Pay to Play vs. Free To Play Games Debate

Pay to Play vs. Free To Play

  • Game Client should be free. Expansion and subscription should be paid for.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Game Client, Expansion, subscription should free. I don't mind paying for skills & equipment

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Game Client, Expansion, subscription should free. I don't mind in game advertising

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other... Please Post

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4
Having played a few free to play mmo's in the past. It has become painfully obvious, players who can afford certain in game luxuries are at an advantage. While I was initially opposed to pay to play mmo's. I've realized that such titles revolve around class/role balancing rather then introducing a never ending list of cash items.
 
I don't see paying for a game client, expansion, and subscription if its an online only game, if it has offline abilities, then I would pay for the online if I wanted to go online.
 
That's really due to console gaming though. You may not have to pay the developers of modern war fare 2 in order to play their games online. But that doesn't stop Microsoft from charging you now does it?
 
blizzard stated its costed them 200 million$ to run wow since 2004. the thing is they make 150 million a month from subscriptions they have probably made close to 600 million from game sales alone.

edit: not to mention the money they have made from the virtual store on minipets, and and the glowing rainbow horse mount as i like to call it.
 
I have personally played WoW, FF11, and Guild Wars. I have friends who play city of heros and they love it.

The thing with most mmorpgs is that its soooo much grinding. I prefer guild wars not because is free to play but because its more fun for me. The people are cool and the game isn't a long walk up a steep hill. The level cap is 20 which can be done in like a day if you force it, the stories are cool and develop fast and smooth. Also you pretty much have to do the stories to get where you need/want to be.

The problem I had with WoW was that it was a consstant grind and I swear to god I had no idea what the plot or point of any of it was, not only that but it was really hard to party up with people and I hated the chat system.

Final Fantasy 11 looked like poop and is slow in everything you do, no matter what your computer is the game is just slow. You run slow attack slow and transition slow. The story was slightly better with getting you involved since you have to o start the game but for the first like 10-15 levels you solo grind (this can take a long *** time)

Now I'm not ragging on the games just listing reasons I didn't like them. Guild wars isn't perfect in itself. mainly because it's really short and when your done its mainly just farming or running missions and caves.

I did read that someone said guild wars doesnt get updates and is glitchy and thats a complete load. They update often and you even have to exit the game when they do. I have been planning since it came out +/- a few months.
 
Pay to play are better then the free ones, and most that have a monthly are better then the flat out. Not necessarily in game play, but in what comes out and what you can do. (In my opinion obviously.)

Must say that I'd go with free client, but then pay for the rest. Expansions are normally a large effort, and the patches throughout, as well as server resources, deserve the cash to make a better game. That being said...I'd wish that they did more per/patch/expansion to make it worth the money lol.
 
Pay to play are better then the free ones, and most that have a monthly are better then the flat out. Not necessarily in game play, but in what comes out and what you can do. (In my opinion obviously.)

Must say that I'd go with free client, but then pay for the rest. Expansions are normally a large effort, and the patches throughout, as well as server resources, deserve the cash to make a better game. That being said...I'd wish that they did more per/patch/expansion to make it worth the money lol.

I agree with you, some companies like Hi-Rez do that, instead by paying by monthly, the content and other character statuses for the game keep the game alive.
Yes, updates are slow at times, but it is worth it, owning the game itself rather than doing online with other people is a plus.
When the online game is dead, atleast I feel like my money didn't go nowhere when I have my own private copy and I can atleast load up on a rainy night and play it for laughs or the next 8 hours till work. ;)
 
I've never like the idea of paying 15 a month to play a game. in itself 15 a month is relatively inexpensive, but that's almost 200$ a year for a single game. I'd much rather pay 30$ - 50$ to play permanently.

that said, most free to play games are crap. so buy to play is always win in my book
 
Pay for game, pay for expansion, Free montly, Add a reasonable mall.


I have been playing games since I was 2 years old. I have played online games for.. I dunno honestly, but way back in the days of 16bit colouring.

And honestly. None of the listed ways above will work in the end.

Pay per month - destroys a large number of potential players. Lots simply don't like the idea of being "billed" for "entertainment" monthly - when one month they may play 30 hours a week, each week and another month they may not play at all.

Free Games typically have a "Item mall' to compensate - which is a fantastic idea - however what is SOLD in the mall, becoming "NEEDED" items - ruins the game. Last Chaos comes to mind. Free to play/grind, but past level 100 you will require either Mall items to advance or 8 hours a day/7 days a week grinding to level up - I already have that, I call it a JOB.


So what we REALLY need is a Pay for the game/expansion - free to play - with mall items for customization and maybe minor leveling bonus/etc (think restrictions based on level/how many used recently, etc) and not "I bought the best gun from the mall, now I win in the game"


Since no game has this, currently, I am back to creating my zombie survival game.



The REAL problem lately is that game companies are getting LAZY - releasing games before fully tested, or rushing the release of a game for some quick profit. The game play itself is being compromised out in order to do this.

BRINK is an utter failure (not MMO but first one that came to mind) they bragged about how long they spent on game models - but what was the first thing I noticed? No Females. At all. Not even in the background. SO they spent 6+ months making a bunch of almost-identicle male models for the game. The gameplay was lacking and honestly it was a giant waste of my time playing. I didn't have FUN at all.

RAGE will be the last "non Fallout, non Elder Scrolls" game I buy from Bethesda's name. If it fails my expectations - they won't get a penny of my money for anything else.

I'd suggest you set similar guide lines for yourself. Gamers need to STOP buying bad games - these rushed half-assed games that don't live up to expectations.


Of all the games out recently, wanna know what I've played the most?
Dead Island, for 4 days, beat it, wasn't what I hoped for, not enough gun-fun, gets boring hack-n-slash for hours a time.
and
Minecraft.
no joke, beta game, has held the most of my attention. Pretty sad considering what 'dated' graphics it has - free to play - and under $30, really makes you think how much those "extra graphics" mean to you as a gamer.


Honestly every game makes profit -even the bad ones - so online games should do something gigantic which is only recently being started:
Dedicated Servers. Cut the exploits, cut the lag, make it where player actions are monitored (console and PC alike) and Ban cheating players from being able to play.

You wanna play - play, you wanna cheat/exploit - go offline and ruin your own game. Very simple honestly.

Last thing.. Cross Platforming. PC and Xbox should have NO problem cross playing - honestly - and it would be EPIC to have PC,Xbox and PS all playing the same games vs one another or co-op one another.

We have the technology - but there's no real "profit' in it for the companies, so they don't want to do it.
Even if they did - the PC is no doubt the easiest system to be hacking into and cheating with - texture models/new packs/console commands, etc. So they would have to Up the security from cheaters.

So really.... PS3 and Xbox360 should cross platform together and unite against this problem
 
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