Welp, another F2P title bites the dust...

[CrimsonBlaze]

Hello Escapists,

So, yes, another free-to-play title, one that was quite successful and popular among it's user base and fans of the source material, has had its plug pulled indefinitely.

I am, of course, speaking about Marvel: Avengers Alliance.

Spoiler: For those who would like me to elaborate further, click here

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1y8eDMvp9py

Spoiler: Or if you'd like to simply read the finer points, click here

Facts
* Was around from March 1, 2012 to September 30, 2016
* An RPG that consisted of traditional turn-based combat with Rock-Paper-Scissors tactics
* Was free-to-play and consisted of micro-transactions
* Several Marvel super heroes and story lines
* Special events (Spec Ops) every month/other month

Pros
* Turn-based combat with Rock-Paper-Scissors style of combat (character classes)
* Expansive story
* Generous item/energy drops; easy ways to gain Gold
* Fun and challenging
* Best character: Silk from the Spider-Man series

Cons
* PvP was difficult/unbalanced
* Expensive character purchases
* Some bosses were horribly unbalanced/difficult to defeat
* Worst character: Phoenix (Jean Grey) from the X-Men series

So Escapists, what F2P do you currently/did enjoy and how do you feel about the notion that at any given point they can go away forever? Are they even worth investing time/money on?

 

[CaitSeith]

I prefer single-player. I have a love-hate relationship with Pokemon Pricross. Found out it has a expense cap of around $40, after that you can get loads of premium currency for free in the store. So I only worry about single-player games whose F2P doubles as DRM, thus requiring Internet just to play.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I am currently on/offing War Thunder and tend to pick up a premium account from time to time. I previously did World of Warships and way before that APB: Reloaded. I am entirely fine with the business model and the fact that I am basically paying to get perks in a service that won't be around forever. I am, after all, mostly paying to cut down on the grind and I mainly play because I enjoy the gameplay of said games.

 

[gsilver]

I play Hawken on PC, and I'm rather worried about it. The PC playerbase is very small, and the only features in the pipeline are parity with the console version... which brings expensive "G2" mechs that are statistically superior to the base mechs, and removes customization.
I'm quite set in my layouts (No, I don't want a slug rifle on my Sharpshooter. The Hawkins feels better to me in just about every way) and some of the layouts on the console version really aren't what I want. I also hate pay-to-win, and the "technically purchasable with in-game-currency but you'll have to grind for 40 hours" G2 mechs reek of that. By comparison, I've put in 125 hours into the PC version, and I only have two chassis which got enough XP to max out (which you would need to do to get the superior G2 variants on console)

Whether the game does get the changes over and gets old-timers angry, or doesn't get the features over and loses players by attrition, the game is in trouble either way. Especially with how much the playerbase has shrank (down 50% in the last year, and 96% from the average number of players at Steam launch)

I can usually find people playing in my region, but not always, especially when I try to play on weekdays before work.

 

[WindKnight]

Warframe. Still really enjoying it though a major story/game systems update has been pushed back a few months, though they've split off some of the stuff supposed to be with it to keep us occupied.

Currently collecting RE4 style treasures to decorate my spacecraft.

They've also been refining the experience for new players to help people get into and stay with the game.

Also, real money currency buys cosmetics and convenience, not power, and everything bar inventory slots and cosmetics can be built, farmed or traded, and even the real money currency can be traded

 

[SweetShark]

I will say for sure 3 games:

Path of Exile:
First "MMO" I played and the one I loved necause is essentially a Diablo-style game. The twist is this game is BETTER than Diablo 3 [sadly] and you can play solo nearly or even the whole campaign without problem. However at the same time you must act smart and prepare your character to be fully realised, because you would have a bad time. Also whatever you pay is only cosmetics fornthe look of your character. Great game.

Duelysts:
Played a lot of F2P card games before, but this one is the best one I played. Many different factions you can select and check which one suit your playstyle best. Plus a lot of REALLY GOOD tutorials to teach you the basics and of course a lot of prices which let you buy a lot of new cards. I don't know how much you need to be in this game to win the players who pay to get rarest cards, but so far I played I didn't met a unfair battle yet. Great once again.

Paladin:t
The Overwatch "clone"...which it isn't are veey good game on its own. Moat characters aren't so unique looking, but gladly they repay you with the diversity between them. My waifu Sniper Girl are my first choice. Second the knight Tank Guy. Great egomaniac character.

However even if I said these games are Awesome, I am the kind of guy that I move on after few days of great time with these kind of games.
So many more games I want to play. LOVE to play new games in general.
In other words I don't care ao much if the doesn't exist anymore at some point.
Sad for others who putted 1000+ hours of gameplay to gone forever. Not for me.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well since I had been into tablet games lately-

Final Fantasy Brave Envius and Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
I enjoyed both games for different reason. Brave Envius is a rpg game with a story with the gimmick at summoning past characters of the franchise. Record Keeper is the turned base orianted battles while rendering past and current FF games into 16bits pixelated graphics.
I admit I had spend over ?40 on Brace Envius due to the gacha mechanic (you used these ingame crystals to summon a character and all of the good ones are rare). However from the other forums, other people have spend much more than I have.
Either wau, I don't think these two will be going away soon since it seen to be popular (over 6 millions).

H.I.T Heroes of Incredible Tales
Meh I don't really cared for this game. I couldn't get into it due to its slobby story.

Battleborn Tap
Another game I no longer cared for once I gotten all of the chracters. Why bother trying to get all the achievements and run deeper into the level now that I got all of the characters?

War Robot
It was fun at first but the daily achievement are a pain especially when I only want to played short session of it. The fact that the game drain my tablet quite quickly force me to abandom the game. Again have spend a little but ?4.00 is a minor lost.

 

[09philj]

I play TF2, Paladins, and Hearthstone. I enjoy all of them, but I find Paladins and Hearthstone's financial model to be much more palatable because the rewards you get for paying or just playing are much more consistent and comparable. True, Hearthstone is largely based on randomised packs, but they're easy to work towards and are a fair price. TF2's random drop and item based economy is just a mess that I find really irritating as someone who prefers to spend as little money as possible on F2P games.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

None. I don't play F2P games. If a game isn't worth your money, it isn't worth your time.

 

[Raddra]

Never heard of it.

Doesn't matter how good your game is if you don't advertise. Way too many games companies rely on word of mouth only.

 

[09philj]

None. I don't play F2P games. If a game isn't worth your money, it isn't worth your time.

There are a lot of games I would have bought for money that are freeware.

 

[MerlinCross]

None. I don't play F2P games. If a game isn't worth your money, it isn't worth your time.

League, DotA, TF2, Smite, DFO, Path of Exile, Warframe; need I go on?

Yes the F2P market is full of clones, copyright violations, scummy, 'gimme cash' games but to lump them all into one whole catagory of worthless is going a step too far.

 

[MHR]

Paying for a F2P game is silly to me. Games where you need to pay to get an edge are scummy and likely just bad. And for F2P games that don't have very much bearing on performance for your dollars or only offer cosmetics, I see no need to spend money on virtual objects. If a F2P game goes under it's not like I had anything invested in it, so whatever. But it's better than all these paid multiplayer games, especially on console that are rooted to developer-run servers that are sure to shut down as soon as an implied value period has passed.

I play TF2, but I've been playing that game since it was Pay-to-Play. I've paid a scant amount for the occasional item, but I've played Thousands of hours and I think the initial purchase price I paid still outweighs what I've bought since. The game remains very profitable and the community hosts many of the servers, so the game shutting down isn't a concern.

I'm probably going to be playing Path-of-Exile soon. The only reason I could see myself paying anything into that game is to get one of the cool cosmetic pets. One of them is a bell lizard. It's a lizard... with a little bell arch on his back. He goes "tingle, tingle, tingle" when he walks, it's adorable ^.^

 

[Avnger]

I still play Warframe and SWTOR on and off. I've more than gotten my money's worth for what little I've put into them.

 

[WindKnight]

I still play Warframe and SWTOR on and off. I've more than gotten my money's worth for what little I've put into them.

The Second Dream blew me away so that I felt no hesitation in buying the Frost Prime Vault Access even though I'd farmed the frame and weapons when they first came out (3 months farming for that darn receiver).

Though I did also want the Misa Prime syandana, so there's that...