Originally Posted by Tuco
Originally Posted by robertthebard
Ironically, if you read MMO forums, there's a vocal group that wants all the F2P games to have a subscription model.
Because (once again, ironically) it's usually WAY cheaper than the "free to play" approach.
I also vastly prefer subscription models over the typical P2W F2P model. There was a great game I played years ago: Spiral Knights. MMO cute hack and slash with 1-4 player dungeons. Originally it was a subscription model - everyone got limited daily energy to dungeon-delve, but for $5.99 a month you got unlimited dungeon-delving (and essentially could convert your free daily energy into valuable items).

Then they changed it to a F2P model, removing the dungeon-delving limits per day. Great, right!? No. They also replaced the fairly easy & quick progression system with an incredibly tedious, grindy, and annoying system. Heat to raise item's exp, then orbs to level up said items, then even rarer materials to advance said items to the next tier. Oh, and there was only a ~30% chance that leveling up an item would be successful, unless you used a lot of orbs. Oh and the drop rate of those items while playing was horrible. But guess what you could buy in the store for real money? I estimate it would have cost me >$30+ per month to gain the equivalent amount of progression I originally got for $5/mo.

Also something something runescape, but I only played OSRS-no lootboxes or dailies, but solely member vs nonmember-so can't comment on the current version.

tl;dr: F2P models often suck and make a game less fun *because* design decisions are centered around encouraging players to buy microtransactions

Originally Posted by Wormerine
No business model is inherently bad/evil. All types of games, F2P, subscription, single purchase, DLCs, expansions, can offer a good value of money [...]
Disagree. Or at least, I'll assert that certain business models are inherently *more* evil than others, if not necessarily objectively Evil. Offering value doesn't make them not evil.

Lootboxes, dailies, FOMO-inducing limited time events, ads...all are inherently more predatory and addicting than a single up-front price-point for a game. The following line says it all:
Originally Posted by The Composer
Genshin Impact has a pretty good model as far as F2P goes
"Good" F2P games are the exception to the rule, and often qualified as being good mainly in comparison to other F2P games.