Advertising SK as 'free'
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 00:40
I feel like advertising this game as free is fairly disingenuous and is contributing to an obfuscation of the actual price tag associated with playing.
The reason I feel that this is not actually a free game is simply that using crystal energy, 100% of which is produced as a result of someone purchasing it with real money is necessary for the vast majority of the game. Any individual player may not be paying money, but his or her actions are invariably backed up by money that has been spent by another player. To me, this makes the game shareware, not in any way free.
The way prices work out now, just in crafting CE it costs between $4.17 and $3.14 US to craft a 5* item depending on how much mist energy is used. Every 5* item in the game created since the update raising crafting costs has used up that dollar amount of CE, regardless of whether or not the individual crafting it bought the CE him or herself. Figuring out the CE costs of the crowns involved or the materials used becomes very difficult and impossible to get objective numbers without probabilities for various drops and a handful of other factors, but I have been wondering for a while now whether or not the community as a group is comfortable with these prices, and whether or not people think it is appropriate to identify this game as free to play.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 00:47
#2
Wow,
You're the first one to complain about the whole not free to play, providing legitimate reasons! No sarcasm, bravo. -claps-
Well, the players who spend money on CE are coming back again enough to keep CE flow, so.
Well, calling it shareware was pretty accurate.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 00:48
#3
My rationale in saying it is
@ZealousD
My rationale in saying it is not free to play was, as I explained, that said micro-transactions are a requirement for playing the vast majority of the game, whether you pay for the micro-transaction or purchase it off of another player with in game money (I also don't think it's particularly micro, for what it's worth).
Mist energy is more of a demo/trial than an opportunity to play for free.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 00:57
#4
I want an energy subforum so
I want an energy subforum so much.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 01:24
#5
@OnmyojiOmn
This barely has
@OnmyojiOmn
This barely has anything to do with energy. The only way in which it does is that energy is the mechanic that is obfuscating the cost of playing.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 01:29
#6
The players who buy the
The players who buy the energy that goes into the economy aren't doing it because they, individually, are forced to. If you thought you had anything new to say, you were wrong.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 01:32
#7
@OnmyojiOmn
No one is forcing
@OnmyojiOmn
No one is forcing you to play any particular game but the fact that you aren't forced to doesn't magically make it free.
The game doesn't require you to purchase it, or pay a subscription, so it's not either of those models.
But for anyone to play, things have to be purchased so it's not free either. Without money being spent, the game is unplayable for everyone, which is why I consider it shareware.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 01:53
#8
@OnmyojiOmn
@OnmyojiOmn
And no one is forcing you to reply to every thread with that kind of attitude.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 01:57
#9
Well...
You make a very good point, that one way or another _somebody_ needs to be spending cash to make things happen. If everyone stopped buying (and more importantly, selling) CE overnight, then the "Completely Free to Play" tag attached to the game would be a complete lie.
As things are, however, a new player _can_ walk in and, with considerable effort, enjoy everything the game has to offer without spending a cent. Until that ceases to be the case, I don't think your argument has much weight.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 02:02
#10
The game is advertised as
The game is advertised as free to play because it is free to play. Note how the game's advertisement doesn't claim "FREE TO PLAY FOREVER" or "FREE TO PLAY WITH EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE THING IMMEDIATELY ACCESSIBLE FOR YOU" or anything else of the sort. It's advertised simply as FREE TO PLAY, which it is. You can install the game and it play it for absolutely free every day, even if there is a time limit on how long you can play without paying.
Incidentally, Spiral Knights isn't even that vicious with its F2P model. A patient player can reasonably make enough in-game currency to purchase more Crystal every day, especially with the current prices. For comparison, look at Age of Conan (which locks away huge chunks of content and 8 out of 12 classes for free players) or Champions Online (which locks away its entire power-building system unless you're a monthly subscriber). The list may go on.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 02:08
#11
@Brandier
Wouldn't by that
@Brandier
Wouldn't by that logic, that not everything is accessible doesn't necessarily mean it's not free, mean that a game that has a demo is free?
Eve Online does something similar, where players can buy game time licenses with real money and then sell those to each other for in-game currency, allowing players to play for "free" by paying for their playing time with in-game money. I have a hard time seeing how SK is very different from this given what CE is necessary for.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 02:17
#12
First off, if no money is
First off, if no money is spent, there's no MMO in the world that would be playable to anyone for long; the bandwidth bill alone would probably sink the devs in a month. The crown/energy exchange in this game inherited a healthy amount of liquidity from the preview event players who brought significant wealth into the release so the lack of ce on the market was never a problem. Additionally, I don't see anything stopping the developers from injecting an artificial ceiling price above which the game simply generates CE to trade so the cr price doesn't deflate ad infinitum so technically, if we were to humor your frictionless vacuum no money spent ever scenario, it'd be an easily solved conundrum.
There might have been a tiny window period where the game didn't fit your arbitrary definition but that was long long ago in beta before the game was advertised at all, let alone as F2P. The truth is with the state of the game as it is now, even without paying anything, the full content isn't locked to you. There is absolutely nothing stopping you from using your 100 mist energy every 22 hours and saving up a large amount of crystal energy and explore the entire game for free. Yes, it'll take much longer than if you actually paid for a small of energy but OOO doesn't owe you that convenience.
I still don't see how anyone is required to purchase anything to play this game and quite honestly, I don't see how it's even relevant at this stage. All F2P games, with few exceptions, place some pretty game-changing restrictions on their gameplay to free players or award pretty significant advantages to paying players; it happens to be in the form of elevator and alchemy costs in this one. Would you rather they place it somewhere else that doesn't impede on your infinite playtime but rather limits your enjoyment instead?
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 02:25
#13
I clicked on "Play" on the
I clicked on "Play" on the website icon, and it didn't cost me anything. That's what a F2P game is, simply.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 02:28
#14
@Patton
Again, I know that an
@Patton
Again, I know that an individual player is not necessarily required to pay in order to access the games content when you look at everything from the perspective of an individual.
The thing is, all CE is paid for in real money, so as a group, we are paying every time we use CE for anything. The reason I feel mist energy is a non-factor is because there is so little you can do with it. Without participating in the paid economy, by using crowns (being hired by a CE buyer to provide them with the fruits of your playing time) or buying the CE with your own money, it is ONLY possible to get into tier 2 by purchasing 3* equipment from other players.
I'm not saying SK is pay to play but it's really not free to play either. It's in between, shareware.
If an MMO was advertising itself as free to play I would expect something like Guild Wars or cash shops that sell items, cosmetic or otherwise, NOT the ability to continue playing (which is what CE is)
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 02:31
#15
Well, since you want to know
Well, since you want to know what the community thinks as a group... here's one more person.
To me, if someone doesn't have to buy anything to get the vast majority of the game (consisting of items that make an actual difference to game play), then it's Free to Play. I don't care if they are buying CE off another player who had to have gotten that CE from someone who initially got it from someone who bought it with real money. It's free because AN individual did not have to pay a dime.
The monetary cost of crafting means nothing to me as I do not spend those dollar amounts on crafting. I trade crowns for CE and then I craft. I may have spent 75 cents a while back to allow myself to have more than one account on the same computer without sharing mist, but I do not consider it a requirement to play this game. Everything else I've done was free for me, and that makes this game free to play. Not disingenuous in the least.
I have over 10k CE with a handful of 5* gear, and I spent 75 cents (again, to have mist energy unshared). Sounds pretty free to me.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 02:38
#16
... is wrong.
That's about the only thing about this game that really bugs me - that it is advertised as a free game. What I define as free isn't by how much content you get to play around with as a free player, it is how long I can play as a free player. A free-to-play game should allow any given player an infinite amount of game-time, around the clock, allowing them to play however long they want without taking a break. A free-to-play game can have premium content and the like, only accessible with money, but it won't change the fact that they can keep playing for free, it just won't take as long to "clear the game."
A free-to-play game should not limit play-time, unless that is equal to everyone. Somewhere in this forum I read that another game had the mechanic of booting players out if they played for a certain amount of time, and that this happened to everyone. In this game, only the free player is exposed to this mechanic. The paying player can keep playing for their Crystal Energy, or sell it to the market, mostly consisting of free players. The free player can purchase this with Crystal Energy with in-game currency and play for free. However, it doesn't make the game itself free. Crystal Energy is produced through purchase. If no-one paid, you couldn't play for free. You may be the free player that can keep playing, but only because someone else is paying for you. See it as a convention of people, randomly distributing premium content to you, at their own cost. That's how it's like. They pay for Crystal Energy, you buy it off them with in-game currency. You're paying in-game currency for real cash. That is how this game works. Am I stating the obvious? Why, yes I am. Have you thought about it yet? Probably not.
This message is for anyone who blatantly refuses to realize that this game is pay-to-play. If you know this, yet flush out that there are other games like these, it doesn't change the fact that the game is in fact pay-to-play. You're only stating that there are more of its kind, but it doesn't make this advertisement legitimate either.
I like to repeat the obvious for the sake of knocking it into heads.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 02:56
#17
And I don't agree with the
And I don't agree with the argument that just because someone paid for energy it makes the game pay-to-play. It doesn't, for me, since I didn't pay money for that energy. It's how OOO makes money, but it's not keeping me from playing all day if I wanted to, for free.
You can SAY something over and over and say it's "obvious" to knock it into heads, but that's not an argument is it? It's just a statement, followed by a statement that you just said that statement. If I didn't pay for the energy to keep playing indefinitely, then is the game still pay-to-play?
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 02:56
#18
@ Mechamoose
I also
@ Mechamoose
I also understand that you're saying that this system at rest wouldn't be able to go far without some energy injected in but the system at rest is irrelevant to the current system in full motion with more than enough of momentum to keep it running. Also saying that all CE is paid by money so as a group, we are paying every time we use CE for anything is also inaccurate because you can't just associate paying players with free players into the same arbitrary group just to fit it into your definition. The free player who traded CE from crowns didn't pay money for his CE; someone else did but that person payed for time and convenience which have little to do with the free player who benefited. All of this, the market, the free players providing crowns, the preview event players bringing in CE, it's all an integral part of the design of the game, a design aimed at letting you, the hypothetical free player play for free under these rules.
But I digress. Aside from our assessments, there isn't any official sanctioned definition for F2P so I think any further discussion is really just a no-true-scottsman fallacy waiting to hit us. How about this: Can you think of any F2P game that fits your definition? Now put it into the same hypothetical constraints; no one spends a dime ever. Can anyone play that game? Can that game even be released at all under those assumptions? I think that's an unfair way to measure whether a game is F2P.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 03:01
#19
I agree, Patton. Everyone
I agree, Patton. Everyone defines F2P in a different way, so we could run around in circles requiring everyone else to agree with our definition.
However, the OP did ask for what the community thinks. I just think the OP may have come in with more of an agenda and less of a real curiosity of what anyone else thinks, judging by how strongly he tries to refute everyone's posts. Are we here to agree with the OP, or are we here because the OP wanted a poll? You can't have both.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 03:09
#20
@gell
We're here to discuss
@gell
We're here to discuss something that we don't all agree on, which is typically what people discuss, but if you'd rather use that as a way to turn it into "OP's a jerk seeking approval so his opinion is invalid" I guess I can't stop you.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 03:17
#21
No, I do like discussions,
No, I do like discussions, but it seemed like anything anyone said, you jumped back with repeating your own post. The last part of your first post (the OP) stated you were wondering for a while what others thought. To me, this conflicts with the need to refute every post with your opinion, again.
So are you here to try to get people to agree, or do you really want to discuss? Also, will you ever acknowledge one way or another whether or not one person pays for CE, for various reasons, means that a person who never pays, but rather trades for CE, is also "paying?"
Another note: "Shareware" had a very specific definition. It was the same from the day it started till it fizzled out. F2P is defined by many companies. I think the only thing that can positively result from this thread is a poll. As Patton said, any discussion of this ends up with everyone defining F2P for themselves. That'd be fine, if you didn't disagree with every post.
If you want a real discussion, you need to define multiple aspects of what you consider free to play. And even then, it'll only be what you consider. What happens when people reply to that? Do you refute it or do you put another tick on a mental box somewhere?
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 03:31
#22
@gell
The idea that there are
@gell
The idea that there are different definitions of free comes about purely because of people wanting to use it in advertising despite their product not actually being free.
Free to play cannot and should not be interpreted based on what the people using it for advertising want it to mean because then it just becomes a game of "well you're paying $30 but we're calling it free because that brings in more traffic".
Free to play is very simple, playing costs nothing. It doesn't mean that there isn't a cash shop or premium content, but it does mean that playing is free. If you don't look closely, that is the case with SK. However, the reason I've repeated it so many times is because that is the argument against what you are arguing. It ISN'T free to play the game as playing the game requires a middle-man currency (CE) that costs money.
Shareware, fundamentally means that the cost of playing the game is shared. It's not a complicated interpretation of the word, pretty easy for anyone to understand.
Spiral Knights irrefutably costs something to play, but individuals don't necessarily pay it. That distinction is important to me because it isn't universally free to play the game, money being paid by someone is required for anyone to be able to play. But because not everyone has to contribute in real money, and can instead contribute with in-game resources, it's not really pay to play either. Hence, shareware.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 03:41
#23
Oh, it's this thread again.
Shareware doesn't mean what you think it means.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 03:50
#24
@Shoebox
OLD shareware that
@Shoebox
OLD shareware that was unsuccessful and didn't work doesn't mean what I'm saying it means. Modern day shareware that is actually a viable business model is.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 03:55
#25
Where did you get that
Where did you get that definition for shareware? I've never seen anyone before you define it as "the cost of playing the game is shared." Not in the past, not modern day. Wikipedia opinions aside: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareware
As I've always understood it, and as it's been implemented in history, shareware is basically a demo. You get some part of the game for free, and are required to pay to play the rest. The word "share" has actual little meaning if you look at where the word came from, and has no meaning in the actual historical implementation. One could argue that the software is shared, but that is by no means where the word came from. Shareware is copyrighted software that provides a free portion or a trial basis. There is no sharing. Your interpretation may not be complicated, but it seems like you just made that up.
Again, as Patton pointed out, people could have bought CE for various reasons, NOT only, and not even at all to "play." Some may have, but not everyone bought it to be able to play. Some buy it as a convenience, others just because they immediately like to support devs (I know some people who always pay the moment they start a F2P game for that very reason). The fact that people buy CE does not mean it was required for them to do so. The people who trade for this CE may also have various reasons. Yes, one of them may be to play the game (or play it some more), but it's not a requirement.
You might ask then, if no one paid for any CE ever, would we be able to play anymore? The answer would be no, but you have to realize that OOO adjusted the game as it grew. CE costs went up, due to the CE being bought, and it helps keep the wheel moving. But that still doesn't require anyone to pay to play. Any individual can choose to play for free forever. There are those who die a LOT and may require obtaining CE to keep playing, but that's not a requirement to play for everyone. The various ways to use CE put a strain on the CE you have at your disposal, but they don't define what it's used for.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 03:58
#26
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium
Just accept that you're using the word wrong, and move on.
Fact is, nobody is limited because they haven't paid anything.
Nobody is forced to pay anything.
And nobody has to share the cost of playing with anybody else.
There is no distribution in the cost of CE, nobody buying or selling anything loses out on the trade, otherwise people wouldn't be buying/selling CE.
You don't understand the flow of this economy nearly half as well as you think you do, either.
There's a reason the Auction House is in Crowns only.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 04:05
#27
@gell
The shareware thing is
@gell
The shareware thing is almost entirely irrelevant as that's not really the topic, that's just what I see the game as, and even if that was the argument, that's arguing semantics.
The fact the CE is not currently scarce does not in any way diminish how necessary it is for someone to play the game. Reasons for buying it are completely irrelevant, buying it as a donation has absolutely zero bearing on what CE is used for. At the end of the day that CE is required in order to play Spiral Knights. Even if you buy 3* gear to get to T2 off of another player and only personally pay crowns, CE was necessarily used in creating that (3* costs 200 energy to craft, only 100 of that can be mist), which means someone paid money to create that item. Thus it is impossible to do anything past T1 without using CE.
What I guess it boils down to is simply this: If someone else is paying actual money for you to be able to play the game in exchange for in-game currency, is the game truly free to play?
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 04:24
#28
Tier 2 only requires you have
Tier 2 only requires you have 2 star gear, not 3 star.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 04:29
#29
@Shoebox
Have I really not
@Shoebox
Have I really not played in so long that I forgot that? Embarrassing. Regardless that doesn't change much, at the end of the day you still need CE to take part in the bulk of the content.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 04:30
#30
@ShoeboxHave I really not
EDIT: Even more embarrassing! Unintentionally double posted.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 04:33
#31
OP made sense, rest of thread
OP made sense, rest of thread is kind of losing me. Shareware? Maybe. Socialistic? Definitely! Further down the thought experiment rabbit hole since I haven't had my coffee and my brain is mush, Can someone pay 100ce a week so I can rez for free please? LOL Spiral Knight Health Care! I want it~ I deserve it!
~out~
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 05:33
#32
Let's just go back to what
Let's just go back to what you started then.
"I feel like advertising this game as free is fairly disingenuous and is contributing to an obfuscation of the actual price tag associated with playing."
Anyone can see an ad that says the game is free to play. That person can start playing the game for free. That person can get full 5* gear in all playable levels of the game, and every playable feature can be had for free. The game is at the very least, adequately "free to play."
What's disingenuous about the ad again? That CE has to come from somewhere? What does that have to do with the ads, and the title of this thread: Advertising SK as 'free'
It's actually advertised as free to play and it is. A person who sees that ad does not HAVE to pay to play. It's therefore free for that person.
Should CE run extremely low one day (or as it did when the game was still new), you can bet OOO would do a little CE injecting into the market to keep the game playable. Obviously unprovable, but any dev would do this to make their game playable if need be.
As a whole, I could say that any "free" MMO lives on the money it takes in, and the free players would not be able to play AT ALL if there wasn't money coming in somehow. How's that for requiring money to play the game? Every free game requires money from somewhere, most often from players. Does this then mean there is no such thing as a free to play game? I think the point is actual semantics, and it's very important. A game that is free to play means you can play it for free. It doesn't mean money doesn't come in, and let's face it, again, if there was no money coming in, there would be no more game to play. Those free players would not be able to play, whether because the game has to shut down, or the game goes pay-only. Therein lies the fault of any logic trying to imply that money has to come from someone. It always has to come from someone. It just seems much more direct because CE is a form of currency worked into SK, but it still doesn't change the FACT that any single individual does not have to pay to play.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 06:22
#33
It's called Free to Play
Because you pay no cash to get the game.
It also falls under another category.
Pay to Enjoy.
out of an in game currency that will leave you broke until the end of teir 3, or your own wallet and will cause you to spend dozens, if not hundreds, on about a week or two.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 06:28
#34
what gell said.
Someone obviously has to pay, but that idiot isn't me.
The real definition of F2P.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 06:31
#35
Here we go again!
Here we go again!
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 06:33
#36
So let me get this straight?
So let me get this straight? Your argument is that inevitably somebody has to pay to put CE into the market and because someone is paying it doesn't count as free to play?
Oh god what a laugh.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 06:36
#37
What game online IS free to play then?
- Mechamoose
What I guess it boils down to is simply this: If someone else is paying actual money for you to be able to play the game in exchange for in-game currency, is the game truly free to play?
Let's get down to this further then: What game online IS free to play then, according to your definition? For any game, to be able to support itself, needs SOME form of incoming revenue to subsidize itself.
Hell, even an examples where a game that USED to have online subscriptions but shut down the official servers that then had player-run servers (PSO), everyone touts it as free since you're no longer having to pay the monthly subscription. YET there's someone that has to eventually pay to keep those servers running, so it had to rely on people's donations to keep it afloat. That's basically as "free" as online games could get, yet in your definition, that wouldn't be "free" at all.
You essentially have an irrelevant point.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 06:59
#38
...
This game is free to play until you get 2* items. At that point, you can't craft anything else and your only choice would be to buy 3* equipment from an NPC for 35,000 Crowns a piece. Then it would be impossible to get any other equipment and Tier 3 would be impossible to unlock.
If nobody were to sell CE anymore, the above would be true. I don't see why they sell CE though, they could just stop selling it then post 3* equipment for 1k less than the NPC price and they will sell like mad. Way more profit than selling your CE.
This game could essentially be a demo IF nobody sold CE.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 07:42
#39
Every time someone claims
Every time someone claims that this game isn't free-to-play, God kills a kitten.
I wish I was a mod so I could lock this thread.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 07:51
#40
@Eradicats
Too bad you're not a moderator. Deal with the thread or don't post, it's simple.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 08:07
#41
@Volebamus
Actually you're
@Volebamus
Actually you're missing my point entirely and somehow turning it into hyperbole in your head, let me make it more clear.
I do not feel that a game in which you exchange real money for something that is required to extend your playing time is free to play, even if that something can be sold for in-game currency between the players.
The ability to, as an individual, play a game for free, does not make it free to play in my opinion. If that was the case, a game like Eve Online, in which players are allowed to trade game time extensions (which are purchased with real money) for in-game money, would be considered free to play and I don't think anyone would make that argument. The main difference between a game like that and Spiral Knights is the percentage of the populace that can realistically play for free, which is undoubtedly higher for SK but really we can't get an objective percentage for either game.
Any game that has a cash shop for cosmetic items or special equipment and nothing else to purchase I would consider free to play. ANY game that doesn't have an up-front cost and does not charge for the ability to continue playing is free to play.
NOT FREE. But free to play. Almost no games are just "free", but there are plenty of "free to play" games. I don't feel that SK is one of them.
Many people seem to see this topic and immediately react with "how're they supposed to make money, you're stupid". This has nothing to do with the game being profitable. This has to do with advertising the game as free.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 08:19
#42
I've been wondering about the
I've been wondering about the "free to play" label before inasmuch as it concerned Spiral Knights, but I could not put it into words the way you did, Mechamoose. I applaud you. It's a little sobering that each 5* item costs four dollars of somebody's money to craft.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 08:27
#43
I'm reading more about Eve
I'm reading more about Eve Online, and the idea of that not being labelled "free to play" is because you seem to have to jump through several hoops to make sure it is for you, as you need to generate enough in-game income in your trial period to kick-start a cumulative effect to create a way to trade in-game currency for play time. You have to make effort to get any form of return.
Spiral Knights only takes that half way. The main difference is that you could do NOTHING, yet can play. Every day. Could be just an hour at first, but easily extends.
Now if you had another model closer to SK and less like Eve Online (which I obviously think are two different currency models) that does not label themselves as FTP, you'll be more convincing.
Main point:
If CE and ME were not directly interchangeable, you'd have a point. Since they are, then you can't argue that this isn't FTP. As mentioned earlier, even if there was no CE on the market, you could still craft up to 2* just fine, so that completely shoots your argument down.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 08:25
#44
Is there even another game
Is there even another game with Spiral Knights' business model, period?
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 08:44
#45
If I understand the basic
If I understand the basic explanation of another Three Rings game, Puzzle Pirates has a very similar business model. Advertised as Free To Play just fine, so it's not like Spiral Knight's advertising method has no precedence.
And here's another point: say if the only thing that changed is that elevator fees become only 1 Energy to enter, and that no CE can be traded between players anymore. In any given day, people could still delve into clockworks for floors upon floors. Yet, given Mechamoose's definition, this model is STILL not Free To Play.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 08:53
#46
The way I see it
The way I see it is that part of the game is free, while another part of the game isn't. The part of the game that's free is Tier 1 and Tier 2, and gear levels 0, 1, and 2. Those parts of the game can be completely explored with the 100 mist energy alloted for each day. And then there's 3*, 4*, and 5* gear, and Tier 3. Those areas aren't free, because they require CE. As the OP says, even if you bought CE with crowns, somebody had to buy that CE with real money, and I agree with that viewpoint.
I guess it really comes down to what the term F2P means. There's no concrete meaning to the term, so the meaning of the term can vary wildly from game to game and developer to developer. It varies so wildly, in fact, that the term is almost meaningless, in my opinion. I guess the only thing that can be guaranteed from the term F2P is that you can download the game and start it for free. As long as you can download the game and do something, ANYTHING, in game, it's technically F2P.
So yeah, I think that Spiral Knights qualifies for the title F2P, as meaningless as it is.
Hopefully somebody will come along and create some actual industry standards for these terms, but I wouldn't count on it. Even terms like MMORPG have no concrete meaning, and people argue over what is and isn't an MMORPG every day.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 09:07
#47
I'm not even a Lawyer
1) If I don't have to pay money to play, it's free to play.
2) Consider this:
Cosmetic purchases/premium purchases ARE necessary for a game that has those options. If nobody bought them then the developers would make no money and the servers would be shut off. Then nobody can play the game. Therefore it is necessary for somebody (even if that somebody isn't you) to buy premium/cosmetic items for the game to continue. Therefore (by your logic) NO game is free to play.
Lawyer'd.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 09:11
#48
OP states-
"I feel like
OP states-
"I feel like advertising this game as free is fairly disingenuous and is contributing to an obfuscation of the actual price tag associated with playing."
It is free. One can play every day without putting a wallet towards it.
It's a free game, get over it allready.
~RWAR
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 09:15
#49
Lawyers gonna Lawyer
As Milkman said, this server is being held up, how exactly? With the dev's endless pocketbooks that some how have an endless amount of money even though the game is listed and IS free to play.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 09:33
#50
Free to PLAY
Please tell me if I am trolling, but...
The game is advertised as free to play.
With the 100 mist that you get every day, with a medium amount of revivals you can play around an hour (worst case scenario) in the levels.
However, playing in the Clockworks does not include crafting. Crafting does require crystal energy (at least for 3* and above). But, crafting is not playing. It does not include running around in a confined room with various gremlins and wolvers chasing you around.
So, technically it is free to play, but not free to advance (someone has to buy that energy).
It's a F2P game that's monetized by microtransactions.
This is not the only game of its kind.