103519-theres-only-one-thing-ruining-this-game

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Players have one thing in the backs of their mind when starting an MMO - they don't want to waste time and go start over somewhere else - especially after putting all their emotion and energy into it.  If they log into the game and see server population low all the time, never see other players in the game, can't get enough players to do a raid - they quit.  They immediately think the game is dead.  Wildstar is repeating (and I thought it would the minute they announced sub based game) SWTOR.
 
How many subs did SWTOR lose before going FTP?  Then they had the daunting task of getting players back through upgrades and expansions.  I am pretty sure most of the players who started that game are not there - when they could have been.  Any and all problems with the game early on in that game would not have been blown into a huge nightmare - every problem - if it had been free after buying the game.  But when you charge a monthly sub - players opinion of the game sky rocket and small bugs are blown into big deals.  
 
So now I go from zone to zone and look at server status - no one here.  I have friends leaving saying the same thing - it's dead, let's go somewhere else.  Yes - you are like a bar on Friday night.  If no one goes to your bar - your days are numbered.
 
This game should go FTP and begin filling up the servers.
 
What I would do if I were running the show at Carbine.  I would give the game away free.  I would lose the sub.  I would switch to the 21st century business model.  Clash of Clans has next to nothing of a game.  Yet in just two years they sold 51% for 1.5 BILLION.  Yes they rake in the money.  How do they do this by giving their game away free?  First - free means tons of players are on full time.  That is your main key to success.  Yes - this game has what it takes to be a top MMO - if not the top and you do it in a cleaver way that brings in millions - micro transactions.  You have two tasks - fill up the servers and keep players happy.  You can do this by giving them all this amazing software free - then making even more back with those transactions.  Some will not like it - but I have yet to see anyone bail on Clash of Clans - it's constantly growing and becoming even more popular every day.  I started that game day one and thought that it would fail.  then roughly two years (actually 1.5 years) later it sold 51% for 1.5 billion.
 
If any of the heads at top are listening - I would seriously consider the new business model and make this game huge via micro transactions.  
 
Please note - COC is only one example.  after 5 years I still have a 10 minute wait to get into the FREE TO PLAY League of Legends - doing exceedingly well with 70 million registered players.  I am sure a fraction of those numbers would make this one of the most successful MMOs of all time.	
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			Thank goodness you are not running the show.	
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			Oh good, I was beginning to worry we wouldn't fill today's quota of "This Game is Dead" threads.	
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			League of Legends is not an MMO, which makes it a bad example to back up your argument.	
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			You like hyphens.	
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Whew. Almost a whole day without a "GAME SHOULD BE F2P" thread.
 
I was worried there for a minute.	
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			I'd leave if it went FTP. That's a completely different crowd. More than half the accounts logged in would be bots.	
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			Oh.. Comparing complex MMOs to simple flashgames? The vast majority don't play MMOs because they require more commitment than a MOBA or flashgame. Going F2P will not fix anything.	
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This game should go FTP and begin filling up the servers.
 
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			Calling SWTOR F2P is like saying leasing a Jaguar is only a "rental".  Lies!	
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League of Legends is not an MMO, which makes it a bad example to back up your argument.
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But when you charge a monthly sub - players opinion of the game sky rocket and small bugs are blown into big deals.  
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Calling SWTOR F2P is like saying leasing a Jaguar is only a "rental".  Lies!
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Oh good, I was beginning to worry we wouldn't fill today's quota of "This Game is Dead" threads.
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SWTOR is/was a different animal completely. Every single piece of content was so frontloaded that endgame was a "ok there is literally nothing to do". That game was honestly released about a year too early. 
 
Also they opened about ten times the number of servers that Carbine did when the players went nuts at launch. 
 
Lol makes all their money from people buying characters and skins. I'd rather then not try that here. Personally I don't mind 15 a month. It's pretty cheap compared to the hours I am gonna play. F2p games tend to have horrible horrible communities. Just look at lol's.	
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			Hate to say it, but when I'm out questing, doing dailies, and what not, I like not having a lot of assholes around to steal the shit I'm trying to kill/loot/interact with to do my quests and dailies.  When it comes to the big baddies for quest killing, there's usually enough around to do those.  Or I'll wait until my husband is home and cheese it with his level 50(if I'm on a low level alt), or team up with him in the dailies area to get it killed :P	
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So you do get they are making money - without a sub....good.
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Well its only 10:30 here...plenty of time.
Besides die...doesn't die...who cares enjoy what you can screw the rest.
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Of course it isn't an MMO - you are missing the point.
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			Clash of Clans has very little infrastructure. it's a tiny, simplistic game. Wildstar is huge and complex, requires a lot of hardware to keep running, costs a lot more than CoC	
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 to the point where if you do want to play, Sub is the ONLY way to go.
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			People are not quitting this game because of the subscription model. I'd like to think that most people can afford 15 dollars a month if they genuinely wanted to play the game. I think many people went into it hoping this would be their new vanilla wow, that old, sweet lover they are so sorely missing. But in fact they're just grown up and their friends are not playing at the same rate anymore so no game will satisfy their needs. So they quit and go on with their ordinary lives instead. The problem is an aging MMO-demographic, most people i play with are way above their 20s and were teenagers when Vanilla wow released. Teenagers today play LoL and CoC, they are too spoiled to actually spend time ingame to get better. The teenagers that actually play MMOs, well they sit in WoW and collect epics.	
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fixed it for you. You can barely do anything in that game without a sub.
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 I am pretty sure most of the players who started that game are not there - when they could have been.  
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Yeah, it's my understanding that you either sub or get nickel-and-dimed to death.
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			As another said I am not sure you can say SWTOR is f2p. They are a hybrid model that has subs too. I currently have a sub in that game as I raid their endgame, but I know those who are f2p and even premium have very little access without paying for weekly passes. You can only hold so many credits as well. Basically you can play through the stories and that's it. Also since the cash shop is so successful it is pretty much the only thing updated regularly anymore. Been playing the same raids for over a year now with just different difficulties. Careful what you wish for.	
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Players have one thing in the backs of their mind:
hardcore full frontal freaky funtimes!
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			F2P is the path to failure for players.	
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As another said I am not sure you can say SWTOR is f2p. They are a hybrid model that has subs too. I currently have a sub in that game as I raid their endgame, but I know those who are f2p and even premium have very little access without paying for weekly passes. You can only hold so many credits as well. Basically you can play through the stories and that's it. Also since the cash shop is so successful it is pretty much the only thing updated regularly anymore. Been playing the same raids for over a year now with just different difficulties. Careful what you wish for.
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			Oh.. and.. to just touch on the LoL reference.  That game has $20 skins for a single hero.  You've got to be either going Pro, REALLY love that game.. Or.. out of your *cupcake* mind to pay $20 for a new color scheme for a character.	
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Oh.. and.. to just touch on the LoL reference.  That game has $20 skins for a single hero.  You've got to be either going Pro, REALLY love that game.. Or.. out of your *cupcake* mind to pay $20 for a new color scheme for a character.
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Let me put this another way - I played other NCSOFT games.  The minute a game stops making a profit - they PULL THE PLUG.  I am guessing no one here commenting has played City of Heroes(or one of the many other games shut down).  If this game fails to make money right away - it's over.  You will have no game as NCSOFT will pull the plug.  
 
I like the game and want to see it continue - but I know from first had experienced how fast games get shut down around here.  So suggesting a way to get the money flowing and more content underway - is a good thing.  As it stands now - i see low server pops and that is a bad thing.  
 
When an MMO tries this and it fails - then you can reply saying it won't work.  But any game that was decent and used the model - clearly succeeded.  Even Disney switched their models to this.  WOW started the micro transactions and now has a game dedicated to them.    Slowly - they bring in more and more of them as they can see where they are going.	
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Oh.. and.. to just touch on the LoL reference.  That game has $20 skins for a single hero.  You've got to be either going Pro, REALLY love that game.. Or.. out of your *cupcake* mind to pay $20 for a new color scheme for a character.
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The one thing ruining this game are mmorpg gamers in 2014. They wanna log in play a game that is so easy that 2/5's of the dungeon party could be on /follow (look up the WoW youtube videos), collect their welfare epics, and play junior pokemon.
 
Not that this game doesn't have it's fair share of issues (bugs, bad customer support, class balance), but when people start making threads about the game being too difficult for them to watch tv and play at the same time (a real thread) or complaining that they didn't get a free mount from free boomboxes I have to scratch my head and wonder how horrible this place would be without a sub.	
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My sister plays.  $15 a month is FAR cheaper than paying for your helm slot, the ability to use purples, unlock zones, unlock XYZ.  The list never ends.  Plus they give you a stipend every month to spend on their cosmetic cash shop for your sub. It's actually not THAT bad of a deal.. the game just.. needs more.. STUFF in it.
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			this would all be much easier if the game just went FTP with a simple php pay module. 	
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Oh.. and.. to just touch on the LoL reference.  That game has $20 skins for a single hero.  You've got to be either going Pro, REALLY love that game.. Or.. out of your *cupcake* mind to pay $20 for a new color scheme for a character.
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No.  They're making money WITH a sub.  They use F2P to get people in the door, and then lock everything behind 40 foot tall paywalls, to the point where if you do want to play, Sub is the best way to go.  
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I havent even played the game. But if you rather play games than go out for dinner/get drunk/anyotherhobbie. You have "spare money" to spend on real interests, 20 dollars is not that much then.
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Huh...
 
What about making the 7-day trial accounts last forever?  But the restrictions never get lifted.  That is to say, the game is completely free, as long as you never want to go above 15th level, you never want to get a trade skill above tier 1, you never want to join a guild, and you never want to participate in the economy.
 
The servers would feel more crowded.  People who do not play frequently/heavily enough to get to 15 within a week would still experience the full trial.  Someone who unsubbed could pop in once in a while to see if their pet peeve had been fixed yet.
 
But, don't add in microtransactions and paywalls.  Want to have anything more than the base trial account?  Buy the full game and then subscribe.  Period, the end, no other options.  Let the subscription lapse and you can't log in on that account anymore, because it's not a trial account anymore.
 
I don't know... I'm seeing more advantages than disadvantages there.
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Let me put this another way - I played other NCSOFT games. The minute a game stops making a profit - they PULL THE PLUG. I am guessing no one here commenting has played City of Heroes(or one of the many other games shut down). If this game fails to make money right away - it's over. You will have no game as NCSOFT will pull the plug. 
 
I like the game and want to see it continue - but I know from first had experienced how fast games get shut down around here. So suggesting a way to get the money flowing and more content underway - is a good thing. As it stands now - i see low server pops and that is a bad thing. 
 
When an MMO tries this and it fails - then you can reply saying it won't work. But any game that was decent and used the model - clearly succeeded. Even Disney switched their models to this. Wow - started the micro transaction and now has a game dedicated to micro transactions. Slowly - they bring in more and more of them as they can see where they are going.
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Let me put this another way - I played other NCSOFT games.  The minute a game stops making a profit - they PULL THE PLUG.  I am guessing no one here commenting has played City of Heroes(or one of the many other games shut down).  If this game fails to make money right away - it's over.  You will have no game as NCSOFT will pull the plug.  
 
I like the game and want to see it continue - but I know from first had experienced how fast games get shut down around here.  So suggesting a way to get the money flowing and more content underway - is a good thing.  As it stands now - i see low server pops and that is a bad thing.  
 
When an MMO tries this and it fails - then you can reply saying it won't work.  But any game that was decent and used the model - clearly succeeded.  Even Disney switched their models to this.  WOW started the micro transactions and now has a game dedicated to them.    Slowly - they bring in more and more of them as they can see where they are going.
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Players have one thing in the backs of their mind when starting an MMO - they don't want to waste time and go start over somewhere else - especially after putting all their emotion and energy into it.  If they log into the game and see server population low all the time, never see other players in the game, can't get enough players to do a raid - they quit.  They immediately think the game is dead.  Wildstar is repeating (and I thought it would the minute they announced sub based game) SWTOR.
 
How many subs did SWTOR lose before going FTP?  Then they had the daunting task of getting players back through upgrades and expansions.  I am pretty sure most of the players who started that game are not there - when they could have been.  Any and all problems with the game early on in that game would not have been blown into a huge nightmare - every problem - if it had been free after buying the game.  But when you charge a monthly sub - players opinion of the game sky rocket and small bugs are blown into big deals.  
 
So now I go from zone to zone and look at server status - no one here.  I have friends leaving saying the same thing - it's dead, let's go somewhere else.  Yes - you are like a bar on Friday night.  If no one goes to your bar - your days are numbered.
 
This game should go FTP and begin filling up the servers.
 
What I would do if I were running the show at Carbine.  I would give the game away free.  I would lose the sub.  I would switch to the 21st century business model.  Clash of Clans has next to nothing of a game.  Yet in just two years they sold 51% for 1.5 BILLION.  Yes they rake in the money.  How do they do this by giving their game away free?  First - free means tons of players are on full time.  That is your main key to success.  Yes - this game has what it takes to be a top MMO - if not the top and you do it in a cleaver way that brings in millions - micro transactions.  You have two tasks - fill up the servers and keep players happy.  You can do this by giving them all this amazing software free - then making even more back with those transactions.  Some will not like it - but I have yet to see anyone bail on Clash of Clans - it's constantly growing and becoming even more popular every day.  I started that game day one and thought that it would fail.  then roughly two years (actually 1.5 years) later it sold 51% for 1.5 billion.
 
If any of the heads at top are listening - I would seriously consider the new business model and make this game huge via micro transactions.  
 
Please note - COC is only one example.  after 5 years I still have a 10 minute wait to get into the FREE TO PLAY League of Legends - doing exceedingly well with 70 million registered players.  I am sure a fraction of those numbers would make this one of the most successful MMOs of all time.
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you're pleading to the blind devoted white knights im afraid.
The game is dying. Servers are bleeding yet these delusional few are still defending it.
 
Much as I love Wildstar it isn't without it's flaws but trying to convince yourself your server is nowhere near 30% capacity is a joke.
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you're pleading to the blind devoted white knights im afraid.
The game is dying. Servers are bleeding yet these delusional few are still defending it.
 
Much as I love Wildstar it isn't without it's flaws but trying to convince yourself your server is nowhere near 30% capacity is a joke.
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Oh.. and.. to just touch on the LoL reference.  That game has $20 skins for a single hero.  You've got to be either going Pro, REALLY love that game.. Or.. out of your *cupcake* mind to pay $20 for a new color scheme for a character.
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Let me put this another way - I played other NCSOFT games.  The minute a game stops making a profit - they PULL THE PLUG.  I am guessing no one here commenting has played City of Heroes(or one of the many other games shut down).  If this game fails to make money right away - it's over.  You will have no game as NCSOFT will pull the plug.  
 
I like the game and want to see it continue - but I know from first had experienced how fast games get shut down around here.  So suggesting a way to get the money flowing and more content underway - is a good thing.  As it stands now - i see low server pops and that is a bad thing.  
 
When an MMO tries this and it fails - then you can reply saying it won't work.  But any game that was decent and used the model - clearly succeeded.  Even Disney switched their models to this.  WOW started the micro transactions and now has a game dedicated to them.    Slowly - they bring in more and more of them as they can see where they are going.
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you're pleading to the blind devoted white knights im afraid.
The game is slowly rickling itself to death. Servers are bleeding yet there's the delusional few who are still defending it.
 
Carbine over estimated and is now paying the price.
Much as I love Wildstar it isn't without it's flaws but trying to convince yourself your server is over 30% capacity is a lie. 
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However, Ghost Recon Online (Phantoms) was/is F2P.  I spent more on that game than $15/month (on average) for nearly 2yrs.  But this game was built around F2P from the start.
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There are two major differences between SWTOR failing and Wildstar failing 
 
One is owned by EA, a company notoriously shady that only worries about the bottom line.
One cost over five hundred million dollars to produce/market.	
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IMHO, Star Trek Online did okay with the transition from subscription to F2P.  Part of that is because of the dilithium market.
 
 
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			I hate the whole concept of microtransactions and will surely leave Wildstar should they go the route of "pay to win".  I don't mind paying a subscription if I feel my enjoyment of the game is worth it - and right now, I feel that my involvement in Wildstar is worth my $15 a month.	
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I don't think that's the argument, at all.  I think people are saying "OMG! FAIL! QUICK! LAUNCH THE F2P Balloon!" reactions are annoying, premature.. and even some.. will call it incredibly stupid.  I'll go back to my old favorite example.  EvE Online.  Started with 25k subscribers.  Didn't hit 100k subs for about 3-4 years.  Now?  It's rocking 500k and still sub based.  
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			LoL has like the most toxic community I have ever seen, worse than RuneScape... Also, you can't really compare a MOBA to a MMORPG. Both attract different kind of players. I for one love (MMO)RPGs but hate MOBA gameplays.	
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Wildstar like any new MMO needs some work doing to it, but going F2P is not part of that work! and like any new MMO I always give them a year to sort it, LMAO games like WOW would have wound up in the first year of Vanilla with all the problems they had!
 
support or don't support.......but never demand	
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People are not quitting this game because of the subscription model. I'd like to think that most people can afford 15 dollars a month if they genuinely wanted to play the game. I think many people went into it hoping this would be their new vanilla wow, that old, sweet lover they are so sorely missing. But in fact they're just grown up and their friends are not playing at the same rate anymore so no game will satisfy their needs. So they quit and go on with their ordinary lives instead. The problem is an aging MMO-demographic, most people i play with are way above their 20s and were teenagers when Vanilla wow released. Teenagers today play LoL and CoC, they are too spoiled to actually spend time ingame to get better. The teenagers that actually play MMOs, well they sit in WoW and collect epics.
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No free to play.....
 
It has credd for those who do not wish to sub and the money they make off the subs and those buying the credd to sell in game.... it is win win  for them.
 
Maybe later ,but I do not for see it in my magic 8 ball at this time......but I may need to consult the tea leaves and spirit world... oooohh wait I can google it cause everything on the interwebs is true  ....( sarcasm for those who are predicting the future of the game so soon after launch)
 
 
just enjoy the game  what happens happens.....	
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			Only one thing?? You said nothing about the lack of Cubiglet pets.	
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Free to play or subs it doesnt matter, the realistic side of the gaming market is 90% of the player base are casual players. Now im not saying to nerf content, no no god no do not nerf the difficulty I think its perfect, But what does need to go is the stupid long attunement process. I know players who could defently hold thier own in GA they did in the beta no problem.
 
But now with this stupid STUPID long attunement process that ios slowing down, because most people have already ran STL, KV , SC and SSM hundreds of times now and do not want to run it anymore, is basically cutting casuals (Casuals someone who cannot play 4-8hrs everyday not a term to represent skill) off at the knees.
 
And considering attunements even silvers is not a true test of raiding abilities I say remove them. I know players who got attuned, who cannot raid. So remove the attunment Id rather waste a 1 day of raiding testing a few new players to fill our raid group, rather then spending 20-30 hrs per person teaching them mechanics runs through silvers only to find out they still cannot raid and still wasting a raid day.
 
Theres a reason WoW removed the ridiculasly long attunment process and I see Carbine isnt smart enough to see the mistakes blizzard made and corrected.	
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Free isn't what sustains Free to Play games ... cash shops are what sustain Free to Play games. A cash shop can survive without Free to Play, but Free to Play can't survive without a cash shop. So no subscriber-based game "goes" F2P without a cash shop, and most will simply add F2P to an existing cash shop. No subscribers + no cash shop = no revenue. A video game without a commercial revenue stream is essentially shareware.
 
Unless technically unplayable, games that feature both subscription revenues and cash shop revenues (regardless of their niche) will have staying power; just maybe not WoW-level staying power. With more of a Facebook / tablet games mentality dominating the landscape now, games that don't feature both are throwing away revenue imho.	
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The devs know what their subscriber counts are doing, and they know how much revenue they need to cover their expenses.  And they've certainly heard of this "free-to-play" thing you're talking about.  It's not a secret, it's a wildly popular business model these days.  So if they need to go f2p, they will.
 
But as people here are pointing out, the f2p business model necessitates gameplay compromises.  Microtransactions and paywalls and shifting priorities for ongoing development.  So for those of us that enjoy this game, and that would like to see development resources prioritize bug fixes and new content rather than hats and vanity pets, f2p would make this game worse for us.
 
And right now, I don't see a need to go f2p.  My dungeon queues are short, my world is amply populated, my mining circle is large.  Low server population doesn't affect my day-in, day-out needs.  So f2p would have no benefits to me.
 
It might net Carbine more money at the end of the day, but it would be at the expense of those who enjoy Wildstar as it is.	
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Top guilds cannibalizing each other for 40-man raids. Top 20 guilds entirely disbanding and leaving for other games (WoD) or going into other guilds.
 
Mid-level guilds abandoning in the middle of the attunement process. Players from these mid-level guilds getting attuned faster than their counter-parts and guild hoping.
 
Low population servers for 75% of the day on all servers until peak concurrent time where the population doesn't surpass Medium (Pergo/Widow).
 
Dead servers. Literally: some servers are ghost towns void of people (no, they're not "out there" doing instantiated content; they're simply aren't any players period).
 
2-minute BG PvP queues meaning that the queue stacking system is free-and-open for use and is not backlogged by a bunch of players waiting to get a BG spot -- basically low PvP participation at the Practice/Rated levels.
 
Borked PvP balance with no timeframe in terms of incoming fixing.
 
Broken Rune system with no given timeframe in terms of incoming fixing.
 
Blighthaven is a 30-minute daily venture void of any real content and any actual activities to do. Complete waste of content.
 
2 boring daily zones where one has completely useless items (Crimsons) and the other will take you a month to get access to Beloved gear.
 
Let's be honest: the game is not doing well and the only people remaining are those who are seriously dedicated to this game.
 
Gamers are fickle and have other choices available to them on other platforms to satisfy their gaming needs. Coming September, Destiny is coming out. Expect a huge drop in the population number.
 
CRB had something here. They just prioritized everything that needed fixing in the worst possible way, taking way too long regardless of how complicated this game is.
 
This game should have never been released on May 31st. It should have been released in November 2014 at the earliest.
 
Will not be re-subbing for the month of August.	
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OP, you forgot to mention that 'free' games like LoL has one of THE most toxic communities I have ever seen; it's absolutely vile.
 
I used to play many F2P games and now I don't b/c f2p ruins it all and brings in the most nastiest people on the internet.
 
Plus they nickel and dime you for every damn thing you can imagine. Want to walk faster or have full use of abilities? Better pay up buddy! Those F2P games, btw, always ends up costing way more than 15 month too.
 
This goes F2P, I am gone for good but I doubt that...NCsoft will kill this game out right if it under performs, careful what you wish for OP.	
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OP, you forgot to mention that 'free' games like LoL has one of THE most toxic communities I have ever seen; it's absolutely vile.
 
I used to play many F2P games and now I don't b/c f2p ruins it all and brings in the most nastiest people on the internet.
 
Plus they nickel and dime you for every damn thing you can imagine. Want to walk faster or have full use of abilities? Better pay up buddy! Those F2P games, btw, always ends up costing way more than 15 month too.
 
This goes F2P, I am gone for good but I doubt that...NCsoft will kill this game out right if it under performs, careful what you wish for OP.
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OP, you forgot to mention that 'free' games like LoL has one of THE most toxic communities I have ever seen; it's absolutely vile.
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			Glad you're not in charge, OP.	
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The WS to SWTOR comparison is rather questionable.
 
I played SWTOR from launch until about 9-10 months in. The single biggest reason my entire guild quit was that BW kept blatantly lying about things they were supposedly going to add to the game. They would commit to new content in a given patch, and then the day before the patch, they would post a press release saying something along the lines of, "oh, we decided that content isn't in the game's best interests" or "that will happen next month." Rinse and repeat that kind of nonsense enough times, and you're going to kill your own game.
 
Carbine may be intentionally vague on when things will be added, but that is more respectable and understandable than BW's *cupcake*ing people to keep subs up.
 
As others have said, these constant negative posts are essentially meaningless and therefore become irritating very quickly.
 
I don't think anyone can deny that there are fewer people playing than there were at launch. That's normal for an MMO, yet some people choose to see it as a sign of the apocalypse.	
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Im hoping NC Soft steps in and fires the devs.
Then hires newer better devs not stuck in 2004.	
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Im hoping NC Soft steps in and fires the devs.
Then hires newer better devs not stuck in 2004.
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OP, you forgot to mention that 'free' games like LoL has one of THE most toxic communities I have ever seen; it's absolutely vile.
 
I used to play many F2P games and now I don't b/c f2p ruins it all and brings in the most nastiest people on the internet.
 
Plus they nickel and dime you for every damn thing you can imagine. Want to walk faster or have full use of abilities? Better pay up buddy! Those F2P games, btw, always ends up costing way more than 15 month too.
 
This goes F2P, I am gone for good but I doubt that...NCsoft will kill this game out right if it under performs, careful what you wish for OP.
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I'm all for a customization cash shop if its revenue means more playable content, and its inventory can also be earned in-game. Other than that, and maybe a level-capped trial version like WoW uses to get players to try it out, I cast a vote to keep the current sub model. Please no F2P. With F2P comes freeloading riff raff. Yuck.
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Let me propose one additional change to the set you listed:
 
Make CREDD cost $5 instead of $20, and grant one week of play time instead of 30 days.
 
(That way, the RMT transactions become smaller, and therefore more accessible, resulting in a higher "throughput" and a more stable market.  Plus,  people who only want to play for one week out of every few weeks can do so.  That way there's less of an issue about server population changes whenever one-month increments from launch happen.)
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Plus maybe have it operate like LOTRO's housing, where a player can pay for however many weeks they wanted to using any combination of character contributions account-wide.
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Here I thought you were gonna say Chua.
 
I think it's Chua.
 
Definately Chua ruining the game.
 
Nerf Chua and their machine gun charged shots in PvP.	
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If I understand you, I believe that is already how CREDD works today.  I can buy one on Evindra, use it, buy another on Mikros (the ghetto where my Dominion alts currently live), use it, and see my whole account get an expiration date two months in the future.
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			SWTOR is an emotionless, stiff, boring game with stilted combat.  This is quirky and fun with responsive combat. That alone will keep it going. I hope.  Because I like it. 	
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Players have one thing in the backs of their mind when starting an MMO - they don't want to waste time and go start over somewhere else - especially after putting all their emotion and energy into it.  If they log into the game and see server population low all the time, never see other players in the game, can't get enough players to do a raid - they quit.  They immediately think the game is dead.  Wildstar is repeating (and I thought it would the minute they announced sub based game) SWTOR.
 
How many subs did SWTOR lose before going FTP?  Then they had the daunting task of getting players back through upgrades and expansions.  I am pretty sure most of the players who started that game are not there - when they could have been.  Any and all problems with the game early on in that game would not have been blown into a huge nightmare - every problem - if it had been free after buying the game.  But when you charge a monthly sub - players opinion of the game sky rocket and small bugs are blown into big deals.  
 
So now I go from zone to zone and look at server status - no one here.  I have friends leaving saying the same thing - it's dead, let's go somewhere else.  Yes - you are like a bar on Friday night.  If no one goes to your bar - your days are numbered.
 
This game should go FTP and begin filling up the servers.
 
What I would do if I were running the show at Carbine.  I would give the game away free.  I would lose the sub.  I would switch to the 21st century business model.  Clash of Clans has next to nothing of a game.  Yet in just two years they sold 51% for 1.5 BILLION.  Yes they rake in the money.  How do they do this by giving their game away free?  First - free means tons of players are on full time.  That is your main key to success.  Yes - this game has what it takes to be a top MMO - if not the top and you do it in a cleaver way that brings in millions - micro transactions.  You have two tasks - fill up the servers and keep players happy.  You can do this by giving them all this amazing software free - then making even more back with those transactions.  Some will not like it - but I have yet to see anyone bail on Clash of Clans - it's constantly growing and becoming even more popular every day.  I started that game day one and thought that it would fail.  then roughly two years (actually 1.5 years) later it sold 51% for 1.5 billion.
 
If any of the heads at top are listening - I would seriously consider the new business model and make this game huge via micro transactions.  
 
Please note - COC is only one example.  after 5 years I still have a 10 minute wait to get into the FREE TO PLAY League of Legends - doing exceedingly well with 70 million registered players.  I am sure a fraction of those numbers would make this one of the most successful MMOs of all time.
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Clash of Clans is pay to win,
 
I dont want this game to become pay to win or F2P...
 
Why didnt you use an example like WoW? and how many failed MMOs out there that are F2P? countless..	
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Im hoping NC Soft steps in and fires the devs.
Then hires newer better devs not stuck in 2004.
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			I liked this game, I am still playing, but my sub is on hold for the moment. I will say it's my own fault, reading the forums has led me to feel that no matter what class I play will be underpowered. It probably doesn't matter, as I simply don't have the required time to play to be one of the best anyway. This is why; I won't read forums on the release of a new game until I give it a shake. However; that said... I have purchased quite a few MMO releases recently, and as a casual I can tell you the things that turn me off.Server population. If they are all low-medium, it is discouraging, there may be a great community here, though nobody wants to invest time into something that is just going to wither away. I am not saying that will happen, though it's the feeling I get, and it reduces my motivation to play.Forums. This is my OWN issue, I read so many issues with class being nerfed, underpowered, and like 2 being fun to play in PvP, which is my favorite game mode, only I wanted to play a Medic, though the entire class seems kind of messed up at the moment. I should have just played as I wouldn't have realized these issues until later, as the combat system of this game is actually a blast, and many of the content issues I probably would not have noticed had I not had read the forums. Though the server pop is an issue to me.I understand that people don't want it to go FTP; I quit rift when it went FTP (I was actually loving the game) I can't explain why, and I am sure somebody here will examine my character flaws but it is what it is, I understand everything I am saying is anecdotal. Meh, just my two cents.	
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			Sorry, but I only play my games over HTTPS.  If this game went FTP I'd be scared of getting hacked and quit.	
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			If this game went F2P with all the baggage that implies it would definitely be losing *this* customer.	
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I bought the CE for swtor :.(
Was fun for a bit, then they murdered crafting with daily gear that couldnt be reverse engineered (they could, but there weren't any plans to discover).	
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A free to play model will definitely bring in a lot of money, but the community would become horrid. Loads of immature players would join the game and essentially destroy the community. On top of that, there would be even more bots than we have now.
 
I don't think carbine is aiming for a community like that.	
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The first thing that attracted me to this game was obviously the warrior' arm cannon/ power sword combo but what really has caught my interest while playing the game was housing and mounts like Grinder and Uniblade, what ruined other aspects of the game for me was simple i play WOW/GW2
 
Questing felt very wowish, the ability system felt very much like an advanced version of GW2
 
Everything else felt very tedious and grindy like leveling alts,dailies, dungeons and adventure. Every time i join an adventure or dungeon i feel like oh god when is this gonna end and i leave mid way , the only motivation i get from doing them is renown but that not going to work every time . Not to mention all the goldsinks and RNG that adds to the table
 
I am just hoping that the game gets better as it gets older	
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SWTOR made 169 million $ in 2013.
 
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/07/18/report-swtor-fourth-biggest-sub-mmo-elder-scrolls-has-over-770/
http://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/us-digital-games-market/
 
Not sure if that's so bad.
 
Then again, SWTOR never actually went F2P in my opinion. I mean, imagine playing wildstar and only having access to one dungeon and three battlegrounds per week. Oh and if you dungeon fails, too bad.	
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			The fact is.. if a game is good and the experience is worth while.. you can ask gamers to pay whatever you want. Also, keep in mind that games like Clash of Clans and other ftp's can run on poop computers. Games like SWTOr require a somewhat decent pc but all in all.. the ftp market caters to ppl whose computers have less processing power than an air conditioner. 	
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I can't say I've had any issues regarding player population. I play on a Euro PvP server and it's a popular place, by the looks of things.
 
Also, I am happy to pay subs for WS and, while I do think there is wisdom in F2P models for some IP's, I would say that WS is doing well and needs to continue along the same path with regards to its business model.
 
Just my opinion...	
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I hope that the gamers that have no skill, and can't figure out how interrupts work, or can't figure out you can't ALL defend mid on a Bloodsworn match. quit the game and go back  to the hardcore 2014 gaming world of flappy bird and candy crush.
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Here's my take on this, for what its worth (which is probably nothing).
 
I like the idea of F2P, free stuff is always good.
But I'm also aware that there's no such thing as a free lunch.
 
LOTRO seems to have a working F2P model, but that is only because I'd been playing so long before it went F2P that I managed to unlock almost everything I wanted unlocked in the first month of F2P.  And the truth is I still sub for a month here and there when I really want to enjoy the game.  LOTRO's genius is that you can earn in-game, even as F2P, the currency you need to buy the unlocks that a subscription provides.  So you can be genuinely F2P, but most people opt for a few purchases of Turbine Points to speed things along.
 
But the OP's idea that Micro-Transactions will be the "great saviour" of this game is, IMO, laughable.  I've played three MT-games over the last year, and just to experience the "basic game experience" usually ends up costing more than a Subscription.   I think Cryptic's MT Model for Neverwinter is just about the very worst thing I have ever seen.  You have to pay through the Micro-Transaction nose every time you want a larger bag, or a bit more bank space, or another character, or in fact just about anything else that most players take for granted in a subscription model.
 
I reckon that to play Neverwinter how I usually play MMO's would cost me in the region of 2-3 times a month what a normal MMO subscription package costs.
 
So while I like "free" lets not pretend that "free" actually exists in MMO's - it doesn't.
 
I've only been playing a month, and I mess around with so many new characters to get a combination of Race/Class/Path/Tradeskill that I like that my highest level toon is only level 24.  But as things stand I'll be happy paying a monthly subs for the foreseeable future.  So much so that I've just cancelled my rolling 3 Month sub to SWtOR.
 
All The Best	
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No.  They're making money WITH a sub.  They use F2P to get people in the door, and then lock everything behind 40 foot tall paywalls, to the point where if you do want to play, Sub is the best way to go.  
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I don't know what game the op is playing but Wildstar is free to play if you prefer it. Other than the initial game price I have yet to pay a sub fee and my account is good for another 6 months.
 
The credd system gives player the choice of free to play or sub fee.
 
Not sure what the ops deal is. I'm guessing he doesn't know what credd is	
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 As a teenager I resent this I am more than willing to spend time learning and getting better at the game I love (wildstar) and I agree that easy mode epics and dungeons remove all meaning from the game and I would certainly rather have this than a half baked browser game and I feel it is a tad unfair to judge as all as lazy freeloaders (Some of them are I agree with you there)
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			Thank you very much Captain Obvious. Players have higher expectations when they pay money for it?!! Thats like two hours of frying hamburgers at McDonalds (the occupation of most MMO players).	
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SWTOR based off of the most recent data, is (iirc) 4th in the world for MMORPG subscriptions earnings for the last year.  SWTOR is not dead, and no i don't play it.
 
NCSOFT ARE complete douches for closing City of Heroes, but the game was almost 10 years old and suffered from having large portions of its original code being "misplaced" by leaving DEVS (who then went on to make another super hero MMORPG....), resulting in the Base bugs, etc.  The DEVS were heroes, for carrying on as long as they did, with what they had, and yes the game was making a profit when NCSOFT closed it down, and they are still assholes for doing it, but I really don't think its a good example of "NCSOFT closes down games that don't make a profit".. afaik.. AION is still losing money?	
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 and the only people remaining are those who are seriously dedicated to this game.
 
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I suspect that people who like the F2P/microtransaction model over the subscription model go for it due to the level of control it provides over how you're spending your money.  Sure, it's more expensive to blow $30 on mounts and bags and costume pieces and whatnot in a month than it is to just shell out for a $15 sub.  However, when you shell out that microtransaction money, you know exactly what you are paying for, and it's something that you actually want. 
 
LIke, this month, if I hadn't CREDDed my Wildstar sub, I'd be paying $15 for a PVP expansion which I have exactly ZERO interest in or use for.  On an intellectual level I know that the $15 just pays to keep the servers going (for the most part) but the instinctive feel is "Ugh, $15 for a PVP battleground? What a waste."  
 
With microtransactions, you know exactly what you're paying for and you have a choice whether to pay or not. This lets a player feel like they're in charge of where their money is going, which feels a lot better than having $15 just vanish off your credit card balance, regularly, no matter what you did in the game that month. 
 
Also, the microtransaction model is more flexible for people whose amount of play time varies a lot from month to month, which includes many students who play heavily in some months and not at all in others, like, when it's midterms or final exam times. You pay $30 for junk in April, but in May you don't play at all due to not wanting to flunk your finals -- and you pay nothing.  Again, there's the control thing: I paid twice as much in a month when I played twice as much. It feels more reasonable than paying an equal amount in both months, despite the outlay being exactly the same as if you had a sub.
 
Realistically the $15 a month just isn't that much money unless you're thirteen and playing off your $10/week allowance from your parents, but most people just HATE the idea that money is vanishing from their accounts without them having any control over when it's going and what exactly they're getting for it.  I think that's why magazines are still sold as newsstands and not just strictly subscription -- the newsstand copies are WAY more expensive when you buy them one at a time, but people like knowing that they're paying for just that one issue because it had an interesting story or cool cover on it.  (That is, for magazines that still have print editions at all....they are going the way of the dodo....) 	
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