The F2P joke

[Guilherme Zoldan]

If theres one thing I cant criticize with LoL is that it does the microtransactions model really well. The store is unobtrusive and completely unescessary for enjoying the game, everything you buy with real money is cosmetic or just convenience.
Im really happy to see a F2P system that doesnt try to screw over the players being successfull, maybe it will lead to more developers using it.

 

[Rivenart]

snip

Dude, I think you're thinking of a different game, they've only got one sub, and you pay in 1, 3 or 12 month increments iirc, each one knocking the monthly price down.

Then again, it might be that you've been smoking some damn good stuff recently.

As for the OP and his Magic Tactics experience, I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. My biggest problem with that game was it's terrible optimization for the PC (This is doubly retarded since this thing started OUT, if not remains soley on, the PC)

Ah, that could be it, just today while one of the devs was in the PUG lobby, he said the game does not play nicely with laptops or integrated graphics. It was also made to be co-released on PS3, as you can tell by the interface, but SOE's been workin with fewer people than normal for some time now.

You had to get petty over it didn't you, god forbid someone not like the game you do. I tried to be decent about it saying that's just my opinion/experience.

But if you are going to get petty how about you get you're facts straight?

There's 3 tiers, 2 if you discount free as one of the models. The VIP and The Premium subscriptions. I think it you who has been smoking something considering I remember more facts about the game I didn't like and played about 1 year ago, then you do as a supposed fan.

 

[Maze1125]

The worst you lose from not paying anything is the ability to use all the chat features, but that's only to stop spammers.

That's actually EXTREMELY false, given that any good private channel is built on an invitation only system, and even the public ones require an admin to un-silence people.

The key point would be more that public channels both a) are public for a good reason and b) require that an admin silences someone in the first place.

What the chat restriction does is screw over the RPers on the Virtue server, that's it.

Yes, you're right, they added F2P chat restrictions just to piss off RPers, because that would be a good financial move for the game...
It certainly wasn't because they had a large body of experience of how much spammers tried to exploit a free system from the trial system they had in place before. Nah, it's just to piss you off.

There's also character slots, Incarnates, Joining a guild, AE, and pretty much anything that makes CoH a fun social experience, which is what it stands on.

The vast majority of which was added later in the game, nothing necessary, just nice perks that were added as the game progressed.

Again, what people get for free now, is pretty much exactly what people used to pay $15 a month for and more.

Sure, it stands well on its RP/social environment, but that's all they've got going for them, gameplay is slow and boring.

I think you'll find most people who play City of Heroes disagree with you there. Its combat system is far more fast paced than most MMORPGs.

City of Heroes is a great example of F2P.
You get everything the game had a its original subscriber only launch, and a whole lot more, without paying a penny. The worst you lose from not paying anything is the ability to use all the chat features, but that's only to stop spammers.

What you have to pay for are extra bonuses that don't matter a whole lot at all, and they were all added later on, so aren't necessary for the core game at all.

City of Heroes locks the invention system and market for free players, which is a serious case of play to win. SO'd and HO'd builds are miles behind IO'd builds. If you're not big on min maxing it's easy to dismiss the lack of IOs as a small thing since most of the difficulty curve isn't built for IO'd builds. That doesn't change that IO'd characters can get ridiculously more powerful.

And? Even if that classes as "pay 2 win" (which is a concept that people who use the phrase almost never clearly define, and when they do, the definition differs from person to person) so what? Why is a "pay 2 win" always bad? It used to be that you had to pay $15 a month to access the game at all. So why is it bad that now you can access almost all of the game for free and only pay for the more superfluous parts?

Seriously, you can play all the way to max level without paying a penny, and all the zones and missions are there for you to do so, bar 1 mission line that was added when the game went F2P. They don't even stunt the exp gain for free players like a lot of F2P games do. Yet you nitpick over the invention system that the game never even had at the start?

 

[DazZ.]

Good F2P model: Lord of the Rings Online

Doesn't it lock you out after a certain amount of quests and really to get more zones you have to pay?

League of Legends gets it exactly right, cosmetics only needed money for and with them starting to give low level players free RP money at level 3 its getting even better.

 

[JaceArveduin]

You had to get petty over it didn't you, god forbid someone not like the game you do. I tried to be decent about it saying that's just my opinion/experience.

But if you are going to get petty how about you get you're facts straight?

There's 3 tiers, 2 if you discount free as one of the models. The VIP and The Premium subscriptions. I think it you who has been smoking something considering I remember more facts about the game I didn't like and played about 1 year ago, then you do as a supposed fan.

Premium isn't a subscription ner vod, you buy some TP or a single month of VIP, and your account is premium for life. People who played the game before F2P are automatically premium. I was never bothered that you didn't like the game, what bothers me is when you butcher the facts about said game. Shall I find a useful link?
http://www.lotro.com/free.php?
Go over to the Details tab, it says "Inventory: 3 bags (an purchase more)

http://support.turbine.com/link/portal/24001/24001/Article/736/How-do-I-upgrade-my-Free-LOTRO-subscription-to-Premium-or-VIP-status-How-do-I-subscribe-to-LOTRO-VIP
"After your first purchase in the LOTRO Store, your Free account is permanently upgraded to Premium!

All Premium players receive everything Free players get, plus:

Additional character slot (3 vs 1 per server. More can be purchased)
Gold limit increase (5 gold vs 2)
Faster login"

 

[Sixcess]

I think of City's 'F2P' as more of an extended trial.

It gives you the entire original game for free, bar controllers. How is that just an "extended trial"?

Yeah, the game has improved huge amounts since then, but people used to pay $15 a month just for what they're giving away entirely for free now.

Yes, I'm one of those who did.

My point is that City's F2P omits some important gameplay mechanics - IOs and Incarnates being the big ones - as well as two archetypes and virtually all of the new content. I'm not saying it's bad, but what I am saying is that compared to other F2P MMOs it's not very good. It's the difference between a F2P where you want to spend some money and a F2P where you have to.

 

[Rivenart]

I haven't read the whole thing because frankly I don't care that much, but really that last line only proves my issue with the models the game uses to make money.
Isn't that something rather important and beneficial to advertising, something that should be listed at the top of the differences for the subscriptions, not relegated to a seperate page in an asterisk at the bottom. It throws up a completely unnessarcary barrier into the game down to bad advertising and a system that doesn't work with itself.

 

[Maze1125]

I think of City's 'F2P' as more of an extended trial.

It gives you the entire original game for free, bar controllers. How is that just an "extended trial"?

Yeah, the game has improved huge amounts since then, but people used to pay $15 a month just for what they're giving away entirely for free now.

Yes, I'm one of those who did.

My point is that City's F2P omits some important gameplay mechanics - IOs and Incarnates being the big ones - as well as two archetypes and virtually all of the new content. I'm not saying it's bad, but what I am saying is that compared to other F2P MMOs it's not very good. It's the difference between a F2P where you want to spend some money and a F2P where you have to.

How exactly is that a case of "having" to spend money?
IOs and incarnates are nothing but optional extras, and yeah, the newest content you have to pay for, but there's still 7 years worth of old content you get for free, and so what if two ATs are locked? The other eight are open to everyone with all their old power-sets completely free.

Not to mention, pretty much all reviews of CoH:Freedom have stated that it's an example for F2P done right, and that's coming from people who've played most of the other F2P game, and so know what to compare it to.

 

[Sandytimeman]

I have no problems with the model of say TF2. My biggest complaint on these scenes is that your stuff can vanish in a heartbeat. For instance years ago I used to play this game called "Pangya" I got up to the rank of Amateur D (which is a really high rank) and I dropped over a grand on store items, clothes, clubs, caddies, and etc.

I reinstalled the game, my account still existed but had been wiped of all rank and items. I asked the customer support what had happened and the company had changed hands and they wiped all the accounts that didn't respond to like a small window of item transfer.

I feel robbed and tricked and now I can't even bring myself to enjoy the PSP version of the game, and I refuse to buy into the scam again. So my warning to you is prepare to have all your items taken away.

 

[Sixcess]

Not to mention, pretty much all reviews of CoH:Freedom have stated that it's an example for F2P done right, and that's coming from people who've played most of the other F2P game, and so know what to compare it to.

I'll stick with my own opinion, which is informed by my comparison of CoH (a game I played for 2 years as a subscriber) to Lord of the Rings Online and Fallen Earth - neither of which push me toward the cash shop like CoH does.

 

[Maze1125]

Not to mention, pretty much all reviews of CoH:Freedom have stated that it's an example for F2P done right, and that's coming from people who've played most of the other F2P game, and so know what to compare it to.

I'll stick with my own opinion, which is informed by my comparison of CoH (a game I played for 2 years as a subscriber) to Lord of the Rings Online and Fallen Earth - neither of which push me toward the cash shop like CoH does.

That probably because you played CoH for 2 years before, and so you know what you were missing.

A completely new player wouldn't have to touch the store for months, and the game is completely balanced without IOs. They wouldn't think "Oh I've lost inventions and masterminds, that's awful." because they never had those things, what they would have instead was 7 years of content given away for free.

 

[michael87cn]

So I'm very much into the F2P idea. I love the concept, it shuts down piracy completely and more often than not most people will by some things while other will buy most things.

But this bandwagon has got to stop.

I recently DLed Magic The Gathering - Tactics. Dubious from the outset since Wizards are about on par with Apple when it comes to scamming people for money, but I figured what could I lose since it was F2P right?

Within 30 seconds of logging in, I quit and un-installed. Virtual boosters, only 1 chapter available free. Points earned can only be spent on the AH, basically on stuff people have already bought.

Thats not free to play. Its not even buying power. To actually have any meaningful experience in the game you have to shell out and it starts making this obviously clear to you from the outset shoving stuff in your face in an attempt to make you buy things.

I dont mind you simply making you game a pay to play model, it still has its place in the market but I object to being lied to, at best this "game" could be described as a demo with DLC. Jesus Wizards, go find some dignity and respect. Its bad enough that you force us to re-buy our entire deck every 3 cycles now your lying to us and scamming us online to. Its just not on.

Dont call it F2P if its not. Charge a fee to play, release a reasonable amount of content with the game, not like MTG 2012 and dont start selling DLC in massive quantities, that take no effort to make in less than a week. Its a joke. Just release a demo and launch a normal game.

But it is free to play. Just not free to accomplish everything you could if you were to pay. That's the point. A lifetime demo that lets you try the game before you buy. Or lets you be satisfied with a lesser quality game if you're willing to play it as such.

No point in hating a business for being a business. Are you willing to offer your internet service free, to your neighbors, and sustain the economic drain that might come with such (if you have a bandwidth limited service)? Of course not. But your neighbors might want to have that internet access, so if you offer it to them for a while, they might just be willing to support you with some $$$, and then everyone is happy. (in case you didn't get my point, it costs money to offer online play of games, so stop expecting something for nothing).