Cid, on 30 June 2012 - 07:34 PM, said:
@Arafinar:
the way i see f2p:
-there is a predicted percentage of customers that are willing to spend money, either right away or maybe at a later point of time.
-if this percentage stays around the same number you will only be able, as a company, to increase income with an increased playerbase
-i think you can only increase your playerbase with very good product and a fair f2p model, without obvious or hidden p2w
-the best PR you can get for a f2p title is mouth-to-mouth, you like the game and tell your friends about it, they like it and bring additional friends
-if you think the game is trying to rip you off, or is unfair or involves way too much grind to advance you will not recommend it to a friend
-a lot of players are only willing to spend money on a f2p game if they have the impression the gamecreator/publisher isn't greedy, and i have seen this mentality quite often: "i am really enjoying myself and i have fun playing the game, so the company deserves some of my money"
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so in my mind, if the f2p game is trying to force the players too much into spending money it will alienate and loose their freeplayers, there is bad mouth-to-mouth PR and in the end only the diehard fans will play the game on underpopulated servers, cashflow decreases and the game will die an agonizing, slow death.
and i have seen this happen before.
for every successful f2p game there are there are probably like 10 others that didn't make it or barely break even.
but naturally, every company tries to get a piece of the cake whe seeing how unbelievably successful league of legends and WOT are as a f2p title.
Ok I got ya, and dont disagree with what your sayin "if" there were trading and manufacturing in the game atleast that way the players would be buying and selling to each other for a c-bill sink. Now granted a player should be able to hold his own on the quest for cash in game
and Im sure that they will make it so, but the lions share will be brought forth by the ones who do spend real cash