Edit: didn’t read full post my bad
Most of the people drawn to this game are probably tired of that scheme. The developer of tos is probably aware of that too.
If it goes subscription, ill drop the game till it goes Free to Play or Buy 1 Time and Play
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Eh…but then you would exclude people like me who can’t afford to cough up money per month, so no thanks.
Now if there was a one-time fee kind of deal (B2P), I wouldn’t mind.
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@Zefreonzack I see.
Subscription makes the most sense for guaranteeing a monthly income for your company.
It does put a divide in the player base unfortunately.
Hopefully it does not come to that. Subscriptions split a player base in two and its not fun.
Subscription just Ruin my game experience just cause i’m Forced to play the game,… In my Head ill go like, i need to play this!! I PAID FOR THIS!! and i wont play it? and i wont get to just sit and hang out in Towns talking with Random People or my friends just cause,… Why would you waste time on that? 
i know people will say, its cheap Bla bla bla,…Money is Money for me so yeah
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Yeah. This makes me worried if it does come out as subscription.
ToS doesn’t have the content or type of game play to support P2P. Not to mention the marketing and finances to do that.
IMC isn’t a huge company with a notable background so chances are, people would not know the quality of ToS. Reason why bigger companies such as Blizzard or Bethesda can do other methods is because of their previous successful franchises. People see their name and are more assured the game isn’t bad. Even then, Elder Scrolls Online flopped pretty bad and is going F2P soon, a formerly P2P game.
Best option is to put an optional subscription for extra benefits similar to Tera. Tera has a very good model for F2P.
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P2P hasnt faired too well even for other well respected devs such as eldar scrolls online, there was a huge decrease in the game population when it was announced to be P2P, now its F2P but the damage was done
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I see. I didn’t realise that.
I’m a freemium guy. I prefer the option to have an optional sub (exp boost/general ease of play things), along side a more cosmetic cash shop. The cash shop can be cosmetic, because there’s an optional sub that offers up gameplay that would otherwise not require things from the Cash Shop.
But that’s just me. P2P is not bad either, but it means a smaller population at launch as opposed to it’s would be F2P population. This game thrives on a large community, so it would do well to stay F2P. B2P is also not bad, but I don’t think it wouldn’t make much money in the long run, and would need some supplemental cash shop anyway.
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The thing all companies need is income. Not just once; its gotta be a constant stream of it.
Players will have 3 responses to Cash shop system (let’s assume permanent cosmetics)
No buy
Buy occasionally (a set for your favorite character, good deals in cs)
Buy constantly
It depends on the game. But I think most people are a type 2, and some are a type 3.
In a game with constant development and maintenance, you’ll need type 3s, or get type 2s to buy more.
A huge free player base is not always important to some games. For those, then subscription is reliable income.
Buy to play works for games that don’t require updates and maintenance. For MMOs, this amounts to a type 2 player and not quite enough sustained income.
Fortunately, development costs don’t look that big. At first glance, it looks like a game from 10 years ago. They probably don’t need a huge number of constantly paying players to survive. Cash shop is probably fine.
Except games like Guild Wars 2 has proven that you can make a game successful w/o making it pay to win.
Guild Wars 2 is B2P , Buy to Play, you can even convert the gold you earned in-game to “Gems, in-game currency to denote real money” , how do they make money? cosmetics, bank tabs , cosmetic finishers, infinite-use gathering tools that simply dont run out of durability.
thats it.
oh well, the reason WoW and FF still not going to F2P because it’s made by Blizzard and Square. They’re both dev and publisher and also, they make a lot of other games and merchandise. Just a portion of their funds pool enough to feed WoW or FF alive.
To other publishers, it’s different story, they don’t have enough resources to fill the gap.
IMC is the same boat, they don’t have much game to rely on and they need a long term income. When a game come from P2P to F2P, people already played other games.
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P2P >= B2P > F2P. 
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I already wrote a huge post about it, but having a separate P2P server would probably be the only sensible subscription model. Having only P2P will scare people off it, or they will just wait it out until it goes F2P and that isn’t good for business, either. But there are also lots of people who won’t play a game with a cash shop or at least won’t get as involved with the game as they would if it were subscription-based. So. Yeah.
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there are only a handfull of games who can survive with P2P.
these games have a community over 3million players, and this is why they can do this.
Tree of Savior, would not survive this.
i hope a P2A or P2V will be used for tree of savior.
A game that depends on (sufficient) player base to survive cannot even consider options that will limit its availability to everyone. The following are all poor options:
- You can’t play unless you pay every month (subscription)
- You can play for free but need to pay to unlock additional game content (Free trial)
- You can play for free but your progress is limited unless you pay (P2W Cash shop)
Only very few games that used these models are successful for very specific circumstances. All of them honor the rule: “If you can’t pay for it, you can at least work for it.”
Good options must make available the full game experience, and full progress available to everyone, for free. The key to making profit is to encourage people to pay, without pissing off the rest of the player base who can’t. This can be achieved by the following examples:
- Pay for cosmetics only
- Pay for convenience (time saving, grind saving)
- Encourage paid gifts for friends (people like to give presents)
In a game that requires active population to survive. It is important that everything that can be paid for (that counts), can be worked for in game. This makes your player base the biggest possible, and from that population, those with the financial means will support the game (and feel generous doing so).
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