Trackmania 2 stadium wont be free?

[StarlightGamer]

Hopefully the additional cost for TM2 Stadium is being used ... for better advertising in North America ...

God I hope so. The inability to find English-speaking players was a major reason why I quit playing Canyon and likely won't be paying for Stadium. I realize it's a self-fulfilling prophecy that an American won't buy the game because there aren't enough Americans, but what am I gonna do.

The other reason being that this game's frustration level dwarfs any other game I've ever played (to the point that it gives me a splitting headache). It's mainly the inability to comprehend why I'm losing (and thus, improve myself). I read guides about finding the best line and I seem to be quite precise when it comes to cornering and following what should be a "racing line", but despite that I'm always like 21/40 in servers (or like 3/40 in American servers, since apparently there's a huge skill gulf between the best Americans and the worst, for example, Italians). All the time, it's a tiny and simple course and the top guy is almost half a second ahead of my time and it just blows my mind how he could find a line that much better on such a tiny and simple course.

Apparently being able to discern the best line is one of those things where you either have it or you don't, and no amount of playing is going to make you better at it. If you don't have it, the best you can hope for is that you can memorize the right line by spectating somebody good or by driving the course 1,000 times, but then your true skill will show through when you play a course for the first time and get completely demolished.

Maybe there's a correlation between the lack of American players and the frustration and confusion.

[firstdriver]

My god .. my head is spinning .
Yes, TM2 Stadium would have been nice if it was given free .... to those people willing to buy another TM2 title TMNF was given on a free download and it is still there for the players who wish to use it ... It has never been taken away, it's still free. If players want something better or more advanced like TM2 Stadium then I believe that it is not unreasonable to expect them to pay the cost, just like some of us did when we bought TMUF. Devs have families to support too.

I can honestly say that it makes me angry that the 'I want It free' brigade seems to want everything free without giving anything in return. The free TMNF was basically a free demo of TMUF ... The free TM2 Stadium Open Beta is basically a free demo of TM2 Stadium (Open Beta or not!).

TM2 Stadium isn't, and never will be TMNF because TMNF CANNOT do the things that TM2 Stadium can, or is destined to do in the future. Don't get me wrong, TMNF is a fine game and I liked it that much I went out and bought the retail version (TMUF) which I still play to this day.

When Canyons came out it cost £19.99GBP and I expected it to be vastly different and I was disappointed ( just a personal view)as I didn't have the benefit of a free demo to try it first, BUT... I got over it and moved on. TM2 Stadium has a free demo and the unrestricted retail version is a mere £7.19GBP compared with £14.99GBP for TMUF, bargain! If a person doesn't like TM2 Stadium then don't buy it, no-one is making you ... just move on and stop moaning please!

[EnaiSiaion]

It's just... TM2S is the exact same game as TMNF, but now it costs money. Huh?

I mean just throw in a couple extra blocks...

[JumperJack]

there WILL be extra blocks at the release.

[tpower]

There is a catch here, if game is free with moderate marketing etc., it will be popular. But, most players would not bother with it to actually buy for extra content, sad thing really, since most of them do actually enjoy game, and if priced well, it's just few clicks away.

But when is large player base, those who would want to pay, will do it, because game is more fun with larger player base. Unfortunately, that seems to be small percent of total players base, because if is not like that, NADEO would never even question should game be free or not, they would simply give it for free like they did with original TMNations and TMForever.

If game is not free, assumably player base would be lower, and even more low then if game is "good old recipe" of something that was new concept long before. And with lower player base = less fun = less people buying and playing.

At the end, it is hard decision NADEO have to make, with all statistics they have from TMN and TMF, no one should doubt they will make any decision to do things other then best for them and game/players, taking both interest into account, at the end, this type of game is nothing without players.

[Romain42]

All they have to do is to create good games that people enjoy. If they do, they will sell them.

Maybe you noticed the very first version of trackmania, far before the TMN ESWC release, wasn't free either. It didn't prevent most of the community websites such as TMX or Carpark to develop. Even though the community was smaller there was already enough motivated people to make it more than alive and active.

Nowadays, there are more players, but a very smaller percent of them actually involve in the community more than very basic things such as racing or mapping. My opinion is, almost whatever the size of the community, people will enjoy it (if you have less players in the community, you know them more and links are stronger... Maybe it will not please the same players, but it will please some). Of course, the number of players should not shrink at such a point that nobody remains online.

I don't believe at all that the loss of those who never want to pay will harm the game itself.

[tpower]

All they have to do is to create good games that people enjoy. If they do, they will sell them.

Maybe you noticed the very first version of trackmania, far before the TMN ESWC release, wasn't free either. It didn't prevent most of the community websites such as TMX or Carpark to develop. Even though the community was smaller there was already enough motivated people to make it more than alive and active.

Nowadays, there are more players, but a very smaller percent of them actually involve in the community more than very basic things such as racing or mapping. My opinion is, almost whatever the size of the community, people will enjoy it (if you have less players in the community, you know them more and links are stronger... Maybe it will not please the same players, but it will please some). Of course, the number of players should not shrink at such a point that nobody remains online.

I don't believe at all that the loss of those who never want to pay will harm the game itself.

I guess you have point there, for example, even tho it was free, after 2 years TMN ESWC was still going very strong. Well, I'm not talking about community itself, but with large player base, one player will have more fun, and I'm very convinced in that, simply because, if player base is high, one player will have more options to it, instead of 20-30 servers with idk. (those are fictive numbers) 12-20 players, he have 100 servers with up to 100 players = more options = more diverse types of maps = more "better" and "worse" players = more chance player will find something that will make him addicted to game. And that is really what attracted me to TM (TMN ESWC days), large player base, and endless types of maps.

I'm not saying if game should be free or not, I'm not relevant to say that, because i don't have needed information to base my opinion on it. All I'm saying, whatever decision NADEO brings, it will be best decision for them and community. But having on mind that is not "new" game, i don't know, it is really hard to estimate if player base loss would affect NADEO, game will be affected for sure, how much, it's hard to predict, but you can draw some lines comparing with forever etc.

One thing i know, if I'm in NADEO, I would not like to be a man of decision for this, because it's not that simple and easy.

[StarlightGamer]

Another probable reason there doesn't seem to be much of an American playerbase is because a lot of tracks are built in a way that sabotage the experience of new players. You know, jumps that you can't make unless you're going at top speed, so if your run hasn't been absolutely perfect you can't finish? It seems like every other map on every server is one of those maps. Speed gates, misdirecting arrows, camera manipulation, tracks with no obvious direction (and an unhelpful GPS), etc. These things are everywhere.

What's a new player to do? The answer I've been getting is to play single player. I don't know about you guys, but I don't buy multiplayer games to spend a significant amount of time playing their single player.

In most competitive games, there are servers for new players to learn. It would probably have tracks that are only moderately difficult and that don't have cheap mechanics. But it doesn't seem like there are one of those servers out there right now. And that's unfortunate, because having just arrived on Steam means a lot of new players are going to be trying the game. They're going to come in, get cockblocked in one of the few populated American servers, and quit in frustration without buying the game.

It seems like a case where the playerbase is holding itself back from gaining more members, which is something that can occasionally happen in games entirely based on player-run dedicated servers. Most of the long time players just don't seem to understand or just don't care.

[Filipe1020]

Well we will be getting a lot of new features on the full version (I think) I'm buying it anyway

[zarexz]

Another probable reason there doesn't seem to be much of an American playerbase is because a lot of tracks are built in a way that sabotage the experience of new players. You know, jumps that you can't make unless you're going at top speed, so if your run hasn't been absolutely perfect you can't finish? It seems like every other map on every server is one of those maps. Speed gates, misdirecting arrows, camera manipulation, tracks with no obvious direction (and an unhelpful GPS), etc. These things are everywhere.

I hate this kind of track very much too yes BUT! The beauty of this game in particular is that, if you don't agree with the tracks nor the servers, you can built your own. So that's why, atleast my reason, is every € or $ is well spend