Buy to Play vs Free to Play
Which is better? Buy to play with no monthly subscription or free to play with optional micro transactions? Both are fairly new concepts amongst PC MMORPGs. Prior to Guild Wars, buy to play was non existent. Subscription based MMOs like Dark Age of Camelot, Asherons Call and Star Wars Galaxies dominated the industry. Guild Wars from NCSoft changed that. The game touted as revolutionary, and it sort of was, at least in its business model. Guild Wars, unlike Lineage 2 and City of Heroes, was hugely successful for NCSoft. So much so that they have released numerous expansions for it and are working on Guild Wars 2. Now, just as Guild Wars introduced a new business model to the West that other games would soon copy, RuneScape and MapleStory introduced something equally as revolutionary – Micro transactions. Guild Wars didn’t have a monthly subscription fee like other MMORPGs, but you still had to buy the retail game, which could cost upwards of $50. Expansions cost money too! Free to play aimed to get rid of all that. There were no monetary barriers to entry. Anyone could download and play games like RuneScape and MapleStory without having to pay a dime. These games didn’t invent the free to play business model, as it has been around in places like South Korea and China for many years, but they did bring it to places like North America and Europe.
Guild Wars Gameplay Screenshot
Buy to play MMORPGs and free to play ones have had their ups and downs, but I think it’s safe to say that free to play games have largely been more successful. Aside from Guild Wars, there really aren’t that many buy to play MMORPGs. I’m sure there are more, but only two come to mind for me – Global Agenda and Alganon. On the free to play MMORPG front, I can easily name several dozen games without giving it much thought. Why are there so many free to play games and so few buy to play ones? I think it’s because free to play makes more sense for both gamers and developers. Guild Wars is easily the most successful buy to play game, but how much revenue could it have made for NCSoft in its lifetime? $200 million? $250 million? $350 million tops. $350 million is a lot of money, but that’s since the game’s original release in 2005. Now look at Nexon, the free to play MMO developer and publisher behind games like Nexon and Mabinogi. They reported $550 million in revenue in 2009. That’s A LOT of money in ONE year. Yeah, I know it’s not exactly a fair comparison, as I’m comparing one game to an entire company, but I think it’s fair to say that free play is more profitable for game companies. After all, why would so many game developers keep releasing free to play MMORPGs if buy to play was more profitable? To give you guys a better comparison, World of Warcraft – the most successful MMORPG ever makes about $800 million a year. Nexon is closing in!
MapleStory – Nexon’s Most Popular Game
More profit for game developers means more content for gamers. Nexon makes a lot of money and that means they can afford to hire the best programmers, designers and artists. Just look at MapleStory. The game is hugely successful and in order to keep the game going, Nexon releases major updates to it regularly. When the game first came out, it only had 5 starting classes and few job advancements. Now it has over 15 starting classes and many more job advancements and a much bigger game world. Take a look at Vindictus too. That game looks incredible. It isn’t out yet, so I’m not going to pass judgment, but I think it’s fair to say that it’s going to raise the bar in terms of graphical quality for free to play games. I should also mention that free to play game companies have a greater incentive to keep updating their games. They want to keep players happy. Buy to play companies on the other hand, have an incentive to only release minor updates and save the big content updates for expansion packs, which they can sell. Just look at the original EverQuest. The game has over 12 expansion packs! You can buy all of them at once today at a bargain price, but at one point each new expansion had to be purchased individually. EverQuest is subscription based, but it still illustrates my point. Buy to play games have no incentive to release major free updates.
Vindictus – Looks Awesome, Doesn’t it?
On the other hand, Buy to play games have their advantages too. They tend to be a lot more balanced – as buy to play games normally don’t have cash shops – so players can’t pay extra for advantages. Everyone is on a more level playing field. Some free to play MMORPGs are unfortunately “pay to win”, meaning the players who pay have huge in game advantages over those who don’t. Browser based strategy MMOs like Evony and War of Legends for example are 100% “Pay to win”. This isn’t an issue in buy to play games, as players don’t have the option to pay for any extras. Even in free to play MMORPGs that aren’t “pay to win”, paying players receive distinct advantages like bonus experience and mounts.
Evony – Pay to Win
So, Which do you prefer? Buy to play or free to play? Which do you think makes more sense? Me? I prefer free to play. Why? Because I’ve been playing MapleStory on and off for years, and I’ve been able to enjoy all of the game’s new content without ever having to spend a dime. In fact, I’ve been able to enjoy dozens of MMOs and MMORPGs without every spending money. Anyway. Let me know what you guys think!
By, Omer Altay
August 15, 2010
#
I too prefer free to play, pretty much for the same reasons.
I enjoyed many MMOs – MMORPGs included – without paying for a thing, with real life money, I mean.
Even if I payed for something in a free to play MMO – which already happened – it would be my own choice and it could only be that one time, not every month.
So yeah, Free Too Play shall rule the future of MMOs
August 15, 2010
#1
I have spent money in F2P games though, as i believe in supporting game devs / publishers by supporting GOOD games.
November 9, 2011
#2
remo i like yor video for games
August 15, 2010
#3
Guild wars is an awesome game, it has a moderately low retail price (when i bought my copy it was only 24.99) and its got great graphics and game play (i highly recommend it) Now pay to win games irritate me to no end. I could sit there for hours on end playing the game and leveling up, then have someone with more money than brains stomp me because he payed for some ridiculously stupid upgrade. In this whole debate I think my vote would have to go to free to play. Free to play games are (cheaper) and save a trip to the store (being lazy ^ ^ )
August 15, 2010
#4
In a nutshell:
If a game relies on the “Pay to win” concept (i.e focusing on giving advantages for those who pay), will surely fail later on. That’ll scare players away, due to how the game relies on the money (i.e It not follows the so-said “Free” parameters.).
Free to play games are supposed (and meant) to be really “Free to -PLAY-” (play -ALL- aspects of the game), with cash shop as optional and that does not rely on the game.
September 8, 2010
#5
Check out guildwars 2, You will beable to play the game full, with a complete optional store, the stuff that will mostly be in the store is character slots, storage slots, vanity changes, sex changes, name changes, Cosmetic armor skins, that just have looks instead of any bonus
August 15, 2010
#6
There’s also about Free to play games attract more botters, hackers and such since they got a easy access to the game client files, wich creates more and more hack/bot-related programs one after another. While the “Buy to play” games occurs the opposite.
August 15, 2010
#7
For sure, I also enjoy free to plays alot more, primarily cause paying to play seems more of a job and rushing things to get it done before the subscription expires or if your low on money for that month, well your gameless for a month. With Nexon’s Mabinogi, I would happily stuff money in Nexon’s thong, even more so then one would pay for a pay to play, but i did it one cause i wanted a few extra thing like extra storage and Nao service and such, but also to help the developers out. Other times i would go months without paying a dime. I think for f2p is the better choice, long as the cashshop doesn’t ruin the game. Buy to play games are also nice, Ive been thinking of getting guild wars for a bit now, about 10 bucks if you search :>
August 16, 2010
#8
Only free!!
August 16, 2010
#9
I never played Guild Wars but it looks neat. Since it is a buy to play for free forever then it is expected that game features is really good. I have seen the guild war video on youtube and the skills are amazing. Free to Play seems to dominate the mmorpg franchise in terms of numbers but as we can see, f2p mmorpgs hardly have any differences with, most are repetitive and long boring grind until you reach high levels where you can actually have “fun”. There are some exceptions of course. Heroes of Three Kingdom, Kingdom Heroes, Perfect World,Wonder King,AVA,Ether Saga are some of the F2p mmorpg that actually good for a freebie. Anyway,With Forsaken World being announced to come out in NA, i never bother to buy Guild Wars since it looks like new f2p mmorpg today are changing and adapting to player’s views about f2p
August 16, 2010
#10
buy to play (pay to play makes more sense to me) has no put downs to it. it has the games you might have on ur wishlists. remember that steam has more pay to play games than free to play games… and steam provides VOICE CHAT (talking with players with ur own voice…
) on some games like CS:S, or tf2.
free to play has few games that require subscription and sometimes, a lot of big advantages. ijji is the asian ppl who made big successes by their games like A.V.A. that even has the use of nividia’s 3d glasses to play the game IN 3D!!!
pick a side… any side
the paying gamers.
or the free to play fans.
August 16, 2010
#11
I prefer F2P games alot but I don’t mind buy to play either. It’s P2P games and pay-to-win that drives me nuts. It also depends on the company’s attitude. I was interested in Allods Online but gPotato got greedy with it and it lost its potential. For WoW though, total F2P would be awkward. It’s such a popular game that it would be filled with gold sellers, spammers, and pedophiles in no time. I think that WoW would be great as a B2P game.
August 16, 2010
#12
Buy to play is more balanced and probably cheaper than a free to play you support, but there will probably no content updates, or expansions you have to buy…
Free to play probably does make more money, but buy to play gets their money first.
but Pay to Play might be more balanced aswell because of no cash shop for instant power..
But i hate being forced to pay for something.. LOLLL confusing myself
August 16, 2010
#13
i prefer buy to play. That is only because of Guild Wars.
When i see how special and unique the gameplay was from Guild Wars i can say that no free to play company would make that.
and when you look at trailers from Guild Wars 2, they would be stupid to make it free to play. because then there is no guarantee that people will buy it. when you make it buy to play. people will buy it. Also, i like how they did the trial. you can realy sence the game and when you deside to buy it. you will know that you like the game, and its content, also only buy to play game i have played is Guild Wars, and i payed for runescape membership when i was 10 (i am 16 now Yay beer!) and in Runescape, the content was allot better when you payed for it. but i still think that Buy To Play is better, because everyone who plays (except the trial users) are contributing to the company .
Gerton
August 16, 2010
#14
IMO, Free 2 Play is one of the most dumb business plans for a MMORPG, 98% of the F2P games out there is Pay 2 Win(BOI,Allods, RoM etc) or Pay 2 Progress(DDO and Allods). There is very few F2P mmorpgs that let you as a free player have a chance to be just as good as people that spend money monthly. There is a reason why Blizzard are able to take 15 bucks a month + costs for expansion for World of Warcraft and still have around 12 million subscribers. I prefer Pay 2 Play since I got the same advantage as others, everything that matters is how much time I am willing to spend on the game and not how much money I am willing to spend to keep up.
August 16, 2010
#15
Well, BOI and RoM are NOT pay to win. Allods is. I’ve played both of these games extensively without paying a dime. Plus you can get just about everything in RoM without having to pay a dime, just need to work harder for it.
There are a lot of free to play MMORPGs which are pay for convenience, not pay to win. What about those? Who cares if someone else levels 2x faster than you? It doesn’t affect you.
Pay 2 play / Buy to play has its advantages too. It’s more balanced. The funny thing though is WoW is slowly starting to implement its own cash shop. Remember those celestial steeds?
August 16, 2010
#16
Hey ReMo i never played Guild Wars i dont know if you did but i is it an action mmo where u actully have to press something to fight not just spam 1 2 3
BTW Free MMO’s 4EVER because well everyone thinks they suck because they are free nope just take a decent one like Vindictus for example is that any worse than what u can get for money ? Heck, no
August 16, 2010
#17
No of course not, BoI is not a Pay 2 Win, just the strongest pets are from the Cash Shop, and the only safe way to upgrade your items in RoM is buying stuff from Cash Shop. Allods is exactly the same thing, you can buy everything from the AH so you dont have to pay a dime, but that do not remove the mark “Pay 2 Win”.
August 16, 2010
#18
With things like WoW, Warhammer Online, DAoC, Fallen Earth, Mortal Online etc. Pay 2 Play there are a lot of good and bad things about the fact u have to Pay to play them per month. Paying to play the game makes u want to be more involved in the game, and sometimes too hardcore.
Whereas f2p games basically give u the choice, you can either be a hardcore gamer and spend money to be the best of the best or u can be a casual gamer who just wants to log on every so often to play a game and interact with ppl.
Granted I do like some P2P games, like WAR and FE, but I dont have subs with them anymore
August 16, 2010
#19
“RuneScape and MapleStory introduced something equally as revolutionary – Micro transactions.”
Runescape has no microtransactions…
August 16, 2010
#20
I’m sorry but “unlike Lineage 2″? The game used to have 14 million subscribers at one point, when at the time WoW had 8… Lineage 2 is still the most successful game NCsoft ever made.
OT I prefer B2P. There are 0 imbalances and you will never have to pay 20$ to unlock a new area and new instances or dungeons or w/e. I don’t mind paying 50$ every six month for an expansion pack although that is not true that they wait for expansions for the new updates but w/e. I have enjoyed myself F2P games without ever paying but someone will always be ahead of you in a F2P game with a double XP potion or an ODed weapon.
And all of you saying LOTRO rules or Vindictus gonna rock, wait and see how “F2P” those games might be. I enjoyed LOTRO at its subscription times and I’m glad to see it F2P but that doesn’t mean it won’t become P2W like other games. Also same with Vindictus.
August 16, 2010
#21
Lineage 2 is a flop in North America. The game is successful in Korea because it’s free to play in Korea.
August 25, 2010
#22
Well Omer L2 is a flop everywhere now. Maybe only in Korea it’s still popular. And let me tell you why. It was the most successful game but all ended with the Kamael client update. Thousands of players canceled their subscriptions, including me, the same day the update launched! Tell you why? Cause it sucked. Featured a new imbalanced race and a lot more useless stuff that not only made the game ugly but also ruined the gameplay. Imabalances everywhere! Trust me if Lineage 2 was still in Chronicle 6, Interlude client, it would still be #1.
August 16, 2010
#23
Pff I have alot experience with F2P, and the truth is waay back in my time everybody said GW sucks play WoW like real people do but now I stopped WoW a year ago because of the well paid 12 year old’s that always start a flame wars. I still play GW and alot of F2P game (waiting for vindictus). Actually i support buy 2 play if GW. and F2P if it’s not buy to win!
August 16, 2010
#24
excuse me but Diablo2 buy to play and so was Warcraft3 and they were insanely popular when they came out even more popular than guild wars
August 16, 2010
#25
For me it’s free to play. Even if my first MMO was Guild Wars for which I have 17k hours logged, speaks pretty much for itself at how much I like it.
I happened to move to Perfect World International which from my experience is the best f2p mmo ever.
IMO f2p and b2p games are the best type from a player viewpoint. You have much more freedom, you decide to quit or not play for a week > your money isn’t being wasted, you can continue at a later time.
With all these free mmos coming out all the time I believe it shows enough proof of how successful this business model is. Seeing LOTR going f2p means something in itself.
……and now *patiently waiting for GW2*.
August 16, 2010
#26
I think that both Buy to play and free to play are the future. I hope subscription based mmo’s will die down and free to play/buy to play will be the next thng. Turbine had success with going free to play, but what about WoW? Would it be free to play or buy to play? If ever.
By the way i prefer free to play.
August 16, 2010
#27
Without buy to win
August 16, 2010
#28
League of Legends is the most FREE TO PLAY free game ever.
and they’re pretty popular and still rising.
This is the new MapleStory. Getting big in no time.
August 16, 2010
#29
I agree League of Legends is Basically a completely Free To Play game and u can get more or less EVERYthing in the game through playing the game. However there is still sum content which is only available to Paying customers, which makes sense, but to my knowledge they arent game breaking items/skills.
August 16, 2010
#30
I have played a lot of pay to play MMOs never played a buy to play one, the concept doesnt really strike me.
But I think f2p MMOs are the best, never used to play them due to the fact that the graphics and gameplay seemed to be mediocre to Pay2play or Buy to play games, but all that has changed a lot over the years.
So yeah f2p is the way to go
August 17, 2010
#31
Buy To Play model made me hate Granado Espada in SEA server.
Here in the Philippines, F2P is a more sensible choice since your spending is only an option.
August 17, 2010
#32
Buy2Play without a doubt. Guild Wars. Guild Wars 2. Enough said. Seriously, 90% of the “F2P” MMORPG’s out there are Buy2Win. And also, F2P MMORPG’s feels like they could shut down at any time, while B2P feels like it’s gonna stay up for awhile.
Buy2Play for the win.
August 17, 2010
#33
There are pros and cons for each model, but I generally favour buy2play for the quality if for nothing else. While I’ve only played (still do) Guild Wars, I don’t think other such games stray too far from the former’s principle and style. When you buy a game from the shelves of a store you’re allowed to have higher expectations since, after all, you’re paying for it before you even get to try it (in case it doesn’t have a free trial). I can’t even count the times I’ve uninstalled a free2play MMO because it was plagued with bugs, the text was written in “ingrish”, the “optional” cash shop wasn’t as optional as they claimed, or the general feel was “meh”. And you can’t really blame them for not wanting to invest too much in something they’re not sure will be a success.
I’m not against spending a little money once in a while since, as ReMo said, you should show support to the developers and also motivate them to make the game even better. Even in Guild Wars, I buy the costumes they release every 4 months or so; $10/€9/£6 for two costumes that are then permanently available to your entire account is dirt cheap, I’d say. Cash shops that ruin the game balance or MMOs that force you to spend money so that playing becomes bearable (*cough* Allods *cough*), on the other hand, do nothing but drive players away.
Bottom line: with a few exceptions, buy2play can and will offer better quality than free2play.
August 17, 2010
#34
Guild Wars > Lineage 2? whats this I don’t even L2 > guild wars anytime just becouse u havent played the game dont tell stupid things
August 17, 2010
#35
All of this is True. I have to test mapple story,( i never played it couse looks kinder garden animations ) But when put an item with extra efect in a game, instead of give for example 30% more money/gold/zen/etc. they Fu….. all the players.
You wana a real example?, items lvl 1 can give an “OWNED” to older players if u have money.
Rakion is full pay to win actualy. youtube.com/watch?v=5mVUb_4sZCs IF u saw a lvl 11 with no equipament can hit more faster than a lvl 99 FULL with only 3 new rings
August 17, 2010
#36
I prefer f2p because i like being able to play at anytime without having to pay to buy a game ,but b2p is good too, at least better than p2p cuz u buy it once and enjoy all what the game offers ,i just like f2p more cuz iam not always able to afford buying a game to play it.
August 18, 2010
#37
Well, I have two opinions. I pick F2P to feel like I’m being rewarded and the tensity. For example: In F2P shooters, it feels like a good getting credits so you can save up to buy a new gun. It just feels more rewarding when playing in F2P shooters and other action f2p (not rpgs. those bore me, because it feels like a chore). But the other hand, when I just want to play for a quick bit. I like P2P: 1 reason, P2P has great single player or great Arcade like games. Example: Fighting games, or platforming games. That is why I don’t like how I should feel limited if I play Dungeon Online, and have to level up to face better monsters. There is no leveling up in beat’em up games!
August 18, 2010
#38
There isnt good MMoRpgs , wich is buy 2 play for now , and alot of f2p , for any type of gamers . I can say that i have been playing Mmo’s from 2004 or even early , and there is no sense to buy a game , when you can play for free a good one .
Optional buy ingame items or w/e is inevitably ,becose the f2p games must keep live somehow, and there is alot of advantages to buy somethink in game and win from anothers.
But the answer is only one : dont pay for WoW or Lineage or whatever , there is a lot of fun games outhere , who dont want to be buyed.
Have fun and try all games around !
P.s. Sorry for my BAD english !
August 18, 2010
#39
Well i play meany f2p games and i like them without paying a thing but if you ask me WoW is youst a sick game i played it for 6 mounths but lucky i dont any more and the only game that will play p2p is star trek online cuz its bast p2p game and well bast mmo that is out right now at least for me
August 18, 2010
#40
well , P2P games are most of the time better designed and developed than F2P this come in first place , then as you all know most F2P are P2P actually , because if u don’t buy things from the cash shop u’ll find urself far behind the other players , + F2P do no offer a better in game support than P2P , one more thing just crossed my mind , when u play a F2P and ur plannin on spendin money on it , u will have spent more than 30 bucks a month and that is just for moderate shopper , i know some ppl on silkroad online who spend more than 200 bucks a month , so just to sum up i will say that P2P are way cheaper than F2P
August 18, 2010
#41
This is an awson game and ir woes my first mmo expiriance…I Would love if it woes free to paly cuz then I would continue to play it
August 18, 2010
#42
“Buy to play companies on the other hand, have an incentive to only release minor updates and save the big content updates for expansion packs, which they can sell. Just look at the original EverQuest. The game has over 12 expansion packs! You can buy all of them at once today at a bargain price, but at one point each new expansion had to be purchased individually. EverQuest isn’t buy to play, it’s subscription based, but it still illustrates my point. Buy to play games have no incentive to release major free updates.”
None of that made sense. It did not illustrate your point. All of it was pointless as you used a subscription based mmo. Guild wars is a good example, but that didn’t suffer from working in that way at all so you didn’t use it.
Poor article.
August 18, 2010
#43
Hey ace, subscription based games are also buy to play. You have to BUY it to PLAY it. Get it?
August 24, 2010
#44
I think the problem here is this “Buy to Play” term. “Pay to Play” is a subscription based game… you don’t pay a month, you can’t play. “Buy to Play” means once you bought it, you can play it (no subscription) until the servers die. Get it?
August 19, 2010
#45
well f2p wins now that EQ2 WENT F2P!!!! http://everquest2.com/free_to_play?cid=EM4303&_mid=4303&_rid=4303.4100.5716
August 20, 2010
#46
I definitely see free to play game being the future in MMO’s. With games like Vindictus the future is looking oh so bright. Global Agenda looked really cool and it has a free trial with no monthly fees, that in my eye is practically F2P. If you like the game trail support the game by buying it. Some of the worst things about MMO is the monthly fee and the lack of content update. WoW should be spitting out gobs of free content for their monthly fee but we only see an expansion every so often that you have to buy and still shell out the monthly fee. I was lucky to get into Vindictus closed beta and its a blast, from what I hear about the Korean version we are looking to see some great content updates. Oh and those updates are free.
With games like Vindictus and Global Agenda I’m almost happy to spend some money to support developer that actually show they care about their games and the players.
August 20, 2010
#47
i dont get why people think vindictus will be anything different then the rest of the steal your wallet f2ps out there based on those graphic the wallet stealing is gonna be on over drive .
atlantica online
(most effective way in the game to lvl requires mounts)
full +10 weps for all your mercs cost 900-2700$(not counting anything else)
mount from a mount box (100$-400$) average if you ask on the forum theyll probably tell you 300$-400$
f2p is best for 2 kinds of people those that cant pay/wont and those that want to pay to win.
most f2p mmos have the steal your wallet mindset in-common some more then others *cough allods/AO cough*.
I do play f2p but only because i dont like to pay to play but i dont mind b2p with a small cosmetic IM because b2p wont try to force IM on you and make the game frustrating if you dont and at the same time you dont have to pay to log in
f2p: goal is not fun the goal is to come up with new ways to get you to buy more item mall
p2p: tries to keep the game fun tries to keep you playing(paying) which leads to much higher quality games
b2p D: me likez GA+GW
August 21, 2010
#48
Vindictus is nexon game. They are very famous for F2P games in S.Korea.
korean server, nexon sells innerwears and cool hairstyles in vindictus.
When I first came into vindictus, I saw lots of peoples only wear their cool bra and pantie..
Amazing nexon…
I hope EQ2 remains B2P game. I don’t like F2P lower quality games. you guys are lucky.
August 22, 2010
#49
To be honest, I’d rather pay a one off price to purchase a game than play a free game with a cash shop. In my opinion, buy to play games are generally better quality, and NEED to be to actually sell themselves.
Don’t get me wrong, I love free to play games. It allows those of us with limited funds to have an equal opportunity at exploring the world of MMOs. However, I hate cash shops. I understand their function, and that its the games only source of income, but it does create balance issues. Players are made to feel that they are inferior unless they have some cash on hand to buy necessities, like megaphones to speak in World Chat (Perfect World). Then there are games like Requiem, which are fantastic, if you have the optional premium subscription. If you don’t however, the game is so painful that it makes me want to cry. On top of this, Requiem has a cash shop. Now I know that their subscription is optional, but to pile a cash shop on top of that is kind of ridiculous. I will admit I spent my fair share of money on subscriptions and cash shop items, simply because I couldn’t bare to play the game without.
I’ll definitely be scrounging around to find the money for Guild Wars 2, but it’s totally worth it.
August 22, 2010
#50
Free to play games are free. Meaning than the company doesn’t have to put much out to get money back. The standard is low because the game is free. Nexon could hire some good programmers, but they don’t. They could hire some people for customer support, but they don’t. The fact is, they don’t help you AT ALL if you’re going to play for free. The old ethics in video game companies creating fair and balanced playing fields was completely destroyed by the free to play games. Nexon does nothing to EVER create a fair balanced playing field. You can play a game for free. But you’re going to have a better experience if you pay for a game.
August 23, 2010
#51
There is a lot games that says “Free Forever“, but a lot of in game items are not and those item are really powerful. Everyone just want to make money. They always think that making money come first, even the game suck so bad!
August 25, 2010
#52
At all , f2p games is not realy free , like some of you said , but its still can start playing without any payments or w/e. Yes , in some games the things you can buy from cash shops is needed for the best play , but you can still live without it.
/
And one other think , WoW is pay to play game , but there is alot / at least 5 / of free games wich is better than wow in graphics , even in gameplay. After all the games like Wow and L2 is like 10 years old games …
Some of buy to play / not pay to play/ games still have options for buy ingame items , wich can make your char verry stronger , and thats why you must NOT buy that game.
At all – if you can spend some bucks you must buy a game / but for once , not to play every month / like GW is / i wait GW2
P.s . Sorry for my BAD english !
August 25, 2010
#53
Buy once – play forever + pay for expansions is ok and fair.
But 80-90% of the F2P games are Free to Play, Pay to Enjoy. Most of these have irrational Cash Shop items and if you want to keep up with the content updates or stay competitive you will end up paying more than you would pay for a P2P game.
Just check Runes of Magic, you can’t advance anywhere without Cash Shop items or Allods Online, it’s already dying because of the imba CS items and you can find the same Pay-to-Win stuff in Perfect World. SRO is another sad story… you won’t be banned for botting if you pay enough.
F2P,P2E games are based on the same idea: make the game easy and appealing for the first 1-3 months then you will realize that if you want to enjoy more, you will either have to play/grind 5-6 hours daily or pay the same or even more than you would pay for a P2P game.
I understand they have to pay for maintenances and for the development but most of them waaay too greedy and do not listen the community’s voice.
Respect to those few publisher who could make balanced CS and care about their community.
August 27, 2010
#54
Free to play is a myth, myself I have spent hundreds of dollars on f2p games and then they just come out with upgraded items like the ones I bought except better so I have to buy them again.
For example a couple years back I played Hero online, dont laugh. I spent over 100 bucks to get some good stuff, still wasnt top tier but I was happy with it. Spent like 20 bucks on a pet, and 20 bucks on a mask for stats. After like a week they came out with the same mask but better which was retarded, and also they came out with Fussion books to fuse CS items together to make better items, but there was a small chance of success unless you bought another CS item to increase your chances.
Another example is Battle Of immortals. They got they game right it is a very fun game to play. But the CS imbalance is ridiculous, you cant get skills for pets or upgrade anything to good levels w/o cs items. There are like 10 items or more in the cs for upgrading things. They do have the option of buying cs money from other players for in game gold, but they limit how much gold you can make in a day making drops only in instances which you can only do a certain number of times per day. Worst part is, you wont make any money unless you sell items to other people, their economy is dependent on player to player transactions, w/o selling you get nothing. I played till lvl 70 something and was pathetic compared to the cs buyers, someone showed me their weapon and i quit, it was that bad because it probably cost him 40 bucks or more just to make that one weapon. Then you have all your armors and your pet to work on too, and then they will come out with more powerful stuff in the future.
Based on this its games like guild wars I will play, I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars on a game and then have to keep paying, f2p is too greedy, thats why there are so many f2p duds out there. Because they make some pos game with little content and below par graphics and expect people to keep paying for it. There are gems in the f2p world though, but even these are pay to win games, f2p games need to stop making such a huge differance in the upgrade chances on cs items.
For example Dekaron online, or 2Moons is a great game, it lacks raids and such but is still awesome. But upgrading weapons as a free player is near impossible. And the CS items add 20-50 percent to the chances but are 2.50 each, weapons can go to +9 and at +7 it is something like a 20% chance of success, even with the rare 50% upgrade +9 is nearly unreachable, and the people who are rich and will spend the money on it get 30% more damage than +8. Also your weapon gets destroyed if you fail, so there is no insentive to buy the cs items if you can still fail. This kind of thing is what ruins f2p games, and also why I have sworn them off.
If your not going to make a f2p game than everybody can enjoy w/o the cs inbalances dont bother making them because the majority of free players are like me and are sick of playing games where the cs items totally ruin it for free players.
August 27, 2010
#55
I never played 2Moons or Hero Online much, but F2P is NOT a myth. I’ve played hundreds of games and only spent money on a few. The money I spent was to support the game too – I didn’t have to spend it. I just did it to support the game.
I play A LOT of games regularly and you can enjoy end game without CS items.
August 27, 2010
#56
I agree you can enjoy the games but you wont be compedative at all from what I have played, and iv played alot of whats out there. I used to use Onrpg.com as my mmo hunting site but since I discovered MMOHUT I have been on here like daily, no other site gives such good reviews and you guys tend to only have good mmos too
. I dont mean to bash f2p games its just there is so many that have total imbalances that it pisses me off eal bad. I dont mind if it takes me ALOT longer to get to top tier, but when it is just not possible it ruins the game for me.
August 27, 2010
#57
o.o people say that they like free games because they dont have to pay for anything… I wonder if those people ever got to endgame in any of the free games they’ve tried. f2p is almost *always* more expensive than f2p or b2p games, unless you’re cool with being like nothing against other players. I know there are some exceptions (*looks at mabinogi) but for the most part… f2p games still require you to spend money, else you’re at some sort of disadvantage.
b2p just seems so much more fair and simple D:
August 27, 2010
#58
and by “f2p is almost always more expensive than f2p..” I meant “p2p”
August 27, 2010
#59
I like P2P more.
Most “f2p” games are pretty much Free to play, pay for fun (or pay for uber gear so it’s hard as crap to lose). About 90% off all games on my computer are p2p with a one time fee. You also find there are less hackers in p2p games because who wants to spend $60 on COD MW2 just to get banned?
August 28, 2010
#60
Amen guys, you got it right. Buy to play is the way to go imo. Because most f2p games have less content, with some exceptions. Runes of magic and other games like perfect wold and atlantica are pretty huge games for f2p. And with the f2p income from the CS items they will probably enjoy ALOT of new content.
August 30, 2010
#61
P2P are the best. F2P are sucky because its mostly asian or whatever. Aion is my choice lol i know but it feels and is the best mmorpg with amzing graphics best pvp system . wow is terrible and promoted by 5 year olds .. NCsoft failed up until now and i’m exited about Aion:AoB
August 30, 2010
#62
F2P are sucky because they’re mostly asian? You do realize Aion is “asian” as well. It’s developed in South Korea, the same place all of these free to play games are developed.
September 1, 2010
#63
I think for sure that f2p games have more positives than a buy to play game.
First off, the only commitment you have to make to a f2p game is just a download and probably a created user-name. That’s it. That means if the cash shop sucks, the game sucks, or anything else, you can just delete it and try a new game. Just rinse and repeat until you find a game you like.
Second, the game’s with somewhat balanced cash shops don’t force you to pay anything unlike buy to play games. You can pay if you feel its necessary for you to have fun which in most cases its not. For buy to play games, you are automatically shelling out money right from the get go for a game you might not even like.
Third, most people can’t plan their budget well for the future so a f2p mmo gives you the opportunity to be flexible with how much you spend in game. Maybe one month you can’t spend any money so you don’t, while other months you feel like buying some stuff from the cash shop. This really isn’t that much of a problem for buy to play, but you do have to pay for the start up cost and expansions.
September 1, 2010
#64
I have played both kind of games, to me buy to play is better since once you buy it, all the features are yours. However free to play have the item markets which is cheap to me since those item gives the character awesome stuff that other that doesn’t buy can’t get. I have been a huge Guild Wars fan and would recommend it to anyone.
September 9, 2010
#65
I have only played f2p games, but i spent money on them (waste of money for me). I prefer f2p games, i mean, look at vindictus,firefall, AvA,etc.. cool games with awesome graphs. Those games are much better than wow or some p2p in my opinion. Many of these new game are f2p, so i guess f2p games are the future of any mmo.
About pay 2 win, WTH? they are just unbalanced.. everyone/no1 pays to be a balanced game. Free users dont have a chance against users who spent money (ex: Yugioh …)
Conclusion: F2P>P2P>P2Win
January 6, 2011
#66
what is BOL please answer me.
January 7, 2011
#67
Free to play has some advantages, but its future is uncertain. Most successful F2P MMOs are ones with a strong publisher behind it (EA, Nexon), or are former P2P which have been converted to free (LOTRO, Everquest 2). The free to play model also puts publishers between a rock and a hard spot: Do you make it pay to win to ensure it remains profitable, or offer cosmetic purchases which may not be successful?
Buy to play has seen only limited exploration in the RPG world, but everywhere else it is king. Most PC, Xbox (not including the Live subscription), and Playstation games are B2P, and also offer additional downloadable content to remain and increase profits. It is a model that the majority of gamers feel comfortable with.
As bandwidth prices continue to come down, I think B2P will become the standard in MMO as it has with standard MO gaming. Guild Wars 2 may very well usher in a new era of affordable massive online gaming.
March 19, 2011
#68
I think p2p is much better than f2p, why? you want to enjoy the game right? are you enjoying getting always bullied in f2p game with a guy(s) got an IMBA pay for additional benefits ? f2p game = pay to win and that’s the truth, while p2p game’s are balanced.
Overall f2p much enjoyed to those who got more cash.
April 15, 2011
#69
Buy to play or Pay to Play all the way. Let’s face facts here. If the game has any PVP and, as a player, you choose to participate in it..you will get OWNED in an F2P game by all the losers who fork over money just to win..thus Pay to Win. If it’s a PVM game it is still irritating to see someone way under your level running around and doing more damage than you, especially when you busted your ass to get to where you are. An example of this is Trickster Online. The cash shop (commonly known as MyHax to the game’s community) sells armor and weapons and whatnot..with obscenely high stats. I had a level 65 Sheep (fire and lightning build) and I was being outdamaged by a level 42 Raccoon, all cause the little fucker spent money to get his overpowered equipment.
B2P and P2P are far more balanced and thus rely on gameplay rather than spending money for satisfaction. You know..playing the game to get somewhere. Sure you can get strong like CS users if you play for a long time..but let’s take a look at Runes of Magic for example. There was this guy named Rook..a mage. He had 40K hp. 40,000 hitpoints..he was a complete OP asshat who lived off the game’s Cash Shop. And guess what? No one could outdamage him and nearly no one could stand up to this guy in PVP. I’m sorry but even if you capped out in RoM, without the cash shop refinement shit you are never going to come close to competing in any fashion with CS whores.
TL:DR – F2P games nearly always resort to cash shops with overpowered shit because otherwise the game will go under; it has to break balance to keep itself alive. This is a “good” model? P2P or B2P for the win. At least then it’s a game and not a contest of who can charge the most on their credit card.