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How many f2p games do you play?
Which ones are better as a direct result of F2P, which are worse?
Do you spend any money on them?
Are they the future?

Just curious, what with the arrival of a couple more Triple-A F2P games last year and many more in the one to come it seems to be becoming the major new trend.

The ones I play are
-planetside 2 (the best FTP game out there)
-blacklight (very fun for FPS fans)
-tiberium alliances (brilliant for strategy fans)

Do you spend much money on them or do you personally prefer to grind? I haven't pleayed one myself but some of these games appear to be quite stingy if you arent willing to pay. One youtuber (angryjoe iirc) claimed it takes 70 hours of Planetside 2 to get enough experience points to unlock a gun, this seems alot to me.

I spend no money, for planetside 2 buying new guns isn't something to worry about, there's considerably more stuff to do. I've played 300+ hours and havent gotten a new gun.

Also I for got to add
-warfare, mix battlefield, crysis and call of duty. A really good game.

SOE F2P games are weird
Prices for things are VERY VERY high

but then you get sales that are half price
and you get double or triple SOE points per dollar days
So a ps2 gun goes from something like 7:00 to 1.25 if you are patient.

I play planetside 2 and tribes ascend
I will usually drop 40 or 50 bucks on a game when there is a sale (about what I think is fair the game would cost) and slowly leech away at those funds until they are gone, then nothing else. (except in the case of tribes I dropped another 40)

Blacklight, and a bunch of other games though, are a merciless, horrifying grind, hundreds of hours to unlock a weapon, in retrospect tribes/ps2 are very tame.

So generally you're spending enough to have bought the game off the shelf? (if it were possible of course). Makes alot of sense to me, if the game is fun. Do you think this is what most people do? Drop ~60 bucks and thats it?

I have a friend who although otherwise sensible and canny has spent a whopping £100 on 'Simpsons: Tapped out' Micro-transactions. Kinda put me off free to play.

 Perkustin wrote:
So generally you're spending enough to have bought the game off the shelf? (if it were possible of course). Makes alot of sense to me, if the game is fun. Do you think this is what most people do? Drop ~60 bucks and thats it?

I have a friend who although otherwise sensible and canny has spent a whopping £100 on 'Simpsons: Tapped out' Micro-transactions. Kinda put me off free to play.

If you are impulsive, or really really like one of the games that is a horrifying grind, yeah you can rack up a bill.
I'll use planetside2 as an example, since its probably the best, and by far the most awesome one.

the game doesn't punish you for not buying anything, but when you start you feel underpowered, mostly because the game is crazy, but in games like tribes:ascend, you actually are a bit underpowered with starting gear. All the ones I know of though, have some sort of "boost" to crank up your xp rate for a certain amount of time, promoting you to play more, but again, when you start, its a bad idea because your points/xp/whatever per minute will be lower as you learn the game.

My suggestion is to play the game as-is, most are team games anyway and you can have plenty of fun as a medic or engineer or heavy on flag, wait for a sale, or until you think you are doing pretty good, then buy a booster.
for example: a 5 dollar booster during double XP weekend, a few weeks back, scored me something like 6000 certs over 3 days, which is if you believe the reviewers cert rate, something like 600 hours of gametime.

Oldish, nc-soft f2p games though, are terrible and just designed to steal money from you for the most part, newer ones (tribes, C&C, AOE, Ps2) actually provide a great product if you pay or not.

I've been playing Path of Exile the last week and it's one of the best F2P I've played. No pay to win, just cosmetic items that are actually really cool.

yeah im going to try exile but have been having installer issues

Play League of Legends and Star Trek Online myself.

SWTOR, Smite, LOL, Dota 2 and HoN.

Played a ton of F2P in the past ... the ones I actively play these days are:

MechWarrior Online is the one I'm most active in. The more I read about the BattleTech setting, the more I was captivated by how refreshingly new (compared to most sci-fi currently out there), yet at the same time oldschool (there's a very 90's style vibe going on) it feels. Not to mention that it is very extensive and consistent it seems in terms of detail. Of course the game itself is very cool as well, and really manages to convey that "look and feel" of ~30 feet high walking war machines lumbering over the battlefield, unleashing hell by salvos of laser, missile and autocannon fire.
I managed to get into the closed beta, and what I saw there (in addition to my newfound fascination with the franchise in general) convinced me to support the developers by purchasing a so-called Founder's Package for $120. This investment also netted me a cache of the game's real money equivalent currency of which I still have about 75% left, only having spent "MC" (MechCredits) on customisation such as unlocking colours for a new paintjob or acquiring small items to decorate my cockpit with.
What I like most about MWO's F2P model is that, at least as per the studio's announcement and from how they have handled it so far, any cash investment will only speed up your progression or grant you a greater degree of customisation. So far, there is no weapon or system that cannot be acquired with the game's normal in-game currency - and indeed, most equipment is even unavailable for purchase with MC.

PlanetSide 2 is another game which I have supported in a similar way to MWO, although that was more out of curiosity as I really wanted to gain access to the beta after having seen videos of and reading a lot about the original PlanetSide. The massive number of players simultaneously engaging in battle as well as the ability to actually affect the strategic situation of one's chosen faction is a very compelling feature, and the three factions are very well written and designed. PS2 can have some very epic battles - if you manage to find one. After successfully attaching oneself to a small army you're in for a treat, though. One can easily lose track of time when engaged in a hour-long siege or a tank blitz. The one big letdown is that hard victories do not actually feel as if you have accomplished anything, as those hexfields on the map change their colour with a frequency that makes the whole war effort feel a bit dumb. I kinda hope they still tinker a bit on this (such as re-introducing continental lockdown that PS1 had) as being part of a greater war effort is half the reason I started playing. For the moment, I pretty much only visit it whenever friends try to invite me for some squad action on the weekends.

Other F2P games I played in the past include APB, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Dungeons & Dragons Online, SWTOR (does it count as F2P when I have a subscription?), Frontline Tactics, Champions Online (lifetime sub), Star Trek Online (same) ... think that's all that come to mind right now. All good games in their own way, and I do actually return to most of them whenever I am in the right mood.

As for my spending habits, I think I have dropped some cash on all of them. Sometimes more, sometimes less than I would have paid for a shelf title, all depending on how much I liked a particular game (somewhat influenced by factors such as pricing models, community niveau, dev disposition, etc).

Perkustin wrote:Do you think this is what most people do? Drop ~60 bucks and thats it?

Most? No. I think most players spend little if anything on an F2P game - from looking at various forums and my own opinion on humanity, the majority of people in the western world are cheap tightwads who bitch a lot about a game but are unwilling to pay anything. For what it's worth, however, they also don't tend to stick around in one game for long but rather jump from product to product, depending on what's popular at any given time. The next group are the people who actually think about their spending habits and have a certain number in the back of their heads (such as the current value of a full price game) they don't want to overstep, but are still willing to give some money for what they think is deserving of this show of support. Lastly, we have the rich kids who throw hundreds and hundreds of bucks at a game just to get some fancy items or whatever, and according to some interviews, it is those people who actually make the game financially valid, as each of them essentially counts for ten or more normal gamers.
I think this is part of why the F2P model seems so successful - even those players who do not pay anything to be "along for the ride" still serve a sort of function by simply adding to the population, which in turn is necessary for the "investors" to enjoy the game. Personally, I still give a wide berth to games that grant their paying customers too many advantages over others, as I think a balanced playing field is necessary for my personal enjoyment.

Everquest P2P, Always have loved everquest, so much more than WOW or UO. Especially because the storylines are so amazingly beautiful.

I steal from video game stores so all my games are free to play.

I play:

World of Tanks- works vey well as a F2P game, its perfectly possible to truly play it for free, its certainly not a pay to win game. Over all I have probably spent about £50-60 on it in 2 years, almost all of that was on a subscription so that I got +50% exp and credits.

Team Fotress 2 - Another good example of a F2P game, not pay to win and most things that you buy you can craft/find. I bought the Orange Box when it was released so but aside from that I haven't spent anything on it.

Star Trek Online - Unfortunately pay to win ( to a degree) as the top tier ships all need to be bought with real money (£20 or so each). Its an OK game aside from that though.

Planetside 2 seemed like a good F2P game but its not something that I enjoyed.

I have played a few other F2P game but not for very long and I haven't spent anything on them.

F2P games are no better or worse than bought/subscription games in principle but it is very easy for them to become tainted by microtransactions. They tend to generate more revenue than traditional pricing structures so as long as they do they are the future of gaming.

Dust 514 on the PS3 at the moment and having quite a bit of fun.

i am a cheapie at times so here is a list of F2P i have played or currently am playing

DDO
Lineage2 (its F2P yeay)
SWTOR (its free but i pay because i am not dumb)
World of Warplanes Beta (it will be free when it goes live)
World of tanks (played since beta and only spend money to buy a Super Pershing, i have 13 or so tanks now with teir 8 thru 10)
Pirates of the Burning Sea
i would play Planetside 2 but i don't have the time for it
Entropia Universe ( i like games that are free that i can make real money off of)

 Lynata wrote:
Played a ton of F2P in the past ... the ones I actively play these days are:

MechWarrior Online is the one I'm most active in. The more I read about the BattleTech setting, the more I was captivated by how refreshingly new (compared to most sci-fi currently out there), yet at the same time oldschool (there's a very 90's style vibe going on) it feels. Not to mention that it is very extensive and consistent it seems in terms of detail. Of course the game itself is very cool as well, and really manages to convey that "look and feel" of ~30 feet high walking war machines lumbering over the battlefield, unleashing hell by salvos of laser, missile and autocannon fire.
I managed to get into the closed beta, and what I saw there (in addition to my newfound fascination with the franchise in general) convinced me to support the developers by purchasing a so-called Founder's Package for $120. This investment also netted me a cache of the game's real money equivalent currency of which I still have about 75% left, only having spent "MC" (MechCredits) on customisation such as unlocking colours for a new paintjob or acquiring small items to decorate my cockpit with.
What I like most about MWO's F2P model is that, at least as per the studio's announcement and from how they have handled it so far, any cash investment will only speed up your progression or grant you a greater degree of customisation. So far, there is no weapon or system that cannot be acquired with the game's normal in-game currency - and indeed, most equipment is even unavailable for purchase with MC.

PlanetSide 2 is another game which I have supported in a similar way to MWO, although that was more out of curiosity as I really wanted to gain access to the beta after having seen videos of and reading a lot about the original PlanetSide. The massive number of players simultaneously engaging in battle as well as the ability to actually affect the strategic situation of one's chosen faction is a very compelling feature, and the three factions are very well written and designed. PS2 can have some very epic battles - if you manage to find one. After successfully attaching oneself to a small army you're in for a treat, though. One can easily lose track of time when engaged in a hour-long siege or a tank blitz. The one big letdown is that hard victories do not actually feel as if you have accomplished anything, as those hexfields on the map change their colour with a frequency that makes the whole war effort feel a bit dumb. I kinda hope they still tinker a bit on this (such as re-introducing continental lockdown that PS1 had) as being part of a greater war effort is half the reason I started playing. For the moment, I pretty much only visit it whenever friends try to invite me for some squad action on the weekends.

Other F2P games I played in the past include APB, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Dungeons & Dragons Online, SWTOR (does it count as F2P when I have a subscription?), Frontline Tactics, Champions Online (lifetime sub), Star Trek Online (same) ... think that's all that come to mind right now. All good games in their own way, and I do actually return to most of them whenever I am in the right mood.

As for my spending habits, I think I have dropped some cash on all of them. Sometimes more, sometimes less than I would have paid for a shelf title, all depending on how much I liked a particular game (somewhat influenced by factors such as pricing models, community niveau, dev disposition, etc).

Perkustin wrote:Do you think this is what most people do? Drop ~60 bucks and thats it?

Most? No. I think most players spend little if anything on an F2P game - from looking at various forums and my own opinion on humanity, the majority of people in the western world are cheap tightwads who bitch a lot about a game but are unwilling to pay anything. For what it's worth, however, they also don't tend to stick around in one game for long but rather jump from product to product, depending on what's popular at any given time. The next group are the people who actually think about their spending habits and have a certain number in the back of their heads (such as the current value of a full price game) they don't want to overstep, but are still willing to give some money for what they think is deserving of this show of support. Lastly, we have the rich kids who throw hundreds and hundreds of bucks at a game just to get some fancy items or whatever, and according to some interviews, it is those people who actually make the game financially valid, as each of them essentially counts for ten or more normal gamers.
I think this is part of why the F2P model seems so successful - even those players who do not pay anything to be "along for the ride" still serve a sort of function by simply adding to the population, which in turn is necessary for the "investors" to enjoy the game. Personally, I still give a wide berth to games that grant their paying customers too many advantages over others, as I think a balanced playing field is necessary for my personal enjoyment.

Thanks for taking the time to write such an in-depth post. Appreciate it

Posters so far seem to have a very positive attitude towards free to play. Would be curious to see a publisher try to do it with a singleplayer game, that would be a challenge. EDIT Lol just realised that most of crappy facebook/ios games are technically singleplayer

Lord of the Rings Online: It went FTP after I'd bought the lifetime sub. I still play it on and off, as it is the only game the Missus plays.

Star Trek Online: I bought a couple of the ships when I levelled, but didn't hang around long. A pity.

Planetside 2: I bought into the Alpha Squad founders pack, and a couple of month of subs. I'm FTP now though, and it's just a bit slower to get cert points.

DDO: I subbed back when it was sub-only, and can see the difference now I'm FTP. Not played much since.

Everquest 2: Same as DDO.

SWTRO: Useless now it's FTP. Sub or don't bother :(

Good Free 2 play games.

League of Legends - $20-30
Planet Side 2 - $10
Path of Exile - $0
Mechwarrior online - Founder for $15 or $20
World of Tanks - $15

The bad.
SWTOR, so extremly limited its sad-- Game was not intended for free 2 play.

Guild Wars 2. Nice Graphics, smooth play... other then that.. the game is bad. I wont go much into this.. i dont want to enrage the local forum Fanboi's.

Tera Online. Nice game overall, just didnt fit what i wanted

Dota 2.. Bleh tried it, couldnt stand it all the champs felt lacking compared to LoL.

Do internet flash games count?

Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, Smite

183629361 random games from Korea. Land of Free MMOs

Runescape is the only f2p game that I can get to run on my broken craptop.

The only free to play game i play is World of Tanks, and i shudder when thinking of the amount of money i have dropped on that game

Didnt(doesnt dont know if they still do)) WoT have 'Golden bullets' or something which was a prime example of 'Pay to win'?

The gold rounds? Yeah those are still kicking around, but now you can use in game currency to buy them, it equals about to about 400credits = 1 gold, so the average gold round costs about 2000credits to 3600credits

 Perkustin wrote:
Didnt(doesnt dont know if they still do)) WoT have 'Golden bullets' or something which was a prime example of 'Pay to win'?

Gold rounds don't actually do any more damage than standard AP/HE rounds, they just have better penetration and to be honest the only times that I think they may be useful (but massively expensive) is when grinding to upgrade the basic gun on a new tank, basic guns are almost always hopeless.

As has been mentioned you can now buy gold rounds with in game currency so anyone can buy them. To be honest though I have never, ever noticed anyone using them and I certainly won't be wasting my time with them.

The remaining possible pay to win scenario in World of Tanks is premium vehicles. These can only be bought with real money and they can be better than comparable standard vehicles, only slightly better but better none the less.

Palindrome wrote:

As has been mentioned you can now buy gold rounds with in game currency so anyone can buy them. To be honest though I have never, ever noticed anyone using them and I certainly won't be wasting my time with them.

Oh man you never played the first few weeks after they became so vastly available, everyone and their dog used them until they bankrupted themselves half the time But yeah I never use them yet on a few select tanks I load two or three of them for situational purposes

Only one that I've played that isn't awful is League of Legends. The game itself and the support/content generation are phenomenal, so to that extent I do think the F2P model has made the core game and the lifespan pretty much endless.

However, I do think the F2P model has poisoned the water for them somewhat to the extent that it incorporates these ridiculous metagame elements like levelup talent trees and upgrade chunks that you have to put in your +1 matrix, and it makes matchmaking based on levels. It's positively disgusting to me. Ruins the game balance.

But it's awesome fun all the same, only one I've seen that's worth playing. Lots of community, lots of fun.

However, rather than playing "Free to play, pay to win" games, seeing as that business model is almost -always- a scam and your playing experience is almost always better spent playing mods or retail games, I would suggest that you look into this website right hyah:

http://www.moddb.com/

MODS. The only TRUE "free to play" genre.

 Tazz Azrael wrote:

Oh man you never played the first few weeks after they became so vastly available, everyone and their dog used them until they bankrupted themselves half the time But yeah I never use them yet on a few select tanks I load two or three of them for situational purposes

I must have missed that update

I have remembered that I have experienced them once before. In the beta when the German version of the H39 was ridiculously OP and gold was essentially free so everyone in tier 1/2 matches stocked up on gold ammo just to take them down

I have never used them and I never will, you won't get your credits back at the end of the day and your quite likely to miss anyway

A KV-2 with HEAT ammo would be interesting though.....

I used to play LoL a while back, but completely dropped that. Sunk a considerable sum of money into that. Just lost my interest in the game, really. The awful community didn't help things, but it wasn't the cause for me leaving.

I occasionally play Phantasy Star Online 2, mostly off-and-on on the Japanese servers. The game is solid, but I never spent any money on it. Partly because the methods to actually pay are not something I'd want to use, and their actual paid content system is beyond stupid (essentially, all paid content is bought using randomly generated tickets--you don't actually pick what you get).