Free to Play games - can someone explain how this works to me?

[Turbohow]

I'm a FPS gamer, but I really only play a hand full of games a year - Battlefield, COD, Crysis etc. What does free to play actually mean. That's a lot of work for no profit so I know that cannot possibly be correct. Is this to get rid of piracy?

Thanks everyone,
Howard

[VultureX]

One word.

Microtransactions.

[lucidus]

Microtransactions .. gun, armour, cosmetic and perk unlocks. Most are awful but some like Tribes Ascend, Blacklight and TF2 are popular. I'm trying Blacklight, for free it's pretty good and you can beat paid players even with your standard free weapons.

[The Goose]

basically the game is free but you buy credit/tokens to pay for the goodies,for example NFS world...you get basic body kits but the better ones you pay for

[Uncle Dude]

The best ftp games let you earn the same gear you can buy. They are counting on the impatient gamer with a fat wallet to carry the load.

BTW - I hear World of Tanks is quite good.

[RoadKillNL]

Originally Posted by VultureX

One word.

Microtransactions.

Yep, they gonna make a LOT more money than 45 Euros with Free 2 Play because of Microtransactions.

It's smart, but sucks for the user.

[WhiteLightning]

some games are cool though, Team fortress 2 for instance. just amazing how many updates it got since release.

[Mega_Death]

Originally Posted by Uncle Dude

The best ftp games let you earn the same gear you can buy. They are counting on the impatient gamer with a fat wallet to carry the load.

BTW - I hear World of Tanks is quite good.

WoT tanks is quite good. You can pay to get a 50% more experience and credits per battle to help you rank up faster. You can buy "premium" tanks that are well balanced with the free tanks. It is not a "Pay to Win" game.

MechWarrior Online is in a semi-closed beta right now and is FTP. You can get in the beta now if you buy a "founders" subscription. Looking forward to trying this one.

All Points Bulletin Reloaded is another decent one, but was getting thick with hackers a year or so ago. Kinda like Grand Theft in a small way.

Hackers are in every PC game, the FTP model does not eliminate them.

I've played a few FTP games and if I like it I will give the dev's $20 or so to support a worthwhile effort.

Anyone try the new Ghost Recon FTP?

[twtaylor]

Originally Posted by Uncle Dude

The best ftp games let you earn the same gear you can buy. They are counting on the impatient gamer with a fat wallet to carry the load.

BTW - I hear World of Tanks is quite good.

You heard right, WoT is an excellent game. You don't have to pay a dime to progress if you don't want to but the tank love that has gone into creating this game makes you want to. Having a premium account gives you an experience boost in battles. Buying a decent premium tank will earn you xp that you can convert to free xp to apply to any tank you are trying to work towards. Overall, a very well done game.

[PCElite]

WoT is not bad. But there are ****loads of idiots.

[Gromuhl'Djun]

Originally Posted by WhiteLightning

some games are cool though, Team fortress 2 for instance. just amazing how many updates it got since release.

That's because Team Fortress 2 is free to play for another reason. It's the biggest add to lure players to the Steam platform.
Think about it, if you get someone on steam, there's a huge chance they'll buy more games on it, which is indirect profit for valve because of TF2.

[Gaizokubanou]

Originally Posted by Mega_Death

WoT tanks is quite good. You can pay to get a 50% more experience and credits per battle to help you rank up faster. You can buy "premium" tanks that are well balanced with the free tanks. It is not a "Pay to Win" game.

What about the gold ammo? I keep asking people who swear by WoT about this infamous item but every time thus far they gave me the lame ass cop out "skill will still prevail".

Well duh, huge discrepancy in skill will make up for equipment difference but that's not what people care about when it comes to labeling pay 2 win... with all things considered equal among players, does the gold ammo give clear edge (even if it's small)?

Update: Just found out that you can indeed buy gold ammo through some form of in-game currency earned via clan war and competition. If those are accessible to everyone then I guess that answers my question.

[Major Melchett]

Originally Posted by Gromuhl'Djun

That's because Team Fortress 2 is free to play for another reason. It's the biggest add to lure players to the Steam platform.
Think about it, if you get someone on steam, there's a huge chance they'll buy more games on it, which is indirect profit for valve because of TF2.

On top of this, it wasn't always free so it did infact generate a load of money aswell.

DOTA 2 is valves next big Steam advert, that's gonna get loads more onto the platform.

[Chillin]

Tribes: Ascend is an excellent FTP game. I actually already had nearly everything but still gave them $10 just in appreciation of such a fun game.

[twtaylor]

Originally Posted by PCElite

WoT is not bad. But there are ****loads of idiots.

Yeah, true and pretty much any online has 'em.

[PCElite]

Originally Posted by twtaylor

Yeah, true and pretty much any online has 'em.

But in wot it stick out with after death cam and games simple mechanics.

[lucidus]

Originally Posted by Gromuhl'Djun

That's because Team Fortress 2 is free to play for another reason. It's the biggest add to lure players to the Steam platform.
Think about it, if you get someone on steam, there's a huge chance they'll buy more games on it, which is indirect profit for valve because of TF2.

I was suckered into Steam thanks to the free Portal 1 offer back in September 2011

[morbias]

I just started playing Tiberium Alliances and it's a lot better than I was expecting, the game mechanics are really quite clever.