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Allegedly Free Game: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[Air Rivals|Ace Online]]'', also known as ''Air Rivals'' and ''Phi Doi''. You can sign up and fly from L1 to L100 for free, but you need cash credits to buy Enchant protect cards, item seeker units, and fancy holographic banner-like things you can attach to your airframe. At least they give you generous samples of these credit shop exclusives as you gain levels.
* ''[[Adventure Quest]]'' boasts itself as a free game - it is... unless you really want to go on the exciting quests, and have advanced classes, pets, and other things that make this online single-player game exciting. Non "guardians" (you guessed it, they're members) have the large nuisance of only getting a 'small server' (which gets full [[Server Cap|often]]) whereas "Guardians" ''always'' get space. Also, they can equip some restricted items. Every other spin-off has its own Guardian counterpart with a very similar theme of 'pay now and get better stuff, etc'.
** [[Artix Entertainment]]'s other games have varying amounts of this.
*** In''[[Dragon Fable]]'', you can only use one half of each 'class' skills, cannot use epic weapons (which in a particularly cruel twist are actually given to you anyway -- often more frequently than normal weapons -- but you simply ''can't equip'' them!), and you are unable to access 'Titan Dragon' missions (which are the best for level grinding, natch);
**** In ''[[Mechquest]]'' is less of an example of this, and more of an example of [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]], since there are almost no 'upgrade-only' quests arond, but a ''lot'' more upgrade only weapons and mecha.
***** In ''[[Adventure Quest Worlds]]'', 'most' of the items are 'Upgrade only', ALL pets (except 1) are upgrade only, also some [[Character Classes]] and some Maps and quests are. Some
** 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]]'' 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]]'', but has now been implemented in all of the games.
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* ''[[Battlefield Heroes]]'' recently underwent this. It used to be you could buy clothing and other extras for real money, and buy the guns and essential using in-game currency. Then, EA (of course) jacked up the prices in in-game currency by 20 times, no exaggeration, and made it a lot easier to buy stuff using real money, making it effectively useless to use in-game currency. Then added new, better guns, available ''only'' with real money. Interestingly enough, this is the exact thing they promised ''wouldn't'' happen when they introduced the game.
** They took out the cheaper bandages and wrenches. [[Dude, Not Funny|Not cool]].
* [[Battlefield Play4Free]], also from Dice. Bonus points for being this trope ''while still in closed beta''. It's most egregious with sniper rifles, where there are paid sniper rifles that are longer range than the free ones and do significantly more damage. Headshots that don't kill? Never mind that bodyshots from those guns should put thumb-sized holes in people ...
** And made some weapons unrealistic and underpowered ([[PP 2000]] for one) so that they didn't compete with paid weapons.
** You can buy armor, heals, weapon attachments, guns where every single stat is better than the free or earnable guns ...
* ''[[Bloodline Champions]]'' makes most of the game obtainable free, with all in-game characters and aesthetic changes for them being obtainable free, as well as being able to participate in all competitive multiplayer modes. Certain services require payment, though - the ability to play against medium and hard bots instead of just easy, changing your account name and more slots to make teams cost real money.
* The later versions of ''[[Bloons Tower Defense]]'' are technically winnable without shelling out for all the various upgrades a player can buy, (more lives or in-game money, faster shooters, etc) but you have to get everything ''exactly'' right.
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**** 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..."}}
* ''[[Champions Online]]'' has a "Free For All" setup, where anyone can play nearly all of the game's content for free. However, the free Silver accounts have severe restrictions placed on character customization (fewer costume choices, a handful of Archetypes, limited bag slots, and a limited selection of travel powers) and have to purchase access to the Adventure Packs (optional repayable mission content). Still, this is mostly an aversion of this trope as it is entirely feasible to level a character all the way up to end-game content without spending a penny on the game: nothing that is essential requires a purchase.
** All of the above restrictions can be bypassed by spending real money to unlock the restricted content; but there are two aspects of The game which are only available to the subscription-based Gold accounts: power customization (what color is my energy blast? does it come from my palm, fist, chest, or head? etc.) and Freeform characters (which are superior in every way to the Archetypes, both in terms of how much freedom you have in choosing powers and how many powers you can choose). Silver accounts are definitely second-class citizens in the game; though they are not outcasts.
* ''[[Club Penguin]]'' is getting almost unplayable for free members; they can't continue to the next level on games such as Catching Waves or even Astroblaster without a membership, making the new stamp collecting feature very pointless.
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** Before getting better again when the January 2012 update gave everyone unlimited actions a day
* [[E Republik]], ([http://www.erepublik.com here]), an online social strategy, suffers from this. While free play is possible, the international currency is virtual gold. This can be earned in small amounts for various infrequent achievements, or bought on the currency markets (prohibitive due to its high value), but is required in moderate and large amounts to create organizations, newspapers, companies, and political parties; to upgrade buildings; and to buy wellness packs that allow players to fight more times each day. In short, any major in-game enterprise tends to become expensive.
* Equine-Ranch. Sure, it's free to play indefinitely...unless you want to actually do something, like breed or train your horses to a winning level of even the basic level competition...or even own horses that aren't just "Grade" horses.
* ''[[Evony]]'' advertises itself as "Free Forever", but the only reliable way to get special items is to buy them for real money. This includes the Michelangelo's Script, a requirement to upgrade a building to its highest level, for $5 per upgrade. It also includes medals, which you'll have to buy if you want to have more than two cities at once. They also have three separate "[[Blatant Lies|free gifts]]", the best of which requires the player to spend $100. The worst part is that the game coins are called "cents" even though each cent costs $0.10, to make things seem cheaper. (All figures in US dollars.)
{{quote|"Pay now, my Lord!"}}
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** On the other hand, Kingdom of Loathing isn't exactly a competitive game in the traditional sense. A major selling point of the game is the content and writing, all of which is available to completely free players. Even content from purchasable items is accessible to free players for relatively cheap amounts of in-game currency. Purchasable familiars drop items that allow access to special content, these items are often put up for sale for a pretty reasonable price, buying a 'content familiar' is actually the least efficient way to gain access to the new content. In this way, a player who is just enjoying the humorous dialogue and quests is not in any way limited.
*** What does constitute this, however, is leaderboarding. As a solo activity, competition in KoL is more akin to golf, where players who do not interact attempt to get the lowest turncount. In this sense, buying cash-shop items is [[Bribing Your Way to Victory|basically required if you want to get on the leaderboard.]] However, the leaderboard is entirely optional, with it's rewards being very minimal or a simple [[Bragging Rights Reward]]. And as the community is fond of saying, "Leaderboarding is not the game." Of course, the community will also replace 'leaderboarding' with any other aspect of the game. Basically, there's a lot of ways to enjoy the game. Most of them are free, with only a few things like leaderboarding 'requiring' the player to spend money.
* ''Kwari'', an former online FPS. The equipment that you couldn't get unless you paid real money? ''Bullets.''
* ''[[Mabinogi Fantasy Life]]'' by Nexon started out this way; with the main storyline quests, powerful [[Empathic Weapon|Empathic Weapons]], and character rebirths only available to paid members. With the "Pioneers of Iria" expansion, all game content was made available to free players; but there are still a lot of [[Bribing Your Way to Victory|non-essential but highly useful game enhancing items]] available for a paid premium.
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]] Tactics'' advertises that it's free to download and play. However, befitting the card game the game is based on, you must buy booster packs to add to your collection to customize your original setup. Of course, most of the demographic that the game is aimed at expected this...as they play the card game the game is based on.
** Oh, and you need to spend real money to buy more chapters of the story mode. Much like Star Chamber.
** Similarly, ''Magic Online'' also charges real money for in-game cards and for tournaments that give out prizes. Once you have the cards, though, "casual" play is free.
* ''[[Maple Story]]'' is a common example of this trope. Without the real-life-cash bought money, characters stick to the regular equipment, are forced to stick to the basic 3 hairstyles, and thanks to special items that allow better boosts like extra slots for more upgrades, 2x exp (almost needed in a game famous for its grind) and other boosts, are stuck with weaker things. Also, the real-life-cash makes it a lot easier to make in game money.
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* ''Memoir 44 Online'' recently appeared on Steam as a Free-To-Play title. While this is technically true, you'll be able to play 25 games maximum outside the tutorial before you have to buy more tokens using real money. Since most of the scenarios eat three tokens rather than the minimum 2, it's probably going to be fewer.
* ''[[Moon Breakers]]'' has also recently appeared on Steam. While it's ''possible'' to get new ships with the in-game currency, the cheapest one costs 216,000 credits. Your average reward per match is around 2000. Do the math.
* ''[[Need for Speed]] World Online'' is a curious case. It's free to play, with the whole game world available without restrictions, but cars are unlocked through an RPG-like progress system. The system [[Cap|maxes out]] at level 10 for free users. Thing is, the supercars are unlocked ''after'' level 10, so if you want that virtual Lamborghini, you're going to have to pay $20 for the [http://eastore.ea.com/store/ea/ContentTheme/pbPage.need-for-speed-world/?resid=doQMFQoBAlYAACcTy@AAAAAE&rests=1278609457192 VIP pack], which removes the level 10 [[Cap]] and adds access to the supercars. There's also something called "Speed Boost" for the [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]] file as well.
** The [[Cap]] was lifted a couple of months after release, so free players can go up to level 50, with anyone who bought the VIP pack getting some free car rentals as a "thank you" from EA. The "Speed Boost" remains, though.
*** keep in mind that "speed boost" is not somthing that boost your speed, but a virtual currency thats bought with real cash... but you can use speed boost to buy powerups like nitro, which you can get more of in the game... but only by getting first place. which powerup you get is random if won in a race.
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** In earlier versions of the game, Free players (or 'Greenies', as free players' names were always in green, as opposed to subscribing players' yellow) could play forever but were unable to purchase ships, shops or anything beyond the most basic clothing and weaponry, which is not as much of a handicap as it sounds - weapons in the game merely altered the drop patterns in the swordfighting puzzle, cheaper weapons are easier to defend against because their 'attacks' dropped blocks in patterns that were easier to clear. Free players could still get at least one upgrade to assuage this - though they were obviously barred from the more expensive weapons with their impenetrable drop patterns. Still, many high-end players would use the starting sword most Greenies were confined to in the name of [[Self-Imposed Challenge]]. Clothing is purely for decoration. They were also prevented from playing two of the puzzles - gunnery and navigation. This has obviously changed, but even back then, there was still a 'free' server that used a rudimentary version of the system detailed above.
** Except [[Urban Dead]], which only has limits on IP access.
* 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.
** RO recently released the 'Renewal' revamp, which introduced third-tier classes. In order to access them at all, you have to shell out for 'Reset Stones' (or save up for ''months''), and good luck being at all competitive in [[PvP]] (or experiencing a lot of new content) without them.
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** While most things ingame will cost Lindens dollars ("Lindens") and these can be purchased with real money, it's also possible to break even or even earn real money from the game by making and selling content.
* ''[[Shattered Galaxy]]'' has this in various forms. First off, freeplayers have an attribute and level cap, and they also have a fairly steep experience gain cut past a certain levels. Furthermore, while they can collect uranium, only subscribers can actually ''use'' it. This means that only subscribers can use certain units, as well as the "gold" versions of weapons, which are somewhat (but not game-breakingly) better than their regular equivalents.
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Imagine]]'' every shop contains equipment that can only be purchased with real money. ''Every shop''. In order to have more than one character, or to reset your attributes if you make a mistake, you have to pay real money. Need to store extra demons? You need more money. Want to cosplay a famous [[Mega Ten]] character? That cost money too. Weapons, [[COM Ps]], Armor... Hell, there is a guitar that doesn't even do anything that costs ''60 dollars''. For that much, you can go out and buy an ''actual [[Mega Ten]] game''.
** Also, you can buy a REAL guitar, that does play music, (although a crappy one) for 60 dollars.
** The GMs softened the game (with permission from the original japanese devs) by adding stat resets for in-game currency that work so long as you are under level 30 and holding large events where they give away tons of items for free.
** The maps in the game are pretty huge, and that's all well and good, but walking anywhere takes ''forever''. Aeria Games is clearly aware of this, because there are items that allow you to increase your move speed, teleport, ride one of your demons... and they all cost real money. The game would be a thousand times more playable if you didn't have to pay for the teleportation item.
*** But unlike other examples on this page, this game is ''entirely playable'' for players that don't spend real cash on Aeria Points, keeping the balance between payers and skilled players.
** While the items in question have to be bought with real money initially, there's nothing to stop players buying them from other players for ingame cash.
* Stick Arena: Ballisticks has a premium account thing. People without it are limited to 4 ITEMS IN THE SHOP. They also can't make levels. Premium members have more tile sets too.
* The online game ''Sqwishland.'' First off, it's tied to a series of toys, so there's already a purchase point of entry--but the toys are available as capsule toys that cost 25-50 cents a pop, so that's not so terrible, right? But then you find out that the "free" version of the game is essentially the ability to run around the game map, and little more--you can't even interact with your pets (and it is a virtual pet site) without having a premium account. The premium page does not mention this, of course--it just mentions the new clothes and house options you get, as well as more mini-games.
* You can play ''[[Tetris]] Online Japan'' for free, in the same way that you can play ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'' with two broken legs. And an elephant tied to your back. (See TOJ's entry on [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]] for more details.) Of course, to play without being handicapped, you have to pay for a "premium" subscription. To add insult to injury, they nerfed non-premium players and boosted premium players in an update was officially explained as for "balance" purposes. The only balancing going on there is in their checkbooks.
* [[Tibia]]. The game is free to play, but the people who pay for "premium time" in real life money enjoy a large number of advantages over free players. Paying adds several new islands, the ability to travel by boats and flying carpets, new spells, new items, a new server, new monsters, new quests, new outfits and probably [[Up to Eleven|even more stuff]].
* [[Disney]]'s ''[[Toontown Online]]'' limits you to gaining Toon Tasks (quests) and fishing in the starting Playground and 3 surrounding Streets (though you can wander anywhere you want), a [[Ingame Currency|Jellybean]] jar that maxes out at 50 beans, 25 Gags (weapons/attacks), only able to learn one extra gag track (toon-up/sound), and unable to buy anything from the Cattlelog, or play any of the games other than the one in the central Playground. Basically, a free user will get maybe two days of play out of what might actually be a pretty decent MMORPG.
** Free players used to be able to make two characters and go past level one on the extra gag track, but that was changed.
** [[Pirates of the Caribbean]] Online is just as bad. Lose half of the "notoriety" (XP) per kill, can only do a few quests, access to only three weapons (cutlass, pistol and voodoo doll) (out of six types advertised), no ship upgrades, and nothing to spend money on. Oh, yeah, and a level cap at 10 (it can be raised higher but by grinding alone can only be reached by free players at this level).
* Averted with ''[[Track Mania]]''. The free version, ''Nations'', contains only one environment, while the paid version, ''United'', contains seven, one of which (Stadium) is in ''Nations''. However, ''Nations'' has everything accessible in the Stadium environ in ''United'', including the series' robust [[Level Editor]], several game types, plenty of tracks for each type, leaderboards, and access to the loads and loads of user-created levels. People with ''Nations'' can even race on the same servers as people in the Stadium in ''United''. While the other environments have different handling for vehicles and different race styles, you get most of the features of you stick with the free version.
* ''[http://www.travian.com Travian]'' is advertised as free, but it is nearly impossible to be competitive in any way without buying lots of gold.
** Although, with T4 you can get gold for free in the auctions and in oases.
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* ''ZT Online''. [http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/gambling_your_life_away_in_zt.php This game is one of the biggest offender of this trope], and BY FAR the most popular [[MMORPG]] in [[Red China]]. Think about that.
* Made worse that in many of the games above, with the hard-earned in-game points and the money converted into in-game special cash, you essentially didn't buy items like guns. You RENT them, as the items has limited by hours use. Only a few items has durability rate, and it's bought by in-game points, which is [[Bribing Your Way to Victory|harder than usual means of money-converted into in-game special cash.]]
* Just about every "Free Server" for any pay to play game. They have "donation" items given to the player after "donating" money to support the "free" server.
* Many [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] that started out as strictly pay-to-play have recently begun offering free trial accounts as a way to increase their playerbase, due to the difficulty of competing with established giants like [[World of Warcraft]]. Most of these offer access only to low-level content and newbie areas. In order to advance beyond the newbie levels and regions; you have to upgrade to a fully paid membership. Many of these also offer additional restrictions on game content for free trial players. A lot of them refer to their free play content somewhat misleadingly as "endless" or "perpetual" free play; to distinguish it from the previously common time-limited free trials.
** Now World of Warcraft itself is free to play, but with a level cap of 20 among other restrictions. It's essentially the 14-day trial, only now it lasts forever.
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** [[Eve Online]] subverts with their PLEX system. It's entirely possible for a player to play their way to a subscription by acquiring enough ISK to buy PLEX instead of paying the monthly subscription. You can also [[Bribing Your Way to Victory|sell PLEX on the open market]].
** Averted with ''[[Star Trek Online]]'' since it went free-to-play, in fact the deal for free players is so good that people are complaining that premium players aren't getting enough benefits.
** [[
* 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...
* Many, many years ago before the internet went public, "going online" meant signing onto a pay-by-the-hour online service such as CompuServe or Prodigy at rates that would be deemed highway robbery today. [[wikipedia:Quantum Link|Quantum Link]] (which would eventually morph into America Online) was a service that attempted to distinguish itself with the then-revolutionary claim of unlimited time for ten bucks a month <ref>Yes, I know, that's not ''free'' but compared to the five to ten dollars '''per hour''' every other service charged...</ref>. Except it turned out all you could do was basically stare at the opening menu. All of the actual ''content'' was labeled premium and charged by the hour (including the games, so it fits under this.)
* ''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.
** On the other hand, free players DO have access to everything that paying players have, so one can progress through the game without ever spending a dime. However, since the energy market is determined by players and prices can vary when buying with in-game currency, so if you don't like [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]] you can easily be screwed by the market, and stuck unable to play without bleeding money (or waiting 22 hours for your free energy allocation to regenerate).
* ''[[The Daily Show]]'' had Aasif Mandvi expose iPad app "Tap Fish" as one. You pay to resurrect fish/get a better aquarium. One man's children spent '''$1500''' dollars on the game, since it goes through iTunes, which saves credit info and doesn't usually need more than a basic password.
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