DAOC in 2001 had the best monetization. Buy the game, and pay $15 a month. You get everything in the game, no cash shops, no P2W. If somebody had the Uber Sword of Doom, you knew they earned it by playing, not by paying to not play.
I only played DAoC for a very short time...so I will use EQ as a comparison...It had the same monitization......EQ launched in 1999....Lets say you started playing day one.....
You had to buy the game and all expansions
Base + all expansions (lets say $30 apiece if you bought when each first came out)
that would be almost $1000 (they are at 30 expansions or so currently)
Sub fees over 24 years $15x12 $180 a year x 24 = $4320
So a player that joined EQ in 99 will have spent over $5000 as of today
How is paying $5000 or so a good value for a video game?
How is paying $5000 or so a good value for a video game?
I'd argue that its good value because this is the total cost you've calculated for a grand total of 24 years. That breaks down to about $18 per month over those 24 years. Conversely, this $18 dollar cost is the expense of eating a single standard restaurant meal in my area, or a month of Netflix. Hobbies are usually more expensive.
Comparatively, if you bought ONE standard new video game ($60 though they are bumping it up to $70 these days, eh) every 3 months your 24 year breakdown would amount to a grand total of $5760. Though, this is likely a conservative estimate as most standard hobby gamers are likely buying more games than that.
Another comparison, say your hobby is building plastic Gundam Model kits. You buy the cheaper ones at $25 and (conservatively) put together 1 per month. 24 years of model kits would come out to $6912, not including tools/accessories.
Really into reading books? Read two standard chapter books per month priced at $10 (Low estimate, book prices vary) and you've got a charge of $5760 per 24 years of book reading.
All of these are *extremely* cheap hobbies to have.
I feel you have to go back to games like Final Fantasy XI (The FF G.O.A.T) & Everquest (Pre-Daybreak).
Pretty much, the only thing available in XI is subs. You can buy more inventory space, but they offer you damn near 500 slots for free.
XIV has p2w elements. You can argue with me all you want, but if you can skip the actual story with money (To get to the better dungeons) & near Max level....That is P2W. I play DMO (The P2W king), with elements exactly like that....so don't @me lol.
GW2 is probably the best model of the modern titles. Sure you can buy gold for gear or something, but like XI, strong gear is so plentiful its null-void......Not like skipping a whole damn story arc.....or arcs.
To be fair, GW 2 does give level skips to people who purchased expansions.........
Gacha and loot boxes are predatory; taking advantage of people with gambling addictions, and no self control. I think SWTOR has the best model, a FTP model with a monthly sub to make life easier. But I also accept FF14's model, where you buy the expansion and pay a monthly fee; but you are getting a good quality game as well, so IMO, it is worth it. WoW is the same but they make previous xpacs obsolete, so you wind up blowing your money if you don't play the content during their time. Edit: Also the quality of WoW, even WoW classic, is questionable.
GW2 seems to have the most player friendly model but it requires tons of MTX sales to keep content coming in between expansions.
SWTOR offers a pretty good model as well as they let you catch up on owning all non endgame content with just one month sub.
WOW's forced sub is a massive turnoff. Add in the tokens and cool store only mounts and pets and I'd rather spend my money somewhere that doesn't benefit Bobby Kotick. They even ruined classic WOW with tokens and store only mounts.
After having time to mull over this subject in my mind a bit I honestly feel like all of the categories are archaic at this point because every game listed has categorical overlap. Nearly all of these has some form of massive FTP period coupled with boxed costs, sub fees and microtransaction shops with lootboxes.
Examples from some of the bigger titles I've personal experience with
GW2 (listed as free to play in article)
FTP basegame
Paid expansions
Microtransaction shop
Lootboxes
ESO (listed as buy to play in article)
B2P basegame
Paid expansions
Optional Subscription fee
Microtransation shop
Lootboxes
WoW (listed as pay to play in article)
FTP unlimited trial
Paid expansions
Mandatory Sub fee
Microtransaction shop
All three of these games are listed in the original article as having 3 different monetization systems but clearly the overlap is so extreme that you can't take the terms seriously anymore. The days of pay to play or free to play are over. Maybe I'm old fashion but I feel like they are the only fair categories and as soon as overlap begins it starts to become consumer unfriendly. If I'm paying a monthly sub fee I shouldn't be expected to mtx.
IMO the monetization of these games in the future will continue to look like this but slowly the battlepass will be replacing the sub fees.
I love this discussion, and I think it’s okay to be a little divided. However, remaining heavily divided invites the idea of ambiguity in what companies can (and will) deem an acceptable monetization strategy - even if that’s obviously not going to be decided in this forum, alone. If you give them an inch…
I understand that not everyone has enough money for $15/mo. However, we also have to respect the fact that there needs to be a cost behind services rendered. Otherwise, the monetization strategy takes its current path - then no one is happy.
The idea that F2P is the best model because you’re poor or cheap is, unfortunately, not necessarily a good position to maintain. What we might then convey (as happens today) is that players would rather be handicapped in a game where “whales” can either 1. easily beat down on low income players or 2. mock them with their financially-gated access to more in-game content. We can’t pretend these are not core, legitimate issues.
Do we as players want to continue to invite companies to capitalize on providing the wealthy with yet another venue to stand over those less fortunate? Do we agree to that when the less fortunate are really just trying to have fun, too? Mind you, that’s not the only outcome - but what have your honest experiences been with modern monetization strategies? This doesn’t just impact the less fortunate, but the also those who wisely refuse to attempt to “win” with their money.
ESO has P2W elements, for sure. Yes, I love the game, and I don’t remember the P2W elements always being there, but they have options to succeed with real-world money. I spent a lot of time with crafting out to the max in ESO (which I think actually requires a sub), but you can now buy cash shop products that are 95% of my healing potions and/or food - and they’ll work just fine. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Furniture, crafting benches, etc. all gated behind an unmanageable paywall (for the good stuff). My in-game successes are exponentially dwindled by cash-shop capabilities. It’s why I haven’t been back in a number of expansions - even though it’s killing me a little.
When do we call it? I’d love to think it’s not too late. Are there too many people willing to humble themselves behind their finances and just “take the beating” in order to play? Do we all have to succumb or pay up? If this is the state of gaming we’re willing to stoop to, what are we telling the shameless corporations putting out the current crop of competitive garbage?
There are more positive takes on the matter, and sometimes some fun is better than none. So, is it?
Yes, but it doesn't have a '14 day free trial' timer period on it anymore (as was the previous mmorpg standard) and there isn't a boxed cost to get into the full game, only the sub fee. It's been quite awhile since I was in WoW so I'm not sure the state of the game but if I understand correctly max level cap was dropped to 60 and they've added the addition of level scaling. I fully understand that end-game is the centerpiece of WoW but the free content through trial here could have pretty large potential all things considered.
I felt the need to point this out because it means the barrier for entry to play isn't a box cost or a sub fee, its literally free (if unconventional because "the real game starts at endgame") While I wouldn't describe WoW as a free to play game over this (arguably though having a third of the game free is just as 'free to play' as runescape) it's still noteworthy for comparative purpose since my overall take on the current state of mmorpg games and their monetization is;
Kinda feel like some people don't understand why subscriptions existed.
Subscriptions were required to pay for server infrastructure, something that was a significant cost when games like EQ were rolling around.
Content was paid for through expansions.
It's how games like GW2 seem to "surprise" players by not having a subscription: the dirty secret is, they don't need one because the reason it was needed no longer exists.
Of course this doesn't apply to games that use subscription models to generate content like say, Runescape or somesuch.
MMOs with subscription models are my preferred method. So games like WoW, FFX1V, Eve... I don't play any of those anymore, but I still think they have superior models.
Runescape had the best model back in the day. Completely free with no limit on leveling f2p skills or playtime. $5/month subscription to access members’ only servers and content. That’s it.
Kinda feel like some people don't understand why subscriptions existed.
Subscriptions were required to pay for server infrastructure, something that was a significant cost when games like EQ were rolling around.
Content was paid for through expansions.
A
It's how games like GW2 seem to "surprise" players by not having a subscription: the dirty secret is, they don't need one because the reason it was needed no longer exists.
Of course this doesn't apply to games that use subscription models to generate content like say, Runescape or somesuch.
I am currently paying $18 a month to host a 7DTD server for me and some friends.
The game however was $20 on a Steam sale 5 years ago.
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Kinda feel like some people don't understand why subscriptions existed.
Subscriptions were required to pay for server infrastructure, something that was a significant cost when games like EQ were rolling around.
Content was paid for through expansions.
It's how games like GW2 seem to "surprise" players by not having a subscription: the dirty secret is, they don't need one because the reason it was needed no longer exists.
Of course this doesn't apply to games that use subscription models to generate content like say, Runescape or somesuch.
Subscriptions existed to create revenue for the company. Same as every other monetization model. Due to inflation, a $15 sub in 2000 would be over $26/mo today.
GW2 has no subscrpition because they have a cash shop. You can buy the game, buy the expansions (where classes are locked behind), buy the DLCs, buy upgrades like bag space, buy cosmetics. You can also buy "gems" with real life cash which you can then turn into gold in game.
The fact that GW2 uses this model and not a sub has zero to do with supporting server infrastructure and everything to do with them believing this model nets them more revenue than a straight sub would.
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DAOC in 2001 had the best monetization. Buy the game, and pay $15 a month. You get everything in the game, no cash shops, no P2W. If somebody had the Uber Sword of Doom, you knew they earned it by playing, not by paying to not play.
Most games followed this model originally. EQ, Vanilla WoW, SWToR, DAoC all followed this monetization model. Then gamers got cheap. $15 a month was just too damn much to pay for entertainment and the move to FTP began. Then studios responded by doing their research and finding out how to make FTP addictive on par with gambling. Now you have loot boxes, gacha, FOMO, and P2W and the studios are making money hand over fist. They'll never give the whole game away for a paltry $15 per month. That's way too cheap. Good job, gamers! We really showed them!
I don't think gamers had a big role regarding the F2P transition. It was more about the money than anything else. Big corporate will always search new ideas to make more......It seems to have started in South Korea
Not true. No where in the Wikipedia is saying that big corporate have (massively ) searched for ideas to implement F2P successfully.
Players played a very big part in the transition. The ones who couldn't afford no matter what, a subscription, happily started to play them and then the "curious" paying players, have ..joined the party.
..and the rest is history.
Think is , even the F2P players, which couldn't afford a $15 monthly sub game, would..somehow .. find ways to buy that $5-7-10 pack in the F2P games and sometimes, paying more than $15 a month in their F2P game.
So yes. It is the players fault and they had a big role regarding the transition. If they wouldn't ..embrace the F2P market, we wouldn't had this conversation.
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Kinda feel like some people don't understand why subscriptions existed.
Subscriptions were required to pay for server infrastructure, something that was a significant cost when games like EQ were rolling around.
Content was paid for through expansions.
It's how games like GW2 seem to "surprise" players by not having a subscription: the dirty secret is, they don't need one because the reason it was needed no longer exists.
Of course this doesn't apply to games that use subscription models to generate content like say, Runescape or somesuch.
That could have been true but there was an article a loooong time ago where the devs for Guild Wars pretty much stated that their model was not financially sustainable. It was in an article talking about their upcoming guild wars 2.
When people say there are no costs for servers I tend to doubt that. There are some costs for servers. They are perhaps not what they used to be but I have a hard time accepting that server usage is free.
Unless someone in the business can definitively say there isn't.
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DAOC in 2001 had the best monetization. Buy the game, and pay $15 a month. You get everything in the game, no cash shops, no P2W. If somebody had the Uber Sword of Doom, you knew they earned it by playing, not by paying to not play.
I only played DAoC for a very short time...so I will use EQ as a comparison...It had the same monitization......EQ launched in 1999....Lets say you started playing day one.....
You had to buy the game and all expansions
Base + all expansions (lets say $30 apiece if you bought when each first came out)
that would be almost $1000 (they are at 30 expansions or so currently)
Sub fees over 24 years $15x12 $180 a year x 24 = $4320
So a player that joined EQ in 99 will have spent over $5000 as of today
How is paying $5000 or so a good value for a video game?
Let's say you play 10 hours a week, a pretty casual gamer. For 24 years that is 12,000 hours of entertainment. At a cost of $5000 that is a bit less than $0.42 an hour.
Instead, you like to go to the movies. Let's say a ticket is $10 for a two hour movie, for $5 an hour. A total of $60,000 for 12,000 hours. The game looks pretty good in comparison.
In fact, at $0.41/hour for entertainment, I can't think of anything that even comes close.
DAOC in 2001 had the best monetization. Buy the game, and pay $15 a month. You get everything in the game, no cash shops, no P2W. If somebody had the Uber Sword of Doom, you knew they earned it by playing, not by paying to not play.
I only played DAoC for a very short time...so I will use EQ as a comparison...It had the same monitization......EQ launched in 1999....Lets say you started playing day one.....
You had to buy the game and all expansions
Base + all expansions (lets say $30 apiece if you bought when each first came out)
that would be almost $1000 (they are at 30 expansions or so currently)
Sub fees over 24 years $15x12 $180 a year x 24 = $4320
So a player that joined EQ in 99 will have spent over $5000 as of today
How is paying $5000 or so a good value for a video game?
So, enjoying something that I would obviously love (to do it for 24 years) for a total of $5000?
For perspective, that is LESS than the 7 night cruise that I just booked for my wife and I (no airfare, just cruise related).
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DAOC in 2001 had the best monetization. Buy the game, and pay $15 a month. You get everything in the game, no cash shops, no P2W. If somebody had the Uber Sword of Doom, you knew they earned it by playing, not by paying to not play.
I only played DAoC for a very short time...so I will use EQ as a comparison...It had the same monitization......EQ launched in 1999....Lets say you started playing day one.....
You had to buy the game and all expansions
Base + all expansions (lets say $30 apiece if you bought when each first came out)
that would be almost $1000 (they are at 30 expansions or so currently)
Sub fees over 24 years $15x12 $180 a year x 24 = $4320
So a player that joined EQ in 99 will have spent over $5000 as of today
How is paying $5000 or so a good value for a video game?
For 24 years? That's damn good value.
What world do you live in?
If you want to add up costs for ANYTHING over many years you are going to end up with a very large number.
For the sake of argument, I just added up my nitro cold brew and if I had it once per day for every weekday over the course of 24 years that would be $34,272
How is that good value?
In the moment it's sure good value. Of course I don't have it every day but I sure could.
Break that gaming down and you will find it's very good value compared to anything else. Or you could just not spend money on anything. That's always an option.
You could be happy hiking and doing low cost things. That's always good too. But if you want to play video games (or go to a sporting event, or theater or "whatever") then you are going to have to open your wallet to some level.
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You could be happy hiking and doing low cost things. That's always good too. But if you want to play video games (or go to a sporting event, or theater or "whatever") then you are going to have to open your wallet to some level.
Well technically today you can play this huge chunk of games and pay zero. Just freeload in a F2P game. Seems that is what the vast majority of folks do today. It's also a major driver in the crap we have today.
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You could be happy hiking and doing low cost things. That's always good too. But if you want to play video games (or go to a sporting event, or theater or "whatever") then you are going to have to open your wallet to some level.
Well technically today you can play this huge chunk of games and pay zero. Just freeload in a F2P game. Seems that is what the vast majority of folks do today. It's also a major driver in the crap we have today.
Anyone who is anything more than extremely casual about playing any free game is going to end up paying money for it, though. The amount of non-casual players who refuse to spend a cent on a free game is likely very small because anyone with that amount of self discipline/moral obligation is probably not going to freetoplay cashshop games to begin with. (not including the vast swathes of children who don't have credit cards playing these games)
This is sort of why I think the example of hiking is a bad comparison. Sure, going for a walk in a well kept public park in clothes you already have is free but anyone whose relatively serious about hiking as a hobby is spending large sums of money on gear/travel in the same way that anyone relatively serious about playing a F2P game is going to need to spend money at some point or another.
This question goes out to the community as a whole - how many people do you know who are actually sinking MMORPG amounts of time into F2P games and NOT spending a single cent?
You could be happy hiking and doing low cost things. That's always good too. But if you want to play video games (or go to a sporting event, or theater or "whatever") then you are going to have to open your wallet to some level.
Well technically today you can play this huge chunk of games and pay zero. Just freeload in a F2P game. Seems that is what the vast majority of folks do today. It's also a major driver in the crap we have today.
Anyone who is anything more than extremely casual about playing any free game is going to end up paying money for it, though. The amount of non-casual players who refuse to spend a cent on a free game is likely very small because anyone with that amount of self discipline/moral obligation is probably not going to freetoplay cashshop games to begin with. (not including the vast swathes of children who don't have credit cards playing these games)
This is sort of why I think the example of hiking is a bad comparison. Sure, going for a walk in a well kept public park in clothes you already have is free but anyone whose relatively serious about hiking as a hobby is spending large sums of money on gear/travel in the same way that anyone relatively serious about playing a F2P game is going to need to spend money at some point or another.
This question goes out to the community as a whole - how many people do you know who are actually sinking MMORPG amounts of time into F2P games and NOT spending a single cent?
There was a report that said around 95 percent of free-to-play consumers will never make any monetary transactions
Now thats all F2P gaming not just PC but it's pretty common knowledge that the vast majority of people in F2P games never pay a cent and that the small percentage of whales make up most of the revenue.
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There was a report that said around 95 percent of free-to-play consumers will never make any monetary transactions
Now thats all F2P gaming not just PC but it's pretty common knowledge that the vast majority of people in F2P games never pay a cent and that the small percentage of whales make up most of the revenue.
I'd like to see the details going into how much the 95% of F2P consumers are unique connections and how often they are actually playing the game. Am I considered part of the 95% of non-paying fortnite players because I downloaded the game but never even played through a full match? This is why I specified 'people who are relatively serious about playing,' because the numbers of players in free games are massively inflated compared. In terms of free MMO games is it really fair to include people who spend a grand total of 10 minutes ingame? (not even including the amount of singular people multi-accounting or botting in F2P games)
Judging from standard games that have things like tutorial completion achievements publically presented (I use steam but I think PSN and Xbox have a similar function) you can clearly see that many games aren't even booted up or launched by large portions of people who are technically players of the game via point of sale.
Comments
Pretty much, the only thing available in XI is subs. You can buy more inventory space, but they offer you damn near 500 slots for free.
XIV has p2w elements. You can argue with me all you want, but if you can skip the actual story with money (To get to the better dungeons) & near Max level....That is P2W. I play DMO (The P2W king), with elements exactly like that....so don't @me lol.
GW2 is probably the best model of the modern titles. Sure you can buy gold for gear or something, but like XI, strong gear is so plentiful its null-void......Not like skipping a whole damn story arc.....or arcs.
To be fair, GW 2 does give level skips to people who purchased expansions.........
SWTOR offers a pretty good model as well as they let you catch up on owning all non endgame content with just one month sub.
WOW's forced sub is a massive turnoff. Add in the tokens and cool store only mounts and pets and I'd rather spend my money somewhere that doesn't benefit Bobby Kotick. They even ruined classic WOW with tokens and store only mounts.
I understand that not everyone has enough money for $15/mo. However, we also have to respect the fact that there needs to be a cost behind services rendered. Otherwise, the monetization strategy takes its current path - then no one is happy.
The idea that F2P is the best model because you’re poor or cheap is, unfortunately, not necessarily a good position to maintain. What we might then convey (as happens today) is that players would rather be handicapped in a game where “whales” can either 1. easily beat down on low income players or 2. mock them with their financially-gated access to more in-game content. We can’t pretend these are not core, legitimate issues.
Do we as players want to continue to invite companies to capitalize on providing the wealthy with yet another venue to stand over those less fortunate? Do we agree to that when the less fortunate are really just trying to have fun, too? Mind you, that’s not the only outcome - but what have your honest experiences been with modern monetization strategies? This doesn’t just impact the less fortunate, but the also those who wisely refuse to attempt to “win” with their money.
ESO has P2W elements, for sure. Yes, I love the game, and I don’t remember the P2W elements always being there, but they have options to succeed with real-world money. I spent a lot of time with crafting out to the max in ESO (which I think actually requires a sub), but you can now buy cash shop products that are 95% of my healing potions and/or food - and they’ll work just fine. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Furniture, crafting benches, etc. all gated behind an unmanageable paywall (for the good stuff). My in-game successes are exponentially dwindled by cash-shop capabilities. It’s why I haven’t been back in a number of expansions - even though it’s killing me a little.
When do we call it? I’d love to think it’s not too late. Are there too many people willing to humble themselves behind their finances and just “take the beating” in order to play? Do we all have to succumb or pay up? If this is the state of gaming we’re willing to stoop to, what are we telling the shameless corporations putting out the current crop of competitive garbage?
There are more positive takes on the matter, and sometimes some fun is better than none. So, is it?
Subscriptions were required to pay for server infrastructure, something that was a significant cost when games like EQ were rolling around.
Content was paid for through expansions.
It's how games like GW2 seem to "surprise" players by not having a subscription: the dirty secret is, they don't need one because the reason it was needed no longer exists.
Of course this doesn't apply to games that use subscription models to generate content like say, Runescape or somesuch.
The game however was $20 on a Steam sale 5 years ago.
So I am still mostly paying for infrastructure.
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GW2 has no subscrpition because they have a cash shop. You can buy the game, buy the expansions (where classes are locked behind), buy the DLCs, buy upgrades like bag space, buy cosmetics. You can also buy "gems" with real life cash which you can then turn into gold in game.
The fact that GW2 uses this model and not a sub has zero to do with supporting server infrastructure and everything to do with them believing this model nets them more revenue than a straight sub would.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
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Players played a very big part in the transition. The ones who couldn't afford no matter what, a subscription, happily started to play them and then the "curious" paying players, have ..joined the party.
..and the rest is history.
Think is , even the F2P players, which couldn't afford a $15 monthly sub game, would..somehow .. find ways to buy that $5-7-10 pack in the F2P games and sometimes, paying more than $15 a month in their F2P game.
So yes. It is the players fault and they had a big role regarding the transition. If they wouldn't ..embrace the F2P market, we wouldn't had this conversation.
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
When people say there are no costs for servers I tend to doubt that. There are some costs for servers. They are perhaps not what they used to be but I have a hard time accepting that server usage is free.
Unless someone in the business can definitively say there isn't.
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A subscription to a MMORPG is very reasonable by comparison.
------------
2024: 47 years on the Net.
For perspective, that is LESS than the 7 night cruise that I just booked for my wife and I (no airfare, just cruise related).
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
What world do you live in?
If you want to add up costs for ANYTHING over many years you are going to end up with a very large number.
For the sake of argument, I just added up my nitro cold brew and if I had it once per day for every weekday over the course of 24 years that would be $34,272
How is that good value?
In the moment it's sure good value. Of course I don't have it every day but I sure could.
Break that gaming down and you will find it's very good value compared to anything else. Or you could just not spend money on anything. That's always an option.
You could be happy hiking and doing low cost things. That's always good too. But if you want to play video games (or go to a sporting event, or theater or "whatever") then you are going to have to open your wallet to some level.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Anyone who is anything more than extremely casual about playing any free game is going to end up paying money for it, though. The amount of non-casual players who refuse to spend a cent on a free game is likely very small because anyone with that amount of self discipline/moral obligation is probably not going to freetoplay cashshop games to begin with. (not including the vast swathes of children who don't have credit cards playing these games)
Now thats all F2P gaming not just PC but it's pretty common knowledge that the vast majority of people in F2P games never pay a cent and that the small percentage of whales make up most of the revenue.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Very good tier
Buy to play only no micro transactions (like GW1, GW2 mostly)
Acceptable tier
Free to play with sub (like Ruescape)
Buy to play with sub (like WoW or FFXIV)
Do not like tier
Free to play with cash shop (most MMOs)
Buy to play with cash shop (like ESO)
Obviously what are in the cash shops can make the model better or worse.
But the jist is that the more direct the model is the more clear the value proposition is and the more likely I am to like it.
Judging from standard games that have things like tutorial completion achievements publically presented (I use steam but I think PSN and Xbox have a similar function) you can clearly see that many games aren't even booted up or launched by large portions of people who are technically players of the game via point of sale.