Global Chat: September 3-10, 2011

I have been playing both F2P and sub games for a long time now, and I don't see a real difference in their communities. P2P games have elitists and trolling jerks. F2P pretty much just has trolling jerks, but their quantities are similar.

You'll find undesirable players in both types of games, just as often. And as far as paying $15/month, I know its not a lot of money (movie ticket for one, dinner out for one, 2-3 drinks at the bar, half a tank of gas, etc.), but it still always comes down to whether I'm getting my money's worth out of it. For most sub games out there, I don't think so. It translates to about $.75-1/hour for me, as that's the time I have to play them some months. Worth it? To me, not really. That's why I lean more toward F2P. One time fees, no time constraints, and I get all the content I want.

Not once have I ever paid more than $15/month on a F2P game. I usually drop $5-$10 and that lasts me a couple of months. F2P is just more convenient to me and makes more sense. Is it for everyone? Nope. Is P2P for everyone? Nope.

So really, its not about what they are selling (sparkleponies, a dagger, potions, stat tomes, etc.), but who is buying them. The people who want to buy power are the biggest complainers about F2P, the people who buy power don't care what you think, and the people who don't want to buy power and don't mind those who do, they don't care either.

tl;dr: Jerks are in EVERY game, and $15 is a lot of money if you're not getting anything from it.

For me, the best enabler for having plenty of different server rulesets is free and instant server transfers. PvP and PvE, together with their RP counterparts (which, BTW, are often used by players just as "mature" servers), work simply because those are the ones mostly everyone can agree to play on. The rest are just niches.

On the other hand, if server transfers were easy, free, and fast, the developers and publishers could experiment with different, even niche, server rulesets to their hearts content (apart from a few rulesets where character transfers make no sense, like about anything with faster progression or permadeath).

Free for all PvP? Faction cooperation? Zombie Apocalypse? Just create and advertise a test sever. If it works, you can leave such a server permanently available. If it doesn't work out, just move all characters to some other random server and turn it off.

Oh thank god. Massively, you could not have done this at a better time. Recently, due to poor maintenance and general neglect on my part, I have not been properly taking care of my computer. Because of this, I have inadvertently created ideal living conditions on the top of my computer for the rare Irish-bred Saber Toothed Lime. I tried to contact an exterminator to remove the pest, but I was informed that they are a very rare and, in fact, endangered species. I tried to have my computer removed so that the Lime could be properly restored to the wild, but I have found that my computer desktop area has been declared a natural wildlife preserve and I am unable to make alterations or remove items or wildlife from the area without first cutting through a staggering wall or red tape.

One expert has suggested that, being of Irish descent myself, I could attempt to establish dominance over the Lime and establish myself as the alpha of its pack. Not being well versed in this sort of thing, I went with gut instinct. Unfortunately, punching it in the snout to establish dominance has only served to make it highly agitated and aggressive. Under its silent, eyeless gaze, I no longer feel safe at my computer for long periods of time, and I feel that it is only a matter of time before the Lime makes the connection that I am both: 1.) Made out of meat and 2.) Highly delicious.

I desperately request the services of your mighty Charr plushie. Being made of soft fabrics as well, I feel that he will be able to bond with the Lime and prevent further aggressions. And if that does not work, the Charr clearly has four large teeth compared to the Lime's two, marking him as the alpha predator, and would serve to intimidate the Lime into remaining safely deep within its nest in the bowels of my computer.

I would like to supply photo evidence that I am not making this up. Please respond quickly; I believe that the flash on my camera has somehow agitated it further.