I have seen a few cash shop F2P and Of course SOEs P2P. I like EQ2 . I was rather miffed with the cash shop and did a boycott but over all the game is fun so yeah I am back P2P.
While I took a break I played a couple F2P that did have a item mall. One being Requiem. Interesting thing is Requiems item mall is not really that skewed except for potions. most of the mall is fluff. easier exp,repair kits, reduction items (for reinforcements) extra bank space and so on. Either way you spend money either real or your Lant (gold) to do the same thing in game. However the F2P has a lot less content and really no fluff. nothing to do except grind which can eventually drive you away. I paid the subscription to get a small bonus just because I liked the game.
9Dragons was a different song. I felt 9dragons was like a money trap. Items on the mall were NEEDED to really advance and investing in the mall would cost way more than a paid subscription. I never got past level 10 there cause I saw the money trap. Yeah you can play for free but in order to be completive in PvP you HAD to use the mall. Big difference between Requiem and 9Dragons.
Anyway it is a matter of 1. spotting a money trap and 2. choice but to categorize all F2P malls a money traps or a P2P with a mall is a money trap is false.
I'm sick of them, A Perfect World drew the last straw with me. All these MMO's are crap and the people who are stupid enough to spend $100's- 1000's are insane.
ALL OF THESE in-game store MMO's are unbalanced and bring nothing new to MMO's except bad marketing.
I think the monthly subscription MMO's offer more and are much more balanced for their whole community.
No what i'm tired of are shitty companies that make cash shops that require more then the average 15 bucks a month I would spend on normally a better p2p product.
CS balance is something that needs to be fixed in alot of these games imo.
If a F2p is good I will use it a bit for mounts and maybe costumes but when they require me to use them to keep up with the hardcore players thats when they sux ass.
Right now three mmos on the market that are F2p are in line with atleast the average p2p mmos.
Atlantica Online, Runes of Magic and Requiem are three solid games all of these games are quality and don't require more then a 10 buck a month investment in the cash shop to be viable.
I would even go as far as to say those three games are better then SWG (current).
I'm playing Requiem right now and while It feels like a mix between WoW and L2 its actually a fun game and I wouldnt mind tossing 5-10 bucks at the devs a month to play.
Also a player can easily spot a unbalanced cash shop just by glancing at the sites item list.
If you see things like Zone access keys, attribute boosts, full armor and weapons and an increase in available skill points for pay players only you should know to stay away.
I'm sick of them, A Perfect World drew the last straw with me. All these MMO's are crap and the people who are stupid enough to spend $100's- 1000's are insane. ALL OF THESE in-game store MMO's are unbalanced and bring nothing new to MMO's except bad marketing. I think the monthly subscription MMO's offer more and are much more balanced for their whole community.
What is worse is when the item mall games are barely MMO's. Just look at that Crossfire advert, it's basically counterstrike with an item-shop. The world has gone crazy that the market is there for them to exist!
Pretty soon every game will be networked in some way so that the people who make it can nickel and dime everyone who bought it.
Harvest Moon MMO - Buy your tools here!
Super Mario MMO - Buy your 1-up's here!
People are crazy to buy DLC as well, yet the market for that is huge too!
Imagine if there was an "item mall" in the world of professional sports. Interviewer: Hey, where did you get that Superbowl Ring? You win it? Player: No, I bought it. Never even been to the Superbowl. But every one on my team has bought one of these rings from the "item mall" because it looks cool.
Item Mall items in a game are as unimpressive as they would be in real life. "Buying your way" is always less of an achievement than "earning your way."
This is a complete misconception. Not all Item Malls sell items that are combat useable advantage giving items. EQ2's item mall (which I detest because its entirely retarded to sell items period for a game that you pay monthly for), and Atlantica Onlines' item mall do not sell weapons, armor, major advantage giving items. They sell random item boxes that give you a random items like interesting mount only usuable for walking around in game, a costume, craft items (some of which are seriously over priced so spending 2 to 10 bucks to possibly get one is worth it), potions to decrease skills or change class. Most if not all the items off Atlantica's cash shop (except a couple of special mounts and all the costumes) are entirely available in game. Some are just far harder than others to get or have low drop rates to obviously try and encourage people to buy them. The nice thing is they give you a stick big enough you can usually sell the craft items in the market thus spreading them out to the community.
I understand detesting F2P games that sell weapons and armor or anything that gives a combat advantage but you can't lump them all together anymore. F2P games lack slightly in quality customer service to an extent and the play styles are usually entirely different but they're not evil peices of crap that deserve the total scorn some people have for them. If you've not ever played one or tried to play one with or without buying an item your opinion is pretty much invalid to any gamer that has tried them and found them to be ok enough to stick around and enjoy them.
Quite honestly some F2P games right now are by far several times better than the P2P games which have substantionally gone down the quality content crap drain.
Imagine if there was an "item mall" in the world of professional sports. Interviewer: Hey, where did you get that Superbowl Ring? You win it? Player: No, I bought it. Never even been to the Superbowl. But every one on my team has bought one of these rings from the "item mall" because it looks cool.
Item Mall items in a game are as unimpressive as they would be in real life. "Buying your way" is always less of an achievement than "earning your way."
This is a complete misconception. Not all Item Malls sell items that are combat useable advantage giving items. EQ2's item mall (which I detest because its entirely retarded to sell items period for a game that you pay monthly for), and Atlantica Onlines' item mall do not sell weapons, armor, major advantage giving items. They sell random item boxes that give you a random items like interesting mount only usuable for walking around in game, a costume, craft items (some of which are seriously over priced so spending 2 to 10 bucks to possibly get one is worth it), potions to decrease skills or change class.
I understand detesting F2P games that sell weapons and armor or anything that gives a combat advantage but you can't lump them all together anymore. F2P games lack slightly in quality customer service to an extent and the play styles are usually entirely different but they're not evil peices of crap that deserve the total scorn some people have for them. If you've not ever played one or tried to play one with or without buying an item your opinion is pretty much invalid to any gamer that has tried them and found them to be ok enough to stick around and enjoy them.
Quite honestly some F2P games right now are by far several times better than the P2P games which have substantionally gone down the quality content crap drain.
Yeah before I tried requiem I considered the only F2p games even worth a try were AO, Shadowbane.
I can now say F2p have three games that aren't shit.
Edit: before the f2p fans jump on me I havent tried Runes of Magic yet (damn site wont let me download it) and I only played Atlantica in beta and it was lame tbh, might be better now.
The thing about F2P games is that they don't have much money to create a game that is able to compete with multi-milion dollar projects like WoW. In fact, they only use a fraction of the money Blizzard spends to create their games. The high initial cost of creating an mmo causes these crap unifinished games to come out. So in order to make profit for these small companies, they need to target a niche market. The item stores are a specific customer base that they can make money off of. Give these companies a break, and maybe their second or third games can be something of value instead of the crap they are producing as of now. We don't want blizzard to be the only company producing good quality MMOs in the future.
I don't hate them. I don't like them. I don't really care. For those of us who cannot spend 15 dollars a month playing a game, this is the only option. Well, not really . Theres also games like guild wars, where you pay once and these games are great. I really like GW Factions, but I don't mind a item mall game. It doesn't really change the game at all. Most players really don't use the item mall, so theres no difference, really. The point of the item mall is that it lets the game be FREE. If you can't afford P2P games, then its all you got, so if you don't like that, then don't play. At least that's my opinion.
I am not a fan of item mall games. Every one i've tried has been pretty underwhelming. If you do not buy the item mall stuff your play experience is usually hindered. If the items aren't meaningful, no one will buy them. If they are too powerful, you'll only be as good as your wallet allows.
totally agree, like gunbound half the items you have to purchase and if you dont it takes an overwhelmingly long time to buy them with in game money, the purchasing system turnes games into a "who is richer contest" pointless and it just reduces the amount of skill that is actually involved in the overall game....
Comments
Hope you don't mind here but to late.
I have seen a few cash shop F2P and Of course SOEs P2P. I like EQ2 . I was rather miffed with the cash shop and did a boycott but over all the game is fun so yeah I am back P2P.
While I took a break I played a couple F2P that did have a item mall. One being Requiem. Interesting thing is Requiems item mall is not really that skewed except for potions. most of the mall is fluff. easier exp,repair kits, reduction items (for reinforcements) extra bank space and so on. Either way you spend money either real or your Lant (gold) to do the same thing in game. However the F2P has a lot less content and really no fluff. nothing to do except grind which can eventually drive you away. I paid the subscription to get a small bonus just because I liked the game.
9Dragons was a different song. I felt 9dragons was like a money trap. Items on the mall were NEEDED to really advance and investing in the mall would cost way more than a paid subscription. I never got past level 10 there cause I saw the money trap. Yeah you can play for free but in order to be completive in PvP you HAD to use the mall. Big difference between Requiem and 9Dragons.
Anyway it is a matter of 1. spotting a money trap and 2. choice but to categorize all F2P malls a money traps or a P2P with a mall is a money trap is false.
No what i'm tired of are shitty companies that make cash shops that require more then the average 15 bucks a month I would spend on normally a better p2p product.
CS balance is something that needs to be fixed in alot of these games imo.
If a F2p is good I will use it a bit for mounts and maybe costumes but when they require me to use them to keep up with the hardcore players thats when they sux ass.
Right now three mmos on the market that are F2p are in line with atleast the average p2p mmos.
Atlantica Online, Runes of Magic and Requiem are three solid games all of these games are quality and don't require more then a 10 buck a month investment in the cash shop to be viable.
I would even go as far as to say those three games are better then SWG (current).
I'm playing Requiem right now and while It feels like a mix between WoW and L2 its actually a fun game and I wouldnt mind tossing 5-10 bucks at the devs a month to play.
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
Also a player can easily spot a unbalanced cash shop just by glancing at the sites item list.
If you see things like Zone access keys, attribute boosts, full armor and weapons and an increase in available skill points for pay players only you should know to stay away.
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
What is worse is when the item mall games are barely MMO's. Just look at that Crossfire advert, it's basically counterstrike with an item-shop. The world has gone crazy that the market is there for them to exist!
Pretty soon every game will be networked in some way so that the people who make it can nickel and dime everyone who bought it.
Harvest Moon MMO - Buy your tools here!
Super Mario MMO - Buy your 1-up's here!
People are crazy to buy DLC as well, yet the market for that is huge too!
This is a complete misconception. Not all Item Malls sell items that are combat useable advantage giving items. EQ2's item mall (which I detest because its entirely retarded to sell items period for a game that you pay monthly for), and Atlantica Onlines' item mall do not sell weapons, armor, major advantage giving items. They sell random item boxes that give you a random items like interesting mount only usuable for walking around in game, a costume, craft items (some of which are seriously over priced so spending 2 to 10 bucks to possibly get one is worth it), potions to decrease skills or change class. Most if not all the items off Atlantica's cash shop (except a couple of special mounts and all the costumes) are entirely available in game. Some are just far harder than others to get or have low drop rates to obviously try and encourage people to buy them. The nice thing is they give you a stick big enough you can usually sell the craft items in the market thus spreading them out to the community.
I understand detesting F2P games that sell weapons and armor or anything that gives a combat advantage but you can't lump them all together anymore. F2P games lack slightly in quality customer service to an extent and the play styles are usually entirely different but they're not evil peices of crap that deserve the total scorn some people have for them. If you've not ever played one or tried to play one with or without buying an item your opinion is pretty much invalid to any gamer that has tried them and found them to be ok enough to stick around and enjoy them.
Quite honestly some F2P games right now are by far several times better than the P2P games which have substantionally gone down the quality content crap drain.
This is a complete misconception. Not all Item Malls sell items that are combat useable advantage giving items. EQ2's item mall (which I detest because its entirely retarded to sell items period for a game that you pay monthly for), and Atlantica Onlines' item mall do not sell weapons, armor, major advantage giving items. They sell random item boxes that give you a random items like interesting mount only usuable for walking around in game, a costume, craft items (some of which are seriously over priced so spending 2 to 10 bucks to possibly get one is worth it), potions to decrease skills or change class.
I understand detesting F2P games that sell weapons and armor or anything that gives a combat advantage but you can't lump them all together anymore. F2P games lack slightly in quality customer service to an extent and the play styles are usually entirely different but they're not evil peices of crap that deserve the total scorn some people have for them. If you've not ever played one or tried to play one with or without buying an item your opinion is pretty much invalid to any gamer that has tried them and found them to be ok enough to stick around and enjoy them.
Quite honestly some F2P games right now are by far several times better than the P2P games which have substantionally gone down the quality content crap drain.
Yeah before I tried requiem I considered the only F2p games even worth a try were AO, Shadowbane.
I can now say F2p have three games that aren't shit.
Edit: before the f2p fans jump on me I havent tried Runes of Magic yet (damn site wont let me download it) and I only played Atlantica in beta and it was lame tbh, might be better now.
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
The thing about F2P games is that they don't have much money to create a game that is able to compete with multi-milion dollar projects like WoW. In fact, they only use a fraction of the money Blizzard spends to create their games. The high initial cost of creating an mmo causes these crap unifinished games to come out. So in order to make profit for these small companies, they need to target a niche market. The item stores are a specific customer base that they can make money off of. Give these companies a break, and maybe their second or third games can be something of value instead of the crap they are producing as of now. We don't want blizzard to be the only company producing good quality MMOs in the future.
PBBG List.
I don't hate them. I don't like them. I don't really care. For those of us who cannot spend 15 dollars a month playing a game, this is the only option. Well, not really
. Theres also games like guild wars, where you pay once and these games are great. I really like GW Factions, but I don't mind a item mall game. It doesn't really change the game at all. Most players really don't use the item mall, so theres no difference, really. The point of the item mall is that it lets the game be FREE. If you can't afford P2P games, then its all you got, so if you don't like that, then don't play. At least that's my opinion.
i have to agree with you, they just dig a hole, look forward to us jumping in
I am not a fan of item mall games. Every one i've tried has been pretty underwhelming. If you do not buy the item mall stuff your play experience is usually hindered. If the items aren't meaningful, no one will buy them. If they are too powerful, you'll only be as good as your wallet allows.
totally agree, like gunbound half the items you have to purchase and if you dont it takes an overwhelmingly long time to buy them with in game money, the purchasing system turnes games into a "who is richer contest" pointless and it just reduces the amount of skill that is actually involved in the overall game....
~*(MMOs)*~
ATD3, ACEO, AoC, AO, AC, CO, COH, COV, DAC, DR, DDO, EO, EVE, EQ, EQ2, Flyff, GW, HG:L, HO, KO, L2, LotRO, MS, MUo, PotBS, PS, RagO, RF, ROSEo, Ryzom, SB, SWG, TLA, TMO, V:SoH, WO:AoR, WOW
F2P is only free to download