Guild Wars 2

Anet never talks about this kind of stuff

I’d guess so. But don’t know for sure. Only way to find out would be to make an account.

Never seen anet tell about player counts. But the answer clearly is. Alot.

Instances of starter areas are completely filled with f2p players. A dynamic event where you found 1-3 players earlier now has 8-15 players completing it.

I don’t see the harm nor the shame in showing the huge amount of players that joined. Id think they would be proud of it.

Blizzard even publicly announced losing nearly 5 millions subs a few month ago.

What I find even more interesting is the ones who play it quite a bit will be hitting 30 this week. I happened to start a character Friday and am in the low 30s as of last night and know where the places are for fast advancement in pve. That also means the first ftp 80s are just about a month away. At that point they will be everywhere.

My fear is not the ftp players themselves but what they can do to the economy via the tp. A few could even grief events without doing anything reportable as well. So it would be nice to know how many ftp players are out there so we can figure out a strategy as a community. Unfortunately it is unlikely we will ever know.

I do not care as much about runes/sigils unless they drastically change the prices of superior ones. I am most concerned about them selling mats above T1. Imagine if the ecto supply was suddenly doubled. If T6s were not worth a trip to a level 80 area. If the tools and time to get T2-T5 did not make it worth it to gather them.

Hopefully someone is monitoring prices and dynamically changing what they have access to so as not to allow more fluctuation than normal.

MegumiAzusa.2918:

Astralporing.1957:

You get laurels from achievement chests as well.

Considering you want to spend it on an amulet (30 laurels) and get some infusion for it (20 laurels) you need 10k achievement points for that.

Amulets on WvW vendor cost only 20 laurels (and 250 badges). Infusions with stats can be crafted in MF, and pure AR ones bought for relics. That leaves only utility infusions, but not having an easy access to those on a trial account is in my opinion perfectly okay.

Menadena.7482:

What I find even more interesting is the ones who play it quite a bit will be hitting 30 this week. I happened to start a character Friday and am in the low 30s as of last night and know where the places are for fast advancement in pve. That also means the first ftp 80s are just about a month away. At that point they will be everywhere.

My fear is not the ftp players themselves but what they can do to the economy via the tp. A few could even grief events without doing anything reportable as well. So it would be nice to know how many ftp players are out there so we can figure out a strategy as a community. Unfortunately it is unlikely we will ever know.

Hitting 30s? I dunno if they done something to eotm leveling train, its been 4 month i dont log in, but eotm run to 80 takes 9-16h, dunno if the f2players have access to it as well

The whole reason not to give them login rewards was not to automatically give them laurels. Laurels can be used to buy T6 mats.

Menadena.7482:

What I find even more interesting is the ones who play it quite a bit will be hitting 30 this week. I happened to start a character Friday and am in the low 30s as of last night and know where the places are for fast advancement in pve. That also means the first ftp 80s are just about a month away. At that point they will be everywhere.

My fear is not the ftp players themselves but what they can do to the economy via the tp. A few could even grief events without doing anything reportable as well. So it would be nice to know how many ftp players are out there so we can figure out a strategy as a community. Unfortunately it is unlikely we will ever know.

I know you didn’t mean it that way, but when I read the post I was reminded of all the things I’ve read over the years about “the other people,” usually immigrants, but also other religion or color. The ones who will be everywhere soon, taking over the economy. Doing things to hurt the country (griefing events) in various ways. The need to band together to fight these people. To figure out way, strategies, to deal with them.

In reality, the others are not so different from ourselves. The f2p people are not others who are going to do things to the economy or grief events in non reportable ways nor or they people who need the community to figure out a strategy about. They are only players trying out a game to see if they like it. No better or worse than any of us who paid.

Hit the festival in Diessa and the centaur war in Kessex. There are other chains but those two go pretty much continuously.

Note that I am assuming a few hours a day on weekdays (a full-time job and other things to do after dinner) and long sessions on weekends. I am also assuming that you do not dilly-dally, yesterday for my necro I only stopped running to see merchants or salvage a bunch of stuff for the TP. Doing hearts as a bonus because I was nearby killing whatever.

Khalisto.5780:

Menadena.7482:

What I find even more interesting is the ones who play it quite a bit will be hitting 30 this week. I happened to start a character Friday and am in the low 30s as of last night and know where the places are for fast advancement in pve. That also means the first ftp 80s are just about a month away. At that point they will be everywhere.

My fear is not the ftp players themselves but what they can do to the economy via the tp. A few could even grief events without doing anything reportable as well. So it would be nice to know how many ftp players are out there so we can figure out a strategy as a community. Unfortunately it is unlikely we will ever know.

Hitting 30s? I dunno if they done something to eotm leveling train, its been 4 month i dont log in, but eotm run to 80 takes 9-16h, dunno if the f2players have access to it as well

I don’t think they can get into EotM. Lion’s Arch isn’t accessible until level 35 (this is character bound) and WvW isn’t unlocked until level 60 (account wide unlock).

I’m more interested in seeing how many of these Free to Play’ers actually ended up buying the game.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

MegumiAzusa.2918:

For fractals you only have to be lvl 80, which is a few days, and from there you can get to a point quite fast where you need the AR.

I don’t think you are getting the point of the f2p accounts and the restrictions on them. The f2p account is basically a glorified trial account. It’s not going to have all the advantages of a full account and never should have them. The point of this type of account is to let people try the game for free and let them see the carrots (such as the laurels) that the paid for accounts provides. If the f2p person wants the advantages of the full account then he should pay for a full account. And that includes laurels, which is one of the big advantages of a full account.

This is my thinking too.

Aside from the lack of a time or level limit the free accounts are pretty much identical to the free trial weekends they’ve done previously. I think the expectation is that free accounts will be used to try out the game and then the majority of players will either buy it or stop playing.

Between that and the fact that ascended (even accessories) is intended to be a long-term goal I think that if someone’s reached the point where they feel they need (or want) ascended equipment then it’s time to buy the game.

Did they not say at Pax they sold 5 million copies of Heart of Thorns?

Play for free is still very new, less than a week old. when they hit a milestone they might make a public announcement.

Menadena.7482:

I do not care as much about runes/sigils unless they drastically change the prices of superior ones. I am most concerned about them selling mats above T1. Imagine if the ecto supply was suddenly doubled. If T6s were not worth a trip to a level 80 area. If the tools and time to get T2-T5 did not make it worth it to gather them.

Hopefully someone is monitoring prices and dynamically changing what they have access to so as not to allow more fluctuation than normal.

Consider you can not sell anything on TP nor mail anything to anyone i don’t think that would be a problem

Menadena.7482:

The whole reason not to give them login rewards was not to automatically give them laurels. Laurels can be used to buy T6 mats.

The other reason for no login rewards on FTP is so ppl don’t make scads of accounts and ruin the economy by simply logging in to 1000’s of accounts everyday and consolidating the rewards.

Leaa.2943:

Menadena.7482:

I do not care as much about runes/sigils unless they drastically change the prices of superior ones. I am most concerned about them selling mats above T1. Imagine if the ecto supply was suddenly doubled. If T6s were not worth a trip to a level 80 area. If the tools and time to get T2-T5 did not make it worth it to gather them.

Hopefully someone is monitoring prices and dynamically changing what they have access to so as not to allow more fluctuation than normal.

Consider you can not sell anything on TP nor mail anything to anyone i don’t think that would be a problem

Yeah this^. I believe they can buy from TP, but only traid common goods(what ever that means).

Theoretically f2p is good for b2p – if they cant sell, they are only creating demand, increasing profits for b2p that sell. Unfortunetly, b2p need to buy stuff too.

Linfang.1087:

Did they not say at Pax they sold 5 million copies of Heart of Thorns?

Play for free is still very new, less than a week old. when they hit a milestone they might make a public announcement.

5 million copies sold of the actual base game.

I honestly doubt Hot sold even close to 100 thousand yet.

Menadena.7482:

I do not care as much about runes/sigils unless they drastically change the prices of superior ones. I am most concerned about them selling mats above T1. Imagine if the ecto supply was suddenly doubled. If T6s were not worth a trip to a level 80 area. If the tools and time to get T2-T5 did not make it worth it to gather them.

Hopefully someone is monitoring prices and dynamically changing what they have access to so as not to allow more fluctuation than normal.

Thankfully the economy is based on supply and demand, not random prices you have decided things should be sold and bought for.

If F2P players farm lots of mats then the prices will fall, as they should.

Long term I suspect the market won’t see a whole lot of change, except for maybe T1-3 mats. The release of HoT will move all existing players out of Tyria, and hopefully the F2P players will pick up the slack in lower tiered mats.

I got 5 full set of ascended (Completely full, armor, weapons and trinkets), without EVER spending a single laurel.

So, no – This is not locked out for F2P players.

Bristingr.5034:

Conncept.7638:

Boy is that super convenient for Anet, nope, no way gem store is changing, for sure.

…we need gold to leave the game, not more flow in. Seriously Anet, why?

That isn’t more gold flowing into the economy, it is still less gold in the economy. That restriction is nothing more than making sure free players cannot get get free stuff on the GEM store, they want Free Players to actually have to pay money if they want something on the GEM store.

DaniTheHero.6318:

Linfang.1087:

Did they not say at Pax they sold 5 million copies of Heart of Thorns?

Play for free is still very new, less than a week old. when they hit a milestone they might make a public announcement.

5 million copies sold of the actual base game.

I honestly doubt Hot sold even close to 100 thousand yet.

Gw2 had astronomical levels of hype before launch. Hell that amount of hype, and what I saw was insane fans of the games stomping on every 3rd party forum kept me away for quite some time. Typically when a game is over hyped like that it ends up doing poorly down the road due to over inflated expectations.

Of my group of friends, all but me played at launch, all were back within two months….that kept me away for 3 years.

I’m in the moods for this type of game now, and have been, but I knew that even with mega server the early zones would be kinda dead other than vets rolling alts…

Then I saw the f2p rumor, saw the expansion was on the horizon (lol 3 years for one expansion?) and bought in.

Don’t regret it but I would gather something like 90% of the initial buyers of this game are gone. Maybe HOT will bring back a few percent. Free to play will bring in more players but most wont buy, that’s just how that works.

But at least the low level areas are alive. The game wont be able to recreate that initial hype, that’s not how it works. I don’t think HOT is that big of a game changer tbh, new area, one class, raids….its good stuff but not something that’s going to cause a second coming of the general mmorpg’ers hype like the initial launch.

Overall the games health looks to be great, though sort of hard to tell with mega server tech. Ive been floating around a lot of really dead free games prior to hopping in here though…so it could be much worse.

Leaa.2943:

Consider you can not sell anything on TP nor mail anything to anyone i don’t think that would be a problem

STOP spreading wrong and stupid informations!
I created and tested an f2p account. Fact is:
- F2p accounts can buy AND SELL a lot oft items (even some exo items) in TP.
- f2p bots can wash their gold via TP (means f2p accs HAVE multiple possibilities to geht items and gold to other accounts!)

Sadly I’m not at home right now and don’t recall if some runes/sigil were tradeable. I will try it in about 2 hours if noone else responds^^

Bomber.3872:

Leaa.2943:

Consider you can not sell anything on TP nor mail anything to anyone i don’t think that would be a problem

STOP spreading wrong and stupid informations!
I created and tested an f2p account. Fact is:
- F2p accounts can buy AND SELL a lot oft items (even some exo items) in TP.
- f2p bots can wash their gold via TP (means f2p accs HAVE multiple possibilities to geht items and gold to other accounts!)

Sadly I’m not at home right now and don’t recall if some runes/sigil were tradeable. I will try it in about 2 hours if noone else responds^^

almost all was locked when i tested it with an f2p/f2t account :/
and i bet much gold that anet have an eye on the things that are not locked !

oh wait i dont bet its anet we talking about :/

I think this f2p thing will bring to the game like 150k players that will actually stay in the game, many more will take a look and leave. I been reading some forums, many ppl that wanted to play this mmo are playing right now, many cant stand the no trinity, no gear grind, casual content played a few hours and already left, i think the total f2p registered accounts will hit 500k till HoT launch.

I really wish people would stop pulling numbers out of their kitten. It’s okay not to know. Making up numbers helps precisely no one. I think there’s X number of players. X number of players are still playing since launch. It’s all speculation and it’s unlikely any of it is accurate.

I’ve not noticed an increase of players. I made a toon, then the announcement dropped, and there where a lot of people, but I also noticed a load of them, like my self, where sporting Guild Tags. So I don’t think the number is that massive. And probably about half will buy the game. But that’s probably 100% more players than we would have got with out it.

Menadena.7482:

What I find even more interesting is the ones who play it quite a bit will be hitting 30 this week. I happened to start a character Friday and am in the low 30s as of last night and know where the places are for fast advancement in pve. That also means the first ftp 80s are just about a month away. At that point they will be everywhere.

My fear is not the ftp players themselves but what they can do to the economy via the tp. A few could even grief events without doing anything reportable as well. So it would be nice to know how many ftp players are out there so we can figure out a strategy as a community. Unfortunately it is unlikely we will ever know.

The ones playing quite a bit should be higher than that. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a bunch that hit 80 already.

Khalisto.5780:

Hitting 30s? I dunno if they done something to eotm leveling train, its been 4 month i dont log in, but eotm run to 80 takes 9-16h, dunno if the f2players have access to it as well

Either you are exaggerating or have been really lucky with EoTM maps.

Fastest I’ve been able to hit 80, using strictly EoTM, with a level 20 scroll (so only 60 levels needed) is around 20hrs, and I was pretty kitten efficient. How were you able to do it in 9hrs, that literally sounds impossible.

Draknar.5748:

Khalisto.5780:

Hitting 30s? I dunno if they done something to eotm leveling train, its been 4 month i dont log in, but eotm run to 80 takes 9-16h, dunno if the f2players have access to it as well

Either you are exaggerating or have been really lucky with EoTM maps.

Fastest I’ve been able to hit 80, using strictly EoTM, with a level 20 scroll (so only 60 levels needed) is around 20hrs, and I was pretty kitten efficient. How were you able to do it in 9hrs, that literally sounds impossible.

It was like an year ago, and i’m jade quarry what means im always green, which helps a lot, 9 hours was the fastest run, I was eotming for quite some time before i got to the leveling alts stuff, so i had pretty good commanders in my friend list, that helps a lot too, when i got to level 60 i think i rushed all my SQ from level 1, huge xp coming from that as well.

The number your looking for is 28

Checked right now. f2p accounts can’t buy or sell ANY sigil or rune (no minor, no major no superior!)

Two examples how it looks like are below:

Edit: At guy above me: I didn’t check every item but for me it looks like most or all (besides agony infusions) items that can be bought/sold by f2p accounts are “crafted items” or “crating materials”. I think anet’s f2p antibot solution is more like slowing these down and then catching them if they try to “wash” their gold.

Could someone link me the list of things f2p CANNOT do/get plz?

Bomber.3872:

Leaa.2943:

Consider you can not sell anything on TP nor mail anything to anyone i don’t think that would be a problem

STOP spreading wrong and stupid informations!
I created and tested an f2p account. Fact is:
- F2p accounts can buy AND SELL a lot oft items (even some exo items) in TP.
- f2p bots can wash their gold via TP (means f2p accs HAVE multiple possibilities to geht items and gold to other accounts!)

Sadly I’m not at home right now and don’t recall if some runes/sigil were tradeable. I will try it in about 2 hours if noone else responds^^

Then you better tell me how you do this because each time i tried i get a sign up telling me i have to buy the game. And i tried a lot of different stuff. So exactly what did you sell?

lordkrall.7241:

vampirem.2065:

Ok, you made me really laugh.
I’m listening, trying to prove to me how.

I suppose you reading the actual restrictions are too much to ask?

It is precisely the current restrictions, which make me assert immense economic problem that will result ‘.
Limitations BEFORE the letter “our president” were right and at most criticized for pettiness.
Here we are faced with a problem that overturns’ the economy of the game.
Allow from “old” player Gw 1 and 2, I am baffled the decision.
And that limits me to buy the expansion.
Since I have three accounts whose principal and ’CE edition …..
I do expect that even HOt become free?

Leaa.2943:

Then you better tell me how you do this because each time i tried i get a sign up telling me i have to buy the game. And i tried a lot of different stuff. So exactly what did you sell?

Use an crafted item^^ Or if you want any item that you can buy. For example: “Valkyrie Mithril Axe”

Edit: added second picture. You can sell/buy any item that doesn’t have a “lock” in the corner.

Edit2: @Drow: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Account#Free_accounts
Of course (because wiki is player based) there has to be added some more informations, like what is possible to buy or sell.

My god doesn’t anyone have a link to what f2p’ers are allowed and not allowed. It’s not like it’s important or anything.

Bomber.3872:

Leaa.2943:

Consider you can not sell anything on TP nor mail anything to anyone i don’t think that would be a problem

STOP spreading wrong and stupid informations!
I created and tested an f2p account. Fact is:
- F2p accounts can buy AND SELL a lot oft items (even some exo items) in TP.
- f2p bots can wash their gold via TP (means f2p accs HAVE multiple possibilities to geht items and gold to other accounts!)

Sadly I’m not at home right now and don’t recall if some runes/sigil were tradeable. I will try it in about 2 hours if noone else responds^^

I’m curious as to how you figure f2p accounts can get items and gold to other accounts?

-They are unable to send items or gold via mail
-They are unable to access guild vaults
-Unable to buy gems with gold
-There is no P2P trading available.
-Limited access to the TP.

Even if they were just gathering and selling mats in order to drive down the price, or putting in multiple buy orders to drive up the price, the pace at which the market as a whole operates makes trying to do that with common mats (i.e. T1-T5) and even T6, not very effective.

Drow.2081:

My god doesn’t anyone have a link to what f2p’ers are allowed and not allowed. It’s not like it’s important or anything.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157?_ga=1.237679872.129741099.1441294715

Sylent.3165:

The number your looking for is 28

28 what?

pdavis.8031:

-Limited access to the TP.

Of course you can get high amounts of gold to other people, even if there is only ONE item on the tp that can be bought or sold by f2p accounts.

It’s like flipping: Buy low, sell high.

Sylent.3165:

The number your looking for is 28

dude, the number is 42, it is always 42. 42 is the answer to everything =D

MegumiAzusa.2918:

As a free account does not receive daily login rewards it is impossible to aquire laurels. Is that working as inteded or a oversight? It means they have only a very limited way of getting ascended amulets (only the Triforge Pendant) and ascended accessories (only the ones from dungeon achievements).

Since the core game is balanced around exotics and since exotics can be obtained by PfF (play-for-free) accounts, I don’t see that there’s even a theoretical issue.

Outside of mid- to high-level fractals, Ascended gear isn’t necessary to excel at the game.

I sat in queens dale for an hour and saw around 50. I added each one to my friends list and labeled them as “new 1” “new 2” etc.

Bomber.3872:

pdavis.8031:

-Limited access to the TP.

Of course you can get high amounts of gold to other people, even if there is only ONE item on the tp that can be bought or sold by f2p accounts.

It’s like flipping: Buy low, sell high.

If there is only one item, it can’t be done — that item will end up getting used by 1,000s of people, and eventually the ratio between buy & sell will drop well below the 15% in fees. For people to transfer gold with impunity, there would have to be plenty of such items and known only to specific gold sellers.

Flipping works because there are plenty of items in the unrestricted economy with the ‘right’ combination of supply:demand ratio, sufficient sources, and enough people willing to pay a premium to have the item now. Gold transfer from restricted accounts has much more limited options and many more people interested in trading them.

Bomber.3872:

pdavis.8031:

-Limited access to the TP.

Of course you can get high amounts of gold to other people, even if there is only ONE item on the tp that can be bought or sold by f2p accounts.

It’s like flipping: Buy low, sell high.

Yes, but thats counting on NO ONE else buying that item from the time its listed, to the time the other account can get it. And with the spam controls on the TP, it increases the likely hood that someone else will snatch up the item before the intended account can. Also throw in TP fees, and it makes it less profitable to do that.

It’s possible, but not a likely scenario.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Bomber.3872:

pdavis.8031:

-Limited access to the TP.

Of course you can get high amounts of gold to other people, even if there is only ONE item on the tp that can be bought or sold by f2p accounts.

It’s like flipping: Buy low, sell high.

If there is only one item, it can’t be done — that item will end up getting used by 1,000s of people, and eventually the ratio between buy & sell will drop well below the 15% in fees. For people to transfer gold with impunity, there would have to be plenty of such items and known only to specific gold sellers.

Flipping works because there are plenty of items in the unrestricted economy with the ‘right’ combination of supply:demand ratio, sufficient sources, and enough people willing to pay a premium to have the item now. Gold transfer from restricted accounts has much more limited options and many more people interested in trading them.

Well, ok with one item only it would be hard (that was not such a good point to make^^). But reality is that there are hundreds of items for f2p accounts to buy/sell (I think most or all craftable items).
I never said the transfer would be with impunity and I surely hope anet uses enough antibot/selling systems to get every f2p account that misuses the tp for transfering gold.
Still the pure fact is that tp can be used by f2p accounts to get gold to other accounts.

@pdavis: Yes, basically it comes down to one point: Is it more efficient to use a f2p account or a paid account? (Actually I don’t know how easy it is to generate much gold as a f2p account, but it really just depends on that value^^)

Bomber.3872:

I never said the transfer would be with impunity and I surely hope anet uses enough antibot/selling systems to get every f2p account that misuses the tp for transfering gold.
Still the pure fact is that tp can be used by f2p accounts to get gold to other accounts.

With bots its clear but is it really forbidden to transfer the gold from your normal played f2p acc to your main by using the tp way? I dont think so

efficiency is another topic