I’ve long said that I’ll pay happily for content, but I don’t like paying for time. That’s the Guild Wars/DDO way, and I’ll prefer that for the forseeable future.

If I could play a game completely free, “paying” for it by watching ads or dealing with in-game spam, yes, that’s giving up a little immersion, but if the game is any good, I’d probably just tune it out and play on. Like I tune out TV ads. Like I tune out radio ads. Like I tune out local chat channels full of spambots. Like I tune out jerks in any chat channel.

If the game isn’t good, or is based entirely on buying junk consumables to actually play (I don’t care about being competitive, just being able to play), yeah, I’m going to consign it to the rubbish heap. I don’t care to pay for time or crutches. I buy games. It’s that simple for me. *shrug*

I’m sure we’ll get some games that angle deeply into the “buy stuff” territory or the ad-driven games. There’s a market for them, even if I don’t like them. Ditto for sub games. Why fuss about something that isn’t for you in the first place, though? (Noting that games that convert models are definitely asking for grumpy customers.)

But basically as a hypothetical F2P player, how much are you willing to give up from your virtual world/ game in order to get your preferred payment model (hypothetical question, not intending to single out Tesh)? Given that the design of the game is not independent of the model.

Are you willing to give up immersion? To be constantly bombarded with ads? To have a model which relies on you buying regular amounts of consumables OR grinding several hours to acquire them (ie. rather than adjusting the game so that it wasn’t necessary)? To be on a server where everyone else seems to want Farmville?

I am sure Puzzle Pirates doesn’t do that, but the next wave of F2P games very likely will.

I’m still wondering if this payment model is going to lead to games that are more fun for me or not.

Even if you sub, they still want sub players to buy from the cash shop, just the optional items. So we get turbine sales, stuff we can’t even get doing the game, and constant nudges to buy the latest mount.

It affects the whole game. The free or underpaying customers have to be balanced out by people who pay more, and beyond the “sub” monthly cost they have to push cosmetic and other items.

It may well be that people who play for free don’t feel that they have the same ‘rights’ to an immersive experience or to complain if the dev seeks other revenue streams as subscription players would. After all, most of them are getting it for free.

(I’m not including people who actually buy from cash shops. I think a customer is a customer, and deciding whether you are getting good value is part of the purchasing process. But there is definitely a feeling with subs that you are buying a service rather than just a block of hours — to me, at least.)

For some, yes. Their prerogative. If a game has several options, why do we piss on other people who don’t play or pay the same way we do?

Exactly, and *that’s as it should be*, at least in a PvP game. Play the thing, exert your player skill, and stop worrying about how someone else got where they are as far as avatar levels. They will either put up or be shut up.

Tangentially, though, I still say that levels are dumb in a PvP game in the first place. *shrug*

But hey, I guess playing for free trumps immersion anyways.