Free MMORPG questions

[mr friendly guy]

Ok, I have never played an MMORPG before, but I do have a steam account, which I mainly use to play Duel of the Planeswalkers.

While looking for rpg games to try I have come across free MMORPGs. My question is, how do they make money? Am I expected to purchase gear to be competitive in the environment etc?

[Forgothrax]

Depends on the MMO. Some are pay-to-win like you stated. Others are more balanced so free play is possible, but buying stuff is helpful.

[bilateralrope]

If they aren't pay to win, they usually sell a combination of cosmetic items and things like xp boosts which, while they don't allow you to reach stats above that of a player who doesn't buy them, do allow you to reach max stats faster.

Some look free to play at first glance, but lock off content until you pay.

[url=http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminSho ... 94933/Some have very nasty ways to trick you out of your money[/url].

[Zaune]

Some, like the otherwise kind of awesome Wurm Online, require you to subscribe and spend significant real-life money to have any actual fun.

[Borgholio]

Eve online is pay to play, but you can spend in-game currency to practically play for free. They make their money because the game time is actually paid for by someone else and placed on the in-game market for you to buy.

DDO works by giving you a decent game for free and makes money by selling access to dungeons and quests. You can buy piecemeal or pay a monthly fee for full access.

[Jub]

If you want a run down of a few different games ChaosD1 does a series called MMO Grinder that looks at free to play games.

[bilateralrope]

Eve online is pay to play, but you can spend in-game currency to practically play for free. They make their money because the game time is actually paid for by someone else and placed on the in-game market for you to buy.

I've repeatedly heard that getting enough in-game currency to pay for your first month within a 21 day trial is difficult. The second month is much easier, though I prefer to just pay the subscription.

[Borgholio]

Eve online is pay to play, but you can spend in-game currency to practically play for free. They make their money because the game time is actually paid for by someone else and placed on the in-game market for you to buy.

I've repeatedly heard that getting enough in-game currency to pay for your first month within a 21 day trial is difficult. The second month is much easier, though I prefer to just pay the subscription.

Yeah that is true. You need to have a decent income to afford it. But still, EVE is worth paying for.

[Highlord Laan]

Guild Wars 2 costs $60.00 at start to buy the game, but afterwards is completely free. There's a cash shop to get cosmetic items, XP, gold and Karma boosters that last an hour a pop, and other things like pets and packs of armor dyes and skins.

It's also fun as hell.

[Lord Revan]

I agree with GW 2 sure there's a cash shop but you can get to lvl 80 and get decent gear without using a single cent (euro or US) of your money after the initial game.

[Serafina]

You can convert in-game currency into cash-store currency, or vice versa, in GW 2. So even getting the cosmetic items doesn't require any cash.

If you're looking for a non-subscription MMO, GW 2 is by far your best option, since all content is freely accessible without any real-money spending, and its really well done to boot.

[StarSword]

I've been playing a lot of Star Trek Online recently. They've got both F2P and subscription memberships available. Subscribers get access to a few perks free-to-players don't (a few missions, costume pieces, a unique ship per faction, and a monthly stipend of zen, the real money currency) but for the most part there's not really much difference. It's also possible, though very time-consuming, to play completely free since you can exchange one currency earnable in-game (refined dilithium) for zen (value fluctuates on a currency exchange market; right now it's sitting at about 135 dilithium for 1 zen).

They make most of their money off of people buying zen to purchase lockbox keys and mass quantities of dilithium for fleet projects.