WOW 'Temporary' Free to Play?

[Marrilaife]

I'm playing Path of Exile as we speak actually. If you play that game and no one told you it was free, you wouldn't believe it was free. There's so much detail in that game it's silly. Microtransactions also don't hurt the game and if you ask me, the developers deserve to be paid for what they created.

They're really overpriced (42$ for 1 armor set...) and there are some loot crates too, but at least they're mostly cosmetic and none of that p2w bullshit some other games have. There are some convenience purchases (trading is really annoying if you don't have a premium stash tab, and the crafting mats & map storage helps too), but it's not as restrictive as to be unable to play due to inventory limitations. Many people play on the no-trade option too (SSF) and then you could say you don't need the trading tab at all.

Let's see how they fare after Tencent bought them out, but I reckon Tencent bought LOL as well and LOL is doing fine in that department (no p2w either).

Unfortunately the praise-worthy f2p games are so few, far & between the blatant cash grabs trying to milk you at every step.

I think POE rose due to Diablo3 being in maintenance mode and nothing really new being added to it, so action RPG fans moved on, however POE has much more complicated character class & progression system than Diablo 3 so it's much less "noob friendly". It can be it's biggest advantage or disadvantage, depending what does the player want from a game. But definitely it's a well crafted game, none of these cheap clones of popular franchises.

[Jeina]

It's kinda sad.. I log in and already feel "what to do?". In FFXIV I always have some interesting campaign to do - but WoW is like... all content is not made for you, log out again!

Oh I like to lvl a nightfallen Mage when BFA hits. But I guess that's all.

Why not preorder and level a Nightbourne Mage right now?

[Marrilaife]

yes like how there was a 10,000 dollar diamond kiwi DURING BETA? yeah totally legit.

Did the pet give you any in-game advantage? Afaik they're full of overpriced cosmetics, but none of them give you any in-game advantage so you're never "forced" to pay cash. Except extra inventory space the rest is cosmetics only. Generally the higher priced packs were more of a donation for their kickstarter than actually "you get value for what you pay", their current "supporter packs" were in similar vein but since they were sold to Tencent people started saying they won't donate any more since it's not a kickstarter anymore, now the microtransactions should start being worth the money instead of being a small token of gratitude for your donation completely non equivalent to the money you paid. We'll see how it goes, but I bet Tencent will not let them drop prices on cash shop items even if they're worth about half what they're priced. Personally I don't think 42$ is a normal price for 1 trasmog. 20-25$ tops. And make it usable on all characters instead of one at a time ffs. Same with wings, weapon enchants and so forth, they're all expensive.

P.S. What was the game where cash shop pets weren't cosmetic and actually gave you in-game utility? Was that Black Desert Online?

[Donald Hellscream]

Another lie.

Holy fuck, do you really have the need to keep making shit up to try and prove your points, expecting people to not know or remember those things?

Except that they did indeed give out 10 day guest passes with every physical copy of the game which you could then give to your friends so they could play the game for 10 days free of charge.

[FelPlague]

Did the pet give you any in-game advantage? Afaik they're full of overpriced cosmetics, but none of them give you any in-game advantage so you're never "forced" to pay cash. Except extra inventory space the rest is cosmetics only. Generally the higher priced packs were more of a donation for their kickstarter than actually "you get value for what you pay", their current "supporter packs" were in similar vein but since they were sold to Tencent people started saying they won't donate any more since it's not a kickstarter anymore, now the microtransactions should start being worth the money instead of being a small token of gratitude for your donation completely non equivalent to the money you paid. We'll see how it goes, but I bet Tencent will not let them drop prices on cash shop items even if they're worth about half what they're priced. Personally I don't think 42$ is a normal price for 1 trasmog. 20-25$ tops. And make it usable on all characters instead of one at a time ffs. Same with wings, weapon enchants and so forth, they're all expensive.

P.S. What was the game where cash shop pets weren't cosmetic and actually gave you in-game utility? Was that Black Desert Online?

stash tabs
map stash tab
essence stash tab
fragment stash tab
divination stash tab
currency stash tab
charecter slots
guild stash slots
guild member slots

[Eleccybubb]

stash tabs
map stash tab
essence stash tab
fragment stash tab
divination stash tab
currency stash tab
charecter slots
guild stash slots
guild member slots

So convenience perks only yes? Did it give you any character power advantage?

[FelPlague]

So convenience perks only yes? Did it give you any character power advantage?

not that i know of i havent played it in along time.

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You mean 200k?

2 days is not 200k, you bought 30 days and got 2 free days... you lost literally like 20k

[potis]

yes like how there was a 10,000 dollar diamond kiwi DURING BETA? yeah totally legit.
and before you call me a liar.

Infraction is gonna worth it.

You are reaching Tennisace/Jaylock autism levels, log off for a month or two, you are literally turning more retarded every other month.

Diamond Pack existed as a way for the game to -actually- launch, which is why rich people like the Minecraft creator bought it, and a few others, for the game to actually launch.

"Infractem was created by supporter xNotch, the very same Notch who created Minecraft.[1] His alias Notch, his given name Markus and his surname Persson as an anagram of press on all appear in the flavour text, and Infractem is an anagram of Minecraft."

There are other items made by rich people that remained anonymous, its what made the game launch.

Its literally their own Kickstarter, it doesnt provide anything.

Secondly, there is nothing gained by buying space, its a marketing gimmick because people that play ARPG are hoarders by default, and 99% of the crap we keep is not needed to be kept, we just keep it cause we can, and to buy more space.

PoE is the only game you cant say anything bad about, just the fact you arent sure whats worth keeping to sell, which means KEEP EVERYTHING, BUY MORE STASH TABS, WOOHOO.

[Swizzington]

What a strange weekend to do this. Not sure why they didn't wait for pre-patch. I was going to play, but then kept thinking ... whats the point, everything is about to change in a week or so. So I haven't played. Have others been jumping in? Has it been busy?

Yeah, I logged in and almost immediately felt the same way. There's not really much point until pre-patch.

[potis]

What a strange weekend to do this. Not sure why they didn't wait for pre-patch. I was going to play, but then kept thinking ... whats the point, everything is about to change in a week or so. So I haven't played. Have others been jumping in? Has it been busy?

Marketing.

I saw friends that havent logged into WoW for 8 years, some even for 13 years, out of nowhere, running around in "Valley of Trials".

Marketing worked, maybe my friends wont stay for the long run, i know at least 2, one that hasnt played since Cata, gave him gold to buy heirlooms, and another one that never played WoW before, just every other shit game out there that copied WoW.

So their marketing department is doing something correctly, like this weekend.

[FelPlague]

PoE is the only game you cant say anything bad about, just the fact you arent sure whats worth keeping to sell, which means KEEP EVERYTHING, BUY MORE STASH TABS, WOOHOO.

So they take advantage of human nature to horde, to make money off them
and you are literally saying they ARE IMMUNE TO ALL CRITICISM what?
yeah no.

[potis]

So they take advantage of human nature to horde, to make money off them
and you are literally saying they ARE IMMUNE TO ALL CRITICISM what?
yeah no.

They dont take advantage of anything, they are doing what every other F2P game is doing, with the difference, they dont add 1 thing every 3 years, every 3 months, or 6 to be more accurate the game is literally half new from the changes.

[FelPlague]

They dont take advantage of anything, they are doing what every other F2P game is doing, with the difference, they dont add 1 thing every 3 years, every 3 months, or 6 to be more accurate the game is literally half new from the changes.

Secondly, there is nothing gained by buying space, its a marketing gimmick because people that play ARPG are hoarders by default, and 99% of the crap we keep is not needed to be kept, we just keep it cause we can, and to buy more space.

Maybe you should calm down, you cant seem to remember what you write 4 minutes ago.

[Post]

yes like how there was a 10,000 dollar diamond kiwi DURING BETA? yeah totally legit.
and before you call me a liar.

Looks like it's $1000 not $10000.

[Eleccybubb]

yes like how there was a 10,000 dollar diamond kiwi DURING BETA? yeah totally legit.
and before you call me a liar.

Methinks you need to look at that again.

It's 1000 dollars. Which for all of that isn't that bad.

[FelPlague]

Looks like it's $1000 not $10000.

oh sorry, i had got the 10,000 points mixed with the 1000, thanks for pointign that out.

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Methinks you need to look at that again.

It's 1000 dollars. Which for all of that isn't that bad.

yeah, still 1000$ if you want a kiwi... like yeah...

[Marrilaife]

So they take advantage of human nature to horde, to make money off them

Even f2p games are there to make money and they aren't charity, what a surprise...

Every cash shop "takes advantage" of something: laziness, hoarding, drive to "collect it all", impress peers or straight out overpower them. However the last one is the most detrimental to the game health. I've once read article about world of tanks and their cash shop ammo that is straight out better than free ammo. That's p2w not "you get extra space to stuff your crafting mats". The question about f2p is always how unplayable it's without cash shop. Mildly inconvenienced is about the best you can expect. The worst is unplayable or being steamrolled on every corner by wallet warriors.

Looks like it's $1000 not $10000.

Still doesn't take the cake in the competition for "most expensive and bizarre collector edition / preorder bonus". I remember watching some vid about that and from cheap ass plastic zombie torso to the dinner with the game director, there was tons of weird shit companies tried to sell for heavy dollah.

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yeah, still 1000$ if you want a kiwi... like yeah...

Yeah, but it's not needed for anything? It was made for people who wanted to sponsor the game not a "must buy or the game sucks without it".

[clevin]

They aren't going to give away free time for new stuff. There isn't anything new today that wasn't here back in December, that isn't the point. They are giving people a chance to come back be it from a few months or few year break and do some stuff for 2 days and try to get them back in.

Well the bold part won't work because as you point out, there's nothing new. As for people on a few years' break - given that they didn't even email people about this, I doubt very many of those folks will even know this happened. Some will ue to friends etc but that's the other odd thing here - why no emails about this?

They SHOULD have done this for pre-patch. It's new... so it will get more attention from people who've left fairly recently and those are your best bet to hook back in. They also should have sent emails on Thursday or even Wednesday so if someone wanted to, they could allot some time.

"But they'd give away new stuff" - so? It's just prepatch, there's not that much new and you're not giving us any paid expansion features for free. Want people back? You have to entice them, not just shove the same old thing they've already rejected at them again.

[Alvito]

Well the bold part won't work because as you point out, there's nothing new. As for people on a few years' break - given that they didn't even email people about this, I doubt very many of those folks will even know this happened. Some will ue to friends etc but that's the other odd thing here - why no emails about this?

They SHOULD have done this for pre-patch. It's new... so it will get more attention from people who've left fairly recently and those are your best bet to hook back in. They also should have sent emails on Thursday or even Wednesday so if someone wanted to, they could allot some time.

"But they'd give away new stuff" - so? It's just prepatch, there's not that much new and you're not giving us any paid expansion features for free. Want people back? You have to entice them, not just shove the same old thing they've already rejected at them again.

Now my sample size is small and could easily mean nothing, but we had 3 ppl return this weekend that have subbed back up after doing a few things and wanting to knock out a few more Chosen xmog runs and things of that nature. Things might not have changed, but people leave for several reasons that have nothing to do with the game. WoW also has a pretty strong hold on some, give them a little taste and they are all in again. There is no way they are giving people free time on the pre patch or any content while it is brand new, unless they went into full blow panic mode over player numbers.

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Methinks you need to look at that again.

It's 1000 dollars. Which for all of that isn't that bad.

A fool and their money are soon parted.

[clevin]

Now my sample size is small and could easily mean nothing, but we had 3 ppl return this weekend that have subbed back up after doing a few things and wanting to knock out a few more Chosen xmog runs and things of that nature. Things might not have changed, but people leave for several reasons that have nothing to do with the game. WoW also has a pretty strong hold on some, give them a little taste and they are all in again. There is no way they are giving people free time on the pre patch or any content while it is brand new, unless they went into full blow panic mode over player numbers..

Sure, obviously some return. I just don't see what the big deal is over the pre-patch. Why NOT give people like me some reason to actually login? You'd still see the people like your friends come back AND you'd get people like me who say absolutely no reason to bother because nothing was different.

You talk like prepatch is this huge, awesome thing. It's not.