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Are F2P models more successful with a declined socioeconomic society?
Rhinotones
Member UncommonPosts: 250
Are F2P models more successful with a declined socioeconomic society?
Many of the worlds economies have declined over the past few years and for those affected and struggling due to the ever increasing cost of living, F2P games allows them to continue playing. From time to time they may make a purchase from the cash shop when they have some extra $$. Being locked into a subscription may no longer be possible for those trying to juggle tight budgets.
Of course they're not the only ones choosing F2P as an option. Amongst others, those from wealthier demographics who can afford to part more freely with their $$ to support their gaming needs are also attracted.
We all know games costs $ to develop and successfully maintain. So why are many companies turning to F2P and why do they believe it to currently be the best model for bringing in money? Is it in part due to households in general having less disposable income and this model is the most effective in extracting money from them?
My concern with F2P is the lure to spend more than you budgeted for. Like someone that can't control a gambling addiction, so too can a gamer spend more than they realize or can actually afford. I have read in these forums as well as spoken to friends who have spent large amounts of $ on a game within a short space of time (less than 1 week), far exceeding what they would have spent if they had subscribed to a game for 3 months. In particular, one of these friends is in a bad financial situation and is almost maxed out on his credit card.
Has anyone else here found themselves spending more than they thought they would on a F2P game?
I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts.
Comments
Subscription puts a cap on what a person can spend. Microtransactions allows people who want to send more to do so. Such is the reason for concession and souvenier stands at games/concerts, and Pay Per View content above and beyond your monthly service.
You guys really do overthink this, rather than just look at every other form of entertainment and see it's being adopted because both buyer and seller seems to like it.
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
The cost isn't what keeps me from paying a sub. It's the value of what you get.
I have no issue paying $15 a month for a game and do it all the time in f2p games. I just wont pay $60 for a box and $15 for a month for a game I have no idea if it's worth it and everything I read says it's nothing special.
F2P are successful because of low barrier to entry, and a high pay ceiling (you're not capped at $15/mo maximum expenditure; you can spend $1000 instantly if you wanted.)
Going further than those two reasons is basically just tin-foil-hatting.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
This.
When I was playing Eve and Darkfall I had 2 Account each running at the same time for a long time.
Now I am playing Rift, not just because it is F2P but because there's nothing going on at the moment until, EQNext, Shroud of the Avatar, Archeage, Pathfinder, which are the games I am really looking forward to.
By the way I wouldn't have played Rift if it had a monthly subscription, because it is not good enough to deserve my 15$ a month.
So all this theories about F2P being the future and Subscriptions going extinct it is Bulls.
Truth is that Developers cannot make a good MMORPGs anymore, they make Online Games which die after a month and need F2P to survive.
That's the truth.
Thanks for the feed back thus far. Maybe I've tried to look too deep into why F2P appears to be taking over as a players preferred choice and what started it. I'm just wondering why it has only recently successfully emerged and why if it is as clear cut as some here are suggesting then why don't games like WoW immediately adopt it? I'll just add that I'm neither pro or anti F2P or Sub, I'm just interested in peoples theories.
Originally posted by Axehilt
F2P are successful because of low barrier to entry, and a high pay ceiling (you're not capped at $15/mo maximum expenditure; you can spend $1000 instantly if you wanted.)
Going further than those two reasons is basically just tin-foil-hatting.
~I may be somewhat archaic but are there really many people out there willing to spend large sums of money within a F2P game over a $15/mo sub option where you have access to everything at no extra charge? What motivates the player that wants to part with their money above and beyond $15/mo average within a F2P model?~
Seems you already answered this in your OP with the comparison to the gambling addict. Plus, studies have shown that the 'whales', those who spend much more than the average player actually makes the game more profitable.
I may have answered that question with my opinion but his/her opinion may differ to mine.
Are you able to provide any links to said studies? I'd be very interested in having a read of those.
Seriously? You can't simply Google this yourself?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389116,00.asp
http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/14/whales-and-why-social-gamers-are-just-gamers/
http://www.techvibes.com/blog/the-art-of-social-gaming-monetization-its-all-about-fostering-the-whales-2011-07-25
5 secs. People are really getting lazy.
and they arent worth it.....The problem is the minute you stop paying everything you have worked for goes to waste in a p2p MMO.....In a f2p you can come and go freely and your character is there when you come back...You dont feel obligated to play because your paying for it, and often you can pay for the options you want....This isnt MMO gaming 1999 anymore...We literally have hundreds of other options now and many of them are just as good as the ones you pay for.
Well first we have to restate your question in a bit more meaningful way, "Is ARPU higher in F2P?" Because it's not about whether "many" players are willing spend a lot. It's about whether the overall mix of different players spending different amounts (the overwhelming majority of whom spend nothing) results in a higher ARPU.
The answer is yes. It's not an opinion. Whisperwynd's links are only a handful of the abundant studies out there, plus I've worked in F2P games (not MMOs) to know how the models work, plus even without all that evidence you would still see a significant shift in games to the F2P model.
And it all revolves around low barrier to entry and higher pay ceiling.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I assumed that you were talking about studies you had read yourself rather than parroting someone else saying this. I was wanting to read the studies you had read.
None of the 3 links you provided actually show a study, the latter two talk about whales but don't seem to base this on a conducted study. Link 1 mentions a study on apps rather than pc games so no relation to MMO's.
My google results for whale studies brought up an entirely different type of result :O lol
Advertising "Weasel Words": A modifying word that undermines or contradicts the meaning of the word, phrase, or clause it accompanies, such as "genuine replica." More broadly, any word used with the intention to mislead or misinform. http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/weaselwordterm.htm
Anyone who thinks "Free to Play" is any thing other that a marketing play to get more money is not thinking their actions through.
That Higher Pay ceiling you are talking about is going to go away. A few of my old school MMO buddies played Runes of Magic for several years and spent well over $30K in about 4 years. Today they no longer play Runes of Magic or any other MMO because they realized how much they spent in MMOs and now with kids they no longer feel the genera is worth the effort because F2P. The whole F2P deal is a fade that will cause many publishers to close in the coming years due to the fact there are more people playing for free requiring these publishers to spend money to support FREE than Whales spending endless amounts of cash.
The first referenced a study by Flurry Analytics, again just go check them out.
The others confirm this one study, here's another(not a study but just as relevant) :
http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win (little long but informative) The info is out there, you just need to look for it and connect the dots.
I am going to take a guess. And this offers no factual evidence, but I kinda feel it would work something like this.
If you have a game designed around a certain budget for a certain level of population, Lets say 1-2 Mil players.
If you could keep the majority of those players for at least 1-2 years, then probably a sub model would be more profitable since as is most things in life "Consistency is key"
But lets say, the game is not compelling enough, but almost. In that case F2P could be profitable. It would probably make a significant profit early on, but as is the case with F2P, once the rush dies down after a few months, so do the Cash Shop purchases. And the profit margins.
The question becomes, which is a better balance long term?
Not just yes, but "hell yes"...only not for the reasons we'd expect. F2P, and MMOs in general, don't become more successful in a bad economy because they are a better value. They become more successful in hard times because hard times create desperate people, who are easily exploited.
My experience is that when people hit on hard times, the MMO subscription is one of the last things to go. From the people I've talked to, an MMO subscription is seen as a way to save money. First off, it's a whole lot cheaper than cable TV or a month of bar hopping. With gas as expensive as it is, people look at $15 a month as money well spent, keeping them occupied for $0.50 a day.
Now, what may go is a second account, or if tiers exist, people may bump down from a $50.00 luxo-account to a $15 standard one. Typically, however, the gamers I know would have to be really hard pressed to cancel the main if they are on unemployment. Typically, if they are going to cancel, they'll be cancelling when times get better (like a new job or school), not worse.
Now it's hard to tell, just by talking with folks, how wealthy or impoverished they are. But you can usually tell who can "part freely" with money and who can't by their play habits, not their buying habits.
I can usually tell a poseur rich player from a real rich player because the player who is really rich isn't spending a ton of time in the game. He's online a lot less than the poseur; days on end might go by between play sessions.
And the people who come from wealthier demographics are talking in GC about booking vacations, and are going out to dinner and shows on the weekends. They are also logging out to put in a new deck, or to sit in on a conference call for 30 min. They are typically playing the game a whole lot less than the poorer demographics. Why? Because they have the extra money to do real things, instead of making due with the game.
The rich gamers I've seen will typically use vacation time to go on a real vacation. The gamer on a budget will typically spend his vacation time playing the game.
But the strange thing is, I don't really see the "really rich" players translate a lot of that wealth to their game experience. If anything, it's the guy on unemployment who is buying the extra slots, or the premium costume pack, or the extra classes. And once you think about it, this makes sense. If you have the means to have a life outside of the game, you don't tie your ego to the game so strongly. But when the game is all you have, you tend to want to make that game as good as possible.
Hardcore gamers--myself included--tend to dive into the games full bore when life outside gets rough. When I suffered an injury and had to keep off my feet, I couldn't do much besides game, so I dove into the game. Or when you get laid off, you have a lot of time on your hands and not a lot of money, so gaming is as good a way as any to spend your time until things get moving again. Or when you break up with a girlfriend or file for divorce. Or when you are under house arrest awaiting trial. Or when you are writing a dissertation for your Ph.D. all summer. Most of the girls I meet in the games have a new infant and they can't leave the house, so they game because it is one of the few outlets they have.
In short, people tend to jump into these things when life knocks them for a loop. When life outside the game suffers because of things beyond your control, it is only natural to take refuge in something you can control, like the game. Is it wrong to do this? Right or wrong, we can't deny that it's a natural and human reaction to tragedy. People aren't going to stop searching for meaning and purpose just because the economy won't let them. But they'll search for it here, in an alternate reality, instead.
But the important thing to know is that, in nearly all cases, the player comes to the game in an emotionally vulnerable state. And people in an emotionally vulnerable state are very susceptible to anything that promises an escape from woe. Games tend to do that, and this payment model that's fashionable these days tends to exploit that.
It's a common story. How much money is the most meaningful thing in your life worth? Well, for many people, gaming IS the most meaningful thing in their lives. We may or may not think this is good, but I think its understandable, given how fickle fortune can be. When meaning and purpose are seemingly unattainable out in reality, games like these give us a way to find meaning and purpose.
I can imagine, quite easily, how someone who puts forth effort at work and receives no recognition would be drawn to the game, where effort is rewarded with recognition. Or I can imagine how much money someone has to shell out for things that give no pleasure, like money for the gas pump, or money for some bad sandwich. If $5.00 for a sandwich I won't even enjoy is what I have to shell out, what's $5.00 for the extra item slots worth, given that I'll have it for the lifetime of my account?
My problem is that these games seldom are worthy of such devotion. Because when push comes to shove, they'll close up or change up without a moment's hesitation, leaving people like your friend hung out to dry. People max out their credit cards for many different reasons. What makes maxing them out for MMOs much worse than other reasons is that people have nothing they can show for it, after its all said and done. As I saw in CoH when it closed, reality is going to drag us out of the games whether we want it or not. The only difference is how much further behind some people will be compared with others when we are placed in a position of making reality work without the game.
The last MMO I was seriously playing was CoH in the last year of its operation. I had a $15 a month charge each month which I would supplement with about $10 to $20 in extras. I was very cautious with how I spent this extra money. You could go crazy in that Paragon Store if you weren't careful. More or less, I said to myself that if a specific character didn't need something, I shouldn't get it. This meant that I didn't get things like beast crawl or the barbarian costume pieces.
I did notice, however, that when I spent, I spent in splurges. I'd go three weeks without spending anything and in one day, I'd dump ten bucks.
But I know other people who would have no problem dropping major bills each month to get new power sets and new costumes...even if they didn't use them that much. They always said, "I can always use it later," but when the game closed, later never came.
Indeed, you really don't see the extent of what living vicariously in a game can do to a person until it's snatched out from under you because of a game closure. To this day, almost one year after the announcement, there are still CoH players who spend their days out on Titan forums, simply because the hole the CoH closure left in their lives is so big, they can find meaning nowhere else. Compared with them, I'm one of the lucky ones.
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That's not entirely true... there are some F2P types that will wipe your account after a period of inactivity (mostly the P2W types however). But yes, not having a sub allows the players the luxury to come and go as they please.
I still think the GW2 B2P method trumps all... pay once, play forever, shinies in the cash shop.
Oderint, dum metuant.
I am going to respectfully disagree.
After having played GW2. I feel ANET did an excellent job keeping the P2W stuff out of their shop. In all honesty, it's probably the best shop I've seen. However, it stops there. GW2s in game economy is the most EFFED up MMO economy I've ever seen. Most items in the game have little to no value. The traditional MMO Economic Meta-Game is non existent for the vast majority of players. Crafting in the game has been reduced to a method of power leveling to 80 and serves no other purpose in the game. And any and all trade functions in game have been removed and players are forced to utilize the TP with it's ridiculous 15% tax. At 1st I was happy to spend money for Gems. I was supporting a game (That I did enjoy Don't get me wrong there) but over time, I began to realize that P2W shop items are less of a concern than being able to convert real money into game currency. That and the (not so) subtle mechanics built into the foundation of the game to encourage Cash Shop use, I am done with any future game that is B2P. Or almost any version of a Cash Shop. I realize that means I may be done with the Genre itself. We'll see what FF14 brings.
Yeah I've never accepted that $15 a month is too much. If you can't swing that you have some serious monetary issues you should be looking into because that means you also are struggling to makes all ends meet and are not building savings/funding a retirement plan. So gaming probably shouldn't be a big focus to you.
The same people who complain about $15 a month will also go buy:
$100 pair of sneakers because they're cool
$200+ on a new smartphone because their old one isn't cool anymore or isn't 4-5-6-100000g
$400+ on a tablet so they can use a tablet and their smart phone because 2 is always better than 1
$80-100+ a month to get a big data plan for their smart phone and tablet
$20 to eat out ONCE in an entire month
$40+ to go out to a bar ONCE in a month
$10+ for a single movie ticket ($20+ for a date $30+ for a date with popcorn and a drink) for 2 hours of entertainment as compared to an entire month
$100 to have the fastest possible internet each month instead of a tier lower
$80+ a month to get a bunch of cable channels they will not watch even a fraction of
$60 on a single pair of jeans because it has to be a fancy brand name to be worth it
etc. etc. etc.
The argument that $15 a month is sooo expensive is also soooo old. Just be honest and say your so cheap you want all of your entertainment for free.
I haven't played all that many F2P titles, but I did play this one, and it was without a doubt one of the worse ones for actual P2W and people did drop that sort of cash.
I played the first 3 or 4 months of open beta and launch and at that time the top "red" PVP claimed to have dropped over $8K on his gear, and he was almost a walking god in the game, 5 or 6 more modestly geared players could not kill him.
I recall once running into a similarly leveled character (around 40) who told me he spent about $400.00 in the cash shop and neither my son and I combined could take him down, he just gained to much from enhancing his gear with the cash shop buffers.
At that time people would say even for PVE end game raiding you would need to spend approximately $650 or so to be properly geared to participate. (or spend a heck of a lot of time on in game grinding, and my guild leader actually tried by fell short)
I spent about $90.00 in the 3 months I played, mostly on mounts, inventory space for my son and I. Compared to a typical puchase/P2P model it wasn't excessive, but had we continued to play I could easily see the costs going way past what I would want to spend so we quit and moved on.
But none of this had to do with socio-economic models, there just were some folks willing to spend big bucks on this stuff and their money has kept the game profitable to this day, so great for them, while other games saw the benefits from my money.
Of course, that's only one version of F2P, there's so many variants, I found the one used by Aion currently to be very agreeable, though I've seen others bemoan it.
In the future, there's a market for all sorts of payment models, even those that are pay to win and we the players will have to decide which one's suit our tastes (and wallets)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I don't buy that households have less disposable income. I think we are just buying more crap and calling it a necessity. Think about how big screen HD TVs and digital cable have become basic necessities now. We don't even consider those luxuries anymore. Smartphones, iPads, laptops and gaming consoles are all essentials.
Back in the day, a microwave was considered a luxury item and a big fridge meant you were well to do! People expect more, and that's why they feel they have less.
Rediculous thread, Rhino. Truth is that most people in F2P are paying a lot more than $15 a month. Deception denied.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
No, i never spent more than i planned, which is zero. The f2p industry is mostly funded by whales, and few pay.
I don't think F2P is successful primarily because of declining socioeconomic issues. It is a matter of competition. Look at it this way. Even if a player can afford a p2p game, why would he want to if there are free alternative that is as much fun?
PlayRM (http://www.playnomics.com/features/ ) is a tool being used at many companies (mostly for mobile and web games) to gather all sorts of data about their players. http://www.playnomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Playnomics-Q1-Engagement-Report.pdf is their first quarter report which analyzes data from millions of users across many of the games using their tool. Page 6 has the monetization study where you can see the impact of "whales". So the answer to "Are there people willing to spend large sums of money on a game" is yes. I do not know the answer to the the "What motivates them" part of your question, but would hazard to guess it is different for each person. The tool and report contains much more than just $ and shows how much effort a good f2p, b2p, or other game with micro-transactions can invest to make the most profitable game they can.
Um, that doesn't make the pay ceiling shrink. What you're describing is:
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver