Rewarding Game Developers

[Lucid1]

It seems the gaming forum here gets a fair amount of traffic, so I thought I would pose this question and see what everyone thinks.

When I started gaming, you basically paid a set price for a game and that was it. You then played the game as often and as many times as your schedule allows. Then came games like WoW where you paid an initial cost for the game, but it also came with a monthly subscription for online server access. It was a set, monthly price and you could play as little or as much as your schedule would allow.

Now we have something called Free-to-Play(F2P or Freemium) games where you can download and play a game totally for free...or so they say.

I've recently been playing a lot of games on my phone and PC, but the free to play concept isn't sitting well with me. It seems as if the games are designed to lure you into playing them, and then you're hit with almost purposefully designed paywalls that you cannot overcome unless you pull out your wallet. Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that game developers should be rewarded for making and supplying a game that is fun to play, but the way a lot of these free to play games are monetized is often very off-putting in terms of immersion breaking pay elements that seem to crop up almost every time you turn around. Also, a lot of these free to play games seem to offer certain perks that are targeted at people with deep pockets, and many of my gaming friends are calling these games Pay-to-Win games because of the advantage you get by whipping out your wallet over someone who plays the games for free.

Has anyone else noticed this trend or been put-off by the way these free to play games seem to be designed to take psychological advantage of its players?

 

[DuoShi]

That's Free To Play with micro-transactions. It's been going on for years, and it's more prevalent in mobile games and independent games. In my opinion, it's a good model to use, as long as the game is playable without having to spend too much money. Micro-transactions are much better way for indy games to make money than relying on subscriptions or copy sales. The concept of selling a product takes advantage of how the human mind works.

 

[Deleted member 37064]

Revenue generation is all that it is. Yes, they are "free to play". However, they still need to make money somehow. If it's a little bit here and there, is that really any different than spending $70 up front for a game? Or, monthly subscription fees for WoW, EQ and other online games. They all do it, even WoW and EQ have had alternative revenue generation streams for a long time.
They not only need to pay the developers. But, they also need to pay company expenses such as legal fees (business incorporation), accountants, building and infrastructure costs such as servers, bandwidth, etc.

I personally do not download such games, haven't in a long time since the original Angry Birds as I don't like those kinds of apps on my phone or computer. Always concerned about trojans, etc which can attempt to access more critical info.

 

[SMuser69]

Mobile games tend to lure more into micro transactions more than one other platforms. The difference is most mobile games add some for of frustration barrier they offer to remove for the transaction rather than open new content. This is because mobile games usually have to keep to limited space. This is where most people get annoyed. Like EA would add timesinks into the game and let you pay to remove them.

Maybe when phones begin to move past the 16-32gb barrier this may change. The only mobile games I play are pinball which at least make the micro transactions more pinball themes.

 

[Lucid1]

In my opinion, it's a good model to use, as long as the game is playable without having to spend too much money. Micro-transactions are much better way for indy games to make money than relying on subscriptions or copy sales. The concept of selling a product takes advantage of how the human mind works.

Yeah, there are good implementations of free to play, but some developers seem to purposefully design their games with paywalls that border on psychological manipulation. Also, the other issue I have with free to play is that going in, you don't really know what the costs could be. At least with the up front pricing I mentioned in my OP, you know that one time fee is going to be all you pay. The F2P developers aren't forthcoming with how much the game "could" cost you over "X" number of play sessions, and there is no way to research what the "possible" costs are, or could be.

 

[DaBeast]

Hello all this tread really hits home with me and has made me signup with this site just to chime in on this discussion.
So Im saying Hi and great work, its hard to peak my interest enough to join just any site.
With that being said Free to play games, ya we all love them why wouldnt we there free. Now im not one to pay any game just to keep playing or to get better stuff to win over non paying player, unless the game meets a few standards in my book. I myself am just starting out in the gamming field and have a mobile game in the works, so trying to make something thats going to get me paid and how I am going to charge my players fairly has been on my mind for awhile. Like I said I dont spend money on free to play games often if ever, Most free games give you time limits on playing or make you wait a certain amount of time for buildung up units or fortresses, personaly these games dont interest me enough to pay i can always come back after the time limit has expired but by doing this i also loose interest = less chances im going to pay. Now if a game can offer me entertainment on a level where i couldnt stop playing, I might break down and spend some cash but the game better be good. It first must be visually appealing, If I see a new character model or a new vehicle to download to play with it must be worth it. As a 3d modeler myself I know the time and effort a developer has to put in just to make it look great and work in the game. As long as that model interest me enough and its not to pricey I'll fork over the money to buy it and show my support to the game. But never will I spend money just to get game cash or resorces as there is no real value in it other than what the designers think there in game market is worth. Id rather just grind hard and earn those resources by playimg the game. Which is the way a successfull game is profitable in the long run. Yes we have those rich folks out there with deep pockets who are to lazy to earn anything and would rather pay to win as you said @Lucid1. Ive heard of a few games that are out there being played by just a handfull of people and its mostly old games we dont play any more but dedicated players who love them and cant stop playing will pay big bucks to companys to keep a server open just for them and their friends to play, some with deeper pockets will have new content beimg made and added to the game.<<<<--------- These are the types of people most Free to play games are trying to find and are geard toward. The onles who pay to play what they love. And most of the time they just love to brag and defeat the other players with all there paid for stuff. <---Psycological minipulation at its best people love to have Superiority over others.

Now Ive rambled on a little to much for my taste but basically the only game im forking money over for right now is Rocket League. I got the game during playstations free for playstation plus members deal for whatever month it was.So to mee this is a free to play game since I never purchased it, But the game has keeped me hooked ever since i first played. I do pay for the cars and am willing since their new maps and game modes are always free. I dont mind spending money when I believe a game delivers. They give free stuff, so I buy things from time to time and support the game as much as I can As I know they will appreciate the money and they will put it back into the game not just there wallets.

Yes the develpers and modelers need to be paid, But at least they appreciate it enough to make new playmodes and better appealing maps updates and give it for free. their lasyed map looks very impresive and probably toke months to design and build. so like i said in the beggining if the game maker appreciates its player enough manly me because i have to stop playing on Aquadome some times and just stair off and just be amazed at everything going on in that map that u dont even release because your to focused on playing.
Now thats appealing to me. All that extra work and people dont even notice. Hopefully some of these Free to play Games can learn to build appun this type of develper gamer relation. As I will be doing this for my game once it is released on Google Play.

Like I said I wanna make money, but I would rather earn it, than demand it, through Phycological manipulation.

If you would like to be a beta tester for my upcoming game and have an advanced smart phone that has great gyroscope functionality and can sense the smallest movements let me know as I will need to play test on many phones to know what models can and cant handle it. I am building it on a galaxy note 7 edge.

@ForceTen Most games through the play store are safe as they have a gone through processing which checks for things like viruses and trojans before the app is allowed to be downloaded by anyone. I wouldnt download from a 3rd party site.

Realeasing alpha of My own game soon. and
This is how I will be realesing my alpha test so u dont have to worry about that kind of stuff. Although I am a worry wort like you and like to be as safe as possible. If theirs no bad remarks about an app im sure its safe we all get the same app versions at the same time. So if the app only has a few downloads and no comment or likes/dislikes i would probably decrypt and open the code to make sure theres nothin fishy before installing on my device. but if it has more than 1000 downloads I dont even worryie, I'm sure someone would have complained if their was a problem.


Thanks for reading sorry about it being so long. But this topic is what I think about allot, send some ideas of what would make you want to spend money on a free 2 play type game that interest you Id like to know.

Sincerely,

DaBeast.