Whats with people hating F2P?

[Kotemon]

Like some have said there's no such thing as Free to play, its free or its not. I have no grudge against free games, however the vast majority now days are either cheaply designed, poorly beta tested, locked out most of the paid content or is unplayable unless you pay out for in-game currency, items, addon's, no pop ups, etc. A down side to F2P on a MMO is the consistency of updates, quality/new content, maint etc.. Some titles like Guild Wars can do it well and still make/run a good title. Other folks will half-ass a product on the idea of making back more $$$ on what should have been included content than what the actual game would be worth. The bad thing with most developers moving toward the F2P is they will make almost any game a free download or charge full current retail value based on other titles. While hoping you'll pay more for it as time goes on. That is what most folks don't like about F2P.

There's so much potential to gauge the customer and justify poor service because its free. Even if they used Ad ware and you paid for Ad free. Who is running the ad service and will it backdoor viruses and spyware just because its installed and you paid for a code to disable it? With a paid service you're hopefully getting dedicated service, quality software, functional to decent game play, and not pay extra to access content you already paid for.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

This is like a textbook example of a slippery slope fallacy. There's no proof to show that SE intends to ever add anything but 100% cosmetic content to the cash shop, and in fact they've said multiple times that they're going to be keeping it that way.



The thing is, giving 1 or 2 extra retainers to every single character on every single server would surely add up to more space than only adding for those that are willing to pay for the service. Think about how many people have alts - I doubt that very many people subscribe to extra retainers for each alt (if they subscribe to retainers at all, since you can use alts and the FC chest to list and/or store extra items for you). Don't get me wrong, I'd like more retainers too. It would give me even more market presence than I already have. The only problem I'd have is keeping a supply of venture coins on hand. :3



I don't see how glamour items and mounts are "disgusting" but that's your opinion and you're welcome to it. To me, the only types of things that would make the cash shop intolerable would be if they affected actual game stats, exp gain, or access to areas.

Pretty sure all your characters have access to your full amount of retainers you paid for. They're not a 'per character' service.

Unfortunately, people have a huge aversion to subscription based MMOs despite it being proven they actually cost less in the long haul because many people will eventually succumb to temptation and buy things from the Cash Shop. Everyone starts by claiming they would never pay real money for that stuff. Until that one item they've really wanted appears. Then it's "Okay, it's only one item." And then...

Nowadays, I prefer to refuse to pay for stuff in the cash shop while I see how the game plays for free people, then I take a look at their monetization methods.
My analysis of the monetization will determine if I buy anything, or if I even continue to play.

[Ashkendor]

Pretty sure all your characters have access to your full amount of retainers you paid for. They're not a 'per character' service.

Hmmm, do they? I don't have an alt high enough level to check (I started making one but got bored doing the early story...)

[Gamer3427]

So far I've only ever found one F2P game that has good gameplay, updates often, and has everything, (baring cosmetics), available in game without having to pay for it. That game is Warframe. Even then though, with this being the absolute highest quality game I have ever played that was F2P, it does have frequent bugs, (due in part to them devoting their limited resources to adding content as much as bug fixes), and is borderline pay-to-win in that by spending money you can get equipment FAR faster and upgraded quicker and more often than players who play for free, as well as not having to discard old equipment to make room for new gear. Again, easily the best F2P game I've ever experienced in terms of how the "free" aspect is handled, and in terms of quality in general, but still nowhere near the level of quality that you get from a subscription based game......

Frankly, while I won't necessarily quit flat out if XIV becomes a F2P game in the future, I will look at it as very dark times being ahead. As is the budget that the team works with is absolutely abysmal. I can't imagine what kind of cuts it would be getting if it didn't millions of people paying that fee each month, or what level of content we'd be getting. As is, they have some freedom to experiment with new ideas such as Verminion and the Diadem to try and keep players entertained, but for a F2P model to work, they'd have to focus almost purely on trying to bring new players to the game or convincing them to pay for extra content. F2P games and quality simply don't go hand in hand, because while they're profitable to an extent, they're also not concerned with player retention as much as catching their attention for long enough to get them to buy something....

I'm completely against a game going F2P unless the number of active players is just so low that the company can't even keep one server running. Given that we have so many servers as is that have restrictions on them just because there are too many active players, I really don't see that happening anytime soon....

[Saccharin]

-Limited Retainers and/or retainer space
-Limited Market sell space

/check
/check

[Cylestea]

Like, they say theyd quit if it was.

Why? You like spending loads of cash and wasting money every month/two months/three? I hate it. Its a waste but I do it because I like the game.

Yoshi P clearly stated the game will Never go F2p. it will be shut down before it ever happens. heck look at FFXI its still P2P after 14 years

[Moqi]

I would go back to this game in a second if it was F2P. I don't get the hate either. I quit because with all the lockouts and timers it already felt like playing with an energy system like a free Facebook game, but with no options to get rid of it. I was paying for the game to halt my progression instead of paying to speed it up. Absurd.

I would rather have exp boosters and stat potions and lvl60 characters in the cash shop (none of which affect my game experience) than exclusive content that my sub won't get me. Cash shop was just the tip of the iceberg though.

Someone earlier talked about having to buy ever piece of content separately and I don't know how much it would be worth (although I can control myself and never spent a cent on a f2p game, so I'm not worried about that), but considering I don't care for PvP, Fisher, crafting classes that don't provide glamours for healers, or savage raids, it would probably end up being financally wiser to just buy what I like to do + spend some money to get rid of lockouts than subbing for months to farm the same content for tokens/rare drops. Definitely more fun, becuase I would focus on what I actually like to do (especially when it comes to crafting).

F2P gets my vote!