Report: MSFT Working on Free-to-Play for Xbox

[Guest]

Free-to-play is a great idea, however, a lot of companies confuse it with whats really a Pay-to-win model.

For example, there is a Free-to-play game called Mabinogi where you can "rebirth" your character. People willing to pay for a "rebirth", can "rebirth" once every week. Free-to-play players may "rebirth" once every 3 weeks.

So whats the issue?

People generally rebirth so that they can get more AP (Skill points) easily. Getting from Lvl 1 to Lvl 60 takes far less time and effort than getting from Lvl 61 to Lvl 100. In effect, a person who pays for a "rebirth" once a week while getting to Lvl 60 in between "rebirths" Will have far more AP than a free-to-play player in the same amount of time.

 

[eddieroolz]

I dislike the emergence of microtransactions.

 

[back_by_demand]

Another step towards unification of platforms, Xbox and PC gamers both using Xbox Live to login and play games against each other, not yet but this only helps push the dream. If MS are going to compete against the juggernaut of PC gaming that is Steam it really needs to do this right.

 

[awood28211]

I hope free to play means that pay to play isn't overly expensive. On the PC in Perfect World International there aren't many objects you can't get for free but paying means getting the best objects incredibly faster. BUT if you level to 100 and want level 100 gear and weapons on your first day at the new level then you're talking a few hundred maybe even a few thousand dollars depending on how you want to refine said gear.

 

[gm0n3y]

I think a hybrid system is better than pure f2p. Give people the option to play monthly and get access to everything or allow people to pay for each thing they want to use separately. Personally I'd rather pay a monthly fee. And you should NEVER be able to out-compete others just by spending more money. That should be the most important consideration.

 

[jasonpwns]

[citation][nom]the_krasno[/nom]But in tf2 you can get all weapons as a ftp player. You get caps on backpack size and cosmetic changes only, the gameplay will still be balanced.[/citation]


No, I heard certain items and trading isn't allowed to free players.

 

[dalethepcman]

Wow look at all the PS3 and xbox lovers/haters Can you all just get along?

Yes you could use to chat live with your friends. You could use g mail to email them attachments. You could even use Facebook for IM/blogging about your achievements. For many users that's just too much effort, but for the low cost of $50 a year you can have all of that built in, along with everything else the xbox offers. The PS3 offers the same choice's for the same amount, but allows online multiplayer without additional cost.

Now back to the actual article. I think its awesome that Microsoft is looking into free to play games. If a game costs $60 and doesn't give me at least 6 hours of entertainment then it was a total waste. If it doesn't give me at least 30 hours of entertainment then it probably wasn't a good buy. If I get 60+ hours of gaming from a $60 purchase then I'm very happy with the purchase. Now with F2P if I waste an hour of my life playing a crappy game, then oh well it's not like I paid for it.

 

[fir_ser]

So the F2P model is the new trend in the gaming industry right now.