Originally posted by AlBQuirky What I am trying to find out is if the "whales support my gaming" is a valid claim. If over 50% of F2P players buy an item in the cash shop, than it is not a "whale" thing.
It is hard for me to believe that a small percentage of players spend enough every month in the cash shops to warrant numbers like the averaging of monthly revenue as each and every player pays more than the usual sub fee. I could be wrong, but that just does not add up for me.
- some whales will spend thousands, even 10s of thousands of dollars on a game.
- pretty much solidify the convention wisdom that most players don't play.
"While you might guess that Hi-Rez doesn't make as much money as some of these more exploitative studios, it's notable that around 10 percent of Tribes: Ascend players choose to pay money -- a figure that is much larger than the 1, 3, and 5 percents that I've heard from the majority of other free-to-play developers. Harris reasons that this is down to trust, and players feeling like they are getting their money's worth." ... we are talking about sub-10% here .. many much lower.
- some devs exploits players, some don't and those don't believe that the brand is more valuable.
- a small number (since only a small % of whales, which themselves is of a small percentage of the paying customers) of players got exploited BAD. However, some don't even regret it.
But do they spend 10,000 every month?
Some simple number crunching... a F2P game has 1,000,000 players. In order for them to say "each player spends about 20.00 every month", they have to be making 20,000,000 every month. That would take 2000 "whales" (.2%) spending 10,000 every month to make those numbers. I find that hard to believe, but certainly possible.
Of course, the numbers can be switched around and the percentage of paying players upped from the paltry .2% in my example, even having varying numbers by varying paying players to make up the original 20,000,000 every month needed in my original example.
I could just be naive, finding it hard to believe that these few players are paying enough to make the numbers mesh with what is being said. I guess I am thinking that a much larger percentage of F2P players spend money in cash shops than people think. Which in turn makes F2P even more appealing to developers and publishers.
Again, it is probably all irrelevant, but I find it curiously interesting Bottom line is players who do not pay anything still get their MMO for free.
As to the other post, I see what you're saying about having to pay from a report that is that specific. No F2P there! lol
You're all skipping an entire segment of players. Approximately 5-20% pay in a F2P game. Approximately 2-10% of that paying group is whales. Not all paying users are whales.
There are reports out there both for MMOs in general and individual titles like Battlefield Heroes and Puzzle Pirates. They're easy to find for those that genuinely do want the info.
The majority of the players don't spend a dime. Ever.
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
You're all skipping an entire segment of players. Approximately 5-20% pay in a F2P game. Approximately 2-10% of that paying group is whales. Not all paying users are whales.
There are reports out there both for MMOs in general and individual titles like Battlefield Heroes and Puzzle Pirates. They're easy to find for those that genuinely do want the info.
The majority of the players don't spend a dime. Ever.
Yeh. And while people can dig up numbers, i know for sure that i don't spend a dime. So far i have spent zero and have fun. So it is all good for me.
From what I have seen as long as the CS is not redicouls, or lets you P2W, it alllows people to customize their expeirence of the game, and spend their money the way they want. yes Sub'ing can be less expensive...but its just another option.
I do have to say that i just went back to SWTOR and some of the lock outs/CS buys are IMO wtf, a good example is making some one buy the option to Hide/Show helmet, and extra hotbars....I was like REALLY??
Comments
You're all skipping an entire segment of players. Approximately 5-20% pay in a F2P game. Approximately 2-10% of that paying group is whales. Not all paying users are whales.
There are reports out there both for MMOs in general and individual titles like Battlefield Heroes and Puzzle Pirates. They're easy to find for those that genuinely do want the info.
The majority of the players don't spend a dime. Ever.
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
Yeh. And while people can dig up numbers, i know for sure that i don't spend a dime. So far i have spent zero and have fun. So it is all good for me.
From what I have seen as long as the CS is not redicouls, or lets you P2W, it alllows people to customize their expeirence of the game, and spend their money the way they want. yes Sub'ing can be less expensive...but its just another option.
I do have to say that i just went back to SWTOR and some of the lock outs/CS buys are IMO wtf, a good example is making some one buy the option to Hide/Show helmet, and extra hotbars....I was like REALLY??