A friend of mine who doesn’t really play MMOs asked me recently about buyer’s remorse for free-to-play games. It’s a good question, I think; with subscription games, failing to make use of something is mostly the equivalent of not going to the gym despite having a membership. Awkward and unpleasant, but not really outright remorse. But dropping $10 on something and later wishing you hadn’t is another story altogether.
I do, in fact, have my own story of that; I bought some cartel coins on Star Wars: The Old Republic and was using them to unlock parts of a stronghold, but one part deducted several coins repeatedly without actually unlocking until I relogged. (The customer service staff, I’m sorry to say, was entirely unhelpful in resolving the issue.) It’s not a major problem, and it certainly wasn’t enough for me to make an undying issue out of it, but I did wish in hindsight that I hadn’t bothered.
So what about you, dear readers? Have you ever had free-to-play buyer’s remorse in an MMO? If so, what did you buy and why do you wish you hadn’t? And even if you don’t have such a story, do you think it’s probably more common than we hear?