Which MMORPG has the best F2P model now ?

andypandyr · October 2017

Hi guy's I'm currently looking for a new Mmo to sink my teeth into, I am happy to use cash shops etc if they are good value and not a ripoff. I don't post here very often , bit of a lurker , any suggestions will be greatly appreciated

Excession · October 2017

Might help narrow it down a bit if you name a few MMO's that you have played already.

Panther2103 · October 2017

Excession said:

Might help narrow it down a bit if you name a few MMO's that you have played already.

This. We need to know what type of games you enjoy, also what type of cash shops are you trying to avoid? Do you care about Pay to Win? Do you care if you can get the items in the cash shop with gold from other players? Cosmetic only?

Kajidourden · October 2017

Best F2P model is GW2 by far. No subscription to get for a leg up, no cost to start at all, and you can buy expansions as you go if you enjoy the base game enough.

Every other F2P mmo has some sort of subscription that eventually becomes necessity or such a huge convenience it would be silly to play without it.

drachennwolf · October 2017

Kajidourden said:

Best F2P model is GW2 by far. No subscription to get for a leg up, no cost to start at all, and you can buy expansions as you go if you enjoy the base game enough.

Every other F2P mmo has some sort of subscription that eventually becomes necessity or such a huge convenience it would be silly to play without it.

Elder scrolls online. No payment needed except for expansions.

Kajidourden · October 2017

drachennwolf said:

Kajidourden said:

Best F2P model is GW2 by far. No subscription to get for a leg up, no cost to start at all, and you can buy expansions as you go if you enjoy the base game enough.

Every other F2P mmo has some sort of subscription that eventually becomes necessity or such a huge convenience it would be silly to play without it.

Elder scrolls online. No payment needed except for expansions.

Since when is ESO free? There's always been a box price.

Allerleirauh · October 2017

I keep hearing Path of Exile if you're into ARPGs.

Elsabolts · October 2017

Eve's new mobile app.

Kajidourden · October 2017

Allerleirauh said:

I keep hearing Path of Exile if you're into ARPGs.

Second this if you like ARPGs

Mikeha · October 2017

Blade And Soul or TERA

You have the option of Free or Sub which is what I like. All content updates are free like they should be so no having to by expansions.

Wildstar is very good.

I would have said Age Of Wushu but their Free is more like an unlimited trial. You need to sub in that game to really play it.

Sovrath · October 2017

Kajidourden said:

drachennwolf said:

Kajidourden said:

Best F2P model is GW2 by far. No subscription to get for a leg up, no cost to start at all, and you can buy expansions as you go if you enjoy the base game enough.

Every other F2P mmo has some sort of subscription that eventually becomes necessity or such a huge convenience it would be silly to play without it.

Elder scrolls online. No payment needed except for expansions.

Since when is ESO free? There's always been a box price.

Yes, it's buy to play.

Wylf · October 2017

Excession said:

Might help narrow it down a bit if you name a few MMO's that you have played already.

This. But as a shot in the dark, I think Rift has done a pretty decent job with their F2P.

Amathe · October 2017

RIFT is pretty good so far (just started it).

darkszgz · October 2017

Path of Exile or Warframe. It's amazing what they did with those games being F2P. TOTALLY F2P.

Panther2103 · October 2017

darkszgz said:

Path of Exile or Warframe. It's amazing what they did with those games being F2P. TOTALLY F2P.

I agree with POE being totally F2P but honestly you can't call Warframe 100% free to play. I mean you can do anything in the game without paying, but you have to basically barter for cash shop money that someone had to pay for at some point to get any more slots for anything. So if you are content with your starter frame and 1 other frame, and don't ever want more inventory space, then yeah that's fine but to get a higher mastery you will at some point need to buy more slots. Be that with other peoples plat or your own that you bought. Either way it's basically required.

Kajidourden · October 2017

Mikeha said:

Blade And Soul or TERA

You have the option of Free or Sub which is what I like. All content updates are free like they should be so no having to by expansions.

Wildstar is very good.

I would have said Age Of Wushu but their Free is more like an unlimited trial. You need to sub in that game to really play it.

Wildstar is dying more and more every day sadly. Could say more as I love it but I think it's on the way out. Can give more details if you want.

Blade and soul has the absolute best combat of any game period. Problem is it's got terrible netcode/stability and is VERY ping-dependent. It's playable but just know you'll likely be frustrated with getting better/performance because of it, especially if you're a sadist like me and pick KFM lololol. It also has a bad habit of crashing.
The other problem with blade and soul is the progression, you can buy upgrade materials with cash and change premium currency with cash. Not really a problem IMO in and of itself, but the progression is a serious grind, and you basically can't have more than one character if you want to stay current/geared.
Amazing PvP (1v1, BG's include gear and are whale cancer)

TERA I am actually leveling up in now. So far I have to say the combat is fun but seems REALLY dumbed down and the content in general seems crazy easy. I'm only level 32 though, so going to keep going.
As far as dumbed down goes to compare: In blade and soul you have to individually use each skill in your rotation, in TERA there are pre-determined combos and you press one button to start them and then spam space bar. Hopefully this changes late-game. The Subscription is too good to not have.

Edit:
Aaaaand I just realized I got way off topic....OP was asking about f2p models, not reviews >.> fml, too much coffee this morning I guess.

Iselin · October 2017

Rhoklaw said:

Sovrath said:

Kajidourden said:

drachennwolf said:

Kajidourden said:

Best F2P model is GW2 by far. No subscription to get for a leg up, no cost to start at all, and you can buy expansions as you go if you enjoy the base game enough.

Every other F2P mmo has some sort of subscription that eventually becomes necessity or such a huge convenience it would be silly to play without it.

Elder scrolls online. No payment needed except for expansions.

Since when is ESO free? There's always been a box price.

Yes, it's buy to play.

ESO is B2P and I believe the original GW2 title is now free to download and play. So that does kind of push it over what ESO has to offer without any money involved.

F2P = GW2 or DDO
B2P = ESO or LOTRO

ESO is on sale for $9.99 so often that it's virtually F2P. It's currently not on sale but it will be soon - it happens every fall.

Kajidourden · October 2017

Rhoklaw said:

Iselin said:

Rhoklaw said:

Sovrath said:

Kajidourden said:

drachennwolf said:

Kajidourden said:

Best F2P model is GW2 by far. No subscription to get for a leg up, no cost to start at all, and you can buy expansions as you go if you enjoy the base game enough.

Every other F2P mmo has some sort of subscription that eventually becomes necessity or such a huge convenience it would be silly to play without it.

Elder scrolls online. No payment needed except for expansions.

Since when is ESO free? There's always been a box price.

Yes, it's buy to play.

ESO is B2P and I believe the original GW2 title is now free to download and play. So that does kind of push it over what ESO has to offer without any money involved.

F2P = GW2 or DDO
B2P = ESO or LOTRO

ESO is on sale for $9.99 so often that it's virtually F2P. It's currently not on sale but it will be soon - it happens every fall.

Ok, we'll give ESO it's own category of C2P = Cheap 2 Play.

10/10 Category name, fair AND entertaining.

Taiphoz · October 2017

EvE Online's Alpha accounts are the best at the moment, and after the coming patch they are being expanded even further making them even better, with access to more ships and more importantly more ships used regularly in fleets in null, on top of that they are getting access to Tech II on some of the smaller hulls and Tech I on battleships and battle cruisers.

All in all Alpha's or FREE players are gona have a really good time in the game.

Eldurian · October 2017

Any freemium game with a PLEX model. Obviously the prime example of this is EVE as they pioneered the PLEX model (Though their transition to a freemium title is much more recent) but many games run nearly identical models.

The model a few key parts:

1. The game is free to play but there are limitations on what you can do as a free player, essentially boiling down to F2P being an unlimited free trial of the game.

2. For a monthly subscription you get benefits that give you a distinct advantage over F2P players or unlock a lot of content not available to them.

3. There is an item purchasable with real world money that can be redeemed for subscription time or converted to cash shop currency. This item can be traded in-game. Generally 20$ worth of this item is worth 1 month of 15$ subscription time.

4. There is a cash shop. This may be cosmetic only or even offer some decent cash shop only items.

Why do I like this style?

First of all, for those of you who say "I prefer to just pay 15$ a month and have access to everything" that model is DEAD. D-E-A-D DEAD DEAD DEAD!!! It is NEVER coming back. We the consumers have voted overwhelmingly with our dollars and told gaming companies they will make far more with a freemium + cash shop option then they will EVER make with a play subscription model. If you are clamouring to a return to a good old days of 15$ subs you are living in a past that will NEVER happen EVER again.

So that being said, one of the reasons I prefer this model is it's the closest thing to a 15$ a month sub that can function outside of people's pipe dreams. It's F2P is effectively an extended free trial but nearly all veteran players will pay the 15$ a month.

The PLEX system is great because it enables you to use in-game currency to buy cash shop items or keep subbed if your real life budget is a bit tight but your in-game earnings are doing quite well.

Finally the cash shop system is great because it enabled those with heavy amounts of disposable income to support the game more than others. In games with bullcrap power disparities this means pay-to-win whales standing alongside no-lifers in their ability to win without skill. In games without bullcrap power disparities this simply means people with a lot more bling. Either way the issue there is bullcrap power disparities and not the cash shop.

Overall it's a great model, which is why you see most modern MMOs using it.

Panther2103 · October 2017

Eldurian said:

Overall it's a great model, which is why you see most modern MMOs using it.

That's not true at all. There are a few using it but not most. Eve, BDO, Albion, Runescape, Archeage, Tera, and WoW are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. Which are big games, it's just not all that many use this system.

Some people would say it's not a great model, simply because you can pay money to get gold in the game legally.

Eldurian · October 2017

Panther2103 said:

Eldurian said:

Overall it's a great model, which is why you see most modern MMOs using it.

That's not true at all. There are a few using it but not most. Eve, BDO, Albion, Runescape, Archeage, Tera, and WoW are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. Which are big games, it's just not all that many use this system.

Some people would say it's not a great model, simply because you can pay money to get gold in the game legally.

You just named the majority of successful MMOs. Or at least as successful as any MMOs are in 2017.

There are a few less successful titles that do it as well for instance Wurm Online but WoW, EVE, and Runescape are three of the titans of this industry. With WoW alone you are talking the most successful version of a model 95% of MMOs are based off of.

I'm not sure if they have implemented their own version of PLEX yet but I know (If not it's probably coming eventually) but I know a few of the other major titles I haven't looked back in on in awhile such as LOTRO and SWTOR are freemium as well.

aliven · October 2017

Eldurian said:

Panther2103 said:

Eldurian said:

Overall it's a great model, which is why you see most modern MMOs using it.

That's not true at all. There are a few using it but not most. Eve, BDO, Albion, Runescape, Archeage, Tera, and WoW are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. Which are big games, it's just not all that many use this system.

Some people would say it's not a great model, simply because you can pay money to get gold in the game legally.

You just named the majority of successful MMOs. Or at least as successful as any MMOs are in 2017.

There are a few less successful titles that do it as well for instance Wurm Online but WoW, EVE, and Runescape are three of the titans of this industry. With WoW alone you are talking the most successful version of a model 95% of MMOs are based off of.

I'm not sure if they have implemented their own version of PLEX yet but I know (If not it's probably coming eventually) but I know a few of the other major titles I haven't looked back in on in awhile such as LOTRO and SWTOR are freemium as well.

Eve is no where near the titan of industry. Titans of industry are Wow, FF14, GW2 and ESO. Rest live on scraps.

drachennwolf · October 2017

Taiphoz said:

EvE Online's Alpha accounts are the best at the moment, and after the coming patch they are being expanded even further making them even better, with access to more ships and more importantly more ships used regularly in fleets in null, on top of that they are getting access to Tech II on some of the smaller hulls and Tech I on battleships and battle cruisers.

All in all Alpha's or FREE players are gona have a really good time in the game.

They gotta get past the septic system of a community first though. I'll never say nice things about EVE, ever.

Albatroes · October 2017

Mikeha said:

Blade And Soul or TERA

You have the option of Free or Sub which is what I like. All content updates are free like they should be so no having to by expansions.

Wildstar is very good.

I would have said Age Of Wushu but their Free is more like an unlimited trial. You need to sub in that game to really play it.

Blade and Soul is honestly a mixed bag. Its one of those things that you have to accept that you wont be able to do certain things in the game unless you're willing to dump lots of cash into the game, especially with how they are doing their gem system now so they can make more money with the cash shop.

Kajidourden · October 2017

Albatroes said:

Mikeha said:

Blade And Soul or TERA

You have the option of Free or Sub which is what I like. All content updates are free like they should be so no having to by expansions.

Wildstar is very good.

I would have said Age Of Wushu but their Free is more like an unlimited trial. You need to sub in that game to really play it.

Blade and Soul is honestly a mixed bag. Its one of those things that you have to accept that you wont be able to do certain things in the game unless you're willing to dump lots of cash into the game, especially with how they are doing their gem system now so they can make more money with the cash shop.

F2BG
Free to be gimp.

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Which MMORPG has the best F2P model now ?

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