To start, I can totally understand why people would be fed up with the F2P bracket and want to move on to something else if they were given the opportunity. Here is a list of some of the major negatives that I've observed while playing in the bracket.
- The grind. One of the things I like about the bracket is the ability to easily max out a toon rather quickly, thus allowing you to have more classes. However, although professions don't seem too bad the first time, when you start to roll your third, fourth or fifth toon, the grind feels interminable.
- Hunters. They are grossly overpowered and although the degree to which they are overpowered doesn't change from the 19 bracket, the hunter population explodes in one level. Out of twenty WSG's I did on a new F2P only three of them had less than five hunters on each side. To some people this discourages them from rolling "non viable" classes and causes more people to join the hunter bandwagon or go 24.
- Faction imbalance. Although the bracket certainly has moved away from Alliance winning 90% of games (they're more 50-50 now and you'll notice if you play both sides), games are still almost always one sided. I'm not saying that every game is like this, just that the majority are pre-determined by how many hunters and 24s each side has.
- Queue time imbalance. Alliance queues can range anywhere from eight to twenty minutes while seeing five minute queues on horde would be a rare occasion. This is annoying for those who are very fond of playing Alliance races, but in my opinion its also detrimental to the brackets. The queue time imbalance makes it very hard to synchronize 10 mans across faction, making it almost impossible to have an H AP vs A AP or Vashj premade. Whenever someone from 19s inquires about the F2P bracket, premades are one of the things that come up. Sadly, the queue times prevent a great cause of activity and competition from taking place.
- 24s. I personally don't mind the 24s in the bracket even though they are becoming more and more prevalent. However, I certainly see how it can discourage people, especially P2P's, from rolling a twenty. An above average twenty four can completely shift the tide of the game and twenty four hunters and rets can one shot the majority of F2P's.
So those are the disadvantages that immediately came to mind. I'm sure there are others that I haven't thought of or that others might be more sensitive to. Personally, I think they can be easily dealt with, especially when keeping the advantages in mind.
- The community. F2P communities such as Aerie Peak are constantly compared to guilds of other brackets. Although there are some resemblances, I think that, especially when considering today's 19 guilds, the F2P communities are much more. Firstly, guilds are much more divided and exclusive. I can't think of a single guild I've ever been in that has the numbers that Aerie Peak does. No matter what time you log on someone will be on as well. PuGmades are easy, people are less judgmental, active arenas, world events, and a there's busy F2P chat. Guilds just have a completely different feel to them.
- Easy gearing. This especially applies if you make a twenty on a P2P account but you can have a geared twenty in about a day.
- Less demanding. When you log on 19s, 29s or whatever else you play, people have expectations. "Scrubs" are not welcome in those brackets and I can't remember the last time I had a midfield or flag room picnic in 19s. RP walking through mid, playing gearless games and BG Chat trolling are just some of the things that you can do in the bracket worry free.
- When your game time runs out and you don't feel like renewing it immediately or are waiting for a paycheck, you'll still have your F2P account.
Right now I really don't feel like I've done the F2P bracket justice. Only four bullet points (one of which might not even interest people) can't even begin to describe all the benefits that communities like Aerie Peak have to offer. I'm sure I'll continuously update the arguments for both sides so if you're reading this and there are more bullet points that's why. Also if you haven't noticed the poll on the side of my homepage, go notice it. Really hoping for people to chime in, especially those with P2P's or considering going P2P and I definitely think everyone should take part in the poll. If for no other reason, do it because if there are a lot of Yes's, it will only encourage the non F2P's reading this to try the bracket out.
P.S. If anyone knows how to include polls in posts please lemme know. It would definitely make my life easier.
In theory, yes I'd still play my F2P or keep some P2P 20s, but... I actually started F2P while my main account was down last Fall. Then, I re-subbed for a few months thinking I'd still play my twinks here and there. Sad thing is I never touched em the whole time. Now that my main account is down again I've been playing them a lot. Time is also a consideration. Though when the main account was up I was leveling a new toon to 85 and looking to do a lot of end game stuff in a new guild. All that took a lot of time.
ReplyDeleteAnyway F2Ps are great fun and it's great to know they'll always be there! (I hope)
Also, another F2P positive, for me anyway, is being able to play games without ridiculously overpowered enchants. The "burstiness" of the games is in a nice place, for me anyway.
Sorry, long comment :P
Yeah that's definitely one of my arguments for F2P over 19 as far as balance goes. Although the healing can still deal with the damage just as well at 19, the burst is still 20x higher.
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