Paying to Win

http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win

Seriously, no comments yet? It's a 42 minute slideshow presentation by the guy that runs Battlefield Heroes and Battlefield Play 4 Free; it's basically a lecture about how play for free games work economically. Long story short, when BFH introduced changes to make them more money (spurred on my fear of losing their jobs), such as real money for items that gave a slight advantage in game, and a restructuring of the in-game economy so that you had to play for longer to get what you could get before, there was a massive shitstorm on their forums and in the gaming press.

However, their forum community is like this:



Plus, when they looked at the forum members who were complaining, they found that these users generally spent about 10x more than other users. After the changes were made, BFH doubled it's income. Their predicted profit margin next year is 50%.

it's not a bad little game and I have no problem with micro transactions, but ones that give an actual advantage in the game are bullshit, total bullshit, and to that end I will and did boycott BFH..

meh, this is nothing new. "free-to-play" games have been always like this and it isnt going to change. The tl;dr of it is, devs make money off paid subscription/microtransation players beating the shit out of free to play gamers, and they add overpowered items to ensure that. At some point that free to play gamer is going to get tired of getting beaten on and will eventually purchase the upgrade package whatnot so the playing field is even. The free to play aspect is built to be a fairly solid base game, but at best its just a demo for the P2P side.

Easy solution Stop being cheap and BUY a full version game, or play Subscription Based games. Boom everyone's equal.

Eradicated wrote:

meh, this is nothing new. "free-to-play" games have been always like this and it isnt going to change. The tl;dr of it is, devs make money off paid subscription/microtransation players beating the shit out of free to play gamers, and they add overpowered items to ensure that. At some point that free to play gamer is going to get tired of getting beaten on and will eventually purchase the upgrade package whatnot so the playing field is even. The free to play aspect is built to be a fairly solid base game, but at best its just a demo for the P2P side.

The pay items they added that were better than normal weapons didn't sound like game breakers. There were a few guns with 5 more rounds in the magazine, a couple that had their damage increases by 2, etc etc. It was all tiny little changes like that. As the guy points out at the end, there are tons of other sports out there where people can get a slight advantage if they have money - cycling, F1, golf, etc. And it's just fine.

Quote :

42 minute slideshow

You seriously think I'm gonna sit through that?

who gives a fuck?

You don't have to pay to play.... you don't have to pay at all, and if you do, chances are you'll still only spend $10-$15 which is appropriate for a game of that caliber.

You just buy what you want, if you want... or just play at a disadvantage, which still isn't that big a deal... hardly different then starting a new account on BC2 and only having the basic equipment fighting against everyone who has everything.

PPl just like to whine and have an immense sense of entitlement these days.

and yah... wut skresh said lmao

I just thought it was interesting ;_;

I'm all for micro-transactions provided they provide DIFFERENT weapons, not overpowered ones. If you've ever played APB you'll see what Premium weapons that are stronger than their non-premium counterparts do to the game. It's been proven in TF2 that people WILL pay for purely cosmetic items, or weapons that are better in one respect but fall short somewhere else to balance it out.

I don't mind people paying for even minor advantages, or for earlier access in lieu of spending more time....

So long as there is still the possibility of a better skilled player beating a lesser skilled player with a default weapon.... then it's fine.

What happens is that the great players, who spend lots of time, buy up these relatively small advantages, and that compounds the difference in skill...


Honestly, it's not that much unlike someone with magnum ammo playing against someone who doesn't have a SPEC2 slot yet.... and that's a 25% boost! but of course ppl don't complain then, cause "it was earned"

I'm sorry, I have ZERO sympathy for people who are playing P4F games without putting any money down whatsoever then crying like lil babies...

seriously, how much money do these things cost? It's like a buck or 2 a weapon right? so buy up 4-5 weapons that you want and you've still spent less then an arcade game for your enjoyment. If you don't want to, well hell, you get to play for absolutely free, I don't think being at a small disadvantage cause you don't want to support the devs is really all that out of line.

What about EA kit shortcuts. I hate being killed by a rank zero with the last gun unlocked for that kit

Thing is, it's very rarely just a small advantage, and more of a stupidly massive one. I have yet to see a developer other than Valve to balance premium weapons. There's a difference between paying for a minor advantage or a cosmetic upgrade, and paying to win, and very few developers are getting the balance right.

CptnShotgun wrote:

Thing is, it's very rarely just a small advantage, and more of a stupidly massive one. I have yet to see a developer other than Valve to balance premium weapons. There's a difference between paying for a minor advantage or a cosmetic upgrade, and paying to win, and very few developers are getting the balance right.

I played BF P4F, if not much heroes....

and the most basic guns kill just fine...

what is it that you can buy that is so OP?

Give me examples.... and costs.

RoninHo'in wrote:

I played BF P4F, if not much heroes....

and the most basic guns kill just fine...

what is it that you can buy that is so OP?

Give me examples.... and costs.

I was speaking in general terms, not in specifics. If I was to give an example of Premium guns dominating, it would be APB. The premium weapons have recoil reduction, level 3 mods on them (which are hard to get hold of), and things such as silencers which are completely unavailable to non-Premium members. When you come against a team with premium weapons, 9 times out of 10, you will lose. And the guns just keep getting more and more OP.

I'm sure there are games where it works, but from my personal experiences they usually don't.

Alyss wrote:

I just thought it was interesting ;_;

Alyss, you write scripts, correct? I'm quite positive you understand the necessity for a "hook" in order to draw people in to whatever you're doing/presenting, especially with our generation. Giving out a random link then explaining about it later is a rather poor way to garner attention to the topic at hand.

CptnShotgun wrote:

RoninHo'in wrote:

I played BF P4F, if not much heroes....

and the most basic guns kill just fine...

what is it that you can buy that is so OP?

Give me examples.... and costs.

I was speaking in general terms, not in specifics. If I was to give an example of Premium guns dominating, it would be APB. The premium weapons have recoil reduction, level 3 mods on them (which are hard to get hold of), and things such as silencers which are completely unavailable to non-Premium members. When you come against a team with premium weapons, 9 times out of 10, you will lose. And the guns just keep getting more and more OP.

I'm sure there are games where it works, but from my personal experiences they usually don't.

Ok, compare playing with only what is available in the demo of BC2 vs the full paid version.....

Free... vs paid.....

APD was a giant effin flop, big surprise... game looked and sounded like shit from before the word go, so I'm really not surprised. Studio got closed for a reason ya know, so that's a pretty damn bad example.

RoninHo'in wrote:

Ok, compare playing with only what is available in the demo of BC2 vs the full paid version.....

Free... vs paid.....

APD was a giant effin flop, big surprise... game looked and sounded like shit from before the word go, so I'm really not surprised. Studio got closed for a reason ya know, so that's a pretty damn bad example.

You do realise it's back? And free? With premium weapons? That's the one I was talking about.

Skreshavik wrote:

Alyss, you write scripts, correct? I'm quite positive you understand the necessity for a "hook" in order to draw people in to whatever you're doing/presenting, especially with our generation. Giving out a random link then explaining about it later is a rather poor way to garner attention to the topic at hand.

Well...yeah. I haven't written a script in like four months, I'm currently training at a foreign currency exchange. My job is to rip off stupid tourists.

Alyss wrote:

I haven't written a script in like four months

You lazy, worthless fuck.

QQ

What? Its just motivation.