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F2P Buisness Model
gillrmn
Member Posts: 7,800 Arc User
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Craig tweeted this link. Its on f2p business model. Its a nice read and also has his version of f2p in context of cryptic games STO and NWO.
The important point made is, it is more about having a quality game. Many low quality games tried to cash in f2p business model in a dirty way by squeezing the juice of the game quickly and throw them, but that is no longer the option now. Now having a quality product which can identify itself out of many lesser quality MMO in market of f2p is required.
It is like walking in store freely and buying the products you see - something like supermarket.
Craig tweeted this link. Its on f2p business model. Its a nice read and also has his version of f2p in context of cryptic games STO and NWO.
For Cryptic's Craig Zinkievich, we have already passed this moment in time. When the entire Western industry was struggling to replicate World of Warcraft's astonishing success with monthly subscriptions, it neglected to look East, where a more robust and accessible model already had the rapt attention of hundreds of millions of players. The truth is that gamers never really wanted subscriptions; that was just a riff on the high-cost of the traditional retail model, and never in the player's interests. But they do want to a more active role in deciding the cost of what they play, and that, ultimately, is what freemium is really about: not free games, exactly, but a more transparent marketplace where consumers knows exactly what they're buying, and can assess its value for themselves.
The same point is made by Craig Zinkievich, COO of Cryptic Studios, which was acquired by the Chinese online gaming company Perfect World in 2011. At that point, Cryptic had recently launched Champions Online's free-to-play version, and it was in the process of converting Star Trek Online from a subscription-based model. Without Perfect World's experience, accumulated over many successful years in China, Zinkievich believes Cryptic could have made unnecessary and damaging mistakes.
“We're now competing on quality,” he says. “A new business model, yes, but, as with boxed products, the need for an awesome AAA game.
The important point made is, it is more about having a quality game. Many low quality games tried to cash in f2p business model in a dirty way by squeezing the juice of the game quickly and throw them, but that is no longer the option now. Now having a quality product which can identify itself out of many lesser quality MMO in market of f2p is required.
It is like walking in store freely and buying the products you see - something like supermarket.
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“Back in the day, if you had this business model attached to your product you had a very high chance of success. But now everybody is jumping on the free-to-play wagon, and so the level of quality has dramatically increased. Our games need to fulfil the specifications of a AAA MMO, and it doesn't matter what business model we're using. We're competing for the consumer's time, not the money.”
Cryptic's next game is Neverwinter, a free-to-play MMO with lavish production values that easily bears comparison to any subscription-based game.
You could see the whole history of how f2p games evolved just by looking at something like PWE's game portfolio. They started with very basic and highly unpolished games like PWI. Eventually they got to games that, while still relatively low-value, were quite polished, like FW. And now they get to publish clear AAA games like RaiderZ and Blacklight that are better in almost every aspect than a lot of the p2p games of their respective genres.
That has happened all across the board in the MMO industry, and I'm not even counting once-p2p games that have gone f2p (that mainly because a lot of them are not even proper F2Ps - DDO, LotRO, SWToR's "f2p" models are little more than extended trials and by no means free to actually play. On the other hand ofc, Aion, STO etc are more or less making a decent effort at being f2p).
Now, I do not believe that it was exactly Cryptic's choice whether they'd go over to f2p territory or not - the moment they were aquired by PWE it was pretty much a given that they'd go all-out f2p asap, because that is all this specific publisher ever does - except for Torchlight 1 and 2 which, being SP, were obviously b2p. However, they do get to decide how f2p is implemented in their games (their new ones at least - when you turn a once p2p game into f2p there's little you can do other than patch in some extra currency and some speceships and pray it works)
I am hoping PW/Cryptic comes out and denounces the more dubious cash-grab methods like lock boxes and RMT (following the trend in Japan to eliminate any form of kompu gacha in their county's MMOs) in Neverwinter.
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I don't see that happening, given the lockboxes having been introduced into CO and STO not too long ago by PWE. I would love it, to see it go away from all of Cryptic/PWE games, I'm just not expecting it to happen.
I'd more than say you're correct sir. Considering how much lockboxes were debated last month, I find it unlikely they wont exist in the game. And I believe they already confirmed RMT, but if they're not too insane in things you gain from spending real mony, I'd say we could all live with it. Mostly cosmetics and such I believe, but I'm no expert so don't quote me on it.
No I think they are here to stay, but I think Cryptic would be much better served if they offered keys that worked for a duration of time rather than a single shot use. Say have keys that worked for ten, twenty and thirty days, that would alleviate the slot machine vibe that Lockboxes currently have..at the very least it would be better than what they currently offer in STO.
What made me get off my lazy hands and hyperlink the link and post it in a new thread here *phew* was
that the title was very impressive. It says that it is about quality MMO. In fact if you see most of the criticism against f2p model, it is not directed against model itself but at games - basically bad games or bad marketing strategy.
The whole point is, earlier you could generate a low quality MMO and put it up as f2p. There would be an initial rush where you could warm your pockets and then quickly throw away that MMO. But now, you have to create a high quality MMO otherwise nobody will as much as try to look you up. And if you put that much money to develop quality game - short term milking strategy is out of question. You have to set high goals and make right marketing decisions at right time.
These decisions are long term marketing strategy and not aim for wallets of customers but aiming for their time. Its like trying to make this MMO part of their veryday life for ten or more years so you have people who spend money on you like they spend money on - say buying a guitar or paintbrushes and canvas etc. Just like you spend money on hobbies.
I am good at sketching and very bad with paints, but you won't believe how much money I ended up spending on paintings to get inspired ... (damn)
The point is - cryptic understands that. It is like google in its earlier days. Make it preference search engine and concentrate oon popularity and we will think about ads later. And that is why it became so popular that one text ad on google would be a hundred times profitable than a picture or video ad on an engine nobody uses.
That is the whole point. Ofcourse they want money - but they will concentrate on quality and making the game more accessible to people. They will listen to you and make a high quality game. They have data to prove that if they concentrate on making game popular they will get money. So that is what they aim at - our time not our money.
In devilish language it is called, "We want souls, not gold!" because if you have soul, you have all his gold.
In modern-devilish it is called, "Make them addicted to our awesomeness, and they will pay for it forever all their lives".
Or something along those lines. And strangely, I find this understanding very fair and refreshing.
I will never purchase another master key, whether for in game money or for real money. Out of the 23 keys I used, not one was a ship, which is all I wanted. I would have just rather bought the ships I wanted outright.. instead I ended up spending more than a single ship costs in the game and got nothing I wanted. So, I got burned and that reaffirmed my feeling that I never want to gamble with real money in an online game again.
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I have to agree here. I'm far more likely to drop money when I know exactly what I'm getting and if Cryptic wants to review my purchases they'll see this is true.
I just don't see a f2p game being able to survive by not selling something like races, either that or never adding new ones. By and large races are vanity sure they have minor stat differences, but DnD historically is good about balancing most of these stat differences at least for the core races.
If I'm not paying a monthly sub (as comments by devs have suggested there won't be one at all) then I don't mind dropping money for a new race. It's when I'm paying the sub and paying for new races or classes that I get ticked off. *shrug* who knows what will actually happen, but my guess is that races will be sold in the shop.
BEHOLDER PET and BEHOLDER MOUNT.
(are you listening cryptic?)
BEHOLDER PET and BEHOLDER MOUNT
I really love pets.
Personally, I do no feel that races are "content." What I consider content are things like missions, gear, zones, skills, lore, and housing - to name a few things off the top of my head. I see things like races, classes, cosmetic items, mounts, pets, and account services as vanity and fluff.
With that in mind, I would be happy to pay for fluff - as long as it is not exclusive to locked boxes and isn't over-priced. I also dislike per-character unlocks, I prefer account-wide unlocks. It is also worth noting that I generally play more than one account in MMOs.
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I agree with this completely with the caveat that these are only vanity and fluff if I'm not paying a sub, if NW changes direction and goes hybrid f2p with a sub option, I would expect most or all of these things to be included in the sub (unrealistic probably, but still how I would want it to be).
My guess, if I am correct that classes and races are going to be for sale in NW. Is that we will get the classes (including cleric) and races that have been revealed for free and we will have to buy others.
Agreed they will get more money out of me If I can outright buy what I want, if they try and force me to use a lockbox chance type thing they will get zippo.
Neverwinter Thieves Guild
It is good for some because some mounts like beholder mounts who transport you telekinetically from ground to their head by shooting a ray (nudge nudge wink wink) should be rare. If it is a definitive thing - everybody will buy that "one mount which is extremely rare".
But as my concern I stated before is regarding legality of the issue too.
The Roleplayer and PnP roleplayer in me feels Races are as important a part of defining my character as my class and visible gear and even character name because it helps define the mental concept I have for avatar in game. I mean I don't know how it is for you guys but when I make a PnP character or MMORPG character I have a mental image of how I want the character to look before I make it based on what races/classes etc..I know are available. I never just make a character on the spot it has ALWAYS been conceptualised mentally before then. Having the right D&D races available for a D&D game also places some expectations in the race regard as to what "should" be there out of the gate.
Regarding the rest of your post I agree I dont mind paying for fluff etc.. and equally I hate it when content is ONLY available through cryptics lockboxes,I find that reprehensible as I hate the ntoion of lockboxes and how they work in every regard, leave the lottery HAMSTER in the real world I say.
I also agree Character unlocks are a nickel and dime tactic all unlocks should be account wide.
I know the primary source of most of my game store purchases is typically more character slots as I am an affirmed Alt-o-holic lol (its the DM in me, I just cant be ONE person I've spent too many years being EVERYONE else).
On the topic of the threads question I don't think races should be massively expensive though, Cryptic does have a tendency to make things expensive lately. I mean I recall the uproar over WoW $25 price on the Sparkle Pony.. those folks probably wont want to look at the cost of most ships in STO these days as they'd probably keel over in an apoplectic fit lol.
That may not be the way cryptic sees it. For them, classes are a way to bring people back to game once crowd starts thinning out. So classes and content will remain free to play forever(opinion).
Races - i don't know. Depends on targeted audience. Have to see their tabulated data from PWE.
EDIT: And unless they make humans "to pay" race - I won't care. Why should humans be "to pay"? Humans always win, whatever game, whatever novel, whatever story - they always do. They are ftakingly overpowered irrespective of any stat, absence/presence of power, resources or even common sense.
Hence they should be "to pay" compared to any other class.
I suspect Base classes will probably be the realm of updates and expansions personally, and that the plethora of Paragon Paths will be the things that turn up in the store.
Before they do that, they would be making races to pay.
Obviously they will give us "some" but the vast majority of PAragon PAths are just customisation not necessity. I.e Core book stuff likely.. expansion book stuff Cstore likely.. lol
Also you may want to check STO mate.. they already make Species pay.