Vanguard is a subscription based fantasy MMORPG which is preparing to make a Free to Play conversion in the near future. Recently, Sony Online Entertainment revealed full details on the new business model, including what a free and premium player will receive. After reading through the details, all I can say is I am a little ashamed of Sony for some blatant money grabbing that should not go unchecked by its community of die hard and loyal fans.
So free players will get a fairly decent selection of free races and classes, they can level to 55 and have four character slots. This is fine SOE, don’t sweat it. The problem arises upon discovering some other restrictions, mainly the ‘Common’ item cap for free players. Essentially, if you don’t want to be scraping at the bottom of the bowl gear wise, you will need to pay. End game gear, or higher quality leveling gear will be off-limits to those free players. This means, paying players can equip better gear that a free player has absolutely no access to, I believe this is classified as pay to win.
Hit level 55? Great! So did your premium friends, only they can now enjoy the perks of end game gear while you squabble around in your peasant outfit. Free players will also not be able to access fishing, housing, brotherhoods and caravans. It’s fine and dandy to limit your free players, but for a dying game that desperately needs a population boost, being too greedy just guarantees more failures. SOE, please try to remember that you are converting to free to play for a reason, and it’s not because of overwhelming revenue or active players. There is a difference between converting to free to play, and just adding a limited endless trial to your game, because essentially having a gold account is just subscribing.
Will SOE learn their lesson? Let’s hope so, because this is very worrying. It seems SOE can’t touch an MMO without completely sh*tting all over it. Hell, they even have the nerve to refuse customer service to free players, and will instead refer you to their knowledge base. And to top this all off, you will be greeted with regular in-game pop up advertising reminding you to upgrade. No customer service, advertising, and a pay to win scheme. Let’s just stop here before something in my head bursts. F*ck you SOE, I was looking forward to diving back in to Vanguard.
Visit the official Vanguard site to find out more!