Free To Play - The Bear and Badger

Mod74

Following a quick discussion in the XBLA thread I was wondering if anyone here plays any Free to Play games?

'They' keep saying it's the future, especially for MMOs and then mobile/facebook.

Do you think you get value for money? How gimped are the experiences without ponying up cash? Do you play for free and grind or have you a dark Farmville addiction that's sucking hundreds out of your account?

I'm a little bit wary on the whole. When I hear Free to Play I'm thinking endless nags to buy power-ups or playtime. I'd quite like to play SimCity Social (Facebook) but I've heard it nags/spams too much. Now I have a PC capable I've toyed with the idea of trying an MMO. I find the idea of paying a subscription bizarre, so really should try one of the Free games, but again, I'm wary.

I've played Mafia Wars without really realising it was a Free to Play model game, but it's a terrible grind with little game and a lot of addiction. I've tried the Codemasters F1 game and also Auto Club Revolution, but really they're fairly shitty browser games, which perhaps is a different topic I've mistakenly mixed up with Free to Play.

Bollockoff

TF 2 is the most obvious one. Although not sure if that counts since I bought it with the Orange Box.

Tribes: Ascend which is awesome and imo does a great job of balancing the default armaments with the slew of new weaponry in each patch.

I think that's the limit of my experience with F2P games but based on those two I can't really complain about the model. Both are very, very good even if you don't decide to put any money into them and both do a good job of inching you closer and closer to a digital purchase with each session.

Oh I tried Spiral Knights once but after the initial endorphin rush of gaining the first few levels wore off I couldn't be arsed. Too simple and the gold grind to go into deeper dungeons was too steep for free players.

I_R

Mod74 wrote:

terrible grind with little game and a lot of addiction.

This is the problem for me, the business model is steering towards murky waters. Even if you're enjoying a game and paying little to nothing for it, are there people out there hooked and paying through the nose to subsidise you?

We're already quite far down the road of game design being more about grind and gratification than fun, this is only going to make it worse.

adkm1979

Right or wrong, I associate F2P with shitty games that are all the same, pushing up a set of meaningless numbers that despite the alleged 'game' are exactly the same from one to the other.

Bollockoff

Well, that's just F2P RPG games surely.

Fentonizer

I've played a lot of Tribes: Ascend recently.

If you're not willing to pay, the amount of XP to unlock new things is ridculous, but the default stuff is not too bad it would seem.

The game itself is solid though. I usually end up top 5 on my team and I've never paid penny one, so there we go.

adkm1979

Bollockoff wrote:

Well, that's just F2P RPG games surely.

adkm1979 wrote:

Right or wrong...

Bollockoff

Your arse coverage offered no protection.

Olimite

I've never spent a penny on any Facebook games (Zuma Blitz, Bejeweled Blitz, Song Pop, Solitaire Blitz, FIFA Superstars) which I assume are classed as F2P. All are decent games in their own right.

adkm1979

Edit: @Bollockoff: It does. Â That's what I think when I hear the term. Â As soon as I read the phrase I think of those games and think, "Pffft, I'm nt playing that," regardless of what kind of game it actually is. Â My opinion of all Nandos, and the people who eat there, will forever be tainted by the one I've been in, and the fucknugget who served me.

Brooks

I like F2P if that basically means game and usage is gratis but you have to pay for funny, mechanically inconsequential hats.

hylian_elf

F2P. Eugh. The term brings to mind free games on ios that endlessly ask you to buy something in-game, or you get stuck and have to buy something to progress.

djchump

F2P done well is great. Anything done badly is bad.
You'll be seeing it a lot more next console cycle - especially if Sony or Microsoft want to try to establish a foothold in china.

Mod74

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/29/microsoft-launches-chinese-language-xbox-live-site/

Two XBLA free to play games coming in the coming months, coincidence?

mistercrayon

The problem I see is that you have a potential future with either free games or people paying only for FIFA or CoD et al.

I don't like the f2p model because you don't know how hemmed in you are until you've invested time. say if mass effect (for example) was f2p but until a quarter of the way in. They could charge what they wanted afterwards if they hooked you in that far (not in one go though).

Mod74

I dunno. There's a lot of doomsayers but I think there's still just about a healthy alternative to AAA blockbusters around. XBLA stuff is still just about interesting and continues to sell well ish afaik.

OK, it's August, but this weeks chart has a distinctly second tier whiff about it. We're starting to see what we used to think of as AAA games become second tier behind the huge releases, the only difference seemingly the amount of Marketing/Hype they get.

How that will translate to the next gen I don't know. But I'm sure there'll still be XBLA/PSN and there's shoots of F2P now there as well. Seems weird but in a way I hope the next-gen isn't a massive massive leap like this one was. If the budgets get bigger the bets get bigger and there'll be less of them.

adored

Dunno if this has already been posted elsewhere but

Sqenix go FTP.

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