So Archeage started yesterday...Follow

Then you've pretty much just lumped every single game that isn't purely subscription based into the P2W model. Which goes right back to my statement that P2W has become nothing more than "QQ it isn't free".

Except those that are purely cosmetic shops, (Unless the game's "Win" is purely cosmetic, like those Club Penguin type games that target little kids would can beg their Mommy and Daddy for buying things I guess). Which admittedly are few and far in between, and hazy at times like with Path of Exile which offers about as non-P2W free 2 play model as you get, but still handles increased stash sizes with cash purchases.

"Win" could be beating other players (PVP games) or monsters easier (PVE games). Could also be gathering items faster and easier than the non paying counterparts. Or not having to wait for timer. Or having exp/currency bonuses for paying. Very common systems MMOs,

A good (for the consumer) "freemium" model would include a cash shop that has cosmetic items, quality of life items like expanded inventory/bank/character slots and time saving items like an out-of-combat regeneration boost or an item that doubled your resource collection. In other words, things that have value to the player willing to purchase them but nothing which locks out the non-paying player who is simply willing to spend twice as much time mining for ore or willing to juggle more inventory. Heck, I wouldn't even disqualify something like a "prestige" class that you have to buy provided it was balanced against the other classes and the prestige came from "I bought a Steppes Stalker" and not "My Steppes Stalker can cast Murder F2P Character twice per hour".

Not speaking specifically of Archeage since I haven't (like likely will never) played it. But the notion that a game has to be pay-to-win or subscription with no middle ground is misguided.

Edited, Sep 20th 2014 9:36pm by Jophiel

And they're running out of land, too, apparently.

Also, having labor points regenerate only while online was a stupid decision. No wonder I've been queued for the last nine hours! People are using macros to not get AFK-kicked, so they can regenerate more labor points. They're doing things to improve the efficiency of the AFK-kicking, but really, there's a fundamental flaw here that's promoting idling within the game, taking up server space in the process.

Oh no, it's definitely a revenue mechanic.

Apparently also 5x labor point recovery rate and offline point recovery (needed for crafting and gathering and such)

there just seem to be so much wrong about this game that seems like it would be a decent sandbox game

My old Warhammer guild, Agony, is playing on Lucius server - Elf lands. So I endured long ques (canned up a whole batch of homemade catsup during the initial wait), extremely crowded zones (with really poor collisioning), waited in line to kill mobs, and found my keybindings were continually being reset for some reason. Still I managed to get a Shadow-player to 12. Think I'm going to go Outrider with her. The name is 'Cro'.

The class is fun. The combat is fun when my keys work. There is a lot I like about the game - I loved the cut scenes you got after completing some stuff, but could imagine during group-play those could be an issue. Travel was not bad - lots of options with the mounts the hang-gliders, boats etc. One should never get lost as there are numerous maps and arrows and directions signs. I always discover stuff when I get lost in games, so I'm not sure that's a good thing. The world seems small and scrunchy with little opportunity for exploration, but that might be cuz it's just so crowded yet. I participated in one large local raid event. There were like 5 full raids where there should have only been one at the most. The boss was dead and event over in about 35seconds time.

I didn't delve into crafting yet, as everything was just so crowded, but it seems almost sim like - cultivate a farm, grow food and animals, build structures, transport etc. From what I hear you really need to have your own land to grow plants and animals (requiring a patron account) without them getting stolen. I might yet put out for a months worth of premium.

I'll be playing for this week anyways.

Game has been downloaded - I'll give it a spin sometime this week.

So far, it's only made me miss Rift. The flexible class system in that game is awesome, and I hear they expanded it so every class can fill every group role (i.e. mages tanking, warriors healing, cats and dogs living together in harmony, etc.).

That's what I thought, and I thought that's what I read - right on the official site, but when I went to make a second character, I wasn't given the option. I had to delete my furry thing to make an elf to be on the right faction.

They've had some real issues with start up.

When I first tried to dl the game, i couldn't even create an account with Trion - the email with the verification code just never came. Tried with two different email addresses. I heard others having the same problem.

That was Friday I think. Saturday, tried again and everything went fine. The first time I qued up it took hours to get in, but after that I didn't have have to wait to get onto the server.

gave it another 2 tries to get the game DLed. Just seems like it isn't happening for me.
If it isn't error #1004, it is #1005. #1005, when fails, makes you have to start the DL all over again...

Seems like it might be my ISP.
I had to use a VPN to get past the #1004 error. Once download was done, the next stop will fail and give me the #1005 (seems stupid then that all the 8gbs is then lost?).

I only say it might be my ISP because I have an issue with Wildstar updating from time to time, and I have to use a VPN to change my location (IL, to a different state).