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My recent foray into F2P games.
TaisharX
Member Posts: 34
So judging by the reactions the word F2P incites I think its important to give a few disclaimers and some background to the topic.
I am a child of Sierra. Born in the early eighties, commodore 64's and Atari's dominated my early years. It wasn't untill the Sierra adventure games of the late 80's and early 90's that gaming became an obsession. Every genre, every game. It didnt matter I wanted to play it all.
Living in rural Australia, we were late to the online party. Early RTS games came out and we used to all pack up our PC's and haul them over to someones house for a LAN. Twenty four to thirty six hours of caffine fueled (later to become Alcohol fueled) mayhem would result. As we approached the year 2000 everything changed. I finished school, moved to the city and Australia began to come out of the dark ages with our telecommunications.
Then, I played my first online game. Guild wars. Very late to the scene I know and a heavily instanced game I know. That however isn't the point. The point is the profound effect the game and the people I played it with had on me. It could have been any first online game. Most people get the same thing happen. I actually think its akin to trying a drug for the first time. That amazing euphoric feeling that, lets face it, we will most likely never replicate.
I dumped 1600 hours into GW in around 6 months from release. I loved it. I played more than I worked or slept and I regret none of it.
So, inevitably, our group split, shit happened and GW ended for me. Bouncing around MMO's since I really haven't found anything that drew me in like that intial expieriance. Jumped into WoW, smashed to 70 (TBC) and took one look at end game PvP gear grind and never logged in again. A quick hit on AoC at release proved annoying and boring. I became very active in the oceanic WAR community, but we all know how that turned out. A few friends from WAR went to Aion and it took about 5 days to give a big fuck you to that grind. Tryed DDO very briefly but the dungeon run play style didn't suit me.
And here we are, bored shitless, time on my hands and keen to sink some into some virtual online world. The news about LOTRO broke and the shitstorm of discussion began about the F2P model. I didn't quite understand the debate at first. My intial reaction was "Who fucking cares, I like to dscuss Games not Buisness models". Obviously the issue isn't that simple and the buisness model of an online game effects the direction of the game.
SO... ignore the comments and opinions lets try some F2P games.
I laid down a few ground rules for myself to begin with:-
- the buisness model of the game will not effect my opinion of the game (we are all biased to some degree, I tried my hardest to remain impartial is what i am saying).
-I am not reviewing these games but seeing if any of them engage my and give me the desire to spend more time in thier world.
-I will not spend any money
-Technical issues (relating to internet and server performance, NOT game bugs) and download size will not effect my opinion
Ok so here we go.
First off is Allods. Graphics are rather nice. Rolled a caster and started grinding. Same old quest based gameplay. Mabey on my 45th kill quest I logged out and never logged back. Just too similar to the formula.
Next up Aika. A very Anime based style which I actually didn't mind. I rolled a cleric which is represented by a small girtl in a small skirt. Eventually you get a little fairy that runs with you. So very Anime (when my cleric jumps her skirt flys up and you can see what looks to be black lacy underpants, ohh my). This still wasn't a problem however, I don't mind that style. Ran around killing heaps of things. Seemed like every quest was a kill quest. I then got a quest to go to an area and kill a certain type of monster. This required me to fight through a different type of mob to get to the quest mobs. Finishing the kill quest I returned to the quest giver only to be given another kill quest in the same area to kill the mobs I had killed already to get to the mobs for the first quest.
For Fucks sake. Do you think I enjoy runing backwards and forwards around the map. If I loved travelling that much I would go for a walk.
I logged out and haven't logged in again. I had several more game's webpages open on my second monitor to research. I closed the website and happily clicked firfox's do not save tabs option.
Now I know I haven't given these games much of a chance, nor have I played a large enough cross section of F2P games to judge the model. However, this isn't about a Buisness model.
This is about the fact that every game I have mentioned in this post follows a grind/quest method of advancement. Actually I don't know if there are any games that do not follow that tired method of both character and story advancment online at the moment.
The Bottom line. I don't care what payment model you use MMO developers. All of your fucking games are basicially the same. There is no innovation or progression and I am fucking sick to death of your treadmills.
Comments
The last paragraph FTW, OP.
I'm not here to complete my forum PVP dailies.
have you tried eve. i havent had a chance to try it out but the automatic skill gains [basicly skill or levels increase over time] and more t do then quests seem to be a bit more up your alley
My favorite MMORPG's are the ones where the journey to max level is the fun part. Maybe you're missing the point of playing an MMORPG? "Smashing" your way to 70 under the assumption it's all about PvP and the Gear you can get Raiding is what you think? You're doing it wrong.
Good post I liked how you didnt use the whole ftp/p2p model to. A games a game to me regardless of how it is and as for guildwars i am in the same boat loved it when i have my friends to play with. But in all truth the only way we all as games can get a game we want to our likeing is to get some developer to make what the player base want a ture open ended world with no boundrys and is ever changing not the same thing day in and day out. But this is my opinion. Nice read loved the end the most.
Sherman's Gaming
Youtube Content creator for The Elder Scrolls Online
Channel:http://https//www.youtube.com/channel/UCrgYNgpFTRAl4XWz31o2emw
Good post, lengthy but makes a good point that a lot of people just insist on fighting against no matter what. The majority of our MMOs are very very similar in so many ways, very little difference in overall gameplay and features and it has nothing to do with it being F2P or P2P, its the same for both. Some are good quality, some are horrible, and the quality is always debatable and it really depends on what you like, there is no real fact/truth involved. People need to stop with all the stereotypes of one business model = one thing and the other model = something different. 90% of the market is the same game with a different skin wrapped around it.
If a game offers something different than the norm and actually does something original, it should be supported based on that, not wether or not it has a subscription. Games should be judged on the actual game itself, not the pricing model.
1) I started after TBC and early on there was no one around.
2) The story did not engage my enough to read any quest text.
3)I don't care about gear (I don't need the best of the best, I am one of those guys that gives most of his items to friends).
4) It's not all about PvP, but its a huge part of my enjoyment (being forced to do massive grinds for gear to be competetive is not my thing).
p.s. I agree that my favourite part of the journey is my way to max level. Give me something fun and original along the way!
Point taken. Glad to hear you say that, TaisharX. Especially the part about "something fun and original along the way".
Lol, OP I'm just like you, an old pc gamer from early '90's who started my first mmo with GW and tried a bunch of F2P's afterwards.
It seems to me some of better and more original F2P are anime-based, like Mabinogi, DOMO, Ragnorak etc.. I'm neutral to anime, so I can find enjoyment in those. Those games are also older and have some traits of older mmo's gameplay and more content, in my opinion.
I also find those level treadmill WoW clones (RoM, Allods) a bit boring, since even in trial WoW never got me interested. Lineage clones also bore me because graphics are so generic. League of Legends is good for pvp atm. Regnum Online is a F2P version of DAoC, with more westernized graphic. One good thing about F2P is there are always new titles out every other week. Even though most are craps or clones, from time to time a few decent ones would show. I may try that FIFA online if reviews are good.
Keeping eyes on Uncharted Waters and Vindictus. Something new on the horizon I hope.