[Gori]

I still follow the VG boards, both OVF and here, and on the OVF I have seen some people intimating over the last couple weeks that some kind of announcement was forthcoming?

I read that Naylie(sp?) had hinted as much by referring to post by someone else, but I don't see anything like that in the SOE Tracker.

Anyone know if something is up? Maybe F2P?

[mmorpeegee]

How would they afford to run the servers? Sell in game items or something like that?

[dabble]

Originally Posted by mmorpeegee

How would they afford to run the servers? Sell in game items or something like that?

Yeah they could sell Levelling potions and buffs, certain classes, races, access to quest chains, mounts etc etc.

[mmorpeegee]

Originally Posted by dabble

Yeah they could sell Levelling potions and buffs, certain classes, races, access to quest chains, mounts etc etc.

God I would love that. I know that is probably like blasphemy to most VG players, but for me it would be perfect. I wanna play but I would only play it again if I could multi box as a duo or even a trio. But at £9.99 I would never do that. If it goes free to play though, I'll be able to do it, and I could just buy the occasional toys for myself or whatever I felt like.

I hate the idea of buying stuff in a real MMORPG because it means you are competing against each other's wallets and not competing at the game. But in a game like Vanguard which is pretty much dead, I would happy to just treat it very much like a sandbox and play it how I want to play it. Explore the world and all the dungeons and all the classes thoroughly before they shut it down. And instead of doing long boring grinds for mounts and stuff, I could just buy them, or not. Got my fingers crossed for this...

[tdewey10]

I would probably reinstall VG if it was F2P. Not sure how much I would actually play it though.

1. At the high-end there wasn't much being added - and what SOE did add or change was usually destructive to the overall player experience (not that SOE is entirely to blame - I'm still annoyed at a few changes Sigil made from open beta to live ;-) Mothras of Lord Tseng's Tomb you are not forgotten!!! ).


2. That being said, I never leveled much on Thestra and never played a caster/cleric beyond 20, so if I could arrange a leveling group (only possible if it were F2P) I'd return to level something to at least the 30's. I wonder if nowdays you can be a halfling monk??? ;-)

[Vanguard2112]

hate buying things in game for real life money

that said, if VG went free to play, i'd definetly reinstall it. But, I would not spend a dime on the game, i'd just tinker around exploreing the sub 50 content and not even bother raiding.

Would be very fun just doing that, especially if the server had the pop to support sub 50 dungeon crawl groups and people interested in exploreing the remote underused places.

Speaking of remote/underused... i sometimes wished VG had that npc merc system like PC everquest does. There were a lot of places I wanted to go into and fight through but it just was not possible solo, and since I was on sartok, I was basically on the whole server solo.

[mmorpeegee]

They should hurry up and do this... SOE are already set up to do it all. They have all the buy stuff systems in place already, with the exchange servers and RME or whatever it's called They just need to tweak in a few more things. Surely would only take like 1 guy about a couple of day's work to get it all set up.

Build it and they will come... 3 of us in this thread will at least, that's a pretty good indication of how well it would work. That would probably double the population teehee..

And yeah those hireable NPC's would be sweet!

[tdewey10]

Originally Posted by Vanguard2112

Speaking of remote/underused... i sometimes wished VG had that npc merc system like PC everquest does. There were a lot of places I wanted to go into and fight through but it just was not possible solo, and since I was on sartok, I was basically on the whole server solo.

This is a terrible idea for a living MMO.

But since VG is a near-dead MMO it is a great idea :-)

The smart move of SOE is to go F2P and create mercs 1 dps, 1 healing and 1 tank and charge for them. They are literally the only thing I would pay for - given the dearth of players and my desire (like you and others on the thread) to check out places like Dargun's that I never really explored, and can't really explore unless I have a group

[mmorpeegee]

Yeah! All of this would suck in a proper MMO but it would be sweet for Vanguard. I wanna 2 box, I love 2 boxes because it's so hands on and demanding and exciting. But if I could play 2 and then hire a third or fourth NPC to make an almost full party, I could do most of the group content in the game by myself. It would be fun. I could just go at my own pace and enjoy it.

But even without the hirable NPC's I would still go back if it was FTP. I would just duo and enjoy it, and if the buyable stuff was cheap then I might get a few bits. I wouldn't mind spending $10 now and then, and buying a couple of cool flying horses and XP potions and some nice gear and stuff. The only reason I don't go back now is because they are still charging a whopping £9.99 per account. So two accounts just for a month is almost £20 which is almost the price of another game I could just buy. So I would never do that.

Bring on ftp sony.. They are better off getting the occasional $10 off me from time to time, than getting absolutely nothing. And I already own the game! If it attracted people who don't own the game they will get some box sales too.


Although.... this is all the logical and sensible thing to do, which knowing SOE, means it will never happen :P Or they will do the exact opposite. So I will expect to see the monthly subscription price increased to $40 soon.

[Loampounder]

Originally Posted by mmorpeegee

Bring on ftp sony.. They are better off getting the occasional $10 off me from time to time, than getting absolutely nothing. And I already own the game! If it attracted people who don't own the game they will get some box sales too.

So since we all understand it as a pay-as-you-go system, why does "f2P" have "free" in the name?

I remember in the whoopla over Livegamer, SOE's defense was that they would never have company-created sales as a driver. Smed at one time said that commodity sales would never happen in VG and at the time of Livegamer launch he reiterated that Livegamer was fine because it was all player-based and SOE was only a safe pass-through.

[AsheMan]

Originally Posted by Loampounder

So since we all understand it as a pay-as-you-go system, why does "f2P" have "free" in the name?

Free-to-play sounds better than Pay-if-you-want-to-do-anything-significant-in-this-game.

[mmorpeegee]

Originally Posted by Loampounder

So since we all understand it as a pay-as-you-go system, why does "f2P" have "free" in the name?

I remember in the whoopla over Livegamer, SOE's defense was that they would never have company-created sales as a driver. Smed at one time said that commodity sales would never happen in VG and at the time of Livegamer launch he reiterated that Livegamer was fine because it was all player-based and SOE was only a safe pass-through.

Well the way I see it, they should actually be free to play, and the stuff you buy should just be cool incentives and not necessities.

The game I mentioned in the "other games" section called Sorcerer Quest, is a great example of how FTP should be. You could play that from level 1 to level 500 and play the whole game without paying any real money at all, and most people actually do that. And in fact, most of the loots that you can buy with real money, you can just buy with in game money anyway, just a bit more expensive. So instead of it being 1000 gold with 50 credits (real money), it costs 1200 gold instead. So either way it doesn't really matter, it just gives some flexibility. You can spend a bit of real cash and get an easier ride, or you can spend nothing, but you aren't ham-stringed by not paying.

So yeah, that's how free to play should ideally be imo. If Vanguard was like that, it would be free to play it just like it is now, but perhaps cut out a few dungeons and the raid content unless you spend some credits. Then have griffon mounts, exp potions, teleport potions, and a bunch of other stuff as buyable only with money. So you could still play for free and do the lengthy (and tedious?) griffon quest that they apparently added since I last quit, or you could just spend $4 or something and buy it.

If that's how it was, I would spend some cash. And the more I truly enjoyed the game... the more I would feel inclined to spend. You know, if I was level 30 and having a great time, I would think, "Yay I'm going to buy a cool griffin for $4, access to all the dungeons for $5, and a bunch of nice armor or backpacks or something for another $5". I've no problem with doing that for a game I enjoy, and it would let me enjoy it even more. I would only do it if it was all going well though. If they were cheap asses and made me pay to go past level 20, and pay for a every stupid little thing I wanted/needed to do in the game, then I would just think, screw it. I'm not paying a 3 month subscription in disguise.

So yeah, that's that. I'll have to wait to see if SOE do this, and HOW they do it. The figure in my head is that I would be happy to spend up to something like $15 or so to play this for a couple of months, and have a bunch of shortcuts in game like a free flying mount and stuff, and I would spend it all TWICE for two accounts so I can duo.

As it currently stands with the subscription cost, I wouldn't even get 1 month for 1 account. Obviously the difference in cash isn't that much.... but it's kinda the principle :P

[Loampounder]

Originally Posted by mmorpeegee

So yeah, that's that. I'll have to wait to see if SOE do this, and HOW they do it.

Well, based on SOE's other "f2p" games, that's not how they do it. To them, it's only a large demo.

[mmorpeegee]

Yeah like LOTRO. I think that is the predictable way. If they do that I would have to work out how much it would cost to get a couple of fun months the way I want it. Hopefully it would be less than a subscription. I just wish they would not treat people like cheapasses out for a free ride. I think it's better to give the players far more stuff for free and get them hooked, and then let them spend because they enjoy it and want stuff, rather than restricting everything unless they pay up. That way just closes people off and people will try it and think meh, and quit.

[Arctic_Slicer]

I never use the term "free to play" myself. I prefer the term "cash shop game".

[mmorpeegee]

Yeah. I think it could be free to play (with buying bonuses that are not necessities), but if SOE did it, it wouldn't. It would probably be restricted to 20 or 30 levels, and on one island, and with some restrictions on dungeons and loot or whatever, etc.. So basically crappy and more of an extended glorified trial isle.

[mmorpeegee]

Look at this

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...oubles-revenue

One of them was me.

[Loampounder]

How long is this "announcement" suppose to be pending?

[mmorpeegee]

!!!......F.o.r.e.v.e.rrrr.......!!!

I am sceptical about it now anyway. I bet it would end up costing just as much as a monthly subscription if you actually wanted to play though the game properly.

[AsheMan]

It sounds like the "announcement" was just a rumor. I really doubt SOE would invest a single cent in converting the game to a F2P model with paid service. The only announcement that will come will be server reduction (if there is even more than one anymore) or shutting it down.