In Game Events/promotions

[Aggh]

While the game is pretty solid in it's own right, it is pretty common to have in game events in f2p games.  They're the kind of things that give people a boost in interest in the game when their progression has stalled or they're really feeling the lack of end game.  Giving enemies bunny ears is fun and all, but it's not the kind of thing that will maintain a player base or help to continue growth.  Even something small like a +10% affinity weekend would help. 

 

Warframe is growing and has gotten a significant boost in population from steam and open beta, but those aren't guaranteed to last.  Events and the like that incentivize people to play/work together with other players are the kinds of things that keep peoples' interest in the game and refreshes things for long time players by giving them goals/rewards to work towards.  I understand that the devs are busy working on the game, but it would be nice to hear about any plans for things like this.

 

Also, Inb4 "you're entitled and want everything for free" for asking about something that literally every f2p game on the market does.

[LunarWind]

I agree. Bonus credit weekends would be cool.

However, we can do better than that! We are Tenno!

 

Tour of Death:

It's not metal, it's Metal On Metal!

 

During this event, you gain doubled rewards for killing a boss.

Double mod drops, double BP drops, double material drops, double affinity, and double mission credits.

However! This only applies once per boss.

Killed Vor? You cannot kill him again for the bonus, only normal rewards.

 

For new players, this would encourage taking on bosses that might be further along than they currently are, encouraging team work to try and get there and down the boss. Also, would help new players with crafting new frames because OMG double drops!

This would certainly pull people in for a few runs to go down their favorite bosses, or to try new ones.

 

Hell, even experienced players who have killed every boss 20+ times, they would come back in to take a tour of the solar system and re-live all the boss fights, earning double rewards while they do.

 

+1 and bump like crazy, guys. This idea is DE worthy for sure.

[Aggh]

I agree. Bonus credit weekends would be cool.

However, we can do better than that! We are Tenno!

 

Tour of Death:

It's not metal, it's Metal On Metal!

 

During this event, you gain doubled rewards for killing a boss.

Double mod drops, double BP drops, double material drops, double affinity, and double mission credits.

However! This only applies once per boss.

Killed Vor? You cannot kill him again for the bonus, only normal rewards.

 

For new players, this would encourage taking on bosses that might be further along than they currently are, encouraging team work to try and get there and down the boss. Also, would help new players with crafting new frames because OMG double drops!

This would certainly pull people in for a few runs to go down their favorite bosses, or to try new ones.

 

Hell, even experienced players who have killed every boss 20+ times, they would come back in to take a tour of the solar system and re-live all the boss fights, earning double rewards while they do.

 

+1 and bump like crazy, guys. This idea is DE worthy for sure.

I didn't go into specifics since I most just wanted get discussion going on this, but yeah, ideally events would encourage people to play in a specific manner like focusing on alerts or running all the bosses for unique rewardes etc etc.

 

The main reason I posted this is that a lot of f2p games just don't capitalize on the major boost in player base they get from steam and open beta.  The grindiness of the game and the current lack of end game does mean that players are going hit a wall in terms of progression eventually. Combined with new games coming out all the time, the player pops are going to drop, it's an inevitability. 

 

 Doing little things to keep the experience fresh or make things a little bit easier during the lull between implementation of new systems and bug fixes can really help to maintain players' interest.  It's something that all f2p games do and games that don't do it are only putting themselves at a disadvantage and will have a harder time to keep their player base.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Aggh

[LunarWind]

I'm not too worried about Warframe's player counts.

This game is fairly unique in the current Video Game climate, and downright one-of-a-kind for F2P titles.

 

As long as DE continues a steady stream of advertising/marketing/updates along with events like I suggested, it'll be easy to pull in new players and retain current players, as well as possibly resurrecting old players who had moved on.

[Aggh]

I'm not too worried about Warframe's player counts.

This game is fairly unique in the current Video Game climate, and downright one-of-a-kind for F2P titles.

 

As long as DE continues a steady stream of advertising/marketing/updates along with events like I suggested, it'll be easy to pull in new players and retain current players, as well as possibly resurrecting old players who had moved on.

That's what everyone thinks when they see good numbers on steam and a giant boost in player registrations.  Those numbers don't last.  Ever.

 

Examples:

 

http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&jstime=1&appid=218230q209870q17080&from=1333425600000&to=1365912000000

 

Yes those games all have had their own unique problems, but so has warframe and all games inevitably start bleeding players.

 

Marketing is a lot harder for a small company self publishing a game.  They've gotten some good coverage because of the growth of the player base and their showings at pax, but that kind of stuff will dry up once the game has been out for a while.  That's why now is the time to strike.

 

Looking at that graph I can specifically point to promotions that spiked the player base (major content patches for blacklight, Blacklight announcing esl, tribes putting up everything in the game for a single $30 purchase etc. etc.) and games that have murdered player numbers (D3 killed the blacklight populations like no other).  Tribes has tried everything, but the skill bar on the game hasn't let it really recover.    BLR on the other hand has managed to level out their populations at higher numbers with promotions, sales and events.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Aggh