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Does Guild Wars 2 have a free-to-play option?
Don86
Member Posts: 34
in Guild Wars 2
Hello all,
I was thinking if this game has a free-to-play choice like allods online or some other MMO(IIRC) in which you can play free but if you want additional stuff like extra storages or inventory bags or costumes, you will need to buy either their monthly subscription option or buy from their cash shop unlocks.
Does guild wars 2 provide something similar? If so, I can pull many of my friends and acquaintances who play nothing but free mmorpgs to play this.
Thanks in advance.
CLARIFICATION : I understand that GW2 is B2P but what i meant was free to play from the beginning with everything locked out unless you purchase the unlocks from the cash shop.
Comments
Considering it's B2P and not P2P, it seems highly unlikely that it will have a free to play option. It will no doubt have a free trial option (just like GW1 and pretty much any MMO), besides there will be an open beta sometime this year or early next year.
Hmm...... It's a B2P game. No money outside of the box/digital sale is needed.
can't see it happening. GW2 is Buy to Play, so you pay for the game but there is no subscription. I highly doubt they would worry about making it cheaper.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
well, there was hints for DLCs in the store, but its not confirmed.
Those actually are confirmed..... they just dont know what will be free and what will be DLC...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
No, they aren't. Stop saying that.
I have it on video... I also dont like it, but Eric Flannum said it, black on white.
i really hope they dont have f2p option...
There is no F2P play model. The Game is B2P. Same as guild wars.
No, he didn't. Colin Johanson and several other devs have also said that they will only sell cosmetics in the store and nothing people will require to play the game.
Cosmetics are the only thing that is confirmed, he never said "only cosmetics." There is still a very real possibility of DLC including dungeons, quests, etc.
Interview
This is GamesCom interview. My statement is based on PAX panel, where E. Flannum sais something like: "We are talked about and consider DLC or similar way to add content". Till now this isn't confirmed, but the possibility is there.
given the core fanbase's general feeling about DLCs (here) I kind of doubt that dungeons and small content updates will be sold. Given the lack of any non-personal story quests, they won't sell quests. Given the confirmation of free updates for new events (and the impossibility of actually selling them) they won't be selling those. Given the problems with selling PvP maps, I think thats off the list as well. The only story content I can imagine them selling is history mission packs like in GW1. There really isn't much room left for other things in there, all that is left is cool cosmetic stuff and account stuff (because selling power is "evil").
I used to TL;DR, but then I took a bullet point to the footnote.
I really hope they stick with just expansions, DLC could easily turn GW2 into more of a freemium game than a buy to play in my opinion.
Edit:
On the Guru forum, Bismarck said:
Small content DLC is a dangerous line to walk though, as you really risk angering a lot of consumers who are expecting that sort of thing for free. People are already conditioned to accept expansion packs, but there is still a lot of struggle and negative perception to constantly making numerous small payments for more and more bits of content.
That sums up my attitude perfectly. I have not been 'conditioned' to accept making numerous small payments for more and more bits of content', nor do I want to be, as I have quite negative perceptions toward it from having sampled some recent freemium games. Just sell me the game, and sell me an expansion every year or so, then sell costumes and sparkle mounts to anyone who actually wants them, please!
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
stated last year on the possibility
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/10/21/guild-wars-2-to-have-dlc-microtransactions/
“We haven’t decided on what exactly we are or aren’t going to offer for money post-release. We’re open to whatever our players seem most interested in. If, after release, you guys would like more story content, more dungeons, more events, more maps or whatever, it’s something that we have to consider because ultimately making you happy is what makes us successful.
Whether we release that in DLC (like the bonus mission packs in GW1) or whether we do it through expansions (Like Eye of the North) is yet to be determined.
EQ2 fan sites
If I had the option to buy an expansion pack through the online store, rather then purchase it through retail box, it wouldn't bother me. As long as the retail option is still there. I don't want to see things like mission packs and the like, but I have faith that it won't become a problem.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Well yeah, buying the expansion through the store or website won't upset me either, but buying little bits of content here and there is freemium territory, and I don't like it. It has the potential to be more expensive than a sub, and there are other good reasons not to do it mentioned in that guru thread, too.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
I agree, buying X-packs digitally is just an accessibility factor. However, I'm not sure if I have enough faith for them to not put in mission packs, they did it with GW1. What's to stop them from doing it again? People will no doubt buy them and, though no one likes to admit it, making money is the primary concern of this company (and any other). I doubt they would keep DLC out simply because a some people would rather it come free, or in X-packs. If they do, I'll be pleasantly surprised.
I think server transfer will be free, because they have adressed the problem with transfering servers in WvW, you will not be able to play WvW for a while after you transfer server. So why would people PAY to transfer and even then you will not be able to play WvW. If it would cost money to transfer they would let anyone play WvW straight after transfer.
I would hope they want to make plenty of money, they're a company, not a charity, and it's not a necessity of life, it's a game. Good socialist that I am, I still don't have issue with people making plenty of money off entertainment.
However, there are other reasons to at very least keep mini content to a minimum. If I buy the game and my friend buys it, and three months later there is an expansion that I can afford buy my friend can't right then, we can't play together anymore, not until he can afford to buy it, too. Multiply that by a lot, and the population gets divided, and then more divided with every release.
In the Guru forum thread someone also mentioned that it would flood the new zone initially, then empty it out, and that this would be less of an issue with a full expansion release where a lot of new areas would be available at once. I never thought about it that way before, but the poster could be correct.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
Well for the sake of arguement why dont you just let your friends know that they canb uy the game for 50$ and then they will be able to play free forever and not locked out of anything. I like this model more..
Buy the game once and play it forever. No additional charge unless you want materialist stuff you don't need to play the game.
Well that's the option I do like, although not precisely going to be the case, as expansions will release, which means if I buy the expansion and my friend doesn't, I can only play with my friend in the areas he has purchased and at the level cap he has purchased (they already said they would increase the level cap with expansions).
This isn't as much of an issue to me as buying mini-packs, though, because we know when an expansion is coming out. We get word months before hand, right? So that gives more time for planning and it happens less often, too. Once a year or so, rather than who knows? Once every three months? Once every month? I would much prefer to buy it all in one chunk for more money on a less frequent basis than buy it a bit at a time. That's just my preference, it's easier, feels further away from the annoying sub and freemium model, it suits me, so that's what I hope they do. Of course, if most everyone else is happy with mini-packs, what suits me means not a thing, but I'm hoping that's not the case!
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
http://guildwars2.mondespersistants.com/l-interview-qui-va-bien-de-guild-wars-2-:article-310,2/
[Update with the complete answer of Colin on this point.]
M.P. : How the cash shop will work in Guild Wars 2 ? Will it be like the first one, with Heroes and character slots?
Will we have to pay for new missions, for new quests ? What can you tell us about the system?
C.J. : Yeah, so, we're gonna talk a lot more about the cash shop down the road, but what I will say is that spirit of having a cash shop where we don't sell things that you need to buy to play the game is going to continue in Guild Wars 2.
If you look at the Guild Wars 1 cash shop, there's no item that you can buy that make you more powerfull, there's nothing that you need to go in that shop and buy to be competitive.
We'll do the same thing in Guild Wars 2. When you buy the game you have everything that you need to play the game.
The stuff that will be in the Guild Wars 2 cash shop will be things like cosmetics. It might be dresses for your character. They're gonna be purely cosmetics or extra stuff to go along with it.
It's not gonna be core mecanics items that you will need to play the game.
How are we going to present new content, we're still working around that, we might sell some dungeons in the store, we might not, these are thing we are still trying to finalize; how we are gonna handle cash shop content Vs expansion, but from a game balance prospective there is nothing in that store you'll ever need to play the game.
They still haven't made a definitive decision about how they will handle expansions and what will be in them. The wiggle room on including dungeons in the cash shop is reflective of the fact they haven't finalized how they will provide future content.
The game is not going to have the kind of cash shop tems you expect from F2P games or Hybrid subscription/cash shop models. The items will be cosmetic only. There will probably be some services, like character slots, make overs, renaming, etc...
I have a feeling they would like to offer additional dungeons for the portion of the game world that comes with the initial release of Guild Wars 2. A full expansion will likely offer new zones, new Personal Story, new dungeons set in the new zones, etc... The ambiguity on Dungeons in the Cash Shop, to me, hints that they might either offer a retail dungeon pack, seperate from the full expansions, or alternatively might offer those dungeons through the cash shop as well. Of course, they might just decide to offer some dungeons as free content expansion, but that would probably mean fewer new dungeons per year than if they find a model to sell additional dungeon content.
In the end, even the wiggle room on Dungeons is still conditional on what customers want. If the community responds negatively to the prospect, they will probably opt for another alternative.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
tell your friends to count on the game being 60 bucks just to get an account and characters.
but honestly, that 60 bucks is going to get them so much more than 60 gaming bucks has ever gotten them, it would be stupid to not start saving/raking leaves/mowing lawns now.
Charr: Outta my way.
Human: What's your problem?
Charr: Your thin skin.