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Did a specific game change your mind on spending cash on a F2P game?
FrodoFragins
Member EpicPosts: 5,905
I was VERY against F2P games for quite some time. Initially it was because failed sub games just switched to F2P models that also had subs. These games weren't good enough to get me to sub so I didn't see the point.
Anyway, the game that changed my mind was Marvel Heroes. I initially paid $60 for early access and a pack that contained heroes I wanted like Hulk, Iron Man and Cap. Anyway, I've spent over $200 on it but don't expect to spend more in the next year. Since then I've also spent money in Hearthstone on the expansions and some pack bundles.
I'm still picky about where I spend my money, but I like the idea of rewarding companies for what they actually deliver. In the case of Marvel Heroes, that model has enabled them to continue to add content, heroes and features. something that Blizzard has been much slower to do in D3.
Comments
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
I know companies need to make money but, lets put it this way...
I only use the cash shop if the game doesnt make my life miserable by not spending money. If they sell me what i want to buy instead of what i need, they earn my money. Marvel Heroes and Warframe were the last two F2P games that earned my money, but i took a break from them at the moment. Also GW2 but since its not F2P the risk of getting crap on the cash shop is minimal so they always earn my money.
ArcheAge is the game that taught me to be more careful. I spent $150 on the founder pack because I trusted Trion.
What I learned is that, while I don't mind spending money on a game I enjoy, I will wait and see and let them establish a strong track record of trust before I spend a big chunk.
For ArcheAge, it was about time as well as money, because to keep property, you need both to be committed to the game.
Another game I'm still waiting on is ESO. I have some crowns from when I subbed for a year, but I want to see how they handle xp and xp scrolls, champion points and VRs before I dive in buying more crowns with real money. I'm certainly not going to buy any $30 mounts at this points.
I spent money on Vanguard and still have Sony Station Cash, or whatever it's called now, that I won't spend because PS2 didn't pan out for me and I don't play any of the other SOE games.
I don't mind spending, but because of ArcheAge, I have become more circumspect, so I guess that's a good thing.
Edit:
@rojoArcuid -- I agree. I don't regret the money I've spent on GW2 or the lifetime sub I bought for TSW. I've spent a lot of War Thunder as well.
The only F2P game that I've spent any money on is World of Tanks... and boy, how did I spend on that game.
I've probably spent around $1000 USD or more on WoT since it was released. Most of it in the first six months as I used gold to transfer experience from tanks that I enjoyed playing in order to skip tanks that I didn't enjoy playing.
If crowdfunding counts then I also spent $120 on Mechwarrior Online during their in-house "kickstarter". That was money thrown down the toilet as Piranha games still hasn't delivered on more than 25% of what they promised at launch, while at the same time breaking all kinds of promises they made before we funded them. I will never crowdfund another game so long as I live unless the founder package comes with Kate Beckinsale in her Underworld outfit.
We are talking about spending money on F2P games right?
GW2 is not F2P....and it seems that some are posting their spending habits now. Is this thread about F2P games or not?
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
yes F2P, not B2P like GW2. Although spending on GW2 shop is very similar.
I always support any game that I decide to sink time into. With F2P, I'll try it, but if I see myself putting in a dozen or two hours (or more), I put some money in. People work for a living. That's all there is to it.
I may not make much money myself, but people exchanging money for goods, services, and ideas is how an economy functions. It IS important to continue this chain. I can understand if you're a young kid who's in high school (maybe college) and doesn't necessarily have discretionary cash, so even if you're playing for free, keep it in the back of your mind to pay it forward when you get older. After all, you will want to be paid for work you do.
If there was a correlation between money earned -> more content, wouldn't then WoW be overflowing with content instead of their userbase clamoring for anything at all after a few months?
Quite the contrary, I think companies get lazy when they have an established userbase and the money keeps rolling in. Smaller companies on the other hand like those that make POE and Marvel Heroes might be more incentivized to provide a lot of content to keep and keep people coming back to their game.
I have never been especially happy spending money on f2p games. Buying skins doesnt appeal to me at all. I got sucked into it a bit with Dota 2 but very quickly realized that they are pushing out so many skins every month that it is impossible to keep up.
I stand by my point that f2p is not designed to do anybody a favor. Instead it is used because it gets them more money on AVERAGE per user. I prefer to pay a monthly fee and get all the content ingame instead of paying a premium for every single skin.
That's odd... true I was under Codies and am not familiar with the history over there, but as far as I know after the founder offer there was only one lifer sale, years before the f2p switch... I personally missed it sadly :I Also, if you liked the game enough for a LTA, why left? Lifers are the most envied folks in game, they have the whole game for free since years, do you know for how much they sell lifer accounts *cough* on some shady sites by some shady players, which is totally against the TOS by the way and I too just heard it through rumours? *cough*
I agree with the rest, for me it never was about the payment model, so the OP question is n/a for me. (on a sidenote, that lame diablo-clone as the specific, view-changer game? seriously?
) There was no need to change my mind, I never saw f2p as a horrible thing in the first place, since I play the games I like, and don't really care about the paying methods for them. True, on a second thought I only play converted games with a sub option...
My first meet with f2p / freemium was also in LotRO like greenreen above (more precisely with DDO but that was more like a novum since DDO never was among my "main" games). My only concern was with the change, that the community will be spoiled - luckily did not happened. Other than that, who cares whether you pay the sub or pay through the cash shop for the same game, if the game itself is great? Also as an avid hopper, it helped me a lot that I don't need to cancel sub, resub my other game, cancel there, etc. all the time, and that I can log in for a quick chat even if on that month I'm playing my other games.
So when my games went to f2p, that was the only concern of mine, what will happen the community... and most games managed that pretty well. Maybe AoC was the exception, but in there the change already happened when the unlimited trial was introduced, before the Unchained switch
In short, "Did a specific game change your mind on spending cash on a F2P game?" nope, right from the f2p-era start of 2010 I spend on games I like to play, regardless of it's p2p or fp2 or b2p or anything2p. No change on that.
First I want to quantify what I consider to be a pure F2P.
The game must have been developed from the ground up day one as a F2P, in other words, no sub games that later converted. No game that STARTED as a sub game in development then near the end and before release change to F2P.
The game does not or did not ever required a box cost (I'm not talking about early access fees here) but a box cost at any time after release)
It must also be a game that doesn't now offer a sub as an option.
It must not be a glorified multiplayer game "league of Legends", "Path of Exile etc.
With what's left, there is not a single MMO on the market that fits the above criteria that is worth playing period. So that means about every MMO that has come out of Korea except a small hand full and any other MMO's by any developer that fits my definition of a pure F2P game. Developed day one as F2P, released for free, no sub, 100% reliance on the cash shop.
They are not MMO games, they are slot machines with 3D interactive graphics.
i've never really been against f2p games.. other than thinking that since they had to go f2p they might not be good enough.
also i've probably played only a handfull of f2p games and my experience with those have been pretty good.. never felt forced to buy anything.. main concern have been that since they have no paid entry it's easy to get all kinds of unwanted "players" in the game. but they seem to find their way in to every game anyways.
i've mostly played sub games so spending a little cash here and there for things i want is not really a big deal as long as i feel it's worth it.
I had fun once, it was terrible.
I self identify as a monkey.
Runes of Magic convinced me once and for all that pure F2P was a bad idea. I had played other F2P titles that underwhelmed me previously but I chalked that off to them being cheap Lineage 2 clones.
ROM was pretty much a WOW knockoff, but was well made and had some fun twists to it. But it was the most P2W MMO I had run into, and when a single level 40 held my son and I at bay though we were level 42 and we asked how he did it he pointed out spending about $400 in the cash shop to buff up his gear to make him near unkillable. When I got to max level I ran into players who said competitive PVE would be about $600 to gear up to, and the top PVPers were paying $4-8K for their sets...and they were unkillable, one mage was able to hold off 20+ like wise max level characters and prevail, when all of them got together they were unstoppable.
Decided I preferred MMOs without cash shops, or at least P2W items, I find the games designed to be sub/B2P from the start to be the best ones, even if they add a F2P model later.
AA was a good game, but the way they employed their cash shop ruined it for me and I feel there was a title that could have been far more fun to me had they not let the cash shop play such a prominent role.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
Not really. I still never really buy anything. Cash shops don't bother me though, most of the time. The one in TERA EU just kills it for me. I think the only purchase I've made in a f2p cash shop was in Neverwinter. I got some Zen or something like that. Not cause I needed it, but I love the game and I thought , why not support it a bit.
I always prefer the opitonal sub route. As in SWTOR I've no problem in subbing or when Wildstar goes F2P I will just get the sub.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Apologies then, if I remember right, we didn't get a lifer offer with Mirkwood, just the Adventure pack with the character slots. DDO switched a couple months before that, and yep, we also had the rumours that LotRO will follow it, if the DDO switch will be a success. But of course we always had plenty of rumours, we loved that activity here, just look at the birth of the lotrocommunity site after the Turbine takeover
I understand that buying a LTA less than a year before the f2p switch is harsh. Still a good deal, but not as much as the Founders or those who bought the second one (I think it was before Moria).
On the other hand, if you can put the nasty Store button aside (there are custom HUD plugins for that
), that $199 purchase suddenly turns into a great one: now you have close to 30k TPs on your account from the monthly stipend, you have no restrictions at all, from those TPs you can buy the missing 3 expansions and the beorning class for free, and from the leftover TPs you can get a truckload of cosmetics or other fluff, like mounts.
(Vanguard was fun too, I must add)
I have bought items from f2p games. That being said, it is WRONG to put anything with stats up for sale in the shop. The problem is that, inevitably, eventually the shops always start selling items with stats. And the developers still don't understand why this is a bad thing. As for a specific game, EQ2. I didn't quit that game because they had a cash shop, i quit it because the devs and forums mods were being jerks when they were asked specific questions by constantly dancing around the answers and then insulting the players when they figured that out and started demanding real answers. Finally on the forum we were told "just trust us, we aren't going to screw you over". Only used car salesman say that kind of lying garbage.
nothing changed here.
if a cash shop is done right (like TSW and not like APB) and games are worth spending money on, i spend it.
no matter if f2p or sub.
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Exactly, the only difference is one has a barrier to entry and the other does not.
As for the Op's question, no..I've never really made a buying decision or a decision not to buy based on a previous title.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Not necessarily, to be honest
Personally I tend to play f2p games as long as I can enjoy it for free or until I hit a paywall. After that, I just move on to another game. I dont see much value spending money on f2p ingame purchases unless we are speaking about actual expansion content, cosmetics and such.
Am i cheap? probably. But then again I spent a good amount of money to build up my steam library so its not like Im against supporting developers, Im just not a big fan of contributing to this whole free to play microtransactions craze that is going on
If I enjoy a F2P or B2P game I spend a little money (more on F2P then B2P) after a while. If I played 6 weeks or so it is time to buy something if I have a good time (I wouldn't play it that long otherwise).
But then 90% of all F2P games I try makes me lose interest after a week. They are far too many crappy F2P games.
To me a game with a premium subscription, and novelty items in cash shop only are the best. The specific game that changed my mind was navyField even though it had a few enhancing items. Right now I think Wargaming and Nexon do it well. Nexon really changed the way they do cash shops since Maple Story.
The problem I have are with the companies who have the analytics marketing coordinator who has wonderful ideas on how to make more money. They should really fire that guy. These guys tend to not understand their customer or their product very well. They might expect something stupid like a person spending more than $100 a month on a product and don't think about the consequences of their changes. Why spend $100 on a limited amount of content when you can buy 2 new games? They also usually decrease the life span of a product and alienate other customers. I like companies that target at most $20 a month.