For Years I Have Preferred Subscription MMORPGs, These Days I'm Not Quite As Sure

For years, I've always ascribed to a certain philosophy when it comes to how I prefer my MMORPGs be monetized. You may have heard me say it a few times on random podcasts. It was the idea that, "Everyone wants MMORPGs to be F2P...until they find one that they will spend a lot of time in, then they wish it had a subscription."

That little idiom of mine has held true for a very long time. These days, though, I'm not sure if it's valid anymore or if I even personally feel that way. The idea came from, mostly, having to deal with the dumb monetization decisions some F2P MMORPGs make. If you play Neverwinter a lot, would you pay a sub if they stopped doing things like flashing a message at the top of your screen when someone got some damn mount from a loot box? Would you pay DECA monthly to avoid some of the more P2W aggravations if you planned to play Neverwinter daily? I would.

It wasn't just the annoyance of these types of "advertising" or "in your face" splash screens upon login that I wished I could avoid. Some games made it almost not worth playing without a subscription. Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) always fit that bill for me. Some of the limitations of the F2P account were so annoying that if I felt like playing SWTOR for a bit, I would pay the sub for the month just to be free of any limitations put in place JUST to get me to pay. I guess it worked, then...

While The Elder Scrolls Online isn't F2P itself, you do have to buy the box, their sub is 100% optional...except it really isn't. The "ESO Plus" subscription includes a few cool things like access to all DLC without having to purchase it, and a monthly stipend of cash shop Crowns that you could then use to turn around and buy the DLCs you wanted if you ever planned to stop subscribing. Cool.

However, they have the asinine "Crafting Bag." That lone little item basically makes the subscription required for anyone who plans to even REMOTELY take crafting seriously in the MMO. Sure, you don't HAVE to craft, you can always just get others to craft for you and pay them, but it is kind of an important part of gearing up in some regards if you want to modify particulars on your gear without needing a crafting friend.

Simply, the "Crafting Bag" keeps all of your gathered crafting materials out of your actual inventory. Your inventory will fill up VERY quickly without counting crafting materials. With them, you'll be storing items or hitting vendors every 30 minutes. Yeah, it isn't optional.

That's the thing. In the past, subscription MMORPGs didn't have their own cash shop. You were paying a sub and that was all that was expected of you. Now, times have changed and World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, and other "subscription required" MMOs have added additional revenue drivers of their own. The subscription isn't enough. While some games handle this better than others, it's still there. FFXIV, for example, doesn't have a way to view the shop in the game. It's totally outside the game on their site. WoW, on the other hand, can't wait to get you to click that shop button in game.

One option may be more "preferred" over the other, but both are trying to sell you things on top of your subscription.

It all combines to make my old saying, well, old. A required subscription used to free you from the additional monetization tactics, now it's just a single part of most monetization plans. That's unlikely to ever change at this point. Once companies make money in a certain way, it usually requires legislation to see things change, and there isn't really much to legislate if we aren't talking about loot boxes. Well, maybe some transparency in pricing and removing "Fear of Missing Out" tactics could use some legislation, but that's a separate topic.

Honestly, maybe it's time for the required subscription to go away...although is there really a difference in a "required" subscription or an "optional" one if the optional one is required to have the best experience anyway?

Yeah, we're all screwed going forward anyway, so just make it all F2P at this point...you're going to add some type of separate damn battle pass in there somewhere anyway.