You want to have everything in the game, just grab mommies credit card and there ya go.....

Insta gratification for the masses.

Cash shops always have been around in some form or another, now it's mainstream. 

It's all physcological , if they bleed your wallet for dollars it's a hell of alot easier for them to do it Slowly for a tiny amount than rather waxing you for a large one-time fee.

For me I can afford to do either.

Voted for "other".

In truth I won't ever touch a game that forces you to buy stuff to be on parity with other players or that allows you to beat content available to everyone.

I also will very rarely pay a sub.

So this pretty much puts me in the GW/GW2 and similar games camp (with or without box purchase).

I like it because I can choose how I want to enhance my game play experience and so have a complete control on my spenditures.

If the developer wants me to pay regularly they need to give me worthwhile purchases while at the same not pissing me of for going to far.

In a P2P I've no choice - either I pay every month hoping they will give me something in the future or they will cut my game access.While this seem similar to other things like phone contracts or cable/internet, in the mentioned cases I know what I'm getting before paying while in P2P games I pay first and then I might or not like the content, when the content actually is delivered if ever.

I have a handful of issues with P2P games that make F2P more attractive in general.

First, expectations. I have played F2P games that I find enjoyable enough that I want to spend $5-15 per month. Often I will do exactly that and run around in hats that most people can't get.  However, I can play F2P that is just plain bad and have little to complain about. Spending an hour or two giving a game a chance is an exploration in its own even if the end result is walking away. If I try a free sample of pizza at the grocery store, I don't have to like it. If I don't, that's fine. P2P is different. With P2P, I spend money on the game ahead of time and expect their end of the transaction to deliver a game worth playing. If it is not worth playing, I feel cheated. Many P2P MMOs offer a capped demo to avoid this problem, but that fails to account for games where content is rich early on and drops off quickly either by going to repetitive unimaginative raids, lol nothing but pvp, or theme park do what we tell you to do style of play.

That brings me to problem number two. P2P MMOs ask for an up-front price and a monthly fee. Only a handful evade this trap. Diablo 3 has the up front price with no monthly fee. Runescape members can create the account for free but only get member access month by month. Both of these work, while games such as WoW ask for an initial price, buying expansion packs, and spending every month. Double-dipping like that is displeasing and only works if your game has long term appeal. Games which fit those criteria are few in number. While it is a subjective measurement, long term appeal is somewhat measurable by population over time, something only a handful of P2P games sustain all that well. Even the best games will decline, it's the not so great ones that fall hard enough that it feeds on a cycle of failure.

Third- Population. This is a double edged sword. The ability to bring in new players easily and fill up a few servers means that F2P doesn't see the player base drop in half in a week's time. Meanwhile, it brings in a lower quality of player. P2P is not immune to bad players, but F2P is going to attract a lot more of them. Simple fact, no way around it.

Fourth- Nature of the game. P2P games often try to be serious and in depth enough that they drive off not just casuals but the uninvested gamer. That is to say someone who knows what they're doing and handles themselves fine in a game, but they don't want to play the game as their primary free time activity. While F2P games try to drag people in deeper with gamified rewards, they're also designed where temporary breaks and less invested gameplay are quite viable for semi-active players.

Fifth- Seriously is it just me or are P2P games overwhelmingly fond of grimdark appearances, excessively theatrical music, and far too much drama in plotlines with comic relief being almost entirely referential/memetic humor? Sometimes I want something a little less serious business and recognizable as being a game.

Sixth- Buy the game for $49.99, first month free, $14.99 after, and buy your sparkling bear with wings mount and evil red glowing radioactive skull demon lord death helmet in our cash shop for only 1125 Ultrapoints, available only in increments of 1000!

If I want to spend money for the privilege of spending more money, I'm not doing that on an MMO.

Of course, there's plenty to rail about against F2P and I am personally a proponent of the hybrid model where spending money gets me more content while maintaining a F2P base in a limited area which provides a pool of potential new players constantly adding a stream to the premium end. That is for another thread. I'll just say that F2P could really use a lot more innovation on the fund raising end of things.

Just for the record - there is no "I dont prefer f2p" option.

This makes sure the poll isnt general.

Wait, are we talking about F2P or freemium here? Because it is a big difference.

Freemium games like EQ2 often gets a lot more expensive than P2P games if you want to play them at endgame.

F2P games on the other hand gives you access to the content for free, but unless you pay them you will need to spend a long time grinding.

To be honest do I prefer B2P instead, with an optional cashshop. When you make a B2P game you know you will at least get in the boxprice so you can be a bit more genreous on how much stuff players actually have to buy from the cashshop.

EA and Activision have both stated that they love F2P and plan to in the future make all games F2P (they mean freemium). That in itself should be enough to worry people, both companies have only one thing in mind; increased profits.

Of course all companies want profits but at least some actually have other goals as well, like making fun games and allowing the devs to make stuff they themselves like but EA and Activision both stopped being runned by gamers a long time ago, the suits only see money. You might remember a CEO of a certain company saying "We will take all the fun out of making games", that say it all.

All that said, a good game is more important than how I actually pay for it. I will not play a MMO for its price, it is too much of a commitment and it is worth to pay for a good game, no matter how you pay.

I dont want to feel compelled by subscription.

I play many games , subscription forces me to play what i payed for. This is why i usually quit.

In case of GW2 (for example) - i play when i want, and if i want.

Originally posted by ZigZags

f2p games are just gimmicks. There's always a catch to get you to pay. For that reason, f2p games are crap.

Originally posted by ZigZags
You prefer f2p because you think its more fun to play with kids who dont have a credit card and you're poor.

Gotta ask... is that why you're going to be playing Planetside 2?

Btw aren't you contradicting yourself? In 1 post you claim theres always a catch to get you to pay. But then you claim its for poor people without credit cards. How exactly are you going to pay for all those things they magically "trick" you into buying when you're poor and dont have a credit card?

Speaking of gimmicks. My favorite gimmick of all. "Hey keep paying us $15 a month. We promise, we will give you cool new stuff to do, and fix the broken stuff and bugs, and add new content. Oh, sorry it's taking us longer than expected it. Just keep paying that $15 and we promise it will be fixed next month, or the month after, or the month after that... OK we finally did everything we promised. But 1st, gives another $40 or $50 for this stuff we decided to call a different name to make it sound cool and box it as something else."

Originally posted by Adamantine

Just for the record - there is no "I dont prefer f2p" option.

This makes sure the poll isnt general.

Quoted directly from the OP:

"Those who prefer a sub need not take the poll -- it's really for folks who prefer f2p."

Reading. Its the cool thing to do.

Its not about wether or not you like F2P, it is specifically for those who DO like F2P asking why they like it.

Im sure its been said before, its a long list and why this isnt an option is well.. nevermind anyway

I voted other because

I do not have the time to play more than 3-4 hours a week on any MMO (about 8 hours a week gaming but you gotta include sigle player games.) and a subscription for 16 hours a month gaming is just too much.

Originally posted by kaiser3282

Originally posted by ZigZags

f2p games are just gimmicks. There's always a catch to get you to pay. For that reason, f2p games are crap.

Originally posted by ZigZags
You prefer f2p because you think its more fun to play with kids who dont have a credit card and you're poor.

Gotta ask... is that why you're going to be playing Planetside 2?

Btw aren't you contradicting yourself? In 1 post you claim theres always a catch to get you to pay. But then you claim its for poor people without credit cards. How exactly are you going to pay for all those things they magically "trick" you into buying when you're poor and dont have a credit card?

Speaking of gimmicks. My favorite gimmick of all. "Hey keep paying us $15 a month. We promise, we will give you cool new stuff to do, and fix the broken stuff and bugs, and add new content. Oh, sorry it's taking us longer than expected it. Just keep paying that $15 and we promise it will be fixed next month, or the month after, or the month after that... OK we finally did everything we promised. But 1st, gives another $40 or $50 for this stuff we decided to call a different name to make it sound cool and box it as something else."

 

 

Originally posted by Adamantine

Just for the record - there is no "I dont prefer f2p" option.

This makes sure the poll isnt general.

Quoted directly from the OP:

"Those who prefer a sub need not take the poll -- it's really for folks who prefer f2p."

Reading. Its the cool thing to do.

Its not about wether or not you like F2P, it is specifically for those who DO like F2P asking why they like it.

Im not. I beta tested it and it sucked. Just too lazy to update my sig

Originally posted by ZigZags

Originally posted by kaiser3282

Originally posted by ZigZags

f2p games are just gimmicks. There's always a catch to get you to pay. For that reason, f2p games are crap.

Originally posted by ZigZags
You prefer f2p because you think its more fun to play with kids who dont have a credit card and you're poor.

Gotta ask... is that why you're going to be playing Planetside 2?

Btw aren't you contradicting yourself? In 1 post you claim theres always a catch to get you to pay. But then you claim its for poor people without credit cards. How exactly are you going to pay for all those things they magically "trick" you into buying when you're poor and dont have a credit card?

Speaking of gimmicks. My favorite gimmick of all. "Hey keep paying us $15 a month. We promise, we will give you cool new stuff to do, and fix the broken stuff and bugs, and add new content. Oh, sorry it's taking us longer than expected it. Just keep paying that $15 and we promise it will be fixed next month, or the month after, or the month after that... OK we finally did everything we promised. But 1st, gives another $40 or $50 for this stuff we decided to call a different name to make it sound cool and box it as something else."

 

 

Originally posted by Adamantine

Just for the record - there is no "I dont prefer f2p" option.

This makes sure the poll isnt general.

Quoted directly from the OP:

"Those who prefer a sub need not take the poll -- it's really for folks who prefer f2p."

Reading. Its the cool thing to do.

Its not about wether or not you like F2P, it is specifically for those who DO like F2P asking why they like it.

Im not. I beta tested it and it sucked. Just too lazy to update my sig

Ah. Well, we do at least agree on something. Not sure what itis about the game, I enjoyed PS1, but something about PS2 just felt "off". Just had no desire to ever try it again afterwards.