I think this is my favorite thread of yours to date. kudos!
My /played At This Level (so since the prepatch squish) is 51 days and 21 hours. By contrast, my vets is a mere 10 days. That puts me at about an average of 4.8 hours a day on my F2P, though that number has declined since its peak of around 8-9 in feb. Thank you vaccines and baseball.
what is considered a hardcore F2P?
Most F2P tend to think of commitment in terms of achievement points, not /played. And I'd ballpark 8k achievement points as being a pretty reasonable place to separate the hardcore from us filthy casuals.
Some People are pushing 16,000 which is just fucking incredible. I dont think my paid account has that many.
and most importantly, if you are a hardcore F2P (please back up your claim by providing your /played and your armory), why do you endure F2P?
I would not consider myself hardcore (though I did have the best geared
F2P druid in the world in BFA. /played a bit shy of 32 days) but I do think the "Why F2P" question is a compelling one and I've had some scotch and am feeling indulgent so if you'll forgive me for not meeting the initial qualification...
There is a bit of a counter culture vibe to F2P that I really enjoy. You aren't *supposed* to play the game like this. At least not for long. Its supposed to be restrictive to the point of making you want to sub so you can really get into the whole game, what with the auction house and guilds and in-game communities and talking in chat and playing the latest content yaddayaddayadda.
So when you take those restrictions and say "naw, Im gonna lean into this" it just feels better when you get things and it adds a layer of complexity and interest to a game thats otherwise pretty straightforward. Consider, for instance, the professions juggling that a new F2P character has to go through. There's a bit of a puzzle there to figure out so you dont end up wasting hours, if not days, of your time and precious mats. Andre and I lost a lot of sleep trying to streamline that initial process and we still got much of it wrong. Its complex and involved and as such, is deeply rewarding when you do get it figured out.
There was also a sense of real pride in playing F2P because it meant not having access to powerful enchants and crafted gear and all that. That's gone now but it was really awesome to pull off wins when even a leveler with ele force had a significant advantage. Or soloing dungeons without those enchants. One of my favorite F2P memories was
duo clearing scarlet monastery with Ohtis forgotten F2P shaman back when you had to duel in SM during the halloween event and then fear your toon into a little wall glitch to actually get into the cath wing.
Remember the EU kids clearing most of BRD during Brewfest? Legends.
Shit like that ruled. Not really a thing any more, sadly, but Im not convinced that we wont find more edge cases like that in the future. Folks are already pushing some pretty impressive boundaries
On a more micro level, for me personally I feel like F2P WoW is a better RPG than paid WoW. It's just flat out a better version of the game. Or at least, a better version of what the game wanted to be. By removing the power creep, borrowed power systems and endless need to feel a constant state of progress of new content, the game can instead be about exploring and engaging with the world instead of treating various zones and questlines and dungeons as just a step on the way to the "real" game, they become the real game. You hit 20 and get "good 'nuff" gear in a matter of a day. And then... thats it. At least for the xpac. Now you get to really dive into the world that most people just blast through on their way to end game.
To me, thats the appeal of F2P. I can play through a game I genuinely enjoy without having to worry about a constant stream of goofy ass end game mechanics that are just gonna go away when Blizzard decides on the next Azerite or Anima or whatever. And I do it on a toon that has to be entirely self sufficient, which adds a neat layer.
