i always thought pay2win was a community term, and not actually something companies tried to do as a business model.
Wargaming axes 'pay-to-win' model for 'free-to-win' plan
By
Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor
In-game components from World of Tanks and other Wargaming games that give players an edge cannot be purchased from now on; World of Warplanes open beta starting soon.
Wargaming's vice president of publishing, Andrei Yarantsau, has said on Gamasutra that the company will be removing all "pay-to-win" elements from its games and will replace them with a "free-to-win" model.
All in-game components from World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, and World of Warships that gave players an edge gameplay-wise will not be available for purchase with real money. Examples include premium ammo that gave players a bonus to armor penetration.
Wargaming will instead focus on receiving revenue from transactions for cosmetic items and customization options. The company stated that the free-to-win model would balance out the loss of the previous model, and hoped that this new system would facilitate World of Tanks as "a true eSports discipline."
In related news, Wargaming announced that World of Warplanes will be in open beta soon. The game will enter two open beta phases as well as go through a wipe that will reset players' achievements, planes, credits, and gold.
By
Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor
Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.
49 comments
Great news! The whole 'pay-to-win' model was probably the only reason i didn't play World of Tanks.
Ummm, so if I pay $60 for CoD, i still have to level up in order to get certain guns and equipment. I don't see the difference.
1 Like Yeah, as long as they don't remove content to sell it later as DLC. I love DLC when it's worth the money, but I've seen some companies use it as a way to make you pay more money for less product.
1 Like That is the far better way to do it. Pay to win ruins gameplay honestly. It cheapens the rewards you get when all you do is pay for them and in the end makes the game feel more hollow. You should have to work in game for the rewards (and i"m not even worried about fairness, I just think in the long run it makes a game feel hollow and cheap if you win it just by throwing money at better weapons rather than doing something in game to earn those weapons).
I don't mind if you pay to customize, it's still incentive (I mean I know i like the idea of customization for my character) but it doesn't ruin actual gameplay.
1 Like It also pisses me off that people that dont pay and then complain, have the audacity to complain at all. You are entitled to nothing.
3 Like @blackothh The reason people complain is that it causes imbalance in gameplay. Many free to play games are very profitable without being pay to win, so there is really no reason for unbalanced pay to win games to even exist.
whats interesting is that this game really isnt "pay to win", its "pay to win faster" you still have to play the game either way.
AS long as there are people dumb enough to play Pay2Win titles - publishers will exploit the hell out of it. And unfortunately there always will be people willing to pay
@edinko I still recall the old "Magic: The Gathering" card game as the first really blatant pay-to-win concept I had seen. Outrageously profitable (they are PAPER CARDS) and people became crazy addicted to it. A friend spent all his College meal credits buying magic cards from the school's little convenience store. I don't even know what he actually ate to survive.... The current pay2win online games totally remind me of Magic cards 15 years ago. I couldn't really understand the allure then and I don't really understand it now. But clearly there is a huge market for this kind of transaction.
@jimrhurst @edinko unfortunately people think of the games as free cause they can run it without paying. But its just a lie. You can technicvally run it but you can be sure that you will pay more than for a 60$ game in the long run or quit
I've been curious about this game, but have always been hesitant about trying it since I heard it was pay2win. Hearing that they're dropping it almost gives me the incentive to try it.
@NightlyOne hesitant about world of tanks or world of warplanes? I throughly enjoy playing world of tanks. I have paid into it about as much as it would cost to buy a retail game, and thats enough to comfortably do what I want. But my play style is lone wolf and i could not care any less about anyone else playing the game, clans and organized team matches have no appeal to me. I just like blowing tanks up.
I dont have much interest in world of warplanes but i will try it when its accessable.
I am interested in trying world of battleships tho
1 Like @NightlyOne Don't bother, each patch has slowly eroded away any fun elements of the game, and the powercreep of newer tanks is horrifying.,
1 Like @jimbob_101 @NightlyOne im curious why you say that, i have not noticed the game getting less fun, I have been enjoying the new tanks and new maps. the addition of the physics engine has also made things more fun.
what got less fun for you? im interested in hearing another perspective.
I dont understand whats the big deal, Premium ammo had been available for creds and gold for months, sure its expensive, but you have the option of using it or not, and I think its the people that Pay to win the one that mantain the company in good shape and all of us, freeplayers, Idont know if game its unbalanced for this, they may have and edge, but in real life battles theres always someone with and edge, after all german tanks never went to war side by side with american tanks, and I had saw plenty of times people with PTW accounts being massacred the same as anyother player, in the field theres no differences, you are a good player with or without good equipment.
4 Like Never understood why people would pay to win. Why not just practise and become good at the game?
1 Like @Megavideogamer And that's why pay to win ruins gameplay. Gameplay isn't near as fun if you don't have some sort of reward for putting in the effort. There's not near the same kind of incentive. And just paying for the new shiney weapon makes it feel hollow in the long run. Sure, it feels fun in the short run but it makes for a very shallow gameplay.
@Megavideogamer thats what i believe in too. I have not noticed any kind of handicap in me not using premium ammo. any time i have used it, it misses and bounces just as much as the regular ammo lol.
6 Like I honestly don't know who to shout at the most - developers for dropping this pos idea onto the gaming public at large in the first place, or the people who actually go ahead and get sucker-punched into purchasing it.
The mind boggles.
2 Like Lies that game started out as and still is Pay2Win they just want to get more subtle about it those Russians are pretty blatant about the fact that its a business and want money the only reason their trying to make it look different is cause they want Esports money too.
But will they still release blatantly overpowered tank lines then magically after 2-3 months of letting them run hogwild 'balance' them so those with money to quickly convert xp get to enjoy that advantage then its still Pay2Win
Will the more expensive ingame ammo and consumables still be better then regular ammo and regular consumables so that people who do buy premie accounts can spam them and have an advantage? Still pay 2 win
Sorry WoT your always going to be a P2W game as that's what your games mechanics are built upon. RNG that people who pay for get better odds on the RNG with higher dmg and pen rolls that's all and no one is going to want to want a RNG heavy Esport that be like watching a guy flip a coin and 2 people call it in air to see who wins.
They can say it's not all they want but calling mustard something else that don't change how the mustard tastes and saying your games not pay2win don't change the fact that those that pay get better odds to win.
Your ignorance is astounding.
Do you know why tanks get balanced after ~2 months? Its because test server will never be the same as live so tanks will preform differently due to the different player bases.
Better RNG rolls? no they have different overall parameters with the same possible rolls, even on prem accounts its nearly impossible to support prem spam.
RNG variance is being reduced due to its impact on esports so wheres the problem?
@Johnny-Sniper Haha you say my ignorance is astounding yet here you are talking drivel about their new tanks... lol your fooling yourself your like their perfect customer the kind that makes up the excuses for them.
They do it on purpose they introduce newer better tanks so people want to get them and then after people get them they 'balance' them.
It's a bait and switch style business strategy they've been doing it for awhile or are you just not paying attention?
And yes the premie shells do have different variables a low roll on them is still better pen and dmg then a low roll on normal ammo so therefore Pay2Win
How does using something availible to all players wether you pay or not constitute pay2win?
@ggregd
Sigh learn to read instead of cherry picking statements
I said "that people who pay for get better odds on the RNG with higher dmg and pen rolls" the premie ammo has different values for its dmg and pen RNG rolls
@Unholy123 The game is hardly pay to win. I haven't spent a single dime on the game in over a year of playing and have a 56% win rate.
1 Like @adrianjarca W/E you have to tell yourself to keep playing.
Sure it's 'hardly' pay2win sure there's simply ammo ingame that costs more and is better then standard ammo and if you tried to play with it without paying for a prem account you'd go broke but noooo that's not pay2win at all.
You can like the game all you want that is fine. Just don't piss in my ear and tell me it's raining.
3 Like @Joeguy00 Cause it pays well there's a reason Wargaming become a profit giant in the industry they raked in a shitload off the pay2win elements of this game.
@Joeguy00 @Unholy123 Yea it's a terrible model for company's to use. Idiots just buy premium stuff so they can win at a game thats already free.
4 Like This news is old as hell. Several months old in fact.
They feel War Thunder breathing down their neck now. War Thunder's plane game is far better then Wargaming's. They are also working on tanks and ships. All on 1 account.
They also have superior graphics over WG's and no lag in prime time.
It's a fun game actually and a lot more addicting than what you would first think. Premium ammo will run out for those that paid for it in the end so after a few months it will be on an even keel shall we say.
and what will happen to premium? and how much i have seen they dont remove gold ammo just make it less progressive
@dunkanlord Gold ammo has been credit ammo for some time now. It's like 10x cost of reg ammo, but worth it for clan wars.
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