Pay2play VS Free2Play ?

[D2Chaos]

Imo, P2P is great, because it's the money-maker of any gaming company. Take WoW for instances. A lot of people complain about the fact that you have to pay. I understand some people are broke, or just don't feel like wasting money on a game. But i'm all for P2P

- Updates constantly, patches, new expansion packs, server fixes, and of course lockdown on hacks/mods.

- P2P will ensure a company will update and check it daily. Unlike Diablo, starcraft, and warcraft where warden is almost never caught scanning.
(Warden is basically the search and ban device )

- Most people on battle.net's games are constantly using hacks, and mods or any 3rd-party programs. Especially Diablo II.

- A lot of companies put just as much effort into their f2p games, as p2p games. But at least you have better Odds with ending up with a hard-working team as far as Pay2play.

What on your thoughts?

 

[intertec]

P2P is way better. Even though you have to spend a little bit of money its worth more then playing lag servers, low quality etc on F2P. So P2P all the way!

 

[Picard1595]

actually the banning on WoW and Battle.net is the same in that blizzard only does mass bans every few years. So really warden is always working just since they only do perma bans every few years then you don't really notice the effects. And like I said its the same in WoW when they learn of a hack or exploit they only detect and ban people for it after at least a year or more.

 

[cjlittler]

iv never played a P2P at my age, with my income, it's pointelss when i can play other games that i still enjoy for free...
i might start investing when i reach 6th form and actually earning

 

[TechAsh]

I've never played a Pay2Play game (Unless you count games that come on a CD/DVD). I always stick to Free Games.

 

[JuniorD]

P2P usually has better graphics, yet F2P has lower set graphics. Usually P2P comes with a campaign, while F2P doesn't. Simple.

 

[Nonames]

Likes F2P games some of them is almost as good as P2P games

so ill stick to F2P games=)

 

[dazappa]

I like games where they give you a f2p version; however simplified it may be. It gives me a feel for the game and helps me decide if I actually want to pay for more or not.

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

pay to play since there are less lagg and they are cleaner

 

[allinone]

why p2p when u have f2p, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[wolfy67]

Although I prefer P2P there are merits and annoyances to both.

*P2P
+ Better support. Generally a few admin running around each server to answer questions or help with bugs (I'm stuck in a wall help!)
+ More frequent updates, patches, and expansions
+ Better graphics and sounds
+ More and interesting people play P2P
- Has it's share of noobs who think paying for the service equates to ruining everyone else' gaming experience.
- The less people that play, the quicker servers shut down permanently and people loose their friend list / guild.
- The cost of playing adds up quickly. At $20/month that's easily the cost of 4 other (brand new!) games that year.

*F2P
+ The devs are able to care more about the product than the bottom line.
+ No charge to play means more money to spend elsewhere or to donate to games you like.
+ Frequently see admin running around causing a scene... testing something? Giving costume changes? Running an event? Probably all three!
- Jam packed with noobs. Not newbies, as we all were at one point, but the kind of noob you wish you could ... PvP into oblivion. In real life.
- Updates, patches, and expansions are only as frequent as time allows. The devs have real life jobs and can't devote as much time to the game.
- Hackers, modders, and exploiters love F2P games. Who cares if you get your free account banned? Just make a new one.
- Generally the graphics/music are outdated. They would have impressed someone playing on SNES but not on modern PCs.

One notable exemption to each: Guild Wars, F2P MMORPG is very good. It couldn't keep my attention up to the first expansion but was still a very good game. Shadowbane, P2P, was trashed by bugs, data leaks, and exploiters. I played for a few months hoping it would get better but ultimately decided to give my money to another company.

 

[Smith6612]

Although I prefer P2P there are merits and annoyances to both.

*P2P
+ Better support. Generally a few admin running around each server to answer questions or help with bugs (I'm stuck in a wall help!)
+ More frequent updates, patches, and expansions
+ Better graphics and sounds
+ More and interesting people play P2P
- Has it's share of noobs who think paying for the service equates to ruining everyone else' gaming experience.
- The less people that play, the quicker servers shut down permanently and people loose their friend list / guild.
- The cost of playing adds up quickly. At $20/month that's easily the cost of 4 other (brand new!) games that year.

*F2P
+ The devs are able to care more about the product than the bottom line.
+ No charge to play means more money to spend elsewhere or to donate to games you like.
+ Frequently see admin running around causing a scene... testing something? Giving costume changes? Running an event? Probably all three!
- Jam packed with noobs. Not newbies, as we all were at one point, but the kind of noob you wish you could ... PvP into oblivion. In real life.
- Updates, patches, and expansions are only as frequent as time allows. The devs have real life jobs and can't devote as much time to the game.
- Hackers, modders, and exploiters love F2P games. Who cares if you get your free account banned? Just make a new one.
- Generally the graphics/music are outdated. They would have impressed someone playing on SNES but not on modern PCs.

One notable exemption to each: Guild Wars, F2P MMORPG is very good. It couldn't keep my attention up to the first expansion but was still a very good game. Shadowbane, P2P, was trashed by bugs, data leaks, and exploiters. I played for a few months hoping it would get better but ultimately decided to give my money to another company.

You also forgot to mention that the Free2Play games also come with more lag as well, since the servers are more overloaded than the paid ones.

 

[kkenny]

You also forgot to mention that the Free2Play games also come with more lag as well, since the servers are more overloaded than the paid ones.

Not necessarily, it's just because F2p Games are more popular than P2P (Because loads of people in this world are freebies) so there are sometimes more players in an F2p server than a P2P server, which makes F2p somewhat more laggy.

 

[wolfy67]

Not necessarily, it's just because F2p Games are more popular than P2P (Because loads of people in this world are freebies) so there are sometimes more players in an F2p server than a P2P server, which makes F2p somewhat more laggy.

From my experience I think he's correct about lag. Although I have played on a few F2P servers that were very good (Adventure Quest and Dragon Fable tend to be excellent, for example) most of the time there is a good bit of lag. This is normally due to two major issues: crowding and quality.

F2P usually has fewer servers than P2P. This means the existing player base crowds onto the few servers, slowing them down. Generally quality is lower also. There have been a few F2P games I've played where the admin admitted their server was little more than an extra box they had laying around that they slapped some server software into and hooked it up to their cable connection. Not exactly "professional" quality eh?

Before you flip, I understand why this happens. The owners of the software (and hardware too) have to make money somehow. If they aren't being paid by the players they have to get their cash from another source e.g. a RL job. This cuts down the amount of resources to pour into the game. I'm not blaming F2P for having poor quality. I'm just stating a fact.

 

[MarioMaster]

Well, it depends on a lot of things. Age, income, and if it's even worth it. I used to play RuneScape, and I almost went P2P. Then I sat down and thought about it, and I realized that going P2P wouldn't be worth it. I only played a half-hour a day (I don't do a whole lot of computer gaming, most of it's on my Wii), so I already struggle to keep up on my F2P skills. Going P2P would just make the game harder! I was also 10 years old, no credit card, parents wouldn't let me, and I only made $8 a month (allowance). That would leave me with $3 to spend on myself. I got one word for you: no.

P.S. Jagex is raising their prices by $.95 (on all plans).

 

[theterminator]

well I liked to play WoW on their regulary servers, but then I switched to private which would kinda be like F2P? But games like Counter-Strike are they considered P2P?

 

[wolfy67]

well I liked to play WoW on their regulary servers, but then I switched to private which would kinda be like F2P? But games like Counter-Strike are they considered P2P?

P2P = Pay to Play. Any game you have to pay a subscription fee to play would be P2P.

F2P = Free to Play. If there is no subscription required to play then it's free to play.

 

[nguyent]

f2p because some of the f2p games quality grqaphics are actually better than p2p

 

[jollyrog]

Pay to Play all the way.

I've been playing EVE: Online for the past 3 1/2 years and it's the best MMO I've ever played (yes, better than WoW assuming you can handle the maturity of it).

There is risk involved (you can't go on a corpse run, once you blow up it's time to get a new ship), the players actually drive the politics in game, the players drive the entire market, alliances can control several regions of space and restrict other players from entering their stations, and PvP is everywhere (there is no completely 100% safe space, just safer space). It's awesome.

There are over 5000 systems to visit too and everyone is on the same server, no crappy shards. It is the largest gaming universe in existence.

I just simply can't imagine a F2P game ever pulling off as much.

 

[Dan]

Please when posting in this thread from now on, make sure that you are not just repeating what someone else has said and make sure you are not just posting a one liner such as 'Pay to play is much better'. Posts should say why you like it and why you don't like the other or why you think this, and why you think that person is wrong etc. etc.