EVE online adds a free to play mode

[SirNuke]

https://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/introducing-clone-states-and-the-future-of-access-to-eve-online/

In short non paying characters will have a limited skills set and capabilities, Id like to see that in aces high, where non paying players would be stuck in mid (early maybe?) war planes in late war arena, early war planes in mid war, a single WW1 plane, etc.

Shoot away 

[oboe]

It will be very interesting to see how it works out, especially since EVE and AH are both subscription-based sandbox games.

I wonder how well it would work in AH.  along the lines of your thinking, maybe free- or reduced-rate subscriptions would have access to a limited plane set and ordnance set (e.g., less  than 500 LB bombs and no missiles), no GVs or manned ack.  They could earn perk points but not be able to spend them until they upgrade to a full account.  The idea being getting more pilots but limit their ability to grief players, and give them incentives to upgrade.

[The Fugitive]

Ive suggested the same before. Free to play has a short list of available planes to use, one med bomber a few early fighters, a couple GVs a goon. Get them interested, hooked and then subscribing for ALL the planes. Worst off it will add to the numbers in the arenas, best off, adds to subscriptions. Looks like a win win to me.

[guncrasher]

I would quit my ah3 subscription and play free planes.


semp

[bustr]

This is why EVE can take a loss leader on free to play, these investors are investing in EVE for the VR bleeding edge and platform expansion. Free to play is not free for the company offering it and money has to come from somewhere invested against a projected revenue return or some future prize. EVE may well be the VR future of social media and the game itself is just a spring board for these investors because right now it's the perfect world scale beta environment to shape the future of VR.

 About New Enterprise Associates 
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With nearly $17 billion in cumulative committed capital since inception, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 200 portfolio company IPOs and more than 320 acquisitions.www.nea.com.

About Novator Partners LLP

Novator Partners is a London-based investment company led by Thor Bjorgolfsson. Over the last 10 years Novator has completed a significant number of investments in sectors including telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, technology, financial services, clean energy, consumer products and real estate. The Novator team is highly experienced in a wide range of situations - from traditional private equity to special situations including transforming investments for successful exits, and in private and publicly listed companies.

[Lusche]

I think this new scheme might work very well with a game of the scale of EVE Online.
But I also think it would work much less with AH, it's much more difficult to balance here in my opinion.

[The Fugitive]

I would quit my ah3 subscription and play free planes.


semp

And that could be your choice. Of course you wouldn't be able to fly your pony, nor your first crutch plane a spit. If you could be happy flying a hand full of planes or vehicles more power to you. That would be fine as long as the numbers climb. Im sure there would be a decent percentage that would switch over to the subscription format just to fly those ponies and spits.

The point is to get more players in and trying the game and having the chance to work out their own issues with the learning curve. Once players see and get comfortable that is when you'd see players subscribing.

[caldera]

https://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/introducing-clone-states-and-the-future-of-access-to-eve-online/

In short non paying characters will have a limited skills set and capabilities, Id like to see that in aces high, where non paying players would be stuck in mid (early maybe?) war planes in late war arena, early war planes in mid war, a single WW1 plane, etc.

Shoot away 

Cool!  I can play for free from now on. 

[Meatwad]

I like this idea. I cant spend $15 a month on a sub if I only may be able to play just a few hours per month due to lack of spare time. If a free to play planeset was a handful of early war aircraft with one early war bomber, c47, m3, and an m8 or jeep, that would be sufficient enough to drag new players in and up numbers

[Zoney]

Total unadulterated CRAP !!

50 cents a day, pay your part or see ya, period.

If you aren't paying, whom do you think is footing the bill ?  Paying customers, that's who.  If you cannot afford it here and there, there are plenty of players who will pick up your bill from time to time, including me.

I know it's harsh, but what's not harsh is......50 cents a day.

[Lusche]

50 cents a day, pay your part or see ya, period.

The "see ya" part seems to work quite well for quite some time...

A filled arena can make a game so much more attractive to paying customers. One of the main reasons I canceled my AH account is the fundamental lack of activity during the hours I can play. The battles are all but gone. I only resubbed to accompany the AH II launch, and I will be gone after that again.

As I wrote earlier, I am not sure at all that EVEs approach could work that way for AH (in particular not in a simple "all EW planes are free"" way). But there are good reasons why a none paying customer segment can actually benefit a game both from the playing players point of view as well as from a commercial one. I just imagine it to be very tricky to get the balance right

[bustr]

Those two investment groups put $30M into EVE and it's not because of the stellar game. It's for the development of VR as the next big direction in social media. EVE is a game that happens to be a fully developed social media platform as an evolution of the paying customers love of the game. All that's needed next is a virtual input detector so you can fling pages around with your hand, browse the internet, do data entry, check boxes and press OK or cancel. Then tie that together with your smart phone, tablet or a sensor array in a room with a micro processing unit.

Space ships are tailor made to evolve virtual reality and virtual input controls.

Free to play arenas in this game turned out to have a hoard of freeloaders when Hitech shut them down who were never going to subscribe while free was involved.

[zack1234]

We have AHIII now no need for the gibberish

[bozon]

Even and AH are very different games. Even is built around time investment. You build your character and amass property over time. In AH you can start a new account every tour and except for the useless pile of perk points you will not feel the difference.

If you character development or equipment that you can use is limited in Eve this would have a big impact on your game. In AH, unless it is extremely limited the effect is minor. Heck, my nearly exclusive ride in AH is ENY 30, 1943 plane.

[oboe]

Even and AH are very different games. Even is built around time investment. You build your character and amass property over time. In AH you can start a new account every tour and except for the useless pile of perk points you will not feel the difference.

If you character development or equipment that you can use is limited in Eve this would have a big impact on your game. In AH, unless it is extremely limited the effect is minor. Heck, my nearly exclusive ride in AH is ENY 30, 1943 plane.

That's true and I agree it is a very significant difference between the games.