Buying gold / gametime - the end for F2P as we know it?

Allarien

Grandfathered
From MMO-champion:

New Ways to Play
We’re exploring the possibility of giving players a way to buy tradable game-time tokens for the purpose of exchanging them in-game with other players for gold. Our current thought on this is that it would give players a way to use their surplus gold to cover some of their subscription cost, while giving players who might have less play time an option for acquiring gold from other players through a legit and secure system. A few other online games offer a similar option, and players have suggested that they’d be interested in seeing something along those lines in WoW. We agree it could be a good fit for the game, and we look forward to any feedback you have as we continue to look into this feature.

Seems they think about using the wildstar model. Not sure what to think of that. I kind of fear level 20 twinking will die if subscription time is relatively easy to get...
 
Crystalpall said:
Subscription time is already really easy to get, most of us play F2P because we enjoy breaking the limits
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A lot of people also get scammed though.

In either case quite a few will go back to their linked accounts and do level 90/100 pvp, further destroying queues at lower levels. At least I'm fully expecting that.
 
Crystalpall said:
Subscription time is already really easy to get, most of us play F2P because we enjoy breaking the limits
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I agree with Crystal. For me one of the appeals of F2P is how it is like NASCAR: everyone is trying to make the most of a limited set of abilities and gear, so personal skill becomes more important. I can certainly afford to play P2P end-game, and I did for many years, but I like the low-time-investment model better. Not having to grind for new gear all the time to stay competitive is a godsend.
 
Kincaide said:
I agree with Crystal. For me one of the appeals of F2P is how it is like NASCAR: everyone is trying to make the most of a limited set of abilities and gear, so personal skill becomes more important. I can certainly afford to play P2P end-game, and I did for many years, but I like the low-time-investment model better. Not having to grind for new gear all the time to stay competitive is a godsend.
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I agree with this and I'm in a similar boat. The constant gear grind end game gets annoying.

But things like
Paragon-Progress.png

get me itching for end game again...
 
People have been buying, selling and scamming since the game began. It's about time they gave us a legitimate way of doing it. They've already had gold buying for some time, by buying pets and in game, non BoP, TCG items. Now they're giving people a way to sell too.

I disagree that most F2P players do it for the restrictions. Certainly some do, but most? Not even close.
 
Kincaide said:
I agree with Crystal. For me one of the appeals of F2P is how it is like NASCAR: everyone is trying to make the most of a limited set of abilities and gear, so personal skill becomes more important. I can certainly afford to play P2P end-game, and I did for many years, but I like the low-time-investment model better. Not having to grind for new gear all the time to stay competitive is a godsend.
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I'm the same, but if the already small f2p playerbase is further divided by the new system I don't see much hope for the lower pvp bracket. The qs are already very long (at least on EU) and now imagine:

25% of the current f2p playerbase playing till level 90 to goof around and collect stuff. Maybe just play the AH game (which can be fun)

25% might level to 90 and actually form a new bracket, basically establishing 90 twinks till the next (free) expansion rolls in.

25% start to buy expansions and play at max like a regular subscriber. WoW is treated like a Buy to Play game.

While the rest sits at 20 and waits 2 hours for a WSG pop.

Of course the numbers are out of my ass, but it gets the point across.
 
90 is much bigger than 20. Most random queue pops on both sides are 0-2 mins. 20 isn't even close to 90.
 
Aradiel said:
90 is much bigger than 20. Most random queue pops on both sides are 0-2 mins. 20 isn't even close to 90.
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Even with WoD available? Well, one more incentive for people to use the new system.

Guess that's the nail in the coffin then. Love f2p twinking, but I'm not going to wait hours for a bg pop.
 
Allarien said:
Even with WoD available?
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It's the same reason the 70 bracket lasted so long. As long as the starter game is 90, there will be people playing it. There's also a lot more to do at 90 than 20. I can see 90 becoming more popular with low income players if you can buy game time with gold legitimately.
 
Allarien said:
Even with WoD available? Well, one more incentive for people to use the new system.

Guess that's the nail in the coffin then. Love f2p twinking, but I'm not going to wait hours for a bg pop.
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Why must people jump the gun and assume this is going to kill f2p twinking? I know plenty of people, myself included, who have a p2p and f2p account and still find time to play both, and I also know of people who hate the gearing process but like playing by the f2p restrictions, so they make it on their paid account for the convenience.
 
Allarien said:
Guess that's the nail in the coffin then. Love f2p twinking, but I'm not going to wait hours for a bg pop.
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Don't look now, but the sky is falling.

The idea that F2P is even remotely in the coffin to begin with is quite preposterous, much less that this new concept--which, mind you, is just being kicked around at this point--is the final nail.

Don't take this the wrong way, but a TI account that joined this month and has less than 20 posts on it is probably not in much of a position to be declaring anything dead and buried.
 
I don't think F2P or XP off 20 will ever die completely. Jajas, dedicated F2P, and people that enjoy the simplicity will keep the bracket alive. Even before this though, I think there has been a drop in numbers. A massive increase in BG queue times, and to me at least, making F2P less enjoyable that it has been in the past. Perhaps the BoA tab will mean leveling BGs will be the way to go. 10-19 XP on is very active, having a full suite of BoAs at your disposal will make you more competitive than 20s vs 29s.

With current scaling, all 90-99's gear gets scaled to 590, that's up or down. Legendaries are scaled up. OP crafted gear at 91 is scaled down. Everyone is on pretty equal footing, and queue times are fast. I can see it being a very attractive $5 to spend for many, and $0 for old accounts. Currently, 90s, XP on, XP off, and panda locked 90s are all in the XP on 90-99 bracket.

If they end up doing that for 20s too, putting F2P in the XP on bracket, I think it will breathe new life into F2P, and drastically improve both queue times, and make 20s more competitive against leveling noobs than they are against GF 29 twinks. Of course there is no word of F2P going into XP on, I just think it would be a good idea. Faster queues. Put F2P on more equal footing with the people they're playing against.
 
Aradiel said:
A massive increase in BG queue times,

With current scaling, all 90-99's gear gets scaled to 590, that's up or down. Legendaries are scaled up. OP crafted gear at 91 is scaled down. Everyone is on pretty equal footing, and queue times are fast. I can see it being a very attractive $5 to spend for many, and $0 for old accounts. Currently, 90s, XP on, XP off, and panda locked 90s are all in the XP on 90-99 .
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First off, saying queues went up because people are quitting is simply not entirely the case. The added battlegrounds, especially AV, has a huge impact. Skirmishes take people out of the pool. Some will just queue for those and others will miss their pop while in an arena, then get another arena before a BG pops again and so on.

I am pretty sure xp-off 90 and mop accounts don't queue into xp-on BGs. Also items do not scale down.
 
Takeo said:
First off, saying queues went up because people are quitting is simply not entirely the case.
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I never said it was because people were quitting. That said, people quit, longer queues. Longer queues, people quit, and so the cycle continues.

Takeo said:
I am pretty sure xp-off 90 and mop accounts don't queue into xp-on BGs. Also items do not scale down.
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Wrong and wrong. See:
shanker said:
as for 640 scaling a poster in this thread said it is scaled down to 590, so appears no loophole god mode gear there
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You got pretty much that entire post wrong. Now, part of the queue times are certainly because of the new BGs, but those wouldn't be a problem at all if the numbers were there to fill them. They simply are not. 90s are popping multiple 40v40 BGs with no problem at all, because the numbers are there.
 
Kincaide said:
Don't look now, but the sky is falling.

The idea that F2P is even remotely in the coffin to begin with is quite preposterous, much less that this new concept--which, mind you, is just being kicked around at this point--is the final nail.

Don't take this the wrong way, but a TI account that joined this month and has less than 20 posts on it is probably not in much of a position to be declaring anything dead and buried.
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I'm not sure what my joindate has to do with the fact that some will definitely leave the bracket due to this change? Of course the hardcore players will keep playing, but I certainly won't have fun with ridiculous queue times. Maybe the situation is different on the US realms, but the exp-off bracket on EU is currently a nightmare.

And don't you think it's logical that the queues will only increase if people have more options to play the game for free? Thus increasing qs to even more ridiculous levels?
As Aradiel said, I could see people constantly rolling 10-19 to join the lively exp-on bracket, but Blizzard also said that leveling in BG's is currently broken (we get much less exp than we should). Their goal is to make pvp a viable way to level, which should give us a hint just how much exp we should get during a BG (probably similar to running a full dungeon). Rerolling chars for 3-4 BGs, even with BoAs, doesn't sound very fun to me.
 
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