Is GW2 the best free MMO in the market?

[Eleccybubb]

From 2009 to 2014. After WoD, I dropped WoW, and I'm not coming back.

In 2013 I started my journey in Tyria, and after that, GW2 became my go-to MMO, mainly because I'm a more casual player.

BTW, I love how Eleccybubb keeps trying to get my attention with indirect replies. Heh.

Keep that vanity going. Only makes you look more desperate to prove the game is better than another when you indirectly attack another because they said something oh so mean about your game. Not to mention the little dig at me there for talking to another poster.

But of course every game has to have their dedicated player acting like it's the best now don't they? You only shine the community in a bad light. Just let that sink in there.

Let's put some facts down to stick the topic.

The game is NOT a free MMO. It has one part of the game that is F2P with restrictions. So again if a new player says to me is this free I will tell them the truth rather than lie. Yes the base game alone is F2P with restrictions but to experience everything GW2 has to offer you need to buy the expansions which can only be done with actual money due to one of the restrictions involving Gems.

Your thread title is absolutely misleading and absolute false. But you knew that and attempting to pretend you didn't is already backfiring on you considering the poll while a small number have voted "no" and even some have said it's not free.

You know exactly why you made the thread. Don't play the "I just wanted to post here" card. Anyone with an ounce of common sense sees it.

You have a clear bias towards the game from past posts. Don't even try pulling that I have a bias. If I had any form of negative bias I wouldn't be recommending this left, right and center. Sure some content is absolute garbage such as Masteries but that's my subjective opinion which I'll gladly admit. I've always said this game is a good game and half of my friends are playing it right now because I recommended it to them and in a few cases actually bought them the game.

Did I miss something? Tell you what PM me if I missed something and I'll get back to you.

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Going to ignore the arguing over semantics and answer the question this way: Were I to grow bored of FF14 for whatever reason, I'd probably see if I could get some of my friends to come back to GW2 with me, since at worst it may cost them however much to purchase HoT + PoF (I would only need the latter). The game having no sub fee and the only thing that I'd say qualifies as a requirement, the expansions, being an one-time purchase, makes it that much easier to hop back in.

Arguably the easiest game to hop back into nobody is denying that.

There are no semantics to the model.

Base game F2P with restrictions.

Want to see everything GW2 has to offer? Throw down some money. The model is fine. People saying the entire game is F2P are factually wrong. And no it's not down to subjectivity or opinion at all.

[Lotus Victoria]

~ A lot of stuff ~

Okay Bubb, you're totally right, 100% correct. Thanks!

[Eleccybubb]

Okay Bubb, you're totally right, 100% correct. Thanks!

So nothing to actually debate?

Why am I not surprised.

[Lotus Victoria]

So nothing to actually debate?

Why am I not surprised.

I don't want to debate with you anymore. You have your opinion, I have mine, it's not going to change. It's simple.

[Eleccybubb]

I don't want to debate with you anymore. You have your opinion, I have mine, it's not going to change. It's simple.

Saying the game is F2P with restrictions and to experience it fully you must buy it is an opinion?

Uhm no. That is a fact.

The only opinion I've presented here is of you and your attitude towards said game and a couple of my own opinions about the game. Stop pretending you have some kind of moral high ground here because right now you don't.

[Lotus Victoria]

Saying the game is F2P with restrictions and to experience it fully you must buy it is an opinion?

Uhm no. That is a fact.

Okay. We're done here then.

[Eleccybubb]

Okay. We're done here then.

Why? Becuase that is factually the business model of the game? Is Mike O'Brien who is pretty much incharge of Arenanet lying to us? You were shown the source from @Katchii.

You keep proving my point.

Can I access content from HoT/PoF as a F2P account? No

Can I buy them with gems? No because F2P accounts cannot do gold to gems so it has to be bought.

How is that not factually a F2P restricted account and in order to get the full experience of the rest of the content buying the two expansions?

My point proven. Game can literally do no wrong in your eyes and when it's called out you take some form of moral high ground.

[Lotus Victoria]

Why? Becuase that is factually the business model of the game?

You keep proving my point.

Can I access content from HoT/PoF as a F2P account? No

Can I buy them with gems? No because F2P accounts cannot do gold to gems so it has to be bought.

How is that not factually a F2P restricted account and in order to get the full experience of the rest of the content buying the two expansions?

My point proven. Game can literally do no wrong in your eyes and when it's called out you take some form of moral high ground.

Okay Bubb, you're right. You can go now.

[Eleccybubb]

Okay Bubb, you're right. You can go now.

So is Mike O'Brien a liar?

http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-...e-is-now-free/

Not me. The president and man incharge of Arenanet.

[Lotus Victoria]

So is Mike O'Brien a liar?

http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-...e-is-now-free/

Not me. The president and man incharge of Arenanet.

I don't know.

[Eleccybubb]

I don't know.

I will ask you again and this time try to avoid the evasive maneuvers.

Is the president of the company who gave a statement of the games new model a liar?

Really simple yes/no answer here.

Now my own personal questions

Is the base game F2P with restrictions such as gems to gold and being able to browse a limited set of items on the TP?

Can I access content outside of the base game without spending any real money?

I'm sure someone who has been playing for longer than I can answer these for me.

[Lotus Victoria]

~A lot of stuff~

From what I understand, he said that the base game is free, but it's done in way to incentivise players to buy HoT. There is a lot of interpretations that one can have from this site, but things like this are the main reason this thread is blowing up:

This is a buy-to-play game, and we are making the base game—the core game—free.

So, if you want a yes or no answer, no, he is not lying. You're right, the game is buy to play. But you can access a giant part of it for free. If that is what you've been wanting to prove this entire time, I'll give you that, but I'll stand by my point. It is still a free product, not completely free, but I've never said that in the original post, so either I didn't pass the "right" message, or people are misunderstanding me - Probably both.

Now that things are clear, let me tell you one thing Bubb. You say that I'm biased by GW2. I am, because I love this game, which is totally okay in my eyes. I come to this forum everyday to share my love with everybody, because I really really like this game. You're not the only one that usually come to my thread to point out the "bullshit" in my topics.

I respect what you're doing, but I love this game, and I'm not going to stop making threads like these. I'll try to make them more informative so things like these wont happen again, but I'll keep creating threads and making this subforum alive until the day I'm banned from this website. And even then I'll come back. If you don't want to check biased opinions, I'll recommend that you don't check out my threads. It's going to be good for both of us, trust me.

So, that's it. Hopefully we're clear now. No resentments from my part.

I'm leaving this thread now. I'm kinda tired.

[Eleccybubb]

From what I understand, he said that the base game is free, but it's done in way to incentivise players to buy HoT. There is a lot of interpretations that one can have from this site, but things like this are the main reason this thread is blowing up:



So, if you want a yes or no answer, no, he is not lying. You're right, the game is buy to play. But you can access a giant part of it for free. If that is what you've been wanting to prove this entire time, I'll give you that, but I'll stand by my point. It is still a free product, not completely free, but I've never said that in the original post, so either I didn't pass the "right" message, or people are misunderstanding me - Probably both.

Now that things are clear, let me tell you one thing Bubb. You say that I'm biased by GW2. I am, because I love this game, which is totally okay in my eyes. I come to this forum everyday to share my love with everybody, because I really really like this game. You're not the only one that usually come to my thread to point out the "bullshit" in my topics.

I respect what you're doing, but I love this game, and I'm not going to stop making threads like these. I'll try to make them more informative so things like these wont happen again, but I'll keep creating threads and making this subforum alive until the day I'm banned from this website. And even then I'll come back. If you don't want to check biased opinions, I'll recommend that you don't check out my threads. It's going to be good for both of us, trust me.

So, that's it. Hopefully we're clear now. No resentments from my part.

I'm leaving this thread now. I'm kinda tired.

There is no clear path here. And again pretending you have a moral high ground doesn't excuse a heavy bias.

I not once said you couldn't like/love this game nor did I even say you weren't allowed to create a thread. But right now you are shining the community in a bad light. And no it's not mutually exclusive to this game other games have that one person. I know of at least 4 other discussion areas within this forum that have it.

So you literally just proved my point. Your bias is clear.

There is really liking the game and then there is going all out to act like it's God's greatest gift to mankind by literally dumping on other games to make others appear better as an example. And yes you and another poster in here are absolutely guilty of that.

[xenogear3]

You should expect to pay something.
"An hour grind time to save $1" is not an option to me.

Currently, ESO seems very reasonable. You get the base game for $6.
The expansion and DLC don't add any P2W. I bought Morrowind and don't find it useful.

GW2 is also very cheap. $35 for both HoT and PoF.

I have no problem if the best gear is only 10% better than the easy to obtain gear.

I heard in BDO, you can buy gear to make you immortal !
That is too much.

[PACOX]

HoT and PoF are clearly standalones.

They only core part of the game that you're truly locked out of is raids. The rest are elements of their expansion that can also be used outside of the expansion.

And yes you can still run high end fractals without the xpacs. Pugs might not take you because of the "meta" but there are no mechanics stopping your from playing high fractals, which are part of the core game.

[Kazgrel]

Arguably the easiest game to hop back into nobody is denying that.

There are no semantics to the model.

Base game F2P with restrictions.

Want to see everything GW2 has to offer? Throw down some money. The model is fine. People saying the entire game is F2P are factually wrong. And no it's not down to subjectivity or opinion at all.

The reason I mentioned it as semantics is that folks may conflate "F2P" with "you don't have to pay a monthly sub", and as we know, the two aren't one in the same. This game (GW2) being one such example.

I have zero issue with the sales/marketing strategy Arenanet has employed with GW2. Personally, I'd like to see more MMOs adopt this strategy. Hell, FF14 isn't terribly far off from being able to do such a thing with the amount of stuff showing up in the Mog Station, but that's a whole other topic better suited to appropriate subforum.

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HoT and PoF are clearly standalones.

They only core part of the game that you're truly locked out of is raids. The rest are elements of their expansion that can also be used outside of the expansion.

And yes you can still run high end fractals without the xpacs. Pugs might not take you because of the "meta" but there are no mechanics stopping your from playing high fractals, which are part of the core game.

Heck, if we really want to split hairs here, raids were never part of core/vanilla GW2. But that's getting into semantics again.

I don't recall all the various limitations of a F2P account on GW2 (never had one, since I bought the original game on day 1), but being that it lets you get to level cap indicates it's pretty loose in terms of restrictions. I do know they have a FAQ on their site detailing it all; I just don't have access to that currently.

Point being...even if one doesn't spend a dime on the game, there's a LOT you can do.

[LilSaihah]

My point being the OP made this thread with a clear bias. Not hard to see.

Honestly I somewhat suspect they're on the payroll. They post so many of these threads and they all kinda smell that way to me.

[PACOX]

Honestly I somewhat suspect they're on the payroll. They post so many of these threads and they all kinda smell that way to me.

Lotus and myself are pretty active in this thread.

Lotus has always been a strong supporter of GW2 and I wish Anet way was paying me but I've yet to receive a check. I don't know about Lotus but I'm just a guild leader who wants to clear up misconceptions about the game being that this site is heavily geared towards WoW.

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Heck, if we really want to split hairs here, raids were never part of core/vanilla GW2. But that's getting into semantics again.

I don't recall all the various limitations of a F2P account on GW2 (never had one, since I bought the original game on day 1), but being that it lets you get to level cap indicates it's pretty loose in terms of restrictions. I do know they have a FAQ on their site detailing it all; I just don't have access to that currently.

Point being...even if one doesn't spend a dime on the game, there's a LOT you can do.

The only restrictions that a F2P account has (besides stuff tied to specific xpacs) are anti-bot measures. You cant speak in map chat because bots abuse that, and there are certain trading restrictions. Other than that the core game if free. I think I would add core masteries and Revenants (besides its elite specs) to the core game just for consistency with the xpacs.

[Thelxi]

You have to be an idiot to think that GW2 is free, but I do think it is the best MMO option for western gamers after WoW.

[Deleted]

Don't know if by "free" you mean the free core game or no monthly subscription.
If you meant the first then my answer is yes, I never played the free version but by seeing what is locked I'll say it's the most generous mmo out there, I also play The Secret World and quite liked it too (except for the god-awful combat and animations) but since I'm a GW vet that's where my heart is.
Now, if you meant no monthly fees, then GW1 is the only right answer, in terms of combat and mechanics nothing comes even close.