To all people who assume that WoW is F2P.

[cocacolawheresthesoda]

Uhm, not sure how to explain this to you, but (1) you need to buy the game to play, (2) you need to have an active subscription for atleast 1 month in order to purchase tokens with gold if not previously bought, which are (3) bought by other people.

This is factual, objective information that is found within the game, there's no debate on this.

In reality, Blizzard is not losing any money and are making even more. Tokens are not sold unless they are available because players bought them.

Unless Blizzard generates tokens for free.

Which is simply a loss on their end...which...they won't do.

So then, please understand that WoW is not F2P and will probably not be for a long time, nor are they hinting at this.

The amount of people that claim this is staggering, on forums and in game.

"This is a way to go to F2P". Again, tokens are bought from players who paid for them, even more than it costs to buy a month's subscription time for it.

Basic math, anyone?

[Darsithis]

If someone can pay to play through gold, then it is F2P for them, regardless of the fact someone else is paying Blizzard for them

[Luckx]

Back in WOD it was possible to literally make millions of gold just by reselling stuff on AH, without farming anything in instances and open zones.

But still making alot gold without spending too much time game reques WOW knowledge, and new players cant do that unless they got teacher-friend from who they will learn.

Even old players who made millions of gold in prev expansion cant farm millions of gold now without Legion knowledge, cas making gold req knowing prices and demand for items on AH.

New players still likely going to spend money not only on game but also on server transfer after chosing unbalanced or PVP realm instead of PVE one and Race change.

[Camthur]

If somebody else goes to the store and buys a widget then gives it to you, then it's free to you. It doesn't matter what they paid for it since you paid nothing. (or in this case very easy to get in-game gold)

So, for those of us who either have the gold already or farm enough to cover a token, the game is indeed free to play right now.

[Banquetto]

I honestly don't believe there is a single person that doesn't understand this.

Plenty of people - myself included - have said "you can play WoW for free now". That doesn't mean that we don't know the difference between a game that WE can play for free and an "F2P" game.

By the way I can play Overwatch for free since the latest token change, too, and I KNOW that doesn't make it an F2P game.

[Eapoe]

If someone can pay to play through gold, then it is F2P for them, regardless of the fact someone else is paying Blizzard for them

This is splitting hairs. Yes, the game might be free to the person paying in game currency for the time they use, but that doesn't change the fact that the time is bought and paid for before being put up for in game currency.
The fact that the time is purchased with real money in some form means that the game is not F2P, regardless if 1 person is playing for gold.
To reiterate, if you spend real money to buy a token, then I buy it from you with in game currency, regardless of whether or not I paid money, you in fact did. I might play for free, but even then I am technically not since you bought that time I am now using.

[Batar]

Back in WOD it was possible to literally make millions of gold just by reselling stuff on AH, without farming anything in instances and open zones.

But still making alot gold without spending too much time game reques WOW knowledge, and new players cant do that unless they got teacher-friend from who they will learn.

Even old players who made millions of gold in prev expansion cant farm millions of gold now without Legion knowledge, cas making gold req knowing prices and demand for items on AH.

New players still likely going to spend money not only on game but also on server transfer after chosing unbalanced or PVP realm instead of PVE one and Race change.

1: It has always been possible to make insane amounts of gold via AH and not leaving the City.

2: If you google "how to make gold in World of Warcraft" you will have about 10.000 guides on how to easly obtain gold.

3: If you don't know how to make gold and CBA to look it up,yes then you wont make much gold. But in the current state of wow,you'll never be poor.

[Kyr]

by your logic OP any game with microtransactions can't be considered F2P. If people weren't throwing money into hearthstone then all those F2P players would be out of luck too because blizz would stop supporting the game for everyone.

I actually made a 'profit' off of Legion if you consider bnet balance in my favor. I paid ~$90 cash for the expansion and subscriptions, played a few months off tokens, and before I unsubbed cashed out all my gold for $240 bnet balance. So the next blizzard game I choose to play will be free for ME.

[ComputerNerd]

If someone can pay to play through gold, then it is F2P for them, regardless of the fact someone else is paying Blizzard for them

Free to Play in my opinion has a specific definition, which is not just from the view of one player while ignoring that of others.
It may be "free" for them, but I wouldn't call it "Free to Play".
It should be called something else, but as to what that is remains to be determined.

Micro-transactions if they are not playable content are in my opinion still part of a F2P model.
Cosmetics, alternatives to in-game options, etc.

WoW starter edition should be called a demo.
But it isn't because being accurate doesn't sound so good in marketing.

[Deianeira]

Tbh there is really no free to play games. Yes most games that say they are F2P CAN be F2P for some people, but there will pretty much ALWAYS be some people that pay either through ingame purchases or similar stuff.