Thursday, October 13, 2011
A f2p system I like a lot
It's interesting to what lengths people go just to make their game be "free to play". MBP has a post up about a steam game with such a f2p system and I like that system a lot. Now, we should just remove those gold coins from the game and put them on the account page to completely separate game and business model. Of course, that would make the game appear like not being f2p and having no microtransactions. A crazy world this is.
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I've tried a few F2P games since they showed up on Steam a few months back. Even though I play Spiral Knights regularly now, overall I have mixed feelings about them. The payment model doesn't inherently make the F2Ps I've played any better or worse - some of these games have gotten traction even among the big-name bloggers, such as Tobald who plays World of Tanks or Syncaine who plays League of Legends.
ReplyDeleteRight now my chief complaint is what it's always been in these kinds of games - other people. You'd think that by now everyone would have gotten the message that "Free to Play" is marketeese for "Microtranscation Game", but there's still huge numbers of people who show up and throw a fit when they hit one of many paywalls of varying degrees of severity.
I think F2P has a place, but I also think Guild Wars II will open up a 3rd payment scheme - buy to play with lots of one-time DLC. I think it will be a lot less immersion-breaking that constant encouragement to buy stuff with RMT currency (Spiral Knights is terrible in this regard, absolutely everything costs Crystal Energy, the RMT currency of the game. It's a pittance most of the time, but still more than zero), and still not have the commitment of a sub game.
Personally, I abhor the arcade-style payment model even if it's ultimately cheaper than a box sale. It's not about the nickles and dimes, it's about the feeling of being nickle and dimed.
ReplyDeleteOnce I get over the psychological barrier of paying for a videogame (when I have plenty of unplayed games laying around), it is only then that I feel I can down to enjoying it. Even if I buy a whole bunch of coins or whatever, it will drag out that painful purchasing experience. It's the same reason why I prefer monthly subs and so do companies: after the initial decision, I stop thinking about it as a transaction.