Mythic Founder Thinks Most Free-to-Play MMOs Are "Crap"

[Funcakes]

Guild Wars. Guild Wars is the way it should go. One time payment for a quality game. And it worked. So NYAH.

Guild Wars is hardly an MMORPG though. I agree that it's a good game, but people mean Runes of Magic, LoTRO, Age of Conan etc when they say "FTP MMO". GW2? Meh.. I'll see how that turns out, I have my doubts.

We shall.

Just because it has a different model doesn't mean it isn't an MMO. What you meant to say is a large persistent world is more expensive to maintain. Fair enough, but in that case I like sir RejjeN's response.


Either way, what this guy and everyone is harping on is the abuse of micro transactions. That CAN ruin a game, but it isn't the core problem with all MMO's.

EDIT: I am AMAZED, absolutely AMAZED that people actually ever thought F2P actually meant free. Seriously, that's just...amazing. Wow. Companies still want to make money, you know. Unless they start showing ads, the only way to do that is syphon it from you.

P.S. Anyone talking about griefers and trolls and consequences, please..seriously..GTFO. Just, GTFO. /elitistness

 

[RJ Dalton]

I'd go so far as to say that most MMOs are crap and leave it at that, but this comes not from any actual experience and more from me just being the sort of person who can't resist a burn whenever he sees it, whether he knows what he's talking about or not.

 

[Bostur]

EDIT: I am AMAZED, absolutely AMAZED that people actually ever thought F2P actually meant free. Seriously, that's just...amazing. Wow. Companies still want to make money, you know. Unless they start showing ads, the only way to do that is syphon it from you.

I think people are just sick of seeing games being advertised as free when they are not.

Also it's often used to charge more for a worse game, the commercial abuse is strong in some of the franchises.

 

[JMeganSnow]

And it didn't occur to this guy at all that better-designed games where griefing is basically impossible would accomplish this purpose?

DDO is free to play, and it doesn't have the problem with people "griefing" each other--because they really can't. Oh, every once in a while you'll get scams, people who offer to sell you something and ask you to mail them the money and they'll mail you an item, but if you fall for something like this, you're really griefing yourself. There aren't any rewards for pvp, and you have to choose to enter the pvp arenas before anyone can attack you in any way, shape, or form.

About the worst thing you could do to someone would be to cause them to fail a quest, in which case they'll leave the group, find a different group, and put you on their squelch list. You can't follow them, harass them, or do anything to them if they don't let you. At worst, you'll cost them a bit of time/annoyance.

The problem with riffraff in MMO's is that the game designers make systems where the good players have little to no defense against these people.

 

[Twad]

Imho, most MMOs are too stuck in that mind-numbing grindfest gameplay system. They say F2P, but its really "pay to win / cut the grind"

 

[Danceofmasks]

How about MMOs bring some gameplay mechanics that are better than something out of an 80s JRPG?
Sure, it may not be feasible since most people don't have 50+ megabit connections, but there is a reason why they are shit.

 

[thirion1850]

Yes, free to play games are mostly crap. But so was Warhammer Online.

Also, no, I don't think SW:TOR will stay on in the long term. The only reason it might kill WoW is because WoW is essentially starting to waver in on its self due to bad decisions and the age of the game. The game will sell by the truck-load in the first month or two, until people realize they've been there and done that.

 

[qeinar]

ive had good fun on the F2P mmos. so...i disagree. and i never forked over any money what so ever.

well have you played wow tho? you sort of need to so you can compare games to it. : p

Also warhammer online was pretty fantastic.

 

[Jegsimmons]

ive had good fun on the F2P mmos. so...i disagree. and i never forked over any money what so ever.

well have you played wow tho? you sort of need to so you can compare games to it. : p

Also warhammer online was pretty fantastic.

i dont care to play wow, i'll just wait guild wars 2

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

I agree with his statement.

HOWEVER, most subscription based MMO's are crap to.

 

[Jegsimmons]

ive had good fun on the F2P mmos. so...i disagree. and i never forked over any money what so ever.

well have you played wow tho? you sort of need to so you can compare games to it. : p

Also warhammer online was pretty fantastic.

i dont care to play wow, i'll just wait guild wars 2

Guild Wars 2 isn't free to play.

really? so, their website and wiki is.....completly wrong?

straight from the site:

"Will there be a subscription fee for Guild Wars 2?
Nope. Like the original Guild Wars, there will be no subscription fee for Guild Wars 2. You just buy the game and play it online without paying a monthly fee."

 

[Magic Pancake]

It still isn't F2P, you have to pay for a box. It's B2P.

On topic, I've never liked F2Ps, all it does is encourage developers to put up tollgates

Slightly less on topic, SWTOR is probably the last chance for at least 5 years for a big P2P MMO, hope it turns out good. Also, GW2 is making some mighty big promises, I'll believe it when I see it.

Off topic again, jeez there's a lot of acronyms in this post.

 

[Magic Pancake]

Sry, double post.

 

[phoenix352]

the majority of games on every business model are shit, plane and simple.


there is a handful of subscription based games that are even close to being worth the investment and so are free 2 play games.


both models have shit games with a few bright exceptions that are pulling the models forwards.





i disagree with him, i don't think there's going to be a swing back into sub mmo's.
sure there will be a couple of games still using the model like that star wars nostalgia riddled mmo but the dominant model is still going to be f2p.

the f2p models is best for every one, anyone that says its just making more money out of you or is an excuse to make sub par quality games is just flat out wrong. many f2p games such as league of legends , maplestory , dungeons and dragon online, vindictus and more are prime examples of how the free 2 play model is used correctly and how it only expands the developers and players options towards the game which helps its growth.


unlike sub based mmo's where the players are forced to pay monthly fees to keep the game they already bought available to them while having no direct impact on it in any way.
and when the game starts selling stuff like mounts and glorified collectibles that's just sad.
paying full price for a CD key to activate a game that costs 15$ a month to keep playing and on top of that has micro-transactions that pull even more money.

games like guild wars are using the standard model for games so iam not going to write much about it.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

You know what? He's right, most F2P MMO's are crap. There are very few that held my interest for long.