In my last post I talked about F2P games and their bullshitty-ness, and hoped that the trend would be gone within the next 5 or so years. Unfortunately I doubt that'll happen after today's big announcement from Valve. In case you haven't heard, Team Fortress 2 is going the F2P route, which honestly isn't terribly surprising after the popularity of hats. I myself am not a fan of the game at all, though I might reinstall it one of these days to see if I can finally 'get' it.
With such a large company joining the Freemium bandwagon, it really doesn't help to sway other publishers from going the same route. Just last night I was skimming through the front page of N4G and stumbled upon an article about the new Star Trek game. I believe this was first announced either at PAX or E3, and intended to read up on it but never really got around to doing so. I love Star Trek, and remember having a pretty fun time playing one of the games for the PS1 (I honestly can't remember the name). However, I found out it's going the F2P route as well, which obviously disappoints me.
While the developer tried to make it clear it won't have any real effect on gameplay, he did explain that you could simply buy experience points to get to higher levels. Honestly, what's the point in that? Manually leveling up consists of actual, you know, gameplay. Buying your way up to the top just doesn't sound all that fun, and an obvious advantage over those who either refuse or just can't afford to pay for the same experience. With Valve's decision to make TF2 free-to-play, it wouldn't shock me one bit if they did the same for Dota 2. If so, SMITE is even more fucked. Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look at the games that went F2P this year alone:
Age of Conan
Champions Online
City of Heroes
Global Agenda
Fallen Earth
Team Fortress 2
Battleground Europe
Ragnarok Online
Pox Nora
Pirates of the Burning Seas
Lego Universe
Blacklight: Retribution
ARMA 2
Ryzom
Hellgate: London
APB: Reloaded
I'm sure there are more, but those were the ones that stuck out the most when I did a quick Google search.
You think that having a mandatory fee is better than having a free-to-play game with purchasable upgrades?
ReplyDeleteI would much rather pay a flat fee and have everything accessible at once. Especially for a multiplayer-only game, since it provides a level playing field for everyone.
ReplyDeleteSo... Legions should be paid for?
ReplyDeleteNo....
ReplyDeleteThere's a different between f2p and freeware. We don't have any purchase options with L:O. It's completely free to play with no monetary upgrades.
Though IA was going towards the F2P route before they were shutdown.