Respecced: Forge Will Be Free-To-Play
The skill of being a human being is to allow the correct thought to escape at the correct time. I have many thoughts that I don't tell people about, because the UK has hilarious laws against libel, treason, and terrorism, and the courts probably couldn't keep up with my awful brain. But when I'm not planning all the terrorism, I do think about games. One thought I had when I played the MMO-inspired action game Forge was that it would probably be better as a free-to-play game. Now Forge has hastily scrubbed over its price-tag and scrawled 'free' in biro, and I'm terrified at my other thoughts being given form.
The first question of free-to-play games is what form of free will it be? Forge will skew towards cosmetic item sets and XP boosts, with the developer promising "we continue to stand by our commitment that Forge will not be pay-to-win." That is encouraging. So far Dark Vale is promising to focus on customisation, which means there will be hats, though they use the pretentious term 'helms' to describe them. Pfft. As is the way of free games, there will also be paid versions as well, bundling up items and boosts in easy to buy packages. Owners of the original game will receive the equivalent of one of these to get them started.
The free-to-play Forge should be out this week. I enjoyed my time with the original game, but I haven't returned to it. It should make a decent distraction, though. It's a good game.