They are not hiding that you need a subscription to access the latest expansion. But they don’t tell you the rest of the game is dead so you need the latest expansion to do basically anything.
There’s plenty to do outside the latest expansion, I really don’t know how you’d propose they do any better either. They don’t just release a new expansion and do nothing until the next (usually. It has happened, this current cycle has been great though) they make content for 2 years between expansions. I think that WoWs method is honestly the best one. People love to talk about how wonderful FF14 is and it’s the same thing. Most the most well liked MMOs use this method for a reason.
There are exceptions like Warframe which uses their platinum market to find the game through people willing to pay to win and supporting people who farm the materials people can buy with their Platinum. Guild Wars avoided this issue by making the patches between expansions their own smaller expansions with their own price tag. Both these games, while being great games, have far more extensive mtx shops than WoW or FF14 do as a result, though.
If you treat it as a single player game maybe. There are very few players outside the latest expansion. Maybe a few power-levelling alts. Some quests are almost impossible because you’re supposed to do them with multiple people and there’s nobody around.
I prefer the Elder Scrolls Online way. It has far less power creep and more sideways progression, so people run all content all the time.
They are not hiding that you need a subscription to access the latest expansion. But they don’t tell you the rest of the game is dead so you need the latest expansion to do basically anything.
There’s plenty to do outside the latest expansion, I really don’t know how you’d propose they do any better either. They don’t just release a new expansion and do nothing until the next (usually. It has happened, this current cycle has been great though) they make content for 2 years between expansions. I think that WoWs method is honestly the best one. People love to talk about how wonderful FF14 is and it’s the same thing. Most the most well liked MMOs use this method for a reason.
There are exceptions like Warframe which uses their platinum market to find the game through people willing to pay to win and supporting people who farm the materials people can buy with their Platinum. Guild Wars avoided this issue by making the patches between expansions their own smaller expansions with their own price tag. Both these games, while being great games, have far more extensive mtx shops than WoW or FF14 do as a result, though.
If you treat it as a single player game maybe. There are very few players outside the latest expansion. Maybe a few power-levelling alts. Some quests are almost impossible because you’re supposed to do them with multiple people and there’s nobody around.
I prefer the Elder Scrolls Online way. It has far less power creep and more sideways progression, so people run all content all the time.