silver or stay bronze.
Edit (update): SOE, proving that they are not completely insane, has decided to start selling classes in a future update. I find this news encouraging enough that in addition to going silver, I'm buying a race pack as soon as I get home tonight. There are still going to be a lot of restrictions on silver accounts, but this was the one that irked me the most by a wide margin.
Edit(update2): in a further response in the same thread, senior SOE staff member (head CM guy?) Smokejumper implied that we will be able to buy extra character slots in a future update, but that the AH restrictions will most likely remain firmly in place for the time being.
The first thing I did when I had some spare time was try out Everquest II extended. Everquest II is one of those MMOs I have dabbled in a few times, and like quite a bit, but have never subbed to for more than a month or two. I tend to get bored with it in long doses, despite the fact that it's overall a very solid game. Because of that, I was really excited about the announcement of the FtP variant of EQ II, EQ II extended. The idea of being able to stick my head in whenever the wild hair strikes, and yet not have to sub, is appealing. I've worked my way up to 9 and 7 in two different starting areas on two different classes, and thought I'd share my impressions.
First I should start with the good. EQ II remains a solid game, X or no. It has a character customization system that is flexible without being overwhelming, has a very solid crafting system, a full featured housing system, a good appearance slot system, and a great guild leveling system. The latter is only rivaled by DDO among MMOs I have played.
Character progression is very quick. You will hit level 5 within an hour of logging, and have roughly twice as many abilities by then as you would in the great bulk of MMOs. Questing in Timorous Deep and New Halas also gets you gear upgrades extremely quickly. You can expect to have a full set of gear with solid stats by the time you hit ten, and that's a time commitment of perhaps three hours.
The tech behind this new version is also amazing. I hit the EQIIX website and was playing the game within less than ten minutes, on a fresh install. The time barrier to entry for a new player is now practically nil. It runs considerably better than I remember from the last time I played, but then again this is by far the best PC of the three I've played EQ II on. It's hard to say whether the client has been streamlined or average PCs have finally caught up to their poorly optimized client. I'll give SOE the benefit of the doubt and assume there are some improvements to their to their engine in this version.
Finally, there is a ton of content available on a free account. There are months of quests available to a new player whether you ever decide to pay or not. Rumor has it enough content to get you all the way to 80. That's kind of insane.
To summarize to this point: mechnically and technically EQIIX is an extremely solid MMO. There is no reason it could not become the best FtP MMO on the market.
Unfortunately, without changes to their current pricing model, it never will because FtP accounts are gimped no matter how much you spend on them.
This has been covered elsewhere, but to summarize Bronze/ Silver players (i.e., non - sub accounts) will never be able to access the following features no matter how much they are willing to pay:
-most of the classes [Edit (update): this afternoon it was announced that classes will be available in the future]
-the auction house
-the ability to set up a merchant in their house
-more than three character slots
-the ability to send mail
-the ability to change the amount of XP that goes AAs versus levelling
...in addition to other features. I may spend the ten dollars to upgrade to a silver account. It gives you an extra character slot, shared bank slots for passing items among alts, some extra bag slots, and better abilities. But at this point, knowing that I will never be able to play the classes that I really want to play or access the auction house, I'm really not inclined to invest much money into the game.
I could always sub up for $15 a month (i.e., go gold) and remove most of those restrictions....save that I'd still have to pay for extra races beyond the base four and for the most recent expansion. Or I could buy the most recent expansion for about the same price that it costs on a gold account, and get the entire game and all the races for free with a $15 sub to any of the regular servers. Any way you slice it, EQ II extended is a poor value. The sub options are a worse value than subbing to their normal game, and a silver account is so restricted as to be extremely annoying to play. It's about on par with a completely free account in most FtP MMOs.
I really don't think SOE gets the whole concept of FtP MMOs. They give away access to 90% of the content for free, but then refuse to sell most of the classes to anyone that doesn't sub. Those are both enormous potential revenue streams that they are setting on fire. Anyone prone to sub would be foolish to do it in a gold account that charges extra for races. In addition, anyone prone to sub to EQ II likely already is subbing on one of the regular servers. This isn't a good strategy for getting new subbers, and it's a horrifically bad strategy for retaining and monetizing FtP accounts.
I have had decent fun the last two nights in EQIIX. However, even after the few hours I've played, the restrictions on the FtP accounts have me so frustrated that I'm likely putting this game on my back burner as soon as I get through the new starter area. DDO, Wizard 101, and soon LoTRO all provide a much better FtP experience. Until SOE pulls their head out of the sand and makes FtP accounts viable long term investments, I honestly can't see spending a lot of time or cash in EQIIX.
That isn't to say EQIIX is a bad game. It's a great game. It just isn't a very good FtP game with the payment options that SOE has chosen. If you have never played EQII, want a FtP game with a lot of content, and don't mind being cutoff from the in game economy and most of the classes; it's a decent choice. However, if your idea of a good FtP game is being able to buy lifetime access to a full featured MMO piecemeal (ala DDO or Wizard 101), it's not really an option. FtP in EQIIX is really an extended trial that can be gimped or severely gimped depending on whether you go for silver or stay bronze.
Edit (update): SOE, proving that they are not completely insane, has decided to start selling classes in a future update. I find this news encouraging enough that in addition to going silver, I'm buying a race pack as soon as I get home tonight. There are still going to be a lot of restrictions on silver accounts, but this was the one that irked me the most by a wide margin.
Edit(update2): in a further response in the same thread, senior SOE staff member (head CM guy?) Smokejumper implied that we will be able to buy extra character slots in a future update, but that the AH restrictions will most likely remain firmly in place for the time being.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
WoW did not kill innovation in MMOs
I found a recent post at Don't Fear the Mutant and the comments that followed really thought provoking. In certain corners of the web there is a running meme that goes along the lines of "Every major MMO since World of Warcraft launched has been a WoW clone, WoW murdered innovation in the MMO genre. " Of course this relies on defining every MMO that has classes, quests, levels, and turn based combat (i.e., the great bulk of CRPGs, online or off...and a lot of PnP RPGs as well) as a "WoW clone." However, let's just accept that lunacy at face value and move on.
The basic problem with this meme is it's myopic focus on big hype big budget MMOs. A lot of MMO commentators seemingly only pay attention to the MMOs that have the biggest development and advertising budgets. Yes, indeed, the really big budget MMOs to tend to be Everquest style games with classes/ levels/ turn based combat, and have a lot of design similarities with WoW. Like WoW they are usually solo friendly, have a relatively easy to understand class/ level based advancement system, include a lot of quests, and have a UI very similar to the one pioneered by Asheron's Call 2.
However, seeing these these features in a big budget MMO should not surprise anyone because such games are by definition aimed at the mass market. Everquest was the most financially successful MMO of the first generation, and World of Warcraft was the biggest success of the next. If you are designing an MMO budgeted for more than 100K players, you'd be pretty stupid to ignore the mechanical similarities of the most successful past MMOs. And it is for this very reason that big budget MMOs don't count when evaluating whether the MMO genre is stagnating. No one sane is going to put a WoW budget behind a niche / experimental game design.
As soon as you take a single step away from the mainstream, you can see that there are actually a lot of successful post WoW MMOs that bear little resemblance to it. For example Dungeons and Dragons Online has the deepest character generation system this side of EVE, real time combat, and a guild leveling system more involved than anything I've seen elsewhere. It's also the third most popular MMO in North America according to the NPD. Wizard 101 is doing well enough to put out a new world roughly every six months. The card based combat, pho Harry Potter setting, and mini-game method of mana regeneration draw absolutely nothing from WoW, save perhaps bright colors. Puzzle Pirates is also doing quite well and has as little in common with WoW as I can imagine and still technically be an MMO.
Take two or three steps off of mainstream into the really niche products [and in many cases not financially successful at all, I will allow], and you will find even more innovative MMOs. For example Myst Online URU, a completely free to play MMO where there is literally nothing to do except solve puzzles and explore. Or A Tale in the Desert, where as far as I can tell you mainly craft. Or The Endless Forest. You play a deer. There is no combat, crafting, or even chatting. You communicate with others using only emotes.
Just because the only MMOs someone pays attention to are all DIKU/ WoWish doesn't mean that WoW has ruined the genre. It means that some MMO commentators need to broaden their horizons. Innovation continues to occur, and even be rewarded financially on occasion. When I see commentators say "WoW ruined MMOs", what I mainly hear is "no developer has been willing to put a huge budget behind a niche product that caters to my peculiar tastes."
The basic problem with this meme is it's myopic focus on big hype big budget MMOs. A lot of MMO commentators seemingly only pay attention to the MMOs that have the biggest development and advertising budgets. Yes, indeed, the really big budget MMOs to tend to be Everquest style games with classes/ levels/ turn based combat, and have a lot of design similarities with WoW. Like WoW they are usually solo friendly, have a relatively easy to understand class/ level based advancement system, include a lot of quests, and have a UI very similar to the one pioneered by Asheron's Call 2.
However, seeing these these features in a big budget MMO should not surprise anyone because such games are by definition aimed at the mass market. Everquest was the most financially successful MMO of the first generation, and World of Warcraft was the biggest success of the next. If you are designing an MMO budgeted for more than 100K players, you'd be pretty stupid to ignore the mechanical similarities of the most successful past MMOs. And it is for this very reason that big budget MMOs don't count when evaluating whether the MMO genre is stagnating. No one sane is going to put a WoW budget behind a niche / experimental game design.
As soon as you take a single step away from the mainstream, you can see that there are actually a lot of successful post WoW MMOs that bear little resemblance to it. For example Dungeons and Dragons Online has the deepest character generation system this side of EVE, real time combat, and a guild leveling system more involved than anything I've seen elsewhere. It's also the third most popular MMO in North America according to the NPD. Wizard 101 is doing well enough to put out a new world roughly every six months. The card based combat, pho Harry Potter setting, and mini-game method of mana regeneration draw absolutely nothing from WoW, save perhaps bright colors. Puzzle Pirates is also doing quite well and has as little in common with WoW as I can imagine and still technically be an MMO.
Take two or three steps off of mainstream into the really niche products [and in many cases not financially successful at all, I will allow], and you will find even more innovative MMOs. For example Myst Online URU, a completely free to play MMO where there is literally nothing to do except solve puzzles and explore. Or A Tale in the Desert, where as far as I can tell you mainly craft. Or The Endless Forest. You play a deer. There is no combat, crafting, or even chatting. You communicate with others using only emotes.
Just because the only MMOs someone pays attention to are all DIKU/ WoWish doesn't mean that WoW has ruined the genre. It means that some MMO commentators need to broaden their horizons. Innovation continues to occur, and even be rewarded financially on occasion. When I see commentators say "WoW ruined MMOs", what I mainly hear is "no developer has been willing to put a huge budget behind a niche product that caters to my peculiar tastes."
Friday, August 6, 2010
The Quandary of Value
In responding to a recent post over at Bullet Points, it occurred to me that the makers of sub based MMOs have an odd quandary. Every time they add content to a game for free, the value of a sub goes up since it buys access to more. A side effect of this is that if you are thinking about subbing to a game but can't decide whether to do it now or later, waiting until later will always be a better idea from an economic perspective. High value sub fee games such as City of Heroes/ Villains or year one LoTRO, where tons of content is added for free, suffer most strongly from this effect.
At the extreme are games such as Everquest II that offer "all in one packs," where the core game and all previous expansions are included free when you buy the latest expansion. From a pure economic perspective, every year that you put off starting the game adds enormous value to it. Compared to someone that has been playing all along, a late comer gets tons of content for very little money.
Compare the above games to a game like World of Warcraft, where new content is only rarely added for free, and a late comer has to pay for the client and every expansion pack separately. There is little incentive to put off subbing, because it won't get you much additional content and it will make the game more expensive to buy. If you are thinking about subbing now, you may as well because waiting doesn't get you much.
Even more extreme is a FtP game, where waiting to start playing gets you nothing. The same parts of the game will still be free, and you will have to pay exactly the same amount to unlock additional content. The only difference is that there will be more content to unlock, which will potentially make the game more expensive to have unfettered access to for a completionist.
The better value a game provides (in terms of free content) for an ongoing sub fee, and the more generous the handling of past expansions, the stronger the economic incentive for potential customers to put off subbing. Of course the flip side of this is that the more quickly a MMO builds value, the more quickly it will build up to some critical threshold where customers only mildly interested in it might do the trial. That is exactly what happened to me with Star Wars Galaxies. Seeing that I could potentially get half a decade of content for $20 was enough to get me to take it for a spin (even if it didn't stick). Which of the two effects is stronger probably varies from one customer to another, and how interested they are in a game to begin with.
At the extreme are games such as Everquest II that offer "all in one packs," where the core game and all previous expansions are included free when you buy the latest expansion. From a pure economic perspective, every year that you put off starting the game adds enormous value to it. Compared to someone that has been playing all along, a late comer gets tons of content for very little money.
Compare the above games to a game like World of Warcraft, where new content is only rarely added for free, and a late comer has to pay for the client and every expansion pack separately. There is little incentive to put off subbing, because it won't get you much additional content and it will make the game more expensive to buy. If you are thinking about subbing now, you may as well because waiting doesn't get you much.
Even more extreme is a FtP game, where waiting to start playing gets you nothing. The same parts of the game will still be free, and you will have to pay exactly the same amount to unlock additional content. The only difference is that there will be more content to unlock, which will potentially make the game more expensive to have unfettered access to for a completionist.
The better value a game provides (in terms of free content) for an ongoing sub fee, and the more generous the handling of past expansions, the stronger the economic incentive for potential customers to put off subbing. Of course the flip side of this is that the more quickly a MMO builds value, the more quickly it will build up to some critical threshold where customers only mildly interested in it might do the trial. That is exactly what happened to me with Star Wars Galaxies. Seeing that I could potentially get half a decade of content for $20 was enough to get me to take it for a spin (even if it didn't stick). Which of the two effects is stronger probably varies from one customer to another, and how interested they are in a game to begin with.
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