Free(?) to Play games

We have a new era: a time of Free2Play gaming. Many games have gone from an subscription model, to premium based option. Has that done us anything good? Are these games worth their "prices" ? Are they playable in their free iterations? I have spent some time during my examination period playing a few Free2Play games. Some that were subscription based, and some Free2Play from the beginning. And I have a few words about them. Stay awhile and...

Slight warning: the links are adf.ly-ied. Now I need EVERY SINGLE PENNY :/

How to fight boredom? With GRINDING!

After my exams, I had a few days filled with extreme boredom. I decided to fill that time with some kind of time consuming game. I thought MMO games are the best choice. Most of them require hours of grinding and questing to gain something really valuable. You need time to achieve something greater. And since I am a quite poor guy, I decided to try out some F2P MMO's. 

I was not suspecting, that finding an interesting one would be SUCH a challenge.

How to become a Jedi in three hours (or with a load of cash)? 

Star Wars: The Old Republic (C) Electronic Arts/Bioware/Lucas Arts

I am quite a fan of Star Wars. I have also completed Knights of The Old Republic 2 with the Restored Content mod (which I highly recommend to anyone who would like to see how this game SHOULD be made) not so long ago. So The Old Republic sounded like a natural choice in my quest to slay boredom before it completely takes me over.

The gameplay? Probably your typical MMO: skill spamming, looting, quests "kill x monsters" or "bring x to y". The story was what set this game apart. Until the MMO features like PvP, grinding and partying "kicked in", I felt that I played an good, story driven cRPG. A little cliched (like all Bioware RPG's since Neverwinter Nights), but still good.

The game was not bad at start, however the F2P limitations were what scared me away from this game. Later, you feel as if all the fun was either limited or restricted until you pay up. Either in a subscription pay, or using the in-game store to unlock some of the content. I dug up an article in a Polish gaming magazine CD-Action. An journalist counted, that buying all the perks you get in the monthly subscription via the store would cost you almost THREE times the cost of subscription. So beware of the shop. 

The most annoying thing in F2P is that some of the quest awards are locked for non-subscribers. The moment my dreamed lightsaber was locked away from me because I can't afford 15$ a month I regrettably deleted this game from my hard drive and moved on.

Odin goes to Atlantis and fights with Greek gods (or something like that)

War Of Immortals - a typical(?) Berserker. (C) PWE

Perfect World Entertainment has a long story of producing Free 2 Play games. In search of something new, I came across War Of The Immortals. Once again, the story has seduced me: with it's weirdness. We have a mixture all the myths I can recall from my school years: Greek, Nordic, Asian. Name what you want.

Since we got specialits in F2P here, you can see that. There aren't any P2P locations or quests in this game. You can however increase the number of times you can do a daily quest, but you can always do it at least once, even without payments. 

The ingame store has many items (both packs and single ones). These include both powerful weapons (that give you an edge in PvP and Player vs. Enviroment and purely cosmetic items. However, for the whole time I spent in this game, I have not felt worse than someone that was paying. That's a huge plus for this game.

In game is quite peculiar, mostly the graphic style, and point of view, which is different than most new MMO games (since this game is from ~2010, it's not so surprising). Since that, before you try it, take a look of the gameplay video made by MMOHut

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Conan the King, and a (non-Protoss) dark templar.

Conan The King, sitting and thinking... (C) Funcom

Another game turned F2P, after the owners decided, that they can make more money by loosing up the leash. I probably would never tried it, if not it recent arrival on Steam.
Hail to Age Of Conan: Unchained. And by Unchained I mean not not P2P. Of course, there is still a subscription option, and a in-game store. They have to earn their pennies somehow.
Based upon one the best known dark fantasy novels, this game lives up to it. The world is bad, and wants to eat you alive. There are no good fantasy creatures. No Elves to help you with advice or magic artifacts, no Dwarves to build or swing axes like madmen. Only monsters to eat you alive. And before you meet them, you need to beat down some crocodiles and pygmies. Also break down those shackles on your hands. They don't let escaped slaves into towns. Especially those, who killed their owners ;)
Here, the transition from P2P to F2P went the best way: the only hurting limitation non-subscribers get is the character slot limit: you can have only 2 at a time. But have no fear, you can increase that number using the in game shop. Also, the gameplay content is mostly open, with an exception of a expansion called "Rise of The Godslayer" which is, in most part, only for premium players.
However, that's where the pain ends. You can achieve most things in the game, with time alone. Or money, if you want to buy it. But, in my opinion, earning is better than buying. It gives you a sense of pride about what you had accomplished. And that cannot be taken away :)

TL;DR

To sum up everything I wrote here:

 Free2Play MMO's are something like THIS!

But they are still fun to play. Some just don't give enough fun to make non players happy. They try to lure players into subscribing. Or buying more or less necessary things in their in game stores. Some make such investments an necessity to have a good playthrough, like Star Wars: The Old Republic. Some just ask for a few spare coins for their hard work, as Age Of Conan does. But it all depends on the player: on what world he wants to travel, and how much he can pay up to do so.

CONTEST:

The next post I will write will be a review of an MMO game which is funded completely by supporters and cosmetic microtransactions. If you know the title of the game, then write it's title in a comment to this text. The first person to answer correctly will get a Steam key for Darwinia.