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Common Misconceptions About F2P


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#1 MustrumRidcully

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 10:05 AM

Common Misconceptiona about F2P:

1) People that don't pay are just leechers and just cost the game money.

They aren't. In multiplayer games, other players are part of the content. In several ways:
- As social element. You make new friends (or enemies) and this keeps you attached to the game. You come for the Stompy Robots, you stay for the people.
- As a game element. Other players are allies or enemies in combats. In some games, they are people to trade with (MW:O doesn't have that, though).

So, it's totally okay if you really never spend anything on the game. The only bad F2P player is the F2P player that doesn't play.

2) People that only checked out a game because it's free won't ever pay anything.

A subscription or a purchase price for the game disc are barriers to entry. The game behind this barrier might be the ultimate perfect game for you and if yo had known, you might have been willing to sell a kidney for it. But now the game is free, you checked it out, and you like it. And you can even spend money on it. Maybe not now. Maybe later, when your Vice Admiral could really use that cool space ship that you always dreamed of...

3) People that claim they would never buy anything in the item shop never do.

This is wrong. If they play long enough and get invested enough, even people that were certain they'd never buy anything for real money end up doing it. The trick is to keep people playing.

4) Prices shouldn't be lowered, PGI wouldn't make money otherwise.

They can work quite well. A low price for something makes it more likely for people to risk buying it. And once they made their first purchase, the next one is so much easier... Even better - there's a sale! Normally you wouldn't consider buying it, even though it's cool or at least nice to have, but damn, it's on sale!
(Sales, in fact, seem to work particularly well on same platforms. Valve reports that sales rise the volume of sales considerably more than the price drop itself would imply. 50 % doesn't mean twice as many purchases - it can mean 4 or more times as many purchases.) The only caveat here is -constantly low prices won'T get this result. Sales are important. We already see PGI doing it, and I bet it's working for them. (At least better than single-use colors.)

5) Giving stuff away for free is bad for the game and only people that need instant gratification and everything for free suggest it.

No, it's a pretty clever trick. Imagine you'd have 500 MC for free for some kind of achievement. It might be enough to buy one color... But to really make the perfect mech build, you could use a 2nd color... Maybe buy some MC to do this?

Heck, imagine one extra mech bay. What are you gonna do with that? Of course, you gonna want to put a mech inside. But a mech costs millions of C-Bills... And there are now 3 open slots, at your current pace of advancement it will take months before you can fill them all. Or you just buy a few MC...

Part of it is the same principle as the stereotypical drug dealer does -the first taste is free. Except repeated in several forms.
And the other trick is- basically give the people half of something they could have - so they either have nothing, or they shell out money. When they had nothing to buy that something, they might have had no reason to buy it. But now they "worked hard" inside the game to get an achievement - but all that work is for naught if you don't buy the other half.

The best thing about it may be - it's not an evil thing. You are actually giving people something they want, and in the end, they pay you for it. At least it's no more evil then selling chocolate chips and soft drinks.

Edited by MustrumRidcully, 17 February 2013 - 10:09 AM.


#2 Sifright

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 10:07 AM

STOP WHINING SO ENTITLED ITS BETA LEARN 2 PLAY.

F2P PLAYERS DONT DESERVE TO HAVE FUN

#3 MustrumRidcully

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 10:16 AM

View PostSifright, on 17 February 2013 - 10:07 AM, said:

STOP WHINING SO ENTITLED ITS BETA LEARN 2 PLAY.

F2P PLAYERS DONT DESERVE TO HAVE FUN

Also, heat is fine.

#4 Kashaar

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 10:19 AM

Excellent OP, thanks :D

#5 Death Weasel

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 10:21 AM

View PostSifright, on 17 February 2013 - 10:07 AM, said:

STOP WHINING SO ENTITLED ITS BETA LEARN 2 PLAY.

F2P PLAYERS DONT DESERVE TO HAVE FUN

View PostMustrumRidcully, on 17 February 2013 - 10:16 AM, said:

Also, heat is fine.


You look fine in those pants.
No, there isn't anything in your teeth.
I really like your mother.
I've only had two beers, Officer.

#6 Sifright

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 10:28 AM

View PostMustrumRidcully, on 17 February 2013 - 10:16 AM, said:

Also, heat is fine.



I thought i forgot a couple of things, good catch.

#7 Redshift2k5

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 10:53 AM

I have no problem with free players. Free players are fantastic, and while I did pay for MWO, I play/have played many other FTP games as a true free player.

I have little tolerance for free players who think they deserve free cash-only content.

#8 Bishop Steiner

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 10:55 AM

View PostRedshift2k5, on 17 February 2013 - 10:53 AM, said:

I have no problem with free players. Free players are fantastic, and while I did pay for MWO, I play/have played many other FTP games as a true free player.

I have little tolerance for free players who think they deserve free cash-only content.

Simple, and to the point, and too logical for many on here to grasp, I fear.

#9 MustrumRidcully

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 11:42 PM

View PostBishop Steiner, on 17 February 2013 - 10:55 AM, said:

Simple, and to the point, and too logical for many on here to grasp, I fear.

It's not difficult to grasp at all, and if you think that, you are either misunderstanding or missing the point of others.

When people are saying "things are too expensive" they are saying "at this price points, you will sell a lot less items than at a lower price point. And so much less items, that despite the higher pric epoint, you could have made more".
If people say "Give us something for free" they are not saying "give me everything for free". They say "Give us this, then you'll convince us to pay something for the other stuff. But if you don't, there is so little keeping me interested in the game, that I won't buy anything at all."

Just imagine that, say, 5000 kills is an an achievement that grants you a Mech Bay Slot. Now you suddenly got a reward, a mech bay slot. Getting rewarded is great. It makes you feel you achieved something i nthis game. It's something you strived for, and now you got it. But a mech bay slot alone is useless. You need to fill it with something. This either requires C-Bills, for which you need to play more. You can also pay a bit of money so you get more C-Bills. Or you buy a mech for MC.
This reward - that had a worth of 300 MC - can serve a s atrigger to buy something for 2,000 MC!

But without the Mech Bay Slot - you had no incentive at all to grind more C-Bills - you don't even have space for a mech. You don't have to buy any MC either, you got nothing you could use it for. You don't need more C-Bills, on yoru way to 5,000 kills, you probably made enough C-Bills to buy you anything you ever needed in terms of engines and weapons and the like. You don't need a mech, because the slots are ful. You only had an incentive to buy a mech bay slot... But that's 300 MC, you can't even buy just 300 MC, and then you still need to grind for a mech. Or buy it for MC.

Psychologically, there is a big difference between these scenarios. In one case, you worked hard for a reward, now you want of course to use that reward. In the other scenario, there is nothing particularly compelling you to buy something. If you really wanted a new mech bay and a new mech, maybe, but if you didn'T have that strong urge already, you won't. The first scenario will make people consider buying something even if they didn't feel that strong urge before.

#10 Thirdstar

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 11:49 PM

View PostBishop Steiner, on 17 February 2013 - 10:55 AM, said:

Simple, and to the point, and too logical for many on here to grasp, I fear.


Only Bishop could show up in a thread, miss the entire point of it (ignoring the whooshing sound as it goes over his head) and post something entirely tangential, all the while being condescending.

Posted Image

#11 Thirdstar

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 11:56 PM

View PostM A L I C E, on 17 February 2013 - 11:53 PM, said:

While I appreciate you attempting to ride on my coattails to present your opposing viewpoint, this topic has already been fleshed out quite well here:


AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*breath*

AHHAHAHHSHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHH

First Bishop and now MALICE. Wow.

Edited by Thirdstar, 17 February 2013 - 11:57 PM.


#12 Sifright

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 12:00 AM

View PostThirdstar, on 17 February 2013 - 11:56 PM, said:


AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*breath*

AHHAHAHHSHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHH

First Bishop and now MALICE. Wow.


Well the both of them certainly ride the short bus to use an American euphemism.

Is it that surprising they are incapable of seeing what's in front of their own eyes?

#13 Thirdstar

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 12:02 AM

View PostSifright, on 18 February 2013 - 12:00 AM, said:

Well the both of them certainly ride the short bus to use an American euphemism.

Is it that surprising they are incapable of seeing what's in front of their own eyes?


MALICE is in it for the lulz, consummate troll. Bishop on the other hand, actually 'believes' his own spiel. Which is worse IMO.

Bit offtopic.

Anyway, all of Mustrum's observations are based on actual practices of many MMO and MOGs that are F2P.

My personal opinion is that mechbays are at a sweetspot in terms of value for money and PGI should attempt to keep the same metric when deciding pricing/perceived value.

Now that's an important point, perceived value. This is very very subjective measurement.

Edited by Thirdstar, 18 February 2013 - 12:08 AM.


#14 Terran123rd

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 12:05 AM

Everything in this post is exactly why I suggested that PGI allow players to exchange C-Bills for MC (at a rate astronomically favoring MC, of course) here. If you poke a few holes in the glass ceiling for your players, you make it easier for them to bust through it and pay you money.

#15 Thirdstar

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 12:18 AM

View PostTerran123rd, on 18 February 2013 - 12:05 AM, said:

Everything in this post is exactly why I suggested that PGI allow players to exchange C-Bills for MC (at a rate astronomically favoring MC, of course) here. If you poke a few holes in the glass ceiling for your players, you make it easier for them to bust through it and pay you money.


Which would also creates a C-Bill sink. Which should lead to people playing more, and that's the whole point.

Edited by Thirdstar, 18 February 2013 - 12:18 AM.


#16 GalaxyBluestar

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 12:24 AM

nice thread op! :unsure:

F2P people are the stand in for AI without them you'd be playing with yourself.

you don't want to be seen to be doing that do you?

#17 Thirdstar

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 12:26 AM

View PostGalaxyBluestar, on 18 February 2013 - 12:24 AM, said:

nice thread op! :unsure:

F2P people are the stand in for AI without them you'd be playing with yourself.

you don't want to be seen to be doing that do you?


I play with my WANG quite often thank you, often in the presence of 15 other people.

#18 GalaxyBluestar

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 12:27 AM

View PostThirdstar, on 18 February 2013 - 12:26 AM, said:


I play with my WANG quite often thank you, often in the presence of 15 other people.


ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

this is what hero's are about!? :unsure:

#19 Terran123rd

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 12:39 AM

View PostThirdstar, on 18 February 2013 - 12:18 AM, said:

Which would also creates a C-Bill sink. Which should lead to people playing more, and that's the whole point.


Exactly.

#20 Taizan

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 03:32 AM

This topic was moved to the Off-topic sub forum, where it is more appropriate.





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