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Posted By Shaun K. about 4 months, 1 week ago
Oh dear. How many e-mails do you think ChaosD1 has already received about this?
I have not been shy in the past stating that I think the subscription model for MMOs has passed its expiration date and should be retired for good. They days where only low-rent cheap and quickie MMOs have gone the way of the dodo and the news today of yet another major MMO taking the free-to-play plunge only further reinforces that fact as far a I am concerned. The MMO in question this time is none other than TERA (aka The Exiled Realm of Arborea) and the changeover will happen sometime next month (the exact date has yet to be revealed) when the game is relaunched and rebranded as TERA: Rising. This new version of the game will do away with required subscription fees and will not put any major content restrictions (or at least none that are not also applicable to paying players as well) or a level cap on non-paying players.
There will be as you might expect a cash shop (and it will even be accessible in-game) and additionally those willing to shell out fifteen dollars a month will be granted Elite status. The following comes benefits are conferred with this status:
Elite Status Benefits
One fiery halo
Thirty of each of the 4 NPC summon scrolls
One hour boosts for each XP, gold and reputation, refreshed daily
Ten strongbox keys
One village atlas
Increased maximum simultaneous listings on the Broker (50)
Lower fees for listing and selling items on the broker
Elite mount(TBD)
Double your daily quest limit
Store discount on selected items throughout the En Masse store
Also those who previously purchased the box or digital version of the game and/or have active subscriptions will receive permanent Founder status which, among other things, grants access to an exclusive mount wholly separate from the Elite Status exclusive mount, eight character slots per server (both Elite and Standard non-founder accounts only begin with two), and the maximum 288 bank inventory slots (again both both Elite and Standard non-founder accounts only initially start with 72 slots) available in the game. Note that it is no longer possible to receive Founder status simply from creating a TERA account but purchase of a boxed copy of the game will continue to do so even after Rising has officially launched.
To further complement the big free-to-play switchover, a bevy of new content will be added to TERA in February. This includes a wave-based dungeon called the Crucible of Flame and a PvP battleground map called Champions’ Skyring that “introduces a new way for players to test their skills against each other.” A launch trailer for Rising (including a first look at some of the new vanity items and other boosts coming for the cash-shop) can be found below.
TERA: Rising will officially launch this February for PC in all territories the original game is currently available in. For more details on the Founder and Elite status and other aspects of the changeover be sure to checkout the source link at the bottom of this article. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of MMO news and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Source(s): En Masse Entertainment.
WHELP! The only game left to convert now is Rift, and that shouldn’t be too soon.
I actually really like Rift, but I’m not willing to pay a monthly fee for ANY game, no matter how much I like it, because that’s money I could use to buy new games, or perhaps movies, or maybe, oh, I dunno, FOOD!!!
I’m cool with this choice. I can see the love for Tera, but I just can’t find myself liking too many KMMO games anymore. They all look/feel/play the same to me.
it may look and feel like so many others KMMO, but it does not play in same way as many MMO
Fair warning as a current subscriber to the game. Ever since the server merger the game has been suffering a lot of major technical problems. I’ve played around with the settings and I have a fairly high end computer and I have a hard time getting above 20 frames per second on low settings. I’ve been hoping they’d fix this, for a lot of people this game has been nearly unplayable.
Holy hell, this is awesome news! I played TERA from day 1 in to about 4 months out, and loved every second of it. If it wasn’t for GW2 coming out I would probably still be dropping the $15 for the sub. I can’t wait to get back into the game now that it is going F2P!! I can also get all my friends into the game once it goes over to the new model, I’m psyched.
They should definitely not do a daily quest limit, to me it feels like they are trying to force people to pay. I get that they’ll be making less money for a while (probably), but it just seems like such a bad way to get people to pay. I guess in the end it mostly depends on what the daily quest limit is for non-Elite, but I still feel like it’s an unfair way to get people to buy into it. I really enjoyed my time with TERA, and want it to succeed, but it’s just hard for me when they make a decision like that.
Tera’s current daily quest limit is 10. It’ll continue to be 10, both for standard players AND founder players, therefore, your point is invalid.
This is just a little bonus for those who pay, not a way to make people pay for it, since nothing will change on that matter after it goes F2P.
Actually Tera has done a pretty decent job in making it fair for those who decide not to pay for Elite, standard players will not have restrictions, they just won’t get bonuses.
How is it invalid? It’s a perfectly valid point, bringing up a daily quest limit. 10 quests is not that much.
Your argument appears to be that the daily quest limit is a way to force people to pay. It’s invalid because payer or non-payer, people have the same daily quest limit.
If you want to say “There shouldn’t be a daily quest limit,” that’s another story, but that is not what you are saying.
I’m very glad to see them do this. Tera was a really fun and different MMO experience. But, it fell victim to the usual KMMO grind-monster around level 30 and, much like TSW, the high initial cost + monthly fee was a a pretty heavy investment for a game that was so unconventional, as far as MMOs go anyway.
Hopefully they’ll decide to do a review of their cash-shop pricing structure before this change over. I know when I played it was fairly limited, but something like a class-specific weapon skin was either $10 or $15. From what I’ve heard of people who still play, the stuff is priced like WoW’s cash shop with items like mounts setting you back an additional $25 on top of your monthly fee.. it’s a little on the ridiculous side.
I am still baffled why no F2P/Sub model MMO drops the subscription cost to $10 when they change over. One would think that just the psychological effect of one game having the cheaper subscription would entice a lot of people over.