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[Column] General: Can So Many F2P Gamers Really Be Wrong?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
If there's a truly accurate figure available for the total number of people who currently play F2P MMOGs, I'd love to know what it is. That said, it seems pretty safe to think it's in the tens of millions. Indeed, even higher isn't out of the question. So, whenever I see yet another statement to the effect that (almost) every offering in the entire category is bad, I can't help but ask whether their players agree. Invariably, my answer is that they don't.
Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The Free Zone: Can So Many F2P Gamers Really Be Wrong?
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Comments
What game is that screen shot from?
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
While extreme it does illustrate the point that "Lots of people do this so it must be good" is a logical fallacy.:)
And of course not all F2P games are bad but they have the reputation they do because of the way a lot of them are.
Lol +1
- As to the author of this article. Due to the nature of F2P games it's impossible to get an accurate figure in the sense that most games are used to thinking about these sorts of things. Subscriptions don't work, because it's a model not based around them. You can't do concurrent users necessarily either, because F2P embraces the transient nature of games. The good ones, at least, do not expect gamers to stick with their game indefinitey, inspite of everything else. They let the fans play other stuff, and come back when they want to.
All MMOs (sub, b2p, f2p) have a constant flux of players leaving, joining, and returning to their games. Trying to get an accurate total, is like trying to get exact earnings from a fortune 500 company. They can certaintly give you an estimate, but in the time it would take to get you exact figures, the numbers would have already changed.
I believe this is just going to boil down into an argument of
"well those people just arent thinking for themselves, if they were, they'd think what I think!"
"Lots of people do this so it must be good" is a fallacy, sure, but it's no more illogical than "my friends and I don't like this so it must be bad" which is essentially the root of anti-F2P sentiment.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
What's it matter? And is critical thinking dead? At least I know your genuinely asking one question. As far as what's it matter? Just like the pc superior race fights off the dumbing down through console ports, the fight can also be taken to pay models. How much immersion breaking business decisions do you want to make during your leisure activities? It matters because it fundamentally changes the reason for playing, for leisure.Exactly, just as some others have already stated. And it's absolutely pointless to argue with whoever fails to realise this simple premise.
"EVE is likely the best MMORPG that you've never really understood or played" - Kyleran
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
The question is: "Can so many F2P gamers really be wrong?" And there's just one possible answer: "Yes, they can."
"EVE is likely the best MMORPG that you've never really understood or played" - Kyleran
They can be wrong about something, but not about the games they like. If they are playing the games, then they like the games. The games are satisfying some aspect of what the players want. The games must be good games because they are serving their intended purpose for those players.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
There is just one possible answer, but that answer is "No, they can't." It's about preferences, and preferences can't be right or wrong. Only appealing or unappealing, and which will vary depending on who is judging.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
People can be wrong about it. I hear so often people saying such a game is crappy, but if it was free I would play it. That just shows they would play a crappy game because it is FREE.
So many people will play crappy games if free, take stupid items because they're free, eat horrid food because it is free. Ever go to a convention and see people swarming over the free stuff, or making fools of themselves for junk? Happens all the time.
So yes they can be wrong, especially when they play a poor quality game, knowing it is so, just because it is free. And the funny thing is, they get sucked into micro transactions, spending more than a sub, then feel like shit when they quit because they spent money on such a crappy game.
Well, case in point, if we've proven the big bang theory are there still millions of people who are wrong? Yup, I suppose your logic works in that case. I just wish it was THAT simple in this case, though. Because, you see, F2P games actually are real, like really really real. I prefer something with a sub option, myself, but you can generally play through them free, I guess, if you want. Are they wrong? Well, I've got 4 kids at home with max level SWTOR characters and they're completely happy to run around with a freakin' lightsaber and doing just that. If you want a little substance then you have to expect that you're going to pay something, sometime. There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Crazkanuk
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Actually, they won't. If someone honestly thinks a game is bad, they won't play it at all. When someone refers to something they actually want to play as "crappy" because they would have to pay more than they want to in order to play it, they are just expressing juvenile anger at having to pay for their entertainment. Anything you would do for free is something you want to do. The rest is just blowing smoke.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
There is just one possible answer, but that answer is "No, they can't." It's about preferences, and preferences can't be right or wrong. Only appealing or unappealing, and which will vary depending on who is judging.
All of anything anyone has to say is a matter of perspective and that goes along with how they feel too. You can talk in circles with all of your questions. With that, for me (pause because I said for "me") cash shop games are immersion breakers because as one advances and competes and monitors ones ability and progression, it's always in the back of my mind, how much influence did the cash shop have on my experience?
When I pay for a game, when I sub to a game, there are no excuses. Person X defeated me, I just need to get better. With cash shops though and for example, Person Y defeated me, do I need to get better? Or do I need something from the cash shop that could have changed this outcome? It works in pve that way as well pvp was just an easier example.
As I mentioned answers are a matter of perspective and when an f2p er says "well just buy that cash shop item" That's thier mentality, that's not mine. I feel if that were the mentality of every gamer, p2w would be mainstream. That's where websites like this one and investors would like to take it.
Honestly, that sounds more like an issue you have with being paranoid than any kind of issue with the game design. They may exist, but I have never personally played (or even heard of) a game where something in the cash shop could actually impact PvP performance.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
You know, it's not a great mystery whether or not something from a cash shop has an impact on PvP. It's not a great mystery to see if something in the cash shop will have a dramatic impact on the PvE side of a game either. Your concerns seem to happen before the cash shop can become a factor in the game play. It's not whether or not the cash shop affects game play, it's simply the fact that the cash shop exists.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Richard, In recent times we see the consistent pattern that game companies are going after those that give negative reviews, in all mediums. If someone posts a negative review of a game on youtube, they stand a very high chance of having the video taken down. Why? I think the industry is to blame and it should reform the review process, forcing it to be as neutral as possible. Never giving a positive review. We all know that game companies use review to boost sales, we also know that many reviewers are paid to give positive reviews. When a reviewer gives a truly accurate review for a really horrible game, why in the hell should the game company be allow to go after the reviewer and discredit his/her name and reputation and take down all his/her videos and shut down their channel/website? Its bullshit how all, and I mean ALL, review sites including MMORPG.com kiss the publishers behind! Publishers should be grateful for any kind of media it gets good or bad. The system needs a major patch.
I think publishers should pay gamers to install a truly crappy game when it is played for 5 minutes and promptly uninstalled and written it up as a colossal waste of disk space. After things like this we begin to blame the reviewer and his/her site and not only does this make them look bad for promoting a truly crappy game but they lose reputation for being a good review site. No one wins here. ultimately its the publisher/game company to blame all for the mighty dollar, peso, and yen. Which is why no one wants to make a major game purchase prior to trying it out. Demo's/trials never do a game justice, its all for promotion and full of lies. F2P is the last stage in our broken gaming empire.