http://dulfy.net/2015/08/27/gw2-gett...me-being-free/
I'm sure people looking at the thread title will immediately say "This isn't a GW2 forum" and want it removed, but I posted this link because I'm wondering if this will have any ramifications for GW.
F2P changes a lot of things for games... in my personal experience it allows in an undedicated player base that flood the servers with people who have no risk to themselves, so the idea of cheating or hacking is well worth it to them. I know for a fact that GW2 was hit hard with cheating in the beginning and this is the kind of thing that can potentially bring it back with a vengeance.
Plus the idea of F2P to me, usually means that things aren't running as smoothly as they could be. The original seemed to have done well enough that the B2P model worked but this new game is just over 2 years old now and already switching models. Can't that be a good thing?
Now the point I'm getting to is that with tons of new people potentially jumping into the game for free, Anet will need to spend more to keep the game going. The only problem is that F2P games require no investment so there's no guarantee for profit, and companies who don't make quotas usually go under.
Seeing as we're tied very closely to GW2, I just hope that doesn't mean a risk to the original.
Guild Wars 2 core game going F2P?
jayson
cosyfiep
not exactly sure what that means, but is the game itself going to be free or are the gems and such going to be free? and what does that do to the 'expansion' that was supposed to come out (did it?)?
jayson
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Originally Posted by cosyfiep
not exactly sure what that means, but is the game itself going to be free or are the gems and such going to be free? and what does that do to the 'expansion' that was supposed to come out (did it?)?
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Like I said, the original is so closely tied to GW2 so I fear that we'd go down with the ship so to speak.
cosyfiep
I wonder more at what the folks who have already shelled out hundreds on the game will think---the CE versions (whatever they are calling them in 2) were very expensive! Though this will cut down on the rmt folks if there is nothing to 'sell' anymore.
I agree, this cant be a good thing for our game ---BUT it could make them look closer at gw and think about putting out more expansions since it is still a very successful game! (or they are thinking about gw3 and just ignoring 2 as a failed experiment, and go back to what worked for the original ....we can hope--and yes my glasses are rose colored).
I agree, this cant be a good thing for our game ---BUT it could make them look closer at gw and think about putting out more expansions since it is still a very successful game! (or they are thinking about gw3 and just ignoring 2 as a failed experiment, and go back to what worked for the original ....we can hope--and yes my glasses are rose colored).
Pleikki
I wouldnt mind new ppl coming to gw if it became F2P too thesedays 
Gentleman Xander
Are you sure the expansion comes with it? It would seem more logical that the expansion has to be bought. When gw2 is f2p without the expansion, these people won't be able to play the whole game and eventually decide to buy the expansion.
As for gems, these won't be free since that is another income for people who spent real money on games, which I think is a bad thing. Just play the game as it is supposed to and if you don't like it, come back to gw1
As for gems, these won't be free since that is another income for people who spent real money on games, which I think is a bad thing. Just play the game as it is supposed to and if you don't like it, come back to gw1
ruk1a
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Originally Posted by cosyfiep
I wonder more at what the folks who have already shelled out hundreds on the game will think---the CE versions (whatever they are calling them in 2) were very expensive! Though this will cut down on the rmt folks if there is nothing to 'sell' anymore.
I agree, this cant be a good thing for our game ---BUT it could make them look closer at gw and think about putting out more expansions since it is still a very successful game! (or they are thinking about gw3 and just ignoring 2 as a failed experiment, and go back to what worked for the original ....we can hope--and yes my glasses are rose colored). |
This is not so much F2P, it's more of a trial. I mean with those restrictions who the hell would even play for more than just trying the game out for a bit...
GW2 is cheap anyway, but it has no substance. I am very wary about raids, but sure, I will log in assuming I don't have to buy the xpac to access them and try it out.
The game does have a great combat system, but they completely ruined any potential success by removing essentially everything except for DPS role.
I'm not too hopeful, probably just gonna end up playing WoW:Legion and logging into GW every once in a while.
Also I highly doubt it costs much of anything to keep the GW1 servers up, we are not in any danger even if GW2 did fail they'd just make it F2P completely and afaik according to the last financial report @ Ncsoft GW2 is still making good money, it's actually increased in revenue.
Gods know why it has.... but I guess it's the ultimate casual game so fb app players and such probably love it, no need to think just click a few times and collect reward!
Marty Silverblade
T1Cybernetic
Very nice, I don't get to play as much as I would like but more people playing the better Shame it's not Guild Wars though :P
Shame it's not Guild Wars though :P
jayson
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Originally Posted by T1Cybernetic
Very nice, I don't get to play as much as I would like but more people playing the better
Shame it's not Guild Wars though :P |
T1Cybernetic
OH sorry I simply meant, It's a shame it's not something for Guild Wars Anything new for the old game would be good 
Anything new for the old game would be good 
Smoke Nightvogue
Indeed it would. I hope that one day they'll partially reconsider the business model or campaign prices for Guild Wars 1, so that many new people could jump aboard and support the project by buying various items from the store.
I hope that one day they'll partially reconsider the business model or campaign prices for Guild Wars 1, so that many new people could jump aboard and support the project by buying various items from the store.
Gadd Fan
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Originally Posted by Smoke Nightvogue
Indeed it would.
I hope that one day they'll partially reconsider the business model or campaign prices for Guild Wars 1, so that many new people could jump aboard and support the project by buying various items from the store. |
Smoke Nightvogue
There's different content, and also, various interests among the players. How exactly can purchased in-game currency help to pass a certain mission, and, what's more important, why would one want to pay with it for those if he/she can simply join an active PvE-dedicated alliance?
Gadd Fan
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Originally Posted by Smoke Nightvogue
There's different content, and also, various interests among the players. How exactly can purchased in-game currency help to pass a certain mission, and, what's more important, why would one want to pay with it for those if he/she can simply join an active PvE-dedicated alliance?
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How do you "pass certain missions" you ask? If you could purchase in game currency in GW1 then you just sit back and hire someone to run you through your missions. People do that anyway in this game all the time with missions and dungeons but at least now they still have to farm some to get in game "money" to hire the people.
jayson
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Originally Posted by Gadd Fan
It might not make sense to you or me but lots of kids with too much money to burn do indeed buy their way through games these days. And almost most of the "free" games they advertise online and even on TV like Greopolis is it and their family of games are impossible to "win" or even survive unless you pay money to keep yourself ahead of your enemies etc. It's a horrible trend in gaming.
How do you "pass certain missions" you ask? If you could purchase in game currency in GW1 then you just sit back and hire someone to run you through your missions. People do that anyway in this game all the time with missions and dungeons but at least now they still have to farm some to get in game "money" to hire the people. |
People who buy runs through content, pay for any top/rare items that come from end chests are more about getting to the end of the game then enjoying the time it takes to get there. They make for poor teammates who usually rush mobs and don't understand co operation because they can't be bothered to learn. They just want to win and be done with it and move on to the next best thing. They minds well have never been there to begin with.
Smoke Nightvogue
You must be aware that such black market existed since the release of Prophecies, and that up to the present day, it's still in strong state, right? Just look around GtoB or Kamadan, all this advertising, the transactions of which bring exactly 0.00$ to ArenaNet, the maintainers of the project, while if it was otherwise, we could have gotten more often updates and a self-supporting (with potential of being partially F2P) game world.
Just look around GtoB or Kamadan, all this advertising, the transactions of which bring exactly 0.00$ to ArenaNet, the maintainers of the project, while if it was otherwise, we could have gotten more often updates and a self-supporting (with potential of being partially F2P) game world.
Gadd Fan
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Originally Posted by Smoke Nightvogue
You must be aware that such black market existed since the release of Prophecies, and that up to the present day, it's still in strong state, right?
Just look around GtoB or Kamadan, all this advertising, the transactions of which bring exactly 0.00$ to ArenaNet, the maintainers of the project, while if it was otherwise, we could have gotten more often updates and a self-supporting (with potential of being partially F2P) game world. |
Legalizing cheating in anything crosses over my own personal ethical boundaries of life as much if not more so then old-fashioned unlawful cheating. In short it has to do with my own view of life and may not apply to others but means the world (real or virtual) to me.
Also legalized cheating in games from an early age -- aka buying your way to win is THE way to go -- contributes to encouraging in especially the younger players the concept of "as long as you win then cheating is good". No wonder you have students routinely seeing no problem with cheating on tests etc. That makes society as a whole weak and self-indulgent and personally makes me sick.
Yeah not all of this comes about by online games but every single little element you run into contributes something. And gaming online is a big deal these days and it's contribution to building a crappy society can't be ignored.
Asm0deus
Well to add in my own 2¢ When I saw GW2 was going free for the base game I though why not give it a try and decided to dust off GW one went through account recovery email with a very helpful support staff there and logged in game start checking out the HOM and next thing I know it's 5 hours later and I am greatly enjoying the game again.
My guess is there might be some peeps coming back to get mostly HOM points if they use to play years ago like myself and some like myself might just decide to put off GW2 and play this again for awhile.
Can't say much about the black market thing some of you are talking about but for myself I game quite a bit I have kind of gotten use to f2p games but have to say I feel they kind of lack something compared to game like this one and other older less p2rush to endgame etc types.
Dunno but I just received lots of help in game and in the forums to help me get back into GW and frankly the newer games I have played had me not expecting this at all which I think ties into Gadd Fan is saying.
I have played DDO for a good long while before giving it a break recently ish and sadly that game and many other like AA etc etc seem to want to teach us older and new generation of gamers to sploit early, sploit often which again seems to be tied into the new mentality rushing to endgame so you can move on to something else.
My guess is there might be some peeps coming back to get mostly HOM points if they use to play years ago like myself and some like myself might just decide to put off GW2 and play this again for awhile.
Can't say much about the black market thing some of you are talking about but for myself I game quite a bit I have kind of gotten use to f2p games but have to say I feel they kind of lack something compared to game like this one and other older less p2rush to endgame etc types.
Dunno but I just received lots of help in game and in the forums to help me get back into GW and frankly the newer games I have played had me not expecting this at all which I think ties into Gadd Fan is saying.
I have played DDO for a good long while before giving it a break recently ish and sadly that game and many other like AA etc etc seem to want to teach us older and new generation of gamers to sploit early, sploit often which again seems to be tied into the new mentality rushing to endgame so you can move on to something else.
Smoke Nightvogue
I think he's making things way too complicated, with vague real life comparisons, and such. I'll try to explain my line of thinking with much easier arguments, such as: a) Guild Wars 1 itself being a non-subscription-based game; b) having its main source of income consisting in releases of new campaigns, which aren't likely to be shipped anymore; c) if one believes that under these conditions, a professional developer will be willing to make a significant input into freshening up the project, then this individual haven't learned some of the real (unlike the above rather-muddled) social aspects yet, such as the fact that no one is going to release new or adjust the existing content for the sole word of approval of what a "good boy", like Gadd said, that person is.
I'm not stating there are no other options to consider in attempt to establish the project's on-going survivability, I'm simply building up my own thoughts on facts of what ArenaNet as a company does, or does not in relation to this game.
I'll try to explain my line of thinking with much easier arguments, such as: a) Guild Wars 1 itself being a non-subscription-based game; b) having its main source of income consisting in releases of new campaigns, which aren't likely to be shipped anymore; c) if one believes that under these conditions, a professional developer will be willing to make a significant input into freshening up the project, then this individual haven't learned some of the real (unlike the above rather-muddled) social aspects yet, such as the fact that no one is going to release new or adjust the existing content for the sole word of approval of what a "good boy", like Gadd said, that person is. I'm not stating there are no other options to consider in attempt to establish the project's on-going survivability, I'm simply building up my own thoughts on facts of what ArenaNet as a company does, or does not in relation to this game.
Gadd Fan
^ I think I understand the real world just fine thank you. I just don't agree with the greed-oriented zingiest we live in since it isn't sustainable and leads to collapse sooner than later is all. They aren't looking for the "approval" of anyone. The "good boy" is just ad agency positive feedback to encourage the tapeworm consumerism version of "winning" games that gives them more money. It's side effect contributes it's mite to the messed-up valueless society we current live in.
As to expecting a 10 years old GW1 to get any significant input at this point, that's absurd. I just want them to leave the freaking game on autopilot and not have it messed with with a free to download version. It probably takes up less than 1% on the GW2 server farm so just and let it be.
It gives Anet a small feeder path to GW2 at this point and GW2 users can buy a cheap game for the HoM stuff to add in some extra and some very small revenue as well. So it doesn't put Anet in the red and helps a tiny bit at least. Most important at this point it gives them good word of mouth PR with not pulling the plug on an older game they have which encourages belief that GW2 won't go away for years as well so that should be good enough for their business to leave GW1 alone.
As to expecting a 10 years old GW1 to get any significant input at this point, that's absurd. I just want them to leave the freaking game on autopilot and not have it messed with with a free to download version. It probably takes up less than 1% on the GW2 server farm so just and let it be.
It gives Anet a small feeder path to GW2 at this point and GW2 users can buy a cheap game for the HoM stuff to add in some extra and some very small revenue as well. So it doesn't put Anet in the red and helps a tiny bit at least. Most important at this point it gives them good word of mouth PR with not pulling the plug on an older game they have which encourages belief that GW2 won't go away for years as well so that should be good enough for their business to leave GW1 alone.
Smoke Nightvogue
I appreciate your ability to throw in real-life analogies, but you seem to be well off the scope of what I've tried to highlight, that is: the project, the business model of which cannot be itself-profitable according to the present conditions around it, where further Guild Wars 1 campaigns are not released.
You'd like it to see relying on the success of Guild Wars 2, that's understandable, but isn't good for the project from commercial standpoint. To say more, I'm about 98% sure that the hardware of Guild Wars 1 has nothing to do with Guild Wars 2 on the technical side at all, probably not even with 1% of its physical resources.
As to cover-up costs, yes, Guild Wars 2 does that to this game, but not to the degree where the latter could proceed with further development off the funding from it. It pretty much feeds server power supplies and generates acceptable salary for supporting staff, but nothing else like further improvement of the game, which isn't so cheap to buy as you mentioned, in fact: the price of 3 campaigns + EotN expansion equals the one they've specified for Heart of Thorns.
I don't know where your interest lies exactly within the game, though your claim that it requires zero changes, taking into the account all of its current PvP flaws and comparing them to how good the original Guild Wars actually was back to the years of its competitive glory makes me assume that most of the time you're busy with collecting all these small treats one could turn in to HoM for identical rewards in the second part of the franchise. Please correct me, if I'm not right.
I guess it's no need to say that my own vision of what still could be done within the original Guild Wars world differs from yours almost entirely, especially in relation to its PvP aspect, some improvements to which I've had the pleasure to bring in.
You'd like it to see relying on the success of Guild Wars 2, that's understandable, but isn't good for the project from commercial standpoint. To say more, I'm about 98% sure that the hardware of Guild Wars 1 has nothing to do with Guild Wars 2 on the technical side at all, probably not even with 1% of its physical resources.
As to cover-up costs, yes, Guild Wars 2 does that to this game, but not to the degree where the latter could proceed with further development off the funding from it. It pretty much feeds server power supplies and generates acceptable salary for supporting staff, but nothing else like further improvement of the game, which isn't so cheap to buy as you mentioned, in fact: the price of 3 campaigns + EotN expansion equals the one they've specified for Heart of Thorns.
I don't know where your interest lies exactly within the game, though your claim that it requires zero changes, taking into the account all of its current PvP flaws and comparing them to how good the original Guild Wars actually was back to the years of its competitive glory makes me assume that most of the time you're busy with collecting all these small treats one could turn in to HoM for identical rewards in the second part of the franchise. Please correct me, if I'm not right.
I guess it's no need to say that my own vision of what still could be done within the original Guild Wars world differs from yours almost entirely, especially in relation to its PvP aspect, some improvements to which I've had the pleasure to bring in.
Gadd Fan
^ Well you pretty much guessed wrong about me. I don't own GW2 and never ever ever will. HoM is basically a nice little to do list in game for GW1 giving one some goals to go after, nothing more. And Anet already said that it has GW1 stored on it's GW2 servers and takes up little room thus their reason for stating they would not pull the plug, just run it in auto mode.
I hate PvP and the immature 12 year old rage resign crowd there and have no interest in playing with idiots or playing PvP period even if I could do it solo cause I find the whole concept totally dull anyway. I use GW1 as a RPG using my imagination and my in game friends to have fun.
Yes some changes would be nice but they will never ever happen in a million years now let along new content. The software design is too old for new content at this point anyway. So why even think about it.
Just keep it up is all I ask and let us go play with what we have. It funnels some people over to buy the game from GW2 for the HoM stuff and "checking out" the first game in general. Also staying up gives it a good rep with gamers worried about companies that always pull the plug on them on games they like. There is even a trickle in the GW1 store though very little trickle. That and the fact that it takes almost nothing to store on GW2 servers means the company doesn't bleed any money. gets a small trickle in and serves as good PR. Conversely they gain nothing shutting it down and take a slight hit to their reputation if they do so. So a win for Anet to maintain it on auto-pilot business-wise. I'm a realist about businessmen. I know they would shut it down in a heartbeat if it was bleeding them badly. It isn't bleeding them at all and they get a few minor perks keeping it up. That's their bottom line.
I hate PvP and the immature 12 year old rage resign crowd there and have no interest in playing with idiots or playing PvP period even if I could do it solo cause I find the whole concept totally dull anyway. I use GW1 as a RPG using my imagination and my in game friends to have fun.
Yes some changes would be nice but they will never ever happen in a million years now let along new content. The software design is too old for new content at this point anyway. So why even think about it.
Just keep it up is all I ask and let us go play with what we have. It funnels some people over to buy the game from GW2 for the HoM stuff and "checking out" the first game in general. Also staying up gives it a good rep with gamers worried about companies that always pull the plug on them on games they like. There is even a trickle in the GW1 store though very little trickle. That and the fact that it takes almost nothing to store on GW2 servers means the company doesn't bleed any money. gets a small trickle in and serves as good PR. Conversely they gain nothing shutting it down and take a slight hit to their reputation if they do so. So a win for Anet to maintain it on auto-pilot business-wise. I'm a realist about businessmen. I know they would shut it down in a heartbeat if it was bleeding them badly. It isn't bleeding them at all and they get a few minor perks keeping it up. That's their bottom line.
Smoke Nightvogue
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Originally Posted by Gadd Fan
Yes some changes would be nice but they will never ever happen in a million years now let along new content. The software design is too old for new content at this point anyway. So why even think about it.
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It's a good thing, in comparison to Guild Wars 2, for example, where my main, year 2013 mono-block experiences considerable lags if the game gets put on high settings, so I'd say the old software design is actually this game's advantage, plus, we cannot say much about the company's GW1 development tools to the extent where it would allow us to place accurate judgment on whether they're outdated. You never know how it feels, until have personally worked with those...
Anyway, I wasn't talking about major, game-changing content updates, more that of continuous gameplay patches. It's not an impossible thing, even if the remaining Dev Team consists of only a few people. Just look at the game's September 2014 - May 2015 changelog.
Gadd Fan
I agree about the advantage of GW running on old computers. It's the game for the rest of us 90% who have older computers.
But game companies and software people are in the 10% who have nice modern computers and they NEVER ever think about the rest of us unwashed masses who would love awesome games we can play too.
I always figured some sharp gaming company would come along and realize how much money they would make by NOT jacking up the graphics et al and keeping the game friendly for people with nearly decade old computers to play. But I have never found that the case. Just cheap little ap like games but not real ones like a Guild Wars.
And yeah GW wasn't developed for low end computer users back in the day. It just has ended up that way over a decade later by default. Most other games from that era have had their plug pulled. That's why I'm fine to keep this game on auto-pilot so I have one decent game I can play.
But game companies and software people are in the 10% who have nice modern computers and they NEVER ever think about the rest of us unwashed masses who would love awesome games we can play too.
I always figured some sharp gaming company would come along and realize how much money they would make by NOT jacking up the graphics et al and keeping the game friendly for people with nearly decade old computers to play. But I have never found that the case. Just cheap little ap like games but not real ones like a Guild Wars.
And yeah GW wasn't developed for low end computer users back in the day. It just has ended up that way over a decade later by default. Most other games from that era have had their plug pulled. That's why I'm fine to keep this game on auto-pilot so I have one decent game I can play.
drok3n
free account stipulations (this means just making a free account without having paid a dime.) not prior gw2 core paid people or the expansion
First of all, free accounts start with fewer character slots and bag slots than the paid version of the game. But they still get the full complement of slots as soon as they buy Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.
Second, free accounts have some chat restrictions and economy restrictions so that they can’t be used to disrupt the game for other players. Free accounts can use local chat and whispers, but not map chat. With whispers, they can both start new conversations and reply to existing conversations but are limited to starting new conversations no more than once every 30 seconds. Free accounts can buy and sell common goods on the trading post. They can’t mail gold or items directly to other players, trade gold for gems, or access guild vaults.
Third, free accounts have some restrictions to prevent them from skipping ahead to places where they could be used to disrupt the game. They must play to level 10 before leaving the starter zones, to level 30 before using LFG, and to level 60 before using World vs. World. They can play PvP immediately but must get to rank 20 before using custom and unranked arenas.
First of all, free accounts start with fewer character slots and bag slots than the paid version of the game. But they still get the full complement of slots as soon as they buy Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.
Second, free accounts have some chat restrictions and economy restrictions so that they can’t be used to disrupt the game for other players. Free accounts can use local chat and whispers, but not map chat. With whispers, they can both start new conversations and reply to existing conversations but are limited to starting new conversations no more than once every 30 seconds. Free accounts can buy and sell common goods on the trading post. They can’t mail gold or items directly to other players, trade gold for gems, or access guild vaults.
Third, free accounts have some restrictions to prevent them from skipping ahead to places where they could be used to disrupt the game. They must play to level 10 before leaving the starter zones, to level 30 before using LFG, and to level 60 before using World vs. World. They can play PvP immediately but must get to rank 20 before using custom and unranked arenas.
lemming
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Originally Posted by Smoke Nightvogue
I guess it's no need to say that my own vision of what still could be done within the original Guild Wars world differs from yours almost entirely, especially in relation to its PvP aspect, some improvements to which I've had the pleasure to bring in.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Smoke Nightvogue
Anyway, I wasn't talking about major, game-changing content updates, more that of continuous gameplay patches. It's not an impossible thing, even if the remaining Dev Team consists of only a few people. Just look at the game's September 2014 - May 2015 changelog.
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Smoke Nightvogue
I'm sorry, but this kind of personally-directed accusations is not something I will ever respond to, even if it's a private conversation in-game.