It seems that whenever a game is labelled P2W it is basically the death sentence for that game for the majority of players. I think it's because the games profits come from the <5% of "whales" who spend thousands on the game, while the other 95% who don't will end up being completely underpowered.
Do you think there's any plan that could allow P2W to be successful? Perhaps it somehow caters to both average payers and whales? Or is P2W destined to always screw the majority over?
Comments
Some games only have cash shops for like a server wide double XP or drop rate. I'm okay with that, and like costumes, but other than that, nope.
It's called two different servers. One server with P2W stuff in the cash shop + cosmetics and another server with just cosmetics.
Market one server for those with time instead of money and the other for those with money instead of time.
Everyone knows what they are getting in to. The servers are clearly delineated and labeled.
Also, on the P2W, have there be a cap that can be reached, so paying only really gets you stuff faster or at the highest levels it becomes diminishing returns.
Cryomatrix
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
1. You have alternate non-P2W servers, probably subscription-based, available
2. You allow converting in-game wealth to real-world wealth, not just the other way around
3. Your target market is East Asia
4. You're 99%+ single-player
5. You're using the arcade model of P2W (insert quarter to continue after dying)
Otherwise, no.
Also always display the disclaimer that if you are not a whale you enter at your own risk because whales will always win by paying the most money for in game advantages.
If the game can survive with a handful of whales then you have yourself a successful P2W model. Just for whales.
NOTE: i will stay so far away from this game i will probably never know it exists.
Mend and Defend
But let's say the game is purposely designed to be balanced off of whales. Each faction has around 5% of whales. They provide heavy buffs to your side, but they work like commanders. You can only have 1 whale for every 20 people in your group, or something like that.
In pvp, they are kind of like "bosses". You need a group of non-whales to take them out, or you can pit 1 whale vs. another.
I mean I know there's a lot of holes in this idea, but it almost sounds fun if you spin it the right way :P
Mend and Defend
I think the reality is you only feel underpower because there are people who become overpower by paying cash.
The irony is I think most p2w games are actually won by the grinders. People play less are the one paying cash to keep up.
You know kind of the opposite of what many games do, where they start out with a monetization most people accept at launch and then gradually introduce more and more pay to win once players are invested in the game. It's time to turn the scummy, dishonest and predatory business practices against the pay to win crowd.
Getting people who spend money on pay to win purchases to stop trusting that their undeserved advantages will last very long is a worthy cause, well worth that short period when they are actually at an advantage with their purchases.
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It's like asking Is there a right way to torture someone. There is no way to get something good from something aweful, same for P2W.
P2W is only a way to milk a game, no matter if the game is good or not.
P2w comes directly from f2p games not being able to get revenue any other way. Get rid of f2p and make everything sub again but with some free try it out time. I think the reason we have no much crap out there right now is no one feels the need to make a great game anymore, one people feel is worth subscription. Make a great game and people will pay $15 per month to play it. Warcraft doesn't need p2w for this very reason.
#Fin
Companies don't want to turn money down, even if it screws the game long term. Archeage is having a lot of uproar, people want easy paths or given things, and people that either worked hard or paid money aren't liking the aspect of having their hard earned or paid for stuff cheapened.
If you pvp a lot, the better your gear, it could save you money over the long haul, so they have 2 money streams, the gear, then the fight payment. I am mostly joking, but when broken down, p2w is kind of like this, just not as pronounced with a credit card button fight, it is credit card before the fight if they are p2wing.
Edit: Maybe even pay the winner a percentage of what the other person paid to try to beat them, and a discount on what they paid to win....Like a pvp p2w lotto.