"While many people think only of the 'Free-to-play' and 'Subscription' based services in the world of MMOs, it is the middle-ground that will emerge victorious.
There are three distinct common MMO payment models: Subscription, Buy-to-Play and Free-to-Play. Subscriptions requires a monthly fee, Buy-to-Play requires a one-time fee and Free-to-Play requires none, and any payment is optional. Below rests a list of reasons why Guild Wars 2's model, Buy-to-Play, is the future for MMOs."
Wccftech talked to Guild Wars 2 Game Director Josh Davis about the learnings from the Secrets of the Obscure expansion and what's coming to the MMORPG.
The "slippery slope" debate has started, now we wait to see what ArenaNet does.
"ArenaNet and NCSOFT are today very happy and excited to announce that they have just released the "Secrets of the Obscure" expansion for their award-winning and critically acclaimed MMORPG "Guild Wars 2"." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
very much so... "blank" is still a thing" is also still a thing as you can can surmise.
Anet also announced the 5th expansion. "We’ve already started applying lessons from the development of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure to our fifth expansion, which we expect to be released next year." From their site, been with this game since 1st beta, and announcing the 5th expansion so soon, the game is doing very well, plus the graphics are improved a bit now that it's on DX11🙃
Correct, and yes. Imo, they've done very well for themselves, and I'm very impressed with what they have achived with GW2 since the game launched.
it's certainly the future for me. i bought Guild Wars 2, played it for 5-6 months, took breaks when i felt like it, and didn't feel tethered to some subscription model like i was with WoW.
for any future MMOs, if they're not b2p or f2p then i'm not interested. i don't mind cash shops (as long as it's not pay to win), but i'm not paying a monthly sub just to play. i don't care how good the game is.
I'd give anything for The Old Republic to have gone this route. Subscription was just too much and F2P felt neutered unless you subscribed. Seriously, if your game has been heavily marketed as story-driven, has eight stories, but only two free character slots, you're NOT F2P. And then it asks old subscribers like me to pick only two characters to reactivate. Thank God there isn't a famous Holocaust anecdote I could tastelessly relate that to for a cheap joke.
Anything except mandatory monthly payments can be good.
Buy to play is fine with me.
I've had alot of practice buying to play during my 20 or so years of gaming.
future? I think gaming has moved from that. Do people even play the same game for more than a year now? Only a select few are able to make it.