Does that mean that you believe the "end game" is the condition by which a player has unlocked everything available (to a faction, per character)?
PS2 marketing is abysmal. No ads, no fancy public moves and even sidegrade weapon mechanics is not accentuated. Whole depot design says "buy everything, its supergood" not "stop being all-rounder grunt, tailor your fixings for your unique spec op playstyle" Though some things are P2Wish, like nanites income, implants, camos, making some new guns too good and nerfing after sales drop (dalton), or gating certain playstyles with 1000C wall (SMG). It's much easier to blow up small things out of proportions than non-existent ones. Add +5% effectiveness item and people crywolf like its +100%.
I think the underlined problem as a f2p player is there is nothing offered to free players. There is no rewards, no incentive, only time and poor exp rates and poor Implant drop rates. Even cheap F2P games designed to eat money have a way to keep players around. Not forgetting the budget weapons are no longer budget weapons, they cost just as much as any other weapon.
My NC character is F2P. The rewards and the incentive is taking part of the fight and having fun. Exp rate is fine. Besides, the only reason why you'd run out of certs is because you keep buying guns before mastering the one you just purchased. It should be simple. You master your weapon, then you move on to the next. The "poor implant drop rate" comment is laughable. I've never run out of energy on my NC character and I'm currently sitting on 50~ regular chargers. The only argument that could be made is that people need to know that you can put a level 3 and a level 2 to make an ultra charger and that's about it and even then I still get plenty of implants.
The game is definitely not as fun or rewarding without paying money and you don't have the weapons and tools needed to deal with the situations you come up against. If you don't spend money to unlock full sets of wpns for your MAX for example you cannot be anywhere near as effective in different types of engagements. This argument has been going since beta and it is so old now. Of course they want you to pay for a sub or buy stuff, if we didn't they wouldn't make enough money. They purposely make cert gain agonizingly slow so you sub. Whether or not you want to support that or play the game is everyone's choice. I wouldn't play the game without a sub and without the money I have spent on everything I have unlocked. The cert gain is just too slow.
Every game that is F2P is called Pay to Win if it has any means of a cash shop. Only the ones that are truly free are not. Heck we had a thread pop up about a week or so ago saying this was p2w:
I down voted it on steam myself. This game is structured like ****, and revolves around situational advantages and disadvantages. Whoever thought that would be a good idea at SOE should be fired, but knowing how SOE's sales were, I think the public pretty much fired them.
While the game does not restrict access to Top Tier items to only to those who pay (besides Implants), there is a huge difference in power level between a starting Free Players and a starting Pay Player. Pay New Players now have a much bigger advantage over Free New Players than at Launch. The game has allowed players to buy more and more different categories of things as the game has matured. Buyable at Launch: General ------------ XP Bonuses Resource Bonuses Passive Resource Gain (?) Infantry ----------- Camo/Appearance/Sound All Primary & Secondary Weapons All HA Tools (Rocket Launcher) Vehicle ---------- Camo/Appearance All Weapons Buyable Now: General ------------ XP Bonuses Resource Bonuses Passive Resource Gain Implants Infantry ----------- Camo/Appearance/Sound All Primary & Secondary (Non-Directive) Weapons All Infantry Weapon Attachments (Optic, Barrel, Rail, Ammo) All HA Tools (Rocket Launcher) All Engineer Abilities All Melee Vehicle ----------- Camo/Appearance All Weapons All Vehicle Weapon Optics Not Buyable Now: General ----------- All Leadership Cets Infantry ----------- Engineer Tool Medic Tool Infiltrator Tools Suit Slot Grenade Slot Utility Slot Vehicle ----------- Utility Defense Performance
