Question of the Day, July 13, 2010

[Fensfield]

As I said somewhere else, Free to Play is both an inevitability and a double edged sword.

Now that the format's been proven, pretty much all MMORPG's will eventually decide to go to it, when they feel their subscriber base has fallen and will never recover - and while it's a perfectly viable system that could keep a game alive for maybe even decades I'd wager, it's still a one way trip for all intents and purposes. Still, even WoW will eventually go that way I'm sure, when its subscriptions start to slip.. only a few games, like EVE, won't, but that's only because they just wouldn't be compatible and would break instead.

That said, what about the horific problems with botting and RMT spamming that come with the free to play model? The only MMO I've seen try to deal with that is Ragnarok online, which confines all the free players (and 99% of the botters and spammers) to their own server, while maintaining much higher quality servers for subscribers.

 

[Drexlor]

I can't argue with free, although they're not truly free.

 

[Djinni]

Before DDO, the only F2P games I played were Eastern games which certainly didn't give F2P a good name. However I believe DDO has it just right and has changed my mind.

I like F2P but not if they force you to use transactions to play at all. Some "F2P" games it is really just a trial - they don't give much free content at all. Or games that almost force you to pay for items to be able to play.

I recognize that more content and a better experience will go to people who pay - games aren't free to make / upkeep. But I'd like to choose what I want to buy and how much I want to spend on any given month. And I like not having to pay a subscription amount every month - especially if I'm not going to play much.

 

[Danpascooch]

Hate it, when an MMO goes FTP it is generally a sign that it is circling the drain and you should steer clear.

 

[Danallighieri]

Got to say I prefer subscriptions, you get what you pay for without having to pay for even MORE stuff after paying that monthly, while in the case of the "free to play" ones ye hafta pay for other, better things and such, which I kinda don't like. Plus, subscriptions can be updated a bit more frequently from my own past experiences

 

[Timbydude]

Eh, I've noticed an astonishingly high correlation between the amount of money you spend on an MMO and how fun it is, with the exception of Guild Wars. Generally, free MMOs are compensating for a lack of content/gameplay with their lack of a subscription fee.

I'll be sticking to Guild Wars, WoW, and (in a few months) The Old Republic.

 

[Shjade]

I like it a great deal as it tends to act like a really long game demo, and I like demos. If I end up not liking the game enough to pay for the perks/extra content, no problem, I can still chat with folks (unless the F2P option doesn't allow chatting, which happens on occasion) and mess around in whatever areas I can access. If I do like it enough to want to see more I can buy in for more at my discretion. Hooray options.

ReverseEngineered makes a fair point in that often interesting content is locked into the paid section of the game, but not always. LotRO's F2P model, for instance, is basically turning the original game free with character slot restrictions (only 1 character allowed, no alts) and some other things along those lines that don't come to mind right now. Still, it's pretty much the entire original game: you can go up to level 50 and see the opening area content. The hard cap is on expansions: no Moria/Mirkwood for you. Oh, wait, I just remembered the one limit that sounded like a huge hassle: you can only carry a set amount of gold and it's really small, like 1 gold or something, if you're on the purely F2P model. You can collect more and it goes into escrow or something so that if you pay into the game later you'll get access to it, but having only 1 gold available to use...yeah, that could be a pain. Then again I can't think of much at level 50 or below that costs a whole lot, so maybe not such a pain after all. Hm.

tl;dr - Hooray extended demos.

 

[V8 Ninja]

As long as you don't have to pay to increase the level cap and the people who do pay aren't extremely overpowered, then I'm totally up for it.

 

[Luke Cartner]

You always have to pay somehow.
The so called 'free' MMOs usually cash up somewhere else, be it in 'premium content' (creating two classes of citizens)or selling cash or weapons (completely unbalancing the world economy of the game).

Its a dishonest approach and one that usually plays on those gamers who have addictive behavior resulting in them spending large amounts of cash to fuel their habit. While for the rest of us it becomes dull fast.

Personally until P2P MMOs are introduced the server costs alone will make it prohibitively expensive to produce a truly free mmo.

 

[Nurb]

I'd rather pay a monthly fee to put everyone on equal ground than have your success be based on how much money you spend.

Also, independent F2P games can be acceptable prices, but the big companies like the F2P model because they charge so much for more and more content that keeping up with everything is actually more expensive than a monthly subscription fee.

with MMOG's going with expensive F2P models as time goes on, everyones going to wish they could pay the cheaper subscription fee every month instead of paying 10 bucks to maintain expanded inventory storage space, 5 bucks in weapons and ammo, and 3 bucks for the faster resource gathering tools every month.

You always have to pay somehow.
The so called 'free' MMOs usually cash up somewhere else, be it in 'premium content' (creating two classes of citizens)or selling cash or weapons (completely unbalancing the world economy of the game).

Its a dishonest approach and one that usually plays on those gamers who have addictive behavior resulting in them spending large amounts of cash to fuel their habit. While for the rest of us it becomes dull fast.

This too. It's like DLC for games like dragon age... in order to make people want to buy the extra special weapons, they have to make them so powerful that it breaks the game and makes the existing content pointless.

 

[Charli]

Loathe it, you segregate the community and the majority of your player base.

Subscriptions are great, you get the whole game and no one is left out in the cold if they really love playing the game. As many will do.

Free to play, you get SO many whiners, complainers and idiots who think they're entitled to the effing universe because their friend bought a shinier hat than they did. They're the reason I switched to WoW from free to play, pay for better shit, games.

 

[daftalchemist]

I love it. I know that most of them have the micro transactions, but I think that's great too. I've started playing DDO because it's free now, and if I want an extra campaign, I can buy it. If I don't, I won't. I like that I can pick and choose the various options of the game I want to use rather than just paying one lump sum to have access to everything. I think they should still have a subscription option for people who play MMOs a lot (like DDO does), but I also like the trend of free to play with optional micro transaction items.

 

[Keepitclean]

'Severely limited"?

This doesn't sound okay in my book and it's definitly not how I projected the change. Seems I rather stick to subscription based models anyways.

Games like Runescape have been doing this for years. You don't realy feel that limited until you get to be a higher level then it gets really fucking boring if you don't pay up as there is nothing new to do.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I like it a great deal as it tends to act like a really long game demo, and I like demos. If I end up not liking the game enough to pay for the perks/extra content, no problem, I can still chat with folks (unless the F2P option doesn't allow chatting, which happens on occasion) and mess around in whatever areas I can access. If I do like it enough to want to see more I can buy in for more at my discretion. Hooray options.

ReverseEngineered makes a fair point in that often interesting content is locked into the paid section of the game, but not always. LotRO's F2P model, for instance, is basically turning the original game free with character slot restrictions (only 1 character allowed, no alts) and some other things along those lines that don't come to mind right now. Still, it's pretty much the entire original game: you can go up to level 50 and see the opening area content. The hard cap is on expansions: no Moria/Mirkwood for you. Oh, wait, I just remembered the one limit that sounded like a huge hassle: you can only carry a set amount of gold and it's really small, like 1 gold or something, if you're on the purely F2P model. You can collect more and it goes into escrow or something so that if you pay into the game later you'll get access to it, but having only 1 gold available to use...yeah, that could be a pain. Then again I can't think of much at level 50 or below that costs a whole lot, so maybe not such a pain after all. Hm.

tl;dr - Hooray extended demos.

The Gold Cap thing is true, but there's a Premium account level that kicks in as soon as you've spent an as yet undisclosed amount of Turbine Points. This Premium level is above the basic Free level (but below the subscription requiring VIP level) and has a higher Gold Cap (5 Gold, IIRC), higher character count cap, and a few other things. As you can earn Turbine Points in game, I would imagine if you played Free for long enough you'd unlock the Premium tier eventually.. or you could put down the $5 or whatever it will be for enough Turbine Points to move up to Premium that way.

 

[xXAsherahXx]

I despise the mmogs, but since I like free things more than I hate mmogs, I say that free is the best option.

 

[Shjade]

The Gold Cap thing is true, but there's a Premium account level that kicks in as soon as you've spent an as yet undisclosed amount of Turbine Points. This Premium level is above the basic Free level (but below the subscription requiring VIP level) and has a higher Gold Cap (5 Gold, IIRC), higher character count cap, and a few other things. As you can earn Turbine Points in game, I would imagine if you played Free for long enough you'd unlock the Premium tier eventually.. or you could put down the $5 or whatever it will be for enough Turbine Points to move up to Premium that way.

Two things:

-Premium membership status is attained with your first purchase of Turbine points, not your first purchase with Turbine points. Thus, even if you accrue T-points in-game, using them wouldn't give you Premium status because you didn't buy them.

-I don't remember reading anything about being able to earn points in-game. You can do this in DDO, but I didn't see anything about it for LotRO. You get points by buying them or getting them in a monthly allowance while you're subscribed. Oh, and no, you can't use points from your DDO account for LotRO store purchases.

 

[Necrofudge]

I like the idea of free MMOs, but there is always going to be something that makes the game better if you cough up a little cash. Makes things unbalanced for those of us with better things to spend money on.

 

[Aleate]

I play Mabinogi, which is as free-to-play as a game can get. Of course, like most decent F2PMMORPG (Damn that's long), its made by Nexon. You can do EVERYTHING in the game, complete the extremely long (and continuously expanding) storyline, you can play 24/7/365 (except the 8.5 hours for maintenance (which is going on right now D:<), continuous stream of updates and events, and being able to get your level as high as you want. Yes, there are things you can get with money, like pets to help you in combat or more space in your ingame bank, but that is just like the cherry on a huge birthday cake (with a nekkid gurl in it )

Oh, and there is this.
Free to Play as well, and its the best F2P game in Korea atm.

 

[StriderShinryu]

The Gold Cap thing is true, but there's a Premium account level that kicks in as soon as you've spent an as yet undisclosed amount of Turbine Points. This Premium level is above the basic Free level (but below the subscription requiring VIP level) and has a higher Gold Cap (5 Gold, IIRC), higher character count cap, and a few other things. As you can earn Turbine Points in game, I would imagine if you played Free for long enough you'd unlock the Premium tier eventually.. or you could put down the $5 or whatever it will be for enough Turbine Points to move up to Premium that way.

Two things:

-Premium membership status is attained with your first purchase of Turbine points, not your first purchase with Turbine points. Thus, even if you accrue T-points in-game, using them wouldn't give you Premium status because you didn't buy them.

-I don't remember reading anything about being able to earn points in-game. You can do this in DDO, but I didn't see anything about it for LotRO. You get points by buying them or getting them in a monthly allowance while you're subscribed. Oh, and no, you can't use points from your DDO account for LotRO store purchases.

You're probably quite right about the first point. I was wondering that to myself as I was typing and I couldn't recall if it was a purchase of TP or a purchase with TP.

As to the second point, however, it has been confirmed that you will be able to earn TP in game, most notably for completing deeds. The amount earned for low level deeds and whatnot is pretty small but it was stated once or twice that harder deeds should/would have higher attached TP rewards.