F2P Cast: WoW wants to go F2P? (EP 82)

If WoW ever goes F2P, I'm back there, for sure, me and my wife, as long as they don't go pay to win.

I played WoW for about 3.5 years, and it was the most fun we've ever had with any other game. After WoW, I've tried almost every MMORPG out there with the same adventure style, and none, absolutely NONE of them has even a third of WoW's quality.

There is a pretty good reason why it is so successful, the game is well built, there are loads of content to consume, runs on PC and Mac (which I don't understand why the "geniuses" out there keep choosing to NOT take part of x% of the market), has hundreds of good addons but lastly and most importantly, the gameplay has no comparison.

I mean, allow me to talk about Rift for a second. Recently gone F2P, the game is good, and I took it as a new experience and fresh start, lets see. Leveling is fun until lvl 50, from there on, it is dreadful. So, before you even reach max level, you're as bored as you can be. The game is unplayable without macros, specially for a few classes, and then everything becomes 2 or 3 buttons. Abilities are way too complicated and there are too many, one does not need to choose between 4 abilities that can be used after you block, not to mention, they create a second GCD. As far as the experience goes, just one or another spell has a signature sound or graphical feedback. Most of the time you're just smashing buttons. But finally, the game is swarmed with bugs. Crashes here and there, no addons that work to customize anything, and although Trion has tried to do a good customization on their end, the result is that their customization is not good enough as you would like it to be but also that discouraged the creation of many addons which could have reached that point, and yes, even Trion's interface is bugged. Very.

(Excuse me for the wall of text)

But, if there is one thing Trion got right is how to go F2P. You can buy gear, but never the top tier, you can level faster paying for potions, or gain more reputation / standing / favor / youGotTheIdea with NPC groups and factions, you can buy bag slots for bags and bank, amongst other cosmetic or time related things, but if you've geared up properly to start raiding lets say, you can be as good as anybody else, and that is what motivates people.

When I stopped playing, it wasn't because I was burned out of the game, on the contrary, we were raiding top tier content, having a lot of fun, but RL happened and we would need to have a long break (6 months or more) and right after came the expansion, and we just didn't feel like paying again for yet another expansion.

WoW would never WANT to go F2P.

It will have to however. A P2P MMO going F2P is essential a phoenix trick.
The game rises from the ashes, anew, yet still the same.

But WoW currently makes a massive amount with its sub+cash shop combo. Going strictly cash shop will be bad business for it, it wont make as much money unless it starts pushing the typical F2P tripe like exp boosters and item drop boosters (and adjusting exp/IDR to compensate) as well as actual useful items, like crafting items and crafting boosters (again, adjusting rates to make them more appealing).

It's essentially butchering your own game to try squeeze profit out of it one last time.

So do they want to do that? God no.
But I figure they'll announce free2play either at the same time as they announce WoW2, or after they've already released it.

I'm really itching to get a good horror mmo... I see it as a challenge just because being alone and helpless is 90% of what makes a game scary... But I could see something working in maybe a Vindictus type style where you have a safe zone that's persistent and then you have to run missions that scare the crap out of you in a small group. There would be a lot of kinks to work out but I'm sick of these games claiming to be horror mmo's but not delivering the scare (Hellgate London, Requiem: Momento Mori). And DaBomb to my carpet for catching my graceful girlfriend during her first attempt at Amnesia.

Well see the thing is, All Good Things Must Come to an End. WoW will come to an end and when that happens it will go F2P but as of right now they are pretty comfortable and have no reason to push the F2P WoW out and nothing bad can come from saying they want to go F2P but alot of good CAN. If a game I used to play alot but just wasnt fun anymore was hinting around about going F2P I might start keeping an eye out on the game and see whats happened since the last time i played.. It's all about PR..

Perfect World new games - all I saw was trailers which is not enough to make an opinion.
LoL hacked - well, company that spend millions on game tournaments sure cant afford better security for its players.
Black Gold’s new model - looks like they just decided to post Chinese model and see the reaction. As if it wasn't that obvious.
About f2p wow - don't care, not interested in it. But I would play next Warcraft RTS, if they make it.

Finally the new mmo setting idea. I really don't mind good fantasy of sci-fi mmo, but Man! all that mediocre developers turn it to cliche. What I would be interested to see, is vice versa Colonial Age or backwards Western, with Native Americans as protagonists, fighting for their land and home.
Allso, Ancient Celts, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Scythia, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, India etc, also would make a good theme for mmo.

what the fffff 17:39

Nah, i cant imagine WoW going F2P anytime in the Future. This game is so damn old. The people that really wanted to play it, did play it. The people that didnt care about this game to this day (like me) wont give a cent if it goes F2P.
Maybe it will increase the playerbase the first 2-3 months until those players move back to Aion or even Gw2 if they purchased it.
It was for a long time the best MMO , specally when it was released back then but lets be honest, there is nothing special at this game anymore today.

I paid to play Wow for 8 years before retiring and never had any problem with the p2p model. What finally did me in was the constant changes and dumbing down of the game. I've got some great memories but I doubt f2p would bring me back.

Yeah, true, but look at TERA, RIFT, SWTOR(although it's like a trial), Aion etc. had their player base increased, so I'm 100% sure World of Warcraft, will have more than 15M people probably, most games, private WoW servers will be emptier, just because Blizzard have decided to make it that way.More players.I'm sure the player base will increase, and Blizzard will continue to win a lot of cash, although I don't think they can whine about money, they are all damn millionaires c'mon. :D

IF WoW goes Free to play, I think it wouldn't be very profitable in the long run. Sure it'll get a massive amount of new players to join in, but for how long? WoW is an OLD game, while it's competition is aiming on new iterations. What I'd like to see, is for them to go free to play, but also begin work on a new World of Warcraft. Depending on how well they pull that off, people are bound to flock to this new game even if they stick to a subscription! Mind you, they still have to compete with EverQuest Next/Landmark, but at that point they would be capable of competing unlike the current WoW.

I would like to see a MMO based in a WW2 setting of a large city with crumbling buildings and when you start the game, pick either allied or axis, and then you are parachuted to a random location in the city with your pals and are expected to complete missions set in the city and fight the opposite team.

I would like to see a modernised fantasy theme somewhat like the coming FFXV in mmorpg market.
A mordern day environment with skyscrapers and castles fighting mythical monsters using magic, swords and guns.

I would love to see a cyberpunk MMO. I just love the cyberpunk universe with games like Deus Ex, Akira, Hard Reset, the upcoming Cyberpunk 2070, and even non-video game media such as Cyberpunk 2020, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Blade Runner, and Snow Crash. I don't think there has been a GOOD cyberpunk MMO. I mean come on there are steampunk MMOs like City of Steam and the upcoming Black Gold so why not do the polar opposite with instead of lots of steampowered thing it will be all high-tech based. That's all I want

World of Warcraft I am impressed that they won't mind going f2p, here's my suggestion go b2p it would work out very well, trust me if WoW was just b2p I would play like crazy and have fun non stop, and I would buy from that cash shop WoW is an amazing game, but todays market needs it to be f2p in order to afford to play it.

WoW as been slowly but steadly losing players so at some point it will have to go F2P if the trend doesn't change, and that's why they admited going F2P at some point, and don't take me as a doomsayer because I hate, I actualy love the game, played it for years and think it's still good, the problem is my freinds stopped playing and that made me lose interest in it. About damaging their current playerbase ofc they will, there will be ppl that leave because of it and there will be ppl that say they'll leave but won't and are just trying to cause panic, and there will be lots of ppl coming in, will they stay and support the game? no ideia but as long as they don't try to sell you loot and then call it bonus loot so you don't feel like they're assaulting you then I think it'll be a good transition.

Wow free To ply? I was starting to miss teabagging!

HUEHUEHUEUHEUHUEHUEHUEUHUEHUEHUEUHEUHUEHUE

I'd like to give my Da bomb to SOE and Planetside2. The dog with fleas has been getting flea baths and now Planetside2 is playable again. There's still a ton of fleas, but not as much as before. Can't wait to hop inside a Vanguard and kill some elmo's for the freedom of space america. New Conglomerate FTW!

If wow go f2p ,idc,i dont like this game, but i think wow player will disagree this way,all tome b2p or p2p game become f2p is a bad news,i explain:a cash shop appear,making the game p2w,a invasion of immature player (kids ...),and stupid rewards for the old player who pay to play.

wow best mmo in the world, that game its not way on free i hope

I want to see an open world MMO revolving around mecha combat using an Armored Core style. Was that a bit too specific? LOL

I really want there to be a Sci Fi sandbox MMO like Star Wars Galaxies was in the later years of its life. It don't even have to be Star Wars, although I would give it +100 points if EA or Disney gave a Star Wars MMO another chance even though SWTOR still exists. As to why I want there to be a Sci Fi sandbox MMO like Star Wars Galaxies it's because I really enjoyed the big open worlds being populated by player housing and guild cities with hidden areas throughout the planets often discovered through the questing plus the piloting of ships was awesome. Finally at the end of anyone's day you could go to Jaba's palace and chill.

not interested in WOW moving on,,,,,

Nice..."We're low on hits for this show so let's make an episode about WoW and we'll make zero new points on a discussion that's been happening for years now. At least putting WoW in the title will get YouTube hits for us."

Lame.

Why would WoW even need to go f2p? They are doing just fine, even with that slight drop in playerbase, it would survive with it's current method for at least 10 years.