Allods Online now offers an additional subscription server as a free online role-playing game. This sounds a bit paradoxical in light of the reports from recent years, but this alternative is a wish of many players.
Who doesn’t know it? Titles like TERA and SW:TOR started as subscription-based MMO games, but it soon became clear that players were not excited about this business model in those cases. A solution must therefore be found: usually, this is a shift to a free-to-play model, which is equipped with an item shop and can at least cushion the biggest losses. So far, there has been no case where game developers would have gone the other way – exactly, until now!
At Allods Online, you can now decide for yourself whether Free to Play or Subscription.
The operators of the title “Allods Online” are now taking the opposite approach, thereby creating a precedent. In addition to the existing free servers, a single server was launched a few days ago, for which a monthly fee must be paid, which is around ten euros below the average of conventional MMORPGs.
So what distinguishes the paid server “Goblin Republic” from its free counterparts?
A whole lot: The item shop, better known as the “Boutique”, does not exist on this server. This means that, aside from the monthly fees, no real money can be spent to gain advantages in the game – thus, “Pay to win” accusations simply vanish into thin air. Without the shop, however, runes, elixirs, or the popular incense cones also disappear from the potential inventory of players, which is offset by a reduced difficulty of the opponents.
At the same time, the player base benefits from a whole lot of other adjustments that can only be found on this server: A solid 30% more experience points, double the number of attribute points per level up, and an additional equipment slot for earrings. But that’s not all, as many things that were previously mainly obtainable through real money can now be purchased for in-game gold, such as resetting talent points.
Conclusion: Equality of opportunity on the premium server
In summary, this means that no player on “Goblin Republic” will ever outpace another because they have invested more money in the item shop; on this server, mainly two things determine victory and defeat: the skill of the respective players and the time invested.
This single server makes the game significantly more attractive for undecided players, as they can first test the F2P variant and then decide for a subscription later if they find the item shop too detrimental to the game balance. It remains to be seen whether this model will prevail – it is certainly a sensible addition.
