TERA 100% Free to Play!

[Frizz]

Interesting read indeed

Announcement Trailer:
http://au.ign.com/videos/2013/01/09/tera-free-to-play-announcement-trailer

Spoiler

Starting in February, you’ll be able to play TERA for free—no subscription required. The TERA: Rising update adds a new dungeon, new PvP battleground, and more new content, while eliminating the subscription fee so everyone can take part in TERA’s award-winning true action combat.

Unlike other games that restrict or deny parts of the game to free users, TERA: Rising offers every epic dungeon, every pulse-pounding BAM fight, and every well-earned level to every user. No content requires payment; play as much as you like!

For those who want to customize their characters and stand apart from the crowd, the En Masse store will offer an even wider array of costume and customization choices. And for TERA players who want all the extras, there’s elite status, a purchase that offers 30 days of extra dungeon rewards, 10 bonus daily quests, a daily delivery of items and boosts, an elite mount, in-game store discounts, reduced brokerage fees, and more.

If you’re a current or former TERA player, congratulations—you’re a founder! That means eight character slots, four bank tabs, a “Founder” title, the exclusive Terminus mount, and more. (New players have two character slots and can get more with elite status or as an individual purchase at the En Masse store.)

Whether you’re new, elite, or a founder, TERA: Rising offers new challenges. Test your skill against the Cyclops and other massive bosses in the Crucible of Flame, a dungeon that scores and judges you as you play. The better you perform, the greater your reward. And if PvP is more your style, the 3v3 battles in Champions’ Skyring will challenge your reflexes, your teamwork, and your tactics.

TERA: Rising offers new content, new customization options, and a new way to pay for only the extras you want. Come February, the only thing that isn’t rising is the price.

Website News:
http://tera.enmasse.com/news/posts/tera-rising-offers-new-content-for-free

 

[KainXS]

I bought it last year so I should have some extra stuff

thats nice I guess, might start playing it again.

 

[radrok]

Yeah I've heard about it some days(?) ago, anyway I've played the game before and it's fun.

I'm probably going to play it again with some friends, good times

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

wow what a surprise . Seriously, every subscription based mmo that gets released nowadays are always met with the question "So when will it be free to play?" XD

 

[Frizz]

wow what a surprise . Seriously, every subscription based mmo that gets released nowadays are always met with the question "So when will it be free to play?" XD

To be quite honest, I don't really think pay to play works as a model anymore because a lot of people won't even consider paying for a game overtime after the initial buy, hence why GW2 is so successful. A lot of people will compare MMOs to WoW sure but that is a Blizzard game, they have a big advantage over pretty much every other gaming companies making MMOs out there in terms of fan base and production hence why I think they've been able to maintain their player base for quite some time now although from what I've heard it's continually declining.

It'd be nice to see more MMOs out there follow in the foot-steps of GW2 and in my opinion TERA is doing pretty much that.

 

[WhiteNoise]

many people will pay to play but I don't think we are the majority. Then again WoW keeps going with thousands of paying customers.

Tera I tried during beta and I thought it looked really good but I'll stick to playing GW2. Awesome that is is free though. And 100% free? very cool.

 

[radrok]

Then again WoW keeps going with thousands of paying customers.

I used to play WoW for a long time and I still have TONS, literally TONS of friends that are still playing that game.

When I asked most of them said the same thing about still being an active player: "I'm playing just out of habit" and because they play with friends.

The lack of an alternative is really what makes WoW so popular.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

And 100% free? very cool.

Micro transactions that is for sure.

 

[Frizz]

Micro transactions that is for sure.

Yep but looks like it's only cosmetic for now, can't really pay to win in this game as ultimately all players will end up spending the same amount of time and gold to get their gear to +9 since obtaining it is easy enough

 

[xenocide]

I'm glad TERA is going B2P, it is a good game, but I couldn't justify paying the subscription for it. The problem was it was very grindy, and took quite a while to level through. It's a lot of fun, and looks stunning, but I was pulled back to WoW by my room mate and ended up ditching TERA.

I don't think the subscription model is problematic at all, I think the issue is that companies toss out these MMO's with subscription fees without realizing what they are getting into. A subscription only works if you are at a point where the game runs great, and you can continue to offer content up quickly. A great example is Rift, it is still P2P but they get content patches out every month, and have a very functional game--and with the new expansion a massive game world that makes leveling alts fun and interesting again.

 

[catnipkiller]

This game died almost as fast as swtor did. All i remember is that if someone was 2 lvl over you they should kill you easy. Now that's its free i can play it with out feeling ripped off.

 

[RCoon]

The world doesnt need any more F2P MMO's, or anymore WoW/GW/EVE wannabees that end up going F2P because the internet is already oversaturated with crap. Look at what happened to star trek online and the old republic.

 

[newconroer]

The world doesnt need any more F2P MMO's, or anymore WoW/GW/EVE wannabees that end up going F2P because the internet is already oversaturated with crap. Look at what happened to star trek online and the old republic.

Depends on a lot of variables however all under the umbrella of business.
Money from pre orders and initial sales of Guild Wars 2 will keep them good for a while. Tack on in game transactions(especially when the gold sellers get run out of business), and what they've done is made a subscription quality game, with all the same hype, yet not the subscription itself.

Just imagine how many people that didn't get into the BETA, and therefore had little experience or knowledge of how the game actually played - but then said 'it's only forty bucks, I'll just buy it and see what happens.'

Contrast that to something like Fallen Earth, that was a niche game trying to run off a subscription business model and eventually succumbed to the F2P approach.
They didn't have enough hype or marketing to pay off their development with initial sales alone so they had to rely on subscriptions - at least temporarily.


Ideally no game should have a subscription and any server maintenance/post development salary costs should be handled through other income means of that company such as revenue from another game and/or an in-game store model like Guild Wars 2 uses.

The worst thing companies can do now, especially after 2012, is go free to LIMITED play. Have you seen SWTOR's model? It's worse than EverQuest II (which was one of the first and the worst..).

The salt in the wound is nothing has changed about SWTOR. Same mechanics, same stories, same pvp, same everything minus some copy pasted battlegrounds and two raid additions.
Everything else they've added is take it or leave it fluff, and they have the audacity to say 'oooh ooh we've gone F2P' to which you repatch 25gbs only to find the game is the same and because you're F2P, you can only have two characters active of which you cannot move temporarily so you can start a new one and there's no game help petitions for non paying customers! In short, you have to resubscribe at least once to get full access and sort your account out.

If SWTOR was awesome you could swallow that insult. But it's not..so Bioware failed yet again.

Meanwhile, with GW2 still chugging along, WoW Pandora expansion, FFXIV relaunch and ESO on the way, TERA is suffering and needs attention.
If it really is full game access for free, then good for them.

 

[Absolution]

http://tera-europe.com/tera-club.html

Ugh, if subbed players complained about long grinds, I imagine removing boost items would make it much worse for F2P, but will try it out for the graphics only. The download was a pain the last time... 22GB or something.. and then the updates..

 

[xenocide]

The world doesnt need any more F2P MMO's, or anymore WoW/GW/EVE wannabees that end up going F2P because the internet is already oversaturated with crap. Look at what happened to star trek online and the old republic.

F2P is never really a bad thing, it draws in players who otherwise don't want to invest. I think B2P should be the default platform for MMO's just starting up. I think publishers are just now realizing they can't hobble together an MMO in a year and toss it out for $60 with a $10-15 a month subscription cost and compete with the likes of WoW. TERA--from what I saw--was a good a game, but it was no "WoW Killer", and lacked a lot of features it needed even to compete.

Star Trek online was a mediocre game, that's what held it back. The developers ignored feedback, and squandered a great IP, then released it ahead of schedule while the game was still packed with bugs. All of this was exacerbated by the fact that it had no marketing. The simple fact is, any MMO made by Cryptic is going to fail--and most of them already have.

SWTOR was a good game, but it was harshly judged because the expectations were so damn high, and BioWare was forced to put it out earlier than expected because of pressure from EA. The Free-To-Play model they use is atrocious, but that's because EA still doesn't understand MMO's. They are simply bad at them, there isn't a single EA-published MMO that hasn't either flopped or changed business models quickly. I personally think SWTOR is great while leveling, the only flaw was that end-game content was lackluster, but if you play it for the leveling storylines, it's basically 8 very solid games.

 

[NineNight]

Glad to hear that it's free. Really glad to hear it. But we have to keep fingers crossed and hope it will really be B2P, not Pay to Win