Do people prefer F2P MMOs?

even before the decision to go F2P STO was focusing almost entirely on microtransation sales items.

Ya the day this goes F2P I am out of here. Sorry but F2P games always give advantage to people who buy from the in game store.

the guy you are responding to is just simply pulling random numbers he knows nothing about - on average 1.50 a player is just not based in fact.

F2P is a viable way to run mmo's and several of them, lotro prominent among them atm, are doing fairly well.

The WoW effect is why people like this seem to have this automatic attitude of an mmo being a failure if its f2p.

I personally always thought it would make more sense for a mmo wishing to somehow compete against WoW to release F2P and transition into monthly subs or a combination of both. Imagine how many people would have given TOR a try if it was F2P and it was guaranteed to be that way for a year or 6 months or whatever instead of the 30 days.

Still - my point is the guy you're responding to has no clue what he's talking about.

uh....duh?

LOTRO is ripe for you. You can easily spend less then $15 a month in that game and still stay "Competitive". Heck, you can spend about a years worth of subscription and get all the content, trait unlocks, classes, bag slots, bank slots and effectively given yourself a lifetime subscription. Then you get Turbine points for just playing the game which you can save and spend on the new content as it is released.

DDO and LOTRO are the only Free to Play MMOs that can think of that actually does FTP right, meaning that you can considerably less then a subscription per month and still stay competitive with the people who pay the subscription. Guild Wars 2 will be another one where it will not be Pay to Win, unless of course you consider having to buy the game as Pay to Win

EQ2 went f2p and that is why I'm here (not the only reason though). Micro transactions in the end become more expensive and take away from actual development of in game items because it all turns generic unless you want to pay real money for the coolest new thing. On EQ2 all of the best looking gear, mounts, and housing items are purchased through their cash shop, you can buy master spells with real cash (p2w), and soon to be expected actual gear.

Not a fan myself and if and when this heads that way I'm out!

f2p sucks. End of discussion lol

BECAUSE I SAID SO!!

First of all, a concept = There’s almost no concept in the world that can’t be turned against itself.

Person that favours P2P vs FTP (PtW) = “Why should the fact that you’re willing to spend money I don’t have, allow you to trump me / win? It’s not my fault you don’t have enough time to get to endgame.”

Now, this one is rarely said =

Person that favours FTP (PtW) vs P2P = “Why should the fact that you’re willing to spend time I don’t have, allow you to trump me / win? It’s not my fault you don’t have enough money to get to endgame.”

I think they are both valid. Yet, most people on boards view the first opinion as totally valid and the second as totally bogus. Considering a lot of RL works as per the second, may be the reason why some love it… and others hate it… but that’s just my take on it.

Speaking as a soloer that only plays MMO with a viable path, since that’s currently the only way I can play the SAME character for years, with progression…

P2P is probably the best model for MMOs focused on group and / or PvP, like, say, EverQuest (don’t know any of the new ones, sorry). Sure, EQ has some solo options, (especially, if I understand my wife correctly, that there are now mercenaries that are essentially like a TOR companion, without the talking) but, the game is P2P because you HAVE to keep a razor's edge balance for PvP (I'd rather be a lab rat then be in charge of the 1000s of variables to keep a PvP game balance) or for high end challenging raiding.

F2P (PtW) is probably the best model for MMOs focused on solo and small groups, like, say, City of Heroes pre-Incarnate focus (that’s the endgame they made… that chased me away). Plus, PvP is hard enough to balance with P2P. There is no such balance with PTW… by design. You can say the same thing for group / raid content. Not a big deal for me, though.

Why?

Speaking personally, since I don’t PvP, and I group usually only with RL friends, if TOR was F2P, I’d save money on…

-Any PvP Content (I’d never buy)
-Any Group Content (I’d never buy unless my wife or good friends really wanted to see the content)
-Any Customization on character (Yes, I like the CoH character creation, but I wouldn’t pay money for it… In my 2 months of EQ, using my wife’s pity items and hand-me-downs, I looked like I had been doused in tar, rolled in the dirt, then Walt Disney threw up on me… but I didn’t care because I got +2 INT out of it, or whatever the stat was)
-New race or class (I do lots of alts, seemingly contradicting my need for 1 char… it’s for those “got 20 minutes… don’t want to risk failing a quest on my main… I’ll do an alt quest… I fail… I fail)… because, again, when I’m serious about playing, I work on the main, and putter on lots of alts when I’m not (or go on the boards when it’s “15 min till supper” type deal)

I would spend money on…

-The ride. In any game, “the ride” (horse, car, speeder, starship, etc…) is the main vanity item I’d go for.
-Single player Story content.
-Unlockable levels

That’s about it.

Now, I don’t demonize F2P (PTW), but I take it for what I personally think it’s for… the solo or small group population. If you want to use an MMO properly (as oppose to someone like me that “misuses” an MMO soloing, because there’s no Single player game with multiple updates that lasts years), I think you’re better off P2P.

Free to play turns into Payto Win, so no thanks...I will bail any game going to that model. That being said, some are better than others about implementing it, but bottomline, dont expect companion pet and silly mount sales to subsidize your playing time, anything QoL will cost you, and it will get worse from there.

^this.