"Free to Play"

Gamers can also use this forum to chat about any game related subject, news, rumours etc.

Moderator: maddog986

Post Reply
GaryChildress
Posts: 6746
Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: The Divided Nations of Earth

"Free to Play"

Post by GaryChildress »

Just read a little snippet on GameSpot about the CEO of EA games or something saying that "free to play" will be the "wave of the future" for the gaming industry. Digging a little it appears that "free to play" actually means a game would be free to play in its basic form but you would have to pay to unlock additional features of it. So for instance it would be free to play an RTS game where you might get to fight with Jeeps and riflemen but to unlock tanks or machine gunners you would have to pay for it. Please correct me if my naive understanding is wrong...

Anyway, I'm curious how others feel about "free to play"? Is it a good thing, bad thing, or will it really change anything fundamentally? I mean we pay for games now so is there any great difference to paying for features as opposed to paying for the whole game?

Thoughts, opinions?

[:)]

User avatar
catwhoorg
Posts: 686
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2012 3:47 pm
Location: Uk expat lving near Atlanta

RE: "Free to Play"

Post by catwhoorg »

Its inevitable that this model will dominate on phones and likely tablets.

I think Candy Crush is right now the single most profitable game on the market.

Its also driven by frustration. Make sure you run into a road block level every 20-30 mins, to encourage you to spend a buck/quid on getting a few boosts.


A hex based PBEM is never goign to go that model.
Image
User avatar
Twotribes
Posts: 6466
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2002 10:00 am
Location: Jacksonville NC
Contact:

RE: "Free to Play"

Post by Twotribes »

It mostly applies to online games. Not our type.
Favoritism is alive and well here.
User avatar
Twotribes
Posts: 6466
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2002 10:00 am
Location: Jacksonville NC
Contact:

RE: "Free to Play"

Post by Twotribes »

All my favorite Online games have a form of free to play, in one the whole game is free and you can buy enhancements or money to buy more stuff. In another you can reach the highest level free but it is treacherous as some modules are free some are not.
Favoritism is alive and well here.
User avatar
Qwixt
Posts: 901
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 6:33 am

RE: "Free to Play"

Post by Qwixt »

The refers to online games mostly, and tablet/phone games to a degree. But you never know.
User avatar
Greybriar
Posts: 1158
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:54 am

RE: "Free to Play"

Post by Greybriar »

After playing several so-called "Free-to-Play" online games, I have decided that I prefer the subscription-based games. A case in point is World of Tanks--I have spent at least as much to play it as I would have spent if it were by subscription. It would have been even more expensive if I hadn't taken advantage of specials when nearly everything was marked 50% off!
This war is not about slavery. --Robert E. Lee
User avatar
jday305
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:43 am
Location: Northeast Indiana

RE: "Free to Play"

Post by jday305 »

I personally like the concept of "free to play" with the idea of trying before buying. I have come to the point in my life that I am patient enough to wait until a "new" game has been out for a while before I will buy it in order to read customer reviews and hopefully play a demo or try it in a Stream Free to Play weekend. I have been burned to many times in the past with rushing out to buy a brand new game and hating it or being greatly disappointed. So if I need to wait six months to a year to buy a game, so be it as I will know how it plays and usually get it for a fraction of the original price.
RebelYell

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke
User avatar
wodin
Posts: 10709
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2003 3:13 am
Location: England
Contact:

RE: "Free to Play"

Post by wodin »

or sometimes called Pay to Win...
User avatar
Gilmer
Posts: 1483
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 5:01 pm
Contact:

RE: "Free to Play"

Post by Gilmer »

In some cases it will be like World of Tanks, already mentioned. What does free to play mean for World of Tanks?

Well, for each battle you earn experience and you earn credits. Experience is used to upgrade your tanks and even upgrade to a higher tank in the line of tanks such as if you are going through all iterations of German heavy tanks. The credits are what you use to buy the tanks and buy your upgrades after you have unlocked them with experience.

If you pay in world of tanks, you can get more experience and more credits per battle, thereby reducing the time to get to the top tanks. You can also buy premium type tanks that are unavailable if you do not pay actually money for them.

I get enjoyment out of it not paying. I have in the past paid money but the last time I actually paid money was when I bought a Typ59 tank that is/was overpowered for a really long time. I don't know how much I've spent, but I'm positive it has been less than $12-14.95/month. But, that is just for me. I don't mind playing it without paying.
"Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit" John III Sobieski as he entered Vienna on 9/12/1683. "I came, I saw, God conquered."
He that has a mind to fight, let him fight, for now is the time. - Anacreon
User avatar
Greybriar
Posts: 1158
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:54 am

RE: "Free to Play"

Post by Greybriar »

Don't forget the 300 gold cost of garage slots which go on sale from time to time for 150 gold. Barracks slots also cost gold but are not nearly as necessary.

If a player wants a crew that is trained higher than 75%, the normal cost of training each crew member to 100% is 200 gold. 50% off Specials on that as well as retraining (for a different tank) and resetting crew skills and perks occur sometimes resulting in a cost of 100 gold per crew member.

So if I were to buy a tank that had a crew of six and wanted to train them to 100% it would normally cost 1,200 gold. And if a garage slot were needed, the total cost would be 1,500 gold. I wait for the specials which reduces my cost to 750 gold, which is still quite a bit.

Once a vehicle has been fully researched and another is unlocked/available for purchase, the procedure begins again. If an old crew is retained, its members have to be retrained for their new tank (or tank destroyer or self-propelled gun). Then the process repeats itself again and again. After spending all those credits and gold, I dislike losing half the purchase price of vehicles when I sell them so I keep them along with their crews that I have invested so much gold in. The end result is that now I have over a hundred vehicles in my garage. (And I'm about out of gold again!)
This war is not about slavery. --Robert E. Lee
Post Reply

Return to “General Discussion”