ZeiruliousMakavar
The Archon of Madness
DISCLAIMER: I hold no sway with any Game developing company, nor do I represent any of them, or any company in general. This is not a post to start a fight, or a flame war, or as proof that one opinion is better then another. This is MY OWN opinion I have formed after playing several different games online, and off, in each of the three categories I shall speak of in this post. It is not my intention to get anyone angry, or to dissuade anyone from playing a game they are looking forward to play. Again, this is MY opinion, and I hope others will respect that, as I will respect theirs.
For anyone who is new to online gaming, or those who have been a member of a MMO game, or Massive Multiplayer Online games, in the past. There are three acronyms that have been floating around in the past. These acronyms are P2P, F2P, and P2W, which stand for Pay to Play, Free to Play, and Pay to Win respectively. Due to how saturated the gamming market has become as of late, the three have become almost synonymous to each other, especially the second and third ones. For those of you who are new to playing MMOs or video games in general, the distinction between these three "Categories" of games can mean the life or death of your would-be character.
Before getting into the three categories, I think it's necessary to explain exactly what a MMO game is, and what constitutes as a MMO game as the they are mostly referred to when dealing with MMOs. As I stated earlier, MMO is an acronym that stands for "Massive Multiplayer Online Game." Now, to me, this means the game will contain at least 3 things.
Now, because of those three things, games such as Halo, Call of Duty, Dark Souls, or any other game that has an "Online" mode, are not classified as MMO games in my book. Yes, games like Halo and Call of Duty have been focusing on the Online Mode more then Single player as of late, and Games Like Dark Souls have the Online mode integrated into the Single Player mode, but they still do NOT count as MMOs because of the first to criteria. That is, they don't require you to have internet connection in order to play the game, you can do so with out one, and the Online Server does not hold the ENTIRE game world, as can be seen due to the first criteria. However, games like World of Warcraft, Vindictus and Stronghold Kingdoms, indeed are MMOs because of these criteria.
Now that MMO games have been explain, I can continue on with explaining the categories, and giving my opinion on them afterwards. I'll start with P2P as it's the most self explanatory. P2P, or Pay to Play, refers to a game that requires you to purchase something, be it physical media or a digital download, before you are able to play the game. Most non-MMO games, that is games that don't fit all three criteria I mention above, fit in this category, as it is the only way they can make money off of said game. P2P is also the oldest type of MMO game out there that you can find, as both Lineage and World of Warcraft, the two oldest MMOs still actively being played fall under this category. When talking of MMOs in particular, there are two different types of P2P, Subscription, or Purchase. Subscription, or what World of Warcraft is, requires the player to not only purchase the game, but pay some sort of monthly or yearly fee in order to be able to continue playing said game. And then there are MMOs, like Bungie's new MMO game Destiny, that require only a one-time-fee in order to play the game. These games, such as EA's reboot of the SimCity franchise, can have an 'Offline' mode, which enables the player to play the game on a pseudo-Single player mode. Now, onto my opinion of this type of MMO. As much as I'd like to say I hate them, for requiring the players to shell out money that might have been better used elsewhere, it is still a solid business strategy that can net a company tons of money, if done correctly. It is clear, that despite many peoples opinion on the game, mine included, Blizzard Entertainment has indeed 'done it correctly' with their flagship MMO game, World of Warcraft. I say this, because of the observed average 'lifespan' of P2P MMO games. Most P2P MMO games I have seen, have lasted 2 maybe 3 years before dying out. World of Warcraft, has lasted more then 10 years, it was first release November 23, 2004. This, last time I checked makes World of Warcraft one of, if not the, longest running MMO game out there to date.
F2P and P2W need to be explained at the same, time due to how closely related they are. A F2P, or free to play, game is a game that you can jump right into for free. With out spending a single dime. These games rose to the forefront of MMO games due to the fact that many people could not afford to pay for the subscription fees needed to play the MMO games at the time. Due to there free nature many people would flock to them as they came out, saturating the market of MMO games, as more and more people began playing them. Despite the game being free, the companies that made them still need a way to make money off them, thus microtransactions and Cash Shops became a thing. As well as the third category, P2W. Microtransactions and Cash Shops are defined by the fact that you pay money in real life in order to get a reward, be it items, boosts, or some sort of premium service that you might not have gotten otherwise. Due to this, many F2P games became known as P2W, or Pay to Win, by the community. This was due to the several advantages that players who paid money, had over players who did not. This can, and has in the past, caused a rift between players who do not pay, and those who do, with player who do believing they are the 'elites' of the game solely due to the fact that they paid money. Due to the negative press many P2W games have received, the phrase has become to mean a wide variety of things, depending on the person speaking. Most people you may speak to on the subject will tell you that a P2W game, is any F2P game that has microtransactions or a Cash Shop in them at all, due to the belief that paying at all, for anything, would give a player an unfair advantage. Though, this may be true, many F2P games, such as Nexon's Mabinogi, have done Cash Shops correctly. That is, the cash shop itself does not give the player any direct advantages, and is mostly filled with cosmetic items that only make a character look 'cooler.' Due to the thin line between F2P and P2W, the F2P market is filled with many games that are precariously on said line. To many people, would claim that such a line is something that must not be crossed, but despite this, both F2P and P2W are also viable options for a company to take, if done correctly.
So then, I've given my opinion, now I ask what everyone else's opinions are on the three categories are. Do you think P2P is the only viable option and that F2P/P2W should have never existed, or do you think the opposite, that F2P games should be the only type of MMO out there?
For anyone who is new to online gaming, or those who have been a member of a MMO game, or Massive Multiplayer Online games, in the past. There are three acronyms that have been floating around in the past. These acronyms are P2P, F2P, and P2W, which stand for Pay to Play, Free to Play, and Pay to Win respectively. Due to how saturated the gamming market has become as of late, the three have become almost synonymous to each other, especially the second and third ones. For those of you who are new to playing MMOs or video games in general, the distinction between these three "Categories" of games can mean the life or death of your would-be character.
Before getting into the three categories, I think it's necessary to explain exactly what a MMO game is, and what constitutes as a MMO game as the they are mostly referred to when dealing with MMOs. As I stated earlier, MMO is an acronym that stands for "Massive Multiplayer Online Game." Now, to me, this means the game will contain at least 3 things.
- A required Internet connection.
- A persistent server that holds the games entire world.
- The ability to interact with other players in some way.
Now, because of those three things, games such as Halo, Call of Duty, Dark Souls, or any other game that has an "Online" mode, are not classified as MMO games in my book. Yes, games like Halo and Call of Duty have been focusing on the Online Mode more then Single player as of late, and Games Like Dark Souls have the Online mode integrated into the Single Player mode, but they still do NOT count as MMOs because of the first to criteria. That is, they don't require you to have internet connection in order to play the game, you can do so with out one, and the Online Server does not hold the ENTIRE game world, as can be seen due to the first criteria. However, games like World of Warcraft, Vindictus and Stronghold Kingdoms, indeed are MMOs because of these criteria.
Now that MMO games have been explain, I can continue on with explaining the categories, and giving my opinion on them afterwards. I'll start with P2P as it's the most self explanatory. P2P, or Pay to Play, refers to a game that requires you to purchase something, be it physical media or a digital download, before you are able to play the game. Most non-MMO games, that is games that don't fit all three criteria I mention above, fit in this category, as it is the only way they can make money off of said game. P2P is also the oldest type of MMO game out there that you can find, as both Lineage and World of Warcraft, the two oldest MMOs still actively being played fall under this category. When talking of MMOs in particular, there are two different types of P2P, Subscription, or Purchase. Subscription, or what World of Warcraft is, requires the player to not only purchase the game, but pay some sort of monthly or yearly fee in order to be able to continue playing said game. And then there are MMOs, like Bungie's new MMO game Destiny, that require only a one-time-fee in order to play the game. These games, such as EA's reboot of the SimCity franchise, can have an 'Offline' mode, which enables the player to play the game on a pseudo-Single player mode. Now, onto my opinion of this type of MMO. As much as I'd like to say I hate them, for requiring the players to shell out money that might have been better used elsewhere, it is still a solid business strategy that can net a company tons of money, if done correctly. It is clear, that despite many peoples opinion on the game, mine included, Blizzard Entertainment has indeed 'done it correctly' with their flagship MMO game, World of Warcraft. I say this, because of the observed average 'lifespan' of P2P MMO games. Most P2P MMO games I have seen, have lasted 2 maybe 3 years before dying out. World of Warcraft, has lasted more then 10 years, it was first release November 23, 2004. This, last time I checked makes World of Warcraft one of, if not the, longest running MMO game out there to date.
F2P and P2W need to be explained at the same, time due to how closely related they are. A F2P, or free to play, game is a game that you can jump right into for free. With out spending a single dime. These games rose to the forefront of MMO games due to the fact that many people could not afford to pay for the subscription fees needed to play the MMO games at the time. Due to there free nature many people would flock to them as they came out, saturating the market of MMO games, as more and more people began playing them. Despite the game being free, the companies that made them still need a way to make money off them, thus microtransactions and Cash Shops became a thing. As well as the third category, P2W. Microtransactions and Cash Shops are defined by the fact that you pay money in real life in order to get a reward, be it items, boosts, or some sort of premium service that you might not have gotten otherwise. Due to this, many F2P games became known as P2W, or Pay to Win, by the community. This was due to the several advantages that players who paid money, had over players who did not. This can, and has in the past, caused a rift between players who do not pay, and those who do, with player who do believing they are the 'elites' of the game solely due to the fact that they paid money. Due to the negative press many P2W games have received, the phrase has become to mean a wide variety of things, depending on the person speaking. Most people you may speak to on the subject will tell you that a P2W game, is any F2P game that has microtransactions or a Cash Shop in them at all, due to the belief that paying at all, for anything, would give a player an unfair advantage. Though, this may be true, many F2P games, such as Nexon's Mabinogi, have done Cash Shops correctly. That is, the cash shop itself does not give the player any direct advantages, and is mostly filled with cosmetic items that only make a character look 'cooler.' Due to the thin line between F2P and P2W, the F2P market is filled with many games that are precariously on said line. To many people, would claim that such a line is something that must not be crossed, but despite this, both F2P and P2W are also viable options for a company to take, if done correctly.
So then, I've given my opinion, now I ask what everyone else's opinions are on the three categories are. Do you think P2P is the only viable option and that F2P/P2W should have never existed, or do you think the opposite, that F2P games should be the only type of MMO out there?
