Black Prophecy goes... F2P?

[-FN-]

I can honestly say I didn't see that one coming o_O How to F2P models make money? Cause I'm pretty sure most of us here care about BP's success... only to see NC3 out some time soon™ ;)

http://forum.blackprophecy-game.com/showthread.php?t=1103

P.S.
Please re-enable the BB [COLOR] tag, kthx :p

[Setlec]

F2P genre makes money by selling Items for real cash. It's very lucrative way to make money with a game. But it's not really "fair/balanced" for the players that won't pay for those "specials items", imo.

[dodgetigger]

I also have seen the f2p model as being unfair for a long time.
But isn't the subscription model that so many other games use unfair for the people that have less time than others that can be online 5 hours a day?

If balanced right, I personally think that a F2P game might be even more fair than a subscription based one: The ones with time and no money can get their stuff by farming in game, the ones with no time and more money can buy stuff in the item store.
But this does assume that everthing you can get in the item store is also farmable ingame. Which, unfortunalty, often is not the case.

[Biglines]

The succesful f2p's I know, use the cashshop to give visual items that server no purpose other than to look different from the rest, and some things such as 2 days of 50% extra xp, but they don't give things that give an advantage in damage, skills or things like that

In BP it will probably be the visual appearance of ships, but I dread that they will actually offer paid guns and better ships, giving people without the funds to purchase those ships a significant disadvantage

[Setlec]

usually the items shop have unique items that aren't available in game (loot or whatever), and that makes unfair. I prefer that there is no shop and ingame marketing might be a away to get money like the adds of alienware can be seen in NC

[awkward silence]

I usually tend to stay away from F2P games. Firstly the community is usually better in subs games. Seconly servise is (in my limited experience) a lot better. Third success in a game should be played and not bought.

I like to remember my first succesfull MC5 part raid. My first woc disk and most importantly my first rare (a judge) for my PE.

If id buy the stuff i would probably not appreciate the moments getting them, and thus might not play the game for long.

Id dread to see an NC shop, with an all arti whatever. That said not all F2P models are bad... but most are. Either they dont make the dudes enough money, not afford to have good service or take the enjoyment out.

[Mr. Kassad]

One good thing is that the space opera genre is totally underfed for years now.
So chances are good that lots of people play BP.
But I hope the model does make enough money so we can get a NC3 sooner or later. I won't play BP. That's for sure. But I know enough people who crave for a new good space game (MMO or not) and BP should come out soon to hit the marked while people are still hungry for it!

[nobby]

Well I'm Very Impressed ! :D

I wouldn't worry about balancing the F2P model, there's good ways to do it, - look at FOM's F2P model, it works :p

Wheheyyyyy

[-FN-]

look at FOM's F2P model, it works :p
Unless you're being sarcastic... I disagree lol - the F2P model, as mentioned before, has a tendency to have a community with a large quantity of... well, morons. I forced myself for 3 weeks to really try to tolerate the sheer amount of juvenile stupidity in FoM and couldn't do it. In FOM you're either a mindless ganker, an overly RP-happy politician, or confused as hell in the middle trying to understand exactly what kind of game experience the devs are trying to pull off.

Now not to say that's always true, but on average, there are people who want something for free (those who usually bitch during a Closed/Open Beta and can't believe the game will actually have a subscription price) and then then there are people who recognize the value of a software title and realize that paying a minimal monthly game fee is just part of a real-life entertainment budget. Cut out going to the movies and one dinner out a month and you can easily afford an MMO subscription.

Anyway, I've always been one to steer clear of F2P MMOs but I will still definitely be looking into BP's plans as the game develops. Remember, we need BP to succeed ;)

P.S.
The COLOR tag is still broken.