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Funcom's Morrison: F2P hesitation 'not something we want as game developers'
The games media and cash-strapped gamers may delight in declaring paid-for entertainment dead, but the reality is a little different according to Funcom producer Craig Morrison. Gamasutra recently interviewed Morrison regarding free-to-play and the expectations it generates, and while he acknowledged the model's recent success in the West, he noted that most western titles aren't designed to be experienced for free. "They're using a hybrid model, where the free-to-play is a trial and then what they really want is the users to move on to whatever they've called what used to be a subscription," Morrison explained. Even though Funcom pioneered free-to-play in the West with Anarchy Online in 2005, Morrison expresses concern about what the model is doing to games like The Secret World. "Eventually it only stands to reason that people's thought process is 'oh, well, I'll wait till it's free-to-play,' and that's not something we want as game developers. You don't want players to be going, 'I really want to play that game... but I'm going to wait.'" Ultimately, Morrison concludes that F2P is just another tool in the toolbox as opposed to the one true way. "I think we see subscription and free-to-play as tools. And tools can be used well, they can be used badly... it depends on the game. We don't categorically go, 'subscriptions are dead; there will never be subscriptions anymore,' or, 'free-to-play is the only way to monetize your games.' I think it depends on the game and it depends on your project," he said.
The Soapbox: That's the way it should be!
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Every fandom has it. In Transformers fandom, it's the segment of the population that insists the franchise peaked with the original G1 cartoon (and its numerous animation errors, bad scripting, and downright ridiculous plots). Star Trek fans will insist that the franchise should be more like the original series, where every plot revolved around Kirk's trying to bone someone or Spock's acting stoic. And then there are the tabletop gamers who miss the days of early Dungeons & Dragons, as if the books stopped working once the line stopped being active. Some fandoms have terms just for this crowd; some don't. But they're all in the same general group -- they're the One True Way crowd. They're fans who insist that one particular incarnation was the right way to go and everything afterward has been a poor imitation. The camp exists with MMOs, as well, and just as with any other franchise, it's arguably the most harmful portion of the fanbase.
