User blog comment:Ikabite/The Elder Scrolls Online: P2P or F2P?/@comment-4627929-20130323190742

First of all, let us buy the game, and let me buy a retail CE. I don't want no silly founders packs. Then a _subscription_ based model would be the best way to start, and I don't think switching to B2P or even F2P later would be a very good idea, because when it happens to an MMO, I always think "okay, so what went wrong with this game that lead to this decision". Of course there are games that didn't go F2P even though they are not very successful, like WHO.

Coming up with a F2P model with limitations is the worst thing that can happen to an MMO(EQ, LOTRO, SWTOR). It only shows how desperate the company is to get any money out of their game.

B2P (GW2) can be okay at first, but after months, buying stupid stuff from the money shop spending the same amount of money, or more as if I had to pay a monthly subscription, still felt limitating.

F2P, like Neverwinter (I know there are lots of F2P Korean MMOs, but it's the newest), however feels cheap. It gives you the idea, that the game is underdeveloped, and the developers will never care that much about their game, because if it has a fair (not pay 2 win) shop, they will not make the same amount of money as they would with a monthly subscription. If they go for pay 2 win, they will lose many customers, and they won't come back ever.

I think there is nothing wrong with a monthly subscription, it doesn't cost much at all, even if you live in a country where the wages are a fragment of that of other countries with the current best economic situation.

There could be one thing with a subscription based system, when you don't pay your subscription: instead of a frozen state, the game could let you log in, put you in a lobby area (like a tavern), and let you talk to your friends, but the point would be the possibility to experience the game's atmosphere. That's it, and that way they would create a lure for you to come back. Maybe it's not needed, I don't know, I'm not an expert in psychology, but I vote for subscriptions nontheless.