FREE: Hearth & Haven

I imagine that the DT developers have a passion for what they do and want a memorable experience for everyone, same as those two guys.

Guessing that H&H being a java 2D game in Alpha stage of development has something to do with it being free..

Guild Wars model anybody? Box cost then F2P. The store stuf IS fluff. I think it might be TIM’s best example model. And they’ll be trying the same (extremely successful) model with GW2. F2P doesn’t necessarily have to mean Pay to Win. Lesser games do things similarly. I believe Global Agenda is quite playable without spending a dime. I think I’m with TIM on this one. F2P doesn’t automatically mean Pay to Win. And in a sandbox game, the playerbase is much more interested in deco (as I prefer to refer to fluff) than in the directed themeparks. There’s more opportunities to RP, and deco is extremely useful for that purpose. Remember all the stuf in SWG for sprucing up your houses, guild halls, cantinas, etc. None of it was “useful”, it was all deco, but people paid big-time in-game credits for it. Could’ve just as easily been microtransaction stuf too, if SOE had been into that model.

But I’m OK with a sub, particularly a lifetime sub, if the gameplay is fun and the product is good. I DO have a problem with the look of our characters in Dawntide. While gritty, there’s little flash ‘n’ dash here. Probably just personal taste, and definitely not disturbing as Ryzom was for me. Couldn’t play that one because the characters’ looks just bothered me too much. But a competitive sub-based model also comes with certain expectations. You say $5/month, expectations are lowered. You say $12/month, and you’re closing in on the prices of the Big Boys. Now, I’m not saying all the chars need to look like Lineage II or other Asian amine-based chars, but a little style goes a long way, especially in a sandbox. I’m hoping the char customization is just a stub currently, and they’re working out more options.

But Xix, remember the 100s of threads about TCG over in SWG. There was almost a constant objection about TCG ever since SOE thru it in. People were a little ticked off that things we have been asking for in game for almost 8 years were now being developed and sold. But your right, I knew people that spent even thousands in that lottery. Deklin, Kauri/Bria was a collector and had to have every new house, every new shelf, every new anything. I had almost 1400 items in my bunker (had to go thru it to get all the duplicate items out and put somewhere else to just get 1 of everything in that bunker myself) and was a bit of a collector myself. Had every painting in game except Dusk and Dath Prison. TCG paintings I bought with credits. I had all 4 traders and a mall set up in Hideaway Naboo (bria) with 27 vendors so I made billions after the economy was ruined due to the credit dupe. It was really a mess trying to find some more wall space when they came out with another painting.

But, when the sales droped off in TCG, it became more than just fluff. They started adding buffs also and the community went really wild after this due to Deadmeat promising that only fluff would be included. That furthered the “buff” problem in game. I was one of those “buff-ho” jedi that ev1 screamed about and could buff to 7 rows. Ikky, a player that in fact followed us over here swears that I hit 8 rows while solo tanking Exar but I guess I was too busy to notice. lol I had buffs on 3 different toolbars ( 24 items on each) and a toolbar changing macro to get some or all on at once. I had many a hate tell from the unsuspecting BH that came for my toon seeing me running with nothing more than a ent buff/med buffs and then the next minute I was in god mode. I even went as far as getting the little 15 sec buff from Sher Kar.

Thats what can happen if the fluff doesn’t sell. They will have to put something in that will sell if they want to keep the sales up. STO did the exact same thing with their C-Store. 1st, all fluff (uniforms, different bridges, etc) but then, the +1 ships came (their name for the ships not mine) and P2W became a regular over there and still stands today expecialy with F2P coming on Jan 17th for STO.

• This reply was modified 162 days ago by  Esquire.

I think that GW and LoTRO both came out of F2P very well. But, there has been a glut of them that haven’t fared so well. Most of them have taken the STO route instead of GW and LoTRO’s example and blown it big time. STO, believe it or not, had their own NGE just this month getting ready for Cryptic’s version of F2P. Why I’m here, to be honest. That caused me to go looking again and found this in the search.

/agree 110% on NGE. Altho after about 6 months, I could not find anything else to replace it with and went back. I was soooo ticked at NGE, I deleted my jedi thinking that would keep me from going back. Lucky (I guess) I had placed many of his items in alts houses and there was that bug that if you delete a toon the items will revert, so I still had some of them for the next jedi. At C6CD, when they did it to us again, I took off for another 6 month period but AoC/WoW was about the only thing out there then as well. Tried them both and ended up being fodder for Smed yet again. Wife and I stayed until the closure announcement last June.

The wife and a few guildies tried FE when SOE had their hack and was down. They kinda liked it but all came back to SWG as soon as it was up again. I’ll take a look as the extended downtime here has made me download TOR for the pre-launch. Arggggg. lol We tried to cancel the boxes after we found this game but Gamestop wouldn’t answer the phone. So, we just figured that we would set them on the shelf and wait for BW to have their fully expected problems at launch and with end game and try to put in the fast fixes to compensate. lol

I have not seen the wife play a game like she is DT since SWG and she beta-ed TOR as well. Last beta weekend she was invited to, she was here more than there. lol