118342-why-is-f2p-thought-as-a-bad-thing

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Disclaimer: This post is not my views on why WS should go F2P or if i even think it will. This post is me just being curious and i am neither pro or against a certain model. I would just like to know other players views on the subject and don't pretend to be an expert in the slightest.
 
Hey all.
 
Just curious on a subject which I appreciate can be a bit of a sore point for some folk.
 
I have never really been involved in a community on an mmorpg even though I have played them for nearly 15 years. I tended to avoid forums and mainly stuck within the guild affairs (was sometimes drama enough!!).
 
I came back to WS after a break and decided on a new way of playing/interacting. Whilst reading various posts on the forums, I noticed that a lot of folk would say thing along the lines of "if WS goes F2P i'll quit".
 
I guess my main question is Why? 
 
Now don't get me wrong, i'm not totally clueless (almost). I understand that when a mmo goes full F2P it introduces a P2W theme and developers don't update the game a frequently etc etc.
 
Swtor, however has a joint model. From what I can tell (again this is just from my personal experience playing the game) it is rather successful. Their F2P model limits the players on what they can and can't do whilst giving the subbers full access. The cartel exchange is for cosmetic stuff and even then you don't have to "buy" anything as they give you coins for subbing anyways.
 
If WS was to introduce a joint model, would that be terrible? Say, for F2P players they don't get access to housing, only 1 LAS, wallet and bag limit, AH limit etc etc.
 
Again, I must stress, i'm not saying WS will/wont, should/shouldn't do anything. I am just wondering why people believe it to be "the end" for them. 
 
curiosity killed the cat and all that jazz.
 
Kory	
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There's various theories as to why people are against F2P, but in most discussions it always boils down to the following points:
 
Content remains out
Developers focus more on Cashshop items, not the game
Playerbase is being nickle'd and dime'd
Community has different mentality/mind set
It's considered a failure for a subscription based game
It's the spawn of satan
Regardless of the above points, I personally do not like the free 2 play model either.
In most cases you're forced to spend more money, or a constant amount of money to retain a specific status in the cashshop to unlock specific items. Ragnarok online is example of this, where you can obtain none, bronze, silver or gold status depending on how much you spend every month.
 
I've also seen games where the promised content for the game is placed on the back-burner and only new cash-shop items are being added to the game.
The game becomes stale and boring, and the only updates you'll see is a new hat or costume for your character.
There's also games that simply get destroyed because it becomes a pay 2 win situation, where simply throwing more money against the game guarantees your success.
 
There's also games that have awesome implementations, where the Cash Shop is nothing more then a faster way to achieve things.
I think warframe is an example of this. You either unlock everything ingame yourself by farming and playing or you simply buy it.
 
Tl;DR; there are many variations and forms, and many believes why people think it's good or bad.	
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for me it has always been the kind of players that F2P brings in.
 
joint model or not, if you are not paying real money to play every month, the attitude seems to be "if I get banned will just make a new account" and people act as irresponsible as they can because there are no consequences to that. there is little "community" feeling in a f2p game, since again, you can get a group together to have fun, and if you are on someones "list" to be targeted, they will make as many free accounts as possible to ruin your play experience.
 
I have nothing against a F2P meal. its the people that it brings to eat at the table.
 
PS. yes, the never ending hand in my real life bank account is a pain as well.	
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Because when I play a game and relax, I don't want to have to think about money. I think about money when I make a decision to sub to the game and carve $30 out of my budget (for myself and my fiance). When I play, I want to be able to log in and thing about the game, not my bank account.
 
Micro transactions cause me to have to be aware of my bank account and ever on guard for whether I am spending more than my allotted money. That isn't fun for me. In fact, it makes me feel manipulated by the developers because they are trying to create stuff to make me spend money I didn't intend to spend. I want to know my investment and be done with it. I don't want to feel pressured into buying more stuff.
 
And if I pay a monthly fee, I don't want to feel like that isn't enough to enjoy everything the game has to offer.	
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Free to play more often than not does't equal 'free to enjoy the actual game'.
 
To put it in more drastic terms: once a game goes f2p and has a cash shop, all effort that is made by the developing team goes into 'how can we earn more money through the cash shop?' rather than 'how can we make the game a more enjoyable experience?'
 
SW:TOR's f2p model is universally considered one of the worst, because you get numerous restrictions (they are restricting the amount of quickbars you can have ... wtf), although it's said that achieving 'preferred' status is much more enjoyable (you need to purchase just one item from the cash shop); I, however, feel that a subscription is more or less necessary to really ENJOY the game. 
 
And you usually have to pay a whole lot more money to achieve the same level of convenience as in p2p games, because the game is trying to rip you off at any point imagineable. Devs really do get creative.	
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I appreciate the well thought out replies and explanations.
 
Thank you guys :) 	
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I recall my experience trying out LOTRO after if went F2P.
 
Almost every single quest dialog/reward window had a big cash shop button reminding me that I can spend real money to do this a little faster, or buy these items off the cash shop if I need more of them, or that I need to buy special items off the cash shop to get what amounts to permanent stat upgrades.
 
Furthermore, F2P players have zero investment in the game.  They are transients, and many behave like transients.  It's like the literal stereotype about gypsies or the homeless. Most simply come in like locusts, consume what they can and leave; and those are the good ones.  Others stick around, but they are of the type that are either unreliable and contribute nothing to the community, or they are the type that will troll people and make multiple free accounts to do just that. 
 
Free accounts also create situations where multi-boxing becomes standard practice, and who wants to be forced to do that to stay competitive?
 
Other things people have mentioned: shift of focus to cash generating content instead of creating good experiences for players, and other content dries up. 
 
Monetization of vanity/customization is also terrible for an RPG, where those things are at the core of the player experience.
 
I could keep going, but F2P just has no place in this genre.	
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for me it has always been the kind of players that F2P brings in.
 
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Yeah because the "hardcore" players Wildstar tried to attract are the nice ones. Most of the pro wildstar people on these forums always blame the players for the games problem... yese the non-F2P players are all awesomely cool.
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Yeah because the "hardcore" players Wildstar tried to attract are the nice ones. Most of the pro wildstar people on these forums always blame the players for the games problem... yese the non-F2P players are all awesomely cool.
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Ever though that maybe it's because "the other guys" make unreasonable requests to completely destroy existing content that some subset of people are actually enjoying? 
 
Furthermore, Wildstar was never marketed as a "hardcore" only game; it was a meme, and some people clearly didn't understand the joke.
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Yeah because the "hardcore" players Wildstar tried to attract are the nice ones. Most of the pro wildstar people on these forums always blame the players for the games problem... yese the non-F2P players are all awesomely cool.
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What content are you worried about them destroying? Raiding there is under 10000 raiders in Wildstar (actually could probably have said 5,000)... even if you have 100,000 subs this is only 10% of the game. So this is 10% of the game that is getting catered to to keep happy, who may/may not be providing most of the income to carbine (heads up they aren't).
 
The biggest representative part of the community that is supporting the game financially is most likely people who are mainly interesting in playing the game slowly and making their house pretty (ie filthy casuals and RPers), a lot of these people probably buy CREDD as well as they dont do dailies and may not have a lot of platinum. For these people yes I see them being concerned about new items they need to pay cash money for coming in if the game goes cash shop. But it would not affect the content they already have, just may put some of the things they like most of the game behind a cash shop wall. No one is making you buy the giant golden LOPP statue.
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No one is making you buy the giant golden LOPP statue.
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Kestriel said players, not forum posters.  And I agree.  The *cupcake* I saw litter SWTOR(in game) after F2P is part of what made me stop playing that game.  I have yet to be whispered in W* about cybering and what-not just because my toon happens to be female.  The misandry, misogyny, racism, misanthropic *cupcake* is gloriously limited in W*.  Oh, no doubt it's there, but I'm not turning off my chat completely while idling in-game somewhere because I am disgusted by what I see(which is sad really, I'm a fairly easy going person that can get a chuckle or two out of crude humor).  
 
I don't like F2P because of what's already mentioned:  It's not actually free, the player-base is questionable, I'd rather earn my stuff in game by playing not paying extra.  I how ever don't mind a merch/cash shop that has a limited amount of cosmetic items.
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You know I played SWTOR and I never got whispered in the game about CYBERING, I also never got whispered in any game about cybering, I am not saying that your lying but other than them being whinging and being bad players in general F2P players are more meat for the grinder which is what the game needs.
 
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Come on guys - please respect the nature of the original post.
 
I was just after peoples thoughts on F2P vs Sub and why they think it is game changing.
 
I didn't intend this to be a "your views are wrong because I said so" thread	
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Oh the players in the game that quit a pug after one person dies on trash? The players who would wintrade? The players who exploited gold bug and broke the economy? The players who would do reg PVP in premade groups just to troll the other team and make them rage quit because they spawn camped maps to kill players and not play objectives after they effectively won.
 
You know I played SWTOR and I never got whispered in the game about CYBERING, I also never got whispered in any game about cybering, I am not saying that your lying but other than them being whinging and being bad players in general F2P players are more meat for the grinder which is what the game needs.
 
I mean chat spam exists in WOW, SWTOR... but that is something I can live with. You can turn it off and sometimes it is actually funny looking how silly people are.
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Come on guys - please respect the nature of the original post.
 
I was just after peoples thoughts on F2P vs Sub and why they think it is game changing.
 
I didn't intend this to be a "your views are wrong because I said so" thread
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My normal problem with games going F2P are basically based from my experiences in other games that have gone free to play.
 
1. Players - The players that come in to F2P games tend to be, as others have said, a bit less mindful of the game, it's setting, and the other players that are around them.  That's not to say that this is universally the case, but LOTRO and Champions Online are fair cases for comparison versus when they were sub'd games.  Some people abuse the fact that they have a free account and no real consequences for being an ass.  Much like many parts of the internet funny enough.
 
2. Cash Shop Focus (For the games that focus on such things) - There are some games that focus only on the cash shop and little on much else after they go F2P.  This isn't the case in all situations though.  I feel that The Secret World (which is Buy to Play, and not F2P but has dropped its sub model a long time ago) handles the cash shop with mostly cosmetic items and a few "boosters" for those who want them.  But they don't make the cash shop mandatory.  I feel GW2 is very cash shop focused and almost exploitatively so.  Some games do it right and some do it awfully but i take it on a wait and see sort of mentality.
 
3. Game Stagnation - Some games just don't expand beyond the F2P conversion.  no real new content, no expansion, nothing really happens in some games after a while.  LOTRO, while F2P has had several expansions since it went F2P so on that front has done things decently well in that regard.  Champions Online and GW2 not so much.  The Secret World just introduced Tokyo and all sorts of new systems, simulations and such an update or two ago as well.  So they're still moving forward with the content even though they've gone without the sub model.
 
For me I don't rule a game out because it's F2P.  I still log in occasionally to LOTRO, CO, TSW, and even GW2 if I'm feeling a bit dangerous.  It depends on how the game is handled in the conversion and what is withheld and what isn't on a F2P game.  Most games that I play that I'm sub'd to that go F2P I'll most likely just keep subbing to anyway so most things won't change for me financially or worrying about cash shops or anything of the sort.	
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You wanted our opinions, we're giving them.   Some are pointing out why F2P is good from their perspective, and those that think F2P is bad are countering that with their perspective.  People are pointing out why F2P is bad from their perspective, and those that think F2P is good are countering that with their perspective.  I don't see anyone saying "your opinion is wrong because I said so", but I am seeing "i don't agree with your opinion because my experiences have caused me to form the opposite opinion".
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Fair point - was just trying to prevent a flame attack
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I've played F2P MMOs for some times and there are several issues with this payment model.
 
The first one is that the game is only funded by 10% of the playerbase in some cases. Many people tend to consider F2P games as "free" so the studio making the game relies on a small subset of the population to pay for the development. F2P also means that if there's no return on investment on features and updates they won't do it, it's as simple as that. Even bug fixes have to go through the "profitable or not?" check list.
 
Of course there are various flavours of free to play so here is a short list of the ones I know:
 
- item based F2P games. In such games levelling is just a glorified tutorial. You reach max lvl quickly, and then the real game starts. Once your character is 50 or 60, you don't stop levelling it up, but you do it in a different way: better gear, stats upgrade, unique perks, and some of them may be sold in the cash shop. When I was playing Neverwinter, I noticed the game is just selling us more character power/levels or sometimes brand new spells in the cash shop. They're often designed to be more powerful than the free versions - when that free version exists, which isn't a given, or sometimes, you can loot some of the cash shop items (but not all of them) with an astoundingly low drop chance.
 
Item based F2P games tend to have two major flaws and offer one good thing: newer content can be played for free because they're not selling content per se, they're selling character upgrades, but the drawbacks are that once you reach the max endgame level, you're not really welcome anymore, and power creep is a big issue in such games. Since F2Ps are funded by a small subset of the playerbase the dev team isn't that big and content is tailored for the average player, which means that it's going to be challenging for casuals and a snoozefest for players with some of the best equipment. Also yeah, others have said it, but pay to win. Or pay for power, which is more accurate. And it sucks.
 
- F2P is a free trial and you have to purchase a premium account (Age of empires online) or a subscription (star wars the old republic, which I didn't play). You can level up your character for free and this free levelling content is supposed to act as a hook to make you buy the full game. There's often a cash shop, pay to win is theorically less rampant than in the item based games since all players more or less have to pay for the game at some point. These games can be cool but rely on heavy content drops which is never free. I have mixed feelings about such games, to me the fun fades out fast. You can't play with your friends if they don't buy the new piece of content and it sucks.
 
- The F2P game selling gameplay. These games have been designed from scratch with a specific F2P model in mind. Content is freely accessible, high end gear can be freely farmed, but you can only play a handful of classes for free. The game sells convenience, like inventory slots, time, and sometimes starter gear. Sometimes you can even play all the classes for free provided you spend some time farming them but it requires the game to have a low running cost (like no servers). The best example I have in mind is Warframe. It's IMO the best F2P model, the less predatory one, but that doesn't mean such games are perfect. The game having no servers requires the players to host matches and it can lead to some frustration if you don't have the bandwith for it.
 
IMO free to play can be a good thing but good F2P games with no pay for power are extremely rare. They're an exception. Which is why I'm here honestly. The current free to play design of most game is despicable.
 
If you want some more information about free to play here is a youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwI0u9L4R8U
 
Here is a link showing you how predatory free to play games work:
http://gdcvault.com/play/1019776/Monetization-Lessons-from-Asian-Free (things really get "exciting" around page 7: abusing gambling addiction is the most interesting one).	
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 :D Admirable, but unfortunately we forum posters tend to be a passionate(to put it mildly) lot, and cooler heads rarely prevail :D
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I'll give it to you in the shortest version possible (since I've posted the long form of this a LOT lately).
 
Right now, we're getting 100% access to 100% of the content that was designed for, ostensibly, 15-20 dollars a month.  All of us.  CREDD players are "paid in" monthly.  Sub players of course pay in monthly.  It's a little socialist society where everyone contributes exactly the same amount and we all get access to everything developed.  That means that the developers are incentivized to develop content for all of us to enjoy and to focus on quality, because they are paid per player per month.
 
The dynamic completely shifts in F2P.  Suddenly, those CREDD players aren't players anymore, they're a drag being completely supported by moneymaking ventures targeting fewer players.  The developers then have every incentive to make content to sell, not to enjoy for all.  Right now, CREDD players are like all players, we're all standing on the same surface.  In F2P, no matter what happens, suddenly people with more money they want to spend IRL get more stuff and get to stand on a hill over the rest.  The devs will design for those players because the free players don't pay anything.  The money comes from somewhere, F2P isn't actually free to play.  It just means that the developers will attract a lot of people who will incur cost but not contribute, while those that contribute will be subtly prodded to contribute a lot more.
 
I'd rather not be a whale or have anyone else be a minnow in a F2P game, not for anything.  Everyone should get equal access to everything and everyone should shoulder their flat percentage of the burden.  That way, the devs don't have to target content, they just make the game as good as possible all around to keep as many of us subscribed as possible.	
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Guess i'm learning the hard way :D
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The developers then have every incentive to make content to sell, not to enjoy for all.  Right now, CREDD players are like all players, we're all standing on the same surface.  In F2P, no matter what happens, suddenly people with more money they want to spend IRL get more stuff and get to stand on a hill over the rest.  The devs will design for those players because the free players don't pay anything.
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My experience is quite the opposite actually but we probably played different flavours of free to play. In some free to play games once you have farmed or bought the best gear you see a giant, flashing, "GTFO" pannel on top of every update. You have bought all our stuff, thank you for coming and don't let the door hit you. The game is boring/way too easy for power players or cash shop users. They only focus on new players because new accounts are potentially better customers.
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Oh the players in the game that quit a pug after one person dies on trash? The players who would wintrade? The players who exploited gold bug and broke the economy? The players who would do reg PVP in premade groups just to troll the other team and make them rage quit because they spawn camped maps to kill players and not play objectives after they effectively won.
 
You know I played SWTOR and I never got whispered in the game about CYBERING, I also never got whispered in any game about cybering, I am not saying that your lying but other than them being whinging and being bad players in general F2P players are more meat for the grinder which is what the game needs.
 
I mean chat spam exists in WOW, SWTOR... but that is something I can live with. You can turn it off and sometimes it is actually funny looking how silly people are.
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To put it in more drastic terms: once a game goes f2p and has a cash shop, all effort that is made by the developing team goes into 'how can we earn more money through the cash shop?' rather than 'how can we make the game a more enjoyable experience?'
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I've found this to be more a function population size than funding model.  My female toons have been propositioned here, in TOR and in WoW.  And WoW was the worst.  Same with public chats... in fact, in TOR one of the non-sub restrictions is how often you can post on a public channel.  The worst offenders there were subs.
 
Wildstar doesn't really have the population for the trolls to really fire things up.  I have seen a heated housing zone discussion once, so WS isn't immune either.
 
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Disclaimer: This post is not my views on why WS should go F2P or if i even think it will. This post is me just being curious and i am neither pro or against a certain model. I would just like to know other players views on the subject and don't pretend to be an expert in the slightest.
 
Hey all.
 
Just curious on a subject which I appreciate can be a bit of a sore point for some folk.
 
I have never really been involved in a community on an mmorpg even though I have played them for nearly 15 years. I tended to avoid forums and mainly stuck within the guild affairs (was sometimes drama enough!!).
 
I came back to WS after a break and decided on a new way of playing/interacting. Whilst reading various posts on the forums, I noticed that a lot of folk would say thing along the lines of "if WS goes F2P i'll quit".
 
I guess my main question is Why? 
 
Now don't get me wrong, i'm not totally clueless (almost). I understand that when a mmo goes full F2P it introduces a P2W theme and developers don't update the game a frequently etc etc.
 
Swtor, however has a joint model. From what I can tell (again this is just from my personal experience playing the game) it is rather successful.
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http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/08/eas-quarterly-net-revenue-is-up-apparently-in-spite-of-swtor/
 
Actually its not. It's losing money.
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What content are you worried about them destroying? Raiding there is under 10000 raiders in Wildstar (actually could probably have said 5,000)
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The biggest representative part of the community that is supporting the game financially is most likely people who are mainly interesting in playing the game slowly and making their house pretty (ie filthy casuals and RPers), a lot of these people probably buy CREDD as well as they dont do dailies and may not have a lot of platinum.
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			F2P sucks because the developers end up making hats and swimsuits, instead of more adventures.	
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http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/08/eas-quarterly-net-revenue-is-up-apparently-in-spite-of-swtor/
 
Actually its not. It's losing money.
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Simply put, free to play is thought of a bad thing because so many companies abuse it.
Because of that it's gotten a bad reputation.	
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There are pros and cons for a F2P model, but unfortunately as many have stated prior, the cons tend to outweigh the pros.
 
For the Pros:
New players and refreshed community.
Simple to start; not worrying about paying upfront to play the game.
A lot more cosmetics are generally drafted to entice players.
Obvious a boon to the company’s financial status.
One can come and go as they please.
 
The Cons:
Said new players are often portraying themselves as repulsive, bullies and / or stalker like people.
Rarely meet new friends that would stay.
Rotation of people are faster than the hire rates at McDonalds.
Content is often gated; either via cash shop or force to subscribe or both.
Imperative UI elements, banks, inventory, money, et cetera are often locked out for those on the F2P model and thus either have to sub or buy via cash shop to unlock them.
Zones are generally gated and unlock via cash shop.
Users often get exploited via cash shop for knick-knacks and other stuff that would have been given to the players if sub based.
Thanks to Facebook and older F2P models; people often see Free to Play as Pay to Win.
Cash shop is often in your face to buy something.
Players spend erratically more money on a F2P model than a sub base one. Even if it was unintentional on both parties.
If F2P game has a sub base hybrid, often times when one lapse their subscription they are often  revert their status quo to a F2P and get gated out of massive content and / or said prior UI elements.
 
What I feel people want is a minimal investment into a game they are interested in. MMO’s in general are evolving games, and thus the same game last year would be different today. Hence seeing younger generations still not as employed as much as the older generations, I feel as if most of the younger generations feel entitled to have a risk free MMO. I also feel the internet and modern society have taught us that we can have what we want if we bark the loudest, even if that statement is false. Given that most companies buckle under the pressure of the demand for a F2P model, weather it was asked for or not, I see why people are persistent on demanding developers to convert.	
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There's simply no need for a giant F2P conversion.
 
Carbine has taken the correct first step: lowering the box price.  WoW sells their newest xpac box for 50% off regularly starting 6 months after launch.
 
The next step is to offer open free trials, either timed 7-14 days, or to a low level cap (probably 20 so you can try some of everything including a dungeon, and never stop offering them.
 
That's really all there is to it.  An online-only game, whether its an MMO or not, should always have a free trial IMO... but especially is there's a sub involved.  They used to do this by default back in the day.	
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F2P sucks because the developers end up making hats..
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F2P sucks because the developers end up making hats and swimsuits, instead of more adventures.
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Here's my big problem with F2P:
 
Lets imagine there's two themeparks (with roller coasters and such).  One of the themeparks has a 1 time price to get in.  Once you pay, you have access to all the rides and can go where ever you want in the park. 
 
In the other themepark its free to get in, but all the big and cool rides cost money.  As you walk around and look up at all the wondrous rides you could enjoy, you're constantly met with signs saying (costs $x to enter!).  Every ride you see, you have to look at it and evaluate whether or not you think the ride justifies the price.  You're constantly making tons of financial judgements and guesses.  "Does this roller coaster really look like its worth $5.95? What about the one over here for $3.49?"  It quickly takes away from the experience of being in a themepark.  Instead of running around having fun trying to decide what to do next, you're carefully calculating each decision to make sure you're spending your money on the right rides.  It's even worse when there's some big awesome ride in the back of the park, but it's outside your budget.  As you walk around the park riding other rides, you're constantly reminded of the big one in the back that you'll never get to enjoy because you aren't willing to pay extra for it.  It really detracts from your enjoyment of the rest of the park.  The whole time you feel like you have to maximize your enjoyment while minimizing the amount you spend on it.
 
I'd much rather just pay a lump sum at the door, even if it costs more overall, than have to constantly decide whether or not an individual item is worth it's price.  I'd rather just pay $60 for Wildstar, than pay $5.00 for the costume system, $3.95 for the LFG finder, $8.75 to unlock housing, $10 to unlock raids, $6.95 to get this cool weapon costume, etc etc etc...   I don't PVP a whole lot, and while I've enjoyed my time in BGs, I don't think I'd pay extra to unlock it if I had to, which would be a shame.	
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I'm tired of this discussion, but I chime in every time anyway on the theory that silence condones evil.  Honest questions on the issue are a refreshing change though.  So here's my direct response to questions in OP:
 
F2P is toxic to a game, in development and in community.  It moves the profit motive to trivial items/cash shop, and thus provides a powerful incentive, even a requirement, that developers focus on the cash shop.  Some games have resisted this urge, and continued supporting the core game, but these are the exception and a rarity.
 
It's also toxic to the community, because the F2P system relies on a few fat-cats buying way too much stuff to offset the usually low payout of everyone else.  This means that the developers have to cater to a very small subset of the community in order to make a profit.  It's very easy for a developer to stop caring about the community, and in an MMO the community IS the game in many respects.  Again, some games/companies don't do this, but they are the exception.
 
 
-----Now, the examples:-----
 
edit: wow, this part came out long.  Um, [RANT] on.  Answers to OP are above this point, but the tirade below may help you understand the *hatred* a lot of people have for F2P.
 
My favorite example of F2P instigated death is GW2.  It's not the worst business model I've personally played (that honor goes to MWO), but it was the biggest insult. It was marketed as a casual friendly, semi-sandbox game where the focus was on exploring the game and enjoying content.  This is what was delivered on launch day.  Progression was supposed to be horizontal (1), expansions were to focus on story and world development (2), and the players themselves were supposed to influence the world around them (3).  Level scaling was meant to eliminate the concept of "end game" and just make the whole game enjoyable in it's place (4).  To be short, it was the exact game I wanted as a 30+ person with literally decades of gaming behind me, disposable income, and limited time.  Considering how many people like me there are constantly streaming out of WoW, GW2 was set to become THE game to reset all the mmo standards.
 
Arena Net turned that all around in less the 60 days after launch.  The first content patch introduced a new tier of gear, an endgame progression dungeon, and featured cash shop items that gave an in-game advantage (specifically: harvesting tools that give extra resources.  there was an outcry, and to my knowledge they haven't repeated that mistake, for what it's worth.  But they tried).  They completely reversed on goal (1), were silent on goal (3), and layed the groundwork for completely reversing goal (4).  Every release has added new time-gated currency or crafting items, turning (4) around and making GW2 one of the grindiest treadmills in existence.  Goal (2) has somewhat been met, but it's been tied extensively to the cash shop.  There have been NO new items added that you don't buy, in two years.  Even the cash shop itself is a treadmill to grind.  You have to open RNG boxes and collect tickets to get the shiny new gear, just like collecting raid points, only it costs you money.  Everywhere you look, every patch, there is constant pressure to buy bling.  Playing the game, I feel like a mark in a flea market.
 
All of this was done 60 days after release.  It was insulting and an embarrassment for the industry.  A company I had known and trusted for 5+ years (GW1 was awesome) turned completely around literally overnight.  I waited two months before trying Wildstar solely because it was published by the same company as GW2 (NCSoft), and didn't have a free trial I could use to put my fears to rest.  And yet in spite of all this, in spite of it's spectacular poisoning of the well for everything that comes after it, F2P supporters list GW2 as one of the great successes of the business model.  If anyone in this thread says that, remember this post, and ask "successful for who?"  Certainly not the players.	
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