Thanks for the info. Its good to hear that money just saves you time. Thats a trade-off Im sometimes willing to make.
Unfortunately the lack of HOTAS support kills it for me. I'm a real vehicle sim player. I have my own home-built cockpit. I just can't see enjoying a vehicle sim that is mouse & keyboard. To me thats just a dressed up FPS.
Like Mark Twain, the reports of the death of subscription MMORPGS have been greatly exaggerated.
Mostly, this has been by "free to play' enthusiasts who are enamored of the idea of getting something for nothing.
This idea was fuled for a while by ridiculous notions of what Zynga was making, which were proved to be false when they opened their books for their IPO. Zynga has since plummeted in estimated value and, once a favorite topic of "F2P" enthusiasts doesn't get mentioned much anymore. Zynga is now the proverbial elephant in the room.
The idea of high ticket F2P MMOs does have some momentum left due to the string of failed MMORPGs that took this move as a hail-mary play to survive. Like all hail mary plays, its actually succeeding was a pretty small chance and the numbers are starting to come out to corroborate that fact.
(http://worldwizards.blogspot.com/2012/09/hail-mary-full-of-whoops.html). This flood has been bad for the industry because it is driving away customers. The msot commonly heard refrain on the release of an MMORPG right now is "I'll wait til its f2p." The good news is it wont last because its unsustainable. The bad news is, it might take the high ticket MMORPG industry with it when it goes.
You cannot justify a high ticket MMOm project on the real-world income from a micro-transaction strategy (see above.) The economics don't support it for the same reason that the F2P nuts want to see it-- what money you can get from your customers in this way is a tiny fraction of what subscription brings in. Too little to justify a tens of millions of dollars production.
What is happening, because it has to, is that the market is bifurcating.
Cheaply made schlock "gamevertisements" that can be pushed out and survive on microtransaction drips and drabs, and we will continue to see those projects. Older products that have already recouped their costs and made their primary profit, or totally failed project that cannot justify a premium price may also go this way to try to squeeze a little end of life revenue-- this is effectively the "cut out bin" market for MMORPGs.
But there will continue to be high ticket subscription markets. They will be more niche and serve those niches more closely, and those niches will be willing to pay to be served. OR high ticket MMORPGs will simply disappear as unsupportable projects. Thats the real-world economics
We wont see a single subscription game get WoW numbers again because, in the end, a lot of people would rather have junk for free or virtually free then pay for quality. But Virigina, there is no such thing as a free lunch. And in the end we WILL all get what we pay for.
If subscription dies, then so does the MMORPG genre as anything other then a cheaply thrown away way to sell people stuff. I have ore hope then that.
Thanks for the info. Its good to hear that money just saves you time. Thats a trade-off Im sometimes willing to make.
Unfortunately the lack of HOTAS support kills it for me. I'm a real vehicle sim player. I have my own home-built cockpit. I just can't see enjoying a vehicle sim that is mouse & keyboard. To me thats just a dressed up FPS.
What about HOTAS support?
For me, reconfigurable HOTAS support is make or break. I played MW2 with my turret slaved to a head-tracking HMD.
Also, how annoying is the Pay To Win? How much money does it really take to enjoy and get good at this game>
Like Mark Twain, the reports of the death of subscription MMORPGS have been greatly exaggerated.
Mostly, this has been by "free to play' enthusiasts who are enamored of the idea of getting something for nothing.
This idea was fuled for a while by ridiculous notions of what Zynga was making, which were proved to be false when they opened their books for their IPO. Zynga has since plummeted in estimated value and, once a favorite topic of "F2P" enthusiasts doesn't get mentioned much anymore. Zynga is now the proverbial elephant in the room.
The idea of high ticket F2P MMOs does have some momentum left due to the string of failed MMORPGs that took this move as a hail-mary play to survive. Like all hail mary plays, its actually succeeding was a pretty small chance and the numbers are starting to come out to corroborate that fact.
(http://worldwizards.blogspot.com/2012/09/hail-mary-full-of-whoops.html). This flood has been bad for the industry because it is driving away customers. The msot commonly heard refrain on the release of an MMORPG right now is "I'll wait til its f2p." The good news is it wont last because its unsustainable. The bad news is, it might take the high ticket MMORPG industry with it when it goes.
You cannot justify a high ticket MMOm project on the real-world income from a micro-transaction strategy (see above.) The economics don't support it for the same reason that the F2P nuts want to see it-- what money you can get from your customers in this way is a tiny fraction of what subscription brings in. Too little to justify a tens of millions of dollars production.
What is happening, because it has to, is that the market is bifurcating.
Cheaply made schlock "gamevertisements" that can be pushed out and survive on microtransaction drips and drabs, and we will continue to see those projects. Older products that have already recouped their costs and made their primary profit, or totally failed project that cannot justify a premium price may also go this way to try to squeeze a little end of life revenue-- this is effectively the "cut out bin" market for MMORPGs.
But there will continue to be high ticket subscription markets. They will be more niche and serve those niches more closely, and those niches will be willing to pay to be served. OR high ticket MMORPGs will simply disappear as unsupportable projects. Thats the real-world economics
We wont see a single subscription game get WoW numbers again because, in the end, a lot of people would rather have junk for free or virtually free then pay for quality. But Virigina, there is no such thing as a free lunch. And in the end we WILL all get what we pay for.
If subscription dies, then so does the MMORPG genre as anything other then a cheaply thrown away way to sell people stuff. I have ore hope then that.