Whoops, I lied

I swear I really had no intention of playing City of Heroes after briefly checking it out yesterday.  However, I’ve been dying to try out Going Rogue content since it released last year.  The release was right around the time I became aware my tenuous financial situation was much less temporary than I had hoped, and rather than dish out $30 or so on top of my $15 subscription fee, I quit the game.  But shortly after making a post yesterday, I realized that for only $15, I could go do exactly what I would have done on GR’s release day — log in and create a Praetorian and level him or her up to 20.

As someone who subscribed more than once for varying lengths of time, I’m just short of my Tier V Paragon Rewards which would unlock the premium classes: Controller and Mastermind.  I have auction house access for life, but I fall quite a bit short of Tier VII which would let me use the invention system for life.  That means my main’s primary build is useless — some 90% of his enhancements are inventions.  I was disappointed by this at first, but I’ve figured out that a 30 day invention license only costs about a buck.  I figure I can easily play a month or two leveling up some alts, and when I eventually purchase access to the Going Rogue post-level 20 alignment system, I can use the leftover points from yesterday’s purchase and this future purchase to unlock inventions for a month. If I’m still playing after that, I can occasionally purchase points whenever I want to use one of my level 50s.

So my f2p gaming hasn’t exactly been free to play, but putting CoH aside, let’s recap.  About two months ago I spent $15 to get Elite Agent status in Global Agenda.  That’s a one time purchase that need never be repeated, so I think of that as the box price.  So I’ve spent $15 on this former subscription game for two months of enjoyment, and theoretically need not ever pay again and can continue to enjoy it indefinitely.

I’ve been playing LotRO for about a month and a half, and I’ve spent $7.99 there.  I’ve also spent little to no time with the content that unlocked and probably have another month or more before I do clear those quests.

So at the end of October, I should be looking back on three months of gaming, playing an MMO and one pseudo-MMO for the first two months and adding a second MMO for the final month.  Two games for three months and one game for one month for a grand total of $38.  If these were still subscription games, this same experience would have cost me $105 (at $15 per month per game).  I’m pretty damn satisfied and pleased with my penny pinching.

Sure, the limitations these games can place on free players may occasionally be inconvenient,  but I can address each limitation when my level of involvement in the game, and time invested, justifies it.  A few months from now, I may buy a few months of LotRO VIP to unlock the extra bags and character slots.  That’s a maximum of $30 (though there are a lot of deals on game time cards that are still floating around the retail world so it probably won’t even be that), so potentially, after three to four months, I will have paid only $38 and just be starting my two months of VIP time.  That’s a damn good value — I have a lot of trouble ever picturing myself dishing out $60 and then agreeing to a subscription ever again.  At least, not when it comes to a theme park — some 90% of time in such games is dedicated to leveling alone, and I’m not surrendering massive amounts of cash to be all alone in a world full of other people who are also all alone.

I’m really not all impressed with my fellow gamers for their willingness to pay monthly fees for massively single player games.  Somewhere some marketing guy or gal is laughing all the way to the bank, telling friends about how they convinced us to both buy and rent their product simultaneously.

News in the Key of F2P

Free-to-play has been making some headlines lately — some not-so-lately, but I wasn’t paying attention when they happened.

The big story of the day is all about Philip Reisberger, CEO of Bigpoint, the company behind the free-to-play, browser-based Battlestar Galactica MMO.  I can’t really comment on the game.  I signed up for it once, played through a bit of the tutorial or intro or whatever they prefer to call it, and was not impressed at all.  I can’t put my finger on why—if there was ever a reason, I don’t remember it—so it could be a wonderfully fun little game.  It’s just not for me.

Indisputable Truth: Everyone with a goatee is evil

But if there was ever a chance of Battlestar Galactica making the list of my F2P Quest, that chance flew the coop when I read excerpts from an interview with Mr. Reisberger published today by Next Gen.  I’m left wondering if the man has ever played an online multiplayer game other than one of his company’s products, and if he has ever spent a single moment absorbing the concerns of veteran internet gamers.  Plus, he has a goatee.  

Here’s what Mr. Reisberger had to say that got him some attention:

There are millions, hundreds of millions of people willing to invest even though they aren’t obliged to. The crucial part of the design is not having to invest, but wanting to. Most people in the Bigpoint universe don’t ever pay, but if they want to pay, don’t just offer hats – offer them something that will help them. 

If selling an advantage ruins the game, you haven’t done the balancing right…EA and Ubisoft, for example, they’re both trying, but they’re not really there yet.  It’s a delicate balance, though, and that’s why I love my game designers. All of them have understood how to do this. If you have a sophisticated approach to free-to-play games, in the end you can monetise everything. [sic]

When I first read this, I was absolutely floored.  I can’t think of a single advantage that can be purchased for money that would not ruin the game, by which I mean permanently shift the balance so that skill becomes secondary to the amount of actual currency invested, and on the other hand, I can’t think of anything in a cash shop that does not ruin a game that grants any advantages.

I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked.  This man’s well-being and future potential to purchase facial hair trimmers rests entirely on his ability to convince people to spend money on his game.  It does not surprise me that he wants to maximize sources of income — it simply irritates me that he expects the gaming community to believe the insanity he has sold to himself and his staff.  He convinces himself by cherry-picking his examples: he clearly mentions EA’s refusal to give an outright advantage to those that pre-order Battlefield 3 as a failure to monetize but neglects to mention the incredible growth and healthy profits obtained by League of Legends, a free-to-play game that stubbornly refuses to sell power but does fine without monetizing everything.  Also, did I mention the goatee?

In other, slightly outdated, free-to-play news,  I somehow missed that my MMO guilty pleasure, City of Heroes, will be switching to a freemium (free-to-play with multiple subscription options) model when they drop Issue 21 — somehow, this news escaped my attention until a few weeks ago despite that it dropped in May or June.  Fallen Earth set a date of October 12th for its own freemium conversion.  And Star Trek Online has announced similar plans and released details of what features will be available to free-to-play customers, though they have not yet set an official conversion date.

These three games will definitely be added to my f2p quest.

As for news on me, I’m currently playing Deus Ex most often, but for online gaming I am still occasionally popping in to LoL and Global Agenda, have started testing the waters in Pirates of the Burning Sea, and have set aside my initial dislike for LOTRO to give it another whirl.  I’m actually enjoying it — I wouldn’t want to pay a subscription for a story driven theme park, but I have no objection to having limited fun that costs me nothing.  At some point, I may even pick up a few months of VIP, perhaps around level 20.  In the meantime, I kind of like running around the Shire doing quests without feeling rushed to reach the level cap and play the “real” game.  Perhaps SW:TOR isn’t as bad as I thought — though I still don’t think a single player story is worth a monthly fee.

F2P Quest

I’ve decided to swallow my pride and dive into the world of free to play massively multiplayer online gaming.  I’ve also decided this is the last time I will type out the phrase “free to play massively multiplayer online gaming.”

I’m not completely inexperienced with F2P MMOGs.  For a year or so, after being dragged in by some friends, I took part in a facebook based game from a small independent developer — but I just wanted to make this confession and apologize to any who are offended that I implied it is an MMOG.  It was, however, the first free online game I ever played with others, and it did have a crafting system I might talk about at some point.  Maybe.

My next f2p experiences were brief to say the least.  I tried Lord of the Rings Online but didn’t like that not all the classes were available.  I had the same problem with Everquest 2 Extended.  I’ve since discovered with LOTRO that a single expansion would release those classes, so I might be revisiting that game — I won’t be revisting EQ2X.  I’m an altaholic and like to try every class in a game before I settle, so when classes are limited the game loses part of its draw.

Only two f2p games have held my attention for a significant amount of time.  Neither were MMORPGs.  The first of these was QuickHit Football, an American football coaching sim.  I won’t bother to explain the gameplay as other than stopping by on occasion to see if there have been any major changes, I no longer play this game.  Changes in game mechanics and changes in the cash shop have turned the game from an amusing f2p distraction into a buy to win annoyance.

On the other hand, League of Legends has held my attention for quite some time.  Enough so that I made the choice to spend some money with Riot Games and purchased the Collector’s Pack — which at $35 is basically the same as buying a game box.  I did take a period time off from the game due to hardware issues crashing my system and screwing my team.  But I was never away by choice and after many months am back.

While not exactly a f2p veteran, I am a veteran of many subscription MMOs.   I tried both Everquest and Ultima Online, but the first game I ever had my own account for (and with regular access to a broadband connection) was Star Wars Galaxies.  Other games that I played extensively include EQ2 and City of Heroes/Villains.  I did some time in WoW just before the first expansion and came back at a friend’s urging after the second.  I have played Eve and truly enjoyed it and met some great people.  It taught me the difference between sandboxes and theme parks, and finally made me understand what was missing from the games that replaced SWG. Unfortunately, my time with Eve was short as I have just not been able to commit to a subscription in recent times.

Which brings me to my F2P quest.  I’m sure there are fun titles hiding among the Korean grindfests.  I’m even sure there is some fun hiding in the Korean grindfests.  I’m going to try them — I’m actually going to commit to a few and get a real feel for what’s out there and what’s fun.  Sometimes, I’m going to keep at them despite myself.  Forsaken World doesn’t have the option for mouse invert?  Fine, I’ll work the mouse like a stroke victim on meth and get through it.

I’m open for suggestions, and if anyone ever reads this, I’m even open to running a massively-esque Choose My Adventure survey.  Yes, Forsaken World is on my list.  It’s downloaded and installed, and the only thing keeping me back is the mouse control.  But I will brave it eventually.  I’m also certain to cover Pirates of the Burning Sea and Global Agenda.   I have yet to decide on an order and will likely try all three before settling on which one I will explore first.

So there will be more in this space in the future.  And I swear I will ditch the default appearance eventually.