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What is the best subscription model?
聽聽聽 Ever since World of Warcraft hit the industry, we've seen a lot of new types of subscriptions in the online gaming industry. Some companies have decided to try and compete with World of Warcraft in the 'Pay to Play' model for online games, while others have avoided this model and gone to the more popular 'Free to Play' model. Some have even created a mixture, where users can either play for free or pay for more options, maps, skills, and other advantages. But out of all the models in the gaming industry, which one is the best for gamers? 聽聽聽 A lot of people have been discussing the cost of a game that is supposedly 'Free to Play', since the entire theory behind it is getting money off of a cash shop. Some games avoid having to provide completely unfair items in the cash shop to earn money by placing advertisements in-game and on their website, which brings in another source of income for the company. People say that the 'Free to Play' model, referred to as F2P from here-on, is actually more expensive than games that require you to pay a monthly fee. 聽聽聽 But is this actually true? Are F2P games really more expensive than P2P games? I will take a look into the subscription models and try and settle the debate once and for all, while comparing all the models in other aspects to determine which subscription model is the best, aside from being the cheapest. First, let's take a look at the three base models. Some games may use a combination of these subscription models, but all of them contain at least one of them.
Free to Play (F2P)
聽聽聽 The free to play subscription model means that users can create an account to play in-game for no cost, and is the most common subscription model. While there may be additional costs in the game for new areas, items, skills, or costumes, the initial cost is nothing. This allows users without a credit card or Paypal account to play online without having to bug their parents or guardians.
Buy to Play (B2P)
聽聽聽 The buy to play model is a more rare subscription model. It forces users to pay an initial cost to purchase the game along with a serial code to activate your account, allowing you to play on the official game server. This model is often combined with the pay to play model, where the first period of play is included in the serial code used to activate your account.
Pay to Play (P2P)
聽聽聽 聽聽 The pay to play model is the second most common subscription model, but has suffered after the supposed domination of the model by World of Warcraft. The model forces users to pay a fee for each period of time, defined by the game. Usually the duration of this period is one month, but in some cases it is a yearly fee, or can be purchased in numerous amounts ranging from fifteen days to a few months. 聽聽聽 Now-a-days, the cash shop in free to play model games has changed a lot. Companies are now becoming more greedy then ever, and is not being aided by the financial crisis in America. What I mean by the companies becoming more greedy is that instead of the way it used to be, now you have to pay for items from the cash shop in durations. Instead of paying $4 for a cool looking hat for your character, you now only have that hat for a month, then have to pay another $4 if you want it again next month or ever again. 聽聽聽 This is why people feel that this model is more expensive. But what people fail to leave out when making their rants, is that they are talking about having the prime experience on a free to play game. You don't need to buy cool armor, but in order to full enjoy the game you want your character to look cool, right? That's why people want customization for their characters like Perfect World offers. 聽聽聽 Now, to settle this. The premium experience in a F2P can cost anywhere between $10-$40 or more monthly. This depends on the amount of items other then clothing in the cash shop of course. So yes, the free to play model with a cash shop does cost more then most pay to play model games IF you are playing with all the extras such as costumes and cash shop experience bonuses. Otherwise you can play comfortably with a measly $5-$10 a month spent on the cash shop. 聽聽聽 Now, which model is the best for the player? 聽聽聽 While the free to play model is huge in the industry today, and is favored by most, it is a terrible model. The reason being that it attract all different kinds of people that have no business in the online gaming industry. Such as hackers, scammers, botters, and all of those annoying rule-breakers that cause companies so much grief. When you get into the pay to play model, you loose a huge percentage of those people because if they're just going to hack a game, they don't want to spend $15 a month on it. This cost keeps them away from the game, except for some. Sure, they could probably get into the game anyways and hack to ruin the game, but this is the joy of private servers. Why hack when you can instantly become the max level in a private server, without having to pay a cost at all and still being able to play the game? Exactly. The verdict:
Best subscription model:
Buy to Play!
聽聽聽 Buy to play has a lot of the benefits of a pay to play game, but is cheap enough so that a lot of gamers, if not all of them, can afford to play if they really want to. Because of the cost involved in playing the game, hackers and other rule breakers will usually stay clear of the game for the most part because it's not worth the cost if they just want to hack or bot to level up. You also get a great company along with the game who gets involved. With the money earned from this game, which is quite a bit compared to free to play model games, the company can afford more employees, better servers, and is an all-around better and more active company. This means better events as well, which make any game better. Think about it, you're paying a measly $50 tops for a great game, with great customer service, great events, and very few botters, hackers, and rule breakers. Can it get any better than this?
Worst subscription model:
Free to Play!
聽聽聽 Free to play, no doubt. This is where all the rule breakers go because it's just a registration form and a download away. They don't require anything from the cash shop, making this their favorite spot. Usually in these games, the game will become very unfair if it is too cash shop dependent, meaning users need to pay for cash shop items to do good in game. Whether it be potions, essential armors/weapons, or experience bonuses. The game also is a breeding ground for crappy companies that have terrible customer support and services, with events that a six-year old could have though up. Overall, this is the worst model as of now.
Note: If you have any topics for me to blog about, send me a message through my blog. Thanks for reading!
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