Tag: Free to Play

Age of Empires Online Will Be Free To Play, Not Free To Try


Age of Empires Online has had something of an identity crisis. Although enjoyed by plenty of players, the team at Gas Powered Games has been on the receiving end of some harsh criticism that the game isn’t so much “free to play” as it is “free to try.” Premium civilizations aren’t so much an optional add-on as they are a necessity to compete, adding a considerable road block at $10 a piece (they used to be $20).

Starting this summer, players will be able to obtain Empire Points either through buying them or by playing the game. Premium civilizations aren’t going anywhere, but by playing Age of Empires Online a player could accrue sufficient Empire Points to purchase the premium packs without paying a dime. According to GPG developers, a regular player might take two to three weeks of playing daily to obtain a premium civilization.

Age of Empires Online becomes more free to play this summer.

(Source: PC Gamer)

NCSoft Reactivating Aion Accounts


Aion free to play technically doesn’t launch until next week, but NCSoft has something all players can get into, past, present, and prospective. Starting today, inactive accounts that are in good standing will be reactivated and able to log on. When Aion Truly Free goes live, a new server Kahrun will be launched. While you cannot play on the server until it goes live, starting today players will be able to create characters and reserve names on the server.

To compensate current players with additional time on their accounts, NCSoft is crediting 40 NCcoins per day remaining on the account (or around 1200 coins for each month you had remaining). The credit may take several days to process, however.

(Source: Aion news)

Vanguard Will Go Free To Play


The moment you have all been waiting for and already knew was coming, has come. Sony Online Entertainment has announced the upcoming free to play transition of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Therefore, I’m happy to announce Vanguard will be the next in line of our AAA games to make this transition.  Since we’ve literally just begun on the work, I’m not ready to go into much detail.  However, I will say that you can expect something similar to EverQuest®, EverQuest® II and DC Universe™ Online when we roll-out our free-to-play offering this summer.  Once we have more information to share, you’ll be the first to know.

In addition, the announcement goes on to reveal that Vanguard will also be receiving regular content updates, and that there are some new and old faces returning to the development team.

(Source: Vanguard)

Everquest's Massive FAQ: Making Sense of It


Everquest goes free to play this Friday and in preparation Sony has released a Frequently Asked Question list that covers everything, and I do mean everything. The list is enormous, and many questions overlap one another, so I’ve decided to create a list to consolidate most of the important points.

See the entire FAQ here.

  • A welcome pack will be given to all players.
  • Veteran rewards will accumulate on all accounts.
  • There will be multi-month subscriptions at a reduced rate. Existing subscriptions will become gold.
  • You need a reoccurring subscription for the monthly 500 station cash. If you have station pass, the EQ and EQ2 monthly cash does not stack. Yearly subscribers will receive 500 station cash monthly.
  • You will receive 500 station cash from each game if you subscribe separately (no station pass), but this is not advisable.
  • Silver membership is an upgrade in the store for 500 station cash, it is a separate purchase and should not be confused with “spend 500 station cash.”
  • All accounts will be upgraded to House of Thule, gold members will still have to buy Veil of Alaris if they haven’t already.
  • Alternate advancement point cap can be raised.
  • Legends of Norrath cards will still be handed out each month.

Free Limitations:

  • If you allow your subscription to expire, your gold races/classes will be locked. You will have to resubscribe or purchase to unlock those characters.
  • If you purchase Veil of Alaris, you still have access to it if your subscription lapses.
  • Free/Silver can buy from the bazaar but cannot use “trade mode.”
  • If you drop back to free with gold rank spells, you will keep the spells but they will only have rank 1 effectiveness.
  • You will not lose any platinum if you are over the limit and lapse, you will simply not be able to gain more currency.
  • Prestige gear (gold only) will not be lost on lapse of subscription, it cannot be used.
  • House of Thule augments are prestige, this will change when free to play comes.

Everquest’s Massive FAQ: Making Sense of It


Everquest goes free to play this Friday and in preparation Sony has released a Frequently Asked Question list that covers everything, and I do mean everything. The list is enormous, and many questions overlap one another, so I’ve decided to create a list to consolidate most of the important points.

See the entire FAQ here.

  • A welcome pack will be given to all players.
  • Veteran rewards will accumulate on all accounts.
  • There will be multi-month subscriptions at a reduced rate. Existing subscriptions will become gold.
  • You need a reoccurring subscription for the monthly 500 station cash. If you have station pass, the EQ and EQ2 monthly cash does not stack. Yearly subscribers will receive 500 station cash monthly.
  • You will receive 500 station cash from each game if you subscribe separately (no station pass), but this is not advisable.
  • Silver membership is an upgrade in the store for 500 station cash, it is a separate purchase and should not be confused with “spend 500 station cash.”
  • All accounts will be upgraded to House of Thule, gold members will still have to buy Veil of Alaris if they haven’t already.
  • Alternate advancement point cap can be raised.
  • Legends of Norrath cards will still be handed out each month.

Free Limitations:

  • If you allow your subscription to expire, your gold races/classes will be locked. You will have to resubscribe or purchase to unlock those characters.
  • If you purchase Veil of Alaris, you still have access to it if your subscription lapses.
  • Free/Silver can buy from the bazaar but cannot use “trade mode.”
  • If you drop back to free with gold rank spells, you will keep the spells but they will only have rank 1 effectiveness.
  • You will not lose any platinum if you are over the limit and lapse, you will simply not be able to gain more currency.
  • Prestige gear (gold only) will not be lost on lapse of subscription, it cannot be used.
  • House of Thule augments are prestige, this will change when free to play comes.

RuneScape Free Trial Returns?


Last month I posted an article about a 14-day membership for new accounts. The trial was unannounced and held rather ambiguous requirements as to who could participate (at the time it appeared to be UK-only), and remained unmentioned by Jagex until later in the month when Mod Hippo posted to announce that the trial had ended.

With today’s update to RuneScape, it appears that the trial is back. Upon character creation, users are reporting seeing this:

I am checking up on the RuneScape forums to see if I can find any comment by Jagex staff and will update with any more information.

Did ProSiebenSat.1 Accidentally Leak Vanguard Free To Play?


Color me interested. For at least a year now, Sony has slowly escalated the slow moving striptease that is the prospect of a free to play Vanguard. John Smedley has made comments of the Vanguard team hiring new staff, who have begun patching the game and even adding in an updated new player experience, and back in November a user tweeted to John Smedley: “how about making vanguard saga of Heroes ftp… If not just kill the game already,” to which Mr. Smedley responded “stay tuned.”

Sony’s ongoing fiasco with Alaplaya over European hosting may have accidentally produced some juicy tidbits of information. In an IRC discussion, the community manager for Alaplaya may have accidentally let slip that Vanguard is heading free to play:

With the launch of DC Universe, we will introduce a new in-game currency that is similar to StationCash. It will not be Alaplaya Points. Your Station cash will be converted to our currency and you will be able to use it with EQ2 and Vanguard.

Granted, this could just be a misunderstanding. Vanguard isn’t even listed as one of the games set to transition to Alaplaya.

(Source: EQ2Wire)

Aion: Truly Free Coming To North America


Last year, NCSoft announced the upcoming free to play transition of Aion…in Europe. In a rather unsurprising move, the developer announced today that North America will be following. Players will have access to all of the content in Aion free of charge, without restrictions on zones, housing, mounts, quests, etc. In addition, NCSoft promises robust cheat detection to ensure that bots won’t take a choke hold over the game.

As a head start, NCSoft will be launching a “Rallying the Troops” event, offering new players a chance to check out the game with no time limit, but a level cap of 40. Returning players will have the ability to have their accounts reactivated for 14 days in the run up to the launch of Truly Free.

Aion Truly Free hits this spring.

(Source: Aion Truly Free)

Everquest Officially Free to Play in March


Someone call my doctor, nutritionist, and accountant, and find me enough provisions to last until I die. With Sony’s multitude of announcements over free to play, the titles have been falling like dominos. Everquest 2, Planetside 2, DC Universe, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and the possibility of Vanguard at some point, the idea that Everquest might go free to play is both exciting and unsurprising at the same time. So, behold! Everquest is moving free to play in March.

So what can I expect for free, you ask patiently. Everything, well mostly. Everquest is following a similar tier of payment to its predecessors. Tiers are divided between free, silver (past subscribers and gold subscribers. Free players have access to all content up to the seventeenth expansion (House of Thule) with Veil of Alaris purchasable. Free players are restricted to Human, Erudite, Barbarian, and Gnome races, as well as warrior, cleric, wizard, and rogue classes, with the rest purchasable. Free and silver members are also restricted to rank 1 spells, among a few other restrictions you might expect. Bag slots, mail and chat, guild, coin purse, quest limit, etc.

you can find the whole matrix here, there is really too much to discuss here.

More on the transition as it appears.

Uninstall Your Free To Play Games, Namco Says They’re Low Quality


Today I uninstalled my entire catalog of free to play games. RuneScape, Lineage II, DC Universe, City of Heroes, Everquest II, Alganon, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Pitchblack, Star Trek Online, Hello Kitty Online (it was for screenshots for articles), Missing Ink, Gods & Heroes, Fallen Earth, and Age of Conan, and Team Fortress 2. Sure I was enjoying these games, but it wasn’t until Namco pointed out that they “can’t be high quality,” that I realized how fake and empty my enjoyment was. I mean, sure I was having fun playing through my dwarf fighter for absolutely free, but was I having the kind of fun I could be having by buying another PacMan re-release? I think not.

But Olivier Comte is right, the free to play industry is harming big budget titles. Just look at Modern Warfare 3, which sold 6.5 million copies in the first 24 hours. Or Skyrim, which sold 3.5 million copies on its opening weekend. Or hell, Portal 2 sold millions just in retail, not counting Steam sales. The point is that those games would have sold even more if there weren’t disgusting, greedy developers letting people play their low quality games for free. If there weren’t independent developers peddling their wares for sub-premium prices, maybe developers of real video games could have their voices heard without buying huge ads on gaming websites.

“The business model for smaller, easier titles is making an expectation to consumers that is whittling away at AAA development.”

Exactly.  Just look at the substandard titles that are set to launch as free to play. Planetside 2? Bound to be a failure. Ghost Recon Online? What was Ubisoft thinking? Jagex’s Stellar Dawn and Transformers MMOs? Hurting the industry. Hell, i’d venture that DUST 514 will result in the cancellation of Modern Warfare 4, because who can keep up with low quality, but free games?

Sure some people might say that these are the rantings of a developer publisher seeing the market shifting and, rather than accommodate for the changes by shifting their development system, decides to throw a tantrum in the Walmart parking lot and blame their perceived future losses on the customers.

But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.