4 replies to this topic

[Knightcrawler]

MWO is a F2P game, but sometimes the work that goes into making something can be applied to something else to make money there. So if you have another way in which the work on MWO can make them money in other ways, please say it here.

1) Augmented Reality Games (card and otherwise). With all the work going toward making models of mechs and other assets, why not revive the MW/BT customizable card games - with a twist? Augmented reality is quickly becoming realized in everyday devices. The 3DS, for instance, has AR cards that - when viewed through the system - can display animated models. The game Kid Icarus: Uprising will also launch alongside a customizable card game. You put down a few cards and watch them do battle.

Why not do the same for MWO? The models and animations are already going to be made, it'll just be a matter of making cards and a viewer/simple stat tracker program. It's true that MWO's models will be well beyond what most augmented reality-enabled devices can handle, but disabling lighting, bump-mapping, and lowering texture resolution could be enough when combined with the fact that only a few assets would be displayed at any one time. LOD models could alternatively be used.

Microsoft may have issues with a MW card game being made available for the 3DS, but Nintendo isn't really their direct competition anyway, and they've come close to cooperating before (Halo DS, for instance. I think they also cooperated during the 32/64 era a bit). There are also other devices that probably could do it, like iOS or Android devices. This could possibly not be limited to a card game; CBT could possibly be done this way, as well.


2) Another possibility of course is personalized, special-order figures. I think EA did this for a while with Spore. 3D printers are becoming more affordable now, and with higher quality. Of course, you'd want something higher quality and more automated than a RepRap, but there are probably some tens-of-thousands-of-dollar models that could pay themselves off in no time. BattleTech fans would probably not mind painting them by hand, either (if no good automated method could be found). You could sell them as a larger model AND a mini for use in CBT.


Anyone have any other ideas?

Edited by Knightcrawler, 02 November 2011 - 04:47 AM.

[Mater]

When it comes to making money in a MMO for a F2P game you have to make sure it stays with the game your making and not export it out to any other franchise or platform,

If I were them I would add some money games is so people would not get board of doing the same thing over and over, I would charge people for different skins for the mechs maybe even armor looks like spikes and suck. Look at other very well done F2P games (LOL, LOTRO and even DDO) they have a well-balanced way of spending really money to add to the game but not brake it so you don’t have to “pay to win”

I believe that this company has thought of every way they can to make this game work and make more than enough money to be a profitable game

[Amarus Cameron]

I liked the battletech card game, but that is because I love anything battletech (FASA lore specifically) I think if you are going to make this game a card game type thing it will fall flat on its face...but if it is completely separate it might do well. Then you have the MWO team wondering how they get a piece of it, would it have to be licensed from them or will it go through someone else. With cards you will certainly attract a younger crowd...that is unless it is like magic, then who knows how it will work you could get anyone.

Ah h-el-l I am rambling, my point is that I do not know how cards would be a meaningful addition to the game, if you have a point please do tell. If it is simply another way to make money, how do the devs get in on that?

[BabyHewey]

With everything they will be building for the online F2P game couldn't they then use the much of the same property to then build an offline game for sale? There is a lot to be said for off line single player campains. This could still have a multiplayer mode that would connect into MWO. Those who owned the retail game could then possibly have some additional/exclusive skins or even access to a paint kit to customize their own paint jobs or logos. Even if I've been playing the online game, I'd buy a single player game for $50 when it comes down to it, even more so if it gave some exclusive content.

At present I've been playing LoL and love it. I'm very excited that they cited that model for thier F2P design.

[Knightcrawler]

Amarus, getting in on it would really mostly be a matter of programming the AR card game and balancing things, then printing up cards and distributing the program. You could get around balancing at first by basically remaking the old MW/BT card game since it was already balanced, just using new AR features with MWO art assets. Also, it's worth noting that Star Wars: Galaxies had a pretty successful CCG. Kinda funny that such a similar game did such a similar thing; I wasn't thinking about it at the time. Point is it'd be relatively easy money a few months after MWO launches, and it'd promote MWO as well. You can bet that games shops would push something like this, as they're desperate for something NEW to catch peoples' interest again.

BabyHewey, I am sure they want to make a single player, it's just that it'd require a lot of additional staff members. Single player is really expensive to make. They need to see a return on their initial investment first. But I wouldn't rule out a single player or coop campaign. They just need to make back their money first.