That is why I said "often". Because let's be honest, a lot of ( if not majority) of F2P stuff is junk. Though admittedly, I have little experience with F2P, as I prefer B2P.
At first I called shenanigans on this statements, but after some research it appears you're right. I do wonder if most of those are properly balanced around the F2P model, so as to not let microtransactions ruin the game ( I doubt it ).
A lot of MMOs are totally unbalanced with the microtransactions, that is true. But the really good ones, are not pay-to-win for sure. And there are more then a handful of really good F2P games that are like this.
The sheer numbers of people playing f2p just goes to show that people often don't steer clear. The crowd crying "pay to win" and the ones calling f2p junk appear to be a minority group.
What went right with Wildstar ? It was in development for 7 years, copy a lot of elements from WoW too late and was a subscription based MMO. Sure, it works as a formula 7 years ago, but by the time it was ready for expo, WoW was hemorrhaging subscribers and subscription MMO is a thing of the past. The only innovation that I can think of is how it caters to different play styles and not just the combat-focused one. But that alone is not enough to save it from the hole that it digs itself in.
