Video Game Thread 2.0

[ironbite]

Don't worry guys...Everquest is free to play.

[syaoranvee]

This, and on principle, I just find the idea of paying a monthly fee to play a freaking game to be fucking stupid.

As a person who almost exclusively pays monthly even in the case of F2P games (ie Rift, SWTOR) I have this to say:

I find the idea of having basically a 'free trial' of a F2P model (which is, the vast majority of F2P games) where half the game is gated behind a paywall or a extremely tedious grind for a inferior way to pay to be even more stupid.  P2P was also a way to ensure quality at one point, if a large group of people suddenly decided not to pay their subs anymore over a change made to game, it impacted future changes to the game.  However, with the new "let's just go F2P if the playerbase drops" mentality has made this less effective. 

Overall. the F2P MMO market is oversaturated and several MMOs have recently fallen.  In likelihood, the future is likely going to end up going back to subs and the B2P method that seems to be catching on.

Edit: Also I completely forgot about the pay to win shit that a lot of F2P games have, P2P games don't have that and everyone is as equal as hard as they've worked or how smart they are in trading, unless the company has a really fucked up mentality with cashshops that is.

[Askold]

I have played World of tanks a lot. The fact that you can get your tanks and equipment faster with money does not trouble me. It just means that you can bypass much of the grinding with money. The fact that you can get paintjobs for the tanks is also cool.

My problem is the "gold ammo." You can buy more powerful ammunition for your tanks than other players have and thereby gain a edge with money rather than skills. You still die as easily as other similarly equipped tanks (well you can repair and extinguish fires with bought equipment as well, but this is not a huge difference) but in other games you can get all your gear for money and get huge advantages with that.

I haven't played Mechwarrior online since while after the open beta began, so I don't know if that has turned into P2W yet. At the time most money given stuff was just anti-grinding assistance and cosmetic awards. And the few "hero mechs" that aren't big enough of a deal to annoy me. But the things that drove me from that game, which would have been good otherwise, are another rant. (*COUGH* PLAYERS *COUGH*)

Though I have to admit that the Star wars MMO really messed up when they changed to F2P. At least I think they tried fixing it, but the game seemed "almost" unplayable as F2P and you had to pay for even the tiniest things originally.

[RavynousHunter]

Thus we have the reason I love Guild Wars 2's approach to this whole bullshit.  You buy the game ONCE, and that's it.  You paid for the fucker, now you can play it as much as you want.  There are microtransactions, sure, but most of them are either account upgrades (extra character slots, etc), cosmetic items, or functional items that don't have any real effect on gameplay or the game's economy.  Plus, you can buy the points for the cash shop (gems, in this case) with in-game money, and the conversion goes both ways.  A rather ingenious way to kill gold farmers/sellers, if ya ask me.

The subscription bullshit is why I never got into World of Warcraft, in addition to it being immensely uninteresting to the point of tedium, and why I haven't played on an official Ultima Online server since the Age of Shadows expansion came out.  Just make me buy the game, and then, let me play it as much as I want.  If fucking ANet can do it, with -two- games, then anyone can.  That's how it works with pretty much every other game on the market, and ANet's proven that you can do it the very same way with MMOs, with the addition of a cash-based trinket shop.  This is NOT a difficult concept.

[Shane for Wax]

And yes'm, we definitely should! If you have it on 360, hopefully. Since I didn't get it on PS3. I might later.

Ah. I have it on PC, not console. :\

You know what? If I get a computer capable of playing anything more advanced than fallout 3 SR4 will be the first thing I buy so we can play together.

I want to ask for a gaming laptop for Christmas but money is a little tight. Unless I can plead my case about how I'm in the hospital so much I need a computer that can run more games so I don't get bored and/or depressed cause I can't play console games in the hospital.

[Alehksunos]

This, and on principle, I just find the idea of paying a monthly fee to play a freaking game to be fucking stupid.

They need money for the servers, staff and other stuff that a MMO requires. So far the ways to gather up that money that I've seen are:
a) Monthly subscription.
b) Pay to win.
c) Hats (and other cosmetic stuff.)
d) Ingame ads.

D and b are the ones that annoy me a lot more than monthly subscrition.

I agree with this post so much. Examples B and D are the most annoying things in the world. Example B being my biggest pet peeve of the gaming industry today. The very fact that Plants vs. Zombies 2 has this is what turned me off from the game, aside the fact that when Electronic Arts swallowed Popcap whole and fired George Fan, its founder.

[ironbite]

Dead Space can piss off with it's asteroid level.

Ironbite-who the fuck thought that was good in this not-horror horror game?

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

So, on SR4:

(click to show/hide)

Is there any point to romancing various members of your crew, or is it just a random bit of humour? So far, I'm managed to sleep with Kinzie, CID, Matt (ugh) and Shaundi.

I'm also 900% certain the vice president is going to betray me, based on his audio recordings and his refusing to sleep with me.

And I groaned when the Veteran Child showed up. Brought back memories of that super frustrating "Rescue Shaundi" mission in 2. This amused me, though:

And yes'm, we definitely should! If you have it on 360, hopefully. Since I didn't get it on PS3. I might later.

Ah. I have it on PC, not console. :\

You know what? If I get a computer capable of playing anything more advanced than fallout 3 SR4 will be the first thing I buy so we can play together.

I want to ask for a gaming laptop for Christmas but money is a little tight. Unless I can plead my case about how I'm in the hospital so much I need a computer that can run more games so I don't get bored and/or depressed cause I can't play console games in the hospital.

Let me know when you get a new computer. There are a ton of games that would be fun to play together, on top of SR. If you ever get a copy of Mount and Blade (should run on your current computer; it worked just fine on my old netbook as long as the video settings were turned down), we should play a couple of battles together. Besieging castles is always fun.

[Shane for Wax]

I will indeed. And I'm sad that I can't continue playing SR4 right now cause I'm on vacation, technically. Weh.

And I'll see about Mount and Blade. I kinda peeked at the description and some screens but didn't buy it cause I had just bought a bunch of other games.

[chad sexington]

Mount & Blade is a bit dated, but it's awesome fun.

[Søren]

HAH. I found rule 34 of the gaping dragon from darksouls

Why post it here. Because fuck you thats why

[SimSim]

This, and on principle, I just find the idea of paying a monthly fee to play a freaking game to be fucking stupid.

They need money for the servers, staff and other stuff that a MMO requires. So far the ways to gather up that money that I've seen are:
a) Monthly subscription.
b) Pay to win.
c) Hats (and other cosmetic stuff.)
d) Ingame ads.

D and b are the ones that annoy me a lot more than monthly subscrition.

I agree with this post so much. Examples B and D are the most annoying things in the world. Example B being my biggest pet peeve of the gaming industry today. The very fact that Plants vs. Zombies 2 has this is what turned me off from the game, aside the fact that when Electronic Arts swallowed Popcap whole and fired George Fan, its founder.

I've been playing Plants vs Zombies 2 and so far I haven't seen pay to win. Sure, you can buy in game coins to pay for things, but at least so far, with proper strategy you win without needing to purchase coins. Maye it'll be different as I get further in to the game.

But we might have differing ideas of what pay to win is. I consider it pay to win when the game becomes so incredibly difficult that you're forced to purchase things in order not to lose. Or in multiplayer games where you need to purchase things in order to compete. I really dislike those situations and won't play games that do that. But microtransactions don't bother me if they're clearly cosmetic, changing the color of your armor, for example. Or if you can get the items in game without being forced to pay.

[Askold]

But microtransactions don't bother me if they're clearly cosmetic, changing the color of your armor, for example. Or if you can get the items in game without being forced to pay.

I put those under hats (and other cosmetic stuff.) And I'm ok with those.

[Alehksunos]

I'm also okay with that because you don't need them. They're optional items and they don't affect the gameplay or only a little. Of course, Team Fortress 2 is the first game to come to mind, as it uses this model. I don't buy any of those items because I don't care for a majority of them.

[SimSim]

Yeah, I figured. I was really replying to Alehk about PvZ 2 and was too lazy to mess with the quote tags. Although now that I've played it more, they do one thing that irks me, ads in the game. Even more fun, the ads are for things in the in game store.