Free 2 Play still being considered?

[Asiaine]

If they make it pay-to-play I may cry.
And depending on what you have to pay for, I may cry even more!
If they do something like: Pay for game box, then pay subscription, then pay to unlock the story, then pay to unlock the job so you can do the story, then pay to unlock a chocobo so you can get to the story.. well, I'll just stop paying and go play somewhere else.

However, if they introduce little-things that do not really have any effect on game play:
Pay for Event Item you missed.
Pay for 100 extra anima (otherwise normal anima regen rate)
Pay for 100 extra leves (otherwise normal leve regen rate)

Then I might be okey... but still rather not ^.^;

[Raistlin]

but whats the problem if you have a monthly subscription, u have access to all? so why will u care about f2p paying for main story quests?

[Holy_Dragoon]

I'll be honest, Pay to Play is one reason why I do choose to play this MMO over others. I find that F2P methods do not ever give proper value for money spent. Additionally, it also effects game balance. Every game company has tried until they are blue in the face to balance F2P to match P2P, none have succeeded.

F2P players always feel the need to make purchases to better themselves. P2P games do not have this. The desire to better themselves comes from gameplay mechanics and desire to improve your skills/character. You pay your fee, and can enjoy the game in its entirety, including patched content and story that is laid out in order to keep you from dropping your sub. I am buying access to the game and community, what I do inside the game is not dictated by real world money. The only exception to this being Expansions, which are large scale additions to the game.

[Nighthawk]

F2P is not the way to go and it ALWAYS ends up to be more then a monthly subscription.

[Coldfire]

Seems like you never played GW <.<

[Holy_Dragoon]

Seems like you never played GW <.<

I believe someone else said it best. "Co op RPG" with PvP focus.

[Evenstar]

GW is not a regular F2P game. F2P the topic starter is talking about is more like DC Online and LOTRO. Guild Wars is a completely different story.

[Nighthawk]

There is always exceptions to all things in life nothing is 100% but for the most part once they start charging for in game items it's game over.

[OJtheLIONKing]

GW was designed before the current F2P model really took off. If you've played it recently you can see it's been looking more like your standard F2P game. Also, you had to pay for the game itself so it's not truly F2P, just Co Op RPG as has been mentioned.

The only half decent F2P game I've played has been Star Trek Online, but as I never played it before it went F2P, for all I know I've just been playing the old content and all new content will cost. I dunno. Either way, that's one decent game out of dozens, maybe hundreds of F2P games that suck. Not only does it end up costing more to people who pay for things, it ruins game balance, almost always leads to less (and lesser quality) content, and allows the idiot teenager trolls to get in a lot more easily. I played MMOs when I was a teenager and never felt the urge to annoy people so it's not a guarantee, but it is a statistical likelihood.

I know that I, personally, have not once paid for anything in a F2P game because I find the prospect of paying real world money for a virtual item idiotic at best. At least P2P is paying for the subscription service where everyone gets invested in their characters and the content. F2P will only remain profitable as long as there are people willing to pay cash for knickknacks in your particular game, and as Zynga's recent financials tell us, it may not be as sustainable as a lot of these struggling MMOs switching to it want to believe.

[Griss]

You mention free to play to people and there auto defenses kick into high gear.

I will agree that many company's have used the model to grab as much cash as they can. And if square was to adopt a bad f2p model i would be among the numbers who say Fthis I'm out. How ever done responsibly it is a pretty cool model. I like to refer to these games as Freemium games. They never sell power only convenience and customization.

But i think the guys over at extracredits said it best when it comes to micro transactions
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/microtransactions