Worst Free2Play

[Kismet]

The worst of these tend to be called "Pay2Win" instead, but I wonder what your experiences are with these game types. You don't pay for the game, you can pay for things in the game (better guns, armor, attributes, luck, whatever). Which is the one that drives you most nuts?

My worst/favorite would be World Of Tanks. Weirdly, the worst thing about this game isn't the unfairness of the advantage of those who pay (but that's pretty bad). The worst is the match maker that pairs your new underpowered weapon against rapacious and careless foes who will chew you up without stopping to burp.

It is the only game that's made me rage uncontrollably. I have never been so angry at a game. Yet I am still playing it. GAR.

[Jokerle]

I hate that one is being tricked into thinking that with "a bit more gametime" you can get similar stuff as someone you pays, and "a bit more gametime" just ends up in being an INSANE amount of game time.

[Gwynzer]

Yer, a good example for me was Tribes: Ascend. It would have taken me multiple weeks of what I played to get enough ingame money to buy a weapon or upgrade or whatever. I think Planetside is maybe touching on that for some people, though I personally feel that the weapons are pretty much a fair price cert-wise. It's the extra stuff in planetside that can only be bought with real money, like the cosmetics, that I think is too expensive.


I have no problems at all with a pay to advance system. Some people tend to have a lot of money as they work, but little free time, and others have a lot of free time but no money as they don't work. I know as someone who every so often fits into the former category, I don't want to be at a disadvantage just because I don't have the same unimaginable amount of time to grind through things to get to the fun stuff when I could just throw some money at the problem. What I don't like though is when paid members have access to "better" things than free people. Getting a special stronger weapon than free guys just for putting money down is not cool.


It's not free 2 play, but I think that BF3 has the microtransactions handled right. They released pay-for packs that gave you access to all the gear for a reasonable price a long time AFTER the game had been released.

[Sarantini]

Battlefield play4free
It was okay but then they introduced this update where you could only buy permanent attachments for your gun with real money. Otherwise you would be stuck with terrible stock weapons.

[LongBowNL]

Battlefield play4free
It was okay but then they introduced this update where you could only buy permanent attachments for your gun with real money. Otherwise you would be stuck with terrible stock weapons.

I quit playing it just before BF3 where they released an update that revised the whole experience tree. Ruined a lot for me.

The best Free2Play game? Dota 2

[elchino7]

I think Planetside is maybe touching on that for some people, though I personally feel that the weapons are pretty much a fair price cert-wise. It's the extra stuff in planetside that can only be bought with real money, like the cosmetics, that I think is too expensive.

They started really bad with this (one of the reasons i abandoned). Much has improved lately (one of the reasons im back) making certs EASIER to get. Eventhough for someone like me that tends to play with EVERYTHING, it took me a while to get the nice toys for several vehicles/classes.

[Ghoul]

I'm digging mechwarrior online. They give you one trial mech from each weight class to play that is slightly above average. You get double the XP and money with each till you win one round with each one each day. The C-Bills come in pretty fast at first, so much that I've been able to buy a couple of my own mechs and start decking them out in the two days I've played. They C-Bills have slowed somewhat after the first 10 million (you can deck out a light mech really well for 5 mill) which is good cause I live longer in the light fast mechs.

[haruky]

I'm digging mechwarrior online. They give you one trial mech from each weight class to play that is slightly above average. You get double the XP and money with each till you win one round with each one each day. The C-Bills come in pretty fast at first, so much that I've been able to buy a couple of my own mechs and start decking them out in the two days I've played. They C-Bills have slowed somewhat after the first 10 million (you can deck out a light mech really well for 5 mill) which is good cause I live longer in the light fast mechs.

I heard rumors that there was some sort of crazy scandal regarding the economy in this game.

[matsif]

war thunder is more pay to win than world of tanks because to me crew training has a much larger effect in that game. Both can be played without a penny spent and it really doesn't put you at a disadvantage, same with planetside 2. Just takes longer. I have no problem with someone with extra money spending it to stay on the same level as someone with much more extra time.

The worst one however in my mind is Guild Wars 2. The entire game is made to basically force you into their microtransaction store. As of the last time I played (before I moved, so may) when I played with some friends from school, just playing around 4 hours a week tops put me so vastly far behind them (despite having the same level player) in gear that it was impossible to do the same content. To top it off, it was then impossible to create alts (I love having 8+ characters in mmorpgs because I like the versatility to play whatever is needed) because you couldn't afford anything and the grind to get the "play the game to earn these" items was horrible. It's not F2P because you have to buy the game up front, but once you get it it very quickly becomes "pay to do anything in a reasonable amount of time." Actually playing the game to the end doesn't get you max gear, doesn't take you around the world, doesn't do anything right.

[Jokerle]

yeah. in war thunder you are at a severe disadvantage without a good crew once you go beyond the starter levels.
In planetside2 i feel that even with the starter guns I can pull my weight.

[Sirslicey]

APB: Reloaded

It's free-to-play, and it's on steam. It's pay to win but it's so damn fun with friends.