Game mechanics/F2P to P2P

F2P stands for "Free To Play" and P2P stands for "Pay To Play".

Many games, especially video games in online settings where multiple people interact through one or more characters, have a "free version"("F2P") of the game and sometimes there's a "restricted version"("P2P").

  • The free version is available to most players under certain conditions and may not represent the full video game but only a small part of it.
  • The restricted version is available to some of the players under stricter conditions and may represent a larger part of the game and even more based on a player's progress.

Some games allow players who only have access to the free version to transition to the restricted version through time and effort by the player doing the right actions to lead them to the restricted version while other games may require the player to being forced to pay the game developers using traditional payment systems.

This game mechanic project is meant for learning about games which allow a transition from the F2P to P2P through time and effort, excluding games in which players are required to use traditional payment systems in order to get access to a "P2P" world from "F2P".

One may learn best with examples and the first example could be Runescape.(not OSRS/Old School Runescape, but this game may be mentioned later perhaps)

Runescape "F2P to P2P" mechanic/system

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In Runescape there are separate servers for "F2P" players and separate other servers for "P2P" players. The trading system in the game is still interconnected between "F2P" and "P2P" worlds. If a "F2P" gets a "Bond" from another player or buys it with enough gold from another player then it will allow this "F2P" player to become a "P2P player" for 14 days. If the player then invests more time and effort they may(given enough knowledge) continue to buy more bonds so they will continue to be a "P2P player".

In Runescape it is currently possible to create a new account with requirements(ie. some kinds of email addresses depending on where they are hosted) and begin a "F2P" experience where the player is restricted only to the "F2P World" until they can acquire enough "gold coins" to purchase a type of item called a "Bond" which will allow the player to access the "P2P World". To purchase a bond(in exchange for gold coins) the player can make use of Harvesting Resources mechanics, like tapping/clicking on mining nodes, trees, fish to get some of those resources with the plan to sell them on a trading object called the "Grand Exchange" which is a trading system between players of the game. The harvesting resources mechanics will let the player get gold coins by selling those resources on the Grand Exchange in where other players may buy them and give the player the gold coins. Some amount of gold coins can systematically be acquired by doing repetitive tasks.

Once the player acquires the "Bond" if the player chooses to activate it for a state known as "Members" the player is going to get 14 days of "Members state" in which during that time they will have access to "P2P" for 14 days.

Editors with experience of using this mechanic/system

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You can add yourself to this list if you wish to encourage others to contact you to improve your learning experience. Feel free to edit your text if you wish to update it:

  • MechanicDancer (discusscontribs) 23:20, 6 June 2023 (UTC) I wouldn't say I have any meaningful experience yet but I'm looking to learn how other games compare to Runescape/"RS3" which I got experience in, even though "OSRS" should function in a similar way to Runescape/"RS3" in regards to how the "F2P to P2P" mechanic/system works.