TheMMOgenre may not be as popular as it once was, but games new and old are still going strong with plenty of players. However, as these games get older, the barrier to entry for new players gets higher, and some players seeking to get to the endgame faster might look to shortcuts by spending money.
As live service games, you won’t find an MMO that is completely free from microtransactions, whether that’s through a subscription cost, in-game store, or the price of the game itself. However, some games definitely have less pay to win mechanics than others, which we’ll take a look at below.
To play Final Fantasy 14, you need to buy the game and maintain a monthly subscription. However, outside of that, there is nothing else stopping you from experiencing everything the game has to offer. While you’re able to buy level boosts and story skips from the shop, you are heavily disincentivized from doing so, as the leveling andstory questing experienceis one of the game’s strongest aspects.
Even then, you aren’t really “winning” anything by skipping the story, as this effectively just limits the amount of content to experience rather than adding more. Compared to some other games, the endgame gearing process in Final Fantasy 14 is fairly painless, meaning the only thing preventing you from clearing endgame raids is your own skill, which no amount of money can improve.
The precursor to Final Fantasy 14, Final Fantasy 11 has zero pay to win mechanics, only requiring you to buy the base game and maintain a monthly subscription. Other than that, you only have the option to buy extra Mog Wardrobes, which let you store more equipment, but are hardly essential.
Additionally, you need to pay extra on your subscription for each additional character you make, but considering the comparatively cheap base subscription cost as well as the fact that you can play every Job on the same character, this is definitely a minor convenience option for players who simply like to make more characters. Overall, Final Fantasy 11 is an exceptional game with a very fair business model.
Guild Wars 2 has a buy-to-play model with no monthly subscription and an optional item shop that is mostly comprised of convenience items and cosmetics. Items in this shop can be purchased using Gems, which you can either buy with real money or convert your gold into, offering a way for players to buy things from the store without ever paying money for them.
However, the reverse is also true, meaning you can buy gems with money and then convert them into gold. While this may seem like it would offer an advantage to players who spend money, the gearing system in Guild Wars 2 is extremely generous. Unlike most other MMOs, there is no gear treadmill in GW2; the best gear five years ago is still the best gear now.
Guild Wars 2 has a horizontal progression system, where the main form of content is achievement hunting,farming for rare cosmetics, or fighting endgame raids. This means that spending gold to “skip” any of this means you’re spending money to not play the game, which is counterintuitive.
3Project: Gorgon
Project: Gorgon is an indie-developed old-school style MMORPG. This game has a tight-knit and friendly community that ensures the multiplayer aspects feel alive, even with smaller player counts than other big names on this list.
Project: Gorgon has a buy-to-play model with an optional premium subscription that offers small convenience boosts like extra character slots, storage space, and so on. However, these are not necessary to enjoy this expansive game, and the free demo and relatively low base game price make Project: Gorgon one of the best MMOs in terms of pay-to-win-ness.
For the most part, both Old School RuneScape and RuneScape 3 are rather unintrusive when it comes to pay to win features. The base games are free, but to experience everything the games have to offer, you’ll need to become a Member with a monthly subscription. However, you may also trade Membership tokens to other players for gold, essentially allowing you to spend real money for gold.
Sure, you can buy some of the strongest gear on the Grand Exchange, but you won’t actually be able to equip it until youlevel the necessary skill yourself.
If this system is too pay to win for you, then Ironman mode might be more to your liking. Ironman characters have several restrictions in place that prevent them from almost any outside help; no player-to-player trading, no Grand Exchange, reduced XP for fighting the same enemy as another player, and much more. Without access to the Grand Exchange or player trading, you’ll need to do everything in the game on your own, with no options to pay to win or pay to speed up progress.
While Warframe isn’t an MMORPG in the traditional sense, it is a live service game that draws many similarities from the genre, like tons of grinding, party-based activities, clans, and so on. Warframe is all about the grind; as you unlock and level up weapons and Warframes, you’ll make progress on your Mastery Rank, which in turn unlocks new weapons and Warframes to grind for.
Warframe’s premium currency, Platinum, can be used to buy most items and resources in the game, allowing you to skip the grind entirely. However, this goes back to what we said earlier: if you pay to skip the grind, and the grind is the whole point of the game, why even play it to begin with? Grinding out weapons and Warframes over time is extremely satisfying, and makes for a fantastic gameplay loop.
Similar to Guild Wars 2, you are also able toearn Platinum for free by trading with other players. This means dedicated players can earn enough Platinum for convenience-based upgrades like extra weapon slots or to speed up crafting times, creating an even playing field for all players.
