I'm sure most of you have played a Massive Multiplayer Online game before. Be it Runescape, Gaia Online, World of Warcraft, or some other obscure game. Now, what I'm going to rant about today, is that most of these Free to Play MMO's that are out their are biased, and unbalanced, in the favor of those who pay money to play them. I understand that F2P MMO's need a source of revenue to stay afloat, and that allowing players to buy items is a great source for that required money. However, one MAJOR problem I have with this strategy, is how they are implementing it.
Take for instance, a F2P MMO I happen to enjoy, S4 League. Like many other F2P MMO's, it has an Item Mall, where the players can either spend in game money (Pen), or out of game cash (Dollars, Pounds, etc.) That, I have no problem with at all. The problem, is when you get in to the out of game cash spending. With that cash, you obtain AP, which is later spent in game, to acquire weapons, armor, and various other things in-game, that all help your character. The problem is, these AP weapons and armor are over-powered, always to the point of being unbalanced. If someone comes into your room, and their character is stacked to the brim with AP items, you might as well just give up. I've had it happen to me a few times, and every time, they gloat, and flaunt, their "power" that they've payed money, to achieve. They didn't have to work for it, they didn't have to rise up the ranks of the game to get that power. It was just handed to them.
Now, I know most of you are going to say that that's the only way players will buy items, but that's also the problem. We as players shouldn't have to be easily tempted into buying rigged weapons, just to support the games we love to play. I, for one, will never do such thing. I may buy a nice little costume, that in no way affects the in-game stats of my character, just the appearance, but I will not buy a +10 Twin Blade that lasts indefinitely until I have to recharge its energy, which is able to be done with in-game Pen. I will not buy a piece of armor that raises my defense to unimaginable levels if you were to try and obtain that with in-game Pen, which is actually impossible.
The whole situation is like playing a game of rock, paper, scissors. Paper, in this case, would be the "noobs", who just started out, having no skill, or idea of how to perform some of the higher skilled techniques, or tactics. Scissors, would be the "pro" players, who have played the game for a while, and have masters most, if not all of these higher skilled techniques. And Rock, works the way rocks work in real life. If you throw a rock at a piece of paper, guess what, you have a hole in the paper. Rocks, are the AP users. Overpowered.
Now, on the other side of the coin, are Pay to Play MMO's. Like World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy XIV. You're already paying to play the game, so there are less (if any) of these kinds of items to acquire. You've probably never heard of one of your friends complaining about someone on WoW coming up and completely wrecking their character with some overpowered item, which can only be obtained by spending a little extra money.
To sum this all up. I think what needs to be done as far as F2P MMO's are concerned, is that they need to stray away from overpowered items that can only be bought with out of game cash. I would be perfectly content with costumes that only affect appearance, or maybe a boost in EXP gain, or even in the gain of in-game money. Items that affect stats, need to be left to in-game acquired content, that is available to anyone.
