Poll: I don't like F2P MMOs

[Clive Howlitzer]

I am not hugely into MMOs but I almost always prefer the monthly subscription method. You always get fucked in the F2P method, even if you don't realize it. There are exceptions, I am sure, but in TRUE MMOs, not psuedo MMOs, F2P will always fuck you up the ass.
I remember how long I played CoH for monthly, and now its F2P. Except all the content they are releasing is basically VIP only, which requires a subscription. Except, now all the new power sets cost money separately from the subscription, so you pay even more. The prices are also absurd. 8 dollars for a power set? Are you kidding me?
It is just an excuse for companies to nickel and dime you to death, or in some cases, just outright gouge money from you. It divides your community between free players and paying players, and very often creates power creep and buying power problems.
The closest game I played to somewhat having F2P right was DDO except it also blocked off areas to free players. Most of the items were just convenience, but you still had to drop money to access 90% of the game, which was always cheaper to just be VIP.
This isn't always the case in pseudo MMOs. Vindictus didn't have any issue, almost all money stuff was cosmetic or convenience. In the end though, F2P fucks you.

 

[NathLines]

It really all depends on the game. Some games have a bad F2P system, others a good one. Vindictus for example(since I'm playing it now) really doesn't require you to pay anything.

 

[Joccaren]

I love F2P MMOs. They are the only MMOs I can play, and the only ones my friends can play. Monthly is the shittiest plan ever, as unless you're willing to drop at least $15/month, you can't do anything. F2P, sure, you might miss out on some content and such, but at least you can play. Besides, that content often goes on sale for 1 or 2 dollars, and I've even been emailed with offers of free content on occasion, and I'll be damned if that's bad.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Recently, the mmo that has consumed my life for more years than I'd like to think about, City of Heroes, has become free to play.

If you want to win at PvP, you just make a Dark/Robot Mastermind - or an Elec/Elec Blapper. That's always been the case. PvP should never have been allowed into CoX - it was far more damaging than GDN, ED or F2P.

 

[Vrach]

Monthly by far. I like to know that when I'm paying for a game, I have access to all of it, not that I have to go and pay more every 5 minutes when I wanna do something different. As long as it's a quality MMO, the 15$/month isn't a lot to pay for it, they offer more than enough content to justify the price.

 

[Hisshiss]

Recently, the mmo that has consumed my life for more years than I'd like to think about, City of Heroes, has become free to play.

When it made the transition, I took my leave.

The "Free to play" label is quite deceptive. Yes, you can play, but to access higher end content, or to pvp you usually have to dump some cash. And, normally, the people with the most cash to dump perform the best. This sets up a situation where you're constantly being baited to spend money and I HATE it. The last thing I want to be on my mind while I'm playing a video game is how much I wish I had more money. Escaping the sad facts of my dirt poor existence is a big reason WHY I play video games.

Sure, with the monthly subscription, you have to spend 15 bucks a month. But it's ONLY 15 dollars a month. F2P models can bait you into dropping several times that much if you wish to stay competitive. This is why so many MMOs are making the switch to F2P. They make a LOT more money with it.

They milk their player base for FAR more than 15 dollars a month each. The transition to F2P increases an MMO's revenue to three times that of a subscription based.

Its really funny you mention that, I just tried to get back into city of heroes yesterday and didn't even get as far as creating a character before I was destroyed by bullshit freemium ware strategy.

Free to play has become so rampant these days that you can't ever really avoid it entirely, but Ile be damned if I play something like CoH that rips you off every 12 seconds instead of a freeware game with some actual fuckin respect.

At the very least they should add a feature where if you pay the subscription instead you get like, a 90% discount on everything in the cash shop, or a monthly allowance. CoH does technically have that second one, but it's like, 5 bucks worth of points per month. Which will get you nothing.


...Sometimes I miss just getting the free "Hook" month and then paying a flat sub. Atleast you didn't feel like you were always being nickle and dimed, or in the case of some games, 5 and 20'ed, just to have everything your "Supposed" to get.

 

[Paladin Anderson]

Recently, the mmo that has consumed my life for more years than I'd like to think about, City of Heroes, has become free to play.

If you want to win at PvP, you just make a Dark/Robot Mastermind - or an Elec/Elec Blapper. That's always been the case. PvP should never have been allowed into CoX - it was far more damaging than GDN, ED or F2P.

Oh I know. The pvp was the WORST I've ever seen. It functioned completely differently from the PvE so anyone wanting to get into it was in for a learning curve the size of Mount Everest. Then when you did get into it there were only a very select few builds that worked. But then they'd update pvp which invariably made all those builds neutered and made other builds the best so you had to roll up a new character and start all over again.

And looming over it all was the fact that click and wait game play does not lend itself to pvp at all.

Though, in my opinion, Mission Architect was more damaging than pvp or even F2P. I mean, the game is a grind as it is but MA made it even worse. Now, instead of having different maps and enemies to fight, you have one grind map and one enemy you kill for hours, get to lvl 50, roll a new character, start all over. It's still bad to this day but when AE first came out it was so rampant every zone was devoid of life except for Atlas Park. I canceled my subscription until they got it under some form of control.

I, personally, think that there should have been no rewards for playing AE. No exp, no drops, etc unless you're playing an Developer's Choice mission. Harsh, but they opened Pandora's box with having AE having rewards.

But, at least, every other MMO developer who are working on such a system can look at AE and say "Well we're not going to make THAT mistake."

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

And looming over it all was the fact that click and wait game play does not lend itself to pvp at all.

Well there's a huge number of reasons behind that.
Stalkers being untagetable one-shotters, Granite Tanks not being able to move, Super Reflexes sitting anywhere, Defences dropping, Toggle dropping from Blapping, Melee powers requiring one test while Ranged powers required 2, Teleport Other, Stamina...

Though, in my opinion, Mission Architect was more damaging than pvp or even F2P. I mean, the game is a grind as it is but MA made it even worse. Now, instead of having different maps and enemies to fight, you have one grind map and one enemy you kill for hours, get to lvl 50, roll a new character, start all over. It's still bad to this day but when AE first came out it was so rampant every zone was devoid of life except for Atlas Park. I canceled my subscription until they got it under some form of control.

I still think the killing point was when they made Lusca so insanely hard. In the beta/early alpha there were hundreds of people who rushed off to fight her - and in doing so made friends (especially the Healers) It was a training ground of sorts.

When they made her harder than Hami, I just sat down in Independence Port and wept. It was like the destruction of Grokk, or the SW:NGE or the PoK stones...the challenges that binded the players together were replaced by "PRESS A BUTTON! YOU WIN!".

Horrifying. Brings a short burst of PL'ers, wrecks the community and then bleeds out the corpse of the game.

Still take the occasional character to FrostFire though. Just for the Ice slides.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Runescape is really Pay2Play. Like playing WOW up to level 20, you are locked out of most of the content until you cough up a monthly fee. It is distinct from Pay2Win or Pay2WearStupidHats that usually masquerades as free.

Yeah, in a sad admittance of age I remember when they first implemented the optional subscription. Didn't add an entire lot back in those days, a new quest in a new area and some crafting skills. Haven't really played much past the first upgrade to 3D.

And while we're on the subject, have a trope!

Allegedly Free Game.

 

[Milo Windby]

Third Option: I don't care as long as the game itself is good.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Bear in mind that at least 50% of the people voting free to play are people who don't play MMOs period.

 

[Wolfram23]

I prefer not playing MMOs, personally. My life isn't that empty anymore lol.

 

[Substitute Troll]

I would never pay for something I've already bought. That's why I like GW2 so much, no silly subscription, but you still have to pay for it

 

[Kevon Huggins]

F2P cause if I like it i will invest in it if i do not I will go back to Arrows and knees.
Monthly payments you rely can never try before you buy and you buy based on your friends or reviews or popularity etc never on your preference

 

[Kevon Huggins]

I prefer not playing MMOs, personally. My life isn't that empty anymore lol.

I must say you and I are two sides of the same coin

 

[Cowabungaa]

I've played both free and payed MMO's, and I have yet to play a free MMO that beats a payed MMO.

That is, an MMO that started out as a free one. For example, Age of Conan was still made with the budget of a payed MMO, same for Star Trek Online or something. But true free MMO's, like the freight-load of Korean MMO's...no thanks.

You know why Diablo 3 auction house got an outrage? Because it was most definetly a pay2win, which is not what F2P is. Sure there are some shitty F2P here and there which are basically P2W, but some of them, like LoTRO and LoL, you can't pay to be better in cobat than everyone else.

It isn't a Pay2Win, the stuff you can get in Diablo 3's auction house is still available in the game itself. You can still get to all that gear without paying a dime. The auction house is just a shortcut.

I prefer not playing MMOs, personally. My life isn't that empty anymore lol.

Hahahaha...hahaha....ha...yeeees...funny *cough*

Really now, I would've thought MMO-bashing had gone out of fashion by now.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I abhor the monthly model. I do not care 1 iota how much you or anyone else thinks that it is only ?15 or whatever a month that is still ?15 a month(same goes for XBL). I do not want to be tied down to having to spend that much money to play for one month when I am not guaranteed that I will have enough time to spend on it to make it worth. In short I think it is too much up front.

F2P I don't mind as some companies do it well with microtransactions others screw you the fuck over. In this model it really depends on the type of microtransactions that they have.