I apologize if this is a bit on the rantish side... The thing is i've had a couple of really bad experiences with f2p games. I guess they may be somewhat typical; You try the game for "free" and realize you like it, graphics are decent, you like the couple of unique/innovative features, good gameplay, fun comunity. You quickly come to realize item mall/cash shop stuff can be acquired ingame without extraordinary effort and that many of it is fluff you don't need anyway. Soon, you don't mind buying $20-$30 worth of their currency, mostly to support the company that provides you with a game you spend time on and enjoy. Fast forward a few months and inflation has made grinding feel like a job, you're struggling to keep up with people who spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to power level past you in a few weeks, get handed endgame gear it would take you a couple of years running instances to acquire, and beat you at pvp without any experience or skill involved. The company just keeps rolling sale after sale of unbalancing items while they claim to be "concerned" about the player base on their forums. And to top it off you realize you have spent enough money in a few months that you could have otherwise used to sub to a much better p2p game for a whole year, one in which (aside from botters, gold farmers and other cheaters) you would at least be guaranteed an even playing field.

My point is f2p games somehow always end up making you feel scammed, and i know this to be not only my experience but that of all people i know that have played them for more than a few months. I looked through some of the f2p games' forums on this site and almost always i found a thread by someone warning would be players about precisely the same thing. There was a time when i used to think f2p would become the norm of MMOs because it was a better system, now i think of such a concept with loathing. I'm personally sticking to p2p from now on (and getting the heck outta dodge the minute they threaten microtransactions in any form) but still i remain curious, is there a game out there that has actually gotten it right? I don't mean an f2p that has lasted, but one in which players, other than forum braggers, really had a chance to stay for the long haul without feeling cheated. I know games have a cycle, and that eventually people will flood a server's economy with gold(or gil or whatever) as they level, but coin sinks are there for a reason. Is there a game out there that has managed?

No such game.   The company have to make money to maintain the server and pay its employee and update new patch. 

But you really dont' need to spend money though.  You'll just be less competitive or have to farm more to stay competitive.

Well if you want a WOW clone I can't help you (since I didn't play Runes of Magic much past 6 hours, despite it seeming like the best WOW clone F2P I've tried.)

But if you just want a fun F2P MMORPG, Puzzle Pirates has kept me entertained quite a while now (probably more than 40 hours and still enjoying it,) and doesn't have much pressure to subscribe at all.  You can buy the majority of subscriber benefits simply by playing the game (which doesn't feel like a grind, thanks to gameplay revolving around cleverly communally-scored classic puzzle games.)

Honestly the only reason I feel compelled to subscribe at all is writing this post and realizing how many hours of fun I've got out of the game compared to many 50-60 dollar MMORPGs I've tried.  If the world were fair, Puzzle Pirates' devs would deserve that 60 bucks and the less interesting MMORPGs would get nothing.

Welcome to the F2P micro-transaction grind.
Only Asian gamers enjoy that kind of crap. Anyone with half a brain will realize that most micro transaction MMOs are hastily put together for the purpose of making the most amount of money with the least amount of effort.
 

The F2P MMO developer will claim to care about their game and not have unbalancing item mall stuff, but if they didn't no one would buy anything. Having only differently skinned gear in the item mall would never generate the revenue F2P MMOs are looking for. To stay competitive in most F2P games you either have to spend and ungodly amount of time playing (sometimes even that isn't enough) or spend a lot of money in micro-transactions.

Any given F2P stupid player fanbase will always use this line: "Why complain? You are playing a FREE game! No one is making you spend money! WoW sucks!" whenever someone points out the balancing and countless other problems. While the developers themselves won't use harsh words they will still point out that theirs is a FREE game... They will never take responsibility for fixing their shitty games, but will keep them running to get as much money as possible from new suckers.

By playing a P2P game, you know that you will get a relatively even playing field, even though there will inevitably be some leveling bots and gold farmers here and there. But at least you know that the developer is working hard to balance the game, provide new content and usually listen to their subscribers. When you subscribe to their game they have to try their best to keep you happy because they will lose you otherwise. And not just WoW. Age of Connan has improved significantly since it's rocky start, Warhammer has changed for the better (it's keeping a steady population now), Lotro is also doing relatively good, and EVE has been flourishing because they listen to their subscribers.

The companies who destroy their game will suffer what happened to SWG, and those that just don't deliver will get a Tabula Rasa (which actually had some potential and I was sad to see go). Basically with P2P the developer will take full responsibility, while F2P developers will pull a "well it's free" along with as much money from suckers as they can.

Why is Aion going P2P and being tuned for western market? Because the developer wants to provide the quality western gamers are used to. This will let them either fail if they don't deliver or make much more than they would ever if it were kept as a micro transaction garbage. Sure some would play it but the majority of gamers will see it for what it is and not bother.

Edit:

Also think about all these badly slapped together "mmofps" games that are flooding the market. WarRock and WolfTeam and whatever other piece of generic garbage there is. That is just a sad, sad attempt to make some money with micro-transactions. The games look and feel horrible, are completely unbalanced because of item malls. They are have nothing to do with "MMO" and instead just throw together some customization and level progression of character. When you try to enter a match they even have a god-damned lobby menu! Why not play a good and balanced multiplayer fps like CoD4? Or Counter-Strike? Those games are essentially the same thing (100x better mind you) without character progression.

Even games that have not been "just slapped together" such as Huxley are stupid money grabs. Huxley is essentially what happens when you fuck up Unreal Tournament. No balance, shit maps and lag-infested matches. Oh and some character progression along with 2 cities where your avatar can run around and get quests which require you to go in a tunnel or maze-like dungeon and shoot at the worst AI bugs ever. And you can level up! Great, except fix the damn game first. No! Not by putting an item mall... That will just ruin balance even more! Korean games at their finest. 
 
Longest rant ever.

I've never understood people who think that £10-12 ($15) is too much to pay for a month's entertainment. Offhand I can't think of any other medium that comes close to this value.

As much as our community realises what a scam they are the F2P and RMT revenue model are being looked at closely in the west. Primarily because new AAA releases like AOC and WAR have not been a runaway success.

But rather than blame the launch hype and poor design…they blame the subscription model, it is ludicrous. MMO companies may also be in a loss limitation exercise, F2P games are cheap to produce and do get a revenue although exactly how much is hard to be certain about. So this route is seen as a way of not making so huge a loss if the game fails. The fact they are sub par games is glossed over, money is king.

Adding RMT’s to a subscription model is milking players for $£ pure and simple. I understand that in some like DDO if you have a subscription you get everything, if not you can buy items from the cash shop. That may be fairer I am not sure. But Champions Online sounds like it has defiantly gone down the treat your players like cash cows route.

This is why I will never touch a f2p (rather  payalot2p)  game.

Successful Economy in-game and F2P do not equate. Never have, never will.

Thank you all for your answers, i thought as much. I still think the MTR concept is sound but the lack of any succesful examples does seem to make a point about human nature. It's a good thing p2p won't be going away in the near future.

Most F2P economies that I've seen are as follows:

1. Launch, the economy is relatively stable

2. Cash shop introduction and new items inflate the economy

3. High level players who made it to the top of the pack using cash shop further ruin economy

4. Introduce hacking and bots. More inflation.

5. Economy takes a sharp turn and hits rock bottom. Many players quit.

6. Economy stabilizes somewhat, but player population isn't as high as it used to be.

Note that this generally applies to most F2Ps that I've played. It's all big fanfare and lots of people at the start, but usually hits the worst point within 3-6 months, unless the company that controls the F2P gives lots of effort to keep it fresh and players coming in.

tl;dr: Good at start, downhill from there.

goonzu when i played.

not sure about now.

Originally posted by eldanesh117

Most F2P economies that I've seen are as follows:

1. Launch, the economy is relatively stable

2. Cash shop introduction and new items inflate the economy

3. High level players who made it to the top of the pack using cash shop further ruin economy

4. Introduce hacking and bots. More inflation.

5. Economy takes a sharp turn and hits rock bottom. Many players quit.

6. Economy stabilizes somewhat, but player population isn't as high as it used to be.

Note that this generally applies to most F2Ps that I've played. It's all big fanfare and lots of people at the start, but usually hits the worst point within 3-6 months, unless the company that controls the F2P gives lots of effort to keep it fresh and players coming in.

tl;dr: Good at start, downhill from there.

this seems to be true.  I also agree with most of what everyone else said in this thread

Actually, there is one example of a f2p model that was made, imho, right. It's not an asian f2p but Funcom Anarchy Online.

The game is pretty old (with outdated graphics) and have a p2p part, but the f2p experience can be pretty fun and the free content is huge (free is the original release+first expansion Notum Wars), as long as you don't mind of the bad graphic.

It's sci-fi tho, not fantasy.

Personally i totally dislike f2p model where you are forced to buy stuff at the item shop to compete, much better is the p2p model.

 mm as of yet i dont believe there are new f2p mmos that have good economy 

maybe ddo ,since their mmo is an hybrid

not a f2p not a p2p

the thing is often the stuff you get in game isnt exclusive 

and if they made it exclusive how would they get food on the table 

its one issue without solution as of yet

the best game for economy are p2p and even then you got to be picky because some are bad bad model

and even if the f2p game went p2p most wont cover their cost 

the thing is there are too many mmo 

so you get the popular aaa wow lotr ,gw

and the rest who got to scrape by with the hope to make it big 

the economy in most game is just for show

 but some game like eve online have a nice  economy but it isnt free to play 

mm kind of wierd now that you mention it even in p2p theres always something ruining the economy 

like in wow when they release new patch older object become obsolete

dont maybe others will tell of a f2p game with very successfull economy!

Originally posted by Malcanis

I've never understood people who think that £10-12 ($15) is too much to pay for a month's entertainment. Offhand I can't think of any other medium that comes close to this value.

book--- thrift store-- =P or POrn lol

Originally posted by eldanesh117

Most F2P economies that I've seen are as follows:

1. Launch, the economy is relatively stable

2. Cash shop introduction and new items inflate the economy

3. High level players who made it to the top of the pack using cash shop further ruin economy

4. Introduce hacking and bots. More inflation.

5. Economy takes a sharp turn and hits rock bottom. Many players quit.

6. Economy stabilizes somewhat, but player population isn't as high as it used to be.

Note that this generally applies to most F2Ps that I've played. It's all big fanfare and lots of people at the start, but usually hits the worst point within 3-6 months, unless the company that controls the F2P gives lots of effort to keep it fresh and players coming in.

tl;dr: Good at start, downhill from there.

yep if you dont mind changing f2p game every say two month or when you see the game economy slide 

its about the only way to do good in f2p and in lots of f2p economy if you stay too long you might take some lost

some game like eq2 took couter mesure and now their economy are stable but its one of the few with the stable economy

---

Originally posted by xtr3m3dude
Welcome to the F2P micro-transaction grind.
Only Asian gamers enjoy that kind of crap. Anyone with half a brain will realize that most micro transaction MMOs are hastily put together for the purpose of making the most amount of money with the least amount of effort.
 
The F2P MMO developer will claim to care about their game and not have unbalancing item mall stuff, but if they didn't no one would buy anything. Having only differently skinned gear in the item mall would never generate the revenue F2P MMOs are looking for. To stay competitive in most F2P games you either have to spend and ungodly amount of time playing (sometimes even that isn't enough) or spend a lot of money in micro-transactions.

Any given F2P stupid player fanbase will always use this line: "Why complain? You are playing a FREE game! No one is making you spend money! WoW sucks!" whenever someone points out the balancing and countless other problems. While the developers themselves won't use harsh words they will still point out that theirs is a FREE game... They will never take responsibility for fixing their shitty games, but will keep them running to get as much money as possible from new suckers.

By playing a P2P game, you know that you will get a relatively even playing field, even though there will inevitably be some leveling bots and gold farmers here and there. But at least you know that the developer is working hard to balance the game, provide new content and usually listen to their subscribers. When you subscribe to their game they have to try their best to keep you happy because they will lose you otherwise. And not just WoW. Age of Connan has improved significantly since it's rocky start, Warhammer has changed for the better (it's keeping a steady population now), Lotro is also doing relatively good, and EVE has been flourishing because they listen to their subscribers.

The companies who destroy their game will suffer what happened to SWG, and those that just don't deliver will get a Tabula Rasa (which actually had some potential and I was sad to see go). Basically with P2P the developer will take full responsibility, while F2P developers will pull a "well it's free" along with as much money from suckers as they can.

Why is Aion going P2P and being tuned for western market? Because the developer wants to provide the quality western gamers are used to. This will let them either fail if they don't deliver or make much more than they would ever if it were kept as a micro transaction garbage. Sure some would play it but the majority of gamers will see it for what it is and not bother.
Edit:
Also think about all these badly slapped together "mmofps" games that are flooding the market. WarRock and WolfTeam and whatever other piece of generic garbage there is. That is just a sad, sad attempt to make some money with micro-transactions. The games look and feel horrible, are completely unbalanced because of item malls. They are have nothing to do with "MMO" and instead just throw together some customization and level progression of character. When you try to enter a match they even have a god-damned lobby menu! Why not play a good and balanced multiplayer fps like CoD4? Or Counter-Strike? Those games are essentially the same thing (100x better mind you) without character progression.

Even games that have not been "just slapped together" such as Huxley are stupid money grabs. Huxley is essentially what happens when you fuck up Unreal Tournament. No balance, shit maps and lag-infested matches. Oh and some character progression along with 2 cities where your avatar can run around and get quests which require you to go in a tunnel or maze-like dungeon and shoot at the worst AI bugs ever. And you can level up! Great, except fix the damn game first. No! Not by putting an item mall... That will just ruin balance even more! Korean games at their finest. 
 
Longest rant ever.

---

Excellent post!!1 - totally agree!!

The day they make the top MMOs Item Mall/RMT is the day I quit MMOs. (hope you're paying attention SOE)

No matter how much they tell you otherwise, a f2p item mall game is set up to make you need/want to buy items.  How do they do this?  They nerf gameplay.  Cut xp, make traveling suck, make storage suck, make equipment blow, or break easy.

Most free games do go any further than a quest a level, fields of mobs, a few dungeons and a super grindy level cap. 

Yes and the excuse for everything is "its still in beta" and "but its FREE!!!".

I really have nothing against them, but its funny when they are compared to p2p games, completely diffrent gaming experience.

Any of them that aren't persistant worlds are succesful. Maplestory, Guild wars, DDO..ect. My 'theory" lol.

I think  Dungeons and Dragons Online (www.ddo.com) is gaining popularity because they

switched to a F2P model. It get's my vote as successful.

To be honest, as much as I like free to play games, I have yet to see one that has a good game economy. Of course, there are the games in which you can buy cash shop items with in-game money, but even then, those are extremely expensive. However, as long as these items are not detrimental to my playing pleasure, then it will not stop me from playing these games. I guess I am one of those people who are easily contented, but I find that contentment is a whole lot better than craving something that is unatainable. So yes, so far, with the exception of Perfect World, none of the games I've played have caused me to quit specifically because of the cash shop.

Of course, there are still other reasons why I quit games though.