Another week has flown by and once again we want to ask your opinion on a specific topic. Today it is about one of the big MMO hopes of last year, namely WildStar. With high aspirations, above-average reviews, and some bold decisions, it launched at that time, only to quickly fade away due to lack of acceptance and broken promises.
Many are interested – but hardly anyone wants to pay
In recent months, there is hardly a WildStar news on our site that doesn’t have at least one user commenting in the style of “If it goes F2P, I’ll check it out” or “Last chance: Make it free!“.
Of course, one could say without much thought that a F2P title attracts more players than one with a pay and subscription model. In the short term, that would probably be true – but is that the all-encompassing solution to bring a game back from obscurity? Wouldn’t that run the risk of alienating the – although numerically few – loyal fans? Could it, in fact, harm the game and its atmosphere? Players often act much less friendly when they don’t have to fear consequences. And who cares about the closure of an account they never had to pay a single cent for.
Pros and cons – You are called!
Cortyn: From my personal perspective, there is a lot against a F2P model. But I still belong to the “old school”, and when “F2P” and “MMORPG” are mentioned in the same sentence, the “Pay2Win” alarm bells still ring for me, even if that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.
However, the fact is that Carbine is currently making money through the subscription and CREDD system. How much and whether it is sufficient to cover the ongoing costs, we can only speculate. Changing this system would first endanger this relatively secure income.
Dawid: I have mostly had good experiences with Free2Play MMOs, especially when they were previously subscription games. When I think of TERA, the change of payment model pulled the action MMO out of the crisis, brought many new players, and during my active time there was absolutely no sign of Pay2Win. I also noticed no difference in community behavior. It was even the case that suddenly old guild members gradually returned.
If I am still relatively active, I am also happy to continue paying my subscription and everything remains as it was. I have done this with SWTOR, Rift, and TERA, all of which offer a hybrid system. Honestly, the chance is very low that WildStar could really thrive again with the current payment model. In my opinion, the game deserves it more than anything, because I still think that WildStar is really good and getting better. It bothers me immensely, really a lot, when I have to wait for an invitation for hours in the group search almost every time(!). To regain more attention, a restart in the minds of MMO players is needed – hopefully with a fair F2P model.
What do you think? Can WildStar still establish itself with the current model? Would you take another look if it changed to free-to-play? And what would need to change in such a shift?
Another alternative could be the B2P model, as The Elder Scrolls Online did recently. The problem that could apply here is that such a switch with an MMO with a large franchise could create attention, but would that be the case with a title in a new universe?
