(05-14-2014, 01:50 AM)synaesthetic Wrote: MMO "nomads" are the second single most significant reason why free-to-play/pay-to-win titles are completely dominating the market.
If people stuck to one MMO for years like they used to, these wouldn't exist and subscription games would be a lot more common.
(The other most significant reason why F2P is taking over is WoW, because most of the people who prefer subscription games are playing it, or playing XIV).
Is F2P dominating the market? Â Last I heard, even after hemorrhaging players due to lack of content, WoW still had about 7-8 million active accounts and is still the largest MMORPG on the planet. Â Subscription MMORPGs have to keep it real, since you can judge sub numbers but F2P MMOs don't usually keep records of how many accounts are regularly active (mostly because it doesn't matter to them, they already made their money on the game sale and only need to keep track of RM transactions. Â Is there a F2P game with an active population like that?
I'll say this, it's not just any Tom, Dick, and Harry developer that can make a successful subscription MMORPG. Â You have to continue to develop the game at a high level to make the sub money worth it. Â Most companies just don't have that kind of ability.