YoshiP stated that MMOs are trending toward F2P

[Bishop81]

After trying out a F2P MMO ... I have to agree with him.

Allow me to explain.

In subscription game like FFXIV, what do you do between content patches? Yupe, you grind.

Look at a game like Trove, it has no story, pass the tutorial, all you really get to do is ... you guessed it, grind.

Anyway, since we spend most of our time grinding either way ... is it surprising that many people decided to just grind for "free".

Just a little revelation I had.

PS:

In FFXIV, the grind is to "drag it out" to give you something to do, to keep you subscribed - i.e. to earn your money.

In games like Trove, it works somewhat differently but nonetheless towards the same goal. The grind can be bypassed if you pay real life money. Sure the grind will be over much quicker but they got your money.

Those are the "monetization models" of those 2 types of games - that's the way I see it anyway.

Edit: I'm not advocating F2P. It's just a #showerthought I had regarding how both sub and F2P games use grinds to suck money out of players. That with grinds making 90% of an MMO's content regardless whether it's sub or F2P, it's not surprise some people just pop over to F2P because well, it's mostly the same - i.e. grinding.

But whatever, you guys are free to continue your victorious crusade against the strawman.

[Daralii]

You plug the hell out of Trove, don't you?

[SecretCrowds]

In all MMOs you have to grind. What is the diiference between F2P and P2P then?

Since you used Trove, I am going to use Rift as an example, since they are both run by Trion.

For Rift, when it was P2P, there was a grind. However, when the game when F2P, there was also a grind. But the difference was that they increased the grind by a lot. They included even more lockouts. However, they allowed you to bypass those new grinds they implemented by paying.

So, what's the difference? In F2P games, the devs will increase the grind by a lot more to encourage people to buy the grind reducing items. That's how F2P is. They design the game to encourage/force people to spend more.

And ugh. You had to use a Trion game. I hate their F2P model. They outright sell gear, including raid gear, on the cash shop. Guild Wars 2 cash shop is a lot better.

[Fenwick]

I remember a few years ago when people thought F2P was trending, I like how that worked out for all of those MMORPGs... Oh, wait.

Granted most of those games were terrible apart from their payment model.

[Blood-Aki]

In all MMOs you have to grind. What is the diiference between F2P and P2P then?

Since you used Trove, I am going to use Rift as an example, since they are both run by Trion.

For Rift, when it was P2P, there was a grind. However, when the game when F2P, there was also a grind. But the difference was that they increased the grind by a lot. They included even more lockouts. However, they allowed you to bypass those new grinds they implemented by paying.

So, what's the difference? In F2P games, the devs will increase the grind by a lot more to encourage people to buy the grind reducing items. That's how F2P is. They design the game to encourage/force people to spend more.

And ugh. You had to use a Trion game. I hate their F2P model. They outright sell gear, including raid gear, on the cash shop. Guild Wars 2 cash shop is a lot better.

Yep, this is priciesly why i will forever stay away from 99% of F2P MMOs. because all it ends up being is P2W or "if you want to stop this grind, give us your money to make it easier" and normally people who swear by F2P games never realize they are spending 10x the amount to "keep up" then a paid sub.

But there aren't many paid sub MMOs out atm anyway.

[Khyan]

Please, stop with all these F2P threads. F2P is the worst thing for customers in MMORPG.

[Kosmos992k]

People really need to stop pushing F2P MMORPGs as if they are the future. FFXIV is pay to play and it shows in a good way. If this had been F2P half the content and features we already have would be missing, everything would be as easy as a levelling dungeon. Most half decent crafted items would be in the pay shop and game revenue would depend on selling items to get round lockouts, or provide specific boosts to gameplay, and of course consumables, vanity, etc... - in other words pay to win.

If this game ever goes free to play, on the very day it is announced there will be a mass exodus; and I will be one of them as would most of my FC.

Making FFXIV free to play would be a total disaster.

[Nadirah]

Games are going f2p because that's where the money is.

People are so friggin lazy that they'll open up their wallets for RMT and you wonder why f2p games are so full of micro transactions you can't turn around and fart without having to pay for it.

[Xaenith]

The thing is paid sub MMOs are *way* better (except for Runeascape now =X)

I've tried out a fair amount of F2P MMOs and they are utter garbage. They have awful game design, lacking communities and I could go on but basically they are awful. You get a small group of people who shell out thousands of dollars just so they can feel awesome. Then you have a medium sized flock of people in normal gear that get torn apart by level 1 slimes because the game balance is atrocious and purposefully unplayable without gear bought with real money. It's just really, really dumb.

[Justsomeguy]

I personally don't care either way...

A good game is a good game, f2p or p2p. But for the love of god, the way most P2P ONRY people act reminds me a good deal of a certain giant thread (filled with hate towards people that play f2p mmos) back when Tera went F2P.

My main beef is how a lot of P2Pers act, like we're all up on this big castle and those that play f2p mmos are peasants.