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How long will we keep using the phrase "Free 2 Play"?
Derrial
Member Posts: 250
"Free 2 Play" is a concept that already stretches it's name to the limits. Everyone knows that F2P games are not exactly free. You can play them up to a point, but there's always going to be limits on what you can do for free.
They've said that for F2P LOTRO, quest NPCs will be locked and players will have to pay to unlock them and gain access to their quests. I don't know if that's ever been done before in a F2P MMORPG - it's new to me. This got me thinking, how much can the developer lock off and still claim the game is "Free 2 Play"? It seems pretty shady to me to call the game F2P, and then have players run into NPCs all over the world that ask for your credit card. For a concept that is arguably misleading to consumers and borders on false-advertising, there seems to be no regulations and no requirements that developers must adhere to before they can call their game "free 2 play."
The definition I always had in my mind for "Free 2 Play" was that all of the gameplay content is free, and you only have to pay for in-game items or currency. Eventually I encountered games that had "premium classes" that can only be played if you pay for them. Now LOTRO is going to lock quests from free players, as well as items and classes.
So where do we draw the line? What if they block entire zones or continents from players? What if they say free players only get to play one hour per day? Could games like that still be called "Free 2 Play?" Couldn't FunCom claim that Age of Conan is F2P since they let you play in the first area for free for an unlimited time? How far will developers be able to stretch the word "free" while gobbling up gamers' money?
Comments
I'd rather favor the term P2W because thats what F2P is all about.
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I prefer Hybrid Payment Option as a term. Where you can choose which commodity to invest, time or money.
If you can play without being forced to pay anything, then it is free to play. The opportunity to pay for more doesn't change this.
The term isn't "Free to play every bit of the game with no limitations" after all.
Free 2 play but not free 2 enjoy.
The vast majority of F2P games fall into the common trend of being extremely cash shop driven. Even games the claim to not require cash shop like Battle of the Immortals, still require you to fork over some cash if you want to really play the game.
On the bright side? P2P games like WoW are slowly working in full cash shops into their already P2P games so F2P can only look better in the future. Imagine 10 years from now you have to pay a sub and pay for cash shop items to fully enjoy a game.
Exactly. It's "free to play" not "free to win" or "free to consume every bit of content". So long as you are never required to pull out a credit card, it's free. Whether or not you can do absolutely everything in a game for free is irrelevant.
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You raise a good point about the use of the term F2P as it is usually used for ingame items VS LOTROs locked content, but there is one major point you completely overlooked... just like DDO you do not absolutely HAVE to pay, you can earn points by doing things in game as a free player, and then turn around and use those points tounlock content in the shop. It's up to the person playing wethe rthey want to grind out the points and play it for free, or take the quicker route and pay, but you are not forced to do 1 or the other, and can do a mix of both.
Problem with people who argue about the use of the term F2P in many games (like above with the P2W ignorance) is that they claim things shouldn't be called Free to Play, when in reality all of them are free, it is their own choice to whip out their credit card and spend money, it is not required to play the game. Inability to control yourself does not = being forced to pay for anything. Nearly everything that can be done/gained through the use of a cash shop in most recent F2Ps (other than a some cosmetic items/pets/mounts) can also be done ingame, 100% free, but people are impatient or just have to keep up with the guy who just spent $100 on something and end up spending too, then turn around and try to blame it on other people as if they used their evil magic powers to reach into their wallet and glean all of their personal info and credit card numbers and make charges without them knowing it.
Theres an old saying about pointing a finger at someone else while having more fingers pointed back at yourself. Same holds true for F2P games, your inability to control your spending is nobody's fault but your own. I have played several dozens of F2P MMOs, the majority of them I have never spent a cent on, while others I knowingly made a decision based on what i felt something was worth and what funds I had available wether or not to purchase items. The games themselves are F2P, your choice to not play them that way by spending money, and then turning around an dcomplaining about the money you just spent of your own free will doesnt make it any different.
By that logic Aoc is f2p too. I mean is not free to consume everybit of content. You get to hang as long as you wish in tortage but if you want to advance than you have to pay.
AOC does not give you an option to earn points in game while playing for free that you can turn around and use to unlock the rest of the game, you have no choice but to pay to play the rest of it. DDO does and LOTRO will offer the option to do it free or for $
In response to the topic, I just started referring to f2p as "free to pay"...just sounds more fitting to me.
So lotro will be free to consume every bit of content or not? Someone is saying something and the other is stating the opossite.
Yes, lotro will be free to consume every bit of content. IF you are willing to grind some content to earn Turbine points which are used to unlock other content. Time consuming yes, which is why I consider lotro a hybrid model, where you can do everything, based on which commodity you want to spend, time or money
well since free to play games are free 2 play, i think that phrase will be around for some time. i also find it funny how a free game is pay 2 win, and yet a pay 2 play game isn't. don't you have to pay for a pay 2 play MMO? how is that not considered pay 2 win? you need an expansion pack to get the new content don't you? so if i don't pay for the expansion, i can't get the new content and i won't be able to compete with the players who did buy the expansion. how is that not pay to win? oh, not to mention the required monthly fee that you MUST pay.
By that logic Aoc is f2p too. I mean is not free to consume everybit of content. You get to hang as long as you wish in tortage but if you want to advance than you have to pay.
AOC does not give you an option to earn points in game while playing for free that you can turn around and use to unlock the rest of the game, you have no choice but to pay to play the rest of it. DDO does and LOTRO will offer the option to do it free or for $
I don't buy the whole excuse that you can earn points in game, because they make it so insanely tedious to earn a reasonable amount of points through gameplay that nobody in their right mind would do it. Using DDO as an example (LOTRO's points will be very similar), if you complete all of the free quests available in the game, it will earn you 150 points. That's the max you can earn with one character. It's enough to buy a handful of potions and not much else. A set of 6 premium quests costs about 300-500 points. You can repeat the process over and over again with alt characters, earning 150points on each character for completing all of the quests (it's somewhere around 70 quests) but it's obviously not worth it to anyone who isn't flat broke and grossly addicted to the game or maybe just psychotic. I don't count in-game earning like this because it's unrealistic to expect any player to play the game this way.
People have an understandably jaded view of the term "free." Honestly I would argue that once you get past the poor quality of a lot of the free to play games its that term alone when you clearly have to pay to get the most out of those games that makes people the angriest.
I don't have any problem with the description however. If you can download and log into the game without paying anything I think its perfectly fair to say free to play. Just because its not the same game that people who pay get to play doesn't make it incorrect.
For anyone interested, the third worst thing imo is the people playing F2P games /shudder. Then again depending on the game that order can shift around quit dramatically.
No company makes games for free. They need to earn revenue somehow. There's no such thing as free. People will stop using the term F2P when they realise it actually means "Pay-more-if-you-like-the-game".
<QQ moar plz. kkthxbai.>
Yeah, you are right it is somewhat of a grind to unlock it all, but it is still possible. Strangely enough though, your post pretty much contradicts all the hate and misconceptions a lot of anti-F2P people say. Things like F2P players just want to buy their way through the came as fast as possible, or that everything should be earned through gameplay, not with your wallet. Yet here we have DDO, which offers you the chance to play the game for free, and earn your way through the game over time rather than buying it all for instant gratification... and that doesn't please the anti-F2P crowd either.
Its kind of funny, cause while so many claim to want one thing, when that exact thing is offered, they hate that just as much too. Seems some people will just never be pleased unless every game is 100% free, with instant max level, uber gear, etc without having to pay for it one way or the other (through time invested or money spent).
How long?
I'm quite sure people will continue to mis-use the phrase "free to play" as long as they have been mis-using "troll", "MMO", "fanboy", and "PvP".
In other words, get used to it.
It's actually Demos/Trials we are talking about that instead of time limits, have gameplay limits.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
The F2P accounts in Anarchy Online are called Froobs by its player base. I like that term.
How about replacing the "2" with an "L" and an "O"? I think it better reflects not only the payment scheme but describes the usual attached game as well. hehe
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I like cash shop, or item shop game, if there is a cash shop or item shop in the game. Because that's the feature that I don't like, and I probably wont' play a game with that feature.
If it was just "free" of course I wouldnt' care, but spending rl cash on items in the game is a huge immersion breaker for me.
I like games where everything in the game, is earned in the game. Kinda the whole reason for playing IMO.
If there is anything in the game you can get that your character didnt' earn, then it really makes the game not so fun for me.
In the game, you usually get things from killing mobs, completing quests, and crafting. So, those are the games i like, where everything in the game comes from killing mobs, completing quests, and crafting.
Yeah, me too, lets start using this term to describe most of them where applicable.
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its similar to Warhammer Online, free endless trial with restrictions. if you want to play the full game ypu have to pay. Thats not free to play at all. Turbine sucks hard.
The proper term that is slowly starting to be used is "Free to Try". It much more accurately sums up the scheme without giving it an uncredible positive twist.
The issue is moreso to do with item malls and other such RMT being added to games... which seems to span some subscription based games. It's making a complicated mess out of trying to label things by lumping them into a general category.
We need to start refering to MMOs as Subscription based and Item mall based.
i.e.
Sub with RMT.
Non-Sub with RMT.
Sub only.
etc.
I think the P2W is simplest and everyone knows what it means tbh.
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