For those who haven't yet heard of Firefall, it's probably about time. The game is a persistant world mmo, shooter, role playing game, and it has the GU community rather excited. It's being developed by Red 5, a studio built around people who previously worked on Tribes and World of Warcraft. Now, a heap gameplay footage has been squeezed into a new trailer for us all to have a gander at.
Quote from firefall faq: How much will Firefall cost to play?
We are so excited about Firefall that we want to make sure everyone can play it and join their friends in the game. When Firefall releases, it will be available online for download and play for absolutely free.
Will there be a subscription fee?
Absolutely not. We do not feel that a subscription fee best suits the style of game we are creating.
Yeah the cell shading style definitely reminds me of Borderlands - but that's not a bad thing :) Oh and also - don't be surprised when the Micro transactions are implemented :p
Quote: When Firefall releases, it will be available online for download and play for absolutely free. does that mean the client app will be free as well? ie: how every fucking subscription based MMO should be.
A subscription based MMO should never charge for the game itself - it should be a free download. However when there's no up-front charge, and no subscription fee, you do have to worry about the type and impact of the micro-transactions.
I haven't done any real reading about this topic on Firefall yet, but I would imagine you'll be paying for virtually everything - and whatever you pay for is what gives you an edge.
In Tiger Woods free to play browser game, the only way to be better than other golfers is to use better clubs and balls. Of course, you actually pay for those. It becomes a game of 'whoever is willing to spend the most cash wins'.
Care to shed some light on this for us, Harb? Done much research on the topic?
yeah i'm really not sure how it's going to work - the dev's comments suggest they'll go the STO route of not putting balance affecting items in the store (which is working well for them for the most part (aside from the Excelsior Dreadnought: Free Kills Edition)). So long as they don't go the Exteel way of putting chunky kill items in the store AND make it so you're only RENTING the item for a short period...
They may even use the same method that world of tanks uses. If you pay a subscription premium you get enhanced xp rates. Not a bad way of doing things ad it doesn't necessarily impact game balance.
actually good point - Champions' shift to F2P isnt adding balance changing stuff to the store, instead they've limited the number of character slots (2 instead of 8) and some other stuff like that.
Free-to-Play Features Matrix | Champions Online Official Site
We plan to offer a marketplace for Firefall that will offer players items to enhance their gaming experience. We are adamantly against selling anything that might compromise the skill-based aspect of the game.
my emphasis.
Firefall Forums - A Compilation of Questions Answered by the Devs Part 2
From what I can see, they want it to be a kind of large scale, persistant world FPS. One of the answers said it's not an MMO, but I think they meant RPG from the context.
Maybe in a perfect world, they'd let someone like internode host an Australian server for them. As it seems they're aiming for less of the MASSIVELY in mmo.
It's also important to note that of all the games people get excited about a year before "release" precisely none live up to expectations.
Quote from Harbinger;390914: I suspect this game may nearly justify the price.
Like I said. If it's utter shit, well then... it's free.
I followed Darkfall fairly closely in the year before it's release, but I didn't even bother to try playing a trial in the end, big letdown. Hopefully NS2 get their shit together soon, it's not looking good.
my point? it's best not even to look at games that aren't finished, it's just going to be disappointing 98% of the time. Except valve, we can still trust valve right? where the fuck is episode 3?