On Monday, MMORPG.com's Richard Aihoshi wrote the first part of a joint effort called 10 Misconceptions About Free-to-Play. Richard gave the first five and his counterpart over at Massively.com, Beau Hindman, has penned the second half of the article with the last five misconceptions that many people have about the F2P MMOs.
Most F2P games are filled with spam bots and gold farmers.
Beau: This depends on the game, but over the years I have found that the subscription model (or lack thereof) has no bearing on gold spam. Popularity seems to affect it more than anything, and even then developers take steps to combat the spam. For example, I see more gold spam in Star Wars Galaxies than in any free-to-play game. World of Warcraft has had its issues for a long, long time with gold spammers. Again, I see it pop up more in subscription-based games than anywhere. Often, the fact that a free-to-play game has a cash shop or purchasable goods that can be sold in game, can prevent gold spammers.
Richard: It seems my gut feel here largely mirrors Beau's. Gold spamming definitely isn't tied to any revenue model, and may even be at its worst in certain subscription releases. This claim also exhibits a possible inconsistency when placed beside the common one about cash shops being packed with uber-gear not available through free play. If I'm going to spend money in an free-to-play, why wouldn't I just do so there? And if that's the case, where's the market for the gold sellers?
Read Free For All: 10 Misconceptions About Free-to-Play over at Massively.com.
