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Is Free to Play Monetization 'Doomed to Collapse'? | One Good Roll | MMORPG.com
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Is Free to Play Monetization 'Doomed to Collapse'? | One Good Roll | MMORPG.com
Is there any weight to the opinion that the free to play model will inevitably collapse, and be replaced by something else? Or will free to play be here to stay?
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To me while the cash shop has evolved, gameplay has devolved, "streamlined" to the "core" experience. Certain types of MMO gameplay are seen as more lucrative for the cash shop, wanting to upgrade gear to partake in gameplay activities being the primary one. You might think something like your own home where you can pay for furnishing is a 'cash shop common sense' must have, but thats a lot of time and resources invested into gameplay that does not cater to what makes the most money. So, your own home is not core and not a standard feature now.
I think to Steven what I call evolution is "hybridization", same thing really just different names. I think the only place we differ is to me modern MMO game play is nearly as much a creation of the cash shop as it is the creation of a good game.
Two of the most popular MMOs still function on a Subscription and Expansion model with a largely cosmetic cash shop. Two other amazingly popular ones function on B2P with an Optional Sub. The next four genre-defining titles (LOTRO, SWTOR, Everquest and Everquest 2) all function on a variation of the Hybrid model - They still have expansions and subs, but sub is optional and you can play a relatively sizable portion of the game without needing a sub OR buying a new expansion.
I would honestly say, yes F2P with MTX is ultimately doomed. It won't go away, but games that are built with that in mind very rarely survive longer than a small handful of years. Games that use it as an additional avenue of profits, primarily for cosmetics that don't necessarily have in-game benefits will still get a use out of the MTX part though.
Make a good game. Then think about a money sucking model.
No fate but what we make, so make me a ham sandwich please.
That's asking for too much from people with below average abilities.
The free to play world isn't made for us or the types of games we want, and many f2p MMOs fail because the monetization model doesn't sync up with the targeted playerbase. MOBAs, battle royales, auto-clickers, and other successful f2p games all do well because they revolve around a very short gameplay loop that is easy and cost-effective to produce. The types of players they attract and keep don't have the same expectations as a veteran MMO player and are perfectly happy playing "crap" we find disgusting.
This is reinforced by comments like the one by Mark Darrah. He was willing to spend money on the first f2p game he tried because he was approaching in the same way he approached previous games - spend money, get a game for years. When the game didn't last, he spent less and less on subsequent games. Then he errantly claims that since he doesn't spend money on f2p games, no one will continue to spend money on f2p games.
In the end, there are millions of gamers who solely play games on mobile devices. They've never known anything different and are more than happy with what they have. And they are willing to spend $1, $5, $20, and much more, playing those games. And to think that will somehow end because we don't like it is just silly.
F2P may become more dependent on Whales, but they will still keep a game going, it would take a NW style drop of in numbers to make them think of leaving. Thats not happening across F2P as far as I can see. Secondly, the world's population grows by 1.1% each year, that's 1.1% more preteens entering the gaming market each year. Plenty of new naive young gamers each year, who are going to be taken in by games that are "free" to play.
Not all champs on lol are available, like Dota 2 is. Now if u wanna unlock every champ on lol... how much is that?
asdasdasd
lol
like get an interview or a article from someone who actually knows wtf f2p even means first
I know what model I prefer. Subscription models or in the least freemium models interest me the most. I hate cash shops and gacha even though I play them often.
But play and earn is still just an experiment to me. I know that some games are popular, but the thing is, you can't be as greedy in a play and earn environment or else you actually will collapse. Months before axie got hacked they were learning this first hand.
The hack was more of an excuse they could point to for a looking failure they now get to correct.
There are some awesome play and earn games I look forward to trying and a a couple on the market that have promise but it's not going to hit the mainstream soon. And even then it kind of falls into a specific free to play category.
There are also very few newer games that don't have a mix of different monetization models and contrary to popular opinion subs are not dead they've just morphed into freemium where you sub for perks, benefits, and often. chunks of the playable world instead of just general access.
I find it amusing that the same younger crowd who will never pay for an old-fashioned, all-inclusive sub will pay for subs, or their cousin the battle pass, in games that instead of being all-inclusive have part of the game for free and charge for the other parts.
It's a crowd that would be really shitty in The Price is Right...
"Behind door #1 you get the whole game for $15 a month and behind door #2 you get half the game for free and the other, better, half for $15 a month + $100 a year for the missing bits not included in the sub from the cash shop. Which do you want?"
"I'll take door #2!"
Anyone who is against all-inclusive mandatory subs is just a really shitty consumer. There has never been a better deal for playing MMOs.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
It is play "to" earn; "and" is clearly not the correct rejoinder.
No use trying to make a shitty concept sound less offensive than it actually is.
If you are going to support the dark side at least own fully up to it.
"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
Lulz, your agenda is obvious, to put lipstick on a pig, but please, share a few released examples of this free "and" earn concept in the MMORPG space.
Bet you can't.
"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
"play to earn" is a "game" where the gameplay is so awful that no one would play it other than as a way to make money.
"play and earn" is basically a game that is trying to be a good game, but also has legalized gold selling and will allow people to sell their stuff for real-life money. Only a tiny fraction of the people who play the game will earn money, and most of them won't earn very much. It's legal, as opposed to the games that ban gold selling, but not really the point of the game.
Middara is basically a turn based JRPG, Tainted Grail is a sprawling open world game like Witcher 3, Arkham Horror: The Card game is a good narrative mystery game. There is also Gloomhaven, Frosthaven, etc...
The only problem is most of these board games are massive so most people don't want the set-up time. Bigger than that is that most of these games are Kickstarter, Gamefound exclusive, and they never bring them out for reprint again. Some do like Gloomhaven, Tainted Grail did a reprint with a sequel attached, and Middara also had a reprint with the rest of the trilogy being avaible.
If you don't score them than getting a copy 2nd hand can get expensive. Middara is popular and great so getting it for 100$ for 80 hours of board game isn't bad. Buying it second hand is 300-400$
Tainted grail can go for as much as 600$.
The good thing is most narrative board games are also solo. I play alot of these board games now. I back a lot of board games on kickstarter and gamefound.
Darkest Dungeon is coming next and I am super excited as early reviews call it a masterpiece and in some ways are better then the video game its based off of
Heck, Tainted Grail was so well received for its narrative and how choice and consequeses mattered that they are making it into a video game like Skyrim or Fallout right now
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466060/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon/