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Tiered payment options should be the norm in this genre.
Rockgod99
Member Posts: 4,640
Think about it. Wanna keep your game packed with players at damn near every level? Want an option to pay for what you plan to use? Want an option to just pay a sub and avoid the shop yet reap the benefits of increased population and a fall back in case real life stuff goes down and you can't pay anymore?
The system is perfect. I have a hardtime thinking of one game that wouldn't benefit from this type of model.
The system is perfect. I have a hardtime thinking of one game that wouldn't benefit from this type of model.
Comments
I'm strongly against different payment plans or item shops of any kind except for fluff and vanity items. I want a fixed value for everyone, and same content for everyone.
Why? What's the difference between you paying a sub and someone that unlocks zones as they go? Why be against something like that? I know many people that simply don't sub to games because they don't play enough to warrant a subscription. They would however play the game at their own pace and unlock content as they level. If you think about it paying 15 bucks a month just for access even if you log in for 30 minutes that month is pretty stupid.Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I'm okay with a tiered model so long as the full subscription option gives access to everything, including anything in anything in the 'item mall'. The moment there are item mall exclusive items or bonuses, is the moment the MMO is ruined.
I agree. A player paying a subscription should have all content. Double dipping your playerbase is crappy IMO.Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Buy to play should be the norm for this genre, in my opinion. Patch for free and sell expansions for major content updates. No cash shops, everyone has access to the same content w/o having to pay extra for it.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
The problem you propose can be easily solved with a pay per day system. Instead of charging $15 a month, charge $0.50 per day.
It really comes down to implementation. The developers and publishers need to make money, but I'd like to see them do it with a well thought out system, rather than a cheap and manipulative system. Give players choices, don't force them into buying stuff for what should just be part of the basic game.
If the player can choose to get what they want, without be forced to get something through cheap mechanics, then it's a good system. Player housing and content packs seem to fall into the player choice category. Buying character levels and XP potions fall into the cheap mechanics category for me. To me, this says that the developers have deliberately gimped regular XP gain so you'll need to buy an XP potion. I think Requiem is the best (worst?) example of this. Getting to max level is nearly impossible without the XP boosts.
I would like to see a game with some sort dynamic subscription systems though. For instance, you pay for 31 days of game time. Each day that you log in (regardless of how many hours you login on that day) uses a day of time from your account. If you don't log in 10 days out of the month, you have days 10 in your account. When the subscription renews, you are billed a prorated amount for 21 days to bring your account back up to 31 days.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Why? What's the difference between you paying a sub and someone that unlocks zones as they go? Why be against something like that? I know many people that simply don't sub to games because they don't play enough to warrant a subscription. They would however play the game at their own pace and unlock content as they level. If you think about it paying 15 bucks a month just for access even if you log in for 30 minutes that month is pretty stupid.The problem you propose can be easily solved with a pay per day system. Instead of charging $15 a month, charge $0.50 per day.
That would be a good option also but when was the last time you saw a pay-per day model? Wouldn't that be a headache for the billing department? What about the people that logged in for 5 minutes to check in game mail? They have to pay the same amount that someone that's been on for ten hours would? Look I understand that people here just hate cash shops but I see no harm if it's completely avoidable by paying a sub and if you reap the rewards of a packed playerbase why would anyone not want those options in game?Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
There's nothing wrong with the concept of what you're saying. It's the implentation that would get borked.
Publishers and Developers want to make good games, but they also want to make money. If they ~can~ charge a subscription AND charge for premium cash shop items, they will. They are not going to not take money just to be nice.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Agreed.
Pay for content. With optional subscription is the way to go.
I also agree.
This would be the 11/10 revenue model for MMOs IMO (devs have been doing everything except for this for so long it makes me think it isn't viable, but if it's proven possible with a game as good as the others or even better then it's like showing us we've been ripped off for years, so it's definitely above perfection for me).
Or, if you really want to sell in-game stuff, sell unlocks rather than items. Let me explain.
- Unlocks: One-time purchases that let all characters on your account use what you purchased. An example would be Guild Wars 1 costumes and Aion pets. You're able to claim it on every character you have now and in the future on that account. Expansions basically fit here too even though they aren't about the instant gratification of a purchase and more about unlocking real content for you to play.
- Items: We're talking about stuff you might have or want to purchase on each of your characters or which may be a single-use item (consumables). Such would be much of LOTRO's items for sale, actually, basically anything on their shop except for quest packs, expansions, skirmishes (the real content they're selling) and certain F2P restriction lifts (not sure if they're account-wide).
And make subscribers able to use everything on the store while their subscription is active. If it's something you equip, then you simply won't be able to wear it, and for your convenience you get a bank tab or something like that to store stuff you can no longer use due to an inactive subscription. I would have no complaints to a tiered payment model that works exactly like this. Now placing a fully functional cash shop with all the crap you except in a F2P and then give you the option of a monthly subscription to play with certain restrictions removed doesn't make that fully functional cash shop cease to exist to you. And no, you shouldn't be thanking them every day because you get an allowance to spend on the cash shop that you're putting up with while paying for a subscription. Unless you're fine with that double dipping, which is good for you, because I am not.
I've read somewhere that some MMOs use that system in Korea. Or was it China? Well one of those countries. It's not difficult to bill on a per day basis, the server already aknowledges your login, it just needs to write that to a billing database.
I don't think it's such a big deal to pay $0.50 for a day, even if someone logs in for 5 minutes only, unless that person's routine consists exclusively of daily 5 minute mail checking.
The problem with cash shops is that people can pour a lot of money to get a lot of advantages, so in the end you have to spend a lot more than the value of a subscription in order to be competitive. It breaks balance.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Selling content (expansions, storylines, quests, lvl cap unlocks etc.) for a pve game is same as selling powerful gears in a pvp game.
Selling items (tools to use in-game in a sense) and leave content/expansions free to all players are the way to go. That is what most successful F2P's outside the west are doing.
As long as you advocate for selling content for money, you lose your moral high ground and right to criticize cash shops. Content selling is the far more evil money-grabbing scheme of the two.
To me each revenue item should be applied to their specific areas of the game.
Subscription and account service revenues
This should cover for content update of the main zones, dungeons, quests, balance issues and other generalities. A subscription-based MMO should have its zones constantly revamped or at least, kept up to date. It doesn't mean recreating the entire zones from A to Z, but rather making sure it doesn't feel 'outdated' like the classic Azeroth feels in WoW right now.
Now I really wish they implement Pay-as-you-go* in NA/EU. I don't understand why companies like NCSoft are not doing so, as this model is probably responsible for letting WoW dominate the P2P world while leaving the anti-WoW, WoW-ed out or sandbox customers for all the other games. Pay-as-you-go revenues are considered 'subscription revenues' in this post.
Expansion or DLC revenues
This should cover new dungeons, new zones, or even new classes. Should it be charged on top of subscriptions? Frankly, it depends on the amount of updates they worked on the current existing zones. It is unacceptable to charge a 15$/month subscriptions and let the current content to rot while charging again for expansion packs. On the same topic, I've read Blizzard Devs mentioning they had to reduce the End Game content difficulty in WotLK because they felt it was being too restrictive in 1.0 and 2.0. Instead of making it easier, which increases the boredom of players in End Game guilds, they should just have those willing to spend most of their time in those 'difficult' end game raid dungeons pay more than the 'casual' user.
Cosmetic items, vanity pets, trading cards revenues
It could go to research and development, perhaps new MMO projects. That is up for them really. Those items are not really 'required' in game so... It's likely that I won't even spend a dime on it. I don't really care what they do with money from it either. But I think criticizing them for not spending this money on the current game is a bit too self-entitled.
Edit: I noticed Pay-as-you-go was used in this thread. To me, pay-as-you-go is equivalent to charging something like 15¢/hour to play their game, similar to how a pay-as-you-go plan compares to monthly payment plan for cellphones.
Item cash shops sell items and in some games those items are tradeable in-game to balance out between have's and have-nots.
Purchaseble content and expansion packs have new maps, quests, storylines and lots, lots more IN ADDITION TO new items, how can some of you think that's more fair is beyond me. Can content packs be made tradeable among players? I haven't seen a game doing that.
Unless they make content unlock doable via in-game efforts and not cash only, like DDO, then maybe it will work.
If balance and fairness is what concerns you, make purchaseable items tradeable among players; problem solved.
Please go away. A developer needs to make money adding buyable expansions and quest packs is the best way to do it. If they make everthing optional with fluff that isn't required at all they would basically giving the game away for free. We've all seen those failure cash shop games that can't make money because they sell shit noone really needs and thn six months down the road fuck everyone over by adding in gear enchants, crafting stones and respects for cash... Uggh this is why people here in the west hate eastern shops because they become pay to win games because you guys think it's against the law to pay for a video game. Pay as you go doesn't mean free! Get a job...Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I agree.
I agree.
How would you suggest developers make money if they don't sell a client or subscription? "content packs" are the only way you could get a viable revenue stream.Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Why are you excluding subscriptions? They are the right way to go IMO.
Subscription is a good system.
I agree.
How would you suggest developers make money if they don't sell a client or subscription? "content packs" are the only way you could get a viable revenue stream.Why are you excluding subscriptions? They are the right way to go IMO.
Subscription is a good system.
Is it? When the majority of today's p2p mmorpgs struggle to even fill a handful of servers is it really the best way? Or is giving people option in how they want to pay which in turn eliminates a games population issues the best way? You hate pay as you go so much that your willing to play in half dead games?Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
As far as I know, WoW is a P2P game that doesn't sell important items, only fluff and vanity (I could be wrong though) and it's doing quite well.
Going F2P with cash shop isn't a magical solution for financial problems either, check the Game List and see how many failed F2P are there.
Last but not least, F2P games tend to have very bad communities, so quantity over quality isn't the answer for me, at least not as a consumer.
- I believe we should have to pay to use/consume content. In return, I believe the content consumers receive should be stable and high quality. No tiers here. You pay a fixed price for said content, and you get access to all of said content.
- I believe we should have to pay to access their servers, however I would prefer different pricing models for this. I shouldn't have to pay $15/month to access servers and use bandwidth for a total of say, 60 hrs per month, while someone else accesses the servers for 120 hrs per month while paying the same price.
- I am okay with a cash shop, as long as it's for things such as vanity items and fluff. Items that impact such things as damage, drop rate, exp rate, etc, are a no go in this model, IMO.
In an alternative model, I'd also be okay with a model that provided content/patching for free, however those who paid for a sub were put on a server with significantly/tangibly multiplied exp and drop rates.
Just my $.02
WoW is the only one that does so well. The other titles... might be profitable, but aren't doing that well in NA/EU. I explain my theory about this in my post :P