Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I just recently learned Gw2 went F2P so I got a few of my friends to start playing. Today I finally read the post on the site and while I agree with most of the points there are a few that really bother me. The fact that F2P players cant buy/sell anything that’s not common or trade via mail with each other, and the chat restrictions. I agree that with going F2P there is the issue of botters, etc etc. But why not make the trading post level gated like WvW, PvP customs, and Exploring.

In MMOs a big part of the game is the community and the ability to participate in it. While its nice that they get access to all the gameplay related things eventually, it just feels like Anet is creating 2 separate groups. The people who have paid for the game, who get the full game with all its perks, and a F2P player base that are very limited in the grand scheme of things that for them it becomes “pay to win”. Think about it, because they cant trade gold in any meaningful way, most players will probably have more than what we (the veterans) did at certain stages of our gw2 lives. Yet they cant do anything with that gold, if they want to get a certain skin in the game, they would either have to grind for it, or pay for the full game to be able to buy it. They literally have to pay in order to skip the unnecessary grind within the game. Ofcourse there are many skins that they can get but again ultimately they are limited unless they pay.

As for chat, it makes sense for new accounts to be restricted, but if someone has the dedication to reach level 80 or spend a certain amount of time on a character, why cant they participate in the map chat. Why cant they be a part of the amazing discussion, map strategies, asking for help and many of the other benefits of free chat. Honestly it just feels like part of the whole “gw2 experience” is cut from them. I can imagine that from their perspective once they really get into the game it’s going to feel like a playing a game of soccer/basketball/football where no one ever passes them the ball. Sure we’re all playing together working towards the same goal, but you’re not really part of the team and will never reap the benefits of being on a team.

Anet says “We’re making the core game experience free because we’re confident that anyone who loves Guild Wars 2 will buy Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.” Its a legitimate claim, but for alot of people they simply wont reach that hurdle for a long time. GW2 itself is a massive game, just look at the amount of things everyone has done and how long this community has been running before an expansion was even officially announced. Buying HoT should be a line the player decides to cross when they feel theyre ready for it. They shouldnt have to buy it just to unlock all of the base game.

Sorry if this post seems a little ranty, but after reading the post these things just didnt seem right. Im not hating on Anet by any means, and I think they have done many good things time and time again (as well as some mistakes but they managed to fix in some way). But the points I mentioned just rub me the wrong way completely.

The idea of free play restriction is to get free player to buy game after they test it. Arena net is not charity. It is business. Think of free play as a free trial but without level cap.

The F2P game is meant to whet thier appetite and purchase HoT. The restrictions are there so botters and others do not unbalance the game. Restricting them from participating in WvW is the same reason. Hopefully your friends will see the enjoyment us “Veterans” have come to love. HoT will hopefully allow the to move into the pay version. As far as chatting you can always find a guild with 3rd party chat program. So tell your friends welcome to game and look forward to seeing them in game.

The f2p Is more like an extended trial than “get it for free and eventually get everything”. If people like the game well enough to play long periods of time then maybe they need to buy it. It’s sort of hard for ANet to pay the bills with the zero dollars that the f2p payers paid.

Think of the F2P edition as an extended trial period.

The limits that are in place are there to protect the paying player base. Access to chat, mailing items/gold and being able to sell high value items on the TP can all be things that hurt the game’s economy, or enable bots and gold sellers to thrive.

The F2P model is there to allow new players to get a foot-hold into the game without having to part with 50dollars/pounds/euros (or whatever the correct value is). Many people would not be willing to blindly put money into a game that they have not tried and are not sure if they would like. It isn’t really intended that people play the F2P model forever- the idea is that the restrictions will give incentive to them to purchase the whole game/expansion

This all being said, I think A-net have been very generous in what they have given F2P accounts. The restrictions are tight, yes, but A-net have been fairly trusting. Personally I would’ve expected say chat, WvW (aside from EotM), whispering and half of the maps to be locked off for F2P guys.

Qugi.2653:

Arena net is not charity. It is business.

^QFT

The “GW2 experience” isn’t cut from anybody. In fact, this has opened it up to more people. Awhile ago, f2p couldn’t play AT ALL. But I guess, some people will never be happy.

Play for Free, as ANet prefers, has to have restrictions in things like mail and chat to limit the damage a RMT outfit opening up a bunch of free accounts. The limits on the TP is also there so someone can’t manipulate low supply items with a pile of accounts. Not sure if as you level you get access to masterwork and rare gear on the TP. The tease by showing P4F accounts what they could have access to buy off the TP is a less annoying way to encourage upgrading to a paid account than say the usual content or class restrictions that F2P accounts on other MMOs have.

P4F accounts can receive mail. So feel free to twink your friends with better gear.

Maybe you’ve never encountered this before, but when a business offers two versions of something, a free/discount, bare bones version and a full benefits version, they don’t give the free/discount version any of the full benefits goodies. If you want it, yah gotta pay. Happens in business all the time and this isn’t any different.

You can unlock everything for $15.99 with the GW2 core game from other authorized online retailers, no need to spend $50 on the expansion. Ill buy the expansion when its a lot cheaper, its not like Ill need it right away anyway.

I would VERY strongly vote no on letting free accounts, no matter what the level, get access to the trading post. For how it would affect the economy, whether the people selling were bots or just a lot of humans.

Right now there is a throttle to people doing that to the TP. They need to buy the game. Granted, that is not a huge hurdle but there is a constant ‘be good or you will lose your investment’ thing that reduces, but not eliminates, some of the damage.

First of all I would like to say the the Free-to-play that anet offers is to test out the game. They make every game aspect available, so ftp players have all the gameplay gw2 offers.

1. trading post is different than WvW, PvP and exploring, an army of newbies could destroy the economics, especially if there are botters under them.

2. “Pay to win”: Please don’t use this if you don’t know the meaning behind it. I already mentioned in a different thread that, if you don’t own the game(core+xpac), it is not pay to win. Pay to win is that a single player can beat an army alone with no skill, autoatk. He pays to win the game. Gw2 will never be like that. Trading post has absolutely nothing to do with pay to win.

3. How are they limited ? A ftp account can still get all skins currently available to get. They just have to get it on their own.

4. Map chat: Image a bunch of ftp lvl 80 accounts to be hacked. You will see a lot of map chat spam for gold sell. It is very annoying to have these around. Also, to receive help, strategies and other stuff, whisper is more than enough.

5. “soccer/basketball/football where no one ever passes them the ball”: You know, they still can use local chats. So if you go to dungeon, you can chat normally with ur mates.

6. " Buying HoT should be a line the player decides to cross when they feel theyre ready for it. They shouldnt have to buy it just to unlock all of the base game.":
Just buy the core only. Or buy HoT to get both at once. Also, a free to play player has access to all gameplays, so it is more than enough to make them ready for new content.

I’ve found that lag has greatly increased lately, am thinking it’s due to the influx of new players since GW2 was offered for free? If that is the reason, it doesn’t seem fair that paying players suffer so others can play for free. Lag is so bad today I can’t play at all. (Which means I might have to do some work instead, and I REALLY don’t want to!) xD

BinaryAznMon.2857:

Honestly it just feels like part of the whole “gw2 experience” is cut from them.

This is intended.

I have not yet seen a FtP MMO where part of the experience is not cut off and placed behind a paywall.

In some games this is character power.
In some it is convenience items.
In some it is cosmetics.
In some it is playable content.
In GW2 it is map chat, certain aspects of the TP, and HoT.

Basically F2P players get fewer character slots (so 2 of them are free, instead of 5), they get only 3 bag spaces instead 5, and have somwhat limited chat, mail and TP funcionality.

On the other hand, every bit o content up untill HoT is available to them, they can finish all of the content, do PvP and WvW eventually, with chat being unlocked, do dungeons, fractals, farm tokens, get BIS gear…

If you wish complete game, kitten buy it, not like you’re missing THAT much.

Imagine they could send emails and every1 used 50 F2P account to farm black lion keys and just avoided the recent limitation.

Granted, it does not prevent bots from farming mats/gold, but what are they gonna do with it? They can’t mail it to any1… also they can’t spam/whisper people with “selling gold” messages.

It’s not meant to be a full experience where they’d never have to pay a dime, it’s more a glorified unlimited trial for them to decide whether or not HoT, and thus the full game without any limitations at all, is worth getting.

Let’s ignore what ANet might what from the play-for-free community and just discuss what is important to the buy-to-play community:

• Without trading restrictions, anyone can manipulate the economy by creating tons of free accounts. Level-gating would barely slow down botters. Free accounts would be used to hoard materials until the market becomes favorable.
• Without chat restrictions, RMTs would be free to spam channels/whispers with their adverts and trolls would be free of the consequences of acting kittenish.

So regardless of whether restrictions on PfF affect ANet’s bottom line, they still wouldn’t remove them because doing so would hurt the rest of the community.

If f2p likes stuff, f2p should upgrade. If no $ upgrade, then f2p can leave.