I miss playing MMO’s, but micro transactions ruin any sense of progression for me.
Any mmo’s out there that fit the bill?
Cosmetics are fine, as long as you can’t just turn around and sell said cosmetics in game.
Really think you should give FFXIV a deeper thought beyond just looking at the store and finding the level skips.
Even if you were to buy a skip, there’s still a considerable amount of game in front of you to play. They are only meant to get people to modern content without having to (to some people) slog through hundreds of hours of older stuff. It’s not a p2e micro-transaction by any means — far from it.
I agree with this whole-heartedly, there’s simply no way any reasonable person would consider skipping story content as buying power in the context of how FFXIV works as an MMO.
It lets players jump right into the new content without worrying about dozens or hundreds of hours of prior story they may or may not want to play through to get to the latest content at the same level as everyone else starting out, that’s all.
Absolutely, it’s absurd to conflate XIV’s level skips with being able to buy gold in other games.
XIV was actually my first thought re: the OP’s query.
Hopefully you understand why I was a little suspicious!
But I tried it out, and holy moly it feels like a different era. My brain can’t compute the fact that I just got a free to play game (Just have the demo, which honestly sounds like a ton of game) and it’s not trying to sell me anything in game? The tutorial was all about game play in universe, and never once told me about premium currency? My ui doesn’t have 5 different things? Crafting doesn’t involve long cool downs that I can 5 gems to speed up?
Like it feels like a different era of game, thank you for being persistent! I’ve only played a couple hours, but so far it feels like it’s going to become a comfort game at the very least.
Palia might not be the kind of game you’re looking for, but it is an MMO in development, and has this to say on the matter:
- Palia will monetize cosmetic items
- Palia will not monetize things you earn through gameplay
That, along with the rest of their messaging, reads to me like they don’t plan to make it a pay-to-win game.
Starwars: The old Republic.
Totally free for eight excellent epic stories with no pay wall to overcome or excessive difficulties without subscriber benefits.
Subscription unlocks more content.
Microtransactions are for cosmetic only, and there’s plenty of cosmetic options without them too.
Keep meaning to check these out before it dies (how healthy is it? / how long do I have?).
The game was just reassigned to a new studio for maintainance, it’ll be around for a few years yet.
Clan Lord. It’s a place that’s special in my heart. I’ve been playing on and off since 2001.
Phroon you were always my favorite healer.
Whoa what? ClanLord is still going? I was playing that in the 90s!
Yup! The GMs are a lot more active recently, adding things to the game continuously. And now there’s regular scheduled events where the GMs push stories and interaction to a level we haven’t seen in a decade.
Oh wow that’s sick! I may have to get back in to it.
When I was playing it was still in beta and I was in Jr. High. I only quit because when they started charging money I couldn’t afford it and my parents certainly weren’t paying for it.
As an adult now I can totally afford it but I’m not sure my lifestyle allows me the time for it any more.
I was a healer named Hashak. Probably won’t ring a bell, but 🤷🏻♂️
The game went to no monthly fees a long time ago. They only charge for new accounts and characters. If you have an old account you can just log in and play. There’s a player run news and link site here, that has a link to ‘Clieunk’, a client for modern macs and news since 2001. Though we haven’t always been the best at sending in news.
Not sure if it’s my cup of tea, but that is a really good answer!
If the game has any way to trade, it’s possible to buy power. Wow Classic or Guild Wars 2 are probably your only really options.
Final Fantasy XIV would fit the bill. The cash shop only has cosmetics, and you can pay to add more retainers (basically bank space), but in terms of actual gold buying or power upgrades, none of that exists.
Hmm these look sus:
https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ffxivstore/en-us/product/804 https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ffxivstore/en-us/product/822 https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ffxivstore/en-us/product/809
Maybe they’re not so popular, or in context not worth that much, but levels and money usually are no-nos for me. Because the one appears to be straight up levels and gil.
Also: the included gil is a small amount. It’s meant to replace the gil you’d earn from doing the story quests.
This is a story skip. Many forms of character progress in FFXIV are gated by that individual character completing the main storyline quests.
A story skip boosts the character to the beginning of the current expansion tier, so it is not possible to use this mechanic to compete with standard players on current content. I think the intended use case is alt characters (which are less necessary in FFXIV because you can play all jobs on one character, but many players still have them).
Yeah, they’re a skip to endgame content. But they’re not any kind of “instant win.”
The couple types of pvp aren’t tied to your character level, and the most difficult raid content is best run with a group that you practice with. If you’ve never played, simply grabbing the game and one of those packages isn’t going to give you an immediate edge.
XIV is sort of a single player game with a bunch of coop boss fights.
And, not to be cliche, but you can play through the entire first two arcs (A Realm Reborn and Heavensward) completely free, with no real limitations. The only things locked out of the free tier are the more social aspects, and any content above level 60. A handful of jobs are locked, but there is a ridiculous amount of content available for free.
I’ve played a few other mmos and hated them all. XIV is something weirdly different. And the overwhelming majority of the community is chill and friendly.
I play FFXIV since 2014 and I honestly wouldn’t recommend anyone to buy this. You’re just paying to not play the game and skip the main quest (which locks up a bunch of content behind it).
Worth actively recommending against, even.
Leveling up in Final Fantasy XIV is easy. Just play the story and you’ll reach max level by the time you finish it.
These items are intended for players who create an alt and who wish to skip most of the stury if they already played it.
Also reaching max level is kind of where the game begins (raids, dungeons, gearing up, etc).
Also 500,000 Gil is pocket change…
Would disagree it’s where the game begins, given how story-directed it is. FFXIV is, to me, a single-player JRPG in the shell of MMO combat with a huge amount of multiplayer content. (Especially with the fulfilment of duty support allowing you to do MSQ dungeons with bots.)
Guild Wars 2 is the only one that ever really hooked me. Didn’t find any pressure to spend in that to keep up, that said I haven’t played it in a while so it may have changed.
It is not a normal suggestion because the base game is probably the most pay to win mmo that has lasted more than a year or two. But both versions of Runescape (both old school and Runescape 3) have a game mode called ironman mode.
Ironman mode is an official account type that you can create where you can not trade other players items or money. Everything is earned and gathered yourself. If you want to make a bow you need to gather the flax to spin a bow string and chop logs to fletch an unstrung bow and then string it.
It is a slower mmo with most skills in the game having methods to train where you don’t need to pay much attention and you can mostly watch youtube.
Both games also have very mechanically different and difficult combat encounters you can work your way up to.
Maxing out every skill in the game takes year(s) to do and there are hundreds of incredibly unique quests that in my own opinion set the bar for mmo questing. There are no kill 30 boar quests or fetch quests (really) they are mostly very in depth stories with character archs and so much lore if you are into that.
Would recommend OS over RS3, because much as I love archaeology, RS3 is overmonetised (I think most of the community agrees with that?), and that seems like a big part of what OP wanted to get away from.
Runescape was like that for the longest time and tbh k dont think bonds really impact my experience all that much
Ironmen stand alone. No trading with other players means no way to p2w.
Yep, OSRS ironman involves so little non-social interaction with other players* that their power from bond gold is almost irrelevant.
(* outside cooperative and competitive minigames etc.)
If you’re interested in games that aren’t MMORPGs, Path of Exile fits your criteria for monetization. You can only purchase cosmetics and bank storage upgrades. It’s an online ARPG but it’s mostly single player.
It is pretty much unplayable without the bank storage upgrades though. Given the amount of time they can save you, you may as well say that they are power.
Right but there is no whale bait that impacts your sense of progression. All you really need is a one time purchase. Maybe $30 max to get all you need to out of storage and trading?
Guild Wars 2 basically makes it impossible to buy power – once you’ve purchased all the expansions, at least. Which is incredibly impressive considering there’s an official way in-game to trade real-world cash for in-game gold.
That’s one of the benefits of having gear be horizontal, you can get a build geared from a fresh account in a few days, and then there’s only minor optimizations you can make (there’s a gear rarity that’s higher than the readily-accessible exotic gear but basically you have to earn it, and then there’s legendary gear which is there for fashion and qol because you can change the stats on it at any time).
There’s other quality-of-life upgrades available in the gem store (real world money store) like infinite gathering tools and inventory expansions. That’s what I spent my IRL money on. But yeah, not really accurate to call that a “power” improvement.
Can you buy fractals infusions or other equipment upgrades with gems or gold, or do you have to acquire them through fractal dailies? I never had enough friends to do the fractals content.
I see you can buy gems, are gems nothing?
Gems are the premium currency and what you can turn into gold by way of the black lion trading company. They’re almost entirely used for cosmetics or convenience items, because a lot of the stuff in game that you spend gold on that WOULD be a power boost is almost always associated with a resource that cannot be purchased with gold, and usually you get the lions share of the gold you would need by way of working towards whatever those resources are.
