Idk bro, 13 bucks a month isn't really mad in my opinion, and i rly dont understand why ppl want to keep blocked and limited when they're -for most of them - paying on another acc
I've been playing as a F2P since I unsubbed halfway through Shadowlands, not because I hated Shadowlands but because I had an acting gig come up and I knew I wouldn't get enough free time to justify paying for a sub but I still wanted to dip in and out of the world of Azeroth so I decided to create a F2P toon and explore what WoW is like from that perspective.
I studied anthropology when I was in university and I was instantly fascinated by the difference in the virtual culture between playing on a subbed PvE toon (I had been playing subbed since Vanilla) and playing an F2P on an RP server as well as playing PvP as an F2P and honestly it's studying the cultural differences that keep me from resubbing. Now there are very few people who would have that motivation to play an F2P toon so I am definitely an outlier.
What are the reason I've discovered that other players play as an F2P?
One is economics. A lot of people playing F2Ps are people from central and South America as well as from economically depressed areas of North America. For someone like me who had been playing subbed since Vanilla the $15 a month subscription fee wasn't really something I ever thought about and was definitely well within my ability to accomodate. That however is simply not a level of privillege afforded to all players. Culture shouldn't be a privillege of those with the money to afford it and there should be a version of WoW that is accessible to people who do not have the money for a subscription. As a Canadian with a comfortable life I feel it's important to be mindful that a person in Brazil or even an economically depressed region of the United States might not have the luxury of $15 a month to play a game they love and a multi-billion dollar corporation like Blizzard should be mindful of that too.
I would recommend that Blizzard should strive to create a more robust F2P experience that also encourages players who can subscribe to subscribe. Blizzard's current model is to give the Trial Accounts a taste of WoW but to make the experience as uncomfortable as possible to discourage people from lingering there. I believe this is very short sided and there are better approaches that would grow the WoW playerbase and increase the number of subscribers without punishing the F2Ps but that's a subject for another discussion.
The other reason why people enjoy the F2P experience is because of the challenge that comes from min-maxing a toon that is severly limited by the mechanics of the game. Playing a level 20 is not like playing a level 29, nor is it like playing a 19 nor is it like playing a 39. Back when XPoff had their own brackets separate from levellers and levellers and F2Ps were in the same queues there was a challenge to playing a 20. You could beat a level 29 leveller if you played smartly because most levellers don't really care about gearing their toons until they reach endgame. That challenge made playing as a F2P twink fun.
But there's a world of difference between a level 29 leveller and a level 29 XPoff twink. Being a 20 Twink in a BG where one side has 29 Twinks is like being in a BG where one side has raid bosses on their team. Now if the way BGs worked was the game wouldn't let 29's into the game unless both sides had the same number of 29s that would be a very interesting and dynamic form of game play and I honestly find the BGs quite enjoyable when random chance delivers such a BG. Level 20 Baby Twinks supporting their side's Daddy Twinks in an evenly matched BG is very fun and as I always say I'd much rather lose a closely matched game than win a hopelessly one sided game.
If Blizzard could make that happen it would be a very fun mode of play but honestly it's probably way more work on their end of the game to make that happen than it would be to simply put all Trial toons into their own queues and not allow XPoff and Levellers into those BGs. It would allow Noobs a chance to better explore what WoW PvP is before they decide if they wish to contribute financially to the experience. It would create more fun battle grounds and a more enjoyable experience. Blizzard doesn't care enough about attracting new players to bother with that and they're really more committed to franchise maintenence at this time. At some point in the future Blizzard might feel the need to grow its player base and who knows what bold strategies they may come up with but for now they're clearly focusing on keeping the players they currently have. If the Trial accounts attracts a few new players then great, but if not they don't care. For the moment the Trial Account is "buy the game or kindly go fuck off".
This means if this bracket is to survive it's up to the players to maintain this bracket and its up to the players to police it. If we don't then the same thing is going to happen that happened when Dragonflight came out. The 29s kill the bracket and we once again have 3+ hour long queues during prime time. Then the 29s eventually get sick of waiting more than three hours for a queue to pop and they fuck in an offward direction. Eventually word gets out that the Daddy Twinks are gone, the Baby Twinks come out of hiding and the queues return to their former glory of less than 20 mins per queue. Then the Daddy Twinks find out of the queues are popping, and they come back and destroy the ecosystem again. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum.
Now 20s and 29s can survive in the same bracket if both sides are equally armed. The Baby Twinks are the infantry and the Daddy Twinks are the artillery. Like I said, it's very dynamic and interesting when both sides have the same number of 29s and as a Baby Twink I've found ways to make myself useful on such battlegrounds. But there's nothing fascinating about playing a BG where one side has 6 Daddy Twinks and 4 Baby Twinks and the other side has 4 Baby Twinks and 6 guys who are just trying out World of Warcraft to see if it's a game worth paying money for in 2025.
Blizzard is not going to do anything to save this bracket. The problem would go away if F2Ps had a queue to themselves with no grouping allowed so XPoffs can't sneak in (which is an exploit that made Blizzard kick the F2Ps out of the Levellers' queues). If this bracket is going to not just survive but thrive then the Twinking guilds have to come up with some rules and enforce them to limit the harm that Daddy Twinks cause to the balance of this bracket. Without an effort made by the Twinking guilds to create a sustainable gaming ecosystem this bracket will be doomed to cyclical exploitation and extinction. The Daddy Twinks are not going to be able to bully their way into a Daddy Twink only level 20s bracket. Eventually they will grow tired of the 3+ long hour queues with nobody to play against.
So what's it going to be? Are we going to do the rational and responsible thing and self police our bracket or are a few 29s going to stick their dick in the potato salad and then cry because nobody invites them to parties anymore?
