Quote Originally Posted by Carin-Eri View Post
F2P is the very definition of a double-edged sword though.

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To be honest, I'd almost definitely quit if gambleboxes found their way into this game. I've seen firsthand how they can ruin an MMO.

I'll be blunt, if you're the type who easily get hooked on gambling or have issue with impulse control, you should stay away from F2P gacha as far as possible. And what you said apply more to the old F2Ps game from probably 10-15 years ago. I said before I used to don't have a kind look toward F2P games for the same reasons you mentioned, but modern F2P are really attractive in term of what they offer.

After playing a few of them for a few months, most modern F2P seems to follow this pricing structure:

- Completely F2P players: can still play and get most things, but may demand heavy time investment.

- Monthly Subscribed players: ranging from 5$-15$ a months. Offer the same comfort as playing a traditional MMO.

- Whale players: for those who wants everything, and wanted to have them yesterday.


In my experience engaging with their communities, most people are in the 2nd category. You go to any of them and pose as a new players asking for advise on how to spend, that's what gonna be recommended to you, and that's what the majority of players self-identified as. Looking at the pay structure, it's very obvious there are some artificial wall against F2P players to nudge them toward paying, the monthly subscritions are extremely attractive value wide, while anything beyond that is just straight up exploitive, but only if you're the type who let yourself being exploited. So it's clear what companies are doing with their pricing.

To put it in perspective:

- In FF14 you need an average 2 months to BiS a jobs, costing $30.

- In F2P Gacha, spending $30 over 2 months

- In FF14, you can get gears very quickly if you're willing to RMT (probably in the hundred or thousand of dollar) clears.

- In F2P Gacha, they just put that options officially in the game.


As long as I maintain discipline, like I said these F2P games offer a much more modern and content rich experience comparing to FF14 becuase you know what? At least it feels Gacha games constantly invest the money they made back into the games, can't say that for FF14.