ToBeFeared wrote: |
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Would be a very good experiment for AGE to try out, however, I highly doubt this would ever be done.
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Many companies change from P2P to F2P type of game, simply because it is far easier to earn a nice buck. Shaiya is a perfect proof of that. Even being screwed up beyond repair, it still gets Aeria profit.
On the other hand, P2P games need to be fine-tuned, both balance-wise, as well as stable.
If you
have to pay every month and even though you do, you have no advantage...you are far less likely to stick to a mediocre game.
ToBeFeared wrote: |
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As long as the only charge will be the monthly subscription fee, this server would be extremely successful.
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That's not exactly true. As a monthly subscription fee without item mall, Shaiya will fail.
Continuous resurrection runes, prevent item/experience/endurance drops, movement and summon runes, all potions, lapisia, recreation runes, linking hammers, lucky charms. All of these things would have to be farmed (or bought from NPC, whichever would be the choice). You could say that it is better (and it certainly is for a low/no spender), but for a player that would spend money anyway, it is inferior. It takes a lot of time to farm reasonable amounts of these. Over time, the large amounts of items and gold hoarded now would disappear, too.
Besides, if these items would be sold by NPC's, then they would either be unavailable to newer players due to ridiculous price (a terrible outcome), or completely negligible in price for the older players (a better outcome, but could really scare new players off).
The good points?! Nos would either not be in the game at all, or it would be widely available to everyone. Maybe, enchanting would be reasonably available to all. That's all.
ToBeFeared wrote: |
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The GM services would be extremely rare place holder items dropped in game from random mobs/bosses.
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There would be no GM service. It would be far too costly, for absolutely no income at all. I mean, why would they put their GM's to work on something that is absolutely free?! In a game that already earns less?!
ToBeFeared wrote: |
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That is why WoW has been so successfull and is still very popular to this day.
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WoW has and is popular for entirely different reasons.
1) It was made with American/European players mentality in mind. Unlike Shaiya and other Asian MMO's. This is probably the exact same reason why World of Tanks is also popular.
2) It was made with P2P mode. That means that it was balanced based on equality. And no matter how good or bad company Blizzard is, they DO have a certain amount of reputation...and a heck of a lot of people with huge experience in development. That gave them an edge when it comes to making games more balanced, with less bugs.
3) From what I see, Blizzard puts a lot of effort and money to keep the game secure. With the game needing to be bought, and connected to a specific account, it also makes it easier to keep that security.
Shaiya have neither of these things. Aeria will not be able to keep the servers nearly as secure. The game was made as Asian grinder, requiring a LOT of work for reasonably low return. The game is bug-riddled. The game is terribly balanced, since it was made to give a huge edge to the paying customers, being completely ignorant of the in-game balance (even between the classes). If some characters are better or worse, they can always say "That guy did spend more money, pay and you'll be as good or better than him.".
And that is how the new player will see it too. "I was one-hitted, that guy is just a huge spender." Not many new people will blame the games mechanics themselves.
All in all, Shaiya is successful
because it is a F2P with Item Mall. It would probably already be dead if it would start like this, as a P2P game. And to change it into a P2P game now, the amount of changes that would be required makes it easier to just...make a whole new game from scratch.