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New business model for MMORPGs (Poll)
Creslin321
Member Posts: 5,359
There's been a lot of discussion about what's the better business model, P2P, B2P, or F2P. Well I think I just thought of something that may be better than all of them..listen to this.
I call the model "segmented B2P." The idea is that you sell different "editions" of the game for different prices to different people, based on what they want out of the game. The basic premise is that the game will be designed with a lot of repetitive (grindy) stuff that only really hardcore people will enjoy, but you give players the option to bypass some of this grindy content by spending more on the game when they buy it. Here's a sample breakdown of how this would work:
Hardcore edition $40 - In this edition you have to grind through all of the game, but you're compensated with a lower price. It's mainly meant to appeal to hardcore people.
Basic edition $60 - In this edition, you get to skip some of the grind, you basically start 25% through the game, but you still have to do a lot of the grind.
Special edition $80 - In this edition, you get to skip more of the grind, now you start at 50% through the game.
Elite edition $100 - In this edition, you skip most of the grind, you start at 75% through the game.
SUPREME edition $150 - In this edition, you get to skip ALL of the grind, you start at the end of the game.
What do you think of this idea?
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Comments
I am against. I will be more honest. I hate it.
Same thing as xp boosters and similar stuff at item shops , just made upfront. Or buying characters.
Would never buy and play this kind of game. Unless every edition has it's own separate server that only people buying this edition can play on.
I just don't see how or why you'd want to try to balance it like that. It would be just as simple to have people pay 40 dollars up front, and then when they're sick of grind or whatever, just buy the remaining levels and gear you want and go to end game.
Its a very strange way to do a cash shop... its like a pre-play cash shop.
One question. Will those people play on the same servers?
If not it sounds like a good idea, but if they do then I hate it.
It would feel unfair if you allow players of different editions play on the same server, but as long as people of different editions wont see eachother it is actually a good idea, then we can choose the grind we prefer.
I guess the unanswered question here is what is in it for those who pay to skip the grind? What is the game play offered at the end. I think that is the main critique of a system like this is if it offers too litled towards the end, there is a disincentive to spend more on the game, likewise if it offers too much at the end there is an incentive for everyone to skip and there for all the grindy content was a waste of developer time.
why just not outright do it like this
take for exemple vanilla wow
each level zone is for sale ,so instead of paying monthly fee and paying to buy the game
you buy 1-10
zone is locked till you got say 10 % of player want the next one unlocked
then you buy 11-20
this zone is also locked till 20 % of player want the next unlocked
and so forth
this way game maker gets money
and player can progress at their own pace
it doesnt remove the fact that player can always buy the full game and play on another server
and it doesnt remove the option to play f2p on another server but you can never intermix server
i think this model would be the best!
you buy 1-10 finish it ,once out you cant come back you got to buy it again if a futur expension or daily is in that area
could be i dont know say 3$
so if you buy karazhan ,you are finished there you buy the next place you need to be, for another 3 $
you just lost the last area you had ,you stat you achievement etc they stay but each section you move need to be baught each time and need to be unlocked by player each time to progress forward or backward etc depending on the game goal
the game wouldnt cost anything to buy and it wouldnt cost monthly !
but it would cost 3$ for 1-10,3$ for 11-20 etc
edit:could even keep the last one say ,so you get 11-20 but you would keep only the last one 1-10 till you buy a new one then you would keep 11-20 and 21-30 ,you would lose 1-10 etc!
Not to say that a B2P game couldn't have an endgame progression, but GW2's model is to completely do away with endgame progression (all grind actually), and to focus on replayability of events and personal story. And that is all available for $60.
I just don't agree with the idea of paying more to get less game, and especially the idea of introducing grind into the game just so people can pay to do away with it.
To me, the whole beauty of the B2P system is that the company doesn't need to hook you with a subscription. It offers a game and lets you decide if you ever want to buy more expansions. It gives you everything you need to play the game upfront, and at least in ArenaNet's case, even just the box game will still be perfectly fine 5 years from now.
Your system strikes me more like a F2P game where you're held back unless you pay. I'm sorry, but I don't like it.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
This piece of satire amuses me greatly.
Or, you could just make a game that has no grind at all and everyone could start at the endgame. Heck, charge everyone $50 and call it a day.
Oh wait, those games already exist by the thousands. They are called RTS, FPS, Sim, etc. games.
Here's the paradox you would introduce (and it would defeat the viability of your game):
1) People would only buy the $150 dollar version if there was a sufficient number of people in the $40 to $80 brackets that it made them feel like paying the extra money would put them in a substantially better position, relatively speaking.
2) People would not buy the $40 version because your offerings would make them feel like they would be starting in a penalty zone, even if they appreciated the gameplay at the lower levels of progression.
3) Therefore, no one would buy any of the packs because they offered no relative advantage.
My explanation is a bit simplisitc. Some people would actually buy the $40 version if they liked your game. And, therefore, some people would buy the more expensive game editions. The bottom line, however, is that dividing your development effort between the different editions would not be worth the ultimate payback that defied the paradox. Your game would be a colossal flop.
Currently RMT works in MMOs by doing its best to appear like cosmetic or simple gameplay boosters that do not have a large impact on starting status. Without that illusion, RMT would most likely make a game fail. The illusion is falling apart, however, because in the end, solid gameplay is what keeps every pseudo-subscriber ticking.
I'm really neutral about this. I don't really think this would work, but would not be avoid it entirely.
If there was any form of PvP at all in a game that featured this, it would definitely attract the 'B2W' crowd. (Day 1, a Hardcore-level player gets mashed by a Supreme-level player, whine-fest begins). Such a game would need significant mechanisms to neutralize the advantages between the levels. It might possible to have a server for each purchase tier -- only Hardcore, only Basic, etc., but that might be just a lot of extra expense (servers and support) for the business model. And keeping populations in the middle tier servers might be very, very difficult.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
ya middle tier thend to be very packed with elitist!
Hush
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Me, too. I'm shocked though, at the number of people that didn't see what he was doing.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Much like they don't see what P2W or pay to skip or whatever you want to call them games are doing
.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Taking the post as a fairly serious thing, I would say that the issue isn't the payment model, the issue is that you've got a game that people are willing to pay you in order to not play it. Or it's a stroke of genius.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I voted neutral. I don't mind the grind if the game is fun. If the game is not fun, then I wouldn't play it, no matter how cheap it is. I don't think that spending more money on a game or "cheating" makes the games more fun. Perhaps I am in the minority, but that's the way it is now, so I don't think this model would change anything with regards to my gaming experience.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Voted I like it. At least it's up front with the RMT, unlike hidden cash shop items that cost hundreds per month to stay competitive. In a way it's not unlike buying accounts except it actually helps support the game rather than hackers.
On the other side, it's a sad reflection of the times that such a system would be needed. However, I don't see it as any worse than pay to win, gold selling, and account selling which are already rampant.
I voted that I like it because it's clever. Having said that I think it's very cynical but in a realistic way. Were this for real, you would sell the hell out of those $150 boxes if the game was anything that had pre-launch player interest.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
Dave Chappelle doing "Wife Swap" on his show was satire until they actually made it a show. I thought this post was out of character for Creslin but given the other threads the pub sees, it didn't seem out of place at all. Consider me fooled.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Creslin, when someone buys an adventure pack or additional zone, how are they bypassing content? And buying cosmetic items... how does that go again? I mean, you're not even listen to yourself anyomore and just regurgitating talking points that have long since been shot down.
Your ONE gripe is that someone is going to use an XP potion and get ePeenz faster than you, and you really need to get over that. The guy with more time will get ePeenz faster than you. The guy with more skill will, also. The same with the guy with more firends, the guy with the spreadsheet and the guy with the walkthroughs/guides.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I think they see it, I just don't think most people care. Most people play games to have fun, fun is different for different people, so the people attracted to one game model probably don't care if other's think of it as pay to win, or they may not even care if they see it as pay to win.
The other way around.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Interesting point, Leo.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
This excludes the people who pay to play a game they don't enjoy. For some reason MMO forums seem to be loaded with those regardlesss of the payment model :-p
I dont know, I think the only option here is to be rich or hit up mon/dad for the cash. I enjoy a game for the adventure but, if given the choice to have..everything now I would take it. Grind is such a...grey term indicating...that evil past time called...work. Just a thought.