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Rule of thumb for f2p games
Ozmodan
Member EpicPosts: 9,726
If you find one you enjoy playing, set yourself up a budget for spending and stick too it. A good limit is what you would be spending on subscription games. If you need to spend beyond that, I would suggest you look for a different game.
Stay away from the big ticket items, they generally are very bad investments in what you get out of a game no matter how cool they look.
If you have a hard time keeping to this rule, remember that the f2p market is very crowded and competitive, the chances of any of these games folding are high. Won't you look the fool if you have wasted a lot of money on one that does.
I welcome any other suggestions to this thread.
Comments
I just dont' see how you can enjoy playing a "game" where you have to set a spending limit.
Sounds more like going shopping at the mall than playing an RPG.
Am I in a fantasy world, or Gamestop?
always remember that there WILL be people that dont adjust to your budget. They will outspend you, as certain as death and taxes. And the majority of F2P games have PvP content, in most cases said PvP works as the only endgame you will ever get....
Yes, if you spend 15 bucks you will probably pwn the freeloaders.
Sadly the guys that spend 100 bucks will probably wipe the floor with your ass, and you will have just wasted 15 bucks to be treated like freeloader shit anyway
so rule of thumb #2: If the game has some sort of PvP and you cannot deal with being some rich guy's punching bag, or hate spending money and STILL being at an enormous disadvantage against high spenders, steer clear from F2P games.
I came into this thread expecting "if the switch isn't any fatter than your thumb, you can beat a dev with it."
I find myself agreeing with the OP
I'm not here to complete my forum PVP dailies.
F2P=Finance to Pwn? Heh, it's true in all aspects of a FtP game.
Once upon a time....
With the F2P model becoming more popular in the west im looking forward to the "video games ruined my life" stories that will appear on the nightly news. Addiction counselors and money management experts will make a fortune as well as divorce lawyers. Not to mention the firms you see on TV wanting to "help you" lower your credit card payments. Its going to be fun.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Is there any way to find a good roeplaying game and just be content playing the free content? I know that today's MMORPGs are different from the old pen-and-paper games we played back in the day, but honestly, I didn't have any more "fun" playing a D&D module made for lvl 25-30 characters than I did one made for lvls 2-5.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I finally made it to the Plane of Fear in Everquest I and battled my first "monster", which turned out to be the very same Fire Beatles I had been killing back when I was first level, but now with thousands of hitpoints. Being level 50 was really no different than being level 5, except the numbers where multiplied by 1000.
In short, if a roleplaying game is well-made, you should be able to enjoy it no matter what your level is. So let the guys who must be the biggest and the baddest subsidize your gaming.
My rule of thumb for f2p games is to never pay a dime, and move on when I am no longer having fun.
This is exactly why I don't play games with a cash shop. What does any of that possibly have to do with laser guns, and swords, fighting monster, rescuing maidens in distress, exploring new lands, gaining new powers, and so on?
I'd rather pay my 15 bucks a month, and remove that aspect from the game play.
The thing that baffles me is the people saying they want to choose whether or not to pay 50 cents a day. If 50 cents a day is too much to afford I would suggest these people disconnect the broadband needed to play these games and perhaps buy some groceries.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
The problem with that, is games play at a certain rate of content.
Fast: You are level 1. Kill 100 worms, go to level two.
Medium: You are level 1. Kill 500 worms, go to level two.
Slow: You are level 1. Kill 8 million worms, go to level two.
F2P games let you puchase which rate you want to play at, slow (free), medium (spend a little bit of cash), or fast (spend a lot of cash).
If you enjoy playing games on slow, you are all set. You can play FREE! all the time!
I only like playing games on the FASTEST setting possible for that game, or I don't really want to play.
Which means playing "free" in a cash shop game would not be a viable option for me. I could also watch grass grow for "free", but I"m not gonna do that either.
I think often times the people saying that are not paying for the internet connection or the groceries either.
If all the games i play a bit in a month arc of time were P2P, i'd be spending over 150 a month (yep, i have a dozen games installed and not much time to play, say 1h a day)
So, i'd rather not pay anything and still play a bit here and there. As i do. (except for Eve Online)
Thanks for subsidizing guys like me I guess!
I must be an old-timer who just doesn't get it. My old D&D characters eventually moved up levels, died and could not get resurrected, and I had to start new characters at level 1. But I really never felt a need for speed when playing, since the low level guys were just as much fun to play as the high level ones - just different.
I'm with ya. Unfortunately, quite a few of the P2P games are also ADDING Cash Shops. IMO, it needs to be one or the other as there is no way for the 2 to "co-exist" (meaning full sub + cash shop). Eventually the quick money that can be made from a cash shop will take priority over the games content/development.
I've already seen this on TV regarding WoW, which is a P2P so it's not like F2P is all that special.
The cash shop and game content/development are not mutually exclusive. Having people leave because of a lack of new content and development will not help the cash shop.
some food for though: maybe you play a dozen games a month because they are F2P crap and you simply cannot feel attached to one or get any fun in any of them so you must constantly hop looking for greener pastures
a single P2P game could change that.
F2P charges you to look cool
F2P charges you to level faster than the next player
F2P charges you to win pvp
F2P charges you to enter certain zones/content
F2P charges you for consumables (worst one yet)
All these charges are "open", they are a blank cheque, if you don't know how to limit your own spending, you will spend too much on a silly game. I've known players (in my clan) who spend over 600€ in a FREE-to-play game, believe it or not.
P2P gives you access too all of the above for a fixed price, nothing beats P2P in my book.
And if the upcoming P2P games dare raising the price for a subscription because F2P handles such ridiculously high prices, that will be the end of the genre alltogether.
Fifty cents per day isn't even an interesting choice. It's a win-win-lose for those involved. At least make it $1.00 or $.150 per day. Or better, per hour charge.
But in D&D the Dungeon MAster determined how much XP to give you, and how fast you leveled, and he treated every player the same.
So the more accurate example would be, you are not happy with how fast the Dungeon Master is giving you XP, so you give the DM 5 bucks the next time you play, and he gives your character a bunch of XP (xp potion).
Now, imagine your old D&D game, and it's you and 3 friends and a DM.
Your friends give the DM 5 bucks every time you play, but you don't.
You won't be playing with them for very long will you?
Or, let's look at it anohter way.
You kill a Kobold in D&D. All your friends get 10 xp (xp potions), and you get 1 xp.
your friends only have to kill a few hundred kobolds and they are level 2. Now they are taking on Skeletons.
but you will have to kill thousands of kobolds before you can kill Skeletons.
Won't you get just a wee bit tired of killing kobolds?
Or still another way to look at it, you could fight kobold, after kobold, after kobold if your DM was a good story teller.
But in an MMORPG, does the scripted dialog REALLY match up to your old Dungeon Master?
Actually, cash shop games or "F2P" don't usually charge you for zones.
That is usually waht is called a "B2P" or buy to play game.
I don't mind buying zones, if there is no cash shop.
It's really no different than buying an expansion, except there ae a lot of them, and they aren't very big.
50 cents a day is 15 bucks a month.
Dollar per day is 30 bucks a month.
1.50 per day is 45 bucks a month.
30 bucks a month for a really, really good MMORPG I can see. Something niche and exceptional.
45 bucks a month? No, I don't think so.
Yes, setting a spending limit applies to everything in life. Whether you are enjoying a visit to a casino, enjoying a vacation in a foreign land, enjoying a new hobby that requires the purchase of equipment such as skiing or fishing, you have to set a spending limit.
I like F2P concept and in many situations it's better for me and others.. With a sub based game I'm locked into a monthly cost with no regard to time played.. There are many times I don't play for weeks.. Why should I pay to not-play? F2P is perfect for me.. I pay as I go, just like doing grocery shopping.. Should everyone pay $200 a month for groceries? Should all golfers pay $100 a month regardless if they play 10 rounds a month or none?
Plus.. a F2P set up motivates the devs to make more content to sell
Now if you are a powergamer playing 6-10 a day, and a F2P format makes you cough up $60 each month.. OH WELL 
Don't blitz thru the content and it won't be that expensive 
Problem I see with most anti - F2P voices is they know they'll pay MORE per month, while others will pay less per month.. Sounds like socialism.. LOL
F2P FTW ..
I would go even further and say that those people dont have the CC/bank account required to pay online...
and thats another point about F2P games...do you really want to play in a community mostly made of people too young to have a CC? really?
Sure, we have all heard the horror stories. Just imagine an addictive personality with the uber gear just the swipe of a credit card away. The mailbox sitting, bunny hopping Chuck Norris did your mom crowd is coming of age and will soon have access to the coveted financial instrument.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.