[Column] General: What Makes Me Monetize

SBFord · October 2013

Monetization in today's era of the free to play MMO is always a hot topic. In his latest column, Matt Miller takes a look at what he believes makes sense for moetization. See what he thinks before adding your own ideas to the comments.

Free-to-play games are here to stay. There’s no denying the impact they have had on the North American MMO scene over the past five years. Then, of course, there are the free-to-play mobile games and apps that do the best to occupy your time with even more things to click and explore. Of course, we all know by now that free-to-play is a misnomer, a game can’t be entirely free or else how would the company stay in business? The game needs to monetize somehow. It needs to get players to be presented with a point where they feel that giving the game their money is a sound and solid investment.

Read more of Matt Miller's What Makes Me Monetize.

Daranar · October 2013

Nice way to try to mask Power as Convenience. When you can outright buy a power item that takes weeks to obtain, that is selling the convenience of....Power! This, your mindset, is all that is wrong with MMOs since the F2P era and arguably since 2004's rise of the casual MMORPGer. Like most my signatures say, "If I want a world in which people can purchase success and power with cash, I'll play Real Life. Keep Virtual Worlds Virtual!"

FrinkiacVII · October 2013

City of Heroes was the only MMO I ever really played, much less paid a monthly fee for, so other people's mileage may vary. I played CoH so much when it first came out that I felt the monthly sub was worth it, and I went full bore for the yearly sub to save a little money. At times when I got worn out on it, I was able to keep my account because I had a friend willing to jump in for a while on it. Eventually it went F2P and my friend was like "it's free now, so you may as well just take your account back, because I don't really care." so I did. Within 2 days I had resubscribed for VIP, for a year. The end of that year was approximately the end of the game (I think I ended up getting like 3 weeks of VIP at the end essentially for free or something, in any event they didn't owe me any money). Even paying for VIP I didn't gripe about the new cash shop like some VIP people did. At the time, as now, my position on the subject was this: I will pay money to support hobbies and games I enjoy participating in/playing because that's what keeps those hobbies and games from disappearing entirely. Not only that, but there were some really awesome costume pieces you could get quickly that way too. I think if the cash shop had existed early on, you would have gotten a lot of people buying respec tokens if nothing else. In fact, they probably would have complained that the devswere only nerfing powers to make you buy a respec again, so maybe it's better the F2P model wasn't in place yet at that point. Anyway, I dislike the idea of selling awesome powerful items to people as a way of making money, especially if those items aren't available any other way, but I don't have a problem with paying a monthly sub and/or paying for the game install disc at a store and/or a cash shop that sells cool looking extras and convenience items like respecs, server transfers, costume pieces, etc. I also think that just about anything you paid for in a cash shop or got in-game ought to be sellable on the in-game auction house or whatever (if there is one).

Po_gg · October 2013

Nice summary of the drives behind the model (and bonus points for the LotRO shots ) As for the questions:

What makes you monetize or buy into into a F2P game? since all my games turned into f2p / freemium over the years, I had the time to adjust, getting familiar with the new world. First and foremost I buy services: extra character slots (altoholism ftw), unlocks, additional tabs, etc. With that I mark checked your Worthiness section as well, since I buy those only if the game is worthy enough for my money. Second, I occasionally buy convenience and cosmetic stuff as well, rarely, since I like it better if I can earn things in game.

Have you ever bought a microtransaction and felt you paid too much? nope, I try to avoid those deals... for example (and I wrote it many times in AoC threads) Funcom charges so insane prices on Trader and Bag slots that I rather drop in 1-2 months of subscription when I go back instead of buying those from the store.

Better yet, was there ever a microtransaction you thought was undervalued for what you got? yep, just check Rift, (maybe the most amazing model from a player's POV), I mean 16 credits for a mount? that's like... 10 cents in LotRO the mounts are in the $15-$20 range...

Sovrath · October 2013

Vanity

Most of my "Turbine points" have gone into Vanity items.

They would make a LOT more money if they incorporated some better looking vanity items with the level of detail that the new Helm's Deep vanity mount and armor has.

Ender4 · October 2013

I would never buy any vanity items or any skins or anything like that, those are just a waste of money to me.

I generally only pay for character slots or bag/bank space. If there is some sort of premium package I could see paying for that, like the one month sub for SWTOR that got me their preferred status.

I bought an extra bank slot upgrade in GW2 and extra tabs in PoE.

CrazKanuk · October 2013

I totally agree with your list, although I rarely invest beyond convenience. TBH, if there is a subscription option that unlocks everything and gives me an exp boost on the daily, then I'm all over that. Otherwise, I sometimes have difficulty pulling the trigger on things like experience potions.

An interesting aspect that you didn't really touch on that is a BIG deal to me is ethics in monetization. Some may argue that something like SWTOR is an unethical monetization scheme. I, personally, felt like a subscription relieved most, if not all, concerns surrounding that monetization. Where I think that my boundary lies is with these micro-transaction tablet/smartphone apps. I read an article yesterday that Clash of Clans had sold 51% of it's share for $3 Billion!!! I was like "Huh?" Apparently based on stats from April of this year, Clash of Clans was doing $2.4 million per DAY!!! That is arguably more, on a monthly basis, than WoW or any other MMORPG that is in existence today. For a game that, probably, cost significantly less to develop than what it generates on a daily basis.

Do you think that games like Clash of Clans, Kingdoms of Camelot, etc. push the bounds of what's ethical? Or are ethics determined by the individuals playing the games? Personally, these types of games are time sinks, with no real ending or even story for that matter. I think that, when put into perspective, I don't really see any of the current MMOs on the market today being bad at all in comparison to these apps.

GrumpyMel2 · October 2013

I've actualy not yet purchased anything in a F2P game....since I rather dislike that style of monetization. I have kicked some money into a Kickstarter for a game, Pathfinder Online, that is going to feature a version of F2P monetization because I think what they want to develop is worthwhile and I want to see it succeed. So I would say worthiness alone.

For me buying items or bonus'es or "convenience" which I basicaly regard as nothing more then buying power with a marketing spin as cover defeats the purpose of playing the game or why I like to play them.

Note, I'm not going to blame or look down on the people who do make RMT purchases or the companies that monetize that way. To each thier own and as long as someone is having fun and the company is providing a decent service that's fine. However, for me doing so....it would defeat the enjoyment of why I'm playing the game in the first place.

There have actualy been a couple F2P games that I've played which were decent.... and which I WOULD have been willing to kick the Developer some money for providing a good product.....However I purposefully didn't make a purchase because doing so would have detracted from my enjoyment of the game and would have sent the Developer a message about my monetization preferences that I didn't want to send.

Frankly I wish there had been a "I enjoyed playing your game and thought it was worth a few bucks but don't like RMT or the F2P model....so here's a few bucks for producing a good product but don't be confused about my preferences" button. I actualy WOULD have kicked the Developer a few bucks if it had been there.

I was a long time LOTRO subscriber.....hated what Turbine did by going F2P...... but I stayed on for awhile as a VIP because it was still a decent game for awhile after that and I still had online freinds there. However I never spent a single Turbine Point.

SavageHorizon · October 2013

Originally posted by FrinkiacVII
City of Heroes was the only MMO I ever really played, much less paid a monthly fee for, so other people's mileage may vary. I played CoH so much when it first came out that I felt the monthly sub was worth it, and I went full bore for the yearly sub to save a little money. At times when I got worn out on it, I was able to keep my account because I had a friend willing to jump in for a while on it. Eventually it went F2P and my friend was like "it's free now, so you may as well just take your account back, because I don't really care." so I did. Within 2 days I had resubscribed for VIP, for a year. The end of that year was approximately the end of the game (I think I ended up getting like 3 weeks of VIP at the end essentially for free or something, in any event they didn't owe me any money). Even paying for VIP I didn't gripe about the new cash shop like some VIP people did. At the time, as now, my position on the subject was this: I will pay money to support hobbies and games I enjoy participating in/playing because that's what keeps those hobbies and games from disappearing entirely. Not only that, but there were some really awesome costume pieces you could get quickly that way too. I think if the cash shop had existed early on, you would have gotten a lot of people buying respec tokens if nothing else. In fact, they probably would have complained that the devswere only nerfing powers to make you buy a respec again, so maybe it's better the F2P model wasn't in place yet at that point. Anyway, I dislike the idea of selling awesome powerful items to people as a way of making money, especially if those items aren't available any other way, but I don't have a problem with paying a monthly sub and/or paying for the game install disc at a store and/or a cash shop that sells cool looking extras and convenience items like respecs, server transfers, costume pieces, etc. I also think that just about anything you paid for in a cash shop or got in-game ought to be sellable on the in-game auction house or whatever (if there is one).

I wanted to read it but i couldn't because it hurt my eyes trying.

Vanity items is all i've bought in lotro, to be fare they started out with a half decent ftp model.

GrumpyMel2 · October 2013

Originally posted by Daranar
Nice way to try to mask Power as Convenience. When you can outright buy a power item that takes weeks to obtain, that is selling the convenience of....Power! This, your mindset, is all that is wrong with MMOs since the F2P era and arguably since 2004's rise of the casual MMORPGer. Like most my signatures say, "If I want a world in which people can purchase success and power with cash, I'll play Real Life. Keep Virtual Worlds Virtual!"

I agree with this statement. I don't mind that such games exist or that there are people who want to do this. I might even play in such a game if it's otherwise fun enough and not too egrigious about .....though I won't make any RMT purchases. However, lets not try to pretend it's something other then what it is. Buying an item that gives you an advantage is buying power plain and simple. It doesn't matter if the item is obtainable through other means..... that's kinda like saying a baseball team can score a run through gameplay, so buying a run isn't a form of pay to win.

jesteralways · October 2013

As always, nicely written article. Even though i don't agree completely with "power/convenience" explanation but i believe an f2p game that does not sell power masking it under convenience won't ever make any money. just look at Rift now, no power selling under the mask of convenience, so f2p players don't feel inclined to buy cash shop items and people who wants to get fast cash selling cash shop item don't feel like buying anything from cash shop. some power items have to be sold with a mask of convenience, otherwise it is a fail.

maplestone · October 2013

I used to buy vanity items in UO simply because, well, that was the only mechanic available to obtain them and I'm a collector at heart. But there was a year where no new content was added to the game except for a pack of vanity items in the store and it set off alarm bells that caused me to re-examine my entire attitude towards microtransactions, the effect they have on developer priorities and the experience they are actually providing.

Nowadays, I have a personal rule that if I start to feel drawn to a game's store, I uninstall the game instead. I feel that in the end I wind up in better games because of this.

MumboJumbo · October 2013

I've just found F2P starts to grate the more games that provide it. It's really nice to shut that off while enjoying a game. So I just pay for really good games only now. If it's not really good it's not worth my time and F2P games usually aren't really good.

Fortunately F2P is thriving in app games so you get to see all the variations of tactics F2P throws at you. There's the occassional GOOD version and that provides access to more gameplay options (eg units in a strategy game) if you purchase them (or even earn in game by-product style). So I think forking out money is only valid for gameplay. The only good thing imo about F2P is trying some gameplay before buying.

crack_fox · October 2013

With the more aggressive F2P games, I like to apply Sparrow's maxim: 'take what you can, give nothing back". However, if the game does not go out of its way to antagonise me, then I might occasionally purchase something from the services menu: a rename, a transfer, a redesign.

Loktofeit · October 2013

What makes you monetize or buy into into a F2P game?

Pretty much the same thing that makes me buy stuff at the mall. If I think something looks, goofy, neat, entertaining, etc I'll buy it. The other thing I'll sometimes get is the starter kits or founders packs for when I'm playing an MMO with my son. That usually allows us to have some kind of matching thing between our characters or the game cash to buy a matching thing.

Have you ever bought a microtransaction and felt you paid too much?

Nope, but I have found that certain items seems to devalue for me over time, specifically consumables.

Better yet, was there ever a microtransaction you thought was undervalued for what you got?

Yes. SMITE... #35 get every character they have PLUS every character they ever release afterwards. http://www.hirezstudios.com/smitegame/sidebar/ultimate-god-pack

Loktofeit · October 2013

Originally posted by Sovrath
Vanity

Most of my "Turbine points" have gone into Vanity items.

They would make a LOT more money if they incorporated some better looking vanity items with the level of detail that the new Helm's Deep vanity mount and armor has.

WORD. I've got a ton of points still sitting around that I'd gladly throw at them for some upgraded art cosmetic stuff.

rojoArcueid · October 2013

the question should be What makes me NOT monetize?

People tend to say that selling power in a cashs hop is OK if you can get the same item or better in game just by playing. THIS is wrong and needs to change. The fact that we as customers are allowing them to seel power in the cash shop (no matter how little power is in question) we are opening the doors to their greed one step at a time. They are businesses so they will always look for ways and loopholes to make us pay more and more.

I will not pay a dime if a game sells power, even if its a little power.

a quote from Matt Miller's article, "If World of Warcraft sold a mount on their cash shop that was faster than any other mount in the game available by any other means, that would be selling power."

That is not selling power, If i buy that faster mount i am not more powerful than you, i still can not beat you any easier by purchasing a faster mount. That is not power unless the mount gives passive stat increase to my character just by having the mount in my stable UI.

I repeat. Allowing them to sell "less powerful" gear in cash shop is wrong. That is accepting their ways to sell power little by little and with time that will keep increasing and when that happens, they will already have a reason to say they have been doing it for many years and people accepted it. The blame can only be ours as players and customers for allowing greedy practices.

Jaedor · October 2013

I usually support a game I love by subbing for long stretches. After that, I'll buy the game currency when it's on sale - maybe once a year or so, though I may not have a particular use for it at the time.

And then I use that game currency mostly for convenience items but occasionally for an upgrade. Since I don't have a lot of time to play, my characters will always be behind the stat curve so I don't have a problem buying items as long as they can also be obtained in game.

The only time I've ever crossed that boundary was buying the sparkle pony in WoW, because I'd always wanted one.

jakin · October 2013

Personally, I've only ever paid for one thing - Content.

In DCUO for instance, F2P up to a point, but then bought the DLC packs as they came out to have more things to do. In GW2 I bought a character slot as I wanted to try a 5th race and I had already used up my initial 5 slots. Expansion packs would be fine too (as long as there is something worthwhile in the pack).

Frankly, I'd probably be ok with paying small sums regularly for content patches. That would give me the option of buying the content I like while staying away from the content I don't. Though asking the consumer to make constant value judgements might be ego-bruising to the development teams.

As a player, I simply don't understand most of the 4 things listed in the article though. If a game is purposefully inconvenient to the point where I would feel the need to buy something to make it less painful, I simply wouldn't play that game. Same with the power argument - if I was so underpowered using the items the game supplies that I feel it necessary to buy stuff just to play; again off to the junkpile.

Vanity items particularly perplex me. I just cannot for the life of me ever see myself paying actual cash for a virtual item just for the purpose of having a good looking avatar in game. Just does not compute.

MMODesigner · October 2013

Man, seems like I might need to give RIFT another go. I can see how masking "buying power" as a convenience item will rub some people the wrong way, but I have seen quite a few F2P players grind out hard-to-attain rewards because a) they had the time and b) they loved the game so much they were going to be doing the requirements anyway, so why pay for it?

Loktofeit · October 2013

Originally posted by jakin
Personally, I've only ever paid for one thing - Content.
...
Vanity items particularly perplex me. I just cannot for the life of me ever see myself paying actual cash for a virtual item just for the purpose of having a good looking avatar in game. Just does not compute.

Playstyles other than one's own 'not computing' to them seems normal in certain circles.

Po_gg · October 2013

Originally posted by Torvaldr
Originally posted by MMODesigner
Man, seems like I might need to give RIFT another go. I can see how masking "buying power" as a convenience item will rub some people the wrong way, but I have seen quite a few F2P players grind out hard-to-attain rewards because a) they had the time and b) they loved the game so much they were going to be doing the requirements anyway, so why pay for it?

If you do give Rift another go I would really love to read what you think in another article. I would like to know what works for you and what doesn't as it pertains to the game and then how their revenue model fits into that.

I'd like to read that too Never played Rift seriously (too wow-ish for me) but I hopped in occasionally, and after the conversion I went back for a month to test the model, it's very player-friendly, and has nice bonuses for subscribers.

Their veteran system is similar like yours was in CoH, only it goes from left to right, and not upwards. (just kidding )

What was interesting to me next to those what Torvaldr mentioned is how they wired the store into the game, every trader you speak in game will open it, since they put the store in that interface. And on the list there's the plat price, the credit price (if it's available for credit), the barter token price if it's some bartered item, and there's the gift button if you want to buy and send it to someone else. Maybe the most "clean" store panel I saw in games.

Po_gg · October 2013

Originally posted by Torvaldr

I also love how it lets me sell all my vendor trash on the go as I'm out rather than having run back to a hub just to clear my inventory.

And that could be a perfect example for convenience stuff which is not buying power: as a patron (and it's on the loyalty reward list as well, so it's enough if you only were a subscriber earlier but now you're free player) you can summon a trader, a banker, or a postman to any location, instances included, for a quick vendor trashing, banking, inventory cleaning

Not power, not pay2win, only convenience. Saving some time. That's exactly what I ment under "nice bonuses for subscribers", it's not a restriction toward free ones like TOR did in its models, it's just an additional boost to the subscribers. And it's easy to get spoiled and get used to it, after I went back to LotRO I seriously missed it maybe the best feature to any hoarder.

(Edit: for the fact, yep, I know it's in LotRO as well - sure, for $1 / use... rather not, thanks)

KenFisher · October 2013

Originally posted by Daranar
Nice way to try to mask Power as Convenience. When you can outright buy a power item that takes weeks to obtain, that is selling the convenience of....Power! This, your mindset, is all that is wrong with MMOs since the F2P era and arguably since 2004's rise of the casual MMORPGer. Like most my signatures say, "If I want a world in which people can purchase success and power with cash, I'll play Real Life. Keep Virtual Worlds Virtual!"

Leave casuals out of this and I agree. By your implication, hardcores don't buy power? Sorry, I don't buy that.

Alverant · October 2013

I disagree slightly with the "You can get the item by spending zero dollars, if you are willing to put in the effort." concept because it's a matter of how much effort is required. If I have to spend a month of playtime grinding to get something, then it's not "convenience" it's "power". My time is important to me.

Fun is important to me as well and if I find a game fun, I have no problem sending them a few bucks each month as a pseudo-subscription. I play NW and I only bought storage (I have a hard time parting with some hard-earned loot), these ward guard things that make one type of crafting safer, and keys for the lock box when they're on sale.

I wouldn't buy vanity items in a gear-based game because I'd be concerned with getting my outfit looking a certain way then having to do it over again because I got a new and better item. In CoH costumes were great because they didn't change with your power level. You could experiment and try something outrageous and not worry. Also lots of costumes are part of the superhero genre.

I'm not even sure buying time is that important. It depends on the task. If something takes 8 hours then just start it before you go to bed or when you leave for work and it will be done when you get back. I guess if you need something RIGHT THIS SECOND then you can spend money, but 99% of the time, it can wait.

Alverant · October 2013

Originally posted by ZombieKen
Originally posted by Daranar
Nice way to try to mask Power as Convenience. When you can outright buy a power item that takes weeks to obtain, that is selling the convenience of....Power! This, your mindset, is all that is wrong with MMOs since the F2P era and arguably since 2004's rise of the casual MMORPGer. Like most my signatures say, "If I want a world in which people can purchase success and power with cash, I'll play Real Life. Keep Virtual Worlds Virtual!"

Leave casuals out of this and I agree. By your implication, hardcores don't buy power? Sorry, I don't buy that.

Me neither. The definition of "hardcore" is so varied as to make it nigh-meaningless.

Howdy, Stranger!

[Column] General: What Makes Me Monetize

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

[Column] General: What Makes Me Monetize

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments