Monetising the Foundry

rogue6800

Well, they always say the forums are the best place to put you ideas...

What are people's thoughts on Monetising the foundry some way? Having ZEN-Unlocked missions that Cryptic choose or some other way?

This would be beneficial to everyone - ZEN missions would be the best missions - so people know they are getting quality stuff. Cryptic/Perfect World get money from the ZEN and authors would get more foundry updates (more dev time on the clock, as is beneficial to the company).

Just an idea...

thay8472

we need to buy Zen to play player made missions in a free to play game?

markhawkman

Lol, no. Most people would never play any foundry mission that required a zen unlock. it'd be like a death sentence in terms of plays...

Also, Cryptic has stated that the idea of monetizing Foundry is anathema.

sqwished

markhawkman wrote: »

Lol, no. Most people would never play any foundry mission that required a zen unlock. it'd be like a death sentence in terms of plays...

I've got to agree with @markhawkman on this one. There's no way this would ever work. It would signal the end for the foundry if this was to be enabled.​​

captainhunter1

While I say yes to monetizing the Foundry - because it's the only way it will ever get any official attention - paying to play missions is not the way to do it.

The tricky part on monetizing it, is to make it a revenue source without killing it entirely. And that's probably why it hasn't been done yet. Do you charge to create missions? No, you would seriously kill off a lot of author input. Do you charge to play missions? No, you would seriously kill any player interest (since its already perceived as either an Exploit engine or Mary Sue Fan Fic factory). So what can you charge for? I think everyone here, including the Dev Team has mulled that over - hopefully we'll have someone who has an epiphany one day that will come up with the right solution.

alexraptorr

Ahahahaha... No.
I never have and never would pay a penny for user generated content.

antman9173

Easiest thing here to charge for, which i'm surprised it wasn't done from the very beginning, was the actual editor slots for how many missions you could have. That and they could do something similar to costumes where you pay to unlock npc costumes, details and even animations, but the thing there is integrating and implementing the pay system into something that has literally hundreds if not thousands of singular items.

markhawkman

slots cost dil but not a huge amount. Also, silver players have to buy their fist set of slots.

duncanidaho11

antman9173 wrote: »

Easiest thing here to charge for, which i'm surprised it wasn't done from the very beginning, was the actual editor slots for how many missions you could have. That and they could do something similar to costumes where you pay to unlock npc costumes, details and even animations, but the thing there is integrating and implementing the pay system into something that has literally hundreds if not thousands of singular items.

It takes a lot of work to make a foundry mission and not a whole lot of people try (let alone stick with it). I really don't think that monetizing the Foundry would benefit us. What little they would gain would be offset by making the foundry a much less accessible feature. Even existing authors may not be willing to spend money on assets, so right there you have limitation of creative potential and the reduction in the quality of missions.

If you want more of a reason for Cryptic to focus the foundry, then the approach to take isn't a direct application of F2P micro-transactions but how other story content is implemented in STO. Make it more central, visible, support it, and promote it. The advantage to cryptic (if done right) would be a broader game that people would want to play more. That would incidentally benefit their bottom line by increasing player retention and their willingness to spend money on other things (like ships to use while playing missions.)

Whether or not that would pay off more than another feature they could work on is another matter, but the point is that tying zen/$ purchases to any major aspect of the Foundry is not likely to be productive.

johnnysnowball

I say, fine authors 1million EC for every 1 star review. It really is the only way.

shpoks

markhawkman wrote: »

Lol, no.

Took the words right out of my mouth, my sentiments exactly.

captainhunter1 wrote: »

While I say yes to monetizing the Foundry - because it's the only way it will ever get any official attention...

Eh, I'm not so sure about that one. There's no guarantee that the Foundry would get more official attention if they find a way of monetizing it and not just reallocate the funds to something else, like the next lockbox or whatever. That way there's the risk of making the Foundry something with a barrier to access - therefore less appealing to the masses, while not gaining anything in terms of Foundry development.
Plus, I really hate games that try to monetize every single aspect of gameplay. I'd much rather pay a monthly subscription and play the game with a clear mind for fun then playing F2P and hitting access barriers left and right.

mustrumridcully0

Not everything in the game needs to be directly monetized. The Anniversary and Winter/Summer Events aren't directly monetized either. The provide a reason for people to log into the game and play. Every day. If you play STO daily, you are likely also to be emotionally invested in the game and will be more motivated to either directly spend money on the game or trade in-game resources with other players, which will include Zen or stuff bought for Zen.

People creating content in the Foundry are people that have heavily emotionally invested in he game, and are likely also more willing to spend money on it.
People that are in search of more story (or XP/EC grind) content can also utilize the Foundry, and have a reason to keep playing regularly.

Monetizing the Foundry directly would pose similar problems as monetizing PvP directly - it will likely be a barrier to entry and reduce participation, rather than increase it.

captainhunter1

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

Not everything in the game needs to be directly monetized. The Anniversary and Winter/Summer Events aren't directly monetized either. The provide a reason for people to log into the game and play. Every day. If you play STO daily, you are likely also to be emotionally invested in the game and will be more motivated to either directly spend money on the game or trade in-game resources with other players, which will include Zen or stuff bought for Zen.

People creating content in the Foundry are people that have heavily emotionally invested in he game, and are likely also more willing to spend money on it.
People that are in search of more story (or XP/EC grind) content can also utilize the Foundry, and have a reason to keep playing regularly.

Monetizing the Foundry directly would pose similar problems as monetizing PvP directly - it will likely be a barrier to entry and reduce participation, rather than increase it.

While I agree with you and Shpoks on this issue, it is clear that unless PWE sees some DIRECT benefit from something, they don't spend development time on it.

Take the seasonal events for example - they directly increase player population during the times they are run. So even though they are free to play, they still bring in big revenue for PWE. And of course Lockbox items are definitely a direct revenues source - hence the continued and ongoing efforts to push out as many as possible. That is why these things see so much developer attention. Now if we could only convince the powers that be that the Foundry is as much of a valuable asset to the game as these are, we might finally get out of 'beta' - lol.

And if anyone from PWE reads this post, I'll be honest with you. The Foundry is what brought me back to STO after the terrible, rushed launch of the game. And is a MAJOR factor in me staying around (as you can only run the official content so many times before your eyes bleed) - my fellow authors keep the game fresh by producing new, exciting adventures for me to play....EVERY DAY. You may not have a metric to measure that...but it's the truth.

rogue6800

All valid points. The only other option I can see is to have a Foundry Rep for spotlight mission, that would encourage mission plays and create a dilithium sink that would trigger ZEN spending on Dil. Hey, the rewards could be that ever elusive Typhoon -Class skin.

duncanidaho11

rogue6800 wrote: »

All valid points. The only other option I can see is to have a Foundry Rep for spotlight mission, that would encourage mission plays and create a dilithium sink that would trigger ZEN spending on Dil. Hey, the rewards could be that ever elusive Typhoon -Class skin.

Possibly, but it would need to be setup a bit differently than other reputations, which are all geared for grindable PVE and zones.

Just put rep marks in for the foundry and you may see an uptick in plays of actual missions but the general population, as it always does, will try to find the path of least resistance to get their rewards. That means micro-missions and short grinders will see action, while long narratives get mostly left out. And when they hit T5 what's to bring the general population back (besides alting and the hope that they've picked up an appreciation for foundry content)?

A reward scheme of some kind is probably one of those things (after others, like a new search UI) the foundry needs to become more generally relevant but maybe it should be handled a bit more like the admiralty system rather than a reputation. Say you have levels and progression, based on Foundry Xp (scaled on an S curve for mission playtime), rewarding things at various stages like EC, dilithium, fleet marks, customization options, gear, traits, ect (perhaps themed on notable foundry missions). Then when all is said and done the player is free to progress through the system again for more resource pay-outs.

theyredeadjim

They could always monetize the Foundry after the same fashion as they monetize the rest of the F2P game, by selling Foundry-related items; for example, they could create Lockboxes that are only available by playing Foundry missions. By putting some nice equipment in the boxes that is unique to those boxes, they might actually increase both Foundry plays and revenues.

markhawkman

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

rogue6800 wrote: »

All valid points. The only other option I can see is to have a Foundry Rep for spotlight mission, that would encourage mission plays and create a dilithium sink that would trigger ZEN spending on Dil. Hey, the rewards could be that ever elusive Typhoon -Class skin.

Possibly, but it would need to be setup a bit differently than other reputations, which are all geared for grindable PVE and zones.

Just put rep marks in for the foundry and you may see an uptick in plays of actual missions but the general population, as it always does, will try to find the path of least resistance to get their rewards. That means micro-missions and short grinders will see action, while long narratives get mostly left out. And when they hit T5 what's to bring the general population back (besides alting and the hope that they've picked up an appreciation for foundry content)?

A reward scheme of some kind is probably one of those things (after others, like a new search UI) the foundry needs to become more generally relevant but maybe it should be handled a bit more like the admiralty system rather than a reputation. Say you have levels and progression, based on Foundry Xp (scaled on an S curve for mission playtime), rewarding things at various stages like EC, dilithium, fleet marks, customization options, gear, traits, ect (perhaps themed on notable foundry missions). Then when all is said and done the player is free to progress through the system again for more resource pay-outs.

Well, if it still had the variable reward based on time system it'd not be too bad. But I have to wonder if that has tiers instead of being a smooth progression. A smooth progression is probably best as missions have a wide variety of factors that can influence play time.

thay8472

Foundry Rep ?

Foundry Lockbox ? (aka Genereic/Deferi ships ?)

theyredeadjim

If they really wanted to blow the doors off...Playable Borg Cube

kemcha

I have to agree that this would never fly. This just sounds like a bad idea. The only way I could see of something like this happening is if the Zen cost were small, like no more than 5 Zen and if there were legitimate rewards, like those offered during the episode missions. But charging more than 5 Zen just wouldn't work. Because everybody would get in on it and start creating el-cheapo foundry missions just to cash in on the deal. There would be in influx of real TRIBBLE in the foundry. There definitely would be a lack of creativity.

kalnok

They can reward people for using and creating foundry missions. In dilithium or energy credits.

johnnysnowball

Wouldn't that just promote the making of a swarm of terrible, plotless excuses to get the reward?

Plus, i think the idea is for THEM to make money out of it so that it becomes an area to which they have reason to devote time and resources to improve it.

comrademoco

no thank you...

theyredeadjim

johnnysnowball wrote: »

Wouldn't that just promote the making of a swarm of terrible, plotless excuses to get the reward?

Plus, i think the idea is for THEM to make money out of it so that it becomes an area to which they have reason to devote time and resources to improve it.

That's why I think that a Foundry-only Lockbox might work.

The authors have no control over loot drops, so the potential that bad missions would be made to exploit the reward would be decreased. And if they put something in the Lockbox that people have been asking for, such as a chance at a playable Borg Cube, then I'm sure that they would sell a number of keys.

This type of reward also wouldn't hurt the access of the F2P player to the Foundry content itself.

markhawkman

That's not really monetizing Foundry but an added incentive to play, albeit one that indirectly makes money.