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The greatest innovation in that past 30 years for online games is..... monitization models
Kyleran
Member LegendaryPosts: 44,059
I was thinking back to 1988 when I could play games on Genie network, for $6/hr on nights or weekends, $15/hr prime time. A bit too rich for me actually, so didn't do more than dabble.
So was around 2001 when I got my first cable connection I started playing Lineage 1, and found a box fee with ($20-$40) monthly sub as the primary means of paying, $12.95 I think at first and up to $14.95 in the next few years.
Supplemental services started to become available in sub games, with developers charge additional fees for things such as changing servers, extra characters for games where they were somewhat limited, and occasionally name changes.
Next up came the Collectors Editions, which for an additional fee you would get a box full of extra "stuff", maps, artwork, figurines, etc) however normally no early access really. Early access shortly followed, pay a pre-order and "guarantee" your spot on launch day, or better, an early 3-7 day head start at launch over the rest of the masses.
They also unveiled "life-time" subscriptions for a single fee, as well as discounts for longer term subs such as 3, 6 months as well as annually.
In parallel with this the F2P model was gaining traction, particularly in Eastern games, where players had been paying hourly in internet cafes. These included a cash shops that varied from costumes, mounts, storage space, to actual in game items of power. It would probably be a thread of its own to describe the evolution of the cash shop and it's many variations, but I'll leave that for another day.
More "innovation" was to follow when publishers realized player would play for even earlier access, so Beta and then Alpha access was sold to players, for the right to either play in various early access events or test cycles (including stress testing) or in the case of the "soft launched" MMO, the right to start playing full time with no character wipes once formally launched.
One recent addition is a separate fee you can pay to get preferential treatment to avoid long log in queues during the launch week(s)
Not content to charge players for games in development, the "Kick-starter" movement started, where players were asked to fund the development of games "they" wanted to see created. Sounded great in theory, but so far no significant MMORPG's have been created so time will tell when/if this was a wise investment. (oh wait, they were "donations")
Of course, after a game is kick-starter ends, there are websites up to continue drawing in funds, and one title, SC found a way to extract enormous amounts of funds from players by selling an increasing menagerie of ships that will be available for "free" once the game launches, so quite an accomplishment from a marketing standpoint. Of course, there are some early perks as well, such as lifetime insurance and other incentives, including early access to the various modules as they are created.
Kick-starters have spawned some more or less unique funding ideas, such as charging for access to special forums for "donators" only, sometimes reported to be full of "secret" information (see COS) that can't be shared with the public for fear every other developer out there might steal the brilliant new ideas forthcoming. The also "launch" early with somewhat limited features and build the game along the way, much as Elite Dangerous is doing.
So I've probably missed some, post them up here if you have additional ways Dev makers have found to extract additional money from their customer bases.
It should be mentioned, few games these days use only one monetization model, almost always a combination of several of the above, and more and more it seems like all are employed.
So was around 2001 when I got my first cable connection I started playing Lineage 1, and found a box fee with ($20-$40) monthly sub as the primary means of paying, $12.95 I think at first and up to $14.95 in the next few years.
Supplemental services started to become available in sub games, with developers charge additional fees for things such as changing servers, extra characters for games where they were somewhat limited, and occasionally name changes.
Next up came the Collectors Editions, which for an additional fee you would get a box full of extra "stuff", maps, artwork, figurines, etc) however normally no early access really. Early access shortly followed, pay a pre-order and "guarantee" your spot on launch day, or better, an early 3-7 day head start at launch over the rest of the masses.
They also unveiled "life-time" subscriptions for a single fee, as well as discounts for longer term subs such as 3, 6 months as well as annually.
In parallel with this the F2P model was gaining traction, particularly in Eastern games, where players had been paying hourly in internet cafes. These included a cash shops that varied from costumes, mounts, storage space, to actual in game items of power. It would probably be a thread of its own to describe the evolution of the cash shop and it's many variations, but I'll leave that for another day.
More "innovation" was to follow when publishers realized player would play for even earlier access, so Beta and then Alpha access was sold to players, for the right to either play in various early access events or test cycles (including stress testing) or in the case of the "soft launched" MMO, the right to start playing full time with no character wipes once formally launched.
One recent addition is a separate fee you can pay to get preferential treatment to avoid long log in queues during the launch week(s)
Not content to charge players for games in development, the "Kick-starter" movement started, where players were asked to fund the development of games "they" wanted to see created. Sounded great in theory, but so far no significant MMORPG's have been created so time will tell when/if this was a wise investment. (oh wait, they were "donations")
Of course, after a game is kick-starter ends, there are websites up to continue drawing in funds, and one title, SC found a way to extract enormous amounts of funds from players by selling an increasing menagerie of ships that will be available for "free" once the game launches, so quite an accomplishment from a marketing standpoint. Of course, there are some early perks as well, such as lifetime insurance and other incentives, including early access to the various modules as they are created.
Kick-starters have spawned some more or less unique funding ideas, such as charging for access to special forums for "donators" only, sometimes reported to be full of "secret" information (see COS) that can't be shared with the public for fear every other developer out there might steal the brilliant new ideas forthcoming. The also "launch" early with somewhat limited features and build the game along the way, much as Elite Dangerous is doing.
So I've probably missed some, post them up here if you have additional ways Dev makers have found to extract additional money from their customer bases.
It should be mentioned, few games these days use only one monetization model, almost always a combination of several of the above, and more and more it seems like all are employed.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Comments
I haven't played an MMO in years, Cash Shops and all these games that build them around extra sales are a part of the reason. So I'm not a good one to add to this subject for details.
It's become blatant, and these game companies are killing themselves in the West. Fortunately for them, I suppose, is that there's no other options in this sucking morass.
Once upon a time....
This brought additional monetization models including DLC modules (sometimes at launch), and the smartphone market introduced new mechanics to encourage people spend money, but also still use some tried and true methods such as up front purchase, cash shops and even some subs.
In fact some smartphone mechanics have crept into recent titles such as AA.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
No one can stop "gamers" from doing so, and developers will keep on expanding their monetary intake sources and "innovations." Just a semblance of financial responsibility would go a long, long way to curb this trend. I ask too much, I think.
VG
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
The innovation I'm still waiting for is the "Loot Token". When a (raid, heroic, etc) group kills a boss, loot rolls proceed and the winner gets the loot.
Everyone else would get a "Loot Token" which could be used in the Cash Shop, along with a small fee, to purchase a specific item of loot that is usually available from that boss.
This gimmick of head start is working so well for developers that gamer's don't even stop to think if the game is worth 2 cents,they just see a possible hype meter and jump in soon as possible.Furthermore there is NO competition with these two systems,everything happens in the first 2-3 days so the window of opportunity is wide open for every game.
Developers simply aim to get their game out as fast as possible,make systems as fast as possible,less depth just get it to market ,ride the early wave of instant profits then do very little afterwards.
With a subscription game developers are FORCED to COMPETE there is no other alternative other than to fail and imo MOST of the games on the market should be a fail.In most every game i see about a 50% effort or less,devs are selling rubbish but gamer's seem to be accepting rubbish and devs are very happy for it.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Who says MMOs and gaming are not creative anymore? Kyleran has shown us they never stop at thinking up new ways of taking our money.
The only thing missed out was the move in the last few years to a fruit machine model, that's a slot machine for those who need a translation.
Bringing in gambling to MMOs, which may well be illegal if it was ever looked at by the relevant authorities. The lockbox is a fine example, people playing and paying for a chance for something good. Actually been around for more than a few years but many F2P MMOs now have lock boxes as the central theme to the daily grind.
What you can rest assured is that when everyone goes back to work tomorrow there will be teams working on how to charge us more be it kickstarter, F2P, dlc, P2P.
KERCHING!
It is pretty creative to let a majority users play free, as a means to net whales.
Or is that the definition of a whale these days, people who spend any money on a game?
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Maybe the best feature for online games is making people like you think that pinging you to death with tiny charges is a good thing.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
http://www.kilkku.com/blog/2015/08/free-to-play-f2p-mmo-monetization-world-of-tanks/
and i quote "World of Tanks also sports a superb conversion rate (share of users who pay) of over 25%, which is also sky-high in this industry."
I suppose not all those 25% are whales .. there are dolphins too. I forget the definition, but you can look it up.
And yeah, there are more and more ways to get the whales. Are you one of them?
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Blizzard even made a comeback with a card game in the PC market. I think what's happening is developers/producers hope after a decade of bad games at least the newer and some of the older audience to the market will forget what great games are to settle with mediocrity and "cheap" products and I know many do out of simply boredom or impatience.
Hey, Black Desert came out, doesn't matter how long it lasts, I'll spend $ on it then hop on the next mediocre product and the next and the next and the next. Keep spending those $ and those products will never stop coming. Instead of producers making quality ones, if they see profit they won't bother making something greater. Why would they?
I self identify as a monkey.
They didn't? Seems almost every MMO in the past 10 years modified their monetization models, can't think of more than a handful that didnt.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If I'm free to pay $10 or $300 in the month to get stuff/currency from the game I don't see that as innovation, but more about standing in the way of creating something great. I'm not playing games to compete with wallets of other players. So, any F2P that caters to the rich or those impulsive spenders will never see a dime from me. This is one of the main thing that also worries me about WOW, the moment it started encouraging selling/buying currency with $. At least players have an option to save extra $, playing the game free. Still this was a costly mistake since you can't save more than $15 monthly, while some whale can buy 1 mil gold in the same month and buy whatever he can that can be bought for currency in the game. This will probably be one of the main things that will help WOW die.
Products that "innovate" usually see success and I dunno about others, but they definitely haven't seen success from me, not in the last 5 years, 2 months and 9 days with the "F2P" model.