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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Would you pay for extras in a F2P WoW?
by Josh Rose 
Nov 11th 2010 at 8:00AM
Lord of the Rings Online went free-to-play. "Free" is a questionable term, since they charge you for a fee for features you can technically live without but are still fairly important; things such as the gold cap, the ability to gain rested XP, and certain instances and PvP options require a fee. You get an enhanced version slightly above a trial, but you are still limited in what you can do in the free-to-play version of the game.
While playing a game, I want to play the whole game, have the entire experience, and not feel as if I have been shortchanged by being on a limited version. Personally having purchased some of the Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age DLC, I would still have to pay for the added functionality. Not being able to fully advance my character and see large amounts of content would irritate me more than the cost would. Not being allowed to make use of content would make me feel like I was missing out.
I want the choice of whether or not I do this instance, raid, or battleground. Could you imagine attempting to zone into Icecrown Citadel and seeing a message that says, "Requires a V.I.P. membership"? WoW has sold us a few items for extra money that are not required, but not having a Lil' XT or a sparkle pony doesn't affect your game functionality.
LOTRO offers things like more bag spaces and removing the gold cap and even priority login for those with V.I.P. accounts. So if World of Warcraft decided to follow the LOTRO model and go semi-free-to-play, would you just play the free portion? Would you pay for the V.I.P. portion? Would you buy the other nickel and dime upgrades they have on top of that? Or would you quit WoW altogether, feeling as if Blizzard had shortchanged players by making us pay for things like bag space, PvP and raid availability?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 9 of 9)
Indahead Nov 14th 2010 7:10AM
F2P for WoW would suck. I have friends that play several online F2P MMO and they are spending on average $50 to $60 (aus) per month for extra items and equipment, that does effect gameplay and also end game content. WoW costs me $14.99.
F2P WoW = QUIT
Solitha Nov 12th 2010 3:13AM
I've played WoW for about 4 years now, have tried DDO and didn't really like it. I recently loaded LOTRO to see how it ran as F2P.
Meh. One of the biggest problems with F2P is that they still want money out of you; because they're not doing it regularly, they have to do it by stuffing ads in your face. Hey look! You got a piddling amount of tokens for this Deed thing... here's the store, go see what you can't buy!
At level 10-ish they give you a 24-hour horse. It's nice, their horses are animated much better IMHO than WoW's (one of the few thumbs-ups I'll give to the graphics). Shortly thereafter they give you a quest. This quest gives you just enough teasers about buying a horse to really be interesting.
At level 11, I ended up running probably 15-20 minutes through unfamiliar areas, some too high for me, to get to the farm to which this interesting quest led... only to find out:
1. I couldn't buy a horse there till level 20.
2. I'd have to buy the riding skill from the store.
It's just too much for me, too much advertisement and marketing, and it really throws the immersion of the game into a tailspin.
I'm sad they had to do that to such a great story as LOTR.
Solitha Nov 12th 2010 3:19AM
To clarify, there were some elements about DDO I liked... puzzles, for one thing. However, I didn't like the gameplay (mouse clicking EVERY attack? SRSLY?) and that pretty much killed me on it.
Mark Nov 12th 2010 9:45AM
You can buy a horse at level 5 (as soon as you leave the starting area) if you buy the riding skill, which is a grand total of 95 TP, and easily obtainable in the course of acually making the 500s needed to buy the horse itself. Also the 24-hour horse is given at the same time, and is actually quite nice for VIPs. You can use it while leveling to 20 when you can do the quest for the riding skill (no store purchase needed on VIP).
The quest about the TP you mentioned was a one-time per-account quest to help familiarize yourself with the store, and as it states in the quest text in nice, bright red letters, is optional.
As soon as you get away from the tutorial type areas, the only advertising is for things that you may want to unlock as you go. Most will be convenience things, some are quest packs, but it's not very obtrusive.
Danghor Nov 12th 2010 12:14PM
Personally, I think if WoW went free-to-play, I'd just spend the $15/month I usually do on the new options. BUT, what I'm adamant about, is that Blizz should pick a model and stick with it. If you're going to be a subscription-based game, don't exploit us with microtransactions as well. ...Really the only ones I have a problem with are the in-game items. Those should be covered by the subscription. Extra services such as transfers I don't mind being extra (maybe just cuz I've never had a need for them). Someone mentioned an example of 1 free transfer/year which I could see being covered by subscription, but the in-game items erk me the most.
Ritchie Nov 12th 2010 1:24PM
DarkWalker is not how many players a game have, is how many players who are willing to pay a game have. But the idea about free expasions to current suscribers is a good one! ++
F2P naa. Better trial or no game/expansion buy need, that sounds better to increase players base.
Erainag80 Nov 12th 2010 2:13PM
I pay to play WoW already, why would I complain about having to pay if it were F2P? I wouldn't be getting anything less since I pay for the entire game already. As long as they don't allow you to allow to talk in Trade Chat on a free account (Gold Sellers and Spam would only increase) I'm fine. I'll pay for it because I'm addicted and they know it.
Boozard Nov 12th 2010 6:19PM
my biggest problem with "F2P" is it then becomes a game of who can spend more. without dropping cash on all those "optional features", you'll find yourself way behind the pack regardless of how well you actually play. it then becomes a pointless exercise for me.
pedge Nov 12th 2010 8:20PM
"Could you imagine attempting to zone into Icecrown Citadel and seeing a message that says, "Requires a V.I.P. membership"?"
Wait how about tollbooths? To quote Blazing Saddles..
"Someone's gotta go back and get a sh*tload of dimes!"
Shelly Nov 20th 2010 6:55PM
The thing I hate about free to play is that you can buy that Uberstaff Of Awesome Pwness And One Hit KO's and just stomp on those people who get their gear through the actual game.
I hope wow never goes to a F2P model because I would likely want to pay more than 15 a month for it and that wouldn't be all that great.
Neopets went down hill when they decided to add microtransactions and commisioned adds and such.
I started playing PL on the droid and the stuff they sell for platinum (RL money to game currency) seems to be almost junk compared to what they have in the instances. You can only get to level 18 with out buying the expansions but it is a rather fun game mostly, that has lots of paying elements built into it. Stuff that doesn't really affect my play (or make someone else much better geared than me) that much so I don't have much problems with the fact that some parts of the game are bought for real money.