ShahFluffers
Ice Fire Warriors Shadow Cartel
11652
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Posted - 2017.05.08 03:14:30 -
[1] - Quote
I will try to answer this as best I can in my intoxicated state with minimum levels of snark.
Andrew Menda wrote:This is, or course, a Q&A post. My question is, why doesn't EVE Online operate like so many other successful F2P games, such as War Thunder, PlanetSide 2, many other MMO's, World of (fill in the blank), and others? Because this isn't like those other games?
Andrew Menda wrote:In those, all you have to do is to advance in the game is, as anybody interested in video games knows, play the game. They make their money form micro transactions that expedite a person's advancement in the game, or just give them cool looking items. Why wouldn't a premium account option that isn't as necessary as Omega Clone along with those other options get plenty of money for a game with as many players as this? What you describe are called "freemium games"
The basic thing with those games is that they are very linear in their character / equipment power structure, economy, and gameplay. You grind hard enough, you gain power. Or you can pay and get to the "end game" faster (or outright). Equipment is meant only to be tossed as soon as you can equip something better. Some equipment is unique and one-of-a-kind.
The issue with EVE is that things are not very linear (despite what you may think when looking at the ship / equipment structure). Even the biggest, baddest, and most expensive ships and equipment can be brought down with enough players in trash-fit equipment. Hell... sometimes even a single trash fit ship can be a "hard counter" to something grossly expensive and grind it down with time. No item is truly unique here.
This goes even further.
Almost everything in the game is either harvested or made by other players.
And this is where things get dicy.
The reasons for the restrictions on Alpha accounts really comes down to these two things;
- Alphas should not be able to adversely affect the game for paying customers and upset the balance in such a way that paying customers become upset and quit.
- Alphas need something, like a "paywall," to encourage them to subscribe.
Now I understand that subscriptions look scary... but they really aren't. To put things in perspective:
- a bottle of so-so wine or 6-pack of beer is about $10 and usually won't last 2 or 3 days (maybe not even a day if you're like me).
- a NICE meal at a restaurant is about $10 to $15 and won't last more than 30 minutes to an hour.
- a monthly gym membership is about $10 to $20 a month and, on average, people don't go to it more than 3 days a week for an hour or two at a time.
- a good night at the bar with friends will EASILY cost $50 (drinks, food, transport, etc) and MAYBE you remember about 3-4 hours of the experience, followed by hours of pain the morning after.
- a 12 pack of cigarettes is about $4 to $6... assuming (conservatively) that you only smoke 3 cigarettes a day, that's 7.5 packs of cigarettes a month... which comes to about $30 to 45 a month.
- taking a shower in the morning costs you around $1 to $2... if you take a shower every morning that adds up to about $30 to $60 a month.
Also... let's be honest... you have probably spent MORE money on something WAY dumber in the past.
What you get with EVE is 30 days of unlimited access to a game environment to basically do what you please (within the confines of the rules of course) with tons of other people doing the same thing.
Now if $15 a month is a "high" amount for you, you have bigger problems than affording a game... which very clearly falls in the category of "luxury service" (yes, that is what all games are, a "luxury")
How did you Veterans start?
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