Allegedly Free Game: Difference between revisions

** AE games (aside from ''AQWorlds'') are a comparatively minor example of this trope, since all "Guardian" upgrades are one-time, full-life, and ''not'' subscription-based. Of course, if you want the ''very'' best equipment, you're still gonna have to shell out for those Z-tokens, Dragon Coins or whatever, and just [[Bribing Your Way to Victory|Bribe Your Way To Victory]]. Though for ''[[Adventure Quest (Video Game)|Adventure Quest]]'' free players have all access to get the Uber and Epic tier item sets, which rival and even surpass Z-Token items ''and'' come with a nice bonus for equipping the whole set. You'll be farming a ''lot'' of Gold for them though. And some of the best pets and trinkets are Guardian Only.

** It should be noted that you can earn (in small amounts) Z-tokens/Dragon Coins/Nova Gems/Adventure Coins without buying them. Originally, this was only in ''[[Adventure Quest (Video Game)|Adventure Quest]]'', but has now been implemented in all of the games.

** ''[[Warp Force (Video Game)|Warp Force]]'' continues the tradition, using the same engine as ''[[Adventure Quest (Video Game)|Adventure Quest]]''.

* ''[[Age of Conan]]'' converted from a subscription-only model to a hybrid model in July 2011. While much of the content was made available to free players; a substantial amount, especially at higher levels, remains available only to paid subscribers, or cafeteria-type purchase. This includes over half the character races/classes, and nearly the entire Khitai region; as well as several of the advancement and ability mechanics.

* The japanese-language MMO C21 is particularly excessive with this; the game's world spans several planets; beyond the first, 99% of what's for sale in robot shops(where you'd get your newer/better hardware outside rare drops) costs cash-shop currency. And while there's occasional events to swap normal ingame money for cash points, they're capped so you won't be able to buy anything worthwhile anyway. And the ratio of cash to points is ''insane''. A few units from the cash side of things have free versions... But their configurations are locked. Which is lethal to their usefulness in a game where customizing a unit is ''essential''; you can't even re-arm them.

** Its "sequel", [[Cosmic Break]], isn't much better, as while most of the regular shop is priced in in-game money, 99% of what's new and/or desirable is cash shop only. And both games are overly fond of the "gashapon" method of sale; CB has not released new weaponry in any other manner in at least a year, and it has less than half the content of C21... And at ''least'' half CB's content is recycled from C21.

**** Lately, the updates have only seemed to be of the gashapon (called garapon in-game) variety. Some of the garapons require real money, and have a small chance of getting a bot that is usually considered [[Bribing Your Way to Victory|overpowered]]. As one [http://www.cosmicbreakfanforum.com/t8613p15-how-cyberstep-can-be-so-retard forum user] puts it:

{{quote| "On the other hand, [[Cyber Step]] continues to churn out Garapon updates non-stop, not even bothering with the Shop in terms of UC and Rt(it took months until an actual bot appeared in the Shop, and it was only 1 bot). Because 95% of the stuff people want are in the Garapon, people are unable to actually improve on their bots unless they were willing to sell their houses. Didn't help that the Gashapon was more or less a part of Japanese culture and that most [[Otaku]] are very willing to throw their money away on mostly useless stuff, so [Japanese] players were OK with that sort of thing and [[Cyber Step]] hoped that it would be the same case with the [English] players..."}}

* Especially ridiculous for ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' free servers. "Donate" items break the game without any regard to petty things like "fairness." A lot of servers will let you "donate" for a completely max leveled character. Or items that give +XX (XX being dozens and dozens) to stats and other advantages, while the standard official items rarely more than +1 to anything.

** Other RO servers fall upon [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]], though: all items are obtainable either from monsters or for RL cash.

* ''[[Roblox]]''. Like most entries on this page, it's biggest advertising point is that it's free to play. Although you can get most hats shirts gear, etc. with incredible patience, some items to are Builder's Club only, and BC is the easiest way to earn enough Tickets/ROBUX to get most items. Plus, there are many BC only features, such as having more than 1 map/place, more than one group, making badges etc.

** Now BC members can make it so one of their places can only be visited by BC-members, for extra benefits. Fortunately, this practice isn't wide-spread, and some creators are kind enough to make free verisons of their BC places.

* Some sex-simulation games are [[Incredibly Lame Pun|taking this position]], going for a combination of this, [[Shareware]] and ''[[The Sims]] 3''-style ongoing content proliferation. The game engine is released for free, essentially as a demo, but with only a few functions enabled; most of the [[Gotta Catch Em All|partners, locales and interactions]] still need to be unlocked by later infusions of cash. Some companies (particularly Ripened Peach) are supplementing this with (again) ongoing content releases, not to mention user-built stuff.

* It's not just a phenomenon seen in online gaming. Dating sites use this trope like it's going out of style. They'll tout in all their advertisements about how "it's free to join!" But if you want to talk to anyone...

* ''Microvolts'' in somewhat interesting in that while it has a currency earned in game and another one bought with real money, most items can only be bought with the in-game currency, Micro Points. In contrast, the real-money currency, Rock Tokens, buys better items -- virtually none of which can be kept for more than a week.

* ''[[Spiral Knights]]'' is this with its use of energy, necessary to do things such as traverse dungeons and craft gear. Each player can hold up to one hundred units of mist energy (which replenishes at roughly 1 ME/11 minutes), or buy crystal energy with real money or trade for it with other players. Paying players have significant advantages, and making enough money to buy energy usually requires using almost as much energy as you can afford, so the game becomes a slow slog of converting mist energy into Crystal Energy, grinding the one or two profitable boss runs. A free player can spend weeks trying to grind their way to a particular sword, while another can simply buy the energy and trade it for the same weapon and have it instantly.

[[Category:Videogame Culture]]

[[Category:Allegedly Free Game]]