One thing I see over and over again are the F2P vs P2P arguments. People want F2P because they're cheap as shit. People want P2P because the quality of the game is better. Who is right? Who is wrong? I don't know. But I would prefer P2P. Why? Because P2P means you get everything in the game and all that money is used to help server stability, gms, customer support, everything to make your game a better experience. Of course thats not always the case. F2P games mean you get most of the game but the goodies are all locked out and you'll have to pay individually for them. They also limit your gameplay in some way to force you to pay for little things or be frustrated to hell. Like for example, one of the most popular things to limit are bag spaces. These games are assholes to limit you to 10% of the available bag space then force you to pay 5-10 bucks per additional bag. Thats almost more than a subscription fee. That doesn't even add in the other shit you need to pay. Yeah yeah I don't have to pay for it, which I don't because paying for bags are bullshit, but that doesn't even add in the limited content you need to buy or additional stuff like letting you see health bars and the ability to customize your skills/character.
The people who play F2P games are dominated by people who don't pay. Those who pay have a huge advantage. Those who pay spend hundreds of dollars a month for shit just to get ahead of others or to feel good about themselves. A lot of F2P games are doing this lately. Pay to win. You'll never be as good as the people who pay if you play for free. P2P games everyone is equal. You won't be a second class citizen because your wallet isn't filled with cash. I would gladly pay 15 bucks a month if the game is of high quality and that money is used to bring me better servers, gameplay, gms, customer support. Exactly what you notice lacking in most F2P games. Of course not all of them are but some are especially bad (NEXON) while a few others are acceptable.
Then there are people who are casual and don't play all that much for a subscription based game. Then F2P games might appeal more to them. They are the type of people would buy gold in a P2P game. Their argument is, "It takes more time to grind all that gold than to work and buy the gold." I agree. I don't buy gold, I don't approve of buying gold, but hey its your money. Only problem with that is the company themselves don't earn anything. However they cannot give others an advantage in a P2P game. Therefore there are people who don't play a lot for F2P games and are willing to shell out huge money to progress faster. But I have to ask you, if you can't even play for an hour a day then perhaps MMO's aren't for you. Perhaps sticking to single player games. MMO's are all about playing with others and taking your time in the game. Because hey if you finish too fast whose going to keep paying right?
I would gladly pay 15 bucks to be entertained for a month than to pay 60 bucks for a shitty game like Fable 3 where you finish in 3 hours. Even the longest single player game you'd probably be entertained for a month at most. 15 bucks versus 60 bucks? But then I hear people go "But you can go back and play it anytime!" While that is true, how many times can you replay a game? You might go back and replay it years from now yeah but thats still 30 bucks worth of a game if you spend 2 months on it. Then you'll go "what about starcraft 2 or teamfortress 2 or maybe even Guild Wars?" What about them. You buy the initial game and then you can play for free. While that is very good, the thing is for these games you are hosting the games, they don't need to pay huge server fees compared to games like WoW or any other MMORPG. Guild Wars is all instance based like Diablo 2 where you have a major hub for everyone to hang out in (town) and you leave and everything is instanced. This cuts down on fees significantly. The main part of making a game is making money. They can't make money you can't play their game.
15 bucks a month isn't a lot of money. The problem is if the game is worth the 15 bucks a month. If the game sucks more balls than duke nukem forever then you can guarantee no one would pay it. I don't like how people keep spouting out "15 bucks is a lot of money! I can't afford that I want free to play." If you can't afford 15 bucks a month to game then stop gaming. 15 bucks a month equals to 50 cents a day. You can find 50 cents on the street in the time it takes to read this. Watch one less movie a month, don't eat subway for a couple days, smoke a pack of cigarette less, take a bus instead of driving for a couple days. If you can pay your electricity bill you can pay for a game. If you're arguing the game sucks and its not worth the 15 bucks I can understand. Just don't whine that 15 bucks is too much to pay and it should be free instead. If the game sucks then you wouldn't want to play it for free anyways.
Nowadays most games are adapting a hybrid kind of payment. Most games that are P2P eventually become F2P. The game is free but you can pay a monthly fee to become a premium member for bonus shit. Or they can pay for individual shit in the cash shop. One thing I hate with a passion about F2P games are the massive influx of goldspammers, botters, and whiners. You ban one they sign right back up with a new email. Whiners would all congregate at the newest MMO then bitch and moan about every little thing then when it doesn't go their way they leave for the next one. I know P2P have those too but there are significantly less whiners. Maybe because the whiners are kids who can't afford a monthly subscription. Or maybe because they can make a new account if they get banned for greifing or going around swearing or spamming racial slurs at everyone they meet. I don't know but from experience, this is how it works.
We all know who is the king of P2P. Its WoW. Nothing can ever come close to the mammoth that it is. P2P games are usually not that big. The amount of people you find in it is only a fraction of a F2P game. But that doesn't mean its impossible to find people to play with. On the contrary its easier because people sort of become a tight knit community. Very rarely do we hear about big F2P games. Yeah theres Maplestory (asshole Nexon) and League of Legends is huge. LoL is a Moba game (think dota) where you can pay money to unlock champions or runes earlier and even unique skins. If your game is good, and being free to play doesn't limit you to shit then you can make big money. P2P and F2P neither is better than the other. I play P2P games and I play F2P games. What do I prefer? P2P. Does that make it better? No. Its because the games that I enjoyed most happen to be P2P for the reasons I mentioned.
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