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Guild Wars 2: FREEdom!
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
A lot of talk swirls around MMOs and F2P, an endless debate of the merits or demerits of adopting such a system. In today's Guild Wars 2 column, we take a look at Guild Wars 2 and its adopted revenue model and why it is just right. Read on!
In a few ways ArenaNet is going to be freeing us from several woes we find in MMOs. But one thing Guild Wars 2 would be doing for players is freeing us from silly subscription fees. Thanks to mobile and Facebook games, players are looking at things differently. We even see a lot of MMOs switching to free to play models, with micro-transactions and having the choice of special memberships. We have all seen the haters of subscription fee players out on the net, but with Guild Wars 2 being free to play, the potential for growth is limitless.
Read more of David North's Guild Wars 2: FREEdom!
You shouldn’t have to pay to have access to all the good stuff.
Comments
Yes to required expansions to continue playing.No to dlcs.
Every people should have access to everything.
Imagine people buying dlcs are 20% of the player base,these guys will have harder time finding players to pvp on those dlc maps.
I almost wish there wasn't so much coverage of GW2...
Tried to play "first 20 levels free" in WoW/Rift (and still have active subscription to TOR for anothe rmonth) and I just...
I didn't last 5 minutes. Haven't logged onto TOR in over a week.
D*mn you GW2!
"That’s how I know Guild Wars 2 will always be subscription fee."
A little lapsus there
You meant FREE not FEE right? 
Guild Wars 2 Youtube Croatian Maniacs
My Guild Wars titles
are you serious, map packs like cod would be such a turn off. cosmetic-vanity stuff, account services and x-packs are all fine but map packs and such make me wanna throw up. they shouldnt lock content behind paywalls and no content dlc please.
The game should be first ratebsed on what we have seen and on the history of Guild Wars. However, you have to ask yourself why anyone would pay for a game when they don't have too? The answer is that the subscription based game offered something the non-sub GW did. Also to be fair, gamers are traditionalists like anyone else so some of the reason we are okay with subscriptions AND paying for expansions is that we are slaves to tradition. Its a comfort zone.
I think though that while GW2 will be wildly successful it will be neither a WoW nor SWTOR killer. It will however, give players the ability to play 2 top rate MMO's for the price of one, since GW2 will be subscription free. Thats how I did it before and will do so again.
Just My 2 Lunars
See? The difference between fRee and fee is just a simple "r".
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Agreed. That was the biggest turn off I had when playing DDO. I had access to the extra content but my friends didn't. So I ended up playing with strangers or rehashing the same stuff over and over again because everyone I wanted to play with had it available.
None of us play DDO anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcoVxbutl8g&feature=plcp&context=C33d259aUDOEgsToPDskIXCHUv8kB16ujgwx5cApQ-
This is not a game.
mmorpg.com is paid by gw2 srsly ....
Retired : Daoc , Warhammer , WoW , Lotro , Tabula Rasa
, Everquest 2 , Aion, Eve , AoC , SW:Tor ( failwars ), Planetside 2
Waiting : Star Citizen
Playing : Star Citizen
FPS : Overwatch
Yt chan : https://www.youtube.com/user/raine187
Imagine how i feel, having to hear about yet another Gear Treadmill rails game like SWTOR everyday. Meh it's time to hear about something new and people can say what they want. they can't deny GW2 isn't fresh.
I love GW's revenue model. It is the reason that they are able to remove all the stupid timesinks that we experience now in MMOs that depend either on subscriptions or MicroTransactions.
For continued revenue new content is king I believe. Expansion packs as well as awesome cosmetics like Armor etc. would probably rake in a lot of cash.
Paying for PVP maps isn't a good idea, because what happens if enough people do not purchase the map pack? Then you may not have people to play against at all times on those particular maps. I'm not sure if the comparison to Call of Duty map pack DLC would work here, although it is a similar concept.
"Sadly some players experience a screen that asks for credit card information and payment options. Didn’t they already buy the game? Yes, and I too have experienced this very uncomfortable situation. You end up paying a subscription fee, and you wonder what that money is being used for." fascinating since subscription models do just this.....it's being used to give the payoff they need to the money that was invested into the game to make it initially, the thing is, this won't ever be a sub or a freemium model, it's a buy to play. totally different. freemium was LOTRO's model, pay a monthly fee or buy each zone. Buytoplay is pay for the game get all the zones, pay for the expansion get all the expansion zones, each zone won't be for sale in GW2.
" I understand servers require maintenance, but the fee just seems so steep. I always felt cheated." and $15 a month isn't too steep? How about those companies like the elephant, who take your money but place things like say, a fix for talent tree problems, in the next expansion and call it a FEATURE, why didn't they use some of those millions of sub money to fix this issue?
"n the end, ArenaNet has learned that if you treat players right, listen to what they have to say, and give them respect, the players will do the same. Happy players will always support their favorite games. " Exactly they aren't going to do what the larger companies do and rely on their IP alone for sales and for continued revenue they actually WORK for their pay and their popularity and they care about their product and how it unfolds and how it's seen by the community. I just wish more people especially people on here would watch the dev videos on the game, you can just see the real excitement they get from their work, expecially when meeting fans at the cons.
Anet/GW2 isn't focused on 'killing' any other MMO as they are in crafting the best possible game they can produce/breathing new life into the genre. No doubt they'll have some appealing appearance gear & items in their cash shop other than Transmutation Stones (which can also be earned in game) but no map packs, mounts, or P2W gears afaik.
But, if they do actually offer a black GW2 Commando Tee Shirt in their shop, they may as well just put me name on one and go ahead and mail it too me now!!
how is that when there are way more swtor articles.
kidding of course, there are a ton of gw2 right now because more news is dropping like crazy.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
- Lewis Thomas
how many time was GW1 servers down inthe past 7 years? Like 5 or 6 maybe?
Im old school, where it means something to me when a company backs its product first, then asks you to pay for the next new thing with brand loyalty. Subs to me are like product warranties, a cash milking system that says, pay me a fee because my product breaks a lot. Instead of the direct purchase model which is, the product is so well made, we can only sell you another one if we make it even better.
B2P has it's upsides, but also downsides in regards to community.
bots and farmers worry me. I have quit games because of this, if it's ignored by the game devs.
Didn't Anet admit they had planned more frequent content updates for GW1? I really hope they crank it out at a hight rate I think the mini expansion every few months is a good model.
While not being a fan of the series i can definately say it will be one of the top 3. from what im seeing there is gonna be 3 style's
WoW
GW2
TSW
the reason i say this is because of the changes being made. WoW is gonna sit at the traditional stage, which alot of players dont want but the rest dont want to lose all the time and effort they put into their characters to jump to a new MMO.
GW2 has some changes made, not quite as bold as TSW but at the same time not quite as traditional as WoW. so i place this in the middle ground between the 2.
TSW is changing ALOT. players that are seeking a actual challenge and wanting freedom to build their characters as they want will jump into that.
regardless GW2 is gonna be one of the bigger titles. it just needs to stumble at the start and then run full speed ahead like every successful MMO has done. GW2 will also be getting alot of the free 2 play gamers, thats for obvious reasons though.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
If you bought the game it is not free to play. You paid them, it's not like your getting something for nothing. Subsciption fees are extorsion.
Archlinux ftw
I don't know that map packs would really work with the current game mode.
Now, if they allowed people to create their own PvP maps from scratch, akin to making your own adventures/quests in other games, then I could see those DLC packs working. The cost of the DLC would be limited to those that want to use it to create their own maps. But, it would need to have some really robust features, like being able to select exactly where castles and dungeon points are, setting up objectives, creating new ones, etc. I think people would really enjoy something like that, actually.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
This is not F2P it's buy to play.
There's a big difference and if they decide to support it with microtransactions like all the other F2P schlock that's out there, I'll be gone. I'd rather pay a sub.
Actually he said "stupid timesinks." There's a difference between investing time in getting an achievement for bragging rights, and say...Aion's RNG timesink of spending tons of manhours getting tons of super rare craft mats only to fail the craft. Or the timesink of grinding for hours and hours and HOURS for 2% exp toward your level.
The skill and pet pack are debatable, as they're completely unnecessary for PvE (not to mention even with them, you still can't access Elite skills, you still have to cap them yourself), are automatically available in PvP, and are one again really only there for completionists. Pets though, I can't really comment on that. Do the pet packs include the rare pets like the rainbow bird and the black spider? I've actually never had a pet ranger, I found pets underpowered, so I can't really gauge whether that was a bad move or not. I anticipate being far more into collecting pets in GW2, so hopefully that gets left out.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
When I saw Freedom the first thing I thought of was
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sAz_UvnUeuU#t=195s
lolz, FREEDOOMMMMMMMM