F2PMeter: Is Guild Wars 2 Truly Free to Play Now?

September 7, 2015 9:20 ( Articles, F2P News ) 0

Guild Wars 2 has just stepped away from its primary “buy to play” model and introduced a new free to play option for players to access the games core content, that is to say everything that currently exists in the game, in preparation for the new Heart of Thorns expansion. As we check out the fantasy based MMORPG we’ll put it through our F2P Meter to find out just how free the game now is with this new changes!





There is no initial purchase needed for the core content, which is all DLC and updates up to this point in the games’ history, however this doesn’t include content from the new expansion.



There are no subscription models for Guild Wars 2 at all.



All previously released content is accessible with a free to play account, but when released the Heart of Thorns expansion will be the only “buy to play” element of the game.



Players are able to acquire Gems in game, either by trading Gold at the Currency Exchange or by purchasing them with real world cash, players can then spend these Gems in the Black Lion Trading Company store on a variety of items.



Although most of the items that can be bought in the store are based on pets, cosmetics, costumes, character renames and other tools, there are a variety of resource gathering objects and character boosts that can be bought that will provide an advantage. However, no armor, weapons or items to imbalance players can be purchased.



There are minimal amount of UI customization, but all are accessible to free to play accounts.



There are five races available, which can all be accessed, but of the nine classes the new Revenant class will not be available to anyone who hasn’t purchased the new Heart of Thorns expansion.



Whilst players can still purchase and sell all common goods in the games’ Trading Post, they are unable to mail gold and items to players, trade gold for gems at the Exchange, and cannot access guild vaults. These restrictions are to ensure the economy is not upset by potential free to play account exploits.



Free to play users only have access to three inventory slots.



The new areas with the expansions release are restricted and cannot be accessed by free to play accounts, there are also increased level limitations for leaving the starter zones, using LFG system and experience the World v World feature. These restrictions are to ensure that only players who are interested in experience the game will put in the time to play.



PVP is accessible for free to play accounts from the beginning, with Rank 20 restrictions to joining unranked and custom games. However, with the first 10 man raid coming with the new expansion it is only available to those players who purchase Heart of Thorns.



The majority of the restrictions are only with the new Heart of Thorns expansion, the majority of the content available in the game prior to the expansion is completely accessible to free to play accounts and so in comparison there is only a small portion that they can’t enjoy. Most of the level and feature restrictions are in place to avoid gold farmers getting access to the heart of the game too easily.

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