Guild Wars 2

we all know Anet is under NCsoft….

the others MMOROG under NCsoft. AION, BLADE & SOUL , LINEAGE II, wildstar

firstly if you checking ncsoft web. AION, LINEAGE II, (play Totally Frees)
(i dont have chance to play all of these )

Wildstar from monthly fees gona to change no monthly fees

BLADE and SOUL (not Release in US yet)

but i did played chinese version. game free download, free play. (their income from gems) the last updated pack included (new class, new map etc )

my point is: look at all your neighbours they all treat their players well.
i dont need to do the same as they did, at lease well to your veteran

did ncsoft knew what you doing?

Or be special, they earn money with gems, Anet stop with the gems, put those things just in-game and earn money with expansions. The thing that made Anet and GW big in the first place.

It’s very likely ncsoft ordered them to do this.

OP, Wildstar and Aion both launched as subscription games. If Anet would have learned from their neighbors they would have charged us large amounts of money for many long months (and in Aion’s case years) before they went free to play. By the time those games were generous we’ve have spent hundreds of dollars. And if you think that Aion and Wildstar forums are a happy go lucky place compared to this, you obviously haven’t spent much time on them.

They walk on thin line like wildstar was…you know what happened to wildstar

You can’t compare Korean MMOs that charge subscriptions in Korea but are F2P in NA/EU to GW2. Those games are F2P/Hybrid here because a straight up subscription model failed the the west. Wildstar is simply a reminder that few players will invest in a monthly subscription. GW2 never had a monthly subscription to start with. There are few if any paywalls for features and content (LS2 unlock being the only one I can think of). The F2P versions of all the previously subscription based games erect payways and content restrictions that go away if you sign up for VIP, a subscription in all but name. Otherwise you have one or two character slots, an inventory the size of a thimble, limited choice in character races/classes and if you want more there are pricey unlocks or the “it’s not a subscription, it’s VIP” option.

So, comparison is entirely invalid.

“Aion and Lineage treat their players fairly”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh god, that was hilarious.

I will say this much. Aion got a pretty big update yesterday and it was entirely, completely, free :-)

Because it’s still a subscription based game in South Korea where development is done.

Agrotera.1254:

I will say this much. Aion got a pretty big update yesterday and it was entirely, completely, free :-)

Are you sure that it was entirely, completely, free ?

No one paid a dime for it ?

Agrotera.1254:

I will say this much. Aion got a pretty big update yesterday and it was entirely, completely, free :-)

Aion’s cash shop is also highly pay to win and Aion NA has a large number of whale players that spend thousands a month on it. This is the fundamental difference between F2P games and GW2. Everything in GW2’s item mall is merely convenience and vanity. F2P games have many shortcut items/cash shop boosters/cash shop exclusive gear/etc available for direct buy in their item malls, to the point where unless you cash shop, it’s pointless to pvp/try to compete with maxed out players.

Aion’s item mall is horrendously overpriced and very unfairly weighted in favour of heavy spenders

Strangely Star Trek Online is 100% free. You never need to spend a dime and and can have max gear. Last month I spent $120 on just fun stuff in Star Trek.

Zero for Guild Wars.

Angelica Dream.7103:

Strangely Star Trek Online is 100% free. You never need to spend a dime and and can have max gear. Last month I spent $120 on just fun stuff in Star Trek.

Zero for Guild Wars.

STO has a powerhouse brand name to bring in all it’s cash from a worldwide fanbase

Agrotera.1254:

I will say this much. Aion got a pretty big update yesterday and it was entirely, completely, free :-)

Sure after the game went free to play after years and years of charging a sub. Aion launched 7 years ago. When Aion was 3 years old, at this point, it still had a sub. So Aion after years of charging a sub, at $15 a month, now offers something for free after they feel they need to get players to stay in game or come back. Hardly inspiring.

I’m not so sure in another 4 years Guild Wars 2 won’t offer a free expansion. However, comparing apples to apples, at this point in Aion’s history, you’d have paid over $500 plus the price of the game just for the privilege of playing it.

The day has come where people tell others to learn from Ncsoft because they are an angelic company treating their players the best.

If any veteran MMO player reads this they will probably laugh because anyone with a longer knowledge of this industry for longer than 3 years know that Ncsoft has been a major figure in some of the msot facinating drama in the industry.

Angelica Dream.7103:

Strangely Star Trek Online is 100% free. You never need to spend a dime and and can have max gear. Last month I spent $120 on just fun stuff in Star Trek.

Zero for Guild Wars.

From Wikipedia about STO:

“Two subscription plans were originally available: Monthly Subscription was available for $14.95 a month with price breaks available for 3, 6 or 12-month payments. Lifetime Subscription was offered during the beta release as a promotion for $249.99 which waived the monthly fee as long as the account was not cancelled. Lifetime Subscriptions were also allowed two free character slots and unlocked ‘Liberated Borg’ as a playable species, both of which were not offered to players buying Lifetime Subscriptions after the Beta Test and Head Start access ended. After launch the Lifetime Subscription price rose to $299.99. In Season 1, a number of perks were added to all Lifetime players (pre- and post-launch) including primarily access to “The Captain’s Table”, a private joint-faction starbase exclusive to lifetime and veteran subscribers.
After Star Trek Online adopted a hybrid Free-to-Play model, a third, no-fee tier was added. Silver Class users have no monthly fee, but limited access to certain features. Gold Class users pay the subscription fee in exchange for perks not offered to the Silver Players and a monthly allotment of ZEN included. Lifetime players have the same perks as Gold Class players, including the monthly ZEN allowance and all of the veteran rewards issued immediately, without the monthly fee. All three tiers have access to the Z-Store. (See below.)"

For years the game wasn’t free to play and now it is, probably because it couldn’t sustain the sub business model. As a sub game I’m sure it had a huge springboard to dive off. The fact is, there are free to play games that have vast cash shops and that’s one business model.

But Star Trek, as a franchise feeds off a huge player base, because of five tv series, countless movies, books. I’ve never been to a Guild Wars convention, but I’ve been to many Star Trek conventions.

But yes, it did start off as a sub game it just happens to be free now. Don’t be surprised if Guild Wars 2 doesn’t go free in a couple of years.

Oh most definitely STO is a hybrid F2P game. I’ve dabbled.

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/7009153

http://sto.gamepedia.com/Free-to-Play

DaShi.1368:

It’s very likely ncsoft ordered them to do this.

Anet = good cop
NCSoft = bad cop

Played Aion when it became free to play but only played for about a month before I got bored with it.

Blade & soul looks good. Will try it when it comes this way

Lineage II lasted for me maybe 2 weeks

Wildstar had a sub fee but gave those up after WoW and FFXIV

Now gw2. Been playing for over 2 years, play each day and for many hours per day. Will continue to do so until this game is no longer fun to me. I mainly WvW so unless they really mess up this game mode, I will be around for a long time.