Do you know why you are able to play the patch ? Because morons like me bought the pack and covered the cost to produce it. Go on and not worry I am the one that buy this round
I'm a newbie to NW....Can someone please explain to me why the new Feywild is not free to play? I know that you have to get a key to open the boxes now but what else?
I'm a newbie to NW....Can someone please explain to me why the new Feywild is not free to play? I know that you have to get a key to open the boxes now but what else?
Close, but it's actually a 80k, divided between 3 one time fees of 10k and 1 one time fee of 50k.
Considering each of the new areas gives new daily quests, you will literally earn the 10k per each of the 3 areas just doing the missions there. More, because you'll need to do them more than once.
You have to pay to play the Feywild Module?
I thought it was a free expansion.
You can go play without a problem. Some later elements of the Feywild 'area'/campaign then require gold + AD to unlock.
Whether the cost is high enough to be considered 'pay to play' is... debated.
Let's say that following a strict semantic interpretation of the "free to play" concept, the evidence speaks for itself. The game it's actually free to play.
On the other hand, there are mechanics that in many ways try push the average user towards the use of real cash. In order to get past the three basic bags lack of slots, in order to achieve a shiny new Mount, in order to get as fast as possible the amount of AD required for whatever goal, in order to get the best enchantments, and so on.
So while it's free to play, it' s not exactly free to win (especially in PvP, I've heard).
But of course, IMHO:
I'm a newbie to NW....Can someone please explain to me why the new Feywild is not free to play? I know that you have to get a key to open the boxes now but what else?
It's people arguing semantics. The entire game is free to play - there isn't anything in the game that you can't earn (eventually) with just spending more time playing it (and specifically doing those tasks that get you Astral Diamonds, or things you can sell on the Auction House for AD) that is absolutely essential to the play experience. You can go from 1 to 60 without spending a single AD, for that matter (I've done it twice over).
However, because you can use Astral Diamonds to purchase a large number of things that make the levelling process easier, and that you can purchase those ADs with Zen, people like to argue that you have to spend money to enjoy the game (basically forcing their subjective opinion on everyone else). In support of their argument, they list the (admittedly absurd) costs of some things, and the fact you can buy gear for ADs off the Auction House, as well as all of the incentives in the cash shop to purchase items.
The game is heavily monetized, and prices are a little crazy. However, it is fully possible to enjoy the game just fine without spending a dime and instead putting in time to earn things on your own if that's what you want. It doesn't even really take that long, depending on how heavily you use the AH (I kitted out in full T1 twice over using only ADs I got while levelling, noting that I used the Event system heavily, and made full use of Invocation, Leadership, and Dailies during those periods I was actively levelling; This has me set up to do most of the L60 content I care about without a lot of fuss or worry, and should I feel the need to do dungeons more heavily, gives me a solid base to build from going forward).
Anything else is purely semantics, and based on subjective opinion, which there really isn't any point in debating (as people are going to believe what they want to believe, and especially on an Internet forum, they're going to shove that opinion at you until you accept it or ignore it).
TLDR: The game is fully free to play, but like many other FTP games on the market, there are heavy incentives in place to spend money. They are just that - incentives, and not requirements. People like to pretend incentives = necessary and argue that until blue in the face. As far as incentives go, this game gets a solid D- based on prices (which are ridiculous) for purely optional things, but is far from the absolute worst out there (see also: Anything produced by Zynga).
EDIT: Companion upgrade prices, the Wonderous Bazaar, and mount upgrade prices are my top 3 on the list of 'They have got to be kidding with this BS', however, they are also full-stop optional and in no way necessary to even begin to get anything out of the game. You would probably do better to ignore the options even exists in their current state. Because that shazbot is bananas, straight up.
[SIGPIC]Also, this poster rambles.[/SIGPIC]
0
adinosiiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,294Arc User
It is completely "free", in the sense that you only have to spend the in-game currency (AD and gold) to unlock content as you progress. The amounts you have to spend are quite frankly not that significant - I really don't understand why anybody is complaining.
Quite frankly, if you have reached level 60 and played though the existing epic dungeons without making a few hundred gold and at least a few million AD, you are doing something wrong.
It is completely "free", in the sense that you only have to spend the in-game currency (AD and gold) to unlock content as you progress. The amounts you have to spend are quite frankly not that significant - I really don't understand why anybody is complaining.
Quite frankly, if you have reached level 60 and played though the existing epic dungeons without making a few hundred gold and at least a few million AD, you are doing something wrong.
What if I have crippling social anxiety and don't run epic dungeons out of inherent social pressures and a desire to avoid speedruns (do note the anxiety issues also prevent me from a lot of other generally 'group' based activities like finding a guild and the like)?
Not that I find any of the Campaign AD prices that crazy, either, but I'm just curious what your response is for people in similar conditions.
I don't play epic dungeons. So I don't have hundreds of gold and a few million AD... I have about 40 gold and maybe 100k AD.
And given that Feywild is primarily 'open world soloable PvE content,' it... somewhat irritates me if access to that content is gated behind costs that require a different playstyle.
(Now, if it was 'run a bunch of dungeons so you can unlock further dungeons', that would be totally fair)
Campaign: The Fenwick Cycle NWS-DKR9GB7KH
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
0
brendan03usMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 0Arc User
I don't play epic dungeons. So I don't have hundreds of gold and a few million AD... I have about 40 gold and maybe 100k AD.
And given that Feywild is primarily 'open world soloable PvE content,' it... somewhat irritates me if access to that content is gated behind costs that require a different playstyle.
(Now, if it was 'run a bunch of dungeons so you can unlock further dungeons', that would be totally fair)
It's gated primarily because it's a reputation-grind type system. They copied this from one of their other games -- Star Trek Online.
In STO, you also do dailies to get reputation currency, and then you contribute this currency together with trade goods that are very hard to obtain in bulk, and which therefore in effect must be purchased with game currency on the AH - which makes it a currency sink as well. In exchange, you progress through ranks, and unlock boons and gear options, and also, on one of the planets, unlock new areas to explore. It's designed to take time (everything is on a timer) and because of that there is generally plenty of time to earn the relatively modest amounts of game currency required to contribute to the system in order to advance through it over the course of time. Now the campaign system here isn't exactly like STO's rep system, but the similarities are quite clear and obvious. It isn't intended to be pay to play -- it's intended to be a modest currency sink and a substantial time sink (not in terms of grinding, but in terms of time gating).
All I got was come back tomorrow.
I guess I should go try it..but I will most likely die since my rogue now has no power to play alone.
...then you "aren't doing it right."
I have all classes leveled to 60. I'm taking my rogue (only at this time) through the new content. I'm breezing right right, like everything was butter, and I'm using only the PVP purple gear to do it with exception of some cheap recovery purples I bought on AH.
Why is that last statement relevant? Because I'm using the "infinite stealth" build...a pvp build that focuses on stealth not dps. And if this build can go through the new pve content so easily, then any dps build can, and do so even more efficiently.
I made my way to 60 with a friend but I have the same, about 50 gold and 100,000 AD and that's only because I bought 20 keys and got AD in there. We can't live in NW.
I only have about... ~15k AD and 40g on-hand on my Rogue, and I haven't had to pay anything I found exorbitant so far. It seems like the absolute highest cost in the entire area is 50k AD for the Epic Dungeon key, but that's freely ignorable if you don't plan on doing the Epic Dungeon (or can be put off until you have enough AD to cover it). Every other task I've run across that required AD was both optional (a) and on average about 10k AD (ranging from 5k to 20k).
There really isn't a lot in this expansion that's both necessary and has a high cost to it, which is indicative of the entire game at this point as well.
EDIT: Well, alright, I have about 130k AD up in auctions right now, but almost all of that is in a Coalescent Ward I don't really care to use and don't see much point in hoarding personally. :U I log in to rotate Invocation while I get coffee, run Sharandar, then go do whatever else I'm doing today. Total time spent - 1hr15min (assuming things run slow), on my 8.9k GS Rogue. I imagine my CW would run it faster if she were 60 (I'm in a stretch of general gaming apathy that's making levelling difficult through sheer lack of motivation).
What if I have crippling social anxiety and don't run epic dungeons out of inherent social pressures and a desire to avoid speedruns (do note the anxiety issues also prevent me from a lot of other generally 'group' based activities like finding a guild and the like)?
Not that I find any of the Campaign AD prices that crazy, either, but I'm just curious what your response is for people in similar conditions.
I have 5 level 60's. Between them all, I've run probably only 4-5 dungeons. My schedule makes it difficult for me to stay online for any given length of time, so I almost never do dungeons. I did them only in the beginning, to see what they were like.
You can solo the entire game just fine.
But, if you are like me, you also want to have some nice epic gear. There are a couple options:
1) Do dailies and plenty of quests to farm for it. There are some decent epics for a good price. I have never spent over 20k AD for any item, ever.
2) I played a lot of pvp to gain honor, to buy the pvp battlefield gear. This is good gear, even for the pve because the world pve is so easy. This won't be sufficient for T2 dungeons, but then, we aren't running dungeons, so who cares?
Also, the new content (as much as I really do hate it and how you have to pay for it as well as how you have limited access to it), drops some decent blues if you aren't already geared by then.
In short, you do not have to run dungeons or be "rich" to enjoy the game. There are 2 types of players here IMO:
1) hardcore - the min/maxer's; do the dungeons religiously to get the best gear; farm the HAMSTER out of dailies to get the most gold; create as many accounts as possible to do as much crafting
2) casual - playing to have fun with the limited time and interest they have
A hardcore gamer will miss out trying to play as #2 because their goals are different. A casual gamer won't miss out by playing as #2...but they will not have fun playing as #1 does.
Admittedly, I've spent about $100 on the game (this includes the $60 Guardian pack at beta). Since then, I've only bought expansion enhancements (a slot, bank expansion, etc...) and some Zen in the beginning because I thought I would score with all the stupid Nightmare Boxes I was picking up as a "****."
You do not need to spend any real money to experience the game. It may take a little longer to get there (re: mount, leveling in the beginning - although, even that is pretty quick), but you aren't missing anything.
Heck, out of the 5 60's I have...only 2 have been in guilds and I'm not even active in them (never ran a single dungeon or pvp bg with them).
Play for the experience that you want out of it instead of worrying about how to achieve all the best stuff. No one will be able to get the "best stuff" unless they want to go hardcore and dungeon delve (or farm/craft like a madman)...but that's the way it ought to be in any mmorpg.
I was more poking fun at the idea that if I'm not grinding epic dungeons, I'm 'doing it wrong', ignorant of any factors that may be contributing to my desire to avoid them.
Still, that's a lot of good information for people to have.
In STO, you also do dailies to get reputation currency, and then you contribute this currency together with trade goods that are very hard to obtain in bulk, and which therefore in effect must be purchased with game currency on the AH
Eh, the trade goods are pretty easy to get in bulk - just buy it from cargo ships. But, again, that's a credit sink just like the AH. (The difference between STO and this game, however, is that the AH works off credits - i.e, gold. And it's relatively easy to farm credits, unlike gold in NWO.)
----
Me, I don't do epic dungeons, either. I *do* level alts, do leadership, and invoke (which gives both straight AD, and gives Celestial enchant boxes to sell for 20k+ AD each). Oh, and a bit of reselling of crafting assets, either from Doomguard's Duty or from profession packs when I bought them. I've probably gained around 10k zen via the exchange this way, since the beginning of Open Beta. So, maybe 3m+ AD?
(The vast majority of it via leadership & invoking. So, maybe half an hour each day, refreshing crafting tasks & praying. Any other time is just playing what I want to play - foundry, level an alt, whatever. No need to "live in NW". /shrug)
0
brendan03usMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Eh, the trade goods are pretty easy to get in bulk - just buy it from cargo ships. But, again, that's a credit sink just like the AH. (The difference between STO and this game, however, is that the AH works off credits - i.e, gold. And it's relatively easy to farm credits, unlike gold in NWO.)
Oh I forgot about the trade ships -- good point. Still a currency sink, but not necessarily on the AH. It's also a good point that unlike NW, STO's dilithium is a much more limited use currency . They upped the ante, so to speak, in NW by making ADs the main currency of the game and not just a specialty currency -- probably a RMT-oriented move. IIRC, the Asian PWE games are also like NW in this aspect.
---
I also don't do dungeons. The main ways I have of getting AD are praying and leadership, and selling wards. It doesn't generate a whole ton of "right now" AD like selling a BOE epic might, but over time it gives a nice amount of AD. It's not feasible for a min/maxer who wants to get BIS everything on all their characters right now, dammit, but it works for a more casual player like me.
Comments
Wrong. Maybe if PW only owns this game by itself.
i dont know why they dont use money on the game or ZEN to upgrate ur companion's
i notice the game money is good only to buy ur first horse and buy some stuff market
i say remove astral diamonds
keep zen and game money
True. And you can get a purple cleric for the totally reasonable price of $40 right now.
...
yeah
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
:rolleyes:
It is free to play.
Whether the cost is high enough to be considered 'pay to play' is... debated.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
I guess I should go try it..but I will most likely die since my rogue now has no power to play alone.
You have to pay to play the Feywild Module?
I thought it was a free expansion.
Let's say that following a strict semantic interpretation of the "free to play" concept, the evidence speaks for itself. The game it's actually free to play.
On the other hand, there are mechanics that in many ways try push the average user towards the use of real cash. In order to get past the three basic bags lack of slots, in order to achieve a shiny new Mount, in order to get as fast as possible the amount of AD required for whatever goal, in order to get the best enchantments, and so on.
So while it's free to play, it' s not exactly free to win (especially in PvP, I've heard).
But of course, IMHO:
It's people arguing semantics. The entire game is free to play - there isn't anything in the game that you can't earn (eventually) with just spending more time playing it (and specifically doing those tasks that get you Astral Diamonds, or things you can sell on the Auction House for AD) that is absolutely essential to the play experience. You can go from 1 to 60 without spending a single AD, for that matter (I've done it twice over).
However, because you can use Astral Diamonds to purchase a large number of things that make the levelling process easier, and that you can purchase those ADs with Zen, people like to argue that you have to spend money to enjoy the game (basically forcing their subjective opinion on everyone else). In support of their argument, they list the (admittedly absurd) costs of some things, and the fact you can buy gear for ADs off the Auction House, as well as all of the incentives in the cash shop to purchase items.
The game is heavily monetized, and prices are a little crazy. However, it is fully possible to enjoy the game just fine without spending a dime and instead putting in time to earn things on your own if that's what you want. It doesn't even really take that long, depending on how heavily you use the AH (I kitted out in full T1 twice over using only ADs I got while levelling, noting that I used the Event system heavily, and made full use of Invocation, Leadership, and Dailies during those periods I was actively levelling; This has me set up to do most of the L60 content I care about without a lot of fuss or worry, and should I feel the need to do dungeons more heavily, gives me a solid base to build from going forward).
Anything else is purely semantics, and based on subjective opinion, which there really isn't any point in debating (as people are going to believe what they want to believe, and especially on an Internet forum, they're going to shove that opinion at you until you accept it or ignore it).
TLDR: The game is fully free to play, but like many other FTP games on the market, there are heavy incentives in place to spend money. They are just that - incentives, and not requirements. People like to pretend incentives = necessary and argue that until blue in the face. As far as incentives go, this game gets a solid D- based on prices (which are ridiculous) for purely optional things, but is far from the absolute worst out there (see also: Anything produced by Zynga).
EDIT: Companion upgrade prices, the Wonderous Bazaar, and mount upgrade prices are my top 3 on the list of 'They have got to be kidding with this BS', however, they are also full-stop optional and in no way necessary to even begin to get anything out of the game. You would probably do better to ignore the options even exists in their current state. Because that shazbot is bananas, straight up.
[SIGPIC]Also, this poster rambles.[/SIGPIC]
It is completely "free", in the sense that you only have to spend the in-game currency (AD and gold) to unlock content as you progress. The amounts you have to spend are quite frankly not that significant - I really don't understand why anybody is complaining.
Quite frankly, if you have reached level 60 and played though the existing epic dungeons without making a few hundred gold and at least a few million AD, you are doing something wrong.
Not that I find any of the Campaign AD prices that crazy, either, but I'm just curious what your response is for people in similar conditions.
[SIGPIC]Also, this poster rambles.[/SIGPIC]
And given that Feywild is primarily 'open world soloable PvE content,' it... somewhat irritates me if access to that content is gated behind costs that require a different playstyle.
(Now, if it was 'run a bunch of dungeons so you can unlock further dungeons', that would be totally fair)
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
It's gated primarily because it's a reputation-grind type system. They copied this from one of their other games -- Star Trek Online.
In STO, you also do dailies to get reputation currency, and then you contribute this currency together with trade goods that are very hard to obtain in bulk, and which therefore in effect must be purchased with game currency on the AH - which makes it a currency sink as well. In exchange, you progress through ranks, and unlock boons and gear options, and also, on one of the planets, unlock new areas to explore. It's designed to take time (everything is on a timer) and because of that there is generally plenty of time to earn the relatively modest amounts of game currency required to contribute to the system in order to advance through it over the course of time. Now the campaign system here isn't exactly like STO's rep system, but the similarities are quite clear and obvious. It isn't intended to be pay to play -- it's intended to be a modest currency sink and a substantial time sink (not in terms of grinding, but in terms of time gating).
I have all classes leveled to 60. I'm taking my rogue (only at this time) through the new content. I'm breezing right right, like everything was butter, and I'm using only the PVP purple gear to do it with exception of some cheap recovery purples I bought on AH.
Why is that last statement relevant? Because I'm using the "infinite stealth" build...a pvp build that focuses on stealth not dps. And if this build can go through the new pve content so easily, then any dps build can, and do so even more efficiently.
There really isn't a lot in this expansion that's both necessary and has a high cost to it, which is indicative of the entire game at this point as well.
EDIT: Well, alright, I have about 130k AD up in auctions right now, but almost all of that is in a Coalescent Ward I don't really care to use and don't see much point in hoarding personally. :U I log in to rotate Invocation while I get coffee, run Sharandar, then go do whatever else I'm doing today. Total time spent - 1hr15min (assuming things run slow), on my 8.9k GS Rogue. I imagine my CW would run it faster if she were 60 (I'm in a stretch of general gaming apathy that's making levelling difficult through sheer lack of motivation).
[SIGPIC]Also, this poster rambles.[/SIGPIC]
You can solo the entire game just fine.
But, if you are like me, you also want to have some nice epic gear. There are a couple options:
1) Do dailies and plenty of quests to farm for it. There are some decent epics for a good price. I have never spent over 20k AD for any item, ever.
2) I played a lot of pvp to gain honor, to buy the pvp battlefield gear. This is good gear, even for the pve because the world pve is so easy. This won't be sufficient for T2 dungeons, but then, we aren't running dungeons, so who cares?
Also, the new content (as much as I really do hate it and how you have to pay for it as well as how you have limited access to it), drops some decent blues if you aren't already geared by then.
In short, you do not have to run dungeons or be "rich" to enjoy the game. There are 2 types of players here IMO:
1) hardcore - the min/maxer's; do the dungeons religiously to get the best gear; farm the HAMSTER out of dailies to get the most gold; create as many accounts as possible to do as much crafting
2) casual - playing to have fun with the limited time and interest they have
A hardcore gamer will miss out trying to play as #2 because their goals are different. A casual gamer won't miss out by playing as #2...but they will not have fun playing as #1 does.
Admittedly, I've spent about $100 on the game (this includes the $60 Guardian pack at beta). Since then, I've only bought expansion enhancements (a slot, bank expansion, etc...) and some Zen in the beginning because I thought I would score with all the stupid Nightmare Boxes I was picking up as a "****."
You do not need to spend any real money to experience the game. It may take a little longer to get there (re: mount, leveling in the beginning - although, even that is pretty quick), but you aren't missing anything.
Heck, out of the 5 60's I have...only 2 have been in guilds and I'm not even active in them (never ran a single dungeon or pvp bg with them).
Play for the experience that you want out of it instead of worrying about how to achieve all the best stuff. No one will be able to get the "best stuff" unless they want to go hardcore and dungeon delve (or farm/craft like a madman)...but that's the way it ought to be in any mmorpg.
Still, that's a lot of good information for people to have.
[SIGPIC]Also, this poster rambles.[/SIGPIC]
Eh, the trade goods are pretty easy to get in bulk - just buy it from cargo ships. But, again, that's a credit sink just like the AH. (The difference between STO and this game, however, is that the AH works off credits - i.e, gold. And it's relatively easy to farm credits, unlike gold in NWO.)
----
Me, I don't do epic dungeons, either. I *do* level alts, do leadership, and invoke (which gives both straight AD, and gives Celestial enchant boxes to sell for 20k+ AD each). Oh, and a bit of reselling of crafting assets, either from Doomguard's Duty or from profession packs when I bought them. I've probably gained around 10k zen via the exchange this way, since the beginning of Open Beta. So, maybe 3m+ AD?
(The vast majority of it via leadership & invoking. So, maybe half an hour each day, refreshing crafting tasks & praying. Any other time is just playing what I want to play - foundry, level an alt, whatever. No need to "live in NW". /shrug)
Oh I forgot about the trade ships -- good point. Still a currency sink, but not necessarily on the AH. It's also a good point that unlike NW, STO's dilithium is a much more limited use currency . They upped the ante, so to speak, in NW by making ADs the main currency of the game and not just a specialty currency -- probably a RMT-oriented move. IIRC, the Asian PWE games are also like NW in this aspect.
---
I also don't do dungeons. The main ways I have of getting AD are praying and leadership, and selling wards. It doesn't generate a whole ton of "right now" AD like selling a BOE epic might, but over time it gives a nice amount of AD. It's not feasible for a min/maxer who wants to get BIS everything on all their characters right now, dammit, but it works for a more casual player like me.