Hacker News Reader

Comment by pnathan | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I've been out of it, but I can't remember a really A-class MMO that came out in the last 4-5 years. Which is the period of time that F2P & pay to win started making heavy inroads on the MMO market.

I was rummaging around looking for a modern (post 2010? 2012?) AAA MMO the other night and couldn't find it.

View on HN

Neverwinter is the first I've seen since WoW where you log on and there are tons of things going on and lots of people running around. It's free to play.

Star Wars, Guild Wars 2, and the upcoming Elder Scrolls MMO are the ones that come to mind.

Star Wars TOR went F2P and apparently, it was extremely successful for them and made the game profitable.

Guild Wars 2 has an initial purchase fee (usually on sale for $30), but no monthly fee. New content is subsidized through both functional and cosmetic IAP, although neither is game-breaking.

Elder Scrolls Online, however, is $60 + $15/mo, with no IAP. Everyone is expecting it to die a horrible death.

True. Though I think all 3 would fit the AAA MMO description (especially considering that all of them have a relatively high upfront cost), even if they have IAP.

> Elder Scrolls Online, however, is $60 + $15/mo, with no IAP. Everyone is expecting it to die a horrible death.

Because it's $15/mo with no IAP...?

It's hard to justify both $60 and $15/mo for a game that isn't super good. (apparently, reports from beta users indicate that the game is average)

FFXIV and Planetside 2. ESO is coming. WAR died a horrible death (sadly).

These are good. Guild Wars 2 is also worth a look. However, I am enjoying not having any in-game purchases and instead paying $14/month with FFXIV. It's much more relaxing to just pay your $14 (it's not that much, you can't even see a movie for that much anymore), you get the entire game, developers get paid, new content every 2-3 months, etc.

FF14

Reply on news.ycombinator.com