I just wish they wouldn't call it free to play and then pressure you into buying things or getting a premium account. Its not free to play if most of all the cool stuff costs money or worse invites. That's just an extended demo.
I hate it even worse when you do a search for a free game, find one, get signed up and then after you are playing get bombard with being asked to pay money.
For me though I don't like anything that distracts from the game, when you play an oldschool console and turn the game on that's it, your playing a game. Can you imagine playing super mario world with it constantly blocking levels until you pay more money or get more referrals and with ads and a chat thing blocking half the screen.
I don't like monthly subscriptions but saying its free when its not bugs me. For this reason I usually play games where I can host my own server. I really prefer to pay for the game once and be done unless an insanely cool expansion is released a year or more later.
Diablo 3 is going to be better then all the MMO's out there (not saying it is an MMO) but It's only going to cost once. I'm not saying one format will work for all games, but I pretty much stop playing on the spot if asked for more money while in game.
While I can understand your frustration, but there is no way that an MMO can be sustained without a constant influx of money. There are various ways to handle it, I will grant you that, and if you get constantly bombarded by it I think that is the wrong game to play. I have two FtP experiences, Star Trek Online and DC Universe Online. Neither of which beat you over the head with “buy this now or you won’t have any fun” kind of ads. In DCU:O, there are 3 levels of users. The lowest is the pure FtP, people that have not spent any money on the game at all. The middle one (the one I’m in) is for anyone that has ever spent $5 on game content. The highest one is for people that want to pay the $15/month subscription still. STO is the same way, except that have 2 levels, subscription and non-subscription. In neither game is the maximum level restricted to those who pay, and you can play in all the non-DLC areas. I haven’t felt an overwhelming need to pay for content in order to feel like either game is worth my time, and that’s the way it should be.
ReplyDeleteObviously World of Warcraft is different, since it is level restricted, but that’s good business on their part. You get a player into the game, make him/her care about the character and the they can either pay or leave. Not the best experience for players, mind you, but I can logically understand it. And when you’re the 800 lb gorilla in the industry, you’re going to attract players regardless.
Still, no matter how you do it, money need to come in to maintain the servers, pay the programmers for patches, work on new content, etc. Diablo 3 might, in fact, be a better game than any MMO. I know that a lot of people think that Skyrim is the best game ever, bar none. Regardless, there is a completely different dynamic in an MMO and that can’t be replicated by a “one and done” method of payment. The idea in MMO’s is the sustainability as well as the constant addition of new content, be it free or DLC.
It’s different strokes for different folks, really. I’m not big on sports video games, but there are a lot of people who can’t go a day without playing Madden. They probably feel the same way about MMO’s. Just like with TV channels, no one is holding a gun to your head and saying “you must play this game”. If you don’t like it, play something else. There are many types of games out there and an ever growing number of games of each type. If you would rather play Diablo that WoW, more power to you. As an MMO player, however, I can say that the FtP model is definitely the way to go for that genre.
For some reason I dont see Mjolnir's comment here even though I was able to read it through my email.. hmm maybe I'll post it again unless you deleted it or something on purpose.
ReplyDeleteAnyway to sum up your response it was some people like mmo's and if I don't then I don't have to play. Well, I don't, lol.
I wish there were an mmo that I like but so far I have never played an mmo and enjoyed it. But even if I did I'd never pay monthly or constantly buy coins or something to keep getting new clothes or something.
Maybe if the monthly price were like 5 dollars, but if that's not possible. Seriously for $15 dollars a month as I have seen some games charge, I'd just buy a new game.
However, I rarely spend more then 10-20 dollars on a game, that's why I haven't played skyrim yet. I would pay $50 for Diablo 3 however.
Which is ironic to me, I hate WOW, love D3 both made by the same company.
I figured out why your comment didn't show up at first. For some reason it was blocked as spam, I un-blocked it now.
ReplyDeleteHallelujah!
ReplyDeleteLouis, I couldn't agree more. While I understand Mjolnir's comment, I don't agree with it. Free is free.
If your not going to "give it away" without all the nonsense, then just don't do it.
You tend to loose all Common Sense when you get a college degree.
Just my opinion.
I'm glad that despite all my text you saw my main point, lol. If it says free it should be free.
ReplyDeleteIf only some of it is free then that's a demo or a trial or maybe a sample.