WildStar for free – Play for free while others pay?

The SF-MMO WildStar download and play for free is probably the dream of many players. Theoretically, this is possible, but how realistic are the prospects?

A cold shower upfront: Unless you manage to score a CD-Key for WildStar or a box in one of the numerous giveaways currently running, you will have to purchase the base game. But for most “honest” gamers, this is usually not a problem.

Monthly subscription costs are, however, a sore point for many players, including in Carbine’s MMORPG.

Because WildStar is actually a pay-to-play game like World of Warcraft and not a free-to-play game like Tera or Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, there is an opportunity in WildStar to circumvent this monthly fee by having others pay for you.

C.R.E.D.D. – Hardcore players play for free, gold sellers die out?

The idea is called C.R.E.D.D. – and actually comes from the cult MMO Eve Online. Players can buy a virtual item for real money from Carbine, namely C.R.E.D.D. This is a license to play WildStar for 30 days. This item can then be traded in the game for in-game money.

On one hand, a wealthy player in the game can buy playtime for in-game currency. Meanwhile, another player in need of cash can buy this license from Carbine for euros, thereby funding the hardcore player’s playtime. In exchange, they receive in-game currency to buy a rare item or a nice piece for their rocket house.

In some games, this cycle is already happening – through the backdoor of shady gold sellers. Generally, this is prohibited by the game operator and can result in bans.

The three conditions for the system to work

For the system to work, three things must be ensured:

1. The gold must be relatively hard to obtain in the game. There need to be reasonable gold sinks to drain gold quickly from the game.
2. There must be items that can be traded for gold, and they must be desirable and rare enough that some players are willing to pay for them. Either status symbols or powerful gear.
3. The system must be easy to use, ideally anonymized.

Let’s start with the easiest point, the last one. The system is easy to use. There is a specific NPC who handles everything without anyone needing to out themselves as a gold buyer or gold seller. The NPC even shows how many C.R.E.D.D.s are currently available and provides a price comparison at a glance.

The desirable items – of that we can be sure, will exist. Whether you make leveling easier by equipping your character with the best items that the plentiful AH offers or whether you buy rare, expensive decorations for your home above the clouds from architects – money can always be useful in WildStar. Even during leveling, it’s noticeable that you receive blue items for other classes or upgrade levels for the resource plots in housing or rare AMPs for other classes, not to mention rare materials for the complex crafting system. All these things are already showing up in the virtual marketplace.

Gold sinks are built into the game. Housing is particularly expensive (as in real life, both in acquisition and maintenance). Even crafting incurs costs for additional mats. Even for items that you unlock with reputation, you have to dig deep into your pockets. Mounts, rep fees, skills – the full package. The devs have assured that this is an important aspect of the game that will be emphasized (Admittedly, they have made this point with almost every element… but still!). Through the gold sinks, it seems guaranteed that gold is hard to obtain.

The difficulties of the system: Really just for traders and hardcore players?

So all gears are in the right place for the model to succeed. Does this mean: Free play for everyone?

To temper the enthusiasm a bit: The experience in games like World of Warcraft or even Eve shows that the economy in an MMO is as pronounced as in real life. And, as can be read in the newspapers, only a few tens of thousands control a large portion of the world’s wealth.

It operates similarly in MMOs: few individuals control incomprehensible gold sums and dominate the market for the “normal” players. However, these are not, as one might expect, the “best” players, the most successful raiders, or the best PvPers, but the most persistent traders who spend hours dealing with the auction house. They view an MMO more as an economic simulation consisting of Excel spreadsheets rather than something with monsters or heroes.

Ultimately, these players will determine the prices of C.R.E.D.D.s on each individual server. For players who want to stay away from the auction house and do not want to deal with the nuances of the trading system, the prices for a C.R.E.D.D. will likely remain astronomical. They will then have to hope to catch “the big catch,” to obtain a truly rare drop that they can then sell.

Even in the first days, it is showing that the price for C.R.E.D.D. will be high. For 30 days of playtime, you now get 1 platinum on Ikthia/Dominion. An amount that will be far out of reach for most “normal” players.

It will be interesting to see how the system develops, if there are differences between the servers and if the price stabilizes at a certain amount. However, the dream of playing WildStar for free will have to be buried by most.

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